Meet "Coccinelle" my latest little softie.  I found a sweet button on a blog the other day that is essentially a toy drive for children affected by the earthquake in Christchurch.  The incentive is being organised by a blogger in New Zealand.  You can check her out here.  I set to work at 9.40 pm to design and make a softie! 

An hour and half later Coccinelle was born!

She is made from brown wool and scraps from my scrap basket.  Her face is linen.  I incorporated the selvage from the body fabric onto the pocket as it was too sweet to throw out!  Thus her name, Coccinelle.

Pictured here getting a hug from Juliette in her favourite spot in the house - on the bookshelf!

Hopefully the first of many hugs from a special child across the seas.

If you are interested in being involved, just click on the softies button on the right side of my page.

This was my first ever quilt.  It keeps us warm in the winter time.  It was a pull out over winter project which I started when I was nineteen.  Fast forward ten years and I finished it! Talk about losing motivation. It is machine pieced and hand quilted (225 squares).  These are not colours I would choose today but it still has a nice 'country/homemade' feel to it.

This quilt was also started while I was pregnant (and didn't know the sex).  I chose the colour scheme of orange, green and brown as I thought this was pretty safe. Pattern is from Homespun magazine and fabrics are from Patchwork on Central Park. Machine pieced and hand quilted.

This quilt was made for my friend Karen's baby - Indianna. It is my first attempt at machine quilting. Pattern is from Quilts Baby book and fabrics are from various places!

I finished this delightful little beret last night for Isabella. She has grown out of all her hats and I was keen to make something from the beautfiul book my friend Allie gave me for my birthday.  It's called "Vintage knits for Modern Babies" by Hadley Fierlinger. Sizes go up to 3 years. I omitted the cord and added a pom pom to my creation.

The wool I found at good ol' Big W of all places! It's 70 % wool and 30 % soybean and very soft. Sizing wise, Isabella is over 2 1/2 now and it is a perfect fit for her, but I think it may be a bit baggy on a 1 year old.

This little dress is still one of my favourites. I made it for Isabella's second birthday last year and it has recently come back to me (after being worn by two other lovely little girls since). It was quite a small fit for her when she was two so will probably be just right for Juliette this winter. It was an ultra easy dress to make and has worn really well.

Here is my latest sewing project.  A book bag for Isabella to take to the library and fill with goodness.  I accidently bought too much calico recently and was wondering what I should do with it.  I also made one for Isabella's little friend for her second birthday. The letters are fused in place with double sided vyalene (spelling?) and then I used a small and tight zig zag around the outside. The exterior is calico and the interior is a mauve striped cotton. Two layers are necessary to make sure the bag is strong enough. I also double stitched around the top of the bag to reinforce the straps.

The little orange spotted patch is a small pocket for Mummy's library card.  I always find that I am fumbling around at the library counter with toddler, baby, pram, books and then I am fossicking through my bag trying to find the card.  The finished bag is approximately 35 x 45 cm.

My 'pensive' little 2 1/2 year old reading an empty notebook...and wearing a little t-shirt I recycled. I chopped up a top of mine as I couldn't remove the stain from under the collar. Usually it would go straight to the rag bag, but now that I have 'blog brain' I thought, "I could recycle it!"  

I just used another of Isabella'stops and traced around it. I didn't take the sleeves in, but gathered them at the top. They were still too big, thus the cute button tucks. The existing top of mine is pictured below. I love recycling!

                                                                      

Here are some of the things I created prior to beginning my blog. Thanks must go to my darling models, Isabella, Juliette and Issie's best friend, Alia.

No, I didn't make this...it's the beautiful pattern and inspiration I am using for Isabella's 'big girl quilt'.  It was designed and made by Sarah Fielke from The Last Piece.  My sister found the pattern and we both fell in love with it and are both in the very early stages of making quilts for our daughters. I have selected all my fabrics and used the basic light/medium/dark colour combinations as Sarah's quilt, but I think the overall look will be very different.

Here is how Issie's quilt looks so far...

These are the contrasting triangles (when cut) that make up the 'flying geese' that are the main pattern winding through the quilt.

This is the centre fabric of the flying geese.

Left fabric is the border while right fabric is the backing.

So now that I've shown it to the world, I have committed myself to get moving with getting it finished!

Watch this space...

I had three gorgeous newborn babies to visit this week - Zoe, James and Indianna. So, gifts all round - I think I am making a rod for my back! I decided I didn't need to be lazy and buy cards. I found empty white cards with envelopes at local store and just added fabric in the insert. So easy and pretty cute for only 45 cents each! Here are some of the things I made...

Front of bag - unbuttoned

Covered buttons on removable strap