Sunday Stash #5 - An Auction "Win"!

This week's Sunday Stash is brought to you by "I had to have it" and "A win you have to pay for is still a win"!

A few weeks ago I stumbled across a charity auction page on FB called From The Heart Auctions.  It's a U.S. based page, and the auction they were running at the time was for the families of Newtown.  There were some absolutely amazing goods up for auction, including beautiful handmade quilts by Lee at Freshly Pieced!  And it was also where I first noticed the Joel Dewberry fabrics that I later bought somewhere else!!

Anyway, I found this lovely set of two charm square packs and a pack of Kona charms too.  And I won them!  I have no idea what I am going to make (apart from a quilt!) or who it will be for, but got them anyway!

JP in the house!

And miraculously - that is the only fabric that has entered this house in the past week!  The same can not be said for the next couple of weeks, with what can only be explained as "the mother load" of stashes coming my way........Stay tuned!

I'm linking up with Sunday Stash at Finding Fifth!

And for those who have not popped in to my blog this week - I will share this one last time!  The Sew Fab e-Pattern bundle is only available for another 24 hours!  You can read about it and BUY IT HERE!  Thank you to everyone who has already grabbed themselves a bundle!

T.G.I.F.F. #5 - Kissing Fish

In what can only be called a miracle - I finished kissing fish......and not the "in the water kind".  I definitely wanted to challenge myself with the whole quilting business this year, but think I bit off more than I could chew with this baby!

So without further ado - Here is my version of "Kissing Fish".....

Kissing Fish on Flickr

Lots of straight, stitchin in the ditch!

Gorgeous ribbon fabric I bought on a whim!

Love, love how this light has shown off the colours!

So the five million points are not perfect, the lines are not all amazingly straight and heck - I may have broken a needle!  But I LOVE it!  I used THIS PATTERN from Freshly Pieced.  Although it is classed as "easy", I would say it's easy but fiddly and at times frustrating.  Only because of the 100's of HST's!

I chose the ribbon fabric for the backing, basically because I was going to use it on the quilt top and then forgot!  And after much deliberation, I went with all the different prints for the binding - kind of rainbow-y?  And now I have to wait a whole two weeks to gift this to a very dear friend of mine, for her very much loved baby girl, who is yet to enter the world!

And yes - that is ALL I finished this week - but what a finish it is!

I'm linking up with T.G.I.F.F. being hosted by Kit Lang - Art this week!

Have you finished anything this week??
AND just in case you've missed it so far this week - The Sew Fab e-Pattern deal is still available, but only for a couple more days!

You can see all the patterns and purchase the bundle HERE!  
**  Please note - this offer is available until 8am EST (US) Monday the 11th of February!  There was a typo with the date on the original post which was provided to us!!

SEW - Some Very Exciting News!

I'm SEW excited to share this awesome and exciting news!  

Ms Midge and Patterns Only are joining forces to bring you a fabulous offer!  For seven days only, February 4th - 11th, a Sew Fab bundle of PDF patterns will be available for only $24.95!!  And you can purchase it right HERE once it goes live!!!  

FULL DETAILS of the sale start and finish times will be posted HERE tomorrow and the patterns you will receive?  Well, you have to wait until Monday for that!  I can tell you that the designers involved are Amaze-balls!  Figgy's Patterns, Go To Patterns, Peek-a-boo Pattern Shop, Seamingly Smitten, One Girl Circus, Sew Much Ado, Luvinthemommyhood, Gingercake, Sew Fearless and Me Sew Crazy!  

Ms Midge and Patterns Only will also be running a give-away for all who purchase the bundle!

Please feel free to share this with all of your crafty friends and family!

Do you love to sew?  I do!!

Chinky Pixie - A quick & easy book week costume!

Like a million other children this month, my kids have celebrated "book week" by wearing costumes to school today, dressed up as their favourite book character.  The kids have known about this event for quite some weeks.  And admittedly - so have I.  Cadyn decided from the day he knew, that he would be going as Specky Magee, basically because he is not a fan of getting dressed up, God forbid he would draw any attention to himself!  So, his costume was easy - his football gear already sitting in his wardrobe.  Chelsea, on the other hand, could not decide whom her favourite character was, because she reads so many bloody books it's almost impossible.  BUT, Sunday afternoon she decided on Chinky the Pixie - from The Magic Wishing Chair book, by Enid Blyton.

Let me paint a picture for you......  It's 2pm Sunday afternoon.  We begin googling images of Chinky.  By 2.15pm I'm admitting defeat, and telling Chelsea she will have to find something else, because there's no way I'm going to have time to sort a bloody pixie outfit!  Come 3pm and I've got some ideas from my sewing group on FB, and I'm in the car on the way to the shops.  Half an hour later I'm home with supplies and making a bloody pixie outfit.  I thought I would share, basically because it had me stumped for a bit until my brain warmed up!  So here it is......A quick and easy book week costume.

MATERIALS USED - 1.5metres Homespun Cotton $9.00; 50cm felt $6.00; Tights on sale $1!  Cotton, pencil, pins, scissors, sewing machine!

1. Grab a good shorts pattern.  The one I use is actually the bottom half of the Bailey Romper pattern, and it is THE easiest shorts pattern EVER.  You can purchase the pattern HERE.  

2. The PDF pattern goes up to a size 5, I have upsized it to a size 7, as shown in this photo, but given that Chelsea is a size 8-9, I upsized it a little bit more!  You can see my post about upsizing HERE.

3. To change your shorts from regular to Pixie style, just draw some jagged lines at the bottom and add a little length if needed.

4. If you have pinking shears (jagged edged scissors) cut your edges as shown above.  This will lessen any fraying.  I made the edges uneven on purpose!

5.  Two pattern pieces required now done.

6.  I was directed to THIS FREE PDF for a pixie/elf hat.  It's super simple!  I used felt for the hat as it has a little more stiffness/body than the homespun cotton.

7.  The PDF is for a toddler size hat, so once again I upsized it a bit more to fit Chelsea's head.

8.  Cut out hat pieces.  Then just a matter of sewing all around the edges, trim the curves and turn right side out.  Then hem the bottom.  

9.  Done!

10.  Shorts all sewn up!

11.  For the top I used another PDF pattern, this time it's the  Whimsy Couture Easy Peasant Top, which you can get HERE.  This takes very little time to whip up!  

12.  Instead of hemming the bottom and sleeves, I got out the pinking shears again and did the same jagged effect.

The End Result!  And yes - I know there's now a red hat - further googling yesterday found that Chinky in fact wears a red hat, so thankfully my good Mother had some red felt and I was sewing that at 9pm last night!  Phew!

One very happy Pixie!

Chelsea was very happy to report this afternoon there were NO other pixies at school today!  

Do your kids have dress ups for Book Week?  Are you a last minute costume gatherer, or far more organised than me??