Bernina Baby Quilt - Pay It Forward

My third and final Pay It Forward gift arrived safe and sound ... and exhale ... I was sweating on this one as I paid Mr. Postman for tracking but Mr. Postman forgot to track the parcel ... and so it made it to it's new home on a wing and a prayer!

This was a very fun sew ... fun because of the back story as to why I made the item ... and fun because I've never sewn anything like this before.

I was making for Kate from the blog Smiles From Kate and I was a little stumped as to what to make her ... I stalked for almost a year, swapping and changing what I wanted to make then BINGO!  The blog post I had been waiting for ... she was "expecting" ... yes!!!  I set to making a baby quilt immediately.

Then ... this blog post appeared ... erm ... her "Baby to be" was a Bernina!!  Oh my goodness, I laughed and laughed ... and thought "well, I'll make her baby Bernina a quilt instead!"  One machine cover coming right up!

My Janome only rolled his eyes a little at having to sew the word "Bernina" ... *cough* ... but point blank refused to wear the thing.  Fair enough buddy.

Thankfully Kate sent me picture of her Baby wearing it's new quilt.

Unfortunately her Baby turned out to be quite a big baby and so my measurements were a bit off - eep!  But being the lovely lady that she is, she's going to use the quilt as wall hanging to brighten up her new sewing space ... phew!

Sx

Here's some construction pics

Basting helpers

Quilting complete

Binding chosen

Machine stitched on

Then hand sewn down to the back

Added a touch of where this was made ... Perth, Western Australia

Every baby needs to know their alphabet ... plus quilting texture yumminess!

A Box Full of Liberty - Pay It Forward

Thank goodness ... I just heard that my 2nd Pay-It-Forward gift has arrived safe and sound ... phew!  It's always a relief when something you've handmade, especially for someone else, arrives just as it should ... praise the postal Gods!

I was making for a lovely lady called Dittany, I admire her handwork greatly.  She takes little snippets of Liberty and magically creates a pot of gold!  She's also quite the nimble knitter ... and I freaked out a little when Nanny London pulled her name out of the hat.  I don't put my sewing in her class, but I hoped that she would appreciate the gesture :)

So what did I make?

A Circle box mostly made from Liberty ... the exception is the large floral print on the top, which is a print from Anna Maria Horna's Mod Corsage range ..

Beautiful, isn't it?

There are many Liberty prints just as deserving to feature here ... but I just couldn't find one that was saying "use me!" "pick me! "I'll be fabulous!" ... so I chose a print close to my heart instead.  Dittany is a Liberty lover ... but I hope that this print speaks to her too ... and well it just plays so nicely with the Liberty friends I paired it with ...

So that was it, gift made ... but who is their right mind sends an empty box (even if they did make it themselves) to the other side of the world?  Not me ...

I decided to fill it with this ...

Mini Liberty bunting ... to decorate her sewing space ...

Gold sparkly bias tape for the win!

For some reason, every time I see this print all I can hear in my head is Olivia Newton-John singing "Let's get Physical ..."

All packed up and ready to go!

Now ... there's just the small issue of waiting for my 3rd and final Pay-It_Forward gift to arrive safely ... let the nail biting and prayers to the mail Gods continue!

Sx

The Circle Box pattern can be found here I made the large size in the pattern.
There is no pattern for the mini bunting ... I made it up as I went along

... and if you do go over and buy that Circle Box pattern for yourself ... make sure you get some Wonder clips (if you don't already own some) while you're there ... they come in pretty handy ...

Back to School - Library Bag

My youngest has just started full time school ... as a "big kid" in the "big school" she is now trusted to borrow books from the school's library.

As I made her older sister a Library Bag at the same age, I offered to make one for my youngest too ...  Without blinking an eye she rattled off her requirements:

Butterflies
Lots of colour
It must have my name on it Mum
and Frogs!  I definitely need frogs.

OK ...

I think I ticked all the boxes!

Sx

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Today was the first day of school ... I hope they are having a good day ... I may or may not be watching the clock because I can't wait to see how their day was ... and I may or may not be missing them ... like a lot (gulp)