Restoring Old Toys

When DD was first born, we bought SO MANY toys for her, all new. I shudder to think of how much we spent on toys that probably only lasted a year or two at most. (To my credit, most were either sold or donated to charity then, not thrown out.) My sister has a far more sensible attitude, and gets a lot more for her $50 at the second hand stores or garage sales than we ever got at the toystore!

These days, we buy a few select, high quality toys new, and mostly either make them at home, or buy second hand. While there are many second hand toys that are like new, or even gain appeal through being loved, many just aren't as 'pretty' as those you can buy new. And I don't believe in kids getting 'second best'. Though DD will happily play with her second hand toys, I often like to spruce them up a bit for her.

Here is the toy ironing board we bought for a couple of dollars somewhere. A new cover, and a second hand wooden iron from the markets, and it's a toy worth of any child's playroom. (Clicking on the pictures will enlarge them so you can have a good look if you want.)

This pram, likewise, was a dollar or two at a second hand store. I believe they're $7 or so new at bargain stores, which is probably where this one was originally from. With a new cover, it looks far prettier than the original one would have looked the day it came home from the store. I took off the old cover and used it to make a pattern for this new one. DD and I gave the pram a good scrubbing. The new cover took less than an hour to sew up (mostly due to me trying to 'improve' over the original design, when will I learn), and used the buckle from the original cover, but otherwise all new material (less than half a metre of $5 a metre material).

I enjoy this so much more than just going out and buying new, which always leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth.

These toys will also be a great addition to DD's 'home corner' once I get to it.

Homeschool Reading Corner

I posted a few days ago (OK, I admit, more like a few weeks ago) about some reorganising going on here. Well, it's still going on, and most of it is too messy to post pictures yet, but some bits are finally emerging in working order. The main reorganisation is in the living room, but it's spilling over into DD's play/school room as well. Given that we're starting the new school year here, I figured an overhaul was in order. We did a big clean up/organise a few months ago, but in typical me fashion, I've decided to change it all around to break the room up into 'corners' (those who've been in a preschool room will probably recognise the tactic), each with a different purpose. This is the new 'Reading Corner', complete with books, and some comfy cushions to rest on while reading.

There will be more cushions, but it's time consuming to make them since I can't do anything in a simple fashion. I could have just sewn two squares of material together, and all four would be done, but no, I had to get fancy. I do think they look rather nice though, and DD loves them. She carries them around the house wherever she goes. Lucky I'm making more...

Junk Mail and Wardrobe Planning

You may be wondering what I'm doing posting about these two topics together on a blog that is supposedly about simple living. I mean, isn't the aim to buy less and make your own rather than getting drawn into all the advertising and sales?

Well, of course it is. And the truth is, I can't see me buying children's clothes (or adults clothes for the most part) in stores again. But I do like to look through the catalogues to be inspired and come up with ideas for what I can make at home. Most of the pretty outfits you see in the catalogues are just variations on a basic pattern. They might add a few frills in different places, some embroidery, or use a particular material, but there is very little in the stores that can't easily be replicated by the home dressmaker.

So each week when the catalogues come in (and I really should get a "No Junk Mail" sign for the letterbox and just check them out online), I look through them, and if there is anything that I like the look of, I cut it out, and stick it into my inspiration scrapbook. I noticed this week that we've moved away from the summer clothes, and into the autumn/winter stuff. Probably a good reminder that I need to get onto planning DD's wardrobe. Making it yourself takes a little more time, but it is SO satisfying to dress DD each day, and know that I made nearly everything she's wearing! Hopefully, this winter, her entire wardrobe will be homemade!

Keeping on Mending

Some of my regular readers (and I do have regular readers, including 5 followers, Yay!) might remember this sheet from a previous repair post. I've been washing a lot of things on hot to be sure to keep the chicken's mites out of the house, and unfortunately the hot water (my machine does a 90 degree hot wash) has killed the elastic in the fitted sheet. Last time it was on the bed, it just kept coming off at the corners, very annoying.

I thought at first that the elastic had just snapped somewhere, but when I unpicked the seam at one corner, it was obvious it was just destroyed. So I cut the elastic, and pulled the whole lot out. (I could have left it in, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist.)

The fastest way to unpick the seams is to use this handy little tool. It's called a quick unpick, and is invaluable to the sewing enthusiast. No matter how good you get at sewing, there will always be times when you just have to unpick something. Like when you sew the arm of a t-shirt onto the neck opening. (Not that I would do something like that...) And also handy in this case, where you want to undo the stitching to change the elastic. (Handy hint, you can do this for skirts and pants that have become to tight but otherwise still fit, so long as the elastic isn't sewn in.)

Once I'd unpicked that spot, I cut the elastic, and pulled the whole lot out, a very slow and tedious process.

Then I had to replace it with some good elastic. I didn't happen to have a piece long enough, so I pulled out 3 2m bits, and sewed them together with a zig zag stitch like this.

I forgot to take photos of putting the new elastic in unfortunately, but basically you attach a safety pin to the end of the elastic, and use that to thread it through the casing. I found that all the way around a queen sized sheet was a LONG way, so I ended up unpicking the opposite corner too, and threading through from the opposite end as well.

Because of the long length, it's quite hard to get the elastic through evenly, so I simply pulled it as tight as I could, fastened it with the safety pin, and put the sheet on. Each time I'm making the bed, I check it, and often tighten it a little. When it's time to change the sheets again, I'll sew the ends of the elastic together, and close up the opening.

Some people might thing that this is a pointless waste of time, and it's much easier to just go out and buy a new set of sheets. But the reality is that the sheets are still good (and my favourite set), and they have plenty of wear left in them yet. The top sheet and pillow cases are still find, and the fitted sheet is still in reasonable condition. So for about 20 minutes work, I just saved about $100 (I refuse to buy cheap sheets, hate them), and at least half an hour's time had I needed to go buy a new set! Not to mention the damage to the environment to grow the cotton, process it into material, make the sheets, and ship them back and forth. It just makes sense to repair things where you can.

I miss it already!

I took my overlocker in to be repaired this morning, and I'm already feeling the lack. The notes on the last repair were "needle guides out of alignment" apparently. Sounds relatively easy to fix, but apparently they are snowed under right now, so I could be waiting a while.

I'm finding myself quite lost without it. I've been sewing so much in the last 6 months that it's become quite a habit. I find that making something, creating something, is very soothing and relaxing, and really helps me get back into the right frame of mind when I'm having one of those days.

Of course, I still have my sewing machine, and from reading all the sewing blogs I read, very few people use their overlockers as extensively as I use mine. In fact, I don't think I've seen one mentioned on a tutorial/sewing blog at all! (For any US readers, I believe an overlocker is the same as a serger?) However, ever since my grandmother gave me her old industrial overlocker nearly 15 years ago, I've loved them. To be able to cut, sew and finish edges all in one go is just perfect, and really helps keep things neat and tidy.

Of course, you can technically sew without an overlocker. There is nothing an overlocker does that you cannot replicate in some way on a sewing machine. It's just the the overlocker does it so much more efficiently and more neatly than a sewing machine. The reverse however is not true. There are some things that can only be done on a sewing machine, like taking up hems, sewing on binding or lace, or quilting. So if I had to pick one or the other, I'd go for the sewing machine, but since I have both, I'm strangely loath to start a new project until my baby is home again.

Almost, but not quite. I've found that I can sew nappies quite easily on just the sewing machine (although the thought that I could do them more neatly if only my overlocker were here pops up now and then), and since my sister has asked me to make some for her new baby (she's going to try cloth, Yay!), and so I guess that will have to do for my sewing fix until the overlocker is back. The first trial nappy was totally the wrong shape for her baby though, so I'm going to have to keep experimenting till I find something that works.

New Shirts

I've been sewing away at the t-shirts I'm making for DD, and am down to the last two. In fact, when I finish this post, I'll probably go and try to get them finished, leaving way for the next sewing project. She's been wearing them as fast as I'm sewing them, meaning it's hard to get a photo, but I'll try to add some to this post before I post it.

Out of 3 metres of fabric, I've made about 7 t-shirts, the entire lot costing me less than $20. There is plenty of material left over, just no pieces big enough for the front of the shirts. I will probably make some skirts as well or perhaps some pants.

I deliberately bought 3 co-ordinating colours so that I could mix and match, and ended up with some interesting colour combinations at the end, some deliberate, some just the material I had left. Each shirt I made is different in some way, perhaps a different colour binding, or different coloured sleeves/back. Only problem I've found is that because most of them are patterns, it's harder to match them with DD's patterned skirts.

There was a time not so long ago when you could by clothes for cheaper than you could make them, but it seems that is passing. I wonder if it's the material getting cheaper, or the clothes getting more expensive? Or perhaps it's just that I'm sewing for a smaller person now! It can't only be that though, because I'm finding it cheaper to make clothes for myself too, so long as I stick to the simpler patterns, which is really what I prefer anyway.

I've taken to cutting up the junk mail catalogues as they come in, picking out the clothing pictures I once would have gone out to buy, and sticking them into a scrapbook for inspiration when sewing. Nearly every picture I see is a relatively simple alteration on a basic pattern, so are easily reproducible without much added expense. Now that we've solved the immediate lack of t-shirt issue, hopefully I'll have time for some pretty and frilly additions!

Edited to add: Not any time soon though, overlocked is broken again! I had the same problem a few weeks after I bought it, so I'm not happy that it's happened again. Back to the repair shop yet again!

Present Pictures

And here are the promised princess tent pictures. It really was a nightmare to make. Cutting out the windows let the walls stretch out of shape, the wire around each piece buckled, and you don't want to know the gymnastics it took to get those pieces under the food of the sewing machine. I did hand sew some of it, but I would never have gotten it finished if I had tried to hand sew all of it.

DD loves it though, and has played with it every day since Christmas. She doesn't see any of the crooked stitches, the seams that show, the walls that aren't the right shape, or the roof that sags. And in the end, that is what I was aiming for, something that made DD happy, so I'm trying very hard to overlook all those imperfections myself.

I'm much much happier with how this doll turned out, although she does seem to have rather a lot of hair...

DD of course, seems less keen. She's far happier dressing up Big Bird or Simba. The fairy dress (made after Christmas to match DD's) has helped though, and today she has been asking to have her hair in pigtails like dolly, so I guess there is hope.

For anyone who is interested in trying their hand at making one, I bought my pattern for download from Dancing Rain Dolls. It was a really easy to follow and comprehensive pattern, and I definitely think I'll be purchasing some more of her patterns in the future.

Our Christmas

Since DH was working Christmas day, DD and I spent the day at my sisters. We had an absolutely lovely day, decorating her apartment and playing with her baby.

And now, since all the present giving is done, I can finally post some pics of my latest round of crafting. I don't have good pictures yet of DD's presents, though you can see the princess/fairy dress I made her in the above picture. I'll try to get some pictures of the fairy tent and Waldorf doll in the next few days.

This bag and cushion went to DH's mum and dad. DD drew the pictures with special fabric crayons, then I used them to make these. I think they went down rather well.

These went to my sister and her husband (I'm sure you can guess which is whose.) They picked out the materials, and I sewed them up. I think the colour combinations worked really well, even though the camo and orange isn't quite what I would have chosen!

The handmade gifts has been a great experience this year, and I've really enjoyed making them, and thinking of ideas for each person, though next year I think I should start the sewing a little earlier! I felt a little unsure on Christmas morning, when DD only had 6 presents to unwrap, and when we were wrapping them, I felt this urge to go straight out and buy more, but overall I think the smaller number was better. Yes, she was still looking for presents at the end of them, but then, aren't kids always looking for more presents? On the plus side, she actually looked at each of the presents as she was unwrapping them, stopping to put on the dress, and play in the tent before grabbing the next present, something that I DON'T think happens when there are large numbers of presents. I certainly don't think she was disappointed, and we could see from the expression on her face that she was thrilled with her princess tent. She also didn't become overwhelmed and overexcited as she seems to when there are large numbers of presents to open.

Hopefully we'll be strong enough to stick to a similar low key present opening next year.

One Christmas Job down...

Well, I finally sewed the last patch onto the Advent Calendar tonight. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Made using fabrics I had lying around, and only a few purchases of bits and pieces for the numbers from spotlight (a few iron on numbers and the like). You might recognise the backing as the material I was using in an attempt at crocheting a rag rug (that I gave up on). The pockets are made from some scrap Christmas material that I had from my mum, and the rectangles on the front from the felt that I bought a while ago (still have some left even).

I've tried to do each number slightly differently, to keep it interesting. I was partly inspired by this calendar here, although I of course, had to go the hard road of making it from scratch!

And here are some of my favourite pockets. I just love these sunflower buttons. They are just so cheerful and happy.

I love these cute little letter accents too, that I found in the scrapbooking section at Spotlight. I still have lots more, so no doubt more will make their appearance in other projects in the coming months.

And finally, this one was sheer inspiration if I do say so myself. DD wanted to use the little red plane button, and I knew I couldn't fit 23 of them on this square, when suddenly it occurred to me, sky writing!

And, as if Advent calendars and all the other things I have to get done weren't enough, I'm trying to turn this Thomas the Tank Engine tent into a princess castle! DD saw one at Spotlight (can you tell where I've been spending a fair bit of time lately), and wanted it. I managed to convince her that she might get it for Christmas, then by the time we got back there to get it, they were sold out! So are all the other Spotlight stores.

Do you think I can do it? Well, I'm sure I can, but in the remaining 3 nights before Christmas? (OK, cheating, I have actually started, but only last night...)

I just can't help myself!

I'm really enjoying sewing lately. I haven't sewn much for years, not since sewing all DD's blankets/quilts/linen/nappies when I was pregnant. I guess there hasn't been much time since then. But now that DD is a little older, projects like this are possible.

I really needed a new bag, and then in my blog surfing, I came across these bags, and loved them. Only, of course, there was no tutorial. So modifying this tutorial heavily, I finally achieved something approaching what I was after. I'm pretty happy with it anyway, and plan to have another go soon. You'll probably recognise the fabric, I made DD a skirt out of it here. Out of the metre I had, I made the skirt and this bag, and there is still plenty left over!

I also made DD a t-shirt using my new binding foot. It arrived several weeks ago, but I suspected it would be tricky, so was waiting for an opportunity where I wouldn't be too stressed out if it didn't work. Luckily, though it took a little figuring out initially, it works really well, and saves heaps of time when making t-shirts. Now to just make another 11 or so for a round dozen! I would post a picture, except a couple of hours after it was made, it ended up with paint on it. My fault, as I suggested she paint, and she was just getting into it, when she wiped her hands on her t-shirt, then looked at me and said, "I'm not wearing my painting apron." Luckily it was pink paint on a pink shirt, so not that noticeable. It's in the laundry soaking, and I'm hoping for a full recovery.

And before I duck off to try to write at least some words for the day (haven't started at all yet), here's today's harvest. The cherry tomatoes are just going crazy up there. I think as many are rotting on the vine as we're harvesting, but that's OK, they'll be next year's bushes. This lot is in the freezer now, ready for next time we made spaghetti sauce. They're great for sauce, as after they've been frozen, the just pop right out of their skins. By the time we're ready to make more pasta sauce, we should have more than enough tomatoes.

The chickens are a little slack on the egg department lately. We're only getting 3-4 eggs a day, but from chatting to other's around, this is pretty normal, as they can be quite affected by the heat. Hopefully we'll have more eggs soon.

Procrastination

What do you do when you should be writing your 1667 words for the day? Why make a skirt of course! I seriously just don't know how to do one thing at a time, do I? Still, I had some good story related ideas while sewing.

The skirt is made from a tutorial here, although if you're going to give it a go, I'd add a few inches to your waist measurement before running it through the pattern calculator. I was reasonably generous, and though it fits, it could stand to be a little looser around the hips. The pockets were my addition. I just can't stand wearing anything without a pocket. I just need somewhere handy to put my keys and hanky when I go out, I never can seem to find them in my purse, so I add pockets to everything I make.

The purple material is from two separate sheets I bought while visiting my mum, but I think they contrast pretty well. They don't even look like sheets in this pattern I don't think? I have plenty of material left (although the flowery sheet is quite worn in the middle), so will probably try something else in these colours as well. It's trimmed with some cotton lace that I acquired from my mum's stash while I was visiting. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and will definitely try this pattern again.

The photo was taken when we came back from dropping the latest lot of decluttering off at Lifeline. Nearly a whole car full, bringing the decluttering total to 18. My mum thinks I'm being too hard on myself, counting each bag of clothes or toys as 1, instead of each item, but if I did that, I'd already be at 100, and I've barely even scratched the surface! Lots more to go yet.

Now, seeing as I've already made my word count today, I have a nice evening of relaxing with DH planned.

Sewing Day

After spending a few hours last night surfing blogs and following link after link to cool tutorials, I decided to try some of them out today. These are door stops, made from this tutorial. Very simple and easy, and very practical. Since DH put some grease on the toilet door, it mysteriously closes itself whenever you aren't looking. Not a problem, except when you're trying to help a 4yo in there, and one of your bumps yourself on a door in the wrong place. So the blue one is in the toilet, and the white stripy one is in the laundry, who's door often blows closed with an annoyingly loud bang (usually when I'm out hanging up the washing, and trying to her DD yelling something inside.)

Since DD was so taken with the rice filled pyramid door stops, and was determined to carry them around, negating their usefulness in preventing doors blowing closed, I made her these bean-bags to throw instead, based on this tutorial (which I had read, but not planned on making, so going on memory). She was successfully diverted, and the door-stops have remained (mostly) in place.

And this was my final project, finished only because I hate to leave things undone. It's a floor mat, and a woeful attempt at the quilt in this tutorial. Unfortunately, I don't have a roller cutter, making it kind of hard to get the squares, well, square. I also made the strips between the pieces a little too thick (those white ones), and it was only saved from awfulness by the pretty blue border. Luckily, aside from the border, it was all made with leftover scraps and recycled materials, so I don't feel too badly about it. It's a learning experience, and I'm sure when it's on the floor and we're wiping our feet on it, we won't notice all the many imperfections. (Well, anyone but me probably won't anyway.

Potato Cages

I haven't done much of a garden update lately simply because I haven't gotten around to taking any photos. But I have been working to my plan, and things are slowly starting to come together. The potato cages, shown on the left hand side of the house, are in.

I've managed to fit 4 sugar cane bale cages in and the two I originally planted with 9 potatoes each are powering along. I've just covered them with the second lot of mulch, they're growing so quickly. I planted 9 more potatoes in the next cage and will plant the final one in another few weeks time. We're still going on the last of the potatoes harvested from my first patch. Once this lot is gone, there is another patch to harvest. I'm not sure if those will be enough to carry us through to this lot maturing, but we'll have to wait and see.

And not really garden related (though it is a flower!) DD and I made this for her baby cousin, after her fascination with DD's dinosaur.

Ditching the Plastic

Plastic bags that is. We've actually been plastic bag free (mostly) for a while now, but I've only just gotten around to taking some pictures of these. While we used green bags for our groceries for quite a while, it took a little longer to ditch the plastic fruit bags. When we started going to the markets regularly, it seemed somehow even more silly to be still putting our fruit in plastic bags, so I made up these vegie bags from some old curtain material. They're just simple drawstring bags, really easy to make, although it did take me until yesterday to get around to putting the drawstring in. They worked just fine without it though.

The trick to making these is to use as lightweight materials (material and drawstrings) as possible, so that they aren't adding weight to your fruit and veg prices. Also, make sure you use something see-through so that the cashiers can work out what you're buying. Finally, I used french seams to make sure that they weren't going to break at an inopportune moment. Several months of use, and they're still going strong. When we get home from the markets, I empty the fruit into the cupboard/fridge, and chuck them in the wash so that they're ready for next week.

Here they are full of fruit, they're about the size of an A4 page, which seems to be a pretty good size, although we usually buy two bags full of bananas! Since my green bags are nearing the end of their days, and actually aren't that green being made from what is basically plastic, I'm working on making some replacement cloth bags for general grocery shopping. This is my prototype, made form an old sheet (which is poly-cotton, so not great for clothes). It works great, but still needs a bit more fiddling with the shape and placement of the handles. I much prefer it over the green bags, although I think it could benefit from being a bit stiffer in places.

Personalised Softie

Softies, as they seem to be called, are all the rage, seems like I see pictures of them everywhere. I've never been a big fan myself, being more of a realism person, but DD saw a stuffed striped giraffe at an organic store I visited with my sister yesterday, and really wanted it. Thankfully she was placated with promises of making one. So make one we did, only ours, of course, is a dinosaur. Not just any dinosaur either, but a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

DD was thrilled to join in with drawing up a 'pattern' for us to use. I told her she had to draw it big, or she wouldn't get a big dinosaur, and she obliged.

DD chose out her material, and I cut out some rough pieces for the body, arms, legs, tail and head. And an extra plain piece for the face. Since DD drew single lines for the arms, legs and tail, I had to make them a bit wider, and occasionally change the length a bit. Overall, their placement is the most important bit to keep the childlike composition of the finished softie I think. I also had to be careful to make them thick enough to sew, turn and stuff. The tail ended up being too narrow, and I had to cut out a second one.

Then I had DD draw the face on the pink material in pen (pencil would have been better, but I couldn't find one), and I embroidered it in 3 strands of embroidery cotton, then slip stitched it to the head piece, turning the edges under as I went.. I made the eyes slightly bigger, but otherwise followed the lines she had drawn. Which was quite a challenge, let me tell you. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and spend way too much time trying to get faces to look just right. Of course, I think this one worked out just perfect, without any adjusting from me.

Then I put all the extremities right sides together, and overlocked around the edges. I had to round off the bit where the neck joins the head a little to get around it with the overlocker, but I wanted the pieces to be strong, and not start coming apart in a few weeks.

Then we turned them right side out (with the help of the end of the scissors), and stuffed them. DD enjoyed helping with the stuffing, although she did make them a little on the soft side, so I had to add a little bit to the ones she did. I left the ends a bit floppy because they're going to be sewn to the body.

I positioned the arms,legs, tail and head on the body again, using the picture to get the locations right.

Then turned them all to the inside and pinned.

Then decided to overlock them in place before trying to sew the body pieces together.

I also overlocked the other piece, then joined them on the sewing machine, leaving a nice big gap to turn it right side out.

Then we stuffed the body, slip-stitched the opening closed, and DD gave him his first cuddle. She's been carrying him around all day (by the neck!) and has now taken him to bed with her. I think it really means something to her that this is HER representation of a dinosaur, not someone else's, and that she helped design and make him.

Now, of course, she wants to make all the other types of dinosaurs...

Spring Quilting

It wasn't until I was editing the photos for this post, and trying to decide on a title, that I realised how well the colours of this quilt fit to Spring. The beautiful, bright rainbow really brightens up the room, and when you look at it, you can't help but feel light and happy. Perfect for a little girls room.

There's very little frugal about this quilt, it's made from (almost) all new material, and didn't come cheap, although the main body of quilting is made from material I have had in my cupboard since before DD was born. I didn't even buy it myself, my mum saw it in her local quilting shop, and couldn't leave it there. 24 fat quarters, hand dyed, all in carefully arranged shades through the rainbow. (Although we only used 23, several of the pinks were so similar I took one out, as the quilt was going to be very long anyway). I have put off cutting up this material, trawled through many quilting books and magazines for the perfect design, but eventually it was time to just give it a go, and we decided on a really simple design, that would show off the beautiful shading without any fancy patterns detracting from the simple beauty.

First step was to cut the material, not into squares, but into strips. We were going to carefully measure each one, but in the end, we just cut along the fold lines, giving us 4 strips very close in size to what I wanted.

I worried for a while about how to keep the colours in order, as some of the shades are very similar, and in the end we decided to lay them down in order. We pinned each colour (4 strips of each) at the top to prevent them blowing away. (This is on my mum's veranda, you can see the grass in the top left hand corner, so it was a little windy.)

This type of quilt is much easier (and quicker) to sew with two people. My mum sewed each strip together as I handed them to her in order. If I had been on my own, I would have had to constantly get up and down to get each piece, and I'm sure some of them would have ended up out of order.

I was a little concerned about how to keep track of the order anyway, as so many shades are so similar, but came up with this simple strategy to keep it in order. Each time I took a strip off the pile, I turned the pin the other way. That way I could quickly and easily work out which strip to grab next. It worked too, not a strip out of order.

Once we had joined all 23 strips, we then sewed the first strip to the last one, making a continuous loop like this. I hope the photo shows what I mean, as this is the step that made doing the staggered pattern so simple and easy. We made 4 of these loops.

Each loop was then folded into quarters, and cut into strips the same size as the origional strips (so that the patches would be square). As you can see here, there was a small bit at the end left over that wasn't big enough to make another strip, but those will get used later.

Then I unpicked one seam on each strip, moving one square through the colours each time, and sewed these together (as we went). This was a little tricky, as some of the colours were hard to tell apart, but in those cases I looked back to a strong colour change, and worked from there. Again, I did the unpicking/arranging, and my mum sewed. I deliberately arranged it so that the pink colours were around the middle of the quilt, as my DD loves pink. We picked out a pink border at the local quilting shop, and found some bamboo wadding for the middle. If you haven't heard about bamboo, it's a wonderful new alternative to cotton, which is grown with far less pestasides, making it far more gentle on the environment. And it has a wonderful, silky soft feel. Seems almost a shame to hide it away in the middle of a quilt!

Of course, the quilt isn't entirely new material. The backing is a white sheet I bought at the local op shop for $4! And the bias strip around the edge is the end bits left from cutting out patched strips. It was almost exactly the right size to go around the quilt, only 4 squares left over. Quite an economical use of material really.

Doesn't it look beautiful on DD's bed? She loves it, and has been sleeping in her bed again since we bought it home. She had had a run of bad dreams, and moved back in with us full time, and I was hoping this would make a difference, which it has. Not that we mind having her in with us, in fact DH and I both sleep better with her nearby, but I also want her to enjoy her own room, which she is now doing. We bring her in with us when we go to bed, so that she isn't waking up alone in the dark.

For anyone who is thinking of trying their hand at quilting, but is afraid to give it a go, don't be. My mum and I aren't perfect quilters. We don't measure things terribly carefully, and if we make a mistake, we don't let it stop us. For example, we cut off the edge of one of the last strips by acciden, so that it was about 5mm shorter than all the other strips, but carried on anyway, and in the end, you can't even tell which one was the shorter square. I also accidently bought about 2 inches less batting than we needed (I forgot to calculate for the wider border), so that it doesn't go right to the edge, and had a similar problem with the backing, but we just fix those up, and keep sewing. In the end, these little mistakes are unnoticable among the larger quilt, a quilt that never would have been finished if we'd let ourselves be deterred by simple mistakes.

Happy Sewing!