Multi-tasking

This week has been a mish-mash of tasks. While still frantically sewing for Christmas (no worries, I still have another week, right?), actually playing with my children, keeping on top of the laundry, feeding my family and generally keeping everything ticking over, I also offered to make cakes for my son’s Year 1 Christmas party. After realising that I was genuinely offering to make enough cakes for 75 children they said “yes”. So here they are (a small selection)!

It seems the Reception Year staff were a bit disappointed I couldn’t make another 75 for them, having tried them last year when Matthew was still in Reception.

Back to the sewing machine now! Oh, and vacuuming, and laundry, and I think the girls are hungry again….

Sew busy!

Still sewing like crazy. So much so that at one point I emptied my pin cushion which inspired a small moment of pin art.

Well, it’s not like I can show you what I am actually making.

Advent-ures

Gotta love a bad pun!
Having been following various other blogs recently I was inspired to create my own advent calendar for the children. I started with the large collection of small boxes I acquired after my sister-in-law’s wedding (they were favour boxes at the reception). Having been hoarding them for over 3 years now I was glad to find a use for them.

Add some string (to hold them closed properly), a nearly empty can of silver spray, and lots of bling we achieved something approaching what I intended (the children like it anyway) and I filled it with mini pyramid bags with jelly beans inside.

In the post

Following on from my previous post I have actually made something I am allowed to blog about. Unfortunately I was so eager to get it in the post in time (birthday present) I forgot to photograph it.
Hmmph.
However, if you can use your imagination it looked like this:








but in this fabric:









and trimmed with giant yellow ric-rac.

And because I can (and because I had a small remnant left over) it was dispatched in a matching drawstring bag. (I remember reading somewhere that drawstring bags were addictive, and it turns out to be true!)

No spoilers please!!

I am beginning to find this pre-Christmas blogging a little tricky. I have been working hard (if intermittently) on various projects for the last couple of weeks and, with the exception of a new beanbag lining for one of our very old beanbags, they are secret!
So it is probably a little dull (if not downright frustrating) to be told that I have made a pair of lovely ***** for *****, and in a similar vein a really funky **** for both **** and ****.







In the new year I may offer a small Christmas catch-up with photos if my photographer obliges; we’ll have to see. As a sop, here are a couple of photos of small children (mine) wearing their Cathy Birthday finery (mostly not made by me).

Too hot to handle

In amongst all that bean bag making and birthday caking we had a few other birthday presents to give out; two in particular featuring more items handmade byGaenor (or me).
They were actually both pot holders, but were probably as different as two insulated fabric squares could be…
Article 1: Floral pot holder for my mother-in-law, made of vintage floral fabric with blue gingham trim, quilted in a geometric pattern.
Article 2: A more masculine pot holder for my step-dad to use with his new toasting fork. A bit quilted, but mostly so it all stayed together.
Mum wants them now (mainly because of the fabrics).
Inspiration for both of these came from this site, but don’t look too closely – they have lots of interesting ideas which I plan to adapt, perhaps for you!

Finished, with 20 minutes on the clock

This afternoon my little boy went out to play with friends (for possibly the first time), and was going to need his car booster seat in order to get home. Given how cumbersome they are he obviously needed a custom bag to carry it on the bus, and with 6 hours before he left, why not? (yeah, I know, I’m insane).

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However after about an hour of thinking (and more thinking, and a bit of internet poking, realising that officially I possessed none of the recommended items for making a bag, and just a bit more thinking) I got the scissors out and started cutting out rectangles from an old cushion cover.

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If I made it again it would probably be constructed in a completely different order, and with some more conventional bits and bobs rather than random items from my shelves, but when Matthew left at 4:30 he had a recognisable bag which wasn’t spilling its contents all over the floor and actually stayed on. So a good job in that respect, I just need to see how all that stick on velcro has worked (didn’t have any sew on velcro to hand) or whether it will have all peeled off by the time he gets home.