AJ's Antics

Every now and then I get the urge to start my Dear Jane quilt....I got as far as thinking about the layout I want for my rainbow DJ. I drew a sketch and did a computer image too.       I'm going to go with the hand-coloured one - more blues and greens - less reds and orange - which is a reflection of my stash! I'm keen to get started for real but I don't know what to do first!     It's been super busy around here trying to fit in assessments and end of term stuff like parent interviews - especially when you make the hour round trip for 2 interviews (40 mins worth) and neither sets of parents show up! One parent felt so bad that she gifted us some roses, so these little pretties have been looking lovely in my kitchen!   

  I'm not supposed to be adding to the stash....Hubby will shoot me and 2013 is More Out + Less In!   But these were all bought for good reason. Some of them will leave the stash very quickly (I hope) and others will stay around a little longer as I tackle a long term project.   And I mean very long term! I'm going to start a 'Dear Jane' or 'Baby Jane' as they like to call them. I'm going to call mine 'Wishful Baby'  for as I sew this one there will be a lot of baby-wishing going on! Aden is 4 in a few very short months and I thought we'd defiantly have another baby here by now....or a least on the way. But I continue to patiently wait my turn, pray, dream and wish.     I got 1/2 a metre of this green to add to the DJ fabrics. Yes 1/2 metre is over kill as I will only need the tiniest pieces but 30% off is a good bargain!   Miss Dove and I are having a sew-a-long these coming Easter Holidays to make this Dress Simplic...

Aden stated Kindy this year....the day after he turned 3 and 6 months old. And he is loving it so far! He is coping really well with the swap over from 3 days of Day Care to 1 day of Day Care and 2 days of Kindy. He is thriving at Kindy. The routines and expectations really suit him. He comes home singing songs, chatting about his new friends, what story they read that day, what art he made and if he got into trouble or not (usually for talking at rest time!!) and of course he loves his teachers. And you can't start Kindy without a new quilt! Aden picked this 'Lightning McQueen' fabric out a while back and had to have 'finish flag' fabric to go with it. A few matching tone-on-tones from the stash made it an easy quilt to pull together and my first finish for the year. It is the prefect size for the beds they have a Kindy. I did in-the-ditch quilting to get it done quickly and 5-point stars on the red fabric. I had planned to do a...

My SIL must think I can work miracles! She wants me to make this dress for my 18month of niece for a wedding next month....a Lace Silk Cotton dress with pearl beaded neckline....hmmmm.... From here Of course I couldn't deny my niece a beautiful dress so the hunt for a pattern, that looked kinda like this, that was within my limited sewing abilities, was on. While not quite the same sophistication the Abby Dress from Sew Sweet Patterns seemed to fit the bill, and a quick PDF purchase pattern made it very easy for an instant start. With some Etsy hunting, text messaging and FB web site linking, she picked a fabric she like, added some more lace and ditched the beads (might be over kill with the lace). They will all hopefully arrive from the US with enough time for me to make the dress. I chose some Amy Butler 'Love' fabric from my stash to give the pattern and sizing a test run. The dress came together quite smoothly. The pattern is quite easy to fol...

I've decided to include a little bit of the 'Nest' fabric in each block hopefully tying all the blocks together enough to make a decent looking quilt The 2 blocks together on the design wall. I'm liking the small gap between the 2 blocks shown here and I'm leaning towards a dark brown for the sashings. Do you have a suggestion for a sashing colour?   Here is the link for Block 1

So in keeping with doing things a little bit backwards and different I have started with Block 30...the last block. I'm really not happy with the amount of fabric they waste for these blocks. I did this one as per the instructions and I WON'T be doing the same for the rest of the blocks. If you haven't started on this block yet ignore the  part where it says to 'cut stripes 22" long' They only need to be 14" or 15" max if you want a little movement.  My advice is just check how big each piece is in the piecing instructions and add up how much you will need yourself, especially if your working with scraps/stash like I am!  I actually quite like the design of this block and a whole quilt of them wouldn't be too bad either.  Here is a link to Block 30

I know I'm starting at the finishing date...but well sometimes you have to just go with it. The link to all the block is here. And a diagram of the finished quilt is here . I'm rather disappointed that is it only a sketch of a the quilt rather than a finished quilt. Planning a quilt along should mean that you have already tried out all the blocks and put them together to see what they look like before people sign up! That said however I'm going to forge ahead anyway. I am going to pick and choose the blocks that I like and possibly add some sashings and borders along the way. I'm using this Moda Jelly Roll in 'Nest' and this piece of fabric from the line as my colour inspiration.   And here is the fabric I have pulled from my stash! I'm going to try and keep this a total stash quilt but I'm thinking I may have to find a little more of the green/lime to add to the blocks. I also found in my stash these matching pillow cases! So ...