BubbaChic

Mama's Little Helpers

I attempted to grab 10 minutes to do some free motion quilting on our Christmas Quilt...and minutes later realised that I had two little helpers next to me....

Maddy is getting increasingly interested in getting on a real sewing machine - so I think I may start looking at children's machines a little closer to Christmas...

On a completely different note, Maddy said something very funny which I wanted to share. When she was going to bed the other night, she said "I love my brother Mummy, who made him?" startled, I replied "Mummy and Daddy made Joshua"  she thought on this for a few seconds and then asked "did you sew him...?" .....hmmm, well.....kinda.....!

The Hungry Caterpillar

I have been trying to track down this fabric forever! Then a dash into my local quilters shop on friday to pick up some backing fabric for a Christmas quilt, lead me to stumble across their new line....the hungry caterpillar...I mean, seriously, how can I resists? Not only is it a book I remember from my childhood, but it is also the first book that a sweet friend bought for Maddy when she was born, so I simply cannot be expected to pass it up!!

I bought enough to do one quilt - which I thought would be a birthday gift for our friends little man who is turning 2...however, once it was sewn up and finished, Jason and the kiddies have other ideas and I think this one is now a keeper!

The frugal part of me ususally goes for a different fabric to back it (i.e I don't necessarily have to use the fabric from the same line) but this time I did, it just felt wrong not to keep it all the same line...so I chose Maddy chose this tumbling numbers backing from the same Eric Carlisle Line.

I have ordered some more fabric to make another one as the intended gift!

Some other (unrelated) sewing stuff has been going on here for the past few days - My wonderful Hubby went in for an out-patient surgery to have his gall bladder removed on thursday morning - an operation that should have taken all of 1 hour and have him back with us in time for dinner that evening. However, a call from the surgeon a few hours after the scheduled operation time told me that the *simple routine* procedure, was in fact more complex on my beloved and he now had a 10cm incision on his belly instead of the keyhole surgery that was suppose to take place.

Scar tissue from a previous motorbike accident had halted the option of keyhole surgery - a 2 day hospital stay followed, but I am now very happy to stay that Jay is home with us and being cared for by Nurse Maddy and Doctor Josh (who are soooooo happy to have Daddy home) as is Mummy

Here is a photo of Maddy beaming to be able to spend some time in the hospital with Daddy

The whole ordeal has really left Mads feeling protective of Jay - she keeps re-iterating to me, 'Mummy, if we have xxx come round, we can't let them touch Daddy's tummy, they can just hug his leg' She also keeps trying to put spongebob stickers on his *boo boos* Josh hoever, is not as aware of what is going on as Maddy and still prefers to talk about 'poopy train tracks' than anything else.....oh to be two again!!

Today...

Getting inspired by...

Starting a vintage inspired quilt...

Listening to...

Participating in....

Giveaway!

Life sometimes takes over and make me completely forget! So, first things first - the winner of the little gnome quilt is:

AMY! Amy, I have no email address or contact details for you - so please email me and I can pop it in the mail to you!

Lots of other stuff has been happening here in the past week - both babes have been poorly, Maddy had the conventional tummy-bug type of illness, in which she was as brave as always. Joshy - he had a different, x-ray needed kind of illness that has resulted in 4 days of treatment to try and sort out. They are both (thankfully) bright and spritely now and winding each other up no end!

This week marks my last day off whilst the kiddies are at summer camp - so I am desperate to try and finish up some gifts that are needing to be sent to England. I am finding it very difficult to stay on track with all of these and not lose focus completely - yesterday was a wonderful example of this - I have a dress ready to be gifted, finished except the addition of two buttons - so, you think I'd just finish it up and tick it off the list? Nope, I started a quilt for Maddy yesterday instead...logical that!

There are numerous projects like that right now, so I have to start to focus and use my time more wisely!

I managed to finish up this table runner, as a gift:

Typepad won't let me put in a photo, so I will just link to the picture here

I just have a couple more items to finish to send with it and thats another project done. I really like the fabrics in this runner - Moda's Friends and Flowers they are so fresh and summery.

I bought it in a jelly roll at the Quilt Show I visited last month and I still have stacks left - I think I could squeeze another 2 or 3 table runners out of it, or perhaps a bright quilt...or some pot holders....opps, off I go again!

Binding a Quilt

Although this project is not strictly a quilt - the technique for binding it is exactly the same as that when finishing a quilt.

Cut enough binding strips to go around the entire quilt - and sew them right sides together perpendicular to each other (as shown above)

Sew at a 45 degree angle and trim the excess, leaving just a 1/4" seam allowance - repeat for all binding strips.

Iron a 1/2" flap at start of binding, to give a finished edge, then iron the whole length of the binding in half

Place the raw edge of your binding along the side of your quilt, pin the end in place and start sewing about 8" from this pin - the photo above illustrates where my start is and where I started sewing.

When you get to a corner, stop sewing about 1/4" from the edge - backstitch to finish.

Fold the binding back on itself, as illustrated above.

Then fold the binding down, to allign with the other side of the quilt

Start sewing at the very edge of the quilt and continue down this side of the quilt - repeat for other three corners.

When you get back to the starting point - finish sewing about 8" from the pin that marks the folded end of the quilt

Place the left side of the binding over the finished edge of the binding (where you started)

Flip the binding over, so that you can now see the starting crease of the finished edge you ironed in - mark with a pin - this is where you will sew the binding to make it continuous.

It is much easier to sew the binding accurately, if the quilt is folded in half at this point, as illustrated above.

Sew down the crease - right sides together. Cut seam allowance to 1/4" and press seams open.

Sew the finished binding down onto the quilt...now for the fun, relaxing part - this next step can take a little while, so put the kettle on for a cup of tea, and plant yourself in front of a good movie!

You now need to fold over the finished edge of the quilt, over the raw edge - and hand stitch the folded edge of the binding onto the back of the quilt.

When you get to a corner, continue to hand stitch until you get the machine sewing line

At this point fold the other edge over to make a neat mitred corner

Continue sewing the rest of the binding, until:

Voila! One finished edge!

Travel Sewing Kit

A friend of mine has recently taken up sewing, so I was eager to make her something sewing related for her birthday. I decided to make a travel sewing kit - something which could hold everything you need to do a little embroidery project when you are travelling.

I started with a needle holder (tutorial here)

I used linen and vintage fabrics inside the sewing kit - with enough pockets for all the things you need.

I added some embroidery designs from Wee Wonderfuls and Sublime Stitches along with some linen to embroider on.

I finished the front with a little tree embroidery I made back in December, when we were in the midst of the ice storm!

Felt Needle Holder Tutorial

I wanted to make a needle holder for a sewing kit for my friends birthday and came up with this really simple pattern.

I am a fan of any sewing project which takes just 15 minutes and which uses up cute scrap fabrics.

...and be something handy and functional.

Simply cut one rectangle of felt 8" x 4" for the outside and another two sized 5" x 2" which will be the inside needle holders. Sew a button hole on the right hand side of the larger rectangle.

Fold the two smaller rectangles of fabric in half and iron gently. Folder the larger piece as shown above. You can judge the placement of the fold, based on the where the buttonhole is placed - iron this also.

Sew the fabric onto the front - using a straight or zig zag stitch

Line up the centre creases of the inside of the holder and the two smaller rectangles of felt and sew down the middle.

Use a seam ripper to open up the button hole

With the flap folded under the front of the holder - use a fabric pen to mark the centre of the button placement - sew on button...

et voila! a cute addition to your sewing kit!

Playing Catch Up

Its been a busy week - what with 4th July festivities and ALOT of swimming and socialising to fit in - me and the kiddos have been worn out...

We had a lovely long weekend last weekend, filled with breakfasts out, swimming round friends houses, having BBQ's and eating red, white and blue cake, whilst watching a few (probably illegal?) fireworks being lit in our neigbourhood!!

The cake was lovingly made by Maddy's sweet friend who (along with her parents and wonderful brother) shared their 4th of July with us - to give us an insight into how we should really spend this holiday. We had a BBQ (with far too much meat!) whilst the kiddies played and we enjoyed some adult company and conversation for a whole evening - with bursts of having to mediate arguments on who could play with the barbie phone next.

It was wonderful - a whole evening with friends that didn't have to get cut short at 7pm to rush the kiddies home for bed - Jay and I wondered whether, dare we say it...it could...perhaps...be the starting point that our little family is growing and entering into a new era....??!

This weeks weather has been very reminicent of home - lots of showers, scattered thunderstorms - the only difference being - it is still into the 90's. We seem to have had rather a lot of storms not directly hitting us, but developing over the city ready to move east and cause havoc. When the kiddies and I left the house the other day, I looked into the sky to see this rather strange swirly cloud above us...(click on the picture for a bigger view)

When I later looked at the weather channel to see what was happening - it does appear that this in fact was a storm developing above us...crazy! I must admit that Oklahoma certainly does have some awesome sights to see where the weather is concerned.

So, what else has been going on??...Joshy is fully chattering away now - with his favourite conversation being about 'poopy train track...' he thinks he is the funniest little man on the planet when he says those three words...?

Maddy is doing good - and thoroughly enjoying the summer. Her swimming has really come on in the recent weeks and she is getting more and more confident each time she swims now.

Jay has been busy busy working away upstairs - trying to ignore the all too often shouts of the children arguing downstairs. I have been sewing - lots, but they are all gifts and all unfinished, so no pickies yet!

After such a busy week we are all looking to some down time this weekend - although Joshua informed us tonight that we need to go to the Zoo, then swimming, then to the ice cream shop on saturday - so it appears the children have got it all worked out.....

Gifts and a Giveaway!

Its always the last few finishing touches to an outfit which seem to take me the longest - and this dress is no exception. It has been sat, finished for about 10 days, except for button holes and buttons. So this morning when my wondeful boy woke me for the day at 5.45am, I figured I had enough time to sit and finish it....

I have made it for a very special and brave little Lady at our Church, who is currently undergoing chemo. A sweet lady called Brenda, who I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting face to face (only online) sent 16 hand made bows and three soft headbands for the bows to attatch to, to go with the outfits. I was overwhelmed with Brenda's kindness in reaching out to send me her beautiful bows, thank you Brenda, thank you.

I used the Fabernmix pattern - Cara for this dress, a favourite of mine as it is such an adaptable pattern. I added the little ruffle trim to give the dress a really girly look.

I also managed to pick up some rather cute little tank tops from Old Navy, and when I brought them home I realised that the colour was a perfect match to some wonderful Amy Butler fabric...so I made a little ruffle skirt and added an applique for a second outfit to give.

and here they are in all their glory - beautiful aren't they!!!!!!

and lastly - this week marks the first anniversary of my little blog, so I am putting the finishing touches to a garden inspired mini quilt....perfect for any nature table or sewing room....or anywhere you want to put it really. Just leave me a message and next sunday at midday (Central time) I will randomly pick a winner!

Its the little things....

Literally little...tiny things which make me smile.

I am finding great joy in making newborn clothes and gifts which may have worried Jay initially, but I think he now realises that I am not in fact, getting broody - we just have rather a lot of pregnant friends!!

So, wanting to be ahead of the game, I have started making these newborn sets, consisting of an uber soft and cozy knit fabric and hand made waldorf baby dolls - with au natural filling (and the battle wounds on my fingers to prove their making)

The pattern for the waldorf babies came from Dancing Rain Dolls - and you can buy the complete kits to make your own - I cannot recommend this website enough, the owner Amy is lovely and the customer service is phenomenal. The prices are wonderful and the patterns are, in my humble opinion, the best on the market. The previous Waldorf dolls I made for Mads and Joshy at Christmas, were the first I have made - and they were easy because of the clear step by step instructions that Amy provides.

I must admit I have had lots and lots of fun in making these dolls - the last dolls I made at Christmas were done under a very tight deadline and I didn't have time to actually enjoy the process....these, I really loved making and I can see me making some more on the horizon.

The clothing sets are made with some of my favourite fabrics, including the Kumquat fishies brand fabric overruns - which my boy has taken a shine to.

There are a few more in the sets in the making right now to complete the quota we need for imminent arrivals....