mr. monkeysuit

September is quilt month

Sorry for the long absence but there has been some summer lolling to be taken care of. Floyd starts school on Friday and I am looking forward to getting into a routine....kind of. (I do love these lazy summer days.)

To get myself back into the swing of blogging I am dedicating September as Quilt Month.

I am going to be posting all about quilts and quilting :: vintage quilts, new quilts, my first ever quilt, quilting processes, how I come up with a design for a quilt, favorite quilting tools and techniques.

Sounds like I know a lot doesn't it? Well I am hoping you'll all join in and maybe by the end of this month I actually will know a lot. If you feel like taking part let me know in the comments section of this post and I'll set up a blog roll of joiners on my side bar.

All are welcome, just be sure to dedicate a post this month to quilting. Your most beloved quilt, your grandma's quilt, the burning question you've always wanted to ask about quilting, your quilting disaster, whatever you fancy. Oh, and I won't be posting every day....just when I have something to share.  

I will be back later today with a quilt that I finished during my blog hiatus, I just have to get some good photos.

See you soon! 

winner / exciting news 1 and 2

winner::

Congratulations to Sandi Andersen from A Legacy of Stitches! She wins the cupcake and if you get on over to her blog you'll find yet another giveaway.

exciting news 1 ::

Cissie's hair is finally long enough for hair clips. I have been waiting for a long, long time for this and I was terrified she would poo-poo the whole hair clip thing but no, she loves them and whenever she finds one lying around INSISTS on me putting it on her chanting over and over, 'hairqwip mummy, hairqwuip mummy' - possibly my two favorite words.

I made all of these using Angry Chicken's felt hair clip tutorial and my left over felt scraps.

 My favorites....

Once I got started on the whole hair clip thing, there was no turning back. I bought this tutorial from HeatherKnitz on Etsy and made a bunch of button hair clips.

My favorites...

All these hair clips are going into a wooden box that Floyd is painting for Cissie and will be given as one of her birthday presents.

exciting news 2 ::

Cis turns two on Saturday. TWO! I can't believe it and honestly I think I am suppressing some deep emotions about the whole growing up thing. I am just not sure I am ready for it. There is definitely a shift  in the daily routine of the house now that there are no little babies around, some of it good, some of it great but some of it leaves me with a little bit of longing.

So this birthday we will be taking it very slow. I plan on drinking in the last little bit of babyhood round here. No party, just us on a picnic, with a cake....she loves cake....and of course some presents.

Hope you're weekend is filled with summery celebrations too.

felt necklace

Wool felt necklace for Cissie, who is really into to dressing up now. Made using small squares of felt from my scrap box and strung onto some Elasticity bead cord. I made this and the bracelet all in the time it took to watch Elizabeth: The Golden Age, which was great. I am convinced there will be a third movie but Andy poo-poo's this idea saying that the rest of her life was "a boring run of peace and prosperity and who's interested in that?"

As soon as I put this on Cissie, Floyd announced he wanted one too.....only it has to be *all* blue.

The force with which she started pinging this one around suggests I'll be making more than just one of these in the near future.

I ordered a whole load of ingredients from Mountain Rose Herbs and I can't hardly stand the wait!! I have printed a bunch of recipes from recipe zaar and found Craft Bits which has a veritable library full of recipes. I just want to get making, I love the idea of the whole house being filled with the smell of cocoa butter - yum! or lavender, rose and chamomile - sweetness itself.
Still no progress on convincing Andy about homemade toothpaste though.

sunny side up

A new spring garland for the mantelpiece.

The weather here certainly suggests spring. A sunny 58 degrees. And if I didn't know the forecast for tomorrow (winter storm warning: sleet, snow and ice rain) I could almost be fooled.

Garland : felt daisies (the yellow center is stuffed with a little wool then stitched on) and pompoms strung on green embroidery thread.
Simple and fun.
And most of all, not red.

little lady

I found this little lady at a flea market ages ago and for a long time have had plans to make some more simple dolls like her. She seems to be made from a very basic construction of an oval body and head with some fabric arms. Ordinarily she wouldn't stand on her own but I stuck a toilet paper roll up her dress to hold her in place. Not very glamorous but very cute. This is the kind of thing I think would make cute little gifts...ooooh or even make up a little kit with instructions, now that would be cool.

*Coincidentally* (if you can call trawling through eBay fabric auctions for hours at a time and finally bidding on something in your budget a coincidence) I happened upon a lot of vintage scraps on eBay that I thought would suit the project very well. Shame they don't sell babysitting time on eBay too, that would really seal the deal.
Ahhh all these plans and so little time, sometimes I think what I really need is a secretary or maybe a wife because at least then she would do the laundry. As it is, with the puking virus running through our house (which poor babyface did catch in the end) I have done 9 loads of laundry in about 5 days and there are still two in progress in the basement. Maybe that should be considered my wip this week as I am really not getting a lot done other than that.
To add insult to injury it has flippin' well snowed here again and I am staring out the back window on to snow covered daffodils. On the brighter side I think I have worked out how to do the bunny cake thanks to all you kind commenters who gave me some great tips.
Now all I have to do is figure out how to have an Easter egg hunt in the snow.

new space, new space

My big craft project this past few weeks has been the renovation of my very own study. I finally have my very own dedicated space for all my crafting and I love it. Everything has its own place. My mother tells this funny story about me as a child, she laughed when she saw my pencil case from  school because all the pens, pencils, etc were lined up in order of size and colour, whereas in my sister's you would be lucky if there was anything left in it at all. She says my room was always like that too.....not that it was especially tidy but just that I had a place for everything and everything was in its place. Still true of me today. So here are all my things in their place, fabric first of course:

I couldn't fit all the fabric in one picture (worryingly) but here is most of it. I had some shelves built in beside the chimney, after years of crummy shelves that fell apart this is my dream realized.

A beautiful new desk which serves as my cutting table with the cutest scissor holder by cocoakoala.

Unfortunately some of the pre-fab shelves still exist but they contain all wonderful things all in small boxes which Floyd loves to go through, a 2 year-olds dream.....buttons, beads, little cards with birds on them, pipe cleaners, coloured paper, shells, bird's nests, silk flowers, ribbon and so on and so on.

And on the shelves next to the boxes, baskets and baskets of yarn.

And just for the sake of cuteness.

brrmm,

The only thing I haven't included is a picture of the great, great curtains made with fabric from superbuzzy. It is really hard really hard to take good photos of curtains so I'll wait until I get something that looks at least half way decent so I can do the fabric justice.
All this new space really clears my head and I am looking forward to some more sustained crafting, though given the fact that, as of today Cissy screams every time I leave the room, I think I may have just found my next distraction.

one lump or two ?

Just trying to sneak this little treat in while the babes are napping. A
while a go I decided to overhaul Floyd's kitchen area and it has taken me
until now to complete it. But here we have Floyd's Cafe.

I made the table cloth and place mats with fabric from kitty craft and the
pot holder with some vintage fabric I found online.



I bought the sugar cubes, tea bags and milk from here. I am hoping
he won't notice the disproportionate size of tea bags to tea cups.

I fell in love with this little tea set from A Toy Garden.

They have so much cute stuff including this great bag which my friend,
Jesica bought and which I have been coveting ever since.

I have been attempting some felt food recently.

I also came across this person in Japan who makes these  and these and sooo much more. Pretty incredible and way way beyond my capabilities.... as nicely illustrated by the somewhat wonky cupcakes.

I am currently working on some bacon and eggs to go with the very lopsided
toast I made. I will let you know how it works out.

little wooden boys

I have been working on these for a while now. I got inspired by Amy of Angry Chicken when she made these ones. I finally finished them and I just love them. They are a Christmas present for Floyd although I think he will be less interested in them than I have been.

I really wanted to do them as little boys because most commercial ones are quite girly.

   

I realise how imperfect they are but just loved the way they turned out. I hope he likes them too.

I bought the blank nesting dolls from here and am totally excited about doing another set for Frances.

Speaking of which I bought this for Frances from eBay. I thought it would be so cute in her room. There is definitely a bird theme evolving around here these days.

   

In preparation for Christmas I have been working on these...

... when finished they will be our new advent calendar. Each one filled with a delicious little something for that day...not that Andy and I will be partake we are on the most miserable diet. Five winters here have taken there toll and there have been far too many gummy worms knocking around this place in recent months. Here is something else we won't enjoy because of the diet....

...I made these placemats and napkins for Thanksgiving (I totally love the stripe fabric for some unknown reason, usually not quite my cup of tea but it seems kind of folky and I like that) but now alas we are canceling all festivities (and yummy food including gummy worms) so we can really go to town at Christmas and just

.

Happy November.

more ellies

    

isbn 4-391-12991-4

i have had this book a while and i have always loved going through it and looking at all the cute images so i thought i would finally try out some rubber stamps with my own designs.

andy bought me all the equipment i need, some tools and the actual rubber to carve out the image. i have to say it is kind of fiddly to do, if you make a mistake there is not a whole lot you can do to undo it. so after a couple of mishaps this is what i came up with...

   

a train (of course) and the ellie from this sweater.

i loved these ideas from the book and thought i would have a go at stamping on some clothes for you-know-who and you-know-who-too.

         

unfinished business

After looking around my craft room and realizing i have more unfinished projects that i can count, i have made the decision to have a finishing week....actually i am giving myself two weeks. so starting today i have until close of business on sunday 28th may to finish all the projects i have listed below. it is going to be a challenge because i am entirely unfocused at the moment and keep staring new things. any encouragement would be greatly appreciated.

   

   

 

 

as you can see there is a mish-mash of things here- knits, quilts and someone really needs some eyes and has done for about a year or more. okay so anyone else who has a list of things they want to finish should join in too...the starting gun has gone off and i am going to get crafting. wish me luck.

pattern joy

I know it has been a long, long time since i have posted but it has been crazy round here. we have had so many guests and done so much entertaining i think i could happily crawl into a cave for a week. to say that i am tired is an understatement but finally everyone has returned to their respective homes and ours is returning to some semblance of normality and most importantly (and i can not stress how great this is) we have our house to ourselves for the first time since we moved in. just the three of us plus beagle and bump...it is amazingly wonderful and calm and peaceful and i could wax lyrical forever about the joys of solitude (and how i got to just sit and stare at the fish for half an hour the other day and no-one interrupted me) but i will get on with the business of sharing some great finds i had on eBay.

I especially love the lion and the alligator complete with spectacles....he is first on my list but so far all i have done is buy the rick rack for his back....i know some day soon i am going to have some more time to craft...just as soon as i can stop staring at the fish.

havin' a giraffe

here is the giraffe height chart i have been working on for my son's room. it is nearly finished, i just have to sew or iron on some measuring tape ribbon like this one. (I like these vintage - style ribbons so much but i can't really think of anything to use them for.) the giraffe took quite along time, especially as i appliqued around the whole beast but i love the way it turned out. it is about 6 feet tall and about a foot and a half wide and i used an awful lot of double-sided fusible interfacing.