Blossom Blouse

The other day my lovely friend stood patiently by my side and told me where to cut and where to stitch. I am very pleased with the end result.

Thanks Mooks for your patience. I love you to bits and just wish we lived closer so we could we make stuff together more often.

The Blossom Blouse pattern is from Sew Liberated and it was SO simple-just perfect for a beginner sewer like me!

And just to make sure I could do it without my lovely teacher, I decided to make a second blossom blouse.

I used a vintage cot sheet that I picked up from the op shop ages ago. I have been collecting preloved sheets for the past year with a plan for a quilt of sorts but I loved this little floral print and thought it would be fresh and pretty for a Spring Blossom Blouse. I can see more of these being made but I am wondering, how many Blossom Blouses does one little girl need?

I kind of wish I had one in my size.

Rosa

This little girl is three today.
Isn't she darling?
Look at her big blue eyes.
She looks like a little doll.

I used some vintage lovelies on this page-music paper, an old sewing pattern, the floral frame is fabric from an old pillow case and the sweet embroidered doily. I had no hesitation cutting into that one as the doily was a bargain price of 20cents and it was full of holes and stains. Lucky me got to salvage that beautiful stitching. The crochet trim is from the doily as well. A bit of mod podge, gesso, paint, glitter, pearls, some paper scraps and a paper doily, lots of crazy stitching to finish off.
One of those 'fun, doesn't matter if it's all a bit wonky kind of pages'.

I loved spending time with you recently Rosa. You are just so sweet and so feisty all in the same breath.
I will always remember the way you looked at me so fondly and said...'I love you...what's your name again?' Hehe.

Happy Birthday Little Girl!

A new quilt

I have a new quilt in the making. Yes I still have the binding to complete on boo's quilt and yes I still have a log cabin cushion to complete-I have done the quilting tho so watch this space:) I am the queen of unfinished projects or should I say works in progress?

BUT after visiting our Great Nanna Belle recently, I came home very motivated to sew a quilt to make her new space seem more like a home and less like a hospital room. So that night I cut some very simple 10 inch squares with a bunch of fabrics in my stash.


So now I have another quilt top on the go! I am going to have a go at quilting this myself, some straight stitching both vertically and horitonzally. Wish me luck!

Handmade love

For Fathers Day, the children always make their daddy a present. We don't spend a lot of money on expensive gifts for Fathers Day. Sometimes they shop for something inexpensive, sometimes I buy a children's picture book about daddies for them to share at bedtime but they always make something. This year Bella made a choc chip and oatmeal cookie at school and a sweet card. I LOVED what she wrote in it.

My Dad rocks...You make me smile...I love my Dad...

and this poem...

Father is
Athletic
a bit of a Twit
Happy chappy
Excellent
favourite colour is Red

LOVE it! Not too sure about the athletic bit though.

Ollie brought home a card he had painted at preschool. And a cute poem about dads with his handprints on it.

I thought Lulu had best make him something as well. She had a great time painting this brown paper bag.

We filled it with chocolates and I stitched some circles along the top using a circle punch and paper scraps.

All gifts were very well received, as was a sleep in, breakfast in bed and the afternoon on the couch watching his team win their game. Hope you had a happy Father's Day too!

My Birthday-blogging by Bella

On my 8th birthday I went to Canberra to see my best friend Tassy. The first day we went to Questacon. We had a big surprise seeing Tassy there. Mum had organised for her to come and not told me. I went on the rollercoaster and the free fall.

We also went to a pizza place and we had pink lemonade. We went to China Tea house for dinner with Tasmyn. Next we went to an ice cream shop. We chose our flavour and we could choose something sprinkled on it. I chose macadamia and chocolate chip.

The next day we went to Tassy's house. We played dress ups and my little ponies. On this layout is the photo of us dressing up. I have used old bits of fabric from Mum's scrap box to make a border for my photo. There is some hidden journalling in a folder at the top of the page. Thank you for reading my blog.

Baking

I like to bake. I am not a great cook but I do like to bake. Ollie and I bake every week. Usually it's choc-chip/raisin cookies but today it was a banana cake.

Banana Cake is G's favourite. When we were 'courting' I used to drop by his house and leave a banana cake in the kitchen for him. Awwww...When we built our new house we designed a space for an upright freezer. Grant joked that it was for all the frozen bananas I hoard.

Anyway I have tried many a banana cake recipe and this one has been my favourite for a while now. I thought I'd share because it really is easy and yummy too.

Banana Cake

Preheat oven at 180 degrees

Ingredients
125g butter(room temp)
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
2 mashed bananas(overripe)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
100ml milk
1 1/2 cups SR flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

Mix butter and sugar, then add bananas, then eggs, just keep mixing and adding each ingredient until it is all nicely combined.

Grease and flour your cake tin. Pour in mixture and give it a tap so it settles.
Bake for 55-60 minutes at 180 degrees.

Insert a skewer to check that it's done-the skewer should come out clean.

Set aside in the tin to cool for a bit, then transfer cake to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients
125g cream cheese(room temp)
50g butter(room temp)
1 1/2 cups icing mixture
1 tbls lemon juice
1 tbls milk

Place ingredients in mixing bowl and use an electric beater to beat mixture until it's pale and creamy.

Spread over cake and cut yourself a slice to have with a cuppa!

Today we were going to visit Great Nanna Belle. I thought I'd take her a banana cake. Nanna Belle broke her hip a little while back and has been in nursing care. She has recovered beautifully but is no longer able to live at home and care for herself safely. She is very capable in many ways but she really does need some round the clock care. So she has just moved into her new 'home'. It's been hard for her to leave her home, her 'things', her memories. She has spent her life there. It's been hard for Grant's dad too(it's his mum) but it is right. Let me tell you she celebrated her 97th!!!!! birthday last month. Isn't that FANTASTIC!

So I decided to bake a tiny cake. Perfect for one! I split the mix between three small tins(6 x 3 1/2 inch loaf tins). It only took half the baking time for these mini versions. They turned out beautifully!

WIP

I borrowed this fantastic book from our local library.

It's been around for a while and is jam packed with fun stuff. I thought I'd show you my work in progress, that way if you don't see me posting the finished project soon, you can give me an encouraging prod. Anyway I have pieced the front of the log-cabin cushion-a project by Lisa Congdon.


I have used 2.5 inch strips of varying lengths. It's a simple but effective design, I think. And a great way to use up scraps. Hopefully next week I will quilt it and make it into a cushion cover. Fingers crossed.