indulge me....

... for I need to let off a bit of steam.

I am feeling to urge to have a special t-shirt made just for me. It would say "no, I don't know what we're having (but hey, if it's a baby then that's fine by me)".

I think the "do you know what you're having" question has been a bit of a surprise to me especially as that's something I've never asked expecting parents. I suppose it's because for me personally I don't like the idea of finding out so why should I ask others? Almost everyone we see asks us that question so you can see why it's wearing thin. It's also interesting to note the amount of people who, after we've said we don't know what we're having, have then said "good, I hate it when people find out"....... so does that mean they'd hate me if we knew?

Sorry, the irony of these things stands out like a sore thumb at times.

Anyways, I shan't do this again I promise. Here's a pair of little things I finished a couple of weeks ago, I found the pattern here.

They'd be even cuter if the photo wasn't so blurry. Sorry....

non sequitur

Remember Tifa? She has taken up residence on the front veranda but still loves to keep me company in the sewing room. Anyways, Mum took this photo of her the other day and has added it to her New Years resolution on Flickr - 365 photos for 2009. Do go and check out the photos of the sheep (and the subsequent photos) in the barley paddock, it's very cute.

my blocks

It was nice to dip into the scrap boxes and come up with this effort. I've never made this block before and I love the simplicity of it. Also, Victoria has an excellent tutorial which made my job so much easier.

It's been so long since I've done 'traditional' patchwork, and it was a lovely little break from making all this baby stuff. It's not that I don't want to do the baby stuff, but when you've got a gazillion nappies to make it does help to have to odd diversion - and for a very worthy cause too.

more sewing goodness

Originally uploaded by CampFollowerBagLady

Thanks to Ann and Victoria for giving me the heads-up on their blogs about this wonderful idea of Tia's. This is something I feel a lot of us can easily do, I know for me personally it's a lot easier than trying to make stuffed toys (yep, I'm struggling with that one!), and who wouldn't want a new quilt to start rebuilding their heirlooms?

thirsty koala

My sister had a photo of this on her blog and then I discovered they had made a video on one of the fire fighters camera phones (don't know who posted it, they should know better than to call a koala a 'bear'). Poor little mite, then I think of all the other animals that didn't survive and I just want to cry.

I'm overcoming my softie making phobia and have started making some to donate.

spread the crafty word

Photo uploaded from Yahoo 7 News

The bushfires in Victoria have been the worst in known history, with an incredible loss of life and homes.

I've just learnt from Ric Rac's blog that The Toy Society is collecting handmade toys to donate to children effected. It might not seem like a lot, but to a small child who has lost every toy they own, something would be better than nothing. Meet Me At Mikes is also receiving handmade items and have other links as well.

The Red Cross is also accepting donations.

and then there were nine

Yes you heard me, nine sewing machines! A couple of Saturdays ago Ant had to do a quick trip to Hobart, he's a sucker for a garage sale and came across a couple while down there. He did find a few useful things for himself and then came across this little thing. It's a 99k electric, but older than my other 99k (of which I absolutely love). It also needs a bit of work done, most importantly the springs in the tension need replacing and for some reason it has quite a long stitch length.

We're thinking that this one may be good to keep down at the shack, as I can't say that it's all that special (unlike the Featherweight). This is also the first electric Singer I have that doesn't have a foot pedal, it uses a knee lever instead to make it run. I'm not sure how I'll go with that, as I'm used to a different type of knee lever -

The Bernina knee lever is for raising the pressure foot, which is wonderful for when you need 2 hands on your work. It's second nature for me to use this all the time, so I can just see myself trying to do the same on the Singer and making a real mess of things.... maybe. Have to get it fixed first anyway.

nesting

Here's the nappy bag from the Amy Butler book, and it's big - like really BIG. I expect that this will be a good thing though.

The fabric is ex-upholstery samples from Ant's work, this one being a Textilia in a cotton linen blend. I used a blue ticking stripe for the lining. Even though I'm a big Amy Butler fan I didn't think I'd want such a big bag in her fabric, and instead went for something more subdued that will match most of my wardrobe. Sound like a plan?

Despite the heat last week I made some apricot jam. Our tree isn't mature enough yet but a friend had oodles on theirs and I had to make the jam before the fruit turned (on account of the heat). So on a 36 degrees C evening in the kitchen I had the pot simmering and the oven sterilising jars, it was worth it though.

I used the recipe from one of my Christmas presents. Yep, more books! Normally with most jams I just do the kilo for kilo of fruit and sugar but this one suggested adding lemon juice as well. For some reason it turned out a bit runnier than I'd like although the heat and humidity may have more to do with that.

Amongst other sewing on the go, and thanks to the wonderful Alice who gave us the heads up I'll have to make some of these booties. I tried knitting a pair similar but gave up, it was too small and fiddly - sewing them should be much more user friendly. Well to me anyway....