MMM bag

I put my name down for the 'Make mine modern' swap item again seeing it was such a blast last time around. I have known who my partner for a while now and despite stalking their flickr pictures I struggles to come up with any great ideas.

Also their favourite fabrics are nothing that I have in my stash and are quite 'out there' for me. Last night I made this bag using the Amy Butler Birdie sling pattern - I hope they like it.

Now..... onto the other item/s

Hard to get a great photo and the bands are heavily interfaced so they are quite stiff

I think you gwt the idea:

The orange and grey combination look quite good together !

Jen's march blocks

Jen from the bee 'Bee in my bonnet' sent out some gorgeous pink and green fabrics for her month this month.

She requested 'anything goes' as long as one block featured her Heather Ross Gnome fabric and the other her Heather Ross mushroom fabric. Here is what I came up with :

I thought the gardening gnomes were super cute and begging to be made up into a flower. I have used raw edge applique for this one

The mushroom fabric I thought to use in a improvised block so they look like they were sprouting up everywhere. Hope Jen likes them !

Isabella's 2nd Birthday

Isabella turned 2 last weekend - where has that time gone ?? It only feels like the other day that she was born !
In between 2 lots of vistors over 2 weeks and a birthday party for 35 people, not much sewing has been done. Plenty of party prepartion and cake making done though ! Her theme this year for the invites and cake was 'cupcakes' can you tell from the photos ??

2 giant cupcakes and lots of little ones around it

All she wanted was the lollies on top though

enjoying the party with her friends

One giant cupcake went to daycare and the rest were eaten !

Feb Bee blocks

My weekends are soooooooooo precious now that full timework is happening. I am too exhausted to do much of an evening so Saturday afternoon is my only time to 'create'. The only thing I got to do today were these bee blocks:

BrianaArlene in the red and aqua bee requested wonky star blocks


I love how a high how amount of accurancy is not needed and the blocks are very effective !



Debbie in the Bee in my bonnet bee sent out a orange square to use in the middle and an aqua and chocolate brown strip and asked us to create a log cabin using scraps from our stash.

I tried to choose fabrics that had aqua, orange and brown in it... she plans to cut each square up and use it to create a wall hanging in a modified bento pattern.


Not a great idea to take a photo of this block on a chocolate coloured lounge !

Anyway... hopefully tomorrow will give me a bit of time to do my own sewing !

Planning a 2nd Birthday

Not much going on here.... work, work, and work and no play for this little one. I am planning a second birthday party..... I am thinking a cupcake theme cake and have just ordered the invites.
Apart from that I have to wait until the weekend to get any kind of machine sewing done !

Limited time

I am finding the hardest part of returning to work full time is the limited time I have to myself. While my job is fun and enjoyable, by the time we get home do dinner, baths, clean up and get prepared for the next day there is not much time left in the evening for 'me'.
Luckily I have an arrangement on the weekend that kinda works with my husband : he plays golf in the morning and I play with Isabella and on saturday afternoon I get 'me' time and he plays with Isabella. Sunday is family day and we do things together.
Anyway this afternoon I made these blocks for Erin in the 'Bee seam piecing downunder' bee:

She sent everyone different coloured fabric depending on what there favourite colours were. I got a great range of my current favourite pink and aqua schemed fabrics. She requested that we make blocks in any theme that we like. This is what I did:



This block was originally going to be a modified bento block but I got interupted with a phone call and I knew I only had today to make her 2 blocks. So I had to improvise but I still really like it.

This block I made using the good old log cabin technique

Erin also requested that we embellish this white piece of fabric with 'something' and add our name and state on it. I am really into suffolk puffs at them moment. Hope she likes them !!

Zippered waterproof pouch

I have a Year 9 class this year, who I am teaching basic skills to. Currently we are looking at surface decoration skills and will be exploring decoration techniques such as couching, dyeing, printing, use of other materials, applique etc. The students are then required to apply their newly leart skills to design and make an item that 'carries something' and of course they mostly want to make i phone cases and I pod cases etc.
Today I quickly whipped up this example using clear vinyl on the outside so it does not get wet and a nice print on the inside. I didn't have time to embellish my fabric and just wanted to test out the pattern I was using before I showed it to the students.
Am thinking about sending it to my MMM ( Make mine modern ) partner in her swap package..... what do you think ?