I’ve been absent from this blog, but not through lack of finished projects. Last month I sewed three tutus, a quilt, 2 pinafores and 4 skirts (including one for me!). I’ve also been very busy with the store, adding new fabrics and getting parcels of goodness wrapped and sent out to people. I’m loving the beautiful fabrics I’m sewing with and the summery creations I’m making with them, although things would run a lot more smoothly if I had 30 hours in each day.

Here are the tutus I made for Zoe and her 2 cousins. Believe it or not these are getting easier to sew, although I have no tutu plans for at least the next 6 months.

I also got my quilts back from the quilter. Now *all* I need to do is so on the binding.

Did I say 30 hours in a day? Any chance of 32?

I’m still working on the pattern. It’s a tad big – but still wearable.

I have been quiet lately, mostly due to preparations for Zoe’s 5th birthday party.  We had 11 girls here to a fairy party, and although I questioned my sanity many a time for being overly ambitious with the plans, the party was a great success.  Phew!

My first priority in preparing for 11 children and 11 adults coming to our house was of course to make 8 metres of bunting to decorate the room.  Crazy – yes.  But pretty – no?

Then I made 11 bags for the party girls to put their treasure in:

And 11 wands for them to decorate:

And 11 sets of flowers for their hair:

Then there were decorations for the wands:

(finished product!)

Food for the fairies:

And a cake…made by my mum – her best yet!!

Some fairies enjoying their food:

And last but not least – the five year old fairy herself!

Happy birthday gorgeous girl!

Zoe has been telling me about a fairy dress I was to make her for many months now. To start with I would just nod and mutter ‘yes – yes’ whenever she started to talk about what this dress would look like, or when she would draw or paint pictures of it to help illustrate her point. But as her birthday approached I became gripped with fear as I realised Zoe expected me to make this dress to wear to her party – and although Zoe had a crystal clear concept of what it should look like, I wasn’t altogether clear about what I’d committed myself to.

So one Saturday afternoon when the boys were at the footy, I brought out my ample supply of pink slithery and sparkly fabric, and together we created this dress. And, unlike all the previous dress-ups I have made for Zoe using my idea of beautiful – she really loves this one and hasn’t taken it off since it was finished (take that Sparty’s dress!!!!).

Less than two weeks to the party now – but at least one major job is behind us!

I know it appears that I have given up sewing – and for a few weeks there, after a string of difficult projects and a dose of exhaustion I wondered myself if perhaps it was time to part ways with my sewing machine. But then one day in an attempt to clear my cutting table I sewed up a dress that had been sitting there all cut out for nearly two months. And for once everything worked and the dress came together quickly and easily and looked fantastic and WHAM – I’ve been sewing ever since

The dress was a second attempt at this one, but it turned out even smaller than the first, so I sent it to my good friend Tina to try on her beautiful two year old Indigo and take a few snaps for me. And blow me down – have a look at what she sent me back!

Believe it or not Tina is not a professional photographer but she does make beautiful clothes which if you’re lucky you can snatch up from her store. Thanks for the beautiful photos Tina – you’re a gem!

I am just putting the finishing touches on some other projects which I will share soon!

P.S. this dress is for sale here, and the fabric is for sale here

Here are some well overdue photos of the finished blanket. There was a lot of love put into this blanket. Choosing the wool – sending it out and then receiving the squares, some from people who had never knitted before, massaging each square (or rectangle!) into shape and then slowly but surely joining them together. But when it was finished it was more than just a blanket put together with love. It was beautiful

Best of all, the little person who was so very ill when the project began is doing much better. What more could we have asked for?

Thanks again to everyone who helped with this project. I think we did a great job!

P.S. – for anyone who finds this blog looking for tips on how to sew afghan squares together (the same way I trawled countless blogs looking for this very information) – after much trial and error I crocheted the squares using this method (it’s a Ravelry link so you’ll need to be a member to see it, but if you’re not a member you should go sign up right now because one day you’ll wake up and decide you simply must knit something that very day and then you’ll find that all the good patterns are on Ravelry and there’s some weird waiting list thing you need to go through before you can join and take it from me you will find this very frustrating!).

I have just finished the quilt top I promised myself I’d never make. Which I should know by now is a sign that I’ll be making one for sure. And when I got near the end of it I very nearly stumbled and fell, and in true Annabel fashion I whinged and I cursed and I promised I’d never be so stupid as to make something like this again. But then I got it finished, and I took it up to Zoe’s bed, and I saw it all spread out. And suddenly all was forgiven and forgotten.

I love this quilt top, and Zoe loves this quilt top, and it was well worth the life years lost to create it. And the best news is – I’m getting it professionally quilted, so apart from a bit of binding my work here is done. Yay!!!

For anyone who feels they might need one of these quilts in their lives I very belatedly followed the Oh Fransson quiltalong, and I added extra blocks to make this big enough to cover a single bed. You can see some other fine examples from the quiltalong on the Flickr group.

It is school holidays here, and I have been diligently finishing some of the large projects I started last term before I let myself start on any new sewing. After finishing the first of them last night (the blanket) I couldn’t help but sneak into my sewing room for 30 minutes this morning for a bit of fun.

Here is the Build-a-Bear bunny Zoe got at her last birthday party sporting her brand new veil:

Isn’t that just what any self-respecting bunny needs?

Pictures of blanket and other diligently finished projects to come.

It is so exciting seeing these squares coming together into a blanket.

And it’s so lovely having a warm blanket on my lap as I sew

It’s going to be hard to say goodbye to this one!

I am aware that I tend to complain a lot about the sewing that I do. Projects are too long, or too hard, or I make too many mistakes. I really don’t want this blog to become a negative place – so I’m making a concerted effort not to complain any more. From now on, happy light-hearted stories only.

On that note, let me introduce last weeks project:

Thankfully these tu-tus were a joy to sew! No battling with my machine to sew the lycra, no breaking my $10 Schmetz twin needle, no staying up until 3am to get them finished in time for a party, and certainly no tantrums, swearing or dummy spitting involved. Nope, these were a piece of cake, and I highly recommend them to any sewer who has a long list of half-finished projects, a backlog of paperwork and a dirty house

One of the lucky recipients came to play with Zoe today and the girls wore their tu-tus the for the entire day. Awww, seeing these girls prancing around in their pink tulle made all the effort joyful labour worthwhile. And I can’t help but think that I might attempt another one of these some day soon (which is is more than can be said about that dasted pettiskirt!).

Ooops – nearly let some negativity slip in there. Nope, all is happy, all is good!