A birthday dress for Olivia

 I made this little outfit for Olivia's 1st birthday party.

And here she is wearing it at her party. She really enjoyed Pass the Parcel.

Nature bag

Inspired by the Nature Explore Bag at Chez Beeper Bebe (http://chezbeeperbebe.blogspot.com.au/2011/06/make-this-nature-explorer-bag.html), I decided to make one for Emma for her birthday.

I collected all the things I thought should go in the bag: pencils, notebook, magnifying glass, torch and so on.

Then I designed the bag to fit the contents. I made the bag out of a sturdy blue fabric . . .

. . . and lined it with a bright print featuring a variety of bugs.

Here it is loaded up with everything:

The bag was very successful. Emma insisted on having it next to her bed at night - presumably in the event of some nighttime adventures.

A gift for Wanda

I usually plan (and try to make) gifts for people well in advance but this year I suddenly realised that Wanda's birthday was just over a week away, which really limited my options - it had to be quick and relatively easy to make. Fortunately, I had been thinking for a while of exploring the many inbuilt stitches on my Husqvarna Diamond (I think there are more than 400) and decided that this might be a good option for a journal cover.

Here's what I came up with (by the way, Wanda likes puppy dogs):

Postcard swap - Egypt

I mentioned in a previous post that I had participated in a fabric postcard swap in June, through stitchinfingers. I've been wanting to make some more fabric postcard and, of course, the Egypt theme sparked many memories for me.

I received this beautiful card from Mary the day after my previous post - a delightful surprise:

As I forgot to take a photo of my postcard before sending it off, you'll just have to take my word that it was absolutely fabulous (what's the emoticon for tongue-in-cheek?). Like many others in the swap, it featured the Eye of Horus.

More cushions

My daughter-in-law asked for some cushions for her birthday. She only mentioned it two weeks before her birthday but she was happy to wait a while. I then forgot to photograph them before I gave them to her and it's taken months for me to get photos - but here they are at last.

The two in the first photo are a plain yarn and a feathery yarn knitted together.

These are knitted, needle-felted and machine embroidered.

What have I been doing?

The answer is: not much! Mostly, I've been trying to keep warm - it probably wasn't a good idea to go to Brisbane and return to cool weather. I have knitted some articles for my granddaughters - it's been perfect knitting weather - but I haven't got good photos of them yet. I might have to go around with my camera and do a 'fashion shoot' of them wearing their winter woollies.

I also participated in a 'Round Robin' fabric postcard swap. Unfortunately, I forgot to photograph my postcard before I sent it off and I haven't received one yet either.

I've also started lots of projects, most of which I've put aside for one reason or another, but I have finished this silk cushion:

It is made out of hand-painted silk twill and machine quilted with a dark blue embroidery thread (for the square grid) and gold thread for the diagonal grid. I'm not sure if the fabric is really robust enough for cushions but I love the bright colours that are possible in hand-painted silk.

Belated birthday present

I made these cushions for my sister for her birthday and gave them to her when we met up at her daughter's wedding on the weekend - a few weeks late.

This was my first attempt with dyeing silk in the microwave and I was very pleased with the effect. I then free machined wavy lines over them.

Knit, felt, stitch

I made these cushions by firstly knitting together three yarns: a 5-ply wool, a feather-type yarn and an eyelash-type yarn. I then needle-felted the knitted piece and finished it off with free motion machine embroidery.

I worked swirls all over this one.

For this one, I just stitched wavy lines horizontally and vertically but then added cords made by crocheting the three yarns plus a gold yarn together.

More recycled denim

Two more cushions made from recycled blue jeans.

In this one, I worked rows of serpentine stitch all over.

 I just stitched lines parallel  to the seams in this one.

Christmas dresses

Here's Emma in her Christmas dress (the photo was taken at Christmas time but it's taken a while for me to get around to posting it).

And here is Emma's baby sister, Olivia, in her Christmas outfit. Olivia arrived just a few days before Christmas, so she had to wait a while for her outfit. As for the slightly large hat, she outgrew the small size before I finished it, so I skipped the medium size and made a large one. It's still a bit too big but she will probably grow into it very soon.