A Model Friend

I have had a wonderful couple of weeks, with visits with Bianca, Aunty Pam, Fi and Peta. To round things out and keep all the wenches happy, I had a bright idea to visit Jules.

Mr CP needed Sunday to sleep after night shift and me and my girl had a plan that involved a camera and a big belly.....

Harvey 'tickling' Bubba - he thinks my, his and his dads belly button is called Bubba.

We need to straighten out that confusion.

Some artyness 

Note: It was 35 degrees, I was HOT and sweaty!

The photographer was bossy but fair enough, she had to keep reminding me, 'straighten the shoulders, tongue to teeth (to get rid of the double chin!!), put your hair over your face....do you think she was trying to tell me I should have had a little make-up on??? :o)

Our helper helped by running away, chasing cows.

Not that helpful really....

And then it was his turn...annoyingly natural.

Oddly operatic. Brilliant pic Jules!

(I think he was actually mooing at the cows)

35 weeks and 5 days - the belly is big and I'm excited to meet this little person.

After I've finished chasing this one around the mulberry bush.... 

Thanks for a wonderful catch up Jules. Lots of laugh as always!!

Ab x

Maybe Baby

Okay, so there's no maybe about the baby side of things.

I'm 34 weeks and 5 days - people like to say I've 'blossomed'.

Aren't they sweet? ;o) 

A couple of months ago I spent some quality time with Jules and I made her teach me how to Shirr.

Stretchy, elasticyness if perfect for growing bellies and boozies so shirring is perfect for me.

The fabric is a soft Lizette lawn from Spotlight and it's made a very comfy dress. 

Really could do with lining but that's a bit beyond me at the moment and I don't need another layer to sweat in....eeew gross!

This gives you a better idea of the size of the tum....extra large!!

So the Maybe Baby bit?

I know it's a baby but I don't know if it's a boy or girl.

So I decided to make the 'Maybe Girl' quilt....because is may be a girl.

Then I thought I'd better go with the 50/50 odds and make a 'Maybe Boy' quilt....

obviously, it may be a boy.

On the boy quilt I tried my hand at loops with stars. I'm loving being more adventurous with my quilting.

I also used a elongated zig-zag on the border which is a great effect. I saw it on Crazy mum quilts blog and gave it a whirl. The quilt has all Prints Charming fabrics from a few lines, it's sooo soft!

The back of the 'Maybe Girl' quilt turned out really cool.

All the fabrics in this quilt are from Melly and Me's 'Where the wind blows' line that I've hoarded.

Definitely a proper, fully reversible quilt. 

On the 'Maybe Girl' I tried loops with hearts. Love it! 

I've also been playing around with making cushion covers for the long awaited couch.

I did this one last night. Needs trimming and a back.

This one is hand quilted. 

I'm loving the different textures and playing with various greys along with my Denyse Shmidt fabrics.

Hoping for some more sewing time now that I have finished work.

Sew well peeps,

Ab x

Right of passage

I thought it was time that Harvey learned to bake.

We made chocolate chip cookies. He was my chief flour flinger - the clean up took a while but it was worth enjoying his enthusiasm.

The most important lesson and the right of passage was of course the opportunity to lick the beater. 

It took some fierce concentration

but as you can see, he's a natural.

It's been a bit mental around here, we needed to swap rooms around to prepare for the new bubba which has meant moving my craft room. That was all going well until we realised that things weren't going to fit quite the way I'd hoped (and the way I'd measured...)

Crisis averted with a few changes to furniture.

I finally got some sewing done last night, starting this cushion for my friends daughter who is being Christened tomorrow. I finished it today so tonight I can get stuck into some UFO's now that I have some momentum going. 

Happy Sewing lovelies,

Abbe x

Stripping - even the nice girls are doing it

Now, for all those doing Google searches for other kinds of stripping, sorry to disappoint,  I'm talking about fabric strips.

I've managed to get caught up in the craze of the Scrappy Trip Around The World (#scrappytripalong on Instagram) which stemmed from a great tutorial at quiltville.com by Bonnie Hunter.

I know I would have never done a Bargello or Trip Around the World quilt, just not my style but this grabs me because I am finally cutting into my huge stash of fat quarters. 

Just like my un-stuck sticker collection when I was a kid (I always kept them as they were because I didn't want to 'waste' them....) my fat quarters mostly remain untouched.

Or they did.

These are the block I've done so far - I can imagine I'm going to have 'fun' organising and reorganising placement. I am making 36 blocks, which are 12" finished.
I am aiming for a dark fabric through the middle of each block but otherwise it's random.
I know I'm going to make another because I've been cutting double the amount of strips I need....as you do.

On a super happy note, Copper Patch House has finally got a couch.
Big deal you think?
SIX MONTHS WITHOUT A COUCH!!!
We have some comfy outdoor furniture but it certainly wasn't the same as stretching out in the proper veg-out position. Something that was very hard to deal with when I was suffering the horrendous morning sickness.

I think we got enough couch....


I need to scale up the size of cushions that I make - this is the first of many planned using the colourful Denyse Shmidt ranges, Hope Valley and Chicopee.

Happy Days,
Ab

Another reminder -  Craft n Chat at The Retreat is this weekend, still some places available.
Check out this post or contact me via the website.

A reminder - Come craft with me!

Just a reminder that we are having some Chat and Craft days at The Retreat.

Need some crafty time?

Need to get away from the kids for a day?

Need to come and stickynose and check out The Retreat?

Need to hang out with lovely people, eat some yummy food and have a great day?

Come to The Retreat

Saturday 12th or Sunday 13th of January

10am until 

$50 per day includes, morning and afternoon tea and lunch.

Hot and cold drinks and energy giving chocolates lollies provided.

There will be little gifts for all attendees and the chance to win a $100 accommodation voucher.

Bring your crafty projects to work on, some show and tell and your sense of humour, bring a buddy or meet some new crafty mates.

Any type of craft is welcome, if you want to work on it - bring it!

Limited places available so contact us now to book.

Contact Abbe on 0412 932 880 or at abbe@theretreatwoodend.com.au

www.theretreatwoodend.com.au

On a mission

I am on a mission to claim three more finishes for 2012.

I finished Mr CP's quilt on Christmas Day. I did have to take it back after it was unwrapped as there was still a little bit of binding to hand stitch down.

He seems to like it. I was really happy with how it turned out.

Pictures to come...

I just have to darn in the ends of this colourful eye-spy that I made for the nephew of Harvey's carer.

I love how it's turned out but in hindsight with I'd just done straight line quilting and not the meandering. 

I think I'll make one or something similar for Harvey as he seems to love it.

The design is in Anna Maria Horner's Handmade Beginnings book.

This last one is for The Retreat. The fabric was from a Chinese Whispers swap with my aunts. I added some of my own, chopped various widths and added the sashing and I'm really happy with it.

I've already started a baby girl quilt in the same style with girly fabrics....just in case :o)

I decided to try my hand at some free motion flowers. I feel like I've mastered loops and meandering although I still need more practice.

Anywho, some of the flowers turned out really good. 

And some need to be deadhead :o) 

So these two are going to be finished tonight. We are off to a BBQ that will be pretty casual so I plan on plonking myself down the with a cool drink and getting ends darned in and binding sewn down.

Projects-to-be have been swimming around in my head.

I want to finish so old stale ones and I want to get stuck into some new ideas.

Harvey definitely needs a Foxy quilt and obviously the new bubba will need something mummy-made too.

I think I'm feeling urgency to finish some things before bub comes along as I know I'll be in baby fogland for a month or two at least.

Wishing you all a very merry New Years Eve.

See you next year!

Abbe

A semblance of productivity

Thursday nights are bed, chocolate, twitter and One Born Every Minute nights.

I don't watch alone though, I watch with my crafty twitter friends, Jules, Bec, Fi and a few others. We make silly conversation as we watch babies being born. It's fair to say I spend a bit of time squirming these days. I'm 24 weeks now so reality about pushing baby out is setting in....

Last week I managed to get some time in between tweets to start working with my Chicopee fabric.

With a new couch coming to Club CP we are going to need some new cushions and I'm going to mix this with the previous line, Hope Valley. 

I finished the mittens tonight. Just need to sew them up. They aren't perfect but it all adds to my knitting experience.

More enthusiastic eating by the munchkin. 

Hello, what's this? I had a very lucky win after putting my business card in a draw at the Dayview Textiles stand at the AQM. Low and behold a phone call later that day and I was a winner. As soon as my so called friend realised what the phone call was about, she punched me.

Sign of a true friend - not backward at coming forward with her jealousy!

My arm is still sore.....

I'm absolutely stoked with the Jinny Beyer Palette Collection - I have no idea how I am going to use the 150 fat quarters. For the moment it's only for patting and not for taking out, it looks too pretty as it is!

Wishing you productivity and big wins.

Ab x