Sewing & Reading some more

I have been sewing for my niece Adelaide.  My one and only brother moved home to Australia in August this year.  He had been living in the USA for 5 1/2 years.  While he was there he met a lovely lady and got married and they now have this little cutie on their hands.  

Adelaide is 18 months old, which is really handy as she is almost 1 year exactly behind my Jess so I can send her any lovely clothes that don't fit Jess anymore.

It also means I can quite easily make her cute outfits to wear in a snap.

Not sure why this photo turned itself around when I loaded it up.
It's just a little A-line pinafore with snapped tabs on the shoulders.
Fabric: It's a Hoot

This one is the Same dress but with Buttons on the shoulder tabs.
Fabric: Amy Butler Soul Blossom.
It may be a tad big right now.

An a 3rd dress.
A cute tie neck halter with ruffle around the bottom.
It has elastic around the chest with a slight frill at the top.
Fabric: Amy Butler Soul Blossom.
I think I accidentally made this in Jessie's size so it will go away for next year.

Then there is all the books that I have been reading.
I have been terribly hooked lately and have been going to bed early with the intention of reading for half an hour and going to sleep.
Well 2 hours later I look up at the clock and realise this is not what has happened and the next day I suffer for it.
I just can't seem to help myself when I start reading I can't stop.
To see how busy I've been check out my reading lists on the page tabs up the top.  I am up to 98 books all up for the year, I may even have forgotten to put a couple of the list too.

Books and more books

So what have I been doing?

Not blogging that's for sure.

Trying to keep up with the fabric orders...Bec Clarke Creations

Trying to keep up with the soap orders...Bec's Soap

Sewing...

A flimsy using Amy Butler Love
Pattern from the Book "Modern Basics"

Not quite a flimsy
using a "Spirit" Layer Cake
also from the book "Modern Basics".

Foundation Paper Piecing
I joined a Yahoo Group run by
the most fabulous Carol Doak
We are doing a Mystery at the moment
and it's so much fun.

OK so I am too lazy to go and fix this pic.
the dress Jess is wearing is just an a-line
shift made from an old mens shirt.
It was very easy and she loves
wearing it around the farm.

There is more sewing but I can't find my photo's

And READING!!!!

Go and check out my reading challenge pages
E-Book Challenge
100 Book Challenge

I also just bought these 2 cool books:

My Step-mum had this book when we were kids
She made alot of the cakes out of it for us
when we had our birthday's at Dad's place.
I just hope I can do some of them for my kids.

Everyone is talking about Macarons so I saw this
book and thought I would give them a try.
I have a husband with a sweet tooth so they
should go down alright.

Busy living liffe

Once again (if there is anyone left reading this blog this is for you) life has gotten in the way of blogging.

Here is a little pictorial of what we have been up to.

A Quilt for a Queensland Wedding
I am so proud of this quilt, it was tough to finish
in the time that I had available but it's lovely
plus the bride and groom love it.

We live in a lovely valley but this is what happens
when we have a wet Autumn/Winter.
Some days we don't see the sun at all!!!
It's very peaceful and beautiful for a while
but not all day. That's Sam up the track!

I am very happy with how all  my fog photo's turned out!!!

We got a new Kitten. His name is Whiskers.
He is very friendly and follows us all
around the farm - seroiusly he comes out into
the paddocks if we are walking around!!!

We also had some beautiful sunny days in the early winter.
The kids love getting out in the Vege garden.
We didn't put any winter vege's in this garden
so lots of fun was had moving dirt around.

We also got a new puppy.
He is going to be a working dog eventually
But for now he is mad and wild and very funny.

Hopefully I will be back a bit sooner with a few more photo's

Jessie turns 2

I am a bit late posting this but life is so flat out at the moment.

The delightful Jessica Grace turned 2 on Thursday - St Patricks Day.

I had to go to Albury to get the car serviced and do a heap of errands so she was at home with Bev my eve wonderful Mother-in-law and Sam.

I have been practicing my digital scrapping and came up with this.

We are going to have a little family get together for both kids in April when Sam turns 4.

She is very strong willed at times and can turn a tantrum and stamp her foot like no-other child I have seen, but for the most part she is funny and very cuddly and I love our little Irish Angel with all my heart.

See what I made

I have been busy making some thankyou/Christmas gifts for 2 very special girls.

They helped their mum look after my 2 rascals during our local football season this year and I am ever eternally grateful.

I would trust my children with these 2 girls more than I would trust them with some adults. I know some parents wouldn't be too fussed about a 3 and 1yo but I am. There are too many wierdo's out there and just too many things that can happen if you do not watch them.

So after 15 rounds of football where I umpired 2 games per week and even managed to play about 7 or 8 games in between I will be forever grateful that I had a bit of normality to my season and that my children were well cared for.

This is the quilt for Bridget, she is off to Boarding School next year and I hope she will love it enough to take it with her. It ended up about 50" wide x 68" long. I used 12 fat quarters and just a simple stack, slash and shuffle method.

The fabric is "Santorini" by Lila Tueller and was so lovely to work with, I like that the big pieces let the fabrics do their thing.

I quilted it very simply using "organic straight line quilting" as I have seen it names. Simply started in the middle and went straight down without marking a line and just eyeballed it. I was amazed at how straight I can sew when I try hard!!!

CLICK ON ANY PICTURES TO MAKE THEM BIGGER!!!

The dress is for Emily. It's a pattern from Ottobre Magazine 6/2009, #32 Jolie. It's actually a winter pattern but I jazzed it up by making it in the lovely "Summer Song" fabric range. I made the yoke in a different fabric and you can't see it very well but there is a small ruffle at the top of the yoke in a yellow version of the mail bodice fabric, the ruffle goes all the way around.

I must have mis-read the instructions somewhere along the way as I got to the neckline and just couldn't figure out what they wanted me to do. I ended up making some binding using the same fabric as the yoke and the neckline worked beautifully.


I cut it out in 152cm height but it will be too big for her this summer unfortunately as she is a petite little thing.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE AND A SAFE NEW YEAR.

Before I go here is a picture of my kids on Tuesday. It has been the craziest weather lately. Today it's 30 deg and hot. The other day it was snowing on the mountains... go figure.

Oh and I nearly forgot about the "Knights" costume that Sam wanted me to make him the other day. I did a google search and got a pillowcase and was going to do a fancy hem and applique on the front but he was happy with head and arm holes, who am I to complain that I don't have to do more work.

Then there is Jess. I cut this outfit out for her last Christmas but didn't get around to putting it together, thank goodness I cut it out so big as it fits her this year.

The pattern is from Ottobre Mag 3/2009. The dress is #5 Alicia & the pants #2 Cassia. I didn't put elastic in the arms as I thought it was going to be our usual hot christmas. I also omitted the elastic in the shorts lets and opted for the red ruffle instead. This was her modelling the other night before bed, she screamed when I had to take it off. She has had a hair trim since then too and is nice and curly again, not fuzzy.

Then last but definately not least is my gorgeous niece whom I still haven't met because she lives in Baltimore. Isn't she cute. The spitting image of my brother and I don't usuallay say things like that. That's the quilt I made them for their wedding, I am so happy that they seem to use it so much, it's in nearly every photo I see.

5 Years ago today

I can't believe it myself but this time 5 years ago we were having our Wedding dinner with our most wonderful familiy and friends.

Less than 6 months later my brother moved to the USA where he promptly met the lady who became is wife 2 years ago in June just past. They also now have a lovely little girl whom they called Adelaide who was born in May this year.

We have a little boy who will be 4 in April and a very strong willed little girl who will be 2 in March.

Time does go by so fast, I don't want it to, I am having too much of a good time.

I hope everyone out there can know the happiness that I do even if it is only for a short time.

Terriffic Tuesday

Feeding Cows in the fog

It's green alright, we have had heaps and heaps of rain but it's too cold for the grass to grow







We have 2 tiny Poddy Lambs right now.
They are only 4 days old.
My mother-in-law makes the coats!!!

Adelaide's quilt is finished.

I machine embroidered it using a lovely butterfly alphabet.

I made it using a "Funny Babies" charm pack and the pale pink around the fabric is Polar Fleece.

It looks and feels pretty good, especially for a baby but I will neve be doing that again. It was a nightmare to sew and I am so proud that most of my points line up.

The pattern is acutally a Table Runner pattern that I lengthened and put 2 side by side.

It is from a book by Heather Mulder Petersen in her book "On the Run"

AND.... Drumroll please....

Here are 2 sneak peaks of my very first ever Mixed media canvas. I will show the completed thing at the end of the month after it has been in a small local Art Exhibition that is on in 2 weeks.

Adelaide and her Daddy

I can't take photos a the moment because I need a new camera.

BUT

This is my brother James and his gorgeous new little girl Adelaide...

She is 1 month old today!!!

I AM AN AUNTY!!!!

Introducing

ADELAIDE ROE (surname left off deliberately)









Who was born in Baltimore USA on 24 May 2010









Isn't she cute!!!
This will be winging its way to her in August when my mum goes to visit.
It will be put together by then though, this is just a sneak peak.

A Merry Clarke Christmas

Well the big day has come and gone.

The kids did very well but thank goodness not too well.

Jess scored some beautiful clothes in some larger sizes (thank goodness) along with some toys, books and other great gifts.

Sam got a couple of wonderful trucks, some books and so much great stuff.

Here is just a couple of quick photo's, it all happened too fast to get many photo's.
Jess is wishing she got a big yellow truck too. Her grandma Clarke got her the pretty pink dress with matching bloomers. Sam just couldn't share on Christmas day and I can't really blame him, another day maybe.

Here is Sam in the middle of 2 of my cousins children. Ben on the left and Oliver on they right. They had come down to the farm for christmas from Sydney. It was a massive family affair at my aunts place just up the road, but I was too busy trying eat my lunch in between chasing Sam and soothing Jess. I think it was a bit too much for both of them and we had to go home for them to have a sleep in the afternoon before we headed over to Husbands family at Cudgewa for dinner in the evening.

8 Month update

I was extremely remiss last month and did not update a photo of Jess on her quilt.
It was a terrible month for me, Sam was sick with a tummy bug for 10 days and Jess had a cold for about the same time straight after he got better.
So now, just when things were going well and she was sleeping from 7pm to 5am she now wakes up 3 or 4 times a night. It doesn't help that the teeth are finally coming through, the first one broke the gum on Sunday and is here to stay.
We have had some ridiculously hot weather for late spring, the days have been mid to late 30's and until last week this was the only way for the kids to stay cool.

I have now invested in a clamshell and they just love it. I can sit on the verandah in a chair behind Jess and catch her if she topples over but I can still read a book and it's very pleasant as Sam is very kind and splashes my feet for me.

We have our all the way around verandah now and in the afternoon the eastern side is full shade and gets a lovely breeze sometimes so it's just bliss for all of us.

And here is the picture of Jess on her quilt, she has grown so much and is quite the character.

She sits up realy well now, she can't get herself up but is getting there. She isn't crawling yet but I expect it won't be long as she rolls herself to wherever she wants to go and gets up on her hands and knees and rocks alot. She also seems to like the push up position... don't know what that's all about.

Finally my pics have uploaded so that's it.

Lucky in every way today.

I have lots of photos today.
The first is of my latest win in blogland.
I couldn't believe it... I won a beautiful set of Heather Bailey fabrics, a Heather Bailey Pattern for a baby stacking game, a raggedy flower pattern and a lovely handmade pincushion. I just can't believe my luck.










Then these are the best photo's of all. I took some pictures of Jess and Sam today on our new finally finished deck that took 6 months to build, it was such a beautiful sunny day.
Jess turned 5 months yesterday and I cannot believe how time flies and how fast they grow.












One of her favourite pasttimes is sucking on her fingers.








And then there's spending time with her big brother.

She just has to see him and she smiles and laughs.

Sam loves to hold her hand and put on different hats to make her laugh.

3 Months already

My oh my how time flies. It has been 3 months since we had Jess and already I can't think of how life was without her.

Jess and Sam on their lovely EB Aunties Quilt click on the Jess label on the sidebar to see how much she has grown every month.

Sam is a pretty good big brother for a 2 year old, he just wants to play, but he loves to hold her hand and if she cries he asks if she's o.k. It's really very cute.

Speaking of Sam he can be very 2 at the moment but we still love him and it really must be hard not being able to do everything you want and not understanding why.

Everything else here on the farm is great, not enough rain as usual but we had a little in the Autumn which will hopefully keep us going for a while. Husband is doing well and their football (AFL) team has actually won lots of games this year and we are hoping they make it into the finals and he is playing really well too, I am not playing netball this year but am working on my Umpiring which I am loving.

I nearly forgot, I got a lovely parcel in the mail today it contained 6 beautiful coasters and a lovely bag to keep them in from my swap partner in Texas USA.

Thanks for visiting