Dum Dum Da Dum

The cake is all finished! This is the fabric cake I made for the girls I work for in the wedding business. I left it plain so they can decorate it with different colours and themes depending on what display it's in. I ended up using polar fleece instead of felt as the felt at our local SL is pretty crappy and the fleece had a slight stretch in it so it came out nice and smooth, The lace and ribbon were just stitched on around the seams to hide them and I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. I got some foam from Clark Rubber and Mr Fish was conned into cutting out the rough circles for me before I cleaned them up with the scissors. Not too keen on their complex calculations to work out how much off cuts of foam are though.

I took a piece up to the counter which looked about the right size for what I wanted to do and asked how much as there were no prices on any of the pieces. Here's me thinking the guy would just glance at it and say "oh, ten bucks will do" , when he gets out a tape measure and calulator and takes five minutes to work out some kind of magical way of pricing an offcut! It was dearer than 10 bucks but by that stage I just wanted to get out of there before he found another surface he forgot to measure.

On another note I ordered these lovely season cards from thepoppytree on etsy for my birthday (yes, I buy my own pressies, at least I get something I like!) and was trying to think of what to do with them when I found a pattern for a wall hanging I am determined to make sometime next year from the book 'material obsession 2'. The wall hanging has 4 blocks of a tree with the seasons determining the colours used in each block, much like the cards I got. So I thought the cards would be a nice piece to have in the room where the hanging will go to show the seasons in various ways, one on paper and one on fabric.

More sneaky peeks

Okay so I might have forgotten to post the picture of the bag I made in the last post, I had a wriggly fish on my lap 'helping' to type and the other one explaining to me where quolls live! (I'm glad someone in this house knows). The bag is from a Janelle Wind pattern called 'Thelmas day out' which also has a journal cover pattern included. It was really easy to make and the instructions were pretty straightforward and easy to follow.

I finished the fabric barn as well, once I got started I couldn't stop so it's all ready to go. I really love this fabric house tutorial as you can turn it into anything you like. Biggest fish now wants a house for her little animals (sylvanian families) so maybe if she behaves herself we might work something out. She loves to help whenever I'm in the sewing room so we may do this one together as a project for when littlest fish is asleep.

Sneaky Peeks

I've been rather busy of late, last weekend was full of work and I even had to work Thursday and Friday nights (haven't done that in a while) and littlest fish and I had a lovely night on the lounge on Tuesday night as she decided she was sick and therefore could not sleep in her cot but would instead recline on me. I have managed to get a few things finished in the last few weeks and will give you a look as I like to share.

I have been a bit forgetful and am behind on my quilts of love challenge of one a month for a year so I made 2 this month and if I do 2 next month I'll be caught up again. This should probably be an ongoing thing and I will endeavour to keep it going as it's really suprising how many the hospitals need (we only have 2 in our area) as they are regularly requesting more. Makes you thankful for what you have.

I have also ticked a few xmas pressies off the list including a bag and a little needle case and made littlest fish a shirt with some babushkas and a cute little crochet flower that Aunty Jude made. (thanks Jude!) The little hair clips are the start of lots of little hair clips that I am in the process of making for the markets. I wanted some little things to have on the stall and my girls like them so I thought others might too!

Works in progress

The latest bunch of things I have started are a quilt for Mr Fish's cousin who is having a baby next year, a new doll that sort of looks like a butterfly (that's what it will hopefully turn out like) and despite having other stuff that I should be doing I couldn't help but to start on the barn house that's made from the same tutorial as the gnomes home 'cept I did it 1.5 times bigger to fit all those farm animals in (they like their space apparently).

The butterfly doll is being made because oldest little fish informed me that her doll called Sabine (that is taken to bed each night for cuddling) needed a cuddle doll of her own so she wouldn't get lonely when she is lying on the bed during the day all by herself. (This actually makes sense to me, I don't know whether to be worried by that or not???!!!) And a butterflyesque doll was picked because Sabine likes butterflies. So there you go.

The barn is coming along nicely and I am now putting the windows on (if only real housing was this easy to build). The animals are waiting in the linen cupboard til they can move in, though oldest fish did find them and sneeks a peek at them when she thinks I am not looking. The barn is for littlest fish so this is okay as she can't actually open the linen cupboard door yet. Plus she is only 1 and doesn't seem to care.

The quilt has been fun to do as it required actual sewing on the sewing machine, which I haven't done much of lately so it was nice to take it for a spin. Anyway better get back to sewing on barn windows!

More Gnomes Home Pics

Ok my lovelies, I went a bit snap happy this morning and took some more pics in the nice morning light. The gnomes have met their new neighbours who happen to be a cute little fawn and a nutty squirrel as well as a resident duck who has taken over their pond. I will put the rest of the pics up on flickr if anyone is interested as there are probably too many (told you I went snap happy!) to post. I am itching to get going on a barn now but have a few other things to get done first. Must say a big thank you to uklassinus for posting such a great tutorial on her blog, check it out if you haven't already.

Also if anyone has ever made a wedding cake out of foam and felt (obviously not to eat!) please feel free to give me some tips as I volunteered to make one for my friends wedding decorating business, for display purposes, and am kind of winging it. Eeeekk!

I am trying to get a bit organised now and work out what xmas pressies I need to get started on so they get finished on time as I am trying to make most of the gifts this year. The kids are easy, it's the adults that are tricky.

Also I just found out that we are having a big baby and toddler market here (finally) and it is on the 7th of November at the seniors hall near the entertainment centre. I am finally going to be able to try and sell all the stuff I have made for it so hopefully it will be a success!

The gnome cottage

It is finished! Finally I have finished making the gnome's home. I have been working on this for a while and am pleased to say it is done and the new tenants have moved in. The tutorial for the house is on this blog and I am going to make a barn for littlest fish for xmas.

I really liked making this and decorating it and am going to keep it for me though I'll let biggest fish play with it when her sister is asleep (it has some tiny bits in it). The teeny tiny kitchen wear is from bunnysdesigns on etsy and is possibly the cutest thing I have ever seen, it really is soooo cute.

And you can't go wrong with mushrooms can you? The light wasn't the best when I took these so I will try to get some really clear close ups tomorrow of the little stuff.