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The binding is done on this quilt.  It has been washed and is drying on this rack.  More on this quilt beginning of next month.  This was a monster quilt to bind; but so glad it is done!

 File this one under "done is better than perfect."

I should have taken more time in squaring up the top after quilting to get the design centered better. Oh well! 

This is part of a baby mat panel that I have in my shop. I cut off the left side with the numbers because I wanted it to be just a quilt. I free-motion quilted it myself on my new Q20 using an all-over swirls motif. 

Here is what the whole thing looks like. It's about 42" by 54" off the bolt.

The idea of this baby mat is ...

June.  Half the year is almost gone by.  I wonder how much will get done this month?

In my aim to clear out some baby fabrics and my smaller pieces of batting scraps, three baby blankets for our local hospital NICU were made.  This time, all for boys.

I was invited to a baby shower last weekend, so I crocheted a baby gift to take. I might know next to nothing about the care and maintenance of babies, but I think I am pretty good at making baby things.

He is such a handsome dinosaur.

I had a bit of a false start with some 4-ply (fingering) wool, and I soon realised that the finished toy would be very, very small. I ripped out that attempt and restarted with 8-ply (DK) cotton. The pattern actually calls for 5-ply (sport), but 8-ply yarn worked perfectly.

I had a false ...

My lovely neighbours have another grandson (their fifth!), and I again offered to make a quilt.

As before, I invited the baby’s grandmother into my sewing room to choose some starter fabrics and pattern ideas. We agreed to use a lot of the same fabrics that I included in the earlier baby quilt for the same family, but this time she spotted and fell in love with a monkey print, so I added green to the blues.

The baby’s grandmother was keen to include the monkey print.

The idea for this quilt came from the centre of an ...

In recent months, I needed gifts for new babies, so I crocheted a couple of toys.

The first was for my Kiwi neighbours. Crocheting a kiwi crossed my mind, but I chose to make a sheep instead because I already had a pattern for a sheep. It is the ‘Simon the Sheep’ pattern by Kerry Lord, from her book Edward’s Menagerie, but his new family have called him Harry, not Simon. I made him with one skein of Dos Tierras from Malabrigo.

I added to the gift by buying a large square of double gauze fabric and hemming it ...

Earlier this year, LoveCrafts asked me whether I would like to try some of their products. Of course I would!

My first thought was to make something for the new grandson, so after much delay and consultation with his mum, I chose an amigurumi donkey pattern by Kristi Tullus and yarns from the Paintbox Yarns Cotton Aran range. I felt that realistic colours would help make him recognisable as a donkey, so I ordered black, white and slate grey.

Hubby says he is the best of the crocheted toys I have made.

The yarn arrived in the mail, beautifully presented ...

My favourite colour is red, but there has been a lot of blue in my life recently.

I knitted a simple blue cowl from a single ball of Lang 4-ply (fingering) baby wool that I found in the sale bin. It was such a pretty colour and all on its own.

The stitch pattern forms a pretty texture.

The wrong side of the knit looks nice, which I think is important when it is likely to be visible.

The cowl pattern I used, ‘Sea Oats Serenade’, is small rather than loose and drapey, but it works perfectly to create the ...

There are soooo many free bib patterns and tutorials on the internet!  Sewers, crafters, quilters... many generous people!  Once again, I got carried away!  I made different sizes, different styles for the grand-baby.  Some she'll have to grow to use, but that's ok!

To make the bibs, I could have used Velcro, and I did on one, but snaps are so much prettier and neater.  I bought a snap kit from Amazon and it made putting the snaps on so easy!