5:45am wake-up. We made them wait until 7am, they were very patient watching TV whilst surrounded by their presents! Harvey joined us at 8am. Bleary-eyed, in new car heaven (although the car didn’t have wheels yet…we ran out of steam at midnight on Christmas Eve!) Paper-ripping, fists pumping, squeals of delight. Gourmet breakfast with the family followed by a lovely walk to the jetty. The smallest children swam, clothes and all. The biggest children skimmed rocks. Home for rest, movie and play time. Reunited at Gramma & Poppy’s house for a funny rendition of the Nativity story – complete with three very strange wise men. Family presents exchanged and opened followed by another delicious feast and lots of laughter and relaxing together. It was pure bliss.
Popping in just before the fun of Christmas Eve to let you know of an awesome Boxing Day Sale I’m taking part in with a group of other Aussie pattern designers!
The sale will run for the whole of the 26th December (Australian Eastern Standard Time). All of my PDF instant download patterns will be 30% off for just 24 hours – the perfect time to stock up on some patterns for a bit of holiday sewing!!
Hello blog! I’m not sure that I remember how to do this, it has been so long!!! The last two months have been a whirlwind. We said goodbye to our fun home of 4 1/2 years at number 19…
…and hello to our new place which we finally finished building! This is our backyard – well, technically speaking these are the vacant blocks in our new subdivision that we are hoping don’t sell for a long time because the kids think it is all theirs and run wild through all of that grass! We have gigantic (kind of scary) hares bouncing around all day and night – there are no bunnies here, just thumping huge hares! And so many birds…much to Harvey’s delight. He is bird crazy and chases them when ever he gets the chance.
On our first night sleeping in the new house, this was the beginning of a glorious sunset – I think it was welcoming us to the neighbourhood. The sunsets here are amazing. I don’t think they are different to the ones we had in town but the unobstructed horizon and clear views magnify the beauty of the sky. Sometimes at dusk, I like to go outside and watch the sun go down. With nothing but the chirping birds surrounding me, it is so peaceful. (Until one of those scary, big hares bounds by…)
The day before we moved, this was pretty much all that was left in any cupboard in the house. When Lil woke up in the morning, she went to the pantry to find something to eat and yells out, “Mum!!! Are we poor?!” A few days after we moved, Grandie and Nana visited us from New Zealand. They were so helpful getting the old house all cleaned out and fixing things up ready for the tenants to move in. Such a relief not having to do it all on my own. Not only did they work like troopers, but they also spoiled us with babysitting, gifts and taking us out for lots of yummy lunches.
Oh, and they also brought along the biggest bag of giant marshmallows one has ever seen so we did what all newly semi-rural folk do to christen their property and had a backyard-campfire-s’mores-making session.
Upon moving into the new house, Harvey decided that he wanted to feed himself all the time. Not my favourite baby phase to get into. Especially in a brand new house with sparkling clean floors. So I pulled out the first quilt I ever made and now it is used for Harvey spill protection! He likes to tip his whole bowl of food onto the tray of the highchair and smoosh it around with his hands at every meal. And then he wears the bowl on his head like a hat. And usually walks around with crusty bits of weetbix in his hair all day long.
So, we are in the new house. There was no internet connection for 4 weeks which was actually kind of nice for a little while. We are mostly unpacked, it feels like home, and we have about 20 years of landscaping ahead of us! One day we will get around to taking “nice” shots of the house to do a little tour for the blog. It was exhausting though, children would often fall asleep in strange and uncomfortable-looking positions!
And just in case you’re wondering…the pantry is full now, but we spent all the money on food so now we are too poor to dress the baby!
I’ve had a 2 1/2 year break from quilt making. The last one I made was very special and there hasn’t been a need for a new quilt until now. New house = new bedrooms = new quilts. Well, I guess I could go out and buy bedding, but that’s not my style. Any excuse to get creative, right?!
Our house will be finished at the end of this week (eek!) then we have a marathon of cleaning the new house, moving, unpacking and cleaning the old house. We are really looking forward to it, but will be able to enjoy everything more when the work phase is over!
Oscar is especially looking forward to having a bedroom to himself. His two great loves are the solar system and the human body – we thought decorating a room solar system-style would be more tasteful than the human body!! Oscar has just turned 9 so I’m very mindful of keeping the room decorated to suit an older boy and didn’t want to make him a quilt that screamed planets.
Instead, we chose a selection of solid coloured fabric (I’ve listed them all at the end of this post) inspired by the solar system. I’ve been drawn to triangle quilts lately, this one on Instagram especially caught my eye and it was decided that the quilt would be made of lots and lots (325 to be exact!) of triangles. Sticking with a theme-neutral quilt also means that if he ever grows out of the solar system, we are not stuck with an out of place piece of bedding that a lot of work has gone into!
This quilt is definitley the biggest I have ever made. The finished measurements ended up being 91″ (231cm) x 82″ (208cm). I wanted the quilt to be big enough to sit on a queen-sized bed and tuck under completely on the bottom and two sides. I like the look of a tucked in quilt.
When I first started cutting and piecing triangles, I totally underestimated how many I would need to make the quilt big enough and ended up cutting and piecing more and more rows until it finally worked! At the moment Oscar only has a single bed, but when Harvey moves out of his cot we will do a bed shuffle and will buy a queen sized bed for Oscar. This quilt is made with forward planning in mind, but can sit folded in half on his bed now anyway!
To cut the triangles, I cut 7″ wide strips of fabric, then cut those into equilateral triangles using the 60 degree cutting line on my cutting mat and ruler. It wasn’t hard, but more time consuming than cutting squares or rectangles.
With all of the quilts I have ever sewn, I have only once had a try at machine quilting and that was using a quilt-as-you-go method. I was keen to give proper machine quilting a go though but wondered if it was worth trying for the first time on a quilt this big?! I bought myself some proper quilting gloves (they were my magic gloves and made a huge difference!) and used Matilda’s Own brand 100% cotton batting and managed to pull it off!! I’m definitely not going to be winning any prizes at the fair for my efforts, but it was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. There are a few wonky sections and uneven stitches, but I’m super happy for my first effort and am keen to perfect my technique now!
To make it easier, I stuck with straight lines and quilted 1/4″ either side of every seam. I thought it was going to to take me weeks to get it finished, but it only took 5 or 6 hours! Hand quilting this would have taken me a few months so I was extremely happy with the quick finish it gave me.
For the back of the quilt, I bought some extra wide backing fabric to save myself the hassle of having to piece anything. When it arrived in the post though, the shop didn’t send me as much as I had ordered so I made use of a few extra rows of triangles that I hadn’t used in the front and added a happy strip down the middle. Although I didn’t want to do any more piecing, I’m really glad that I did because it really gives the back some bright character.
I had just enough solid grey fabric left to use for the binding, and then it was done! Just in time for a new bedroom in a new house…and now I’ve got three more children waiting for their new bedroom quilts! I said I wanted to perfect my machine quilting, didn’t I?!!
SUPPLIES: Triangles…Kona cotton solid in the following colours: Orange Sage Breakers Celestial Poppy red Graphite Oasis Chartreuse Corn Grass green Flame red Navy Peapod Binding…Kona cotton solid in graphite Backing…Carolyn Friedlander, Widescreen, Crosshatch in Pacific
Last week I made myself a pair of Hudson Pants. This pattern has been on my “to sew” list since it was released, and I’m glad I hadn’t bought it yet because it is a part of the Perfect Pattern Parcel #6 so I managed to get this pattern + 5 other awesome women’s patterns in one!
(I think I was singing a song with Harvey in the pic above!)
When I pulled out the pattern, I had a few moments of fabric indecisiveness…I had some light grey sweater knit or some dark grey velour or my (big) stash of jerseys to choose from. I was leaning towards the sweater knit or velour as the Hudson Pant pattern is for a pair of “dressier” trackies (if there is such a thing?!) but we are heading into Summer and I wanted something that I would be able to wear as the weather warms up and those fabrics would be too hot. Then I remembered this pair of pants I saw at the shops a few days before…when I saw them I made a mental note to try and construct a pair myself because they looked really easy to make and I knew I could totally kill that $60 price mark!
And this variation of the Hudson Pant was created! I decided to take the original pattern and change the bottom of the legs to give the pants more of a harem-feel. To do this, I simply straightened the legs instead of tapering them in at the bottom and then added 5″ to the length as I wasn’t adding a cuff to the leg hem. To hem the pants, I turned up a casing and inserted the same wide elastic as in the waistband.
I LOVE how they turned out and have been wearing them heaps! When the harem pant trend first started, I didn’t buy it at all. But seriously…now I get it! Who doesn’t want to be able to wear a pair of pants as comfy as pyjamas out and about??! I can’t wait to make some more, and want to try out the original cuffed hem too. This fabric is a ikat print cotton jersey from Ixat (not avaliable now.) I thought I might have been too flimsy for the pants, but it is actually perfect. Perhaps if I had stuck to the original cuffed pattern it might have felt a bit too much like leggings though?
If you are looking for a comfortable pair of pants you can wear practically anywhere – then give the Hudson Pant a go, it is awesome. I couldn’t fault anything in the pattern…the fit is spot-on, the instructions are just right. The perfect amount of instructions and nothing was confusing or hard to understand at all.
To get this and these FIVE other amazing women’s patterns at a great price AND support a charity at the same time, visit Perfect Pattern Parcel…it won’t be around forever, you’ve only got 4 more days to take advantage of this great offer.
Parcel #6 includes: Syrah Skirt by Lauren Dahl (exclusive release!) Bronte Top by Jennifer Lauren Julia Cardigan by Mouse House Creations Hudson Pant by True Bias Zsalya Dress by Kate and Rose
BONUS PATTERN: Odette Dress by Bluegingerdoll
Bonus Pattern: Choose a price of $32 or greater for Parcel #6 and you will automatically also be sent the Bonus Pattern! That’s only $5 a pattern. The Bonus Pattern for this Parcel is the Odette Dress by Bluegingerdoll. Vintage inspired silhouette is had two flattering necklines and a gorgeous skirt. The Odette Dress pattern goes from a size 4 through a 24!
How Pattern Parcel Works: Here at Perfect Pattern Parcel, we believe in supporting independent pattern designers. It’s our opinion that indie patterns are just, well, better than big box patterns, and we’re pretty sure our customers think so too. So, we allow customers to show their support in naming their own price for each Parcel. We also encourage customers to allocate part of their Parcel price to the charity Donorschoose.org in order to help classrooms in need. Pattern Parcel donates all profits after expenses from Parcel sales to the charity as well. Together we’ve raised over $12,000 for classrooms in need!
5:45am wake-up. We made them wait until 7am, they were very patient watching TV whilst surrounded by their presents!
Popping in just before the fun of Christmas Eve to let you know of an awesome Boxing Day Sale I’m taking part in with a group of other Aussie pattern designers!
