Wordless Wednesday - Aero Mint Ball Birthday Cake

Wordy Wednesday

Instead of muttering about my bad blogging,

I will just write a photo-heavy post

to give a small indication of what I have been up to....

I have been making things 

for the Church Christmas fair with a friend

(who is now sick of pom-poms!!)

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I have longarm-quilted an old lady's quilt,

that needed quite a bit of TLC to even get it on the machine...

But it has turned out beautifully.

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Miss Kalico has turned 4!

A cake for home: 

Some lovely gifts from friends...

And a cake for the party! 

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I made a little something for a colleague

who loves Lavender...

The Bullion stitch addiction continues

though not as relentlessly as before ;)

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I have made my ornament for the SSCS15...

This one took 2 evenings 

and was a lot trickier than I imagined,

but hopefully it will be well received.

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And I am working on a few secret projects.

This one involves top levels of investigation

in order to correctly tailor the concept to the recipient.

So I am sewing although nothing for me.

I had grand plans to make Miss-Kalico and I

Halloween costumes, but I ran out of time :(

A friend gave me a Halloween costume 

in a rather tiny size. Although I was flattered,

I preferred to leave certain curves and bulges to people's imagination ;o)

Anyway, I will try and blog more soon xx

Wordless Wednesday - Minecraft Creeper Tablet Case (for someone special's 11th birthday!)

Hexagon Birthday Bag

Turns out Little-Miss-Kalico

shares her birthday with at least

4 of my friends!!!

One of these friends made my little girl a beautiful

hexagon quilt when she was born!

So for her birthday

and to thank her for the beautiful quilt...,

I handstitched this hexagon bag.

I believe it is happily living in Wales now! :)

 

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Yesterday. we had birthday cake!

I hope all my friends

with mutual birthdays did too.

Although, Little Miss-K

didn't like the candle very much!

 

October is Birthday Month!

Another birthday... Another cake...

DS2 turned 6! And he wanted a pirate party!!

Lots of sugar-filled pirates invaded our house!!

October is a busy birthday month for us...

Baby-Kalico,

my niece, my nephew

and my Sister-in-Law celebrate next!

Getting in a Bind on my Birthday

YES, everyone who did the Cathedral Stars workshop

with Bonnie Hunter LAST February!

Yes, I have attached the binding...

But, NO,

No I haven't had a chance to stitch it down just yet...

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I received some really beautiful flowers, fabric, chocolates

etc. for my 40th birthday.

Unfortunately, I spent the day on the sofa and in bed

as I had some sort of stomach bug,

but hey at least I got some rest as my wonderful husband

looked after the kids and left me to wallow...

These are the flowers my Mom sent me.

Thanks Mom, they're lovely!

All quiet on the homefront

I have been neglecting this poor old blog because I have not been sewing up to 'post exciting trips to Germany to meet quiltmakers and spend time with wonderful quilty friends' standards.

Sewing-wise though I have been making lots of reversible sunhats for summer...

I love making them because I can handsew the lining in while watching TV (not that I watch much TV, but when I do...)

The boys and I went to the beach by train on the long weekend, but we ended up in the cinema and market to escape the howling wind. In the market I bought ice creams for the boys and lots of yummy wool for me...

(The bonus about having a four-year old is that he only eats half an ice cream, so I technically got wool AND ice cream too LOL)


The weather has been very dry. Windy, very windy, but sunny too. So lots of time has been spent in the garden. Growing seeds, starting a little flower bed...

And letting Abby explore outside (making sure that the door is open so that she can charge back in when something startles her... ;-0 )


April was really busy with lots of overnight guests and even a birthday for me. I was spoilt by my friend's daughter who made me this magnificent cake when they came to stay:

And Vicky made me this gorgeous bag out of a sweater that I had worn, loved and managed to shrink in the wash. Thanks Vicky, I love it!

Next year is a BIG birthday for me. I will have to change my gift motto which is usually 'If I can't eat it, drink it or bath in it, I don't want it' to 'If it isn't slimming, anti-ageing and in an easy to open container, I can't use it' :-D

A little birthday blanket for baby cat

Happy birthday my super-softie!!

My biggest little boy is 5! I had hoped to finish his dog quilt, but with weddings, overnight guests, renovations, birthday parties etc etc, I just couldn't get to it. We had previously had a conversation about Mummy wanting to make him something and him wanting something shop bought. I told him Mummy had no money and he suggested I try and find some LOL. Then a few days later he comes to me and says "you can make me something or you can buy me something, but just get me something" LOL

Then last week we were driving back from swimming and he asks me for a 'little blanket for my baby cat'. I can do that! I had made a hoo-hah about wanting to make him something surely I can make a toy cat a blanket in a few days?

I sewed together some orphan scrapbuster blocks. Basted it, quilted it, bound it, wrapped it and all just in time for the big day...

I think they like it :-)

And as I yet again had tension issues with my machine while quilting this mini quilt, I am pleased I didn't tackle his single bed quilt!! Looks like I may have to bite the bullet and get my machine serviced. I have tried new needles, adjusting the bobbin tension, adjusting the needle tension, changing the thread, cleaning the bottom of my machine... Any tips for tension problems???

T.G.I.O.

Thank Goodness It's Over!

We had the boy's combined birthday party at home yesterday. (DS1 will be 5 on Monday and DS2 will be 3 just over a week later.)

Yet again there was much baking in this house! A homemade 'Ben 10' cake. DS1 wanted a shop bought one, but when I went to buy it I was told that it was best to order them a week in advance. Unfortunately I didn't have that much time so out came the icing sugar and an attempt at 'Ghostfreak' LOL



DS2 wanted a smartie cake. I added the pigs as an extra. (It's unfortunate that pigs are pink as it made his cake look a bit girlie, but then again he is only 3!)



Not a single cupcake was left begging even with their ugly faces (and their wheat-free bases LOL)

The new kitchen came in handy...

Now I can put my feet up for another year!

Birthdays and bug days

I had to 'do' playgroup today. It is run by the 'Mum's' these days. When you 'do' playgroup, you have to make the teas and coffees, bring fruit for a snack for all the children, and put on an activity. As they are only little painting, playdo, sticking etc is the usual activity.

I decided that we would be hairdressers. I brought along a bag of fabric scraps and got the glue out. I drew faces without the tops of the heads and encouraged the children to glue the hair on...

Here is DS2's (with a little help)



DS1 wanted to do a rocket.
"No Jack we are doing hairdressers"
"Rocket. I want a rocket"
"Why don't you try some hair Jack"
"No, I want a rocket"

My child! I couldn't decide whether I was curbing his creativity or if he was just plain difficult... Anyway here's his



It was DH's birthday. We made a cake.



Everyone helped to blow the candles out...



About the spiders in my previous post. They're not real!! They're paper decorations and DS2 loves them so they are now in his room...



I don't 'do' bugs. I guess that's why I only shower these days...

Bag me some more September

My poor machine! I'm obviously not as patient as I'd like to think I am! I felt pressed for time so I sewed franticly. A bad workwoman always blames her tools, but this was definitely operator error!! I broke 2 needles, one bobbin, cut my finger and now have a machine that doesn't sound so happy! BUT I did make the September bag and I love it! It reminded me how much I like Log Cabin as a pattern and it is IMHO a great bag thanks to it's designer, Kandy.



I used scraps from cutting out of my hexagons, so it's very 'rosey' and frugal :-)
The strips were only 1.25" so out of a 5" square I could get one hexagon and one strip. (waste not, want not, they say!)



It's lined in roses too. I did make a 'boo-boo' with the lining, but I hope it's new owner won't mind!!



It's our neighbour's birthday today. He's 63!



No-one is ever too old for a tractor cake are they??