I heart Amy.

love my in-laws-to-be...

look what they brought me for my birthday!!

ooh I have wanted this book forever!

Things from this book that I am just itching to make:

decorative patchwork throw

image from here.

wide leg lounge pants

from here.

desktop organizer

from here.

 Fashion checkbook clutch

from here. 

clutch handbag with fabric flower

from here. 

Patchwork handbag

from here.  

And I don't know how I quite missed this but Amy Butler has a new sewing book coming out in August this year. It is available for pre order on both Amazon and the Book Depositry right now and I may have just added it to my wishlist :)

ps. Have you heard about the book depositary? Even though it is a UK site, I love that they list items in AUD dollars and they have free shipping worldwide (US is on this list too). This means that for me it's often cheaper to purchase and ship from the UK than to buy a book at my local Boarder or Angus and Roberson - isn't this silly! 

what about you, what are you sewing or crafting up right now?

ps. I can't believe today is the 1st of JULY today! can you!?

chic & simple.

one thing I love about Amazon, is how it remembers what you've bought or looked at and gives you suggestions to other items you might like (or is this a dangerous tool!?).
One item that popped up for me when I was browsing the other day was this sewing book:

and I think I NEED it :)
I am a sucker for all the fun photography, how they are classified as 'simple', the pretty pages and I love the outfits shown (particularly the dress on the front cover).
here are some of the other patterns:

you can find this book here on Amazon.com.
... or my Christmas wish list ;)

sweet birthday package.

It’s true, I love to shop for gifts, I also love to buy gifts and then wrap them all up.

But even more than that…
I love to make birthday gifts for special people in my life.So that’s just what I did for one of our dear friends Rinny who just had her birthday (and also just got a new macbook!!) I jumped at the chance to make her a lovely little laptop cozy (similar to mine).Then I had fun wrapping it all up :)!

Oh yes, and I am still quite obsessed with brown paper packages, paper doilys and pegs ;)

engagement #4

Ok so this is a game, but after all the hours put into it I decided the much talked about twister quilt (which is actually and sadly not quilted) deserved a post all of it’s own!

Here it is in all it’s glory, cute and patchworky and fun!To make I googled pictures of the original twister game and made it larger (8 circles x 8 circles) so lots of people could play together, I’m sure around 20 could play at once.
For the quilt front I used sheeting - it was the only material whose width was long enough. For the circles I once again headed to spotlight’s sale rack and came away with these fun prints (some at only $2 a metre!!) I cut out circles with a 21cm diameter and used visafix to adhere them to the quilt top (although this step isn’t necessary & some I just tacked on roughly). Then I zig zagged around them to secure.For the quilt back I used the leftover fabric and pieced together large 30 x 30 cm squares (easy!). I then had to put a white boarder around them because in my excitement and rush I forgot to add in some seam allowances. The idea is that the quilt is reversible and M and I can use either side for many picnics to come. I also quickly and roughly sewed the back and front wrong sides together before sewing on the binding on to secure them together.
And I even made my own binding, which is the first time I have ever done this & I may be hooked!! A few chats with Fairlight who gave me some tips and encouragement and this youtube video and I decided to give it ago – I’m so happy with how it turned out, so much nicer than store bought binding!
Because it is meant to be a picnic quilt and used outdoors I also added some tags which were placed into the ground with tent pegs and helped the mat not to scrunch up under foot.For the spinner I scanned the fabrics and photoshopped them into a simple a design which I simply printed and then taped onto thick cardstock. For the spinner we borrowed one from another game and drilled a whole through the cardstock to attach it to the board. – it took all of about 15 mins.
I didn’t get to play myself on the day (I did play the night before with cousins) but plenty of our guests adults (including my parents) and kids alike had fun getting twisted in knots! Here is Aunty Mandy and Aaron and Jesse having a go:
One of our guests even commented on what a great idea it was and how it could even become a family heirloom and how our grandchildren could even bring out the famous twister quilt one day (when it’s possibly even more scrappy) and play– oh how that just makes my heart sing!!

For Lexi

One of the ladies at Morgan's office is about to go on Maternity Leave & is expecting a precious little baby girl within the next couple of weeks - her & her husband's first.
A little lady who's parents were told that she had spina bifida & that they would have to terminate the pregnancy. Parents who were already so much in love with their baby, who sought out other advice & decided to give this little one a chance at life - I am so inspired by this couple & have often thought just how I would react if I was in this situation?
With each stitch of these booties I prayed for this family & thanked God for this little ones life & prayed that somehow through this time her parents would seek God out for themselves and come to know him as their own personal saviour.
The office decided to put together a gift basket with each person contributing a little gift and Morgan knowing just how much I love to sew baby sized things asked if I would make a sock animal for his contribution (of course I would!) & it also gave me a great chance to try out this cutie booties pattern I have been wanting to make for ages.
Fabrics are from Amy Butler's Midwest Modern line.
Booties pattern is from Amy Butler's Little Stitches.
& the Gift tag is by Morgan :) what a man.. we all remember him sewing and now crafting - oh my... I am sure it will not be a common occurrence but this, this is one of the many reasons I am so glad I get to marry this man :)

In Morgan's hands, they are SO small!

pps ;) Don't forget to enter the 'something old, something new, something crafty & something blue' GIVEAWAY!

Miss Mac #3

My dad's family seem to like even numbers.
There are six children in his family - 3 boys and 3 girls.
Each of these six children have two children.
Which makes 12 grand children - and yeah you guessed it...
there are 6 girls and 6 boys!
Each son had just one daughter.
The McAllan girls...
Miss Mac 1,2 & 3
And we all adore one another (well I know I adore them)
We are also all June babies. I love sharing this special month with them :)

Miss Mac #1 is super easy to buy for.. mostly because we are so similar and share a similar taste in clothes, music, accessories, are not far in age from one another and are both very creative (Sarey is currently studying fashion & costume design). I had a little trouble thinking up what to make for Miss Mac #3 to celebrate her 14th birthday though. I knew I wanted to make her something, because that's just fun and I was hankering to sew something!
Hannie is not super 'girly' and she adores horses, so I wanted to incorporate that in too.
So I made 'Hanna's barn tote'...

(I also realized just how 'girly' my fabric stash is!)

It was very easy I make - it only took a evening. For the horse motif I googled a horse silhouette, enlarged it in word, printed and used it as a stencil to cut the fabric to shape. I used visa fix to adhere it to the tote and then zig zag stitched around the edges. (if you are doing this yourself make sure to iron the visafix to the fabric scrap before you cut the shape out).

I'm so happy that it worked out - I had no idea how that horse motif was going to turn out!
As Hannie & her family live in the States *sniff* I also added in some of her favourite Aussie lollies - like minties.
Oh how I miss this little lady, Can't wait to visit her this coming March in Chicago - yeah!

Hanna at a horse show (isn't she cute!).

And thanks everyone for your sweet comments about my party it really was as fun and as beautiful as it looked :)

For Baby Jack

During one of my long 'uncrafty' and "missing-in-action" moments over the past couple of months, I was actually sneakily crafting behind the scenes (along with a few other ladies) to bless the socks off our sweet friend Chelle, her family and their newest addition - Adorable baby Jack. I have been wanting to share these for ages... but wanted to wait till they were safety at their destination so not to spoil the surprise.

I made my favourite sock animal - the zebra. I think I'm just really crazy about his hair!!
He is from the Japanese craft book (Sock & Glove)...

A mini-man pair of overalls. Using the same pattern (and material) as I did on Cade's overalls... still loving those kangaroos and emus, and still just as confused about the african animals?!

and my hands with it, so you can see just how small the little neckline is.

And two of my tea towel bibs...

Funny trivia.. I know this spotty fabric scrap came in my little bundle from the Domestic Bliss Scrappy Swap and am pretty sure it was from Chelle and is in the quilt she made Rylan?! This little scrap certainly is a little jet setter ;)

All wrapped up with a little onesie initialed card on a mini coat hanger...
I just adore making baby gifts and baby sized items!

Kt Mac's Mac

To say I love my laptop would kind of be an understatement..
It's always with me, I use it everyday, it houses all of my important stuff and have found it so convenient, particularly when taking notes and doing work at college or on the train. So of course if it is going to be covered - it's just going to have to do it in style ;)
So yesterday (when I should of been doing assessments for school) I decided to bring out my sewing machine - to keep me sane, ya know! And I whipped up this lap top cozy which I have been meaning to make for months!

The outside fabric is Amy Butler's French Wallpaper Duck Egg and the inside fabric is one of Spotlight's new quilters fabric.

I may have gone a little overboard with the enclosure (it has both a velcro and elastic enclosure) Although the elastic is mainly for decoration as I felt it needed a little more something. The wadding I used is a fusible wadding, which I also highly recommend, maybe for sewing items like heavy duty bags as well, or light weight quilts? It's a little bit more pricey than other wadding, but so easy to use and sew over - the needle went straight through it!

nice and cozy :)

and Leslie, you asked about school.. it's going ok. We've had a lot of little assessments lately - making sample boards for commercial areas according to colour psychology, doing mini-shoe-box-style visual merchandising displays, redesigning the soft furnishings for our bedrooms and learning curtain calculations etc (uggghk!), doing presentation boards on a particular historical styles which we pulled out of a hat, building studies (yuck) and learning about load bearing walls and which walls can be taken out etc and a few group presentations too. We have also just received our first major assessment - redesigning a lounge/dining room. We got given the choice of two briefs and in my brief I am designing for a young newly married couple expecting their first baby who live on the gold coast. We got given the floor plan and information and tables for all the supporting documentation to go with it. I'm doing a sophisticated resort style feel with hardwood floors, wooden furniture, a library nook, a bit of pattern thrown in and metallic touches in accessories. It's due a few days after my 21st, so I am hoping I can get it done before then and only have the presentation boards and speeches to do during that week. So I may be missing in action soon, and if I like it I may just let you all have a little peak when it is finished too..