Another Quilt Finished

It has taken me 5 years to finish this.

Sewn with good intentions to complete, years ago

for my oldest boy... shame on me!

I have had a love/hate relationship with this quilt,

Loved pieceing it together,

hated quilting it,

mainly because of the thread I chose.

So after many broken needles, broken thread, my sewing machine skipping stitches... its finally finished.... and even though the underside is awful ( puckered everywhere ) and the tension on my machine was crap...... its finished!!!!

Seaside theme and all, for my marine mad boy...

Finished with one day left in time for his 9th birthday...

the verdict?

he loves it but he placed it on his bed with wrong side up!

Typical! hehe

Twin Needle tip!

 Hey I have to share this.....

while reading my blog list this morning I found a post by Ashley from the makeit-loveit blog

Ever wondered about using your twin/double needle, but can't be bothered finding two spools of the same colour?

There is no need, check this out

here!

Who knew it had stretch at the back of the stitch like a cover stitch?!   I didn't!

Great Tips in Dressmaking

While searching for a solution to downloading a pattern from Sewing patterns.com ( arghhh )

 I just stumbled across this You tube video 

Although I don't like these trousers ( they aren't my style), this is worth looking at for the detailed explanation and lots of dressmaking tips

And I just love her voice!

And this two part video for inserting invisible zips



Things I'm Loving this week

Hot Milos

Lil Miss, especially loves these!

Warm fires

Especially after a shower

And Babble turning into words!

Lil Miss, has suddenly had a break through, she now says

Naana ( banana )

 Hugghss ( hugs )

 Cheee ( cheese )
Chooo ( chooks )

Doghh ( dog )

Poooo!!!!

funny how kids pick that word up sooo quickly!

I'm linking this to

Dressed for a wintery day

With the days getting colder, it was time that I knitted another hat for lil miss, I finished this the other week... but yesterday was the perfect excuse to use it

The pattern is another by Ysolda Teague and is called the

Icing Swirl Hat, I downsized the original so that it could fit,

though worn as a slouchy beret it is way to baggy,

so I prefer it worn like above.



Cute eh?

Miss Independent! Of she goes again!

But I haven't been just knitting!

A couple of weeks ago I sewed up a some circle skirts

I found the tutorial on Dana Made It blog here

One of Lil Misses favourite past times!

The only difference is I added a yoga style waistband like this one  at Make it Love it blog.  Its nice and gentle on big tummy's

Best of all, it only used a small amount of fabric,

and hemming knit in a circle is so easy.

Love the way it drapes.

Nappies Finished

Yay! Nappies sewn, finished!

Well technically finished a week ago.

This is the first time I have had a few to photograph,

I have 8 in total now,

would have had 9.... but I threw one in the fire!

Why?  The snap press and me just didn't get along.

On that particular nappy, I must have been half asleep while doing the snaps, that I put them on the wrong side, wrong snap, you name it I got it wrong! so that night I got soooo mad

I threw it in our fire.....

then it happened again,  thennn, Mike told me I could melt the snap centre off!

oohhh! why didn't I think of that?

 it worked a treat...... arghhh! if only I knew that before...



Cleft Support

I have recently found the Cleft NZ Inc Facebook page, and have been loving the conversations that we have been having on the closed page.... I joined it a while ago, but they recently changed the format so that we get a email everytime someone posts a message on the page. 

I guess this can mean that your mailbox gets overloaded with comments and posts, but this has also worked well for connecting parents together, when one is in need of answers.

I have already used it to ask questions, even though middle B is 7yrs and surgeries are quiet for the moment, there are still issues which have been good to get feedback on.
But best of all, I have been able to offer advice, where needed and offer my stories, and photos of when B was little.

There have been many coffee groups over the years, all of which I have been invited to, but all that had been out of reach, so therefore living rurally, I found myself very lonely when it came to the daily life of having a child born with a cleft lip and palate.... if only there was this facebook page when I was going through this roller coaster of emotions, it would have made a huge difference to my mental state at the time. 

Sure we had great family support, but unfortunately they were to far away, and often in the times that I needed a hug. 
I also had plenty of concerned friends, and aquaintances, but after a while I felt that I had to answer their questions " How are you? Hows B? is there any more surgeries?"  with very short answers, anymore and I could see their eyes glaze over.  Really they were just being polite. 
Of course there was one or two in the local mothers groups who were genuinely concerned and interested, but from my experience I reverted to the standard short answers. 
So to finally find this group on facebook, has been a real boost to me lately, as even though, middle B looks to be like any other cheeky 7yr old boy ( which he IS! ), there are still many more medical appointments and upcoming surgeries to come.

So if you are happening upon this blog and know someone, or you yourself are dealing with this on your own, I highly recommend joining this group.
You can access it via this link faceit.org, go down the page to " Talk to us" and you can find the links to register for this closed facebook group.  If you look on the same site, you will find there is also a facebook page for your teens or adults who can connect others who have been born with clefts.

More Knitwear

So heres some more knitting finished,

I finished this in time for Mothers Day, can't believe I this in 3 evenings...... mind you saying that my hands did!

And the bonus - Mum loved it!



Vintage Hand Me Down

Yay,  I finally found my camera charger! 

I have been busy finishing lots of crafting but I hadn't been able to blog about it until now..... I think I will "think twice" about putting the charger in a "safe place" again, woops!

Anyway wind back a couple of weeks to Easter weekend,

 we went over to mikes mum and dads, and while there I was offered two feather duvets that were my mother in laws and her sisters when they were young, 

they had been in the airing cupboard for years and have been kept in such good condition, I just couldn't pass them up.

But since our car was so full, I just took the smaller one home

this time

 I love it! 

And lil miss has really enjoyed snuggling under this in her cot,

 she actually seems to sleep better with this, perfect! 

All the buttons on this, is clearly handmade,

even though I think this was shop/catalogue bought back then, which was the usual in NZ

 

And the other thing, I got to complete this jumper for lil miss

 

Its called Owlet by Kate Davies and you can find it on Ravelry

The buttons were painstaking to sew on, because I made sure that every two buttons, I started with a new thread, so that the jumper would still retain its stretch around the yoke. 

But this did take alot of time.

 Though I think it was worth it, it made the dark wool pop!

wool: one of Skeinz originals found here

Can you see the little owls?  Cute huh?

The wool was destined for me, and is more my colourings...

 but stash busting was on my mind.

I think she can get away with it, and teamed with deep pink clothes or her charcoal grey leggings, its not too shabby :) win win!