New favourite trousers!

I love the pattern designers at Ottobre. Whoever came up with #12 from the Winter 2010 issue is my new best friend, this is a trouser pattern for skinny kids and it fits Monkey perfectly. They stay up all on their own with no belt or elastic! A first for us from any pattern company, I made this test pair in a straight 104cm with no alterations and they're just fab, she'll be picking through the stash tomorrow for fabric for another four as she desperately needs long trousers.

Front view, I left off the belt loops as it was a test and she doesn't use them anyway. They're pulled right up here, they do fall down a little when she's been moving around but not enough that she gets builder's bum as happens with shop bought! They come down perhaps half an inch.



Back view, it is so odd to see her wearing trousers that actually fit around the bottom instead of bagging out everywhere.



I did make one small change at the front fly, Monkey isn't great with buttons (and I didn't have any zips handy) so the fly closes with five snaps instead. Easy for her, easy for me :)

I just can't say no

Monkey and I were in Hobbycraft on Monday checking out the Airfix models for Boy's birthday next month. Naturally she wandered off down the wrong aisle and when I found her again she was clutching a ball of wool with both hands and started asking "Mammy, mammy, make me a scarf please!" My heart sank, while I can knit it's not something I particularly enjoy. My grandma taught me years ago and she was an arthritic old lady then so, not surprisingly, I myself knit like an arthritic old lady. Slowly. While that's actually a good thing considering I now have arthritis in both hands it's not the point! I Do Not Like Knitting. Monkey smiled, I melted and we came home with this.



I got to it, after hours (I kid you not, HOURS) of painstakingly knitting away I realised I'd better try to go faster as Monkey really needed a scarf.



It snowed! I managed to get it finished this morning in time to go sledding, it looks pretty much the same but longer and without the knitting needle stuck through it :D The colours are lovely, I like them very much.



Princess has been eyeing it up so I need to practise.

No. No. No. No.

Quilting update

Work is progressing nicely on the quilts - yes, that was meant to be a plural :) Not content with getting started on my own king size bed quilt I decided this would be a good month to start work on one for Monkey and one for Toddler too. Might as well get them all done at once!

I've so far pieced together the centre of the Round the World quilt that I'm making for me. After much thought I decided that there is no way I'm going to be able to squeeze it all through my machine when it's all pieced so I'm going to quilt as I go, the centre is in four 5x5 block pieces which I will quilt, stitch together, add borders to then quilt the borders, bind and Ta Da, it will be done without having to manhadnle 100" through my teeny tiny machine space. Here it is, all folded up and waiting patiently on me choosing a backing fabric. I am loving the brown with the colours in the Soiree prints and you would too if I took a better picture, sorry!



On to the girls. They are both getting a bed size quilt (in Toddler's case it's only a cot bed so not quite as much work) as part of their Christmas gifts this year and as they share a room I decided to make co-ordinating quilts for them. The Stacked Coins Baby Quilt from Crazy Mom Quilts has been on my ToDo list for a very long time and as I happened to have several charm packs on hand I decided it was the perefct time to try it. The charms are from Moda's Frolic line which I simply adore, I wish I could get a whole bolt of every print. Joining together over 700" of sashing strips to then cut them to length was more than a little tedious, as was chain piecing the bazillion and one coins. It will be worth it in the end though!







I've used different coloured Kona cotton for the sashing on each so we can tell them apart better - Toddler doesn't quite get the concept of "yours is the smaller one" yet but she can manage "yours is blue" :)