Batman Done, just in time

I finished it, this morning at about 630 am. Thank goodness for early rising children. Once the last stitch was in they ran it into Blair and there was a bunch of happy people.

I haven't even seen Blair interested, let alone excited about a quilt. Usually it is a polite humour about them. But he fully supported the hours I spent finishing it off. Because there was hours and hours and hours of sewing and hand sewing. But I really love it and Blair is so happy to have a "manly" quilt. 

Happy Father's Day. 

Blair is holding it up, so it is a reasonable size.

I did scrappy bindings using all my left over bits. 

I quilted it myself, black stitching in the black and yellow triangles. I had one or two puckers which is a huge improvement and Blair picked out a plain black flannel backing. At the time I thought it was rather boring but once it was done it suited it perfectly. 

In place of pride on his couch.

Tx

I am going to get there

I am so happy, I got the top finished this evening, like 4 minutes ago!! I had been thinking about heading out earlier to get the backing but wasn't sure if I would get to this point. So tomorrow I have to get the backing, I have the batting, so almost there, so so close. I think I am going to get there.

I have been lucky, Blair has been home today so I have been able to work solidly on it. Tomorrow he will be around for part of it so I think I should  be able to make a good go at it again.

The borders, I think I was over thinking it all and went with the yellow and black. It was already the solid colours I was using so it felt right. I my true form though, I was 100% sure what I was going to do and didn't have enough, so I added the Batman symbol to two of the corners. Love it, maybe I should add them to the other corners.... do I really want to unpick?!?!? See how I feel in the morning.

Yes, passes the size test, will be brilliant!!!

Tx 

Making progress

I am trying to get this all finished for Father's Day. It's going to be a massive ask, especially as Friday I am working and Saturday I have a conference day. But, I am determined. I just need to find the right border, red I am thinking, and backing. Of course then quilting and binding. Whew, no face booking for the next couple of days. 

It's a lot bigger than I thought. That's always a nice surprise. 

Right time to get sewing...

Tx

Binding done

Just a quick completion post. Well a whole bunch of photos. So this is for my sister in law, I think I did mention that. Blair picked the binding fabric, well out of a choice of too. I think he made the right choice, I was going to use a different one but this really frames it nicely.

Anyway done, and now to be sent off...

And that is the last of that fabric. I really love the fabric so sort of sad to have used all of it. There are a few small piece which will be used in a scrappy quilt, none of the stripes though. So farewell fabric. I do love you

Tx

Greta's One

I can't believe my new baby is one, a little lady. It feels just like yesterday she joined the family. She's walking and running about already and trying to take charge. Lets just say, tween and teenage years will be "loud" in this house.

Today we had her party. I wasn't going to do anything big. But I knew I had a couple of friends who would love to wish her a happy birthday so I figured a small gathering, 27 people later, ok some even younger than Greta, is our close small party. I guess I feel very lucky. 

I did all of the baking last night so all I had to do this morning was ice the birthday cake. Nothing like leaving the most pressure making thing to the last minute. 

I didn't get enough photos, forgot to get a nice one of the inside of the cake or the table all set. But.... There is a few

Opening the presents. Of course we had an extra, why not add another person into the busyness. It wasn't a biggie, she is Adele's best friend and they had such a blast having a sleep over. She just slotted in like I had another baby, twin 4/5 girls. 

As you can imagine, by the end of the day there were a few tired kids.

She just loved being down of the floor part of the action. I thought she would get up and wander round. We just kept putting food on her plate and she loved it!!

The cake, I made a lemon polka dot cake. I found this icing on Pinterest, I then YouTubed it, hey presto, a cake!

 Dotty dots!! 

I was so committed to trying to make from scratch as much as I could I managed to burn my hand. Owwww!!!!.

So I made the cake, banana cupcakes and chocolate chippy cookies. I teamed it with pop corn, a fruit platter, sausage rolls and some chips, oh and cashews. Cashews are a favourite of my kids. I tried to be party food but semi healthy. 

It was such a busy day but still, I did have fun. BUT I am glad the kids are in bed and I am having a couple of wines. 

Less than a month to Ryan's birthday. Enough to make me have another glass

;)

Tx

Another pair of the Quick Change pants

These have to be my most favourite pair of pants for babies. I have lost track of how many pairs I have made over the years. This pair is off to a friend. Greta will probably get another pair soon, but this fabric, made me think of this couple. 

Don't you love the retro records!! 

Of course I got this far along, thought I had elastic, I did but not the type I needed. 

I lined them with plain black, I think it was all it really needed. I have a bit of this fabric left over, I might, at a squeeze, be able to make a second pair. I hope so!! 

Tx

Not a complete fail

You know how it goes, you see something on Pinterest, give it a go and it is an epic fail. So I thought I would try this before the big day. Greta's first birthday, I have an idea in my head about what I want to do but I was worried my cake wouldn't look as lovely and spotty as the pins

I am pleased to say it is nice and spotty so now I feel a whole lot more confident it will turn out how I want. I just need to buy a few icing tools and it should be easy, hopefully.

It's a nice way to add colour without a whole lot of food coloring. Adele's not impressed there wasn't any pink in the cake. But I was sort of thinking girlie decorations of blue and green to match her dress. 

This cake is going out for afternoon tea, catching up with a friend that I haven't seen in a few weeks. 

Tx

Another project completed

Completed another quilt. This one had been sitting in the cupboard for a while but now was the time to finish it.

I splashed out and got it quilted and it looks awesome. Mostly because I just couldn't think how to quilt it. And Donna always does such a great job.

The backing I brought from Fabric.com and it a lovely soft minky, perfect for Greta to cuddle under.

I want to take it away with me as Blair, Greta and I are in Dunedin for the weekend but it needed the binding done. I quickly attached the binding, packed it in my carry on bag and finished it in the airport lounge. Yes, I did get some strange looks.

Tx  

Batman overload

My kitchen is over run with little piles of batman inspired fabrics. 

I am making the "To the point" by Cluck Cluck Sew. It took me a little while to come to this quilting pattern choice. I kept looking at different patterns, but always came back to this one.

So far so good, it's coming together well. I don't really enjoy sewing up triangles, they stretch and you have to concentrate to get the points nicely on point, but I am enjoying this one at the moment. It's going to be a good couch/tv watching sized quilt.

Ryan and Blair are having joint custody of the quilt, Ryan during the day and after school, Blair in the evenings. Both are pleased and no lawyers were needed... Yet!

I hope to have the top made by the end of next week. We are away for the weekend, yay, but this will slow up quilting and sewing time. 

I am just happy Blair's asked me to make him something.

Tx 

Quilted

And still no binding idea... I think I will just have to take it into a fabric store and hold it up to various fabrics. I sort of like the idea of using a pink.

I had enough of the tea pot flannel to use as the backing. It complements this a lot better. 

The quilting stars I found on you tube and I love them. Simple to do but effective. And I love how it adds a bit of colour to the plain white squares.

Over all I am so pleased with the quilt. Once the binding is done I will get in the post and sent off to Blenheim. Already for the new baby.

So now I have finished by two projects I felt I needed to, so now I can start the Batman quilt, very excited!!!!!

Tx

New and improved

Was well worth it I think! 

I love it! Still not sure what color binding to use but so pleased I made the changes. Doesn't make it so white. 

Just a quick update, off to parent teacher  interviews for Ryan. They have them twice a year, nice to see how he's doing at school.

Tx

I love you, but will be nice to say "Good Bye"

So at this point the binding still needed to be sewn down, but you can see how big it is. Covers our whole Queen sized bed. No wonder I had a few issues moving it round my sewing machine. Now that is it done, imperfections and all, I am so pleased with it. I love the brightness of it, reminds me of summer and just lit up the room. It looks rather green, but there is no green at all, but shades of blue and yellow and I think a wee bit of grey.

I did a simple loops through all the white squares. I didn't want any distraction to the lovely fabric.

The border was just some waves. Just nice and simple.

And binding, I brought this just the other day. I had nothing for binding at home. So I went to Spotlight and made a brave choice. I didn't take the quilt in with me, I just tried to rely on my memory of the fabric and guess. I think i did a pretty good job with it.

Even the cat loves it!

It means that I can give it to my Mum (belated birthday and Mothers Day) and move on to finishing my 'soon to arrive nieces' quilt. THEN I can make a start of Blair's Batman quilt. I want to get these two UFO's all done before I make a start. It was my self imposed requirement before I started cutting the Batman fabric. It is sitting on the dining room table so with every meal I can look at it and admire. I cant wait to make it. I am rather pleased Blair asked for his own quilt. Perfect excuse to do some sewing!

Tx

I am just a little bit rubbish....

Try as I might, I can not master free motion quilting. Not even to a satisfactory level. Straight line quilting, even that I am pretty average at. Sure I can make a bridesmaid dress with layers of tulle or a jacket or a quit top. But when it comes to the art of quilting I can say with no word of a lie I am completely rubbish. It really does make me sad.

I have google, YouTubed and spent hours on the net and even reading real books on how to do it right. I have pinned to death, used spray, flattened, not pinned (read about a quilter who never pinned), I have tried every thing! But no matter what I do it always bunches up, I end up with bumps and puckers. And I end up with something that I loved and now... don't.

I try so hard with the quilting, I am just doing loops in the white squares. The front is o.k, but the back is awful. Very gutted. I know I should just pull it apart and start again but because I know it will equally be rubbish I don't. I really don't know what I am doing wrong. Or maybe I am being to critical as I am a bit on the tired side. Plus mad at myself for eating an amazing piece of cake when I am trying to still loose baby weight. I only started back on the old diet 7 days ago and already fallen off the wagon. I am still 10 kg heavier than before. 12 if you count my weight after having Ryan. Which I try not to as I have never been that small in my life, well once in my life. I think because the kids wake so early no matter what we do, trust me we have tried EVERYTHING! I just want to eat "pick me up food".

This isn't how I pinned it, but you can see the backing I used, a blue flannel with floral tea pots. Its for mum and she drinks a bit of tea. Plus I really liked it. There was a yellow one which would have looked a whole heap better but there wasn't enough of it. So sometime you just have to make do a bit.

Sorry a bit rambling today, just tired.

Tx