27/04/2013: Almost May already! This year is going so fast!
02/04/2013: Happy Easter. I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend.
01/01/2013: Happy New Year!!
24/12/2012: Merry Christmas!!
13/11/2012: Getting hand-made presents ready for Christmas!!

Monday, December 24, 2012

Santa Sack #2


Phew!! Now I'm really done! It is 11.20PM Christmas Eve and I've finished the second sack. I knew I probably would put it aside and not get this finished until this time next year if I didn't at least do a bit more sewing tonight and since I'd already cut out all the fabric it went together really quickly.

I love these bags with their chickeny cuteness and can't wait to show them off tomorrow. Now I'm off to bed so Father Christmas can drop off my presents. Merry Christmas everyone!!


Sunday, December 23, 2012

Santa Sack


This is my last project before Christmas I think. I was going to make two of these, but it has been so hot today that just making one took 4 hours and it is tiring in front of my hot sewing machine. I have the second cut out so maybe if it cools down later tonight I'll get it out and finish it off.

I got these Christmas panels last year in the after Christmas sales. There are two of the tree that you see here and two which are more lime green with three chicks on gifts. I ignored the instructions provided and used some quilt batting to give the bag more substance and lightly quilted around the tree and border. Then I added handles and a bright red lining. Luckily I had heaps of bright red cotton for some reason and this project has used up nearly all of it.

Now I'm off to wrap presents under the air conditioning to fill my new sack!! Merry Christmas everyone!!


Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Two Crochet Bunnies!


I finished the pink bunny last night. This time it only took me two evenings of work to finish the bunny but I don't know if my tension was tighter, my wool was a different weight, or I didn't follow the pattern correctly on one of the bunnies... because the pink one is smaller! That is ok though because it is going to a little girl and the red one is going to her older brother.

To finish them off I added a blue wool bow for the pink one which is stitched down so hopefully it won't come undone. The red bunny got a leather eye patch to turn him into a tough pirate! yarr!!

If you want to make one yourself see this post for a link to the instructions.


Sunday, December 9, 2012

Bunny Amigurumi


The week wherein I get distracted looking at crochet on pinterest.com, then start teaching myself crochet on Wednesday, and have this finished bunny by Sunday.

This little guy took 3 days to finish, but I could have had it finished yesterday if I hadn't been so busy. It is a free pattern so you can make one yourself. It is very simple in that it takes three stitches - chain, single crochet and invisible decrease.

I added a little pompom on his bottom to help him sit! I made the pompom from the same wool using the fork method.


To learn to crochet I used a youtube video which shows the basics, a 3.5mm crochet hook ($2.50) and some old yarn. A couple of false starts which I unravelled and two starts which I clipped off and discarded as they were very wonky and I had constructed an approximation of a square as per the video. Next I printed the bunny project and used a pen to help note the counting and mark off rows I had completed. The arms and legs are the hardest part because they are such narrow tubes!