A Parade of Elephants!

Here are a few more sleepy elephants, new for the Littlest. Left to right, one from IKEA, one from Brunei, one from New York (state!) and one from Texas! I originally posted about them here and have cut out many more but they haven't managed to get sewn together yet... they're on the list!

Baby Scallop Blankets

Let the Christmas Craft Season begin! Here are the only 3 baby quilts that will be available this year at the Littlest and, if they're still around afterwards, you'll find them at the 12 Days of Christmas. They are a lot of work and a bit slow for my need for speed! But ooo they are lovely and very gratifying to make... (or maybe I mean once they're made!). The pattern is from the book Bend the Rules Sewing, which is a great book for any level of seamstress from beginner to seasoned veteran - as long as you don't mind bending the rules once in a while! Hmm... is this starting to sound like a recommendation for that sewer on your Christmas shopping list?

Tea Towels

Just trying to use up my scraps again! Those birds were a favourite print that I found at a shop in Victoria, sadly it is long out of print.
My mom has a Christmas idea involving tea towels and this lead me to search for funny words or sayings to embroider on tea towels. Here are a few favourites:
Restaurant Menu
Grocery List
"Make yourself at home - do my dishes!"
"Just dry the bloody dishes!"
"i am preparing dinner just as fast as I can dial!"

New Ironing Board Cover

The trouble with lovely fabric is figuring out what to do with it so that you can enjoy it daily. Some fabrics just don't suit clothing and bags are always a great way to enjoy fabric but how many bags does one really need?! Lucky for me, my ironing board cover was looking very tired and Karyn had a really nice tutorial for making your own cover. This fabric is a heavy cotton canvas from IKEA which is working out really well as a cover. It stays in place and I'll wager that it will last longer than a quilt cotton. And as for enjoying this daily? Well, let's just say there's lots of sewing and ironing going on around here - Christmas is coming!! Hello Mr. Fox!

Ticker Tape Quilt

I needed another project like a hole in the head (especially since the Christmas season is just about upon us!) but I couldn't resist this Ticker Tape Quilt by AmandaJean. I've been wanting to do a mini quilt project and this was perfect. Something about the random squares and not having to applique really appealed to me! The edges of each square are left to fray which I wonder about but so far it is extremely cute. I keep threatening (myself) to use up all my scraps before buying any new fabric but I haven't been very good at sticking to this plan. This project won't get through my scraps very quickly either but it sure was fun to play with. Mr. Fox seems to approve too. October was Scrap Buster month at one of my favourite blogs and shops Sew Mama Sew where they listed 5 or more project ideas a day to use up your scraps. The Ticker Tape Quilt was my favourite.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween, originally uploaded by Georgi Pearson.

A late night post - most have you are stuffed with treats by now and having crazy dreams because of it! We had a big dump of snow Friday night which made for a blue sky, powdery, wintery October 31st. A little cow is out there trudging down the street as I type! We had our 5 minutes of Halloween around here - that was the length of time I was able to get Finn to wear his vampire cape and mask, which only happened because I used the age old mother's solution, THE BRIBE. It has been a challenging Halloween, to say the least. First off, I beat the rush and bought a nice big pumpkin at the grocery store (no patches up here - although someone did grow pumpkins in their greenhouse with success!), it had a proper stem for a handle, it was terrific! Until it froze... and went to mush... So, all week I checked all 5 grocery stores, yes that's 5 total, and no pumpkins. One glimmer of hope was a shipment of pumpkins was due Thursday at the Super A, so back we went and hooray - one tall, skinny pumpkin with a great little handle came home with us!

Pamplamoose Music

Just stumbled across this musical duo - awesome...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xycnv87N_BU&feature=channel

The Zippy

Japanese cotton prints are some of the cutest small scale prints around.  Here we have some matroyshka dolls, ballet sheep and pandas, fat puppies, and musical dogs and sheep.  Still to come are apple trees, farm animals, multi-colour polka dots, and blue trees with little fences.  I wanted to make something small, and useful, that would show off these cute prints. I often find that if I'm just going out for a quick trip to the grocery store/coffee shop/thrift store ;0) all I need are keys and a card or some cash so, introducing The Zippy - when you just need to Zip out! There's a zipper, for starters, a loop of cotton twill tape to hold the quick-release key holder to the side and it's lined, with polka dots and a georgianna label inside. So far the coffee shop patrons are loving them. Guess I better make some more - thanks guys!

Delayed Until Next Spring?

I was so impressed at how quickly this project of stripping, sanding and spray painting was going - and then it snowed! I can't spray paint inside so I was watching the thermometer every day and when it hit 10 degrees I'd scurry out with my spray paint and do another coat. Well, I'm probably one coat away from finishing and that thermometer doesn't look like it's going to pull through for me. So unless I build a plastic tent in the basement (which sounds like too much work) my fun old red chairs will have to wait til spring. Sigh.

Rhubarb Jams

I think I've jammed about 12 pounds of rhubarb this week! It's jobs like this that I'm glad for a big kitchen, most of the time I'm thinking my counter top is too big and just collects junk as a result. On that topic however, I'm on a bit of a counter top kick - an effort to be able to see my counter tops all day - the second something lands on the counter it's quickly assessed and put where it's supposed to go. Back to the jam though! I've made some Ginger Rhubarb Jam and some Tangy Orange Rhubarb Jam. Making jam reminds me of my Grandma Ward and the first time I made peach jam in her kitchen. I don't think it turned out right though, I think I always get the length of boiling wrong. Similarly with this batch, I tried the jelly test but I'm never sure, is the dab of jam wrinkling on top as it cools on a frozen plate or not? I think I should invest in a candy thermometer to save me the worry! Alas, rhubarb seems to be very forgiving and these batches taste dee-lish - at least to me and my 3 year old - hubby doesn't like rhubarb, and that's another story!