Felt food – great for imaginative play

29 Aug

I recently saw gorgeous handmade felt food and thought I would give it a try.  A beautiful toy that stimulates the senses and encourages imaginative play. With the help of some online tutorials, I made a few sandwich and fillings for Miss B, which she loved.

I made breakfast, lunch and dinner for Master L’s 2nd birthday present. Snacks and dessert were also on the menu but I ran out of time. Mum popped around the night I was sewing, and I handed her a needle and thread for some hand sewing.


It was fun to come up with ideas and adapt the tutorials I found. I prefered to machine sew as much as possible, hand sewing not being my forte! Hope Master L likes his present.

Have you made felt food? What’s your favourite to make?

Hair clip holders

27 Aug

I’ve been making hair clip holders for some of Miss B’s little girl friends and cousins. They are super easy to make – and a great way to store hair clips.

The size I make fits perfectly into an A4 sized frame, so you can hang it on the wall or display on a dressing table.  You could use a plate holder or lay it flat in a drawer. The colorful/girly material adds a burst of color to a bedroom.

I might try another version of a hair clip holder, which also stores headbands.

Thanks for stopping by! xo

Little Miss A’s quilt

17 Aug

Our very close friends moved to Sydney last year. We miss them a lot – Miss B and their Master O get along really well. They recently had a beautiful daughter, Miss A. Looking forward to meeting Lil Missy soon!

I offered to make Miss A a quilt and the request was that the material be not baby-ish. I selected “Giddy” from Moda and have made a start.

I still feel like I’m on quilt-training wheels, so it’s slow but steady progress. Slightly nerve-wracking to be gifting a quilt too… hope they like it!

Check back on my progress soon.

Miss B’s binoculars

10 Aug

What to do on a rainy Melbourne day? Why make binoculars with Miss B of course! Using this tutorial, she colored in paper using her ‘special’ textas and pasted it to the paper rolls. I added the yellow string and there you have it. One set of binoculars. She is enjoying looking through them and telling me all the things she can see.

7 lessons learnt from my first quilt

7 Aug
  1. See the entire pattern before you start picking fabrics
  2. Better still, see a sample of the quilt
  3. Selecting fabric should not be a rushed activity
  4. Don’t underestimate the time it will take to piece the quilt
  5. Invest in a ¼ inch foot
  6. Pin your quilt, batting and backing together properly. Don’t rush this step
  7. Sewing with others is lots of fun and inspiring

I’d love to hear what lessons you learnt from your early quilting projects.

Amanda xo

My first quilt

5 Aug

In 2009, I attended my first quilt show and was amazed by the gorgeous fabric and quilts I saw. Knowing I could sew a straight line, I figured that I could probably sew a simple quilt.

Fast forward 6 months. Pregnant and restless, I decided that I should get on with making a quilt. And what great timing, our new baby could be the proud owner of my first quilt.

Not knowing the gender proved a bit difficult with fabric selection. Or maybe it was just my lack of ability to select fabrics! I took a class at a local community house and created my first 9 block quilt.

 

Overall I’m happy with it and Master M enjoys crawling all over it when it’s not on his cot.

But I think I made a terrible choice for the sashing. The red sashings dominates the quilt, and takes away from the gorgeous spotted fabric. Or maybe I’m too harsh on myself.

Pretty headbands for little girls

3 Aug

Miss B has a few parties coming up for some of her little girlfriends. So tonight I made some pretty headbands for the birthday girls. Perfect for a 3 year old, don’t you think?

I’ve made a few headbands and feel like I’ve perfected my technique, including exact material width and length. Makes for speedy work.

Thanks for stopping by.

Amanda xo

Hello world!

28 Jul

Today I made a decision to start a blog. I wanted a space where I can share with others my journey of making “stuff”. I like to sew, cook, write, create fun activities for our kids, the list goes on! Sometimes my projects are a success, or turn out much better than I thought. Or not! At least I can look back and say that I gave it a shot, and learnt something along the way.

Spending time with my husband and children is really important to me. Not to mention heaps of fun reliving my childhood! Helping our children discover the world and themselves is a big responsibility. My family will always come first – the kids don’t care if my inbox is cleared or if a project is complete. They just want our love, and time to play and learn together. So when the kids are tucked up in bed, that’s when I’ll get crafty.

So here’s a list of projects I’m working on:

  • Find dinosaur related activities for Miss B
  • Start sewing quilt for Miss A
  • Bake and decorate 2 cakes

Drop by again soon to read the progress of these projects.

Thanks for stopping by.

Amanda   xo

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