February is over already???

But where did February get too. Ok, the reason it went by so fast is because it is a short month right. Of course it is. That's the reason.

I've been keeping a low profile really. Trying to fit in a few things like the crochet, sewing & all the other things in the craft space of my brain. Unfortunately Baby Brain has taken over & the craft space part is shrinking. Oh well, I get to spend more time on the couch with the kid(s). lol BJ loves getting in cuddle time on the couch at rest time.
There was some bad weather the other weekend, so Stu along with the help of BJ got a bit of painting in. Ok, don't look too closely at the horrid orange that is our garage including the ceiling. Well actually the ceiling is whiteish now along with half the walls. Just waiting for the next weekend of rain to finish up I suppose.

I have been working on a little crochet. Just about finished the baby blanket. On the second last ball of yarn at the moment so it won't be far off so stay tuned for that one. In between I have done some dishcloths again. I have been taking these out & about & just doing them inbetween times when it is still too warm for sitting under the ever growing baby blanket. I have to edge the pink & red ones still but by needlecase had gone AWOL but I have just spotted it so can now sew the ends in & put some edges on. I am making these up for possible fundraising stall in a while. I'll see if they end up there or they will make good gifts again.

Hope all is good in your world.

The Week At A Glance

Lots of fun at the local play gym... I think this will be a common place to visit from now on. BJ just went flat out for 2.5 hours. I got to watch & crochet for that time. Ahhh... bliss... nice for the both of us. He's growing up. He doesn't need mum's help so much for things like this anymore!

Friendly neighbours are very common right now

The baby blanket I started a couple of weeks ago is still growing. This is 4 balls (100g) so far. Getting hotter to sit under now though so may go in the pile with the Rainbow Ripple blanket.

The zucchinis are abundant. Luckily I have a Stuart that likes to cook & has been hunting for some fabulous recipes using it. This is one of my favourites & it doesn't need cooking! Too easy & great in this humid weather. So very tasty too, which you wouldn't expect from something so simple, but often we find out that simple is best.

Working on dishcloths/washcloths again to build up a stock for later on...

I have also made another Babushka doll (which proved to be much liked - thanks Jana!), sewn a couple of little teddy bears which aren't so cute after all. Not a lot more going on. Our regular yearly programming starts next week. We'll see if I get a bit more motivated to do some other stuff then.

A Quilt In A Day

Yesterday morning BJ was sleeping in & I had a sudden urge to make this quilt. It is a cheating kind of quilt but does that matter really? The fabric is Beetle Boy from Clothworks. We got it in a couple of weeks ago at work & I really had to have some. The quilt top was cheating as it is just the fabric as is. No cutting, piecing or anything. I just got 1.5m of the top & backing & basted them while BJ slept yesterday. Too easy. He gave me a hand quilting the top later on. I did machine quilt it. I just followed the lines. How easy is that. I used a clear thread on the top & red underneath.

Below you can see the beetles up close & then I have pulled the back up so show the red with yellow dot backing fabric from the range I used. I just love the stripe that I used for the binding. I actually got the stripe originally to make a hat for BJ. I still have enough left I think. I got the strip & one of the blue bugs from the collection for the other side of his hat. I will probably get that done in time for winter! lol I am a bit scared of the hat, though I should try. I am sure it can't be that hard. Anyway, the hat is beside the point. Back to the quilt - I think I spent longer hand sewing the binding on than the rest of it took. What a great way to make a quilt though. If you need a quilt in a hurry this is the way to go. I don't need one in a hurry at all, I just had the sudden urge to make one. It was actually good practice too as I haven't done any for a while & I sure could do with a lot more practice. My binding corners aren't too shabby all things considered! lol This will probably hang up at work for a couple of weeks. I told BJ that it was going there anyway, so he didn't try to claim it like he does with everything I make.

So there you go. Now I can get back to the other list of things I have that I want to do. No doubt there will be new fabric at work that I need again soon. If it is true that there is going to be a worldwide cotton shortage, run out & buy a bunch of fabric now before the prices go up.

The Reward For All The Finishes

... is starting something new of course. I had every intention last night of working on the Rainbow Ripple but it was just too hot to sit under. So having got this yarn recently I thought I had better use it. It's a nice varigated soft acrylic. I thought it too would make a nice baby blanket. But with the varigated yarn I didn't want to do anything with a pattern that would suit better with changing colours. So I quickly checked though Crochet Pattern Centrals list of afghans for a blanket that I could use. I didn't look at that many as the tennis was starting & I want to get the hook going. I found this Bubble pattern. It's pretty simple & quite effective. I have done almost 5 inches & used up almost one 100g ball. Wow! It is worked in single crochet pretty much so it isn't growing very quickly & you can't really see the little bobbly bits sticking up out of it in the picture. But it is nice I think. I think it will make a nice boy blanket for one of the many friends who are expecting this year. Hopefully one of them has a boy! It's pretty cute. I have another nice varigated in the same yarn as this one that I will have to find another pattern in that list for. I will have to go & get a couple more balls of this one though as once I finish this ball I should work out how many I need to get it a decent size. It's all good fun & keeping me occupied anyway.

Another Finish

This has been a good weekend to finish things off. Don't you love finishes... I have been working on another of the dragonfly cushions. I like this one way better than the first one I did. This one I did with DMC pearl #5 907. It's for someone that likes green, lime green at that. I thought I would make it a little more funky though & a little less white but backing it with something other than the linen that the front is attached to. I chopped that off & added this lime green fabric backing.

I really like it. Now I want to do 2 new ones for me & back them. I nearly did with my original but I just did it how it was designed. I am waiting for new ones to arrive at work. I had better not buy them all though. (if you are interested in one email me through here & I will give you the details on who to call as work does send stuff out all over Aus!) I would really like a couple more. I gave one in the packet to someone for a present the other day. I hope she enjoys doing it. I have all sorts of ideas on doing more though. I have to stop thinking ... I don't have time for all the thinking to be put into action.

I must say while I am sitting here melting that I am really glad I am only 15 weeks along. It would be terribly uncomfortable. Bad enough at this stage. Got to love winter babies! lol

Ok, I had better go & finish off this other little thing I just started & then I can get back to some other projects that also need my attention. Happy Day everyone.

Charity Quilt Squares plus a Ta-Dah

Here is my little Ta-dah moment for the day. Somehow today, between weeding the garden, fishing off the garden wall & finding shapes in clouds, I have managed to finish the edge of the Baby Ripple blanket. It is only 2 rows of single crochet around the outside as I experimented a little & anything too large was going to look horrible we decided. So I added just this little edge to give it a finished off look. My only problem with edging is working out where to stick the hook in to the existing sides. So I don't know if I did it technically right in crochet work but oh well, I did it where it went the easiest.

Also today I had to finish off some quilt squares. This is for a quilt to raise money for the Elkhounds that need rescuing in the USA. I am friends online with a large group of people around the world who own Elkhounds.

Meet Juneau our Elkhound. She's nearly 5.

In North America there are a lot more of these dogs than there are here in Australia. So many in fact that they have rescue groups to help these dogs when they are abandoned or need rehoming. This is done primarily through the John Nelsen Moosedog Rescue Fund. The group pays for health work needed for a dog & foster care for a dog until its forever home is found. It's probably a good thing I am not near all these dogs else I could imagine I would have quite a few. Foster failure is regular with those who take them in originally on a temporary basis. There are also lots of happy stories though on dogs that are rescued & do have amazing stories on how they ended up looking for a new home.

Fundraising is done regularly through a number of people to help fund this work as it does cost a bit to do this. A few ladies that quilt a little have got together to work on a quilt together. I was recently sent the fabric pieces all cut & ready to sew. I will send them back to the USA & then the quilt will be completed & will most likely be raffled off. Cool. It's nice to be able to do something to help raise funds from the other side of the world. I'm not terribly happy with my squares though as for one thing I was short a star point. So I will have to hope there is a little left that the recipient can finish it off. Also I had a couple of rather small squares so I tried to assemble as well as possible but I hope she has enough fabric also to undo & resew those that look a bit wonky. Really I don't think they will do at all, but it depends on what fabric is left. Hopefully there is some.

So two little jobs finished off today. Hopefully tonight I can finish off another one before getting back to my rainbow ripple blanket. I was very excited yesterday when I got to venture out for a couple of hours all by myself & I got to go stash shopping. I found the orange I had run out of while out & about so I can now get back onto my blanket. I bet now the weather will warm up more & I will have to put it down again. The last week would have been perfect for sitting under it but oh well, it wasn't to be & I did get the baby blanket done in the meantime.

It's exciting to see all the produce popping up in the garden again too at last. The beans are going mad. We will soon have a lot of Roma tomatoes ready to pick followed by some Ping Pong tomatoes & Heirlooms. It will be interesting to see how they all taste & produce in the end. We have just finished all the tomatoes from the freezer that we had last year so that has been fabulous to have a supply all year. We also decided that it would be good to try to do a spreadsheet on how our vegies grow, with info like how much room they need, whether they are even tasty & anything else we think we should use for reference next year. You know, you always assume you will remember all those things, but come next year, I can imagine we will be trying to remember which ones we grew that were really delicious or which ones were really short plants & didn't need high stakes etc etc... so much to remember. We will try to record it.

Hopefully Sunday will be just as much fun as today was. Enjoy the tennis finals! I will. Hope the ones you cheer for win!

Baby Ripple Blanket almost done

Here it is looking all cute & cuddly. This picture believe it or not actually shows the colours quite true. Amazing with my (lack of) camera skills. I am happy with the blanket but also not. For one thing I have had to make it small. The width wasn't big enough really & seems to have shrunk up a bit in the first couple of rows once I got going, so I must remember that for future reference. Other than that I love it. I love the look of the colours with their white flecks & I like how cozy it is. I think it is about a pram cover size only. I think I should had had an extra 2 ripples on it for a decent size that would be a bit closer to cot size. Anyway I have a friend expecting her first in winter so this may go her way, unless I come up with something I like better for her instead. I am currently sewing in the last few ends & then I am going to try an edge on it in plain white wool. It should look ok if I can figure out a nice pattern for it. I think it needs it but I will see, as I may put one on & then pull it out. So stay tuned...

In the meantime we have had a little working be in the garden now Stuart is able to move a little bit more. Good thing too as I will be able to move a bit less in coming months! lol I must be 15 weeks now so I am being kept away from some gardening which isn't so bad! hehehehe...

All 3 in a row... the fuzzybutt on the end though didn't have a wheelbarrow to help.

Anything Daddy can do, I can too! Daddy cuts trees, I can too.

Daddy goes up ladder, I can too. (& give Mummy heart attacks galore until insisting the ladder is finished & can be packed away!)

We had a lovely Australia Day here with a bunch of family & friends. Little kids all over the place! Good fun. Have a great weekend!