Quilt - part 5

It's quilted!! It took longer than I thought, especially as I really only wanted to do it in the daylight so that I did it acurately. I had lots of fun rolling and turning, and then with 5 little squares to go my thread ran out! Doesn't matter as it's done now. 

The overall look of the back

Big squares, little squares

Tonight I trimmed the edges and have pinned on the binding. Not much more to go!!! I'm using this tutorial on how to bind the quilt. First I want to make a little tag to go on it with a message for Chloe so she knows it was made especially for her.I'll add that on when I do the last row of stitching on the back.

Binding all pinned and ready to sew

Hobo bag birthday present

Chloe's friend Holly is having her 3rd birthday this weekend and I was trying to think of what I could get her. Then I realised 'why buy something when I can make something!!' I had seen this hobo bag which I thought was cool, so I adapted the decoration to add Holly's name and a butterfly which is the theme of the party. 

Little pocket inside for little treasures

Of course I had to put something in the bag so I got a couple of sheets of butterfly stickers and then put together this colouring book with a few 'H' pictures. I did each page on a separate piece of paper on purpose so that there were a few blank pages for creative drawing without having to keep between the lines. It took me a little while to come up with 'H' nouns but I ended up with horse, heart, hamburger, hat, hippo and holly (of course). The font on the book is the same font I used for the name on the bag (Hobo Std in Photoshop).

The Quilt continued

I finally got a weekend to do some more of the quilt. I have been piecing it together, and got myself some batting and some basting spray to be able to actually finish it. This weekend I used the basting spray to put it together, though I must say that it wasn't as great as I had hoped and I still pinned it all down as well. I followed the directions on the can but maybe I didn't use enough as it just didn't stick very well.

The quilt in the machine

All laid out, pinned and ready for quilting

I decided to quilt it by doing a stitch-in-the-ditch around the large squares (so basically along the lines separating the rows), and then sew around the smaller squares in the middle of the larger squares. I'll have to practice a bit more before I try free-hand quilting on a project this big. I have managed to quilt along the lines around the big squares, and have done 3 little squares - only 22 to go! Glad I remembered to start in the centre of the quilt and work out with the quilting as it needed a bit of re-pinning as I went to smooth it all out.


The end is in sight and I'm pretty excited to get it done now. Maybe it will be ready for autumn when Chloe will need another layer on her bed.

Quilt update...again

After getting the birthday party out of they way and christmas under our belt I thought I'd re-visit the quilt that has been patiently sitting at the side of my craft table for the last couple of months.


I managed to piece together the strips that will make up the binding so that I don't have that step to do when I get to the end. I also put together all the extra little squares that will make up the strip across the back of the quilt.


I also got all of the larger squares put together which actually didn't take too long with chain piecing. I have even got the first row sewn together!

The squares in place to show the layout. The border strips look shorter as I haven't allowed for the seams when laying the squares out.

Now I just have to keep the momentum up and get all the pieces sewn together. With no more pressing projects I will hopefully get it sorted soon. It is very indicative of my OCD that I am looking forward to sewing together the rows to see if all the seams line up.


Looking good so far. This pic should give me the inspiration to get it together.

Rainbow Party

Party day finally arrived. I was really excited to put together all the things I have been making over the last month or so. Here is a selection of the decorations/food.

Top: Bunting with pictures of the kids - one per month for the last year
Left: Windmill from Seedling in an old cream bottle
Middle: CAKE!!
Bottom: String of balloons hung over the table

You can kinda see the food under the cover

Food included: Fairy bread; jelly in shot glasses; mars bar slice; assorted lollies; rainbow of fruit; asparagus rolls; mini quiches; sausage rolls; cocktail sausages with dinner rolls to make mini hot dogs. We also brought out a frozen pizza towards the end to make sure the men had been fed properly.

Another view - Chloe and her friend digging in

This photo you can see the bowls of different coloured M&M's that I painstakingly separated. I wasn't sure how many I would need for the cake and it appears I overestimated. Not a problem as I now have M&M's to last to the new year.

The awesome rainbow balloon arch hubby made

The party was a great success (even though it rained, grrrr). Lots of food was eaten, toys were played with and there were no 1yr old meltdowns. Now for christmas....

Rainbow Invitation

Here's the invitation I made up for the Rainbow Party. Yes, it's a joined party for the kids. I'm gonna try and get away with this as long as I can, which I don't think will be long!




On a side note: 60 posts! It would seem I have too much spare time for crafting, yet there never seems to be enough for the housework...

Rainbow Skirt

So this is the next part of Chloe's Rainbow Party outfit. 

It is a modification of the Market Skirt on dana-made-it. As she suggests, lots can be modified on this skirt. I added a couple more strips and made them a bit thinner. 

Each strip has 2" showing so I cut them 2 1/2" wide. For the top strip I added an extra 2 1/2" to allow for the elastic casing. For length, I measure Chloe's waist at 20", so cut the red piece at 28". This way I could increase the length by 4" on each strip and not go over my fabric width.

All the details are on the Market Skirt tutorial but here are some photos from putting this skirt together.

Each strip started like the orange one before gathering the top to end up like the green and blue strips. (The colour order is wrong here so some un-picking followed).

After gathering sew each strip to the previous strip, right sides together.

Sew open ends together. It tickles me that when I ironed the seam open the colours stacked like this.

The whole outfit.