Quilt

You might think all I do all day is knit and spin, educate and feed and wipe never-ending detritus up. Not so. I also hand sew a quilt too.

This project is soooo old and I'm not digging the links out to prove it, but I have only a little way to go... so so near.... can I do it before another birthday? I don't know. But I'll give it my best shot.

A Quilt in Three Blogs

Last week I eventually got around to doing something about a quilt top that has literally been on my WIP pile for years.

I began this quilt in 2008, and I had the silly idea that it would be done in a month. I know. I laugh too. For a couple weeks it's pretty much all I worked on, and I made quite a bit of headway on it.

And then? And then, it got really boring and I took a little break. And a little break took another little break, they got married and had kids and the break turned into... well, a few years.

So last December I put my foot down and got going to finish the quilt top off. And I did. I finished the top off.

And there it sat. Waiting. For me to get off my lard ass and baste it so that I can hand quilt it. Yep. I am insane.

The idea was that this quilt should 100% hand-stitched, as an heirloom piece (I had no idea that the quilt would take so long that I could pass it onto my own damn grandkids myself). And the hand basting part was putting me off. Partly because there is nowhere in the house to lay a quilt out flat to baste, and partly because I didn't want the hand quilting that came after it.

But one sunny afternoon, and a feeling of immense optimism and without another thought, out came the quilt top, the batting, the backing and a million pins and gizmos and before I knew it the quilt was basted. I have actually started the quilting (I'm taking a little break. I know.) and hopefully this quilt will be finished this year. Insha'allah. I have a little boy who has been waiting a long time for this mama-made.

And once that's done? I have a littler boy waiting for his version too... Lord have mercy...

Burlap Baskets and then Some

After the success of the initial basket, whipped up some time ago, I made a further three for the boys' room.

They are colourful, using a range of rainbow fabrics to add a bit of jolly to the room, and they nest! Because there is something about nesting boxes which appeals to my need to organise and tidy up. So neat. And fold-able. And cute. But more than that, they are useful! I love useful things. I love organisation. I am the woman who turns straight to the boxes and crates section in any catalogue.... I dream in co-ordinated organised colour matching.

These simple baskets tick every box : pretty, useful and colourful. And much needed too, for the Lego continues to grow and take over every inch of my house. Hopefully these buckets will tame the mass just enough for the boys to find what they want...

Burlap Baskets

Last week I did a little experiment, of sorts. I have learned to save energy by always testing the water with new makes in this house. Sometimes my good ideas are not so well received, or utilised in quite the way I imagined they would (or should!) be. And so, to test the waters before an onslaught of making I ran this little burlap basket up for the boys and their toys. Or to be accurate, the boys and their never-ending supply of lego.

I am reminded of Amanda's baskets which is when I think I realised that I'd rather have pretty burlap baskets than the fugly plastic crates which are currently in use in their room.

Like Amanda's this really was a straight-forward, easy make resulting in something not only pretty, but useful too. And oddly enough the boys love it. And because they love it they respect it and look after it, which is more than I can say they do with the crates currently hurled around the house with gay abandon.

So, armed with more burlap and 1001 Peeps fabric sourced for this very task, I think a couple more buckets might be making their way out of my work niche in the near future. You know, for more lego, transformers, little cars and the uber-collection of Hero Factory currently stationed under their beds.

Travel Fun

A while back I envisaged the idea of making a compendium of travel games to keep the babes amused and engaged when we were traveling and visiting various people. The idea was to take our favourite games whilst unemcumbered by the weight and size of the orginals. I drew largely on Rashida's tutorial for the checkerboard and pouch whilst making a few significant changes.





Firstly, I made a sack in which to carry our games in. A simple enough drawstring bag with no whistles and bells.

The second difference was that as well as checkerboard pieces made out of fabric covered buttons I also made them into chess pieces by drawing on simple enough chess ideograms.











It seemed such a waste to let the reverse side go empty, so I decided to turn the back into a doubled-up board for snakes and ladders and Blokus.

The larger squares, comprising of four smaller squares, make one snakes and ladders square, whilst the smaller ones are used for the Blokus board.











The Blokus pieces themselves were constructed from felt sewn onto canvas after drawing around the original Blokus pieces that we already have. Yes it took absolutely forever.



And it turns out it might be a bit pointless. After all, travel games are only needed if you go traveling, and given the state of our finances and price of petrol the only places we'll be going to are the ones we can walk to!

But, if ever we do have a chance to fly the nest, we're ready.



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Knitting Woes and Highs

You may recall seeing last week, and indeed several weeks beforehand if you have a beady eye, some lovely mustard-coloured yarn on the sticks. I was working on designing a new pattern for sale. That little project was sailing along nicely until I tried to order a couple more skeins in the same colourway to finish it off only to be told it wasn't being made any more *insert one of those needle-scratches-off-the-record-to-dead-silence noises* - I beg your pardon? Why did you fail to mention that those skeins I ordered were the last on earth?? And so in a mad flurry of 'it'll be alright on the night' I purchased some more yarn in a slightly different colourway, because I was hoping, in some weird twisted way that they would match.

They didn't. They complimented each other rather nicely, but I did not envisage a rather large stripe along the bottom on my new creation. Of course, what I really need is another large batch of yarn in one colour, to start and finish the new pattern properly. I don't have the cash for that right now. So what does any grown woman do when things don't go her way? She sulks. Of course.





But rather than letting that niggle spoil my evening, I grabbed a new pattern - and every left-over ball of yarn I have - and began a very satisfying project - The Scrap Cardigan. I've made one of these before; it is an incredibly easy knit - mindless, even. (I know that should be 'mindful', but it really isn't).









It is very stripey, ironically, given that it was because I *didn't* want stripes in a project that I began this one. But the midget will love that - he loves stripes, because 'it makes me look like I've just broken out of jail'... *shrugs*... when you're six and a half that's a *good* thing. Apparently.

I am enjoying this knit, in fact I can't put it down. And that's really what it's all about, because like the ladies say, "knitting is spozed to be fun". Amen.

And the best part of all in this knitting fiasco? I have four skeins of complimentary-coloured yarn to now knit something else just for me.

I think that's what they call a win-win situation.


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