Birthday Ballet

My youngest daughter, Eve, turned 4 last week. I'm feeling happy/sad about that. Proud at how gorgeous and bright she's growing but sad that my baby is getting so big. She has just started ballet for the first time too, so we had a bit of a ballet birthday for her.

I made her this ballet bag using Ayumi's (PinkPenguin) fantastic lunch bag tutorial. It really is a great pattern. So easy to follow and it makes such a cute little bag. It's the perfect size for ballet shoes, a leotard and tights :)

Make sure you check out Ayumi's blog and Flickr photostream. She is so creative and I love everything she makes!

Then of course we needed cookies. I made these pretty tutus for each of the little party girls to take home with them. Evie decided to help when I was brushing them with pink lustre dust. She got just a little carried away, hence the pink blotchy bits! But you can never have too much sparkle on a tutu, right?!!

I was very happy to find these pretty ballerina cake toppers in a party shop. Just divine don't you think?!

Happy Birthday Evie! xx

E is for Eileen

Remember this bag? It has finally reached it's new owner so I can safely reveal the back!

I was so excited to be given Eileen (bluebirdluxe) to sew for in this swap. She's makes gorgeous things and is always quick with sweet and enthusiastic comments on the work of others on Flickr. I adore her work and am so glad to have 'met' her!

Eileen and I have a bit of a mutual admiration thing going and have talked before about a private swap. We share a similar style and taste and I felt a bit like I was sewing for myself with this one!

I pieced an E for Eileen onto the back of her bag using a pattern from my new book- the (sadly) out of print and hard to find Patchwork Patterns 318 by Kumiko Fujita. And of course Eileen needed a bluebird which is part of her logo.

I loved making this for my friend, and I'm very happy to hear she likes it too :)

I Do

I haven't made many of these for a while, but I got my piping bags (actually squeezy bottles!) out this week to make some cookies for a friend who is getting married soon. Hope she likes them :)

It's been a bit of a crazy week at my house. Two kids back to school (one high school, one Kindergarten) one little girl back to preschool. Then there's

been me back to work, getting everyone to swimming, cricket, ballet, guides, birthday parties, piano, playgroup....... I know you all have equally crazy lives, so I'll stop my whinging now!

I can't quite remember when I managed to get these little crafty bits done, but here's what I made! A little teapot block which will become part of my Pippi Longstocking block for Muriel in the Cocorico Bee. I made it using Kerry's great pattern from Fat Quarterly Issue 8. It was my first try piecing with freezer paper and I'm pretty happy with it :)

Remember those hexies on my swap bag? Well, I had to get my seam ripper out and take these three off because they just didn't fit. It seemed a shame to lose them, so I turned them into a little extra for my partner's swap package. It looks like a potholder, but I didn't use any insulbrite, so I'll just call it a mug rug (or a rather large coaster??!!).

And this is on the back! I think I might even like the back better than the front.

Hope you've found a scrap of time to make something this week too :)

swaps

Last night I finished up this bag for a swap on Flickr. I'm excited about this one as my secret swap partner is someone with great taste who's work I really admire. I soooooo hope she loves this bag!

I'm a bit annoyed with myself because I sewed too many hexies on and had to unpick some. I also didn't think about how some would end up underneath the bag once the bottom was boxed.

If I made it again I would use smaller hexagons so I could fit more into the smaller space.

I used some of my favourite Japanese prints with linen for the outside of the bag. The lining is Kona Robin's Egg. I used the Jane Market Bag pattern from Posy-which is very easy to follow and makes a great bag.

I'd love to show you the back, but I've personalised it in a way that would completely give away who it's for. So here's just a peek ;)

The little touch of lace with the button is an idea borrowed from Amy of nanaCompany who has the most inspired ways of adding a tiny pretty touch to things. Off to the post office to send this on it's way!