Love-Filled Projects

In the final weeks of my pregnancy with Sophie, my nesting took on a specific focus… project nesting. Rather than cleaning out cupboards, organising my pantry contents alphabetically or scrubbing bathrooms as some mamas-to-be instinctively do, I instead whipped up floral pillowcases, made pretty bunting and other decorations for my Pink Ribbon Day fundraiser (which I crazily hosted at 36 weeks) and every afternoon in those final months, I sat at my sewing machine while Grace napped and sewed.

169 squares were lovingly cut out and stitched together to create a patchwork quilt. I was desperate to complete it…wanting so much to create a piece especially for my big girl before the new addition to our family arrived. With the hum of the sewing machine, energetic kicks would thump from inside my belly. Snuggled up in one of Paul's jumpers (one of the only warm pieces of clothing big enough to cover my bump) with endless cups of herbal tea by my side, I would sew and spend time deep in thought about the imminent changes which were about to happen to our growing family. There was lots of unpicking, lots of swearing and lots of technical challenges for me (my sewing skills are very basic) and when that quilt was finally finished, I almost wept tears of joy, vowing it would be a LONG time before I ever did anything patchwork-related again.

Fast forward two years later and I’m all set to begin work on my second quilt. Just as my memories of all things ‘pregnancy’ and ‘newborn’ have softened over time, so too have my feelings of frustration over what for me was a not-so-straightforward project.

Sophie’s quilt will be a similar style to Grace’s, with simple squares cut from a mixture of floral prints and pretty patterned fabrics. Colours will be predominately mint / aqua greens and soft pinks (perhaps with a touch of lemon).  I’ve been spending many nights recently browsing sellers on Etsy and making little purchases, eagerly skipping to the letter box every few days to see which new material has arrived.

While this time around, there will not be a round basketball belly in front of me as I sew, this quilt, like my first, will be just as carefully planned, just as thoughtfully made and just as love-filled as I work on it for our little one...

A Tiny Bit Of Nursery Progress

Last Friday, whilst visiting a friend who had recently given birth to her third baby, she shared her disappointment with me that she had yet to finish decorating her baby girl’s nursery. The walls still had to be repainted, piles of baby clothes and gifts needed to be sorted through and a bookshelf was waiting to be styled. However, when I told her that poor Sophie (whose first birthday is approaching in less than two weeks) was still sleeping in her incomplete room, she said she felt much better.

I on the other hand did not. Despite being up to my armpits in party preparations at the moment, on Saturday, I decided enough was enough and promised myself to cross at least one thing off my ‘nursery decorating list’.

So, while Paul took the girls and Asha to the river for a splash, out came my sewing machine. Using a great tutorial I found online, I managed to whip up the bobble trim cushion cover I’ve been meaning to make for some time now.

Progress is finally happening (albeit slowly as with most things in my household) and I’m more eager than ever now to finish decorating this room. I’m ordering a mobile from Etsy seller The Butter Flying, have some prints to frame and just need to put the final coat on the floating shelves I’m making (with Mum’s partner’s help) before I can put them up and arrange some bits and bobs to display. I also sewed a basket liner on Saturday, but after finishing it, decided it was too dark a shade of aqua (I’m going for a more mint green) and so I now need to take a trip to Spotlight for some new fabric before I can attempt ‘take two’.

As for this week, among a few play-dates and catch-ups with friends, I’m dedicating it to making party decorations. I have bunting to finish sewing, goodie bags to put together, first year photos to print, tablecloths to wash and fondant flowers to finish creating. I’m aiming to make something each day and am hoping come the weekend, I’ll be done. That will leave me next week to focus solely on preparing all the food.

Wish me luck!

Grace’s Quilt Is Finally Finished!

Do you know how long I’ve been waiting to type those words? After literally months, Grace’s patchwork quilt (my first one ever) has finally found its home on top of her bed. It was the one project I’d been desperately hoping to complete before bub arrived. However, the main issue I’ve had has been finding the time to actually sit down and sew without interruptions and consequently I’ve had to work slowly on this project doing it bit by bit. Also, my sewing skills are very basic (I’m pretty much self-taught apart from a term’s worth of high school sewing lessons) and so I’ve become very well acquainted with my ‘unpicker’ tool as well as my sewing machine’s instruction book. Being a perfectionist definitely hasn’t helped either.

Thankfully, my friend Kylie has been very tolerant of my numerous quilting questions and another friend from work, Tracy, was willing to drop everything one weekend to help me. She kindly top-stitched the quilt for me on Saturday night with her special ’walking foot’ and attached the binding on, knowing that I was desperate to get it finished and my due date was looming. I am ever so grateful to her.



I’m really pleased with how it turned out. I love the combination of fabrics and colours and like the girly touch it adds to Grace’s room. It isn’t perfect but it’s been made especially for my darling girl with lots of love and that is what makes it so special. It has also been rewarding personally to work on such a large project and it makes me happy to be able to say ‘I made that’. I can’t count the number of times Paul said, “I’ll give you $50 to just go and buy a quilt” as I sat on our lounge complaining about having to unpick a row of stitching for the hundredth time.



For anyone interested, my finished squares are 3 ½ inch. As well as some existing pieces from my stash, I literally bought my fabrics from a whole range of places including Spotlight, Etsy seller This And That From Japan and online store Sunshine and Hunny Quilts. For anyone local to Perth, I also used Calico and Ivy, Patchwork At Homespun, Carol’s of Midland and Southlands Fabric and Sewing Centre. I also included one type of fabric which I cut from an old cotton dress of Grace’s.

So that’s my first ever quilt completed! I’ve really enjoyed getting back into sewing but I think I’ll stick to smaller projects for the next little while. Although, with a newborn due to arrive literally any day, I think my sewing machine will be guaranteed of a rest for the next few months at least…

Around Our Place

This week has been a fairly quiet one for Grace and I as we haven’t ventured too far from the house. Apart from my Mum and a few friends popping in here and there, we’ve had lots of tea parties, spent plenty of time outside picking flowers and collecting snails (Grace is infatuated by them) and done a bit of baking. Yesterday we made a batch of delicious Mini Raspberry Melting Moments to enjoy for our morning tea which you can see above on the pretty china side plate I bought last weekend from a church fete.



I have also managed to get a few little crafty projects done, just a few small things for Grace’s room like the tissue box cover above. I’d originally seen a tutorial on Janette’s blog and ended up using a combination of two – the one she’d seen on Design*Sponge and one from here. I’ve also managed to finish adding a few new small touches to our ensuite and once I hang the little piece of artwork I’ve made, I’ll share some photos of it with you next week.





Today I’ve been alternating been pottering around the house and sitting outside in the glorious sunshine (after having a downpour of rain last Sunday and hail, tomorrow we have a forecast of 35!) Paul has been laying lawn all morning and ‘Grace’s Garden Corner’ is starting to slowly look a bit better now that the brick path and grass are in. You can see a current shot and before shot above. I have seen a cute little table and chairs at Bunnings which I’d love to get for here and once we fill the sand patch in the corner with sand, we just need to decide what else is going to go on the lawn – trampoline or cubby…?

How have you all spent your Saturday? Do you have anything special planned for tomorrow?

Wintery Sunday Drive

There’s a place out towards the Avon Valley that Paul and I visited one wintery day a few years back that we’ve wanted to visit again ever since. With showers and windy weather forecast yesterday in Perth, Paul suggested we go for a drive out towards Toodyay and try and find it once again. Firstly, we stopped at a store we always enjoy browsing through called Emporium which has a collection of antiques as well as new homewares. Here we bought a rusty wire duck for our garden.

We then tried to find the café and were about to give up when Paul decided to try one last road, Chittering Road and sure enough, there was our tin shed tea room at Golden Grove Orchard. It was still the simple little rustic café we remembered with a woodfire stove in the middle keeping the place warm and toasty, old saws and tools displayed on the walls, a basic menu of sandwiches, soup and Devonshire teas and sixties music playing in the background. We stopped for lunch and then bought some freshly squeezed juice from the orchard out the back. We left feeling happy that we’d found our little café and glad we’d decided to go for a Sunday drive.



Over the weekend, I also made great progress on Grace’s quilt (I have changed my mind about the design and colours for the hundredth time!!) and could really see things starting to come together. Halfway through sewing all the squares together however, my machine decided to play up and started sucking the material into the feeder teeth. So today I’ve taken it to be serviced and looked at, eagerly awaiting its return so I can continue sewing. You can see the progress I’ve made on the quilt so far below.



That’s all from me today as Grace came down with a cold last night and none of us got much sleep. She’s pretty miserable so I’ve just been pottering around the house, tidying up and trying to keep her happy. Wishing you all a lovely start to the week…