Roll it up

A little something for my boy - a crayon roll to tote his crayons around in. He often gets into the colouring book when we are out having a weekend coffee (and my husband and I try to do boring adult things like reading the newspaper).

It also contains not just any old crayons, but 'twistable' crayons, each in its very own pocket - double the fun!

The instructions came from a website called Skip to my Lou.

The Quilt Project comes together

The fabulous Kirsty from Kootoyoo has brought all 66 redwork squares together into one fine looking quilt. Its really satisfying to see the fruition of her project, seeing how it looks both all in one complete quilt, and to see all the individual squares in detail. The pieces have such an amazing diversity, from simple to fabulously detailed. You really should check it out here.

My design "Winter Fox", and accompanying instructions are almost ready for linking to this website. I almost have it ready and was researching how to load it on this blog and discovered that Blogger doesn't allow direct links to files, so I have to investigate using a file sharing thingy-ma-jiggy. Just give me a few days to sort this out. Thanks.

You really should check it out, go on!

(image via)

***Embroidery pattern file can now be found on the side bar under "Free Stuff".

The tip forward bird

I have designed and made my own toy bird. A nice fat, jolly one. I spent quite some time sketching her up late last week, and then just went for it and cut it out and got sewing. Construction wise there are a few things I would do differently, but I like her overall look.

But...I have now discovered a new aspect to making toys - balance. This little birdy wants to just tip forward onto her beak, and put her pretty little tail in the air. She's front heavy and this made her very difficult to photograph (like an unco-operative child). Finally I stuck her in a fork in my oleander bush. Where else does a birdy go anyway?

Do you like her?

The other two...

My last two Miss Allsorts dolls were dropped in the staff room last week. Thursday's drop was in the late afternoon on the fire extinguisher near the entry to the staff room. I sat on the couches and watched for a while, she didn't get noticed while I was there, probably because I was watching. She was gone Friday morning though.

Friday's drop was a bold one, amongst the tea and coffee supplies, right near the water boiler in the staff kitchen. It didn't take long for her to be found, everyone loves to come for a tea or coffee, don't they? Someone got a bonus with theirs though.

I'll see if I have to out myself as the toy maker, or if I can remain anonymous...

A bevy of beauties

Last week was mental health week. Maintaining good mental health is something I am aware of in my life. So when the school I am working at right now announced it was holding a week full of feel good mental health activities for the staff in the second week of term (the week after the official week), I was both impressed and inspired to make my own contribution when "random acts of kindness" was mentioned at the staff meeting.

Now, I am not a regular staff member, most people would have seen me around but not know me well. Absolutely nobody knows I am a sewer or that I like to give things away. Instantly a little Toy Society style toy drop came into my mind...but amongst all the lesson planning and teaching stress was there room in my life for sewing?? You bet ya!

I decided to leave a toy a day in the staff room for someone to find and take home. I chose to make four Miss Allsorts dolls from the Make Your Own pattern, started them on Friday, sewed into the night and finished them off Sunday afternoon. Phew, a sewing marathon but totally worth it. I only got three in for the picture as I didn't get access to the camera until after dark on Sunday and I took one doll with me to work on Monday morning.

On Monday I left one near some of the staff computers, Tuesday I left one on the lounge chairs in the staff lunch area. I spied Monday's toy sitting one someone's desk, haven't spotted who got Tuesday's toy. Two to go, keep you posted!

How cute are these?

I wandered into the homewares shop just outside my local supermarket the other day. I was just browsing, killing time, and then I spied these key covers on the counter. How adorable! They are called matryoshkeys (doll up your keys). They come from an American company called Fred and Friends. I just love using my keys now, can't stop admiring them. Better go lock the back door (with my lovely keys) and get myself to bed.

And the winner is...

...drum roll please...

The random number generator has picked commenter number three. That's my friend Zoe. I think this is a very appropriate winner as Zoe is of Russian descent and her husband is from the UK. I think the little boy looks like one of the Queen's soldiers (although they wouldn't be seen dead (or alive) with a star on their hat...).

The toys are coming your way Zoe - when I make it to the post office - congratulations!

Thanks to everyone who dropped by my blog and made such nice and encouraging comments. I really appreciated you stopping by.

Sunday Softie

This little one was a quickie job this afternoon. I used the pattern from Clever Owl to create the body shape and then sketched on the shape of the head. I did a bit of a "hung, drawn and quatered" job on Miss Jemima. I recycled her arms for this toy, (her legs are awaiting recycling down the track) and then stuffed her body in the cupboard in case my little on should see her in her dismembered state... I loved the eyes that Jodie put on the bug she sent me for the bug swap, so I tried out a similar face, and got all enthused and did some double sided fabric ears. My finishing touch was a little pocket on the tummy, handy don't you think?

I tried to photgraph it in the late afternoon light at the back steps. Got one shot and then this happened:

My creative space

I am a Kootoyoo Creative Space virgin - there's a first time for everything though, so am going to bite the bullet and finally join in - yay!

This should actually be my dining table, but per normal its covered in sewing stuff. In the late afternoon beautiful rays of sunshine angle in through the back windows and illuminate my table with a lovely warm, golden light. My chair needs a little sign "Back in 5 minutes" (while I take a few shots for Creative Space...).

And yes, I realise you can see my laundry basket by the back door. But I am not airing my dirty laundary for you - no, its piled high with clean washing, after holding out for dust free drying weather.

For a first time, that wasn't so bad.