There are so few posts around these here parts that anyone would think we don’t really make ANYTHING…

..but we do! Honestly!!

Julie has been sewing Hexagons now for, well, EVER…

Tanya keeps amazing us with yet ANOTHER quilt that she is giving away ( and expertly quilted herself!)…

Sharon decided being an expert at 379832 things wasn’t really enough, so she’s taken up embroidery. This is her FIRST project…

And, although I neglected to photograph them, you can take my word for it that Flo hemmed a skirt and Tracey had yet another superbly quilted masterpiece to show us. And I ate several of Julie’s delicious butterfly cakes. Pretty good night all round!

We Red Buttons ladies share everything

Apparently…

Stitching at Tracey’s

For three weeks the Red Buttons are stitching at Tracey’s place. Kirsty, our usual host, is away freezing her tail in New Zealand. We miss her…

We have managed to find a few projects to console ourselves though.

Tracey is drawing flowers around the dots on this beautiful piece of fabric.

These will eventually adorn a tree applique.

Sharon is handstitching the teeniest of hexagons…

eventually, when she has made millions and millions of them, she’ll be able to make a quilt.

Flo is putting the final stitches into the flower girl’s dress for her wedding…

we all swoon over the lovely silky fabric.

And… we are talking between chocolate biscuits and cups of tea.

It is a lovely way to spend an evening. Wish you were here too…

bad girls, bad girls, whatcha gonna do?

I would never rat out a friend *cough* but look what happens if you don’t clean out your bobbin case for, um, a while…

Lint-a-rooni! Almost enough to stuff a pillow

Not very quilty… but very cute.

I have been whipping up little dresses like nobody’s business. These are my first attempts at dressmaking and I am really pleased with how they have turned out. The pattern came from here,  I had to alter it a bit for my big baby. There are more pics at my blog. 

Taggy Blanket

The baby Red Button has recently discovered that she has fingers.

She rubs labels, blankets and all sorts of things between her perfect little fingers. I made her this Taggy blanket to keep her amused. It is about 9×9 inches with an  assortment of different textured ribbons for those little fingers to try out.

I think she likes it.

SO last season

But I don’t care.  Sales do that to me!  This winter I’ll be making myself something more advanced than a scarf!!  I should work out what to make soon, in case I need to run back to the store and find all my lovely cheap wool has gone.There’s two different types of wool for two different projects.  Just thought I’d throw that in there in case anyone thought I had exceedingly bad taste (which, well, I do…) and was going to mix them up.

Want an Easter Project?

Last night I whipped up these cushions using scraps of white fabric and batting and just four charm squares.

If you want to make one too…

then call by my blog for a link to the free pattern.

Bartering is not dead

A friend of mine, a yoga instructor, takes her iPod and iPod dock to classes in a shopping bag.  She recently asked me to make a bag to replace the shopping bag.  I said sure, but I didn’t want money for it: I’d rather exchange something I’m good at for something she’s good at.  So I received two private yoga classes in exchange for one bag for an iPod dock.  So here I present said bag for iPod dock (and, oh my – is that a glass of Chilean sauvignon blanc in the background?  How ever did that get there????).

Special thanks to Kirsty for hand stitching the last seam that nearly drove me insane.  Actually, sewing foam between the two layers drove me insane so I deserve that wine in the background!!

I had earlier made a yoga mat bag for this friend, so now she has matching yoga mat and iPod bags.  Slightly cheesy, but also kinda cute.

Cutting…

…can take sooooo long! But, then again, there is such satisfaction in seeing those nice fat little piles of neat squares. These (and a whole heap more of their buddies!) will be a Gypsy inspired throw. I’m toying with the idea of adding embroidered braids, ribbons and crocheted doileys…