Flashback Friday - Miss H's Quilt

Miss H's first quit which I finished just after when she was six months old was a bit too small for a big girl bed. So for her birthday last year I whipped up this number.

                          

It's lots and lots of three inch squares, in a simple patchwork. Kind of an eye spy quilt. Lots of fun prints mixed with a few neutrals. I tried to keep it low-ish volume and stuck to warm colours

For the backing, I pieced together a few bit which had been in my stash for a while, a great  japanese cheater print which I bought in Chinatown in Singapore, and a pint spot fabric from Spotlight in Singapore. Bound in red and white striped (heavily influence by Rita from Red Pepper Quilts - like a lots of my quilts!)

And here it is sitting happily on her big girl bed.

Octopus Tutu

Our village has a May Fayre and has done for more than 200 years!

This year the theme is The Seaside, all the children from the school and play school parade through the village and then there is a big fair on the school field.

Cue costume options.

Miss S "I want to be a diver" same as her best friend, quickly order a wetsuit and a dive mask.

Me to Miss H "how about a mermaid" nope, "a jellyfish?" nope

Miss H "i want to be a SHARK!"

Hmmmmm sharks are quite difficult so I talked her into being an octopus after seeing this tutorial.

A quick trip to the market, £4 later I returned with some white felt and some rather tacky purple lurex with gold sequins.

I started with a test leg....

Then seven more legs and a tutu later here we have it!!

She still wants a head, so I'll have to work in that.

kcw day 2, 3 4 and 5! - big pocket dress

here is the fruit of my labour these last four days of kids clothes week.

it is completely and utterly "inspired" by this wonderfully gorgeous dress from groovy baby and mamma

it's the bodice from too sweets september tunic and an interpretation of the skirt from the sally dress. my client (miss H) loves it and accessorised it with me spaghetti sauce!

Kids Clothes Week Day1

Started with a bump when I realised what the date was!! In my head it's still January, well let's face it in my head I'm still 25, the date and the month are inconsequential!!

So I'm squeezing in an hour of pattern tracing in the sunshine!!

Planning on do three items of clothing, one for each of the wee ones.

A pair of these for Big G - quick change trousers from Anna Maria Horners book.

And I found this lovely book in Waterstones and plan on making....

A pair of these for miss S

And a dress a bit like this for Miss H

flashback friday - rollie pollie

i was planning on making a few big beanbag style cushion for the playroom, so i bought dana's pattern for the rollie pollie - the pattern is really easy to follow and the finished article is pretty cool

the fabric is from ikea (good old faithful ikea!) i did find it hard to find a zip long enough until my mum found one in an old bolster which i was throwing away.

it's a much loved comfy place to sit and read, it's also loved by visiting babies, and unfortunately visiting dogs!

flashback friday - princess and the pea

miss S had a beautiful white company princess and pea toy, and i wanted something similar for miss H for he third second, after trawling the internet and not really finding anything which lived up to the vision in my head i decided (like i often do) "well i could just make one!" so i did.

the wooden bed is from ikea and comes with a simple blanket and pillow

i made lots of additional "mattresses" (there are quite a few which went awol before this photoshoot) i reused the ikea one on the reverse of one blanket, with a wonderful creation by miss S on the other side. i just let her creative instinct run wild on a piece of white fabric with regular pens.

the princess is a mixture of a couple of patterns from the brilliant "wee wonderfuls 24 dolls to sew and love" by hillary lang of wee wonderfuls. she is mostly little miss storybook from p.89, but her hair is from the tag along doll on p.61, with a bun on the back like the dolls from the sleepover pals on p.53. the skirt and the crown were just made up.

so far she's stood the test of time, and been moaning every morning about not sleeping well.......

pinterest - actually creating something that you pinned!

i pinned this pin a veeeeeeeeeeeery long time ago, and when we bought our house i knew i wanted to use it - piles of magnificent creations were mounting all around us. this display system allows us to appreciate the master pieces which come home from school and preschool for a little while, before they are put away to keep or discreetly make their way to the recycling bin!

i just used the super inexpensive curtain wires from ikea - brilliant!

flashback friday - reading pouffe

i made this reading pouffe for miss S when i decorated her room. i used this tutorial from living with punks. it was pretty easy to follow and i was super pleased with the resulting pouffe.

my piping technique could use a little refining, as could my zip inserting technique!

i appliqued on little circles of liberty prints, and to make them really pop i stab stitched around the outside.

the main fabric is the leftovers from the fabric I made the blinds for miss S' bedroom. it started life as a duvet cover from ikea. one side was grey with white dots and the other white with grey dots. the white with grey dots will eventually become the backing for her quilt (watch this space!) and it's filled with beanbag beans which have been sitting around in a plastic bag annoying me for the last few years!

family name cushions

we were invited to a friends UK wedding back in may (they actually got married in South Africa - but had a party when they got back) and as there was no gift list, and it was a fairly informal affair I wasn't sure what to get as a gift........

so i decided to make them a family name cushion, after much practicing of my cursive hand writing, and many attempts at drawing it out, i was finally happy with it, and set about embroidering in a lovely soft charcoal, onto white fabric from ikea.

i even managed my first ever zip!

then i had quite a bit of interest from friends as was commissioned to do a few as christmas presents, and finally got around to making one for my brother and sister in law. i forgot to take a picture but the back is made up of these great prints i bought way back one, half is italian (my sister in law is half italian) and had london/british fabric

i'm quite pleased with the look of them, and might add them to my etsy shop which i might one day get around to stocking and opening!

flashback friday - teachers presents

i have so many craft/sewing projects which i haven't blogged. time just flies by and other things take priority over blogging. so i'm going to try to blog about a past project every friday.....

in july last year, no. 1 finished her first year at big school. i wanted her teachers to have a hand made thank you present.

for her teacher i made her a make-up bag, i used anna from noodlehead's open wide zippered pouch tutorial (she has so many great tutorials and patterns - i really must make a few more)

i made a patchwork panel for the bottom and embroidered her initials on the front

i used some long stashed amy butler dots for the lining. i really wanted to use a chunky jean style zip, but couldn't find any long enough which didn't cost an arm and a leg.

and for the teaching assistant i was reliably informed she received an iPad for her birthday, with some careful detective worked i discovered it was an iPad air and set about making her a cover.

some prized liberty appliquéd initial, and some sneaky gnomes for the lining.

mine-crafty

no.1's very good friends are twin, and they turned six today.

as their gift i wanted to make them something, but what do you make for a six year old boy (unless you work in a toy factory in china - then you could make loads of stuff they'd like!) they are completely and utterly into minecraft - so a minecraft cushion it is!

i ordered the fabrics from plush addict after school on tuesday and they were through the letter box on wednesday! very impressive.

i did all my maths to calculate what size squares i would need for a 30cm cushion insert, cut some squares out and decided my maths must have been wrong and cut lots and lots of squares a bit smaller...... turns out my maths was right, so this one has a black border to make it a bit bigger.

then i went back to my originally calculations and made this one....

in a way i quite like that they are different as they are for twins, it's nice for them to have things not exactly the same.

2015 + resolutions

hello 2015, and hello poor desolate, neglected blog.

i find it astonishing how quickly the years fly by. i remember being at school and the six week summer holidays felt like an eternity, and you'd forgotten how to write when you got back to school! now six weeks fly by without me even noticing. i guess that's kids and motherhood for you.

usually i don't really go in for new years resolutions (probably because i know i'm so flaky i'll never stick to them) but this year i have a whole array of resolutions and i thought if i come here and write them down it will make me a little more accountable for them, here's hoping anyway.

so here goes....

blog more - an oldy but a goody, i have said this so many times, and i'd like to say "but this time i'll stick to it" but you know what, i probably won't but i'd like to try a little harder to blog more consistently. i have so many projects which i'd love to blog about, but never seem to get around to it. in fact i never blogged about the quilt i made for my oldest daughter four years ago! maybe i'll go through all my old projects (which i still have or remembered to take a picture of before i gave it away!) and show you.

open my etsy shop - i started fifi & florence as a proper business last summer, with a shelf in a lovely little shop in Olney, Northants, called Afterglow. the shelf pays for itself and makes me a little bit, but some of my products i think are much more suited to online purchasers, so this year i will (finally) stock my etsy shop.

sort my back out - i've had problems with my lower back/hip since i had my first child, and after 11lb number three came along, it just hasn't gone away. i think it all stems from a weak core, so i'm gonna get my shizzle together and sort it out!

wave good bye to my mummy tummy - as mentioned above, i had an 11lb (yes 5kg) baby two years ago, and being 5ft 2 in this really took it's toll on my body. i still look about 5 months pregnant, and regularly get asked when i'm due, or i can see people look at my tummy in a kind of "oooh, is she pregnant again" way (this is probably all in my mind but hey) i've tried the tupler technique on and off for the last two years, but I just can't stick to it. you have to wear a splint day and night, which in all honesty isn't that comfortable. it's an 18 week programme and i've only ever made it to week five (see flaky), i've seen a difference after the five weeks, but then i fall off the wagon and after a few days it's back to hello big belly. so i've done some research and come across the mutu system, which deals with a weak core and poor body alignment, it's a 12 week programme with core and overall body workouts as well as an clean eating plan. so i'm all signed up, started watching some of the videos and plan to document my progress here.

be more organised - another oldy but a good. i'm so disorganised and i'm always late. this is definitely a part of my character and something which won't change completely, but i'd like to be a bit better. my mantra - "be more like MIL, be more like MIL" who is a cleaning up and organising whirlwind!

oh, and remember birthdays and send cards on time!!

so there we have it my resolutions for 2015 - lets see how we get on........