Lots of cutting...and a little bit of knitting.

I have decided that my new queen-sized bed quilt will be based on the Pandora's Box pattern. I spent several hours over the last couple of nights measuring and cutting up the jelly roll fabric strips into the right sized pieces while watching some of the "Merlin" TV series on DVD. I still have about one third to cut. Hopefully will finish this preparation step tomorrow night. I can't wait to start sewing the pieces together!

In the last week I have also found time in the evenings to pick up my knitting needles again and have made some progress on the Purl Bee inspired blanket that I started knitting last July using this tutorial: http://www.purlbee.com/hudson-bay-crib-blank/

Planning a Queen-sized Quilt!

Over the Christmas break I ordered some jelly roll fabric to start planning to make my first Queen-sized bed quilt. The three jelly rolls are all from the "Bunny Hill - Lily & Will" collection, I chose one in the brown & blue colour scheme, one in brown & green and one in brown & pink. The colours are all light pastel shades and I hope they will go well mixed up with the common brown fabric to pull it all together. It was actually quite hard to source all three of these jelly rolls, they appear to be discontinued. I looked in local quilt and sewing shops but no luck. Then I found two from a craft shop in America, and another from a craft shop in Tasmania! What would we do without internet shopping haha?

I'm unsure at this stage if I will need all 3 jelly rolls (perhaps only 2) to make a Queen-sized quilt, it depends on what pattern I end up following. At the moment I am considering either a quilt based on the traditional '9 patch block', or maybe another Pandora's box - same pattern as I used for Puss n Boots' quilt, but scaled up in size. Even if I use the Pandora's box pattern, I'm sure the end result will be quite different using pastel shades and browns rather than the bright colours used in Puss n Boots' quilt. Right now I'm having fun surfing the many inspiring craft blogs out in cyberspace looking for ideas - but I hope to make a decision and start cutting the pieces up for this quilt in the next week.

2013 - Year of New Directions

There's been quite a shift in the direction of my life in the last month or so, hence no blog posts or time for craft. My partner and I separated, although we remain great friends, and I moved to a new place to live. My partner is keeping our beautiful Puss n Boots, he will continue to love and care for them, and I will be able to visit and play with them from time to time. Although I miss them terribly, I know they are happy and being looked after by someone who loves them as much as I do, and that is far better than splitting them up or moving them to a strange new place...
As I settle into my new home and new lifestyle, I hope to be getting back into doing some crafting soon, and will post more regularly on my blog again. Below are a few photos from my new neighbourhood - I am lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the world! :-)

2012 Finished Projects

As the year is drawing to a close, I thought it would be fun to go back through my photos and remind myself of all the various craft projects I completed during 2012. I didn't realise how many projects I actually finished in 12 months until I put the photos together - 2012 has been a pretty good year for craft! Lots of little knitted projects (mainly baby outfits and booties), and several sewing projects including my first two quilts! I think I'll be making a lot more quilts in the future now that I've been bitten by the quilting bug! In the next few days I'm planning to go through all my fabric and yarn stashes and start imagining what I could make with them in 2013, and finding some time to complete a couple of unfinished projects I started this year...lots of hours of fun ahead, reading other craft blogs and books and magazines for inspiration and of course the fun of actually making each project!

Finished Puss n Boots' quilt

I have now finished the quilt I have been making for Puss n Boots - just in time for Christmas! :-) They love the quilt, as soon as they see it they want to run over and lie on it or play under it. Spoilt little muppets - I'm not sure how many cats get handmade quilts made especially for them :-)

This will most likely be my last post before Christmas - so I'd like to wish everyone a very happy Christmas and all the best for 2013!! :-)

One Year with Puss n Boots!

Well this weekend marks the 1 year anniversary of when we adopted Puss n Boots! They have grown up heaps since then, and given us so much fun and love. In turn they are very spoiled little muppets - with handmade quilted blankets, millions of toys, and given lots of our time and affection :-)

This weekend was a lovely sunny one, so I spent some time outside in the garden weeding and planting some more seedlings. Our first crop of about 20 passionfruit has now finished, but already there are heaps more new flowers on the vine - many more than last year. On the craft front I finished off the little purple knitted booties which will be a present for a friend whose first baby is expected to arrive in less than 2 weeks. I haven't actually made any headway on the hand-stitching of the binding of the quilt for Puss n Boots (not that that has stopped them sleeping on it whenever they come into my craft room...). Will hopefully find the motivation to finish it shortly, but this weekend I seem to be more in a knitting mood than sewing. 

Quilt progress

Well I'm pretty happy with the progress I've made on the quilt for Puss n Boots since the last post. I've almost finished in fact - just have to hand-stitch the edge of the binding around the quilt. Hand-stitching always takes me quite a while, so I think I will be working on it slowly for the next week or two in the evenings until it is finished. Once I've finished I will take some photos of the completed quilt out in the sunshine, but for the moment here's a few photos of the quilt making in progress - with "help" of course from Puss n Boots.