My Lucky Dip Life!

Crikey, it is weeks since I posted anything on this blog!  I've been quite busy though, honest! Found 5 minutes (an exaggeration I assure you) to sit down and load up a few pics.  Not the best photo, but here is block 6 of my quilt-a-long.  I do like this one and am itching to do the next one but have some birthday sewing to be getting on with this week.  Anyway, this isn't a huge blog post as such, just a little update... if you scroll along you can see the other blocks in this quilt.  I'm not clever enough to have sussed out how to group everything together yet!     

With the weather warming up (slightly) the girls have needed warm casual play wear.  My youngest loves the "easy trousers" she has, and when she saw this beige fabric she was rather keen for me to make her another pair.  Personally I'm not a fan of beige but she loved the colour. She asked for blue top stitching (her favourite colour) which left no room for mistakes! It was only once I'd cut out the fabric that I realised that it was a synthetic tracksuit fabric and would definitely need lining.. that will teach me for buying fabric in a hurry! So while she loves the idea of these joggers, Miss Fussy Pants is not that keen on wearing these because of the added bulk on the crotch seam.  Ah well, it was a good learning experience and since I made these....        I decided to make these orange joggers!  This year on the 30th April, the Netherlands saw Queen Beatrix abdicate the throne and hand over the reins to her so...

  I recently took part in a "craft fairy" exchange with the girls from my craft group.  I've mentioned my craft group before you might remember...we've been chatting away over the interweb since we were pregnant with our babies 7 years ago...who were all due in the month of May!  This year we thought it would be fun to make a gift for a May kiddo.     Here is what I came up with! My recipient likes Russian Dolls and also wears glasses... so I thought I'd make her a cool glasses case. If I made this cutie again, I'd do some things a little differently - there is always room for improvement!  Over all though, I'm happy with the way she turned out.                  

      You probably wouldn't think it, if you visited these shores from the southern hemisphere, that spring has finally made an appearance.  Even though we had snow and frost last week, the daffodils are nearly out, crocus in full bloom, and the tulips are well on their way out of the soil already. Usually, by the beginning of March I have gone through all my seed packets, drooled over online catalogues and decided what, where and when I'm sowing for the coming veg growing season.  This year it has been a lot colder than I can remember from seasons past and somehow the "lentekriebels" (as they say here, the spring fever) hasn't struck yet.... but regardless of how I've been feeling, the tomato seeds have to go in!  I've got a bit of a thing about tomatoes.  They are my favourite vegetable to grow and to eat!  If I wasn't limited by space I would go a little bit silly growing tomatoes I think.  There are hundreds of varieti...

Lots of posts from me today... like waiting for a bus, none will come for ages and then 3 will turn up at once! I've mentioned my online crafty group in the past, it is so good to have like minded people to bounce ideas off.  In January it was suggested we do a Quilt-a-long.  I got excited!  I've always thought that one day I may make a quilt for the girls... but never really pursued the idea.   Apart from scrappy patchwork bags I've never done formal patchwork blocks either. You know, I don't really "get" quilts - I'm a duvet girl and growning up in a warm climate, there wasn't much need for extra blankets and quilts to snuggle under come winter time. So although I was excited to be starting a new long term project (1 block per month) I wasn't quite sure we really did need a quilt in the house. The first quilt block was shared and the very much needed instructions, in the form of a photo tutorial.  Do you know I found it so HARD!!! I'm...

Wow, it seems like only yesterday it was February... and here we are bang in the middle of March (ish)!  Well, in February, I was asked to make a cake for my neighbour's twin girls.  They asked for Minnie Mouse, and so I did my best and came up with this cake!     I'm really pleased with the way it turned out because my heart wasn't really in it this time... my girls were on school holidays and I just wanted to chill with them instead of making and baking, but they were happy to play and keep themselves amused and let me get on with it.    I haven't done many fondant cakes in the past, I usually go for the cheap and cheerful butter cream option but for a portrait cake I chose to do fondant....I nearly had a big OOPS moment with the bow, planned to do it all the day before I needed to deliver it.  Luckily a friend who makes beautiful cakes saved my bacon and told me to do the bow a good few days before I made the rest to give it time to d...

       After my last, lengthy post I was a bit short of ideas, well not really short of ideas, because I've been quite busy sewing kids stuff...but I wasn't sure what to follow on with.  Then I remembered these sweet little treats I made back in August for my daughter's class mates when it was her birthday.  It is a Dutch tradition to take a "traktatie" in to class to celebrate.  There are so many different kinds and all so clever.  I came across this idea whilst I was looking for inspiration and fell in love with these little "kabouter huisjes" (gnome houses).  You can find the original idea and the how to Here .  Just scroll down and click on the link next to the picture.  That will show you how to make the little "roofs" and birdies.  I'll just mention that I couldn't get stickers for the white dots and there was no way I was cutting out a hundred little dots for the roofs, so I dipped the back of a pencil in w...