I picked up my scrappy quilt again a few days ago and decided to try to get moving with it.  The squares have been sitting under my overlocker for the last six months keeping warm!  I sorted out six more colour lots aiming to complete 16 squares in total to make a 4 x 4 square quilt.

Some sewing, ironing, cutting, sewing, ironing, cutting later, I finished three more squares.  The brown one above and these two below...

So now I have 13 squares done and only three left to go!

This is definitely a children's quilt and I have put too much work into it to give it away, so I think it will be a floor quilt for the girls' bedroom.  I'm planning on connecting the squares with white with coloured posts at the intersections.  I think scrappy binding is the only thing that will suit - more work but it will hopefully be worth it in the end!!

The original idea for this quilt was from Aneela at Comfort Stitching - I wonder if she ever got hers finished?!  I'm linking up today with Our creative spaces.

I picked this cute brown floral up from Spotlight the other day when I was meant to be shopping for baby quilt wadding.  I had seen this line of fabric there and pondered over it a few times but decided against it as it was around $16 per metre.  But when I saw it all on the reduced table for $6 per metre I decided it was meant to be (I chopped the selvage off before blogging so am not sure what fabric is called - was by David textiles).

I looked through all my Ottobre patterns for a dress that would suit the fabric but couldn't find one.  So I checked out the most awesome blog - Craftiness is not optional, to have a look at Jess' tutorials.  I found this sweet dress and drafted the pattern as per Jess' instructions and I think the dress turned out really well.  It features some green floral bias binding I made and covered buttons. The neckline features pleats and the sleeves are gathered.  There is elastic from the buttons at the front around the back of the waist which allow room to grow. 

A nice cheesy grin from Isabella!  I think it will be a good 'kinder' dress (Issie starts in a couple of weeks!), as it has good sun coverage and will hide all the dirt!

I am very pleased with how quickly and nicely this little quilt came together.  I cut out the pieces a few months ago and had them stacked in my sewing box for when I had some spare time.  I decided to use up scraps of all sorts of colours, alternating with soft white for our bub. 

The back is a grey and white spot.  I was planning on machine quilting this quilt but since my sister had borrowed my quilting foot, I decided not to wait and to do a tacking stitch with red embroidery thread - I love how it turned out! 

The quilt is just a cradle/floor/pram quilt (80 x 80 cm) as I want to spend more time pouring over fabrics once baby is born and we know the sex!!  I will most likely be using some of this fabric in the next quilt...

For girl...

For boy...

These fabrics are by Sarah Jane Studios - an awesome illustrator who has turned her hand to fabric design.  Cute stuff!

I'm sharing today over at Kootoyoo.

It's been a while since I've paid some attention to my blog...Christmas, holidays, baby bump growing and a sewing lull (burnt out after too many Christmas gifts?).  I thought I would post about some baby preparations.  I feel I need to put some of my creativity now into preparing for baby, with only seven-eight weeks to go!  Here is where baby will sleep.  I painted up some letters and little elephants - both from bunnings, to dress up the wall.  Spot the cute new bird hanging from the ceiling.  

The little bird is yet another Hop Skip Jump pattern (gee I am getting some mileage out of that book!).  It was super easy and fun to make.  I made mine from cream linen, cotton scraps for the tail feathers and a teeny bit of orange wool felt for the beak.  He is hung with thin fishing wire - which was thin enough to be sewn onto the back of the bird then suspended from the ceiling.

Here is the first garment I have made for baby - a soft grey marle cotton bonnet.  Since we don't know the sex, soft grey is calling as the colour of the moment - think I will knit a little cardi from the same cotton.  As we will be having an (early) March baby, the weather may not call for bonnets and cardis but baby's do tend to be colder than us big people, don't they?  The pattern is from Vintage knits for modern babies by Hadley Fierlinger.

This is Monkey Man - one of my homemade gifts for Christmas.  This one was made for my little nephew, Hamish.

Another Hop Skip Jump pattern.  I also made one for my other nephew, sporting navy overalls - but I didn't manage to get a picture in the Christmas mayhem. 

Here is a dress I made for Isabella's little friend - also for Christmas.  I made the pattern up - just shirring around the top and some little tie straps.  I added scalloped lace along the hems and pockets.

Issie unwrapping her Kangaroo and Joey (see post below for details of their creation).

Back from a lovely week in Warrnambool.  Beautiful weather. Arrived home to Melbourne yesterday to four days of 35 + degrees - not fun.  Thank goodness for air conditioning.