It is nearly Christmas! I can't believe how fast time flies, but in 34 days, the jolly man will be here and 2012 will be almost over! eek!

Needless to say, I have been busy making Christmas presents for all the little tots I know and am quite pleased with how far along I am, given it is still November! I am making about 20 presents and have finished 6, all for little boys, with another 2 to be completed this week. This fun game is one of the gorgeous presents I have been making these past few weeks.

Then I'll get on to making presents for the little girlies. I just have to decide what to make with these gorgeous fabric sets, and for whom!

Christmas is so much more fun with littlies around! I can't wait to give these goodies away!

not all a loss...

A sad day today...
after a whole day in the garden yesterday weeding and spreading mulch, with aching muscles, ones I'd forgotten I had, too sore to do anything else... I sat down today to sew my latest quilt, only to find I was close to the end of the spool of cotton!

Not much point starting anything, only to get part way through a row and run out of thread!!

Oh dear! A trip to the craft store needed soon!!!

Instead... a much deserved afternoon reading my latest favourite series of books, Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy! Clearly, Buddy also worked far too hard yesterday and was too tired to move off the couch!

Garden looks good though! :)

One from the archives

I made my first quilt almost two years ago when our very good friends Brad and Kirsten had their first bub, Jaxon. I wanted to make them something special, that couldn't be bought at a shop (well, not ones like this) and that came from the heart. Mum was right into quilting, and I figured, as I could sew, it couldn't be that hard to do!

My first foray into quilting was a simple 9-patch design. Mum actually had the 9-patch blocks leftover from another quilt, so the hard work was (sort of) already done! Kirsten is a big fan of butterflies and Mum just happened to have the yellow fabric in the outside border which is filled with little bugs and butterflies! A perfect match :)

I really enjoyed spending the time with Mum learning to quilt and the resultant product looked pretty good too! Since making this quilt, with a lot of practice, I've been able to try new techniques and design my own quilts or adapt patterns where I like the design, but need to change the size of the finished product.  Who knows... maybe I'll branch out from baby quilts sometime soon and try something else too!

A sneak preview...

My new project...

I think it's going to be a hoot!

Luke enjoying a spot of play time on his new quilt

Thanks for letting me post this gorgeous pic Sara!

I'm so glad Luke loves his quilt :-)

A jungle of a quilt

I am so happy with how this quilt turned out! My dear friend Sara had a little baby boy in March and it was so lovely to be able to give her something I made to help celebrate this new chapter in her life.

This quilt took a long time to make. I could have streamlined the process of sewing all the squares together, but wanted each block to look completely different. I love the brightness of all the fabrics and hope that when he's old enough, he can play 'quilt block memory' with his mum (perhaps she can think of a more fun name), searching for all the elephants, zebras, monkeys and lions that grace the quilt top!

I got a little creative on the back of this quilt - must be starting to feel confident now... and inspired by pictures of other quilts I've seen lately. I thought this strip of animals would jazz up the back and give little Luke something to drool on and chase, whichever way the quilt faces!

The orange jungle leaf fabric was a chance find, but a perfect match for the quilt!

Enjoy Sara, Steve and Luke.

I'm off to start my next project... from the jungle to the forest...

Jungle quilt: Planning the first block

This week I cut my squares and started to assemble the blocks.
I will need 9 blocks for the size of the quilt I want to make.
Each block will have the squares arranged in a different order.
I have 12 different fabrics so each fabric appears 3 times in each block.

One down... 8 to go...

A new stash of fabric...

to make a quilt for a little boy...

I have started a quilt already, but can't seem to make it work at this stage.  So I've put it aside for now and went out to seek some inspiration from new fabric.  I am really happy with this collection and I might even have a few extras I can add from my stash of greens, yellows and blues. 

I can't wait to cut these fabrics up and see the quilt take shape!