… I chickened out on showing you my new dye space.

For now.

I’m going to get it up and running, and make it look a bit prettier and then I’ll show it to you. In the meantime I’m sorting out what is going into the sale on the 26th. Stay tuned.

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In other news, FB is going to be two (two!) in the middle of October, and though my midwife is convinced I’m not going to drop until week 41 (which is a week after his birthday. Yes. I know.)  I’m hard at work trying to get his birthday, and Christmas generally well under way with plenty of time to spare.

With that in mind I stayed up far too late last night to start work on the Waldorf doll that I’m making him. I’ve been wanting to have a go at one of these for AGES, but I’d heard they are tricky, and kept putting it off. However I’d really like FB to have a little buddy who he can go on adventures with, so I’m giving it a go.

I’ll do my best to document how it goes here, for those who are interested. Maybe it won’t be so scary, and others will decided to have a go too? Here’s hoping.

I’m working from Making Waldorf Dolls by Maricristin Sealey, which is a great book and a classic if you want to make these sorts of dolls. I got my supplies from Myriad Online, which is a great resource for natural toys and Waldorf books if you’re based in the UK.

Anyway a couple of hours at my new sewing table and here’s what I have so far:

It was relatively painless. Even without a third hand to help tie the knots. I’m really pleased with how smooth the face is (no bunching!) though the eyeline isn’t a pronounced as maybe it would be with more practice.

Anyway more on that soon (ish.)

The title is some what confusing since this post has nothing to do with quilting. However the Festival of Quilts has become an annual trip to replenish my fabric stash, and since we aren’t able to go this year, and I’ve been running through my stash quite a bit recently, I decided that a little splurge was in order.

And then the ‘what’s new’ email came from Fabric Rehab…

First off, if you’re in the UK you will want to know that Nancy and Sally stock Anna Marie Horner’s ‘Little Folks‘ collection – both the cottons and (more importantly) the cotton voile. Very exciting.

And as well as some of that, I got Michael Miller christmas fabric, some great Kona geometric boats, some birds, some fish, and some other bits and pieces to keep me a very happy crafter over the next few months.

Yes it was a bit naughty* – but I have birthdays and birth-days and christmas to prepare for this summer, not to mention a new house to make into a home. :)

(*not debt making thank goodness, but it felt a bit naughty spending all that money in one go. I’m not used to it.)

(A little boys with BIG shoes.)

My mum got me The Children’s Year for my birthday this year. (Have I mentioned how much I love Hawthorn Press? I really do. I also love that they’re British!)

It’s a wonderful book, stuffed full of things that I want to make, and do – both now and in the future when FB (and his sibling!) are older. However this apron pattern, which is sized for 18 months to 2 years (ish) was yelling to be made NOW, and I had the perfect Japanese linen/cotton from The Eternal Maker, which I bought at last year’s Festival of Quilts.

And thus was started my love affair with bias binding. (I find the hand sewing bit ever so soothing.)

It’s too tricky for him to put on by himself, and I still have to finish the pocket, but he seems to love it, and so do I. :)

The night before I went to the Quilting exhibition at the V&A* with Jaq and Kim, I saw this post at the Purl Bee, and thought ‘I want some of that!’

I had already been planning to go to Liberty while we were in town, but now I had a mission. :)

I bought a half metre of the map fabric (which comes in other great colourways, including a barely there pale grey, which would make an incredible lining for something) and a full metre of the edging fabric (it has berries on it!), just because I loved it so much and wanted to have some left over.

I decided to make itlong and thin, rather than square, so chopped my half metre in half along it’s length, and joined the two pieces together (using my first ever french seam – very nice). A half hour cutting and making binding with my clover binding maker, a couple of hours pinning and sewing, and then a few pleasant evening hand-sewing the binding complete, and I was done.

Of course now it’s got pretty warm here, but it will be great as a in between scarf when the woollies are still in storage, but you need to wrap up just a bit. And yes it’s long! Two metres plus. But that means lots of wrapping which I like.

*I liked the exhibition. The most striking thing to me was how current the fabrics seemed. I was looking at fabric from 1750(!) and it looked like the fabric I might buy now. I don’t particularly mean the fabrics they have reproduced and are selling – though they are good too. But there were lots of other fabrics that had me drooling, and felt very modern. Very aussie-handprinted, or japanese-zakka.

My one criticsm is that they seemed to suggest that quilting is only being kept alive by artists, and the only modern quilts were conceptual pieces by artists. This is all well and good, but it’s not true, and to not even mention someone like Kaffe Fassett (though his book was in the shop) – to name but one – was a big over sight. But I guess it wasn’t exhaustive. For the best in quilt design right now, a trip to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC in August would be in order (though sadly I’m not going this year.)

I’ve got to say that the chicken came together surprisingly quickly, after some leisurely handsewing.  And to be honest we didn’t wait till Easter Sunday to give her to FB – after I’d wrestled it out of W’s arms (he thinks it the best thing ever. It is very pleasing to tuck it under your arm, I have to say.)

Of course then the weather was grey and dull for three days and I couldn’t photograph it.

And when the sun shone my (very) enthusiastic assistant wanted to help…

Since then our Easter has progressed on similar lines to last year (fever, snotty nose, general lack of sleep all round. Though luckily no hospitalisation this time.)

However there was baking, which I’ll post about next. :)