Sleeping Bag: Quilting Practice

I mentioned a few days ago that one of the things I had ticked off my to-do list had involved quilting. While I know that this made some people cringe, and others wonder if I had truly lost my mind, I have not actually begun another quilt. Breath a sigh of relief people. What I have done is made a sleeping bag for Sophie.

Coming into winter, I'm noticing that my a-bit-over-one-year-old cannot stay under blankets very well at night. On the advice of other parents with similar problems, I thought I'd make a sleeping bag for her to keep her all nice and warm, with the added bonus of me not having to get up and check that she is indeed still tucked in. Given that it was specifically for the winter season I wanted to make sure it was as warm as could be, so I not only chose flannel material for the lining, but also decided I'd put some wadding in. This also gave me the opportunity to practice some quilting on a much smaller scale, so bonus!

I used a pattern from sewmamasew for the base and just made it a little longer and bigger so that it will fit her all though the coming growth spurts. I had the cute turtle fabric in the stash, I think I got it sometime last year for $4 a meter (bargin!) and the yellow flannel on the inside was a hand on from some Church thing. I think I spent $5 on the zip, so all in all, this sleeping bag cost about $10 in materials. Of course, it cost a lot more in time, but we won't go there.

On to the quilting! I thought I needed to practice just straight quilting, so I did the back in this (fairly boring) cross hash quilting kind of way. It was good to practice moving all the layers together, following the lines and trying to get even spacing between each row, but all in all, pretty boring sewing.

I feel it also made me a bit angry, because I just wanted to get it done, and going straight across the material from point A to point B was so easy I would just push/pull it through the machine as fast as possible. Despite my intentions to try to keep a calm even pace. :P Maybe that's why I put off doing the front for a while. Who knows. Anyway, when I did sit down to do the front on Sunday, I had the sudden thought that I'd try some Free Motion Quilting.

You just put the material in, and start sewing. Squiggles, curves, waves, anything goes. My goodness it was delightful. I actually sewed at a reasonable pace, and, like driving, slowed down for the corners! It was like sewing a boardem drawing. I loved every minute of it and felt amazing when it was done.

As always, there are difficulties. When doing Free Motion Quilting, you have to watch out for either over-doing the sewing, or not doing enough and ending up with "white space". I suppose with a boardem drawing, I'd just go back and fill in those bits, but it's harder on a machine, so some planning (or maybe just more practice) is required.

I bound the arm and neck holes with the flannel from the inside and even managed to put the zip in myself (thanks to the confidence I gained from the Travel Backpack). It's not perfect, but I'm getting better and I love it. Sophie is going to be so snug and warm. I can't imagine Free Motion Quilting on anything bigger (like an actual quilt) but it was a fabulous experience that I would love to repeat!

Travesty

Can you have a private faith?

Pastor Matt spoke on Sunday night at church and, it being Palm Sunday, the topic was Jesus entry into Jerusalem (taken from Matthew 21:1-11). For Christians, this is it. This is the week that our faith really relies on. Jesus has come to do what he came to do: die for our sins. He is entering Jerusalem with this purpose in mind.

Pastor Matt drew our attention to the fact that at this point, the disciples who have been following Jesus around, could have entered the city with him in silence. Rather than shouting: "Praise God, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna!", they could have made the decision to keep their faith out of the public sphere. They could have decided that even though they knew Jesus was sent from God, that it was wrong to impose their beliefs or faith so blatantly on others.

What a travesty it would have been if they had done this. How Jesus would have wept even more at his silent disciples. And how can we be silent? Coming into Easter, we are faced with the same choice the disciples had: to declare Jesus to be the savior sent from God, that the world might hear and be saved, or to keep our faith to ourselves.

Can we have a private faith that does not infringe on the everyday? Is it possible to remain silent when we have such news? As the disciples were convicted, I pray that we are all convicted this Easter that that would not only be a travesty, but also an impossibility. It is not an option to remain silent when Jesus is coming as the savior king.

Travel Backpack

It occurred to me sometime last week that as we are going to Sydney, it'd be great if Sophie had her own backpack to put the stuff to keep her occupied on the plane, rather than just trying to cram it all into my bag like I'm prone to do. Even though I had a list of other things to do, half of them sewing (and half of those things that were half sewn to begin with and just waiting finishing touches :P), I decided I'd be crazy and really push myself and add another thing, with a very quick deadline.

Thus, Sophie's travel backpack was born. I did a search on the internets and found these two tutorials (one from Crazy Little Projects, which I took most of the instructions from, and one from Birch Fabrics, which was also good reference). In hindsight I wish I had cross referenced the sizes a bit more closely, but on the whole, I'm really pleased with how things turned out.

Of course, I added changes to things to enhance the carrying capabilities that the bag has, and added piping because I had some lying around. I used material from my stash, rather than enduring a trip to Spotlight. The animal print was a remnant that mum gave to me a while back and I've no idea where the red came from.

Those straps on the back are long, but adjustable. They are a little far spaced for Sophie's small shoulders, but she will grow into it. On the front, I added a pocket which has a simple flap with velcro closure. Inside the bag is a fully lined pocket. (Sorry about the nappies in the background of these photos!)

The bag was tested Sunday night for church and holds Sophie's water bottle, snacks, bibs, nappies, wipes, change of clothes and the essential blanket of comfort-plus-two. Excellent.

Catch Ups

So last Sunday (not yesterday Sunday, but the one before that), I was feeling so overwhelmed with my to-do list. I thought it would never be done, and that I was seriously running out of time to do it anyway. The more I pushed myself, the more exhausted I felt but the less seemed done. Sigh. It was a very teary night.

This Sunday after a super restful weekend where Steve took such great care of me (being married just rocks. It's seriously the best.) I'm feeling like it's a little more achievable. Things have even been crossed off! I've got a load of things to post about even, including some fun quilting stuff. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all. :) Yay!

This is rectangular bunting I made out of Steve's old bed sheets. Because they were made out of bed sheets, old bed sheets, they are super light and blow in the breeze nicely. Yay for bunting! 

Hat Breakthrough

In the last two months, we have finally had a hat breakthrough where Sophie will actually tolerate a hat on her head for longer than six seconds. Hooray! To celebrate this momentous event, I decided she could use a super cute bonnet to wear in the evenings when we are outside or getting Steve from the bus stop. I was originally going to put a brim on it, for shade potential, but given that I'll be using it in the evenings when sun is not so much of an issue and I didn't really think of it when I cut the material out, meh. Maybe next time.

I did use this bonnet tutorial at sewmamasew for my basis, and then did a few changes from there. I am really happy with how it turned out, and Harriett the Husqvana even got to do some fancy stitching to finish it off. The whole thing is reversible. Sophie likes to try to lick the bow that sits under her chin. I don't know why.

Painting Apron Presents

We are fortunate enough to live next door to some pretty lovely neighbors. The ones on the left have two girls and were very generous with hand-me-down clothes when Sophie was born. I've made them dresses for their birthdays in the past, but this year I thought I might go for something more practical. I've noticed the girls on the deck painting a bit, so some nice painting aprons seemed to fit the bill.

I got all excited and looked at online tutorials and found some old business shirts of my dad's in the stash that I could use. Hooray! Reusing old things to make fun new things! Unfortunately, I got so excited and carried away, that I had one finished apron and one cut-out-ready-to-sew apron before I remembered that the girls next door will be two and four years old this year. Here is the first one on the pedestal fan which is pretending to be a dress form.

As you can see, or guess rather, this painting apron is big enough to fit a child that is around ten years old. Not two years, or even four years. As I'd already cut out the second, I figured I may as well sew it up anyway and both aprons can be worn in about six to eight years time. Until then, they can either gather dust or maybe just be used as dress ups? I don't know.

In the end, I did make a smaller one for the two year old (because her birthday is in May) which can probably be worn fairly soonish. All in all, great sewing practice (bound the edges of the aprons with self made bias-binding and stitched on the girls first initials to the fronts), but rather disappointing result, given that they are pretty useless for a long time. Oh well.

Party Food

The heat wave this week has made me feel the full effects of being pregnant. Being 27 weeks pregnant to be exact. Steve says to me this morning that it's all down hill from here, and given that it's 9 am and I'm wanting to have a nap, I am inclined to agree with him. Despite the heat I did manage to finish a few sewing things yesterday which made me feel slightly better about myself (well, finishing them did, the actual sewing, not so much :P). But that's a post for another day.

Today, I thought I'd just share with you that I was really blessed on the weekend as I celebrated ten years of faith. I had spent a lot of time during the week thinking about this and getting ready for it (lots of cooking) and I really enjoyed seeing the people who came along to my strange idea of a celebration.

So glad Melissa had time to take some great photos there, because despite my best intentions, this was the best photo I took of my food (and the only food I took photos of).

That Chocolate Honey Cake was pretty amazing. Second time I've made it (the first being for Chaela's Baby Shower last year) but the perfect glaze still seems to elude me. This time I managed to sift in the flour, so it wasn't lumpy, but I didn't boil the honey and water long enough to start with, so it was nowhere near as tacky as it should have been. Oh well. Here is a better photo (Thanks Melissa!).

You can see the small Blueberry and Cream Cheese Tarts in the back ground of this photo. I also had White Chocolate and Cranberry Biscuits, as well as some delicious fruit. Highlight of the sweets was probably the Caramel Macadamia Slice. So delicious! Savories wise I did the Potato, Pesto and Ricotta Squares (sorry no photos), Cheese Twists (always a favorite) and some dip/dried fruit and nut platters.

The only other thing I have to say about the general ambiance of the party, was that we put up most of my bunting (too bad I didn't get to make some new stuff for the party). I could look out the windows in the dining room and there was a carnival happening in the yard. Yay for bunting! Again, a lack of photos, but you can see it in the background here as Sam waters my herbs.

 On a completely unrelated note, Sophie reached a milestone yesterday and broke her first plate. Well done!

Finished Treats

Come tomorrow, will all this be as delicious as it looked today? I hope so. Special thanks to Gloria for helping me with the Potato, Pesto and Ricotta Squares. YUM!

Enough

I often wonder if I've done enough in a day. Have I been productive? Do I have something to show for the time spent? Maybe it's my task-driven nature coming through, but I often don't think a day has been worthwhile unless I can list of four or five things that are done.

Today, I'm feeling really tired. It is Grumpy Thursday for Sophie which always makes things trickier. We have people coming round for a thing on Saturday which I'm getting ready for. I vacuumed the house and spent an hour and a half starting to cook sweets for Saturday. (Check out the best Caramel Macadamia Slice I've ever made. Yum!)

At about 12:15, I was feeling fatigued and as I lay on the floor next to Sophie playing with duplo, I may have been wanting 1:00 to come faster so that Sophie could go to bed and I could have a nap. Then, inevitably, as 1:00 rolls around and Sophie is in bed, I'm suddenly struck by the thought: "Have I done enough to warrant a nap now?"

Have I done enough?

I've still got things to cook. I could be organizing dinner. There are three different sewing projects that need finishing, lying on the table waiting for me. Surely I should be doing these things. I could tidy up Sophie's toys (again). The hedges at the front need trimming and the lawn could use a mow. Is there something I could read? Then at least I'd have some progress to report on when Steve returns.

I wonder why I'm trapped by this desire to do things. Why am I continually deriving my worth, or the worth of my day from the list of things I can tick off? I long to hear God say to me: "Well done good and faithful servant." but am I trying to get that affirmation the wrong way?

Lord, help me to put aside the things and do what pleases you.

"The Lord has told you what is good, and what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8

Reading

I've been doing what feels like a significantly increased amount of reading in the last few months. I suppose it started towards the end of last year, when, after not reading anything much for a long time, I decided I'd read Sara Douglass's Axis Trilogy. It had been a long time since I've read it, and the three thick books provided a lot of depth to my otherwise quite shallow reading experiences (Where is the Green Sheep?, Ribbit Ribbit and of course, the Eric Carl classic, The Very Hungry Caterpillar (both Japanese and English versions)).

After finishing those in I think about a week and a half, it was time for something similar. I hadn't read the David Eddings stuff for a while. In fact, I hadn't read the Elenium and Tamuli Trilogies since I first read them a few years ago, so I started there. There are (quite obviously) three books in each of those and when I finished them, I began on The Belgariad, which has five books. This was then followed by The Malloreon, another five books, and then just this last week, I rounded off with the two companion books for these series (which I'd never read before), Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress.

If you do a count, in the last two and a bit months, I've read eighteen David Eddings books. I don't think I'll be reading them again for a long time. Furthermore, I don't think I'll ever be reading Belgarath or Polgara again. Ever. If you are going to read David Eddings, the Belgariad and The Malloreon are excellent collections. Don't waste your time with Belgarath or Polgara though, because not only do they not add anything (I found) to the story, they also show a number of inconsistencies that I found very frustrating. Not only that, but the style of writing (journal-y style, summarizing around 7000 years of history with a casual wave of a fist :P) is also irritating. I probably would have given up on Polgara (especially after Belgarath), but my OCD and task driven nature would not let me put it aside unfinished. :P

Yesterday, I began and finished Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George. It was beautiful. A little slow in parts (mostly due to the nature of it being a re-telling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, so you do know where it is going), but very well done with just enough depth to the characters to give them substance, but not enough to take away from the original. Lovely.

What I'll read next I'm not sure, but maybe I'll take a break and make some bunting. That could be fun.

Baby Shoes

Despite what I said two weeks ago when I blogged about making some Pleated Mary-Jane baby shoes, I stumbled across a pattern for baby booties on This Heart of Mine which I thought looked fun. They were much easier to put together because of the style of booties that they were. Given that I'm about to have a winter baby and my first bub will be walking around on the cold wooden floors this coming winter, I thought I'd give it a go.

I took the original pattern which I think will fit a new born to about three or four months, and enlarged it twice to get some bigger sizes to play with. I wasn't sure how big I needed to get for my 18 month old, but I thought I could just make both of the bigger sizes and see how I went.

I used some old hoodies that a friend from church had given me to cut up for material. It was the perfect material for these booties because they are soft, stretchy and warm. Excellent. The biggest size (which will fit Sophie perfectly come winter) felt like they were booties for giants when I made them, and especially compared to the tiny sized ones.

These are so fun. I'll have to put some puffy paint on the soles of the bigger ones for grip so that Sophie doesn't slide around on the floor too much, but that's an easy fix. It took a lot of effort to get this photo of her wearing them today. The moment she knows I've got the camera, she is all about coming to claim it.

Multifunctional

Awhile ago, I mentioned that I was making some cardboard car-track boxes to slide under our TV cabinet. That space under the cabinet was big enough for a lot of things to go rolling and missing under. Admittedly, it was also fairly easy to get out again, unless they rolled just past elbow length, then it was tricky.

Excitedly, I came up with the idea of cutting down and reshaping some cardboard boxes to fit perfectly underneath. These could not only keep the things from rolling under, and little hands away from pulling the cords out, but also serve another purpose. I could draw car-tracks on them! Hooray!

So far, the boxes are just covered in brown paper and I haven't drawn anything on them yet. Given that Sophie is only just over one, she doesn't care in the slightest! I put the toilet paper rolls in the boxes because one day I dream of making something like this: 

But until then, Sophie just likes to play with the pain toilet paper rolls. She throws them about, stands them up, knocks them down, chews on them, all the usual things really. I'm really glad I reinforced the boxes, though it seemed like overkill at the time. My little girl's spacial awareness is not so great just yet, so it's nice to know that the boxes are tough and will make it past this discovery time. 

I feel like there are so many things I could hide in these boxes too - every day could be a fun new discovery! And when the time comes to actually draw on the boxes, getting a new picture or road map would be as simple as a new sheet of brown paper. Talk about multifunctional. 

Log Cabin Quilt Part 4 - The Finished Product

I finished it last week, and let me tell you, that binding hides a multitude of sins, as well as highlighting some of them. Tell you what though, I love that it's made from scraps. I love that I used up material and in the process, discovered just how much I have. I love that it's warm and snuggly. I love that it perfectly fits a king single bed (tested by Steve's mum last week).

I know the people who will use it won't be looking at the stitching and commenting about how the stitch lengths are uneven, or the lines wobble. I know that the bright colors and backing fabric will make me want to look at it for a long time and feel good. I know that despite it's mistakes and inaccuracies, I've made a quilt that I love and I learnt a lot doing it. Yay!

Click for Part 1, Part 2, an Interlude and Reflections on the journey that was making this quilt. 

Quilting: The Real Story

While it appears that I have taken the brave plunge into the world of quilting over the last year and come up swimming like a pro, I have a confession to make. I'm not that good. Turns out, that quilting is actually far more complicated than I had first anticipated and though I've tried to hide it, I'd just like to let everyone know it's true, I'm not that good.

Let me clarify some things for you faithful readers out there (and if you are not interested in sewing in the slightest, feel free to stop reading now, because that is what this post is all about). Firstly, making a quilt is actually something more like a three step process. Firstly, you need to piece the cover of your quilt. The bit that has the different fabrics and patterns and fancy stuff. The part that will be on display. Doing that is called "Piecing".

I'd say that in the last year, I've gotten much better at piecing. From my first attempts at getting things straight with corners matching up and what not, to my most recent experiences, the piecing is the most satisfying part of making a quilt. I like using up the scrappy bits of fabric, starting with small sections that eventually come together to make something fabulous. Piecing. That's where it's at.

The next step of making a quilt is actually sewing your lovely quilt top, the wadding and the backing fabric together. This is the part that is called "Quilting"; where you sandwich all those layers together with lots of stitches to hold everything in place. To me, this is the most difficult part. It's not the most time consuming (nope, that's piecing, because you've got all the cutting and pressing as well as the sewing), but it's certainly the trickiest.

All those layers need to be stuck together, either with pins, basting stitches or basting glue and then the entire thing has to be put through your sewing machine. It's difficult to juggle a 1.5m by 2m quilt through that little space on your sewing machine. Actually, the word difficult doesn't really seem to cover or explain just what it's like. This is where (for me at least) things go wrong. The bottom fabric pulls in ways you can't see, the wadding is so thick that it's taking forever for each needle strike to actually get through all the layers, the top fabric, despite all the basting and pins is shifting as you try to pull it through.

Maybe I'm doing it wrong, maybe I'm not going slow enough (actually, that could be part of it :P), but at the end of the day, I've got puckers and pulls and nothing is sitting quite as squarely as it was when I first put all the layers together. It happened on the Block of the Month Quilt of 2013 and it happened again last week when I quilted the Log Cabin Quilt.

I have to admit, I was quite depressed to see what happened after I pulled it through mum's sewing machine (Harriet the Husqvana) that one last time.  Especially given that I'd spent and hour doing it with just this much of a Mary Poppins Song in my head:

"Jelly isn't jelly 'till you set it, anything can happen if you let it!"

Talk about irritating. I did wonder for a while about how to get better, but aside from practicing (which btw, seems like a very expensive way to make a lot of rubbish before you making anything good), I've got nothing.

Anyway, the final part of making a quilt involves putting a edge on your quilted sandwich of fabrics and wadding. This is called "Binding". This part is all I have left to do with the Log Cabin Quilt. Maybe I'll do it today, maybe I'll do it tomorrow. One things for sure, the sooner I do it, the sooner Sophie will be unable to come along and pull out bits of wadding from my lovely quilt sandwich. That'd be nice.

In summary, making a quilt on the whole, is something I can do, and enjoy doing, especially the piecing. Actual quilting, is not.

Children of God

Last night at Church, Stefan Hall spoke on a bible verse that means a lot to him. Though he did end up referencing five verses all up, Romans 8:15&16, which talks about us as the children of God. Oh what a small thing that I've heard a million times, but how wonderful to hear it again. We are not slaves or servants. We are not visitors or renting in the house of God. We are Children! We are loved, welcomed and we belong.

I was reflecting this morning that in the modern world, this may not give great comfort to people. Families change, people leave, and often for children there is no sense of security in the home. But to be a part of God's family is nothing like this. God's family is always welcoming, always loving, always accepting us. God is always calling us home and the door is never closed.

How great is our God that he has called us his sons and daughters.

Heat Wave Procrastination

I cannot believe how hot this week has been. It's more the humidity I guess, but when I'm walking Steve to the bus stop at 7:10 in the morning and I feel disgusting before we have even left the driveway, you know it's bad. While the heat wave lasts, I think I'll take a break from doing too many productive things and rather escape to the air-con at my parents and play with the duplo... I mean my daughter. :)

Days like Today...

I feel like I've had a super productive week. The top-secret Birthday Present for my Dad is complete, the house has been vacuumed (twice!), I'm currently on book four of five in the David Eddings Mallorean Series, I've gone through the stash of material that was stored in the end room, culled and organised it and I've also quilted the Log Cabin Quilt (click for part 1 and part 2 of the journey).

I did have a huge post stored up in my head about the quilting of said Log Cabin Quilt, but today, after a terrible nights sleep, I've a headache, I'm fatigued by the heat and all I want to do is lie down.

So that's what I'm going to do.

Small Things

I would say last week was pretty busy, but at the same time super productive. Monday was three loads of washing, grocery shopping, a batch of these stellar cupcakes and some short bread as well as vacuuming the house. So lovely are Mondays.

On Tuesday and Wednesday the only time we were home was for Sophie's naps. The rest of the time was out and seeing people. Busy, but good, and Sophie survived well. Thursday not so much, but one day out of seven ain't bad.

Friday I had another productive day at home, after a walk in the morning and a visit from a friend. I walked Sophie down to the park around three so we could post letters and have afternoon tea out and maybe some time on the swings. Little did I know that at ten past three the park would be crawling with primary school students running off their last lot of energy while groups of mums gathered around chatting over afternoon tea. Not a safe place for my I-can't-walk-yet one year old. Oh well.

Steve is away this weekend (just overnight for a party in Sydney) and so I decided I'd day trip to some friends in Maleny for a visit. Lovely idea and it turned out rather splendidly. On Friday, I decided it might be nice to take something for their three year old, so I did a quick stitch and produced a marble maze.

Please be nice about the photos. I decided to take them somewhere new, and didn't realise the lighting at Steve's desk in the afternoon would be so harsh. Oh well. This was made out of some old T-shirts that I cut up. Sewed on the felt dots, stitched up the maze, popped a marble in and sewed it closed. Hello choke proof kids toy! Also, because it's squishy, easy to put in your bag and take out whenever and where ever bordem threatens.

I am well pleased. While I had Sally the sewing machine out, I thought I'd finish off some baby shoes that I ambitiously cut suede for a while ago. I did this, and they look pretty nice.

The pattern is the Pleated Mary Jane from Shwin&Shwin. I have to say I'm not a massive fan. Maybe it's the fiddly-ness of the small baby shoe, but they take ages to make sure it's going to all go together right. Also, I don't like the way a lot of baby shoes have the inner soles just stuck in or sewn in but so you can still see all of the edges. So I spent extra time hand-sewing the inner soles down with stitches that you cannot see from the outside.

I feel it was worth it because they are beautiful and very soft, so perfect for a baby, but I doubt I'll be making baby shoes again.

P.S. I did do more work on the Log Cabin Quilt and another chunk of that top-secret Birthday Present for my Dad. Hooray!

Birthday Project - Top Secret!

Sudden inspiration for a birthday gift for my Dad lead to me spending about five or six hours on Friday at Sally the sewing machine. Maybe I should name my rotary cutter, since he played a large role in what occurred too.... Anyway, in the spirit of keeping things secret, I can't tell you what it is, and you will have to wait until October to find out. Heh. I am pretty proud of what I got done though (the whole present is probably about a third finished, but I did get the most fiddly things out of the way) so here is a sneak peek for you all. :)

Enjoy.

Busy Book

Last year, I ventured into the land of felt books with this little bit of excitement and since then, it's been on the to-do list to make another. The next one, I decided long ago, would have a variety of pages that work on a different skill, rather than just encourage creativity. I know that lacing is something that is supposed to be great for kids, and after Steve wore through a pair of his old connies, I was struck with the inspiration for the first page of the book. Behold!

Is it not fabulous? Sorry about the way that it is currently laced, my original lacing did make it all the way to the top, but I thought something went wrong, tried to do it again and came out with something rather worse. Now, I can't be bothered change it. Lazyness wins again. But really, look at the lacing potential! Not to mention the excitement that might come from using it to teach how to tie shoe-laces. And it's general awesomeness from being Converse!

Page one done. I'm not sure how I'm going to sew these pages together, but something will come to me I'm sure. Now that I'm all inspired, I've done the layout (though not the actual sewing yet) for page two, which uses buttons.

Work In Progress

Much of my spare time recently has been spent doing smaller things that can be easily finished and also reading. It's such a great feeling to cross lots of little things off the to-do list. I read somewhere that when you sew a lot, it's really good to have one big project on the go, as well as a smaller one. That way, when the big project gets too much, you can take a break, finish a smaller one and feel productive enough to get back to the big thing.

So while the Log Cabin Quilt has been sitting on the shelf for a while, I've been doing some other things. Things like making great breakfasts for my one year old (and my husband and myself too!). 

Writing Thank-you, Thinking-of-you, and other encouraging cards for friends. Putting together invitations for fun events coming up. Meeting up with friends to talk about how they are going and what God is doing in their lives. Reading books, specifically some of David Eddings' epic sagas. Also, doing a little sewing, but that's a post for tomorrow (a super exciting, stay tuned or you'll miss it kind of post!).

And after two weeks of doing this, I have crossed off enough small things on the to-do list to make me think of the Log Cabin Quilt. This morning, I sewed the boarder back onto the slightly smaller backing sheet and now, the front and back are the same size. This is a good feeling. It's a work in progress, but it is progressing. :)  

Thoughts on Exodus

I've been reading the bible in my quiet times (even as I type this sentence I think to myself "Duh!"). Anyway. I am going through a reading plan that will take me through the whole bible in a year, but has Old and New Testament readings for each day (just to spice it up, especially when things like Leviticus hit).

I'm happy to say that I've finished Genesis, Exodus and Matthew already! I feel like this is a huge achievement, given that it's only the first week of February, but when I think that I've done three books out of 66, it feel a little less grandiose. Oh well.

I've been thinking a lot about what happened in Exodus the last few days. The Israelites have managed to escape Egypt with God giving some pretty spectacular and memorable events to boot. Then they get away and seem to stop for a long time. I'd never really noticed it before, but even before they are at the promised land for the first time, God has them all camping in the wilderness while he gives them some (quite detailed) instructions.

This is the first time that the people of Israel are actually getting instructions from God about what it means to be his people. And boy, it takes some time. I guess that when we come down to it, God is a holy God, and for the Israelites to be his people, they had to learn a few things (and unlearn a few bad Egyptian-influenced habits).

It strikes me that because this is the first thing that God does with his people after their rescue, it stands that it's probably the most important. They get their commandments, they are told the terms and conditions of serving God (which they agree to), they spend a lot of time (and effort, and resources) making the Tabernacle, the holy things that go inside and the outfits for the priests among other things.

This makes me think back to when I became one of God's people. How precious were those first few months, even years, where He instructed me. How great are the truths that I learnt at that time, that I keep coming back to.

Even now, nearly 10 years on, I am again struck by how important it is to leave everything else aside, and get to know God first. I am again amazed by the fact that God wants to know us and will take the time to teach us, with his word, with his Spirit, with his people. How great is our God who loved us first, and loves us still.

Updates

While the Log Cabin Quilt sits on the shelf, patiently awaiting the day I will again have the courage to tackle it (not too far off, I think), I've been doing a few small things to help me feel productive again. I think it might also be because Bub-Number-Two is now fully en-route (20 weeks today!) and despite feeling a little sore (thanks to Sophie putting her knees and feet into my ever expanding tummy) I'm also feeling quite energized.

These are what I've made in the last three weeks for Sophie, most of which happened in the last week actually. Again, I'm using up what is in the material stash, rather than going out and being distracted by a sale rack at Spotlight. :P The shorts were actually once Sarah's, who generously donated them to me. I've pretty much worn them to death, so they have now been recycled into their new life as Sophie Shorts. The bottom right ones still have all the pockets intact and working (including the back ones which you can't see) and also cuffs. I am pretty happy with these pants.

The dress on the bottom left was made for Sam's 3rd Birthday (Party Dress!) from my old frog skirt, which Mum made for me when I was a teenager. Ahh, it's good to see it living again. Self drafted pattern too actually. I made it way too big, so in another year, I'll be able to take out all the extra seams that I put in and Sophie will be able to continue wearing it. Excellent.

The party dress at the top was from Sophie's 1st Birthday. Special thanks to Cheala who gave me her sister's pediatric nurse scrubs to use for dresses. Yet another dress that cost nothing. It also has pockets. :D Here is Sophie enjoying those pockets.

The dress in the middle (the only one not worn yet, which I'm sure you can tell when you look closely at the photo) I made on Sunday. It's supposed to be a size 18-months, but when I put it on her to have a look, it actually fits at the top already. Maybe she won't grow too much....

Aside from doing copious amounts of sewing, I'm also in the process of making a cardboard car track that will hide under our TV cabinet which I'm pretty excited about. That said, I think I'm putting more effort into it than it's worth, because I want to cover it and re-enforce it and what not. Given that it's made of cardboard and will be used by kids, it's probably not going to last that long anyway, so why bother? I don't know, a good way to pass the time perhaps?

Log Cabin Quilt Part 3

So yesterday I went through the stash and found some purple (left over from Steve's Aladdin costume (sorry there were never any photos of that :P)) which worked. I cut it out, I sewed it together and then sewed it on. Hooray, the top is done!

Then I grab the material that I have lined up for the backing, put it down and find out that it's actually an inch too short! AHHH!!! I figure, that's ok. I'll cut it down slightly more and then put a boarder on it to make it the right size and it will all be fabulous. Excellent plan.

I loved the fabric before (thanks Ikea) but now that it's got a cool boarder, it's 100% better. Excellent. Now I put the top on to check that the measurements were correct and it's all ready to sandwich with some batting and make a quilt. The evidence is below, the backing is now two and a half inches too wide! GAHH!!

It may be a while before I can bring myself to do something about this. It cuts so deep when you have a such a set back. Sigh.

Bento Box 2.0

Sophie had another day with her grandparents on Monday, so I got creative on Sunday and made her another Bento. They are pretty fun and easy to make, especially given she can't actually critique them yet. :P

Also, two weeks ago, I made a roman blind for our living room. Unfortunately, things in windows don't photograph easily or well, so there are no pictures of my handiwork. That said, I feel very proud of my roman blind because it blocks out the sun and rolls up easily to let in the breeze. Yay! I used some good tutorials I found linked from here. I also got to use a saw to cut the dowels and wood to size and the drill to do drill things. So handy!

Re-using Jeans

I have been so super slack about updating what I've been doing in the last few days/weeks. So many great things that are slowly fading into obscurity, just like my entire life will one day. Oh well. This, however, will not pass unmarked.  

I followed an on-line tutorial linked to me by a friend to whip this baby up in less than an hour. Luckily Steve had a pair of jeans that needed re-purposing in the circle of life, or this would have taken a while longer to become a reality. Only made one mistake in the making, and you can't even tell. Ha!

Here was where this tutorial came from. :) 

Log Cabin Quilt Part 2

So I did work a lot more on the layout of the Log Cabin squares for this quilt. I ended up taking photos of the squares, whacking them into a table in word and then moving them around as I saw fit. The random layout was pretty quickly discarded and I tried a few others before I stumbled on this diagonal one which worked quite well. 

I was going to get more feed back from people and what not, but I just wanted to get the thing done, rather than have it sit around unfinished. Today, I pieced all of the squares together with the sashing (that's quilting term for the bits between the squares). I even sewed a little while Sophie was roaming around - risky! 

This square is my favorite. I don't know why.

Log Cabin Quilt Part 1

So I don't know if you remember these:

but I had a set of four of them from the 2013 Block of the Month Quilt that I did last year (in 2013 funnily enough :P). Anyway, I loved the block, but I ended up re-doing them for the actual quilt in different colors (and when I did that, I made some extras just cos I love them).

While wasting away the hours earlier this week, I had a strange desire to sew something. It had been a whole week since I'd sewn anything (Sophie's birthday dress) and I guess I was having withdrawals. Also, I couldn't sew my actual next project because I was waiting on getting some things. So I set that all aside, took out the quilting box, found the Log Cabins and thought to myself; "I'll just make a few more and then I'll have a quilt top in the makings."

I now have 48 Log Cabin squares made out of scraps. One of the goals for this quilt was that I would make it out of whatever I had on hand. No going to the material store and buying material (even if it was on sale and a good price :P). I do have enough material to get away with it (more than enough in fact) and it was a great way to use up lots of little scrapy pieces that I had in the box. Excellent.

The tricky thing now is to come up with a nice balanced layout for all these lovely Log Cabins that I am happy with. I was happy this morning with the layout pictured above, but looking at it now, I'm less happy - why are those two dark blue squares in the same row at the bottom? Why are three of the "yellow heavy" squares all on ones side of the quilt? What was I thinking; where is the balance?? Gah!

With 48 squares of Log Cabins, working on the layout is no easy task in itself. With Sophie to help, it's even harder.

Milestone

It's Sophie's first ever Bento Box! She won't remember it and wasn't physically capable of using the cute frog pick, spoon or chopsticks, but man it was fun to make. :) Totally worth it.

For those interested, the food is yogurt, watermelon cut into flower shapes, a star egg, Aunty Shirley's Pancakes (left over from the party) and some cheese sticks. Healthy and delicious. The boxes stacked on top of one another when they were full of food and then into one another when they were empty, so they take up half as much space in the cupboard. 

Five Hundred Twenty Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes

Sophie turned one yesterday. I have a one year old. In some ways, I am amazed at the growth and changes that have taken place in her short life. And at the same time, weren’t all these things expected? It makes me think of the song Seasons of Love from the musical Rent. How do we measure a year?

I’ve been collecting the bottles from various baby products this last year (not hording, but collecting for future use in crafty projects). Interesting to look at the number of baby powder, soap and hand sanitizer bottles that I now have. In some cases much more than expected, in others (only half a bottle of shampoo used!), much less.

Thankfully Sophie’s life is not measured by these things. Even though, I’m now well acquainted with them and will probably always associate them with the first year of her life.