DQS9 WIP

I have had a great day of sewing with SJ today. We cranked up the sewing machines and I put together the fabrics I'd cut for my Doll Quilt Swap 9 quilt whilst SJ made some scrappy blocks from a very impressive sack!! of fabric scraps.

I'm thinking I may have just found a use for those 5" charm blocks I bought off Ebay. But not before I've finished this Doll Quilt and the boys quilts.

I did do some sewing on TJ's quilt today too. Photos will follow just as soon as I can.

Now, do I add some sashing to wide this top or leave it as is? Hmmmmm, decisions, decisions.

Thanks for stopping by.

Karen

Doll Quilt Swap 9

I was lucky enough to get a place on the extremely popular Doll Quilt Swap 9. We were notified on 5 June whether or not we'd gotten a place and then on 13th June the eagerly anticipated e-mail containing the all important swap partner details. Unfortunately I've spent the last few months concentrating on my British Sign Language Level 3 portfolio so I haven't had much time for joining in with the Flickr Group let alone sewing. Well my portfolio was submitted this evening and barring and major revisions I am now free to sew and plan and talk about sex (no, really. You should read some of those discussions over in the Flickr Group) and do all those things with the boys that I said we'd do 'after I finished my college work.

So... I have an idea in mind and it won't go away and there's no room in my head for more. I think I'm going to have to make it up just to get it out of my head. I has lots to do with these (the Lego, not the children)
I think there will be another version so watch this space.

Now a little something for the lovely person who is making a doll quilt for me.

If I remember correctly my likes / dislikes were rather vague with an 'I will love it just because you made it' kind of comment. Whilst this is all totally true I thought maybe my special someone might want just a little bit more information.

I love bright, modern fabrics with a hankering after Joel Dewberry's Deer Valley (in persimmon or azure) collection, Cosmo Crickets Cogsmo (it's fun, I'm using lots to make a quilt for my 3yr old son), lots of Riley Blake. Green / pink, red / aqua and hot pink / orange seem to be my favourite colour combinations at the moment, usually paired with white so as not to be too fussy. Having said that, I'm not really 'up' on all the new designs. These are just an indication of the types of designs / colours I like, not instructions on what fabrics to include lol.

I live in a house full of boys so anything girly would be a welcome addition to the house :D

I don't think I have any dislikes per se just that I prefer unfussy and uncluttered.

Was that any help partner? I hope so, a little less vague than my original e-mail I hope.

Final words of wisdom? Please don't stress partner, I really will love it, whatever you make.

More to follow but it's late here and I need to spend a little while figuring out why I can't seem to add pics to this post.

Birthday Gifts

These are my latest projects. My niece turns 13 today and she's very much a goth (or Emo, not entirely sure about the distinction) and Twilight fan so rather than the usual tenner in a card I thought I would make her something for her birthday.

I think this is Alexander Henry fabric but I'm not entirely sure as I bought it off Ebay. My Thursday was all about sewing these up and TJ kindly obliged by keeping himself occupied or sitting in the kitchen chatting and watching me sew.

Two clutch bags and a laptop case later (all courtesy of Oh Fransson patterns) we just needed to add a couple of pieces of Goth jewellery that Adam found and the gift was ready.





We delivered the gifts yesterday at her birthday BBQ and they appeared to be well received. Adam explained what the laptop case was for and DRH announced that it was going to be her new schoolbag instead :D

This Blog Has Moved

I'm trying out a new blog site which allows private and public posts on the same blog (rather than trying to keep 2 blogs updated).

You should have received an invite to see the new blog which should give you access to the private posts too, if not, give me a shout.

New blog is here - http://www.enolassneezes.vox.com

Louis Toilet Bleach

Well today is the day.  My baby is 2 today.  Can you believe at?  Time seems to have flown by.

We started with a leisurely morning opening pressies in our pyjamas, well the boys were in their pyjamas anyway.

Louis definitely seemed a lot more interested in these presents than he did in the ones at Christmas but that today was all about him whereas Christmas is for everyone.

In all honesty, we could have probably stopped with the presents after he opened his little Upsy Daisy because he was happy then... but we didn't.

When we first saw the present with Theo's name on it we thought the Birthday Fairy must have gotten confused.  I was going to put the present to one side and let her come and collect it tonight but Theo figured it out.  She'd brought a present for him too so that he didn't feel left out what with Louis getting all the presents. lol  She did a good job too, Power Rangers jigsaw was just the ticket :D

Adam wrote the envelope for Louis' card from us.  He likes the way Louis says 'watermelon'.  That and the fact that if you call him something, he says not... whatever it is you've called him.  Like, aww my baby..'NOT baby', is Louis grumpy? .. 'NOT gwumpy' and so on.  Adam asked him if he was a watermelon last night ??? And the response was... 'NOT watermelon'

Now naturally there was a bunfight to be had.  We all decamped to Tiddleypeeps with 18 other littlies and watched them run around for a couple of hours.  I actually think it went really well.  Adam and I pumped up 20 or so modelling ballons in the morning which we took with us.  Lots of the children just wanted the long balloons, then I made a couple of swords which prompted requests for more and Richard, they guy who runs Tiddleypeeps then decided to show of his balloon modelling skills which resulted in him being inundated with requests too.

After having discovered on Thursday that he could do the big slide, there was no stopping Louis, and when I tried to extricate him from the climbing frame to do the birthday cake thing I ended up pushing him, face first (from hands and knees though, not from standing) into the carpet, oops, sorry babe.  He didn't seem to notice though and after a bot of distracting tickling, I managed to pursuade him to come back to the table rather than go and play on the slide.  Unfortunately Richard doesn't do things by halves so bringing the cake out involved 2 or 3 renditions of Happy Birthday as they weren't loud enough, followed by a discussion / arguement about who's birthday it was.  By the time we got round to the blowing out of the candles Louis was screaming because he wanted to go and play and I couldn't put him down!!

He did come round though, when he saw that he got to blow out the candles.

Theo enjoyed the playing too, especially as his best friend from school, Ezra, was there.

After the party we went home to open the mountain of presents he had received from all the party guests.

This picture is the one I've chosen for today's Photo a Day project.  Louis, sporting one of Richards balloon creations, hiding behind a present.

Tina, Jack and Hannah bought Louis this spiderman top, and as soon as he saw what it was he told me he wanted to take his short of and wear it.  So that's what we did.

And I just like this photo.  Louis unwrapping presents without relinquishing the lolly pop

Now finally, why Louis toilet bleach?  Well, as you may be aware, littlies usually need a little help with their writing.  So, in order to help Jack with Louis card, Tina wrote Louis name on a piece of paper for Jack to copy.  She left him writing the card then when she came back, read what he had written "Louis Toilet Bleach".  When she asked him why he had written that he said he had just copied what his mum had written.  Tina checked to find she had written on the bottom of her shopping list and as she wasn't there to tell him to stop, Jack had just kept copying.  I'll be keeping that (handmade) card and re telling that story in years to come.  Hehe