No sewing, but a little something to show anyway

I recently made another onesie appliqué set for my cousin and his wife, who've recently had a baby boy called Oscar. I'm not quite so thrilled with how these turned out - I think the design might have been a bit too small and the fabric too busy. Live and learn I guess. There's a car appliquéd to each side of the hat...it's getting colder here by the day.

Had a reasonable day today. Went to the National Gallery to see the Turner to Monet exhibition before it closes next weekend. It was jam-packed with people so trying to negotiate the exibit with a pram was not fun. Romily and I ended up leaving early and wandered around the rest of the gallery while Carl had a good look. I went back later for my turn - there were far fewer people, so it was much better.
As you can see, we have a budding artist in the family. Just kidding, but isn't she just a picture of concentration?

Might even get the sewing machine out tonight. Need to do more appliquéd onesies and some booties for a friend who's had yet another baby boy, Archer. Might also do some for my bub :) Will just do simple (and larger) appliqués this time. The booties will be cute though.

Hopefully tomorrow I can decide on the butterfly block I want to use for the Hungry Caterpillar quilts and start working out fabrics and cutting. My guess is that I won't get any piecing done until next weekend, but that's okay, as it's a long weekend! I am taking the Friday off as well, so I will enjoy a four-day weekend. Sounds like bliss to me :)

LOST - sewing mojo

Sorry folks...third trimester tiredness has hit me like a bulldozer. I am too tired to sew. Too tired to think. So I'm not!

7 weeks and 3 days left at work until I start maternity leave. Bring it on.

Hope to rediscover my sewing mojo soon. Hope you're all well out there in the Land of Blog.

:)

Red and white blocks for Clare

I made two blocks for Quilts for Leukaemia at Easter, with the promise to make another couple soon. Well soon turned into two months, later but here they are all finished! It was working with all that red and white fabric for mum's table runner that spurred me on! (And yes, those are my husband's not-so-sexy knees you can see in the corner of that photo!)
I made up the butterfly block myself, using templates, as a trial run for the two hungry caterpillar quilts I want to make next (one for Rom and one for Bub#2). They were moderately successful. Clare, I hope they're acceptable!I also managed to snap a photo of Romily wearing her new dress yesterday. Doesn't she look pleased with herself? Unfortunately it's a bit blurry - I was lucky to get that photo - she just goes nutso when I'm trying to take photos of her these days.

No sewing here this weekend. Have been busy with dinner guests last night - we haven't seen them for months - and a playdate for Romily this morning at my friend's place. Romily and I have had long sleeps together yesterday and today, which is lovely, but boy it chews into your weekend!

And I'm sorry I've been so slack keeping up with people's blogs. 512 unread posts, according to Bloglines. I've been so tired that getting onto the computer just hasn't been happening. I'll get there eventually :)

Only nine weeks left at work and then I'll be on maternity leave awaiting the arrival of #2. Bring it on. There's so much going on at work I am just wishing the next nine weeks away! I hope the bub lets me have a least a week at home putting my feet up!

Happy Mother's Day

Okay, so I'm a day late, but hey! Happy Mother's Day to all the mummies out there. I hope you all had a good day. These flowers came to me the week before mother's day - a present from Carl. Isn't he wonderful?

My day on Sunday was just lovely. A card and special Bruno's truffles from Carl and Romily (the card came complete with a smiley face drawing by Rom) was followed by breakfast made by Carl (Rom will no doubt be all over that next year!) and then a trip to the zoo.

Romily helped me make a carrot and walnut cake, which we left cooking while we had a sleep together. Carl took it out of the oven for me while we were still sleeping. Unfortunately the thermostat on our oven is stuffed and no matter how much I reduce the temperature and cooking time by, it burns the tripe out of the top and sides and leaves the middle uncooked! I ended up putting the cake in the microwave to finish it off, but of course that dried it out. I iced it with cream cheese icing anyway and we're eating it over the next few days! No more cakes here - I think I'll stick to muffins and slices! I will post a copy of the muffin recipe I'm using in the next couple of posts...just have to type it up!

Then we went round to our friends' house for a late afternoon tea - I didn't end up taking my poor excuse for a cake - a good thing too, as there was oodles of cake already there!!

Romily was on her best behaviour all day and was an absolute delight. Bub#2 got in on the act with some kicking during a Braxton Hicks contraction. That was not delightful! A reminder of what's to come in three short months!

I quite enjoyed the course last week - it was probably the best leadership course I've been on, as it was run by a couple of really fantastic faciliators and tailored to the Australian Public Service, which is a peculiar beast and has plenty of foibles! They really got us to take a long hard look at our lives and realise that family is far more important than work could ever be...it put what I'm doing at work in perspective and made me realise that I'm devoting way too much energy to things I can't change at work, not leaving me with enough energy for what's most important to me - my family. I am working towards destressing about work and just doing my best every day without taking on everyone else's work! Let's see how long I can keep that up. I finish up work in less than 10 weeks now, so I won't have a choice soon :)

Here are a couple of photos of the table runner I made for my mum for mother's day.
It's also from the Denyse Schmidt Quilts book - in the book it's a full single bed quilt, but I thought it would make a really interesting table runner and it did. I did simple hand quilting on the red fabrics - I think it really works. Might even be tempted to use these blocks again (there are three in this table runner) for a full quilt one day.

Dress for Romily

While Rom was more than happy to help out with drawing a winner for the giveaway on Sunday, the little bugger, er I mean darling, would not, point blank, try on the dress I made for her! Little so and so! Nearly three and full of independence...I just don't know where she gets that from...

So, a photo of the dress on a hanger will just have to do.
And yes, the decorations on the box were Romily's work! She loves 'decorating' things, and talks about when she gets bigger she can have her own 'chine' (sewing machine) and pins and will make quilts for her little brother. Gorgeous! Another quilter in the making :)

We received some more wonderful mail during the week. The very generous Doodlebug Gail sent Romily some more Dora the Explorer books, some stickers and some Dora band-aids! Gail's daughter thought the 'little girl in Australia' might like some - oh yes she did! Thank you so much Gail for thinking of us on the other side of the world. Although it is a bit strange explaining to Romily why some of the words are in Spanish! I love it though, as I would hope that Rom learns a language or two just as I did. I never learnt Spanish, but studied French and Italian at school and at university, so I can understand a lot of Spanish and was able to pick up a bit of conversation on my two visits there. Hopefully one day I can get to South America and learn a bit more!

I'm heading off for a couple of days this week - I'm on a leadership course as part of my professional development with work. I'll miss Rom and Carl terribly, but it will be nice to have some time out!

I am taking with me a table runner/bed dresser that I'm making for my mum for mother's day, which is this coming Sunday. The pattern is another one from the Denyse Schmidt book in my previous post. I have finished it bar the hand quilting. I hope to get some work done on it after the group dinner each night. Mum's away in Tasmania for a couple of weeks, so if the present goes into the post early next week, it'll be waiting for her when she gets home. It's looking good, so I'll post a photo on the weekend when I return from my travels.

And the winner is...

It was all excitement here this morning, as Romily helped oversee the drawing of the winning name for my first ever giveaway!
All the names on little pieces of paper folded up inside the box...
Here comes the winner...
Hey, how does this work? Oh it's upside down - the name is Gabrielle!
And Gabrielle, who has just announced she is pregnant with number two, is the lucky winner of two quilted oven mitts.
These adorable creations are from the Denyse Schmidt Quilts book, made with Denyse Schmidt fabrics. I hope you enjoy using them as much as I did making them Gabrielle. Email me with your address and they'll soon be on their way :)