Singlet tales. From candy canes to trains.

On Christmas eve I realised the Santa t-shirt I intended to dress my 22month old son in was going to be too hot.
As any sewist would, I set about making something suitable an hour before we are due to arrive LOL.

I've included a pic of the front and of the back,  with teensy little Christmas appliques.

That was very short lived due to being made within hours of Christmas. So yesterday I decided to unpick those appliques and replace them.
Recently I ruined a Chuggington shirt in a wash cycle too hot for the poor chuggers, but the patch on the sleeve was fine. So I used it on the singlet and prepared for my son to fall in love with it....
However, seeing as he can't read, he doesn't recognise it's Chuggington and was not at all excited lol. Oh well, one day the penny might drop!

Big boy bed quilt just in time

My son was moved from his cot to a single bed just before Christmas. Seeing as his little brother or sister is due today (yup, not born yet) it was on the cards anyway, and when I saw his foot reached over the top bar of the cot I could wait no longer.

I had started on a quilt with his name after he was born, but somehow miscalculated and ended up with some rows not the same width as others. Needless to say it was relegated to the ufo tub. I was told it was better to finish a dodgy quilt made with love than to leave it incomplete.

When I bought a quilt kit for this next baby at the Sydney show, I figured I couldn't start it til I'd done the quilt below.
I've said it before, but I thrive on deadlines!
So I'm hand sewing the binding down on my due date, and I can begin the quilt kit for the new baby tomorrow hehe.

I realised I have recently completed FOUR quilt tops, but the last time I quilted anything was for the Wyong show in April 2012!
I was nervous to get started again and my straight lines are anything but straight. I just had to pull on my big girl knickers and get on with it.

I kept forgetting to watch when the quilt needed rolling in the throat of my machine. With the feed dogs down no mistakes go by!
So I went back to rounded and moving stitches instead and this turned out much better!
It's probably totally amateurish to quilt with so many types of free motion designs all on the one quilt, but it was fun so who cares?

Scallops are probably my favourite free motion quilting (FMQ) shape.

Too difficult to photograph but I did "pebbles" all through this part of the castle.
I'm much better at meandering than straight free motion, as you can see.

It's the size of his mattress, and no wider or taller.

Fit for a King!
Thanks for dropping by!
Love Cass

Misguided nesting - baby sprinkle day

My husband has been hoping the nesting instinct would kick in so the "spare room" which was mostly filled with fabric, notions, trims, and tools might begin to look inhabitable by the new baby!

Well, I was preparing for the new baby, but my nesting got a bit misguided and turned into quilted teacups for the celebration of this baby's birth with my sisters and close friends. A high tea, affectionately named by my bestie as my "Baby sprinkle". Not quite a baby shower seeing as it's the second baby, but somewhat the same.

I told you about these and began showing you, but it's today and they're all finished! (ok, if you're a sewist you probably know that's a lie, there are three tea bags that don't have the word "tea" embroidered onto them, but "finished" as they're probably going to get haha).

Here I am this morning finishing some embroidery on the last tags whilst waiting to go.

I love them all, seeing as I made each one unique. I decided I'd show every single one:

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Just a reminder I bought the pattern from Patchwork pottery, here US$12. It's a little fiddly so I wouldn't say suitable for beginner, but if you've ever sewn a zip before you're experienced enough.
FYI I also found these cute play tea bags yesterday

and pinned them but the post isn't in English so you just have to make it up yourself I think.

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Here's my idea of "hand sew the opening closed" haha. Too lazy for that, it's in the lining anyway pfft! Brother NS20 to the rescue!

Getting pretty good at those zips after churning out ten in short succession. Just sayin'.

Top quilting is 'daisies' on the picture above.

This quilting's kind of 'steamy'

This was my first one and I don't like it much but it was popular today. I *do* like the blue ricrac though :)

Some meandering quilting.

This quilting's kind of pebble style. I loved getting to use my decorative stitch on this blue ribbon.

More pebble quilting and another decorative stitch used.

Love hearts in the red, using variegated thread. The leaf pattern stitch was a bit lost in white on the gingham ribbon, but I still love this country cup pouch.

This divine fabric by Robert Kauffman (I believe it's called Florentine or Florentine 2 3 or 4) stole my heart, if I could use only 3 fabrics for the rest of my life I think this would be one of them!
I followed the fabric's lead when quilting this one. "Oh fabric, take me away!!"

Above is the scalloped quilting which was easy and effective, and I got to use some cute trims I've had for years, on the ones above and below.

And Danielle brought all these goodies to fill them for each guest:
And made this adorable canvas for baby's room! Thank you!

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Until next time, wishing you lots of stitching time.
Love Cass

FMQ practice on teacups

Next on the calendar now Christmas is done, is to have a baby. Schedule:whenever baby 2 is good & ready.
My good friend is coordinating a high tea get together to celebrate the impending birth.
She would've loved our second babies to come in the same year, and there's still time for 2013, but for argument's sake we were pre naming them Thelma & Louise!
She made the baby a Christmas gift. Isn't it adorable?



I'm making some tea cup pouches, hoping they'll be done in time so the afternoon tea guests get to take one home each :-)
It's good free motion quilting practice.
Here are some I've quilted, to show you my quilting.






Isn't this fabric (hope cove) just divine? I love it.





I love this Anni Downs fabric called my favourite things, I had to show u both sides of the teacup!

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Felt shooting stars - free tutorial

I have made 10 of these inexpensive shooting stars for little ones in my circle.

They're kind of addictive, and really easy and quick. Let me show you how I made them....

MATERIALS:

• About 40cm each of 5 ribbons (or more than 5 and varying lengths!)
• Two pieces/scraps of felt over 10cm square (or fleece would work too)
• Contrasting thread
• Filling - I used long grain rice. Mine took about half a cup each to fill.

METHOD:
1. I began by cutting out a star template (using a piece of cardboard which was ready to go into the recycling bin) about 10cm at the widest point.
Mine wasn't perfect, once they are stuffed it hides your dodginess a little hehe
2. Trace your star shape onto your top piece of felt. It doesn't hurt to mark a start/stop point (now) to make sure you remember to leave an opening for stuffing. I recommend leaving open a whole "valley" between two points.
3. Embellish the front with any personalisation before the next step
4. Prepare your ribbon lengths together to create a tail. I simply pinned mine together near the top.
5. Sew the front piece of felt to the back piece (right sides out, you won't turn through), ensuring you have the ribbon tail in place at the bottom, and leaving the stuffing opening.
6. Fill with rice or other heavy filling, sew opening shut.
7. Cut out the star and let the kids chuck it about!

A friend told me she cut out the stars first, and then sewed them. She used straight stitch which would be even faster.
But I like to sew first, fill, then cut. It's the perfect excuse to use those fancy stitches you never get to use, keeping that rice in nice and tight, and if you use *my favourite* variegated thread it shows off more, the wider the stitch width! Less room for error sewing off the side by accident too.

If you make one (or 10! or more!) please email me a pic to cass@cassthecoolest.com or put it on my facebook wall, I'd love to see it! I don't care if it's a midnight pic using a flash - how else do we sew for the kids hehe.

I would recommend it from ages 18 months to about 3 and a half - older if you want to play piggy in the middle or something!?

New logo & a completed quilt top for sharing

So excited, I got given a new logo by my bestie who runs Virtually Perfect as an awesome office assistant and webdesign and the whole sh'bang!

What do you think?

and she made one for my facebook cover too.

I just had to share because they're SO cool, I can't get over it.

While I'm here I'll show you a quilt top I don't think I've shared. Finished in October (2012), it's for my husband's brother's girlfriend, Hannah.
The original intention was to finish it and send it to her while she's staying in Austria to remind her of all of us. But seeing as postage is so expensive from Australia to Austria, and they are travelling about anyway, I decided to keep it at home in the end.
It's probably the girliest quilt I've ever done. I used a pattern from the book Think fast, by Swirly Girls Design that I bought from Blueberries, my LQS.
Meanwhile, in our town a cupcakery opened and I used the cutesy scraps to make a little wallhanging for the owner, Melissa, as a little gift. She made the cake pops for my 30th birthday and her creations are so delicious.
Kiss My Cupcake, 1 Alison Rd Wyong

Thanks for joining me XO
Cass

Back to the BOM

I began a BOM (block of the month) quilt kit when my almost 2 year old was only a few weeks old. Or maybe before that? Anyway, it was 12 blocks, 12 months. Yes, I know it's been more like 20, but I'm still working on that final block lol.
Any sewist will know that projects get moved around on the priority list (and I have a tub of things I once started). BUT! I got my final block out again this week, after finishing a quilt top for my friend who got married this year. (U like it?)


I designed it to make the most of a fat quarter stack a friend gave me. The triangles were supposed to look all uneven but I'm so anal I had to make them all 45 degrees and 60 degrees. So now they just look like bad seams. Ah well.
Anyway, I'd embroidered the word that goes in the final block, so I thought I was further along in progress than I was.
Albeit disappointing to find I was at the beginning, familiarising myself with the block reminded me of how much I had a crush on the fabric range and I fell in love with it all over again.
I wrote this whole blog post yesterday, but in the cyber trip from my phone to the net it didn't survive. The good news is I've already fused and sewn much of the block in the meantime. Next stop is three Ohio stars which I like the look of, but don't really like the constant need for pressing and cutting a bunch of pieces. Anyway, [thinking positively], they're the last ones I'll have to do for a while.
It just so happens that we get our new bed tomorrow, so I will need to get this quilt finished and soon display it on our new bed!!
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I'm really excited because two close friends are getting new sewing machines for Christmas!
Mums is an upgrade, and my bridesmaid is beginning to wonder what hit her in the sewing world as it's her first ever machine!!
She is so excited, she is already planning blogs and pages and logos for sharing her creations. I can't wait to share more details with you, but I'll simply have to.

What else I've been up to......
I've been updating with brief sentences and photos on my facebook page rather than blogging. If you're on Facebook, be sure to join me and hopefully I will make you laugh with something relatable or a crafty picture!

Other finishes:



I made a bunch of rice filled shooting stars for my mother's group friends



I made this adorable quilted teacup pouch using an instant download pattern from patchwork pottery. I want to make more, aren't they cute?!



Some fleece shapes filled with rice for my family currently travelling Europe. 25sec in the microwave and these will help keep fingers toasty inside jacket pockets on those days where the weather forecast begins with a minus symbol!



Here are my friends from Wyong Patchwork & Quilting enjoying the festivities.

Merry Christmas guys, and all the best wishes for 2013!

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