Doll Quilt

After about  1 hour of looking this morning, I finally found my camera under my bed! I took about 8 photos before the battery died, and also discovered a huge fingerprint on the lens - after I had taken the photos. So, apologies for the smudgy photos ;)

I hosted a mini crafternoon at my place on Sunday - I say mini because I only invited 2 guests. One of my guests brought along some super cute matryoshka fabric to line a beautiful entrelac scarf she had knitted for herself. She left the remnants for me to keep, as she doesn't sew.
I decided to make a doll's quilt for my guest to give to her niece for her upcoming 4th birthday, using some of the matryoshka fabric. 
It was incredibly easy to make, and I think I have caught a doll's-quilt-bug. I'm already planning more, and I hope to try out different types of quilt blocks on the doll's quilts.
The other fabrics I used include a very sweet Japanese village print (I used that as the backing fabric, as well as on 4 of the squares), a Lara Cameron screenprint (the centre square), and the red spots and binding are from Timeless Treasures.

Unscheduled Bloggy Break....

I've misplaced my camera! I suspect the small boy had something to do with it. Until Miss J returns from holidays later this week with her camera, I'm unable to take any pictures :(

Unfortunately, it also means I can't do my giveaway yet. But stay tuned - I hope to be back on track by the end of the week. I've got lots of WIP's to show you, and some super cute FO's too.

xJ

Ollie-Boy to the Rescue!

Faster than a speeding bullet;

Able to scale tall spirals;

Able to slake his thirst in a single bound.

The Knickers are back in town

After a lovely break down in South Gippsland (Victoria) we are back home to our own comfy beds. We had some pretty good weather down there, the kids really loved going down to the beach for a swim. Some days were just too crazy-windy (not unusual South Gippy weather!), but nevertheless we still went to the beach almost ever day, if only to look (and jump the small waves!).

We also played a spot of golf. Ollie's rules, of course, which basically means anything goes.

Now, I suspect that today is my one year blogaversary - but I'm not too sure....  And as I am expecting to have a house full of people in the next couple of hours, I have much last minute cleaning to do, and a bit of cooking (all in this heat!!), so I'm not as organised with a giveaway as I had hoped. So stay tuned, peoples. I'll post about a giveaway sometime later this week.

Crochet Shopping Bag

I've been looking at crochet bag patterns for the last couple of months now, but had decided not to start one until I'd finished all of my granny squares. After taking a closer look at the patterns on Ravelry, I decided that I'm not yet ready to read a crochet pattern (ha! either that or I'm too lazy!!). Instead, I decided to wing it. I know, I'm an extreme crocheter!

So here's the finished product! I just started crocheting in the round, increasing as I went until the circle looked big enough, then continued in the same pattern until it looked tall enough, then finished off the top with some handles. Easy peasy. I used 2 and a half 50 gram hanks of Pakucho Certified Organic Cotton in Avocado on a size 3.50mm hook.

If anyone is interested in me writing out the pattern, let me know. If enough of you show an interest, I'll give it a go :)

So much for the early night....

(and trust me to not start out with a simple image to linocut!!)

Veg About in January

After being away from home for a week, I was pleased to come home and find that:

a) all the plants were still alive (yay for a wet Melbourne summer), except for a few dead bits on the tomatoes and zucchinis;

b) my zucchinis had not grown into marrows (ewww) as I feared. The zucchini pictured above is about 10cm long;
c) my capsicums are starting to grow to a decent size;
d) the red tomatoes finally turned red; and
e) both the watermelon plants are flowering.
I've really enjoyed my potted vegie garden this season. I think even if I had nothing to harvest from all that I have grown, I'd be happy just to have all this greenery in our bleak concrete backyard. Although this season is far from over (I still have the watermelons and a mini roma that are just flowering), I'm already looking ahead to what I can plant next. At some stage I'd like to do potatoes, leeks, garlic, onions, carrots, broccoli....the list goes on!

Thanks to Annabel for hosting.

gocco printing on fabric

Noro Crochet rug progress

Wow, 130 squares done! Loosely laid out like this, it measures 165cm by 130cm. You can follow my progress here, here and here.

Happy New Year!

After doing lots of the above for the last week, I'm back in town. I've just harvested a large crop of cherry tomatoes, both yellow and red, and I've watered all of the very dry looking pots. I'm about to lay out all of my crochet squares - over 100 in all. I have less than one ball of noro left to crochet, then it's time to block and join. I'll post a photo when it's all laid out.