Crochet Pugs

These cute little guys were first introduced to me by my husband sending me this link. When I was younger we had 2 pugs, one of each colour, so they had to be made! I used some other patterns I had and kinda made it up and ended up with these cute guys. The lighter one is made with 12ply Acrylic and the black one 8ply wool so the black guy is a little smaller. 

Sooo cute!!

Stack-a-pug

They are in a little pouch ready to be posted to their new home.

Kindy Quilt

When the kids at Kindy turn 5 they have a little ceremony where they make a play-doh cake and blow out some candles, and they often give the kindergarten a present. The gift is usually a book or puzzle or game. I want to do something a bit different so I had the idea to make a quilt for the home corner. I planned it out and decided to do the Waikato Kindergarten kiwi 'mascot' in the middle with pinwheels and checker board around that. I decided to get onto it now so that it isn't hanging over me at the end of the year. How organised is that!? 
Here are some of the steps as I did them:

I sewed two long strips of green and blue together, cut them into 2 ½" wide rectangles, then sewed 2 together to get the checker board effect.

For the windmill I put two 5" squares together and sewed a ¼" seam around the edge. I then cut the square into rectangles and ironed them open. This forms the pieces for the windmill (so easy!!!).

Front and back of 2 halves of a windmill piece

Windmill all sewn together

I only needed the square to be 4 ½" x 4 ½" so I used the awesome angle mark on my ruler to trim the sides down and keep it a nice square.

The kiwi all cut out and ironed down with Heat n' Bond. I wasn't happy with it's placement on the white square so here I am cutting it out to place on another square. Made it all a bit more solid anyway.

All sewn down with a very fine zigzag. I wanted to make sure that he wasn't going anywhere!

With the windmills sewn in place around the kiwi. Some of those corners were getting quite tricky to sew through with 7 layers of cotton in some places.

On the ground before sewing the white strips in place to see how it will look.

It is all sewn together now and pinned waiting to be quilted (sorry for the bad pic).

I used a piece of fleece instead of quilt batting as it was cheaper and I think will be a bit snugglier (if that's a word?). The back is plain yellow and I think I'll use either the blue of green for the binding.
Will post a final picture when done.

Hopscotch Throwing Bags

Chloe has taken a liking to playing hopscotch at school and there aren't many things to use as the throwing piece, so I made some for her. 

These are fabric rectangles, filled with rice and sewn shut, then a piece of plastic is sewn over top of it all so if the ground is wet the fabric and rice don't get too wet.

5 colours - using up my scraps

To show how big they are

Headband Holder

I was getting sick of finding headbands and heir clips everywhere so I decided to make a holder for all of Chloe's headbands. This decision was made about 2 months ago and this week I finally just made it. 

I had a strip of pink fabric left from when I made the binding for her cushions, and a nice long piece of pink ribbon which was really all I needed. I used a piece of rickrack so we could hang it on a hook, and the button at the top is purely decorative.

Full view - 3 sets of headband holders divided with some places for clips to sit

Side view

I just folded the ribbon and sewed across the top to make the loops

Rickrack for hanging (love my 3M hooks)

In use

Kids Room Cushions

I had been given a few pillow inserts quite a while ago and held on to them every time we moved. This last move has given my daughter a room of her own and I wanted to add some girly things to it for her as she likes girly things. First up was some pretty cushions. 

We went to David's Emporium to find some fabric and we found this heavy cotton that is perfect. She chose pink, purple and a spotty print. I decided that some contrasting piping would be fun too. It wasn't until I went to add the zip that I realised how much trickier it is with piping, but I got the hang of it and by pillow 3 I was a pro. I didn't cut the piping fabric on the bias, which is naughty I know, but I figured it would be fine for a kids room. 

She was super happy with the end result, and my boy liked the spotty one so much I had to make him one too. I put different piping on his so we could tell them apart, and he has a fun green zip.

Wedding cake - Moose toppers

When we got back to NZ I was asked to make a wedding cake for my brother-in-law. He and his now wife live in Canada at the moment and since they moved moose have been a bit of a thing. So I decided to do a simple cake with a cute fondant topper. Trouble is I have never done a real fondant topper before, and this one was going to have to be transported by plane and car from one end of NZ to the other.
I started with some trial runs to make sure I could get the right shapes, then I started making them about a month out.

The pieces - body, legs and head

The brides head sitting on a vinegar bottle to dry so it doesn't loose it's shape (I didn't have any foam)

Body with legs attached

Head in place

All put together and drying. Heads resting on silicone cupcake moulds. Flowers are just resting on top at this stage and her bouquet is drying too. The bride got a veil which the flowers were attached to with some more white fondant.

2 hat options for groom and bow tie

On the cake. I had them all made but the antlers came off in transit so I had to make new ones the day before. Thankfully I had made lots of each colour fondant and taken it all with me. I made the cakes at the location - a white chocolate mud cake and a sour cream lemon cake. I also make a dark choc mud cake as the cake was dessert and I wanted to make sure there would be enough.

Birthday Party 2013 - part 2

Wow, it has been far too long since I put something on here. Since the last post we moved back to NZ, my daughter started school and my son started kindy, we bought another house and moved JUST after their next birthdays and I now have my very own craft room. Last year I didn't have space to really do any craft stuff, but this year I have been going crazy as my sewing machine is permanently out.

But first, a catch up on the 5th Birthday Party. Here are some pics from the party (it was about 40 degC that day so we were melting!). We played a fishing game with magnets, pass the parcel, statues and water guns came out at the end. I have some more pictures on the other computer so will try and add more at some stage.

The Table: Scallop shell party bags on the left for goodies, dolphin and star shaped gingerbread biscuits, star shaped fairy bread, fruit shark and sea shapes crackers. My friend sent Ariel napkins, party hats and plates.

Finished Ariel cake. 

Hubby created this amazing fruit salad shark with banana dolphins from an image we found on the internet

 Finally, I had to add this amazing Toblerosaurus that hubby made for our boys 3rd birthday. He really wanted a dinosaur and after some google searching hubby decided that this was what he should have. I am not great with 3D stuff, but hubby took a round and a square cake and turned it into this. The toblerone pieces worked really well as spikes. The toes are white jellybeans, the eyes and nose are mini M&M's, the mouth is a slice of jelly snake and I can't remember what the whites of the eyes were. 

Toblerosausus