Something for me

Back in February last year I found out I was going to get promoted at work (yippee!) so I treated myself to the new Amy Butler bag book and some lovely Amy Butler prints to get me started.  Full of enthuisam I cut out my fabric and interfacing ready for the fun bit of sewing it all up.  Then I found out I was pregnant, a whole load of other things took over and the cut out pieces spent the next ten months or so on my sewing table :(

Once the Little Monster was here and all my windows had curtains the right length (they had been hanging pinned up for about 2.5 years!) I finally got round to finishing my bag.  I've made quite a few bags but this is the first 'good' one I've made for myself - a recycled jeans gym (now toy) bag definitely doesn't count.

I really like this bag :), Its a decent size and was very straight forward to put together; I've made a couple of Amy Butler's patterns before and they are lovely to follow.  When I'm not lumbering around with my enormous changing bag, this has been my bag of choice in recent weeks.

Back to the Real World

So the Little Monster and I have returned to the real world and we don't like it very much. Mummy land is so much more relaxing, less stressful than work and nursery. I feel constantly sick and nervous whilst she's at nursery. I'm a bit of a control freak at the best of times but not knowing if she's got a full tummy, a clean bottom or having a cuddle when she needs one is really hard. She has been my world for the last year and I've been her's, nursery are taking really good care of her but I just don't want to let her go. :(

The Quilt, the story continues.....

Never has a quilt been so long in the making. Having decided to try and make this a single (ish) bed sized quilt for when the Little Monster goes into her big bed I kept making wonky log cabin squares until I ran out of fabric - like all mums, my spare time is very limited so this was a very (very, very..) slow process.  I ended up with 24 x 21cm square blocks which looked awfully busy when laid down next to each other and nowhere near big enough.  With a little bit of inspiration from the web (this is my very first quilt) I decided to add some sashing but had no idea how much would look right despite much sketching out on square paper. I ended up laying them all out on a single duvet cover so I could play around with sashing widths.  This really helped me work the sashing out but more importantly gave me my first glimpse of how the finished article would look when I was really losing my enthusiasm.


When I started piecing the thing together (I'm not very good friends with it right now) I found that I had clearly been 'a little tired' when I'd made the first eight or so blocks - having a newborn will do that to you! So they were a whole lot more wonky than I expected and I had to add a little fabric here and there from the left over scraps to help square the whole thing up.  The quilt top is now finished (hooray!) and I've even made the quilt sandwich, secured with safety pins as suggested by blogland.  Thinking I was now on the home straight I jumped into the quilting only to find that straight line quilting, which I'd assumed would be the easiest method for a complete beginner, was a total nightmare on my basic little sewing machine.  As I tugged and pulled the bulk of the quilt through the machine I thought I must be missing something, that there must be an easier way to do this. I had a google only to find that there isn't :(, that I'm not on the home straight at all and that I've got a whole lot more nap times working on this quilt.  On the plus side I really do like how the top has come together, I hope the Little Monster likes it too.

Birthday Surprise for Granny

Way back in June it was my Mum's 70th birthday.  My Mum is one active lady and we all joke that despite being firmly retired, she is always 'so very busy' - you know, theatre trips, Guiding, taking classes, looking after others, being a fab Granny... So her reaching the ripe old age of 70 came as a bit of a shock to me I mean 60 something is still at the end of middle age these days but 70, that seems to tip the balance into old age, a label I really can't attribute to my Mum just yet.

Anyway, to celebrate this auspicious occasion her very kind friends threw her a lovely lunch party and the Little Monster and I got crafty with the fabric paint and the sewing machine.  Following our success with footprints in fabric paint for Granddad's birthday I thought we'd have another go for Granny's however I didn't count on the Little Monster being a couple of months older and a whole lot more wriggly - wriggly baby = very smudged prints :/

The pink prints on the left were pretty much unrecognisable but the silver ones turned out a little better. As Granny is really into her scrapbooking I thought we'd make her a big denim bag to carry her albums in with the footprints as an outside pocket.  I found this pattern over at SewMamaSew for a really simple tote that was just the right size.  As I didn't have a lot of time an unlined bag was definitely the way to go and even though I'd never attempted french seams before I finished the bag in one nap time (my measure of time for all things crafty these days).  I lengthened the handles so she could wear it over the shoulder but left the rest of the pattern alone.

I know its getting lots of use as it was returned to me the other day for repair - should have double stitched the handles.

Going Bananas

Here at Monster Towers I have a bit of a reputation for making banana themed baked goods, you know banana bread, banana and blueberry muffins, banana pud etc. So when my hubby was feeling a little peckish the other night (he's one of these lucky people who never gains weight despite eating everything in sight), I had a look for a quick biscuit recipe and of course I managed to find one for banana and chocolate cookies in a really old McDougall recipe book that my MIL donated to me.

They were really yum and about ten disappeared in the 2 minutes after I took this picture - apparently fuel for body and brain, one of your 5 a day don't you know!

From Tiny Acorns Mighty Oaks do Grow

Well ok, not exactly mighty oaks but pretty decent runner beans!

Despite having a really good start in life being carefully nurtured in the sewing room window, these fellas have had a tough time with the wet summer and the inevitable slugs and snails; not to mention the heavy clay soil.

My 'natural' pest prevention techniques, i.e seeing if Brian the Snail and Cyril the Slug liked to fly, were having no effect whatsoever so I reluctantly resorted to slug pellets, something I was trying to avoid so the Little Monster could enjoy the garden too. However, these did save the day and we have definately been rewarded for the hard work - the Little Monster even had one with her tea :) and there are lots more to come.

A Brief Hiatus

The past couple of weeks have gone by in a fog of man flu, teething and itchy eyes chez maison little monster. We have got a few bits done but not as much as I'd hoped.  I finally managed so sew up some of the much needed dribble bibs - nothing can cope with the current torrent that the little monster is producing.

We also celebrated Granddad's 60th birthday with the help of a big squishy chocolate cake and a little homemade present from the monster herself.

I'm still a bit wary of using handprints as the monster can get her hands in her mouth much faster than I can stop her so we stuck to footprints and made a couple of customised handkerchiefs.

She seemed to enjoy the feel of the paint between her toes and we got some really clear prints.  I used Tulip fabric paints as they seemed to be the easiest non-toxic paints to get hold of.  I'm glad I did a bit of googling before we started as using really sturdy cardboard underneath the fabric, as recommended by numerous online sources, made all the difference.