Odds, ends and rotten milk

Weird title I know but I wasn't sure how else to sum up this blog post! Let's start with the rotten milk first. You'll be glad you did. Honest.

Let me set the scene. Fabric cut ready to sew. Black ink pen. Curious toddler. Do you see where I'm going here? Yeah Little Miss decided to redecorate my fabric. Not real impressed. Particularly as I had spent ages trying to make my pattern pieces fit these last scraps of Riley Blake fabric I had laying around (making bunny rabbit softies in case you're wondering). I thought to consign it to the bin, but that's difficult to do - even with scribbled on fabric!

So I took my dilemma to the QCA girls and Fiona to the rescue! She checked out the Spotless remedy and came up with rotten milk. Yes I did think that was a bit crazy but at this point I was desperate. Over to my Mum's to get some milk (dairy free here, no 'real' milk!). We soured the milk by adding vinegar then painted the icky milk solids (resembling baby sick) onto the pen scribble and let it sit. A bit of scrubbing with dishwashing detergent and a trip through the washing maching to get rid of the milk - the scribble is gone! I am seriously amazed!!!I kind of wish I had taken before and after photos to show you how amazing it actually is. Next time, hey, as I'm sure there'll be a next time!

Let me also add - I tried the hairspray trick. It does NOT work. It makes the scribble far worse! I thought that bit of fabric was well and truly a goner. But the rotten milk even got that scribble out. It really is quite a remarkable trick. So parents with curious toddlers who keep pens in the house - remember this. Rotten milk can be a fabric saver! Just make sure it's an item that can go in the washing machine afterwards so you don't have that lingering milk smell!

Right now for some photo goodness. Because really a blog post without photos is boring. Even when discussing fascinating stuff like the uses for rotten milk. So without further ado, here are my blocks for Marieka for March in the QCA Bee.

Colours requested were greys, yellows and blacks. The pattern is Garden Fence and there's a great tutorial by Hyacinth Quilt Designs. One of the girls from Quilt Clob helped me out with that wavy yellow/grey fabric on the left as I'm afraid yellow and greys are not colours I have much of in my stash! I did have some Half Moon modern yellow polka dots and Grey Heath which just paired up beautifully I think (block on the right). Can't wait to see this quilt put together!

My Dare to be Square quilting book arrived today. Do you know it's my first quilting book? I have a number of magazines but I have never committed to a whole book before! But this one, I am loving.

Mini review time.
What I love: it covers the basics, with great tips and lots of photos. Then it has the awesome patterns. All of them are made out of squares and rectangles. No circles, triangles or crazy shapes to be found here. Oh there is -one- triangle in the owl pattern but that's it - impressive hey! They are fab modern patterns and I found the book really encouraged me to step out of my matchy-matchy box and try different fabrics together. Plus anyone who pauses to ponder the word 'rhombus' in the introduction is okay by me!

What I don't love: Need more patterns haha! I love them all and want to make them all and then I want more to make! Hope there'll be another Boo Davis book coming out!

So with that said, I have started a project! I am making the owl quilt from the front cover. In pinks with a white background. Whew boy is it a lot of cutting. I spent most of the afternoon just cutting the fabrics. My dining table looked a bit like this:

Okay that's an exaggeration. This photo is after I tidied it hehe!

Then I ran out of time to start sewing. Have to do the preschool run. So I packed away all my pieces into Mr Men zip bags. As you do when you're a mum to a preschooler. Then found some more pieces on the floor. As you do when you're a mum to a toddler.

So keen to start one this. But! Silly me - didn't have quite enough of the white fabric I'm planning to use for the background. So I might have to work something out. But that's okay. It just means I'm adding my own touch to the quilt right? Wish me luck!!

Little Bunny Foo Foo

I've had that song stuck in my head since making these bunnies. But I can't remember past the first few lines, so it's just on repeat in my head and driving me a little bit crazy. I'm still trying to figure out why a bunny would be scooping up field mice and bopping them on the head. Not sure that I should teach my very literal son that song... I don't think he'd get the moral at the end!

Sorry about the tangent. On to the bunnies!

These bunnies are early (very early!!) Easter pressies for my kidlets. I planned to keep them until Easter but apparently I didn't hide them well enough and now I can't really take them back! My kids are dairy free (among other things) and it's very hard to find dairy free chocolate in fun Easter shapes. So we'll be doing our own chocolate moulds - we use Sweet William chocolate for those that are interested. Very yummy and not too ridiculously expensive - and I thought I'd pair those with these cute bunny toys. That was the plan. Now it'll just be chocolate moulds! But hey it makes me happy that these bunnies are already loved.

Cute little tails!

The pattern is by RetroMama and very simple to make. Fun too! Thinking I might make a few to pop in my QP shop (these are one of those patterns where permission is given to sell on a small scale - for the curious copyright folks!). I've been a bit slack on making new things for the shop lately!

I also finally got the pattern for the paper-pieced fire truck quilt that I discovered online. Great quilt. It's from theQuiltmaker Sept/Oct 09 issue. You can buy it online though I didn't find it a particularly user-friendly process, having to first clear up that I wouldn't be charged $17 shipping fee for a digital pattern, and then not being able to find the information on where to download it. Anyways, I got the pattern, that's what counts.

I've made one of the little fire trucks so far:

There's also a ladder truck and an ambulance. I'm thinking I'll make the ladder truck next, maybe facing the opposite direction and turn all the pieces into a name sign for my son. Does that make sense? I'm not sure whether I'm up to doing a whole quilt - that will require more thought.

Side note - how cute are the dogs driving the truck? I fussy cut them from some old-style looking dalmatian-puppy-driving-vintage-firetrucks fabric I bought awhile back. The fabric itself is a bit young for my son, but worked perfectly to find some pups for my fire truck!

Well best get moving - really should make the most of my kid-free time to get some good sewing done! :) Hope you fit a bit of creative time into your day too!

Linking up to This Week at Love Affair with My Brother :)

A Fun Foxy Friday Finish

I love charm packs. I can't resist them! I love seeing all the fabrics in a line and getting to play with them without having to spend a fortune. I was about to say I have used up all the charm packs I currently have with this recent finish... then I remembered I do have a Wrenly pack by Valori Wells tucked away still. Oops!

So here is what my most recent charm pack turned into. My Fun Foxy Friday Finish (love me some alliteration).The fabric is Fox Trails by Riley Blake. Great fabric for a little boy!

I know - not very imaginative with the piecing. Apparently I was feeling rather uninspired when I made this quilt top.

I did try to jazz it up a bit with the zig zag quilting.

I'm actually really loving that quilting. I think it just adds that little bit extra to the quilt. I haven't done it before - it means a lot of pushing and pulling your quilt through the machine but I think it's worth it. And really, it's fairly quick too.

Look at the cute little fox and raccoon! It really is cute fabric!

This was one of those quilts where I just had enough of everything to make it work. I had just enough left of two leafy fabrics to use for the backing - different colours but I think they work.

The colours fit in beautifully with the fabric on the front, see? These colours are more accurate too.

I decided to try to stick with doing 'real' binding though I have to admit to a moment of weakness when I thought of how quick it would be to pillowcase it. But I found some brown fabric - perfect amount - perfect colour and decided it was a sign!

Machine bound of course. I'm actually really pleased I went with the binding - it really pulls the quilt together.I'm getting better at making it fairly even and less like a drunken sailor had a muck about on my machine. Although my cursing when I caught my hand on a pin (more than once!!!) could possibly have rivalled a drunken sailor's.

Oh I should add - I used fusible batting for this quilt. This is the second time I've used it and i think I actually got the hang of it this time. I only needed minimal pinning to hold things in place (particularly around the edges) even while I was quilting and we all know what a mangled mess the quilt looks like in the process of being quilted. No? Just me. Anyways. Final word on this. Fusible batting = Awesome. This stuff is made for lazy quilters like me.

I'm pretty pleased I finished this one off! I've had both the top and backing all pieced and sitting in the cupboard for far too long. Yay for a fun finish for the week :)

Linking up with TGIFF at Quilter in the Gap - pop over and see what everyone else has gotten up to this week! 

Sure you're not a robot?

According to the blogosphere, I'm not the only one who hates that horrid word verification thing whenever you want to leave a comment on a blog. At first I thought it was cute, with the little thing about proving you're not a robot. But now..  it really drives me mad.

So imagine my horror when I discovered that I had not switched it off on my own blog! Oh the shame! And massive apologies and thank yous to those people who still went ahead and left a comment despite that annoying verification system! I hope I have successfully turned it off now. If not, please feel free to leave a strongly worded comment telling me so - if you can bear to battle the word verification!!

Oh and look! Lucy from Charm About You created a fab little button just for this very topic.

Also if you're wondering if you're a word verification culprit, have a look at this link that tells you how to fix it. Thanks to Claire from Sewing Over Pins for linking to that one. What a life sanity-saver!

A nappy bag when you don't need a nappy bag

I had one of my previous customers contact me about making a bag. I love return customers and particularly this one because she's fabulous about telling me exactly what she wants and it makes the entire process so much easier! And she doesn't mind if I send her a gazillion emails ("is this okay?" "do you want this?" "are you happy with this so far"? Insecure sewist much?!).

So she was after a little cotton bag that could be filled up with toddler necessities and that would it inside her regular handbag. Lots of back and forth to decide on additional things and here's the result!

Fabric is Taza Medallion in Red by Dena Designs. Gorgeous isn't it?

And the inside:

Ta Dot in Dalamatian for the lining

It has one of my key hookie loopie thingamajigs (one day I'll find out the real name for it) and a lined zip pocket. Yes that's right. I figured out (okay I read a great tutorial) on how to make a lined zip pocket. I'm a little bit impressed with myself on that.

So a cute little bag for a lovely customer. It was fun to put together and relatively easy. It turns out my brain has actually absorbed some of the knowledge of bag making over the past few months and I only had to refer to tutorials for the inner zip and a refresher on boxed corners (I can never remember how deep to make them!). Pretty pleased all round. Hope the soon to be new owner of this is pleased too!

And in other crafty news, I went to my first quilt club meeting last Sunday. Lots of fun, lovely girls and really, how awesome is it to talk quilting and sewing and fabric with people who totally get it! Oh and I even got some sewing done on my Good Fortune wip!  Plus thanks to Jane... I finally decided to get with the program and join Pinterest. Still figuring it out but having a bit of a fun in the meantime. It really is a great way to keep track of things in a visual manner. So If you're at all interested (and you probably aren't!), here's my little corner of pinterest

Catch Up

I just realised we're already approaching the end of February and I still haven't posted my Craftsy BoM blocks for this month! What a slacker. So I am remedying that today.

Okay well let's be honest. I've been a bit embarrassed to post these blocks (well one of them anyways) because I completely buggered it up. Forgot to resize my HSTs as I went and ended up having pointless chevrons. That's right. I chopped the points off my chevrons. I'm awesome.

So here, check out my Pointless Chevrons Block as I've now renamed it. That's a bit more interesting than "Chevron Block" isn't it? Please, feel free to point and laugh. I won't be offended. Particularly as I can't see you. If you do leave a comment though, please limit your text laughter to the kinder "SLMAO" (also known as silently laughing my arse off).

It is a fun block to make - just make sure you follow the directions. Seriously, when am I going to learn to follow the instructions to the letter?!

I was much happier however with the Windswept Star block also known as the Balkan Puzzle block. I really have a problem with that name - and you don't want to know why becase it goes into the inner workings of my mind and I'll probably come off looking a little bit crazy so let's just move on.

As you can see, my little helper was in full force today, making certain that windswept star didn't get swept out of focus. Gosh what would I do without helpers? I do love that cute little pudgy hand though.

And here are all four of my blocks together:

Looking good huh! This is the Moroccan Mirage line by Khristian Howell. I may have mentioned it a time or five, but I really love this fabric line.

So looking forward to the March blocks which look like they are focusing on the foundation piecing technique.

Haven't joined the Craftsy BoM bandwagon yet? It's not too late! Go over here and register - it's free!

Vintage Modern Bag

I mentioned previously I had plans to make another nappy bag for my good friend who gave me some fab Quiet Play labels. Well it's been cut out for awhile, I just couldn't decide on a contrasting fabric for the flap of the messenger bag. I auditioned a bunch of fabrics but nothing seemed quite right.

Until...

Vintage Modern by Bonnie and Camille.

My friend loved the Ruby line by Bonnie and Camille - she picked up one of the baby quilts I made using that line. So I thought being a fan of that style, maybe she'd love this one too?

I just had a little charm pack of this so I decided to piece strips together to make enough fabric for the bag.

Here's the final result:

I wasn't sure how the Vintage Modern would make friends with the plain black fabric, but it turns out they're good buddies. Besides the other options of white or grey really weren't practical for a nappy bag.

I added a couple of extras to this bag that I kind of wish I had in mine. This one has a key holder thingamajig. I am positive that is the technical term.You know, a loopie thingie to hook your keys on so you don't lose them in your bag.

And a little pocket in the inside of the bag to add bits and pieces. That pocket clearly misbehaved for the photo. In real life, it's nice and straight. The original pattern (awesome - by ChrisW designs) had a zipper pocket but uh it just seemed a bit beyond my braining today.

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, though I have to admit I don't love it as much as my "birdie bag" as the kids have christened it. But I hope that it will suit my friend! It's tough choosing fabrics for others, and so many times I nearly caved and just asked her outright. But that takes the fun out of a surprise doesn't it?

Lil Fox bag

So this poor little foxy has been sitting around my sewing room for umm a few months now. Just all by his lonesome as a jagged edge square of paper piecing. Sad right?

I kept looking at him and feeling bad that he had not eventuated beyond a little square. With finishing the quilt that I had made this guy to match (wow awful sentence construction, can't brain today), I thought it was time to reassess this little square.

Here's a refresher on the quilt:

 Hard to see the little foxes on there but they are there, trust me. I was debating between a little bag to hold the quilt, or a cushion to match. I'm no good at decisions so I just started cutting fabric and hoped for the best. Please tell me I'm not the only one who does that.

Fortunately foxy and his matching fabric made it clear that a bag was in order. Thank goodness I listen to my fabric (the voices in my head - actually fabric! Who knew?!). It was an effortless project and came together beautifully.

This was one of those projects where I had just enough of each fabric to make the right sized bag. Those projects make me happy as maths has never been my forte. Maybe that's why i like paper piecing - no maths involved, just chunks of fabric and sew sew sew (okay complete disclosure: occasionally it's more sew, unpick, sew, swear, unpick, sew).

I backed it with some more of that cute woodland creatures fabric. Now you can see the little foxes I've been rabbiting on about.  Hmm, is it wrong to include "rabbit" and "fox" in the same sentence?

Ridiculously cute, right?

And here it is with the quilt tucked in:

Loving it. This little bundle has now been delivered to my lovely friend to auction off, sell, raffle, whatever she can do with it to raise money for her little guy's upcoming bone marrow transplant. I hope it helps.

I forgot to add to this post - this fox pattern is designed by Sonja of Artisania. She has some gorgeous paper pieced patterns and a great tutorial on paper piecing on her site. 

Linking up to TGIFF - it's over at Marsha's Spot this week. Pop over and have a look!

That looks like a 4 year old did it!

Occasionally I think that about my sewing. Particularly as I'm a FMQ beginner.

But in this case, it's true! My 4 year old did do this! And he's ridiculously proud of himself (I'm a bit proud too ;) ). It's the first time I've let him use my sewing machine and it was under close supervision of course. But this is for a good reason. My step dad's in hospital with a suspected heart attack. My kids adore their grandad so we wanted to make a little gift for him.

I happened across Little Miss Shabby's gorgeous heart cushion tute yesterday and thought it would be the perfect project for Grandad! How appropriate too! We used scraps rather than ordered tidy squares because hey they're kids and don't have the patience for tidy! We made ours into a mug rug because Grandad loves his coffee. I perhaps should have thought better than using the white background but nevermind. I'm sure it can be washed!

This is the back:

The kids signed it - love kid writing. So ridiculously cute. The fabric is actually red, it just looks a bit washed out in that photo.

The kids were involved from start to finish. They picked out the red scraps (red happens to be my son's favourite colour - it is the colour of a fire truck after all!) and I 'helped' them lay them out to cover our heart shape. The best part for the kidlets was when I let them have a go at some sewing. I figured FMQ would be perfect. No need for precision and it keep all our scraps in place!

This picture makes my heart melt. See Lulu's little hand on top of J's? So cute! She is at that age (close to 2) where she wants to do everything her big brother does! This was no exception. She kept her hand on top of his the whole time we sewed.

 The cuteness!

 J was so proud of his efforts and that he got to really sew! He couldn't wait to tell Grandma about it on the phone. And hey, now I've shown that my 4 year old can FMQ, I have zero excuse for not trying it a bit more! Well so long as I don't mind if it looks a bit like scribble...

Oh and J wanted to know what I was doing with the photo of him. I told him it was going on my blog. He now wants to know when he can have his own "blob" haha!

A charming winner!

Charming winner - charm pack winner - oh terrible pun I know. I think it was probably funnier in my head.I am very tired.


Thanks everyone who entered my very first little giveaway! A big thank you to Lucy from Charm About You for hosting this fun fugly fabric fiesta (okay technically it was a party, but I'm liking the alliteration with fiesta)!

I'm so glad that this little charm pack is wanted and inspires others!

Unfortunately, only one charm pack, so only one winner. I played around with Mr Random (does that sound as rude as I think it does?) and he chose number 46 to win!

I counted, recounted, lost count, started over, double checked, copied into Word, added numbers, counted again and came up with...

Patchwork and Play! 

Congratulations! I have sent an email your way.

Now I think it must be about bedtime for me. Clearly my sense of humour is showing the tired.

(oh btw smart bloggy types, is there a way I can add numbers to my comments? That'd be awesomely helpful in case of future giveaway!).

Rewards for a rough week

It's been a pretty crappy week all round. So I decided to reward myself for making it through without:

a) climbing into bed for the next week 

b) running away to Scotland (improbable but what a fantasy!) 

or c) curling up in the foetal position repeating "It's nearly bedtime, it's nearly bedtime". 

Yeah it's been that kind of week.

So what sort of rewards are required for that incredible accomplishment of making it from one day to the next? Why quilty sorts of course! Well it's way better for the hips than chocolate anyways. Though just quietly, a Terry's Chocolate Orange kind of fell into my shopping basket at Woolies yesterday. Goodness only knows how that happened!!!

Loving me some online shopping. Seriously is there anything better? I don't even have to go to the post office to pick up my parcels - which with two wild children is quite an accomplishment. My postie delivers them to the door! Um delivers the parcels, not the children. Just thought I should clear that up.  Love, love, love.

So I started with a bit of this:

Yum. Vintage Modern by Bonnie and Camille. I fell in love with Ruby (missed the whole Bliss train), and now I'm ready to play with Vintage Modern. I'm getting a charm pack from Fabric Buzz. Do you know how much I love when I can order fabric at pretty close to the US prices but it's right here in Australia? Awesome. This little charm pack is destined to become a bag.

A gorgeous friend of mine ordered some labels (unbeknownst to me) with my QP logo on them! I was thrilled! Look at how lovely these are:

I have great friends. :) So as a thank you for my friend I want to make her a nappy bag (she has three littlies) like my Aviary 2 one with my first QP label sewn in! I have ummed and ahhed over fabric choices for her, and went so far as to nearly cut some Pear Tree last night but I just wasn't sure what she'd love. Until I suddenly remembered how much she loves the Ruby fabrics. So I think she'll like Vintage Modern.

Right, more quilty goodness. I also ordered a bunch of this:

I picked out a bunch of quarter yard fabrics in the blue/purple colourway to use for the backing of my Diamonds in Squares quilt I'm working on. I haven't had a confirmation email though so I do hope my order has gone through or I'll have a major fabric-sad. At least until the next package arrives!

Then last night, I can't even remember how I stumbled across this, but I found this fabulous paper pieced fire truck pattern from the Quiltmaker magazine!

My son is obsessed with fire trucks. Seriously obsessed. I designed and made him a fire truck quilt for his birthday last year. So I'm thinking I might turn this into a little wallhanging for his room. But despite it being a digital version, they want to charge me shipping, so still trying to sort out that little issue. It really is one of those weeks.

And finally! Something else I can't remember how I came across it but I couldn't resist when I saw it. This pattern book by Boo Davis is now on its way to me.

How awesome is that owl! There's also an amazing robot (look at Taryn's fab version), a deer in the headlights and some other cool patterns I can't recall right now. But enough patterns I thought it was worth buying the whole book. I can't wait for it to arrive to flip through at leisure. First up I'm thinking one of those owls in all pinks/purples on a white background. Great quilt for my Little Miss who has yet to get a quilt or a crocheted blanket made by me. Oh slack mother.

So roll on this week! Roll on the parcel happiness! And here's to a far better week than last :)

Oh and you only have one more day to enter my Fugly (or not so fugly) fabric giveaway! Pop over and leave a comment for your chance to win a Riley Blake Farm Fresh charm pack :)

TGIFF - my first!

 So I keep meaning to link up the TGIFF party (being hosted by M-R this week), but I always forget and then Friday hits and I never have anything newly finished to post on my blog! But this week, I got the gratification of feedback by posting this quilt in QCA and then saved it to post here for Friday. Sneaky sneaky.

Look at these cute little woodland creatures! Foxes, hedgehogs, owls and birds! Isn't it great for a little boy? This one doesn't have a recipient in mind nor is it going into my QP shop. This one from fabric selection to photography has been destined as a fundraiser quilt.

One of my friends has the most gorgeous little 2 year old boy with a great mischevious little grin. Unfortunately he has a genetic condition that means he's facing a bone marrow transplant in the near future. While we're lucky with the healthcare system in Australia, there are still large out of pocket expenses for the family. So fundraising has started in earnest. I've made this quilt to be added to items for a big raffle which will be happening soon. I wish I had more to contribute but I hope that this quilt will at least help a bit!

I made it bigger than a cot quilt so that it would suit an older child too. It ends up measuring 43" x 55". I did chicken out when it came to the quilting and reverted to my normal boring stitch in the ditch. Booorrringgg. Maybe next quilt I'll be a bit more adventurous.

It does have a pieced back though which I'm quite pleased with. Lots of birdies! And I'll say now, I know the photography is atrocious. This is a cute quilt but by no means photogenic. This is the second lot of photos I've taken of it. At least for the raffle, it will be seen in person!

Oh and look at this!

Binding! Honest to goodness binding! No more cheater flip-a-roo pillowcase style quilt finishing. I can do binding now! Bit proud of myself on that one. Considering it was one of my quilty goals for this year, I'm pretty happy to be able to check it off the list and it's only February. For the quilt police, it's not hand sewn, or perfect, but hey, it's binding. For fellow cheater type quilters like me, check out this fab tutorial from Crazy Mom Quilts on machine sewing your binding.

Now turn your head sideways. Apparently this picture does not like being upright despite me trying to convince it otherwise.

How cute are those little foxes! I have actually done a little paper-pieced fox to turn into a cushion or a bag to match this quilt. Or something. I'm not sure yet. Waiting on the creative inspiration to strike me. Plus I ran out of that olive fabric and can't find any more that matches exactly. Don't you hate when that happens?

Oh and there's not that little white fleck on the actual little fox. I didn't see that til I just posted the picture. Poo. Photoshop it out in your head, ok? This paper pieced design is by Sonja from Artisania. Here's a link to her pattern shop - gorgeous designs! Will post an update once this little fox cutie decides what he wants to be turned into.

For now, pop over to Quilt Matters and have a look at some of the other fab Friday finishes!

Oh and if you're interested in a little giveaway, pop over here and see my contribution to the Fugly Fabric Party (I know, I know, my charm pack's not fugly, but I couldn't bear it sitting in my cupboard unloved so now's a good chance to find it a proper home!).

Also linking this in with This Week at Love Affair with my Brother because I'm a bit pleased with this effort!