In a few weeks time, I get to be an auntie and my girls get to be cousins. Over the last week we have been sorting through the baby bedding and putting a care package together for my sister in law*. Of course, the package had to be topped with a new quilt for the baby. The girls are also pretty excited about getting a cousin.

Sorting through the bedding I realised that I really do have a lot of baby quilts. It got me to thinking about what makes a good baby quilt and this is what I came up with:

• Baby's are not always clean - make the quilt washable
• Mum's are often pushed for time - make it MACHINE washable, quilt it tight so that it will hold up to the machine.
  
• Some Mum's are scared of what the machine might do - prewash and dry the quilt so all the shrinking is over and done with.
• Babies love cuddles and soft things - consider using flannelette backing.
• Babies temperatures are very sensitive - use materials that will breathe, avoid polarfleece or polyester batting.

And most of all, make something you enjoy making.


*For those of you who were at the engagement party on the weekend and are wondering where the bump was, all I can say is it's the OTHER sister in law.

I have a pile of craft books, a veritable collection. So many of them I pour over and think that one day.. Today just might be that day, or maybe that month.


These beautiful bloomers are taken from Emma Hardy's “Making Children’s Clothes”. I managed to finish then a few days ago. Rebekah has challenged us to finally tackle at least one of those projects that has been sitting, hidden in a book, this month. You read more about it here, but for now I’m eyeing up another pattern. Hot pink bubble skirts any one?

In the middle of the muddle the smallest things become treasures. My crafting space is a mess and my garden is even more so. However, I never thought I would get so much pleasure out of some failed cabbages and a few stolen hours.


The garden has become an collection of when the sun shines..when the baby is asleep..when I have time. It is nearing summer and I have only the midwinter vegetables planted. The strawberry patch is a neglected space waiting for me to replace the hose that broke last summer. The cabbages were bitter after a long winter, so I let them go to seed and the smallest cabbage turned out to not be a cabbage after all.


The shape of the leaves gave it away and so I just left it there in the hopes that is wasn’t a cabbage. It is slowly being joined by some other stowaways from the same punnet of seedlings. I think I will leave them there.

For someone who claims to be a quilter, there doesn’t appear to be much of that going on either. The last quilt I finished was months ago. I’m certainly not one of those people who can churn out a new project every week, pour over the newest fabrics while buying up large or even stop still for long enough to write about it. I used to dream of having days on end to myself to simply sew, but now I’m happy for just two hours. They have become very precious to me.

Every Tuesday night I sneak out of the house and join the local quilting classes. With my machine and bag in the car I am off. Two hours of not worrying about who is a sleep and who isn’t. Two hours of just me, my machine and some great friends. With such small bites, it has taken me a while to get even one top finished, but would you believe that there are two? I think I will have to call these my Tuesday Sanity quilts.

The baby is awake again. I must dash back to the muddle, and the little treasure in my life, who is getting bigger all the time. I will save the quilts for another time but for now here is a peek.

When I talk she coos and smiles, but when I sing, she just beams.

When I had Little e, my mother passed me my Plunket Book. It was carefully covered with a recycled greeting card. I seem to recall that my brother’s matches, but with a blue cover. It is nice to be able to flick through the pages and see that milestones are all the same, even thirty years on. The advice in the front made me chuckle so I thought I should share the “Suggested Routine Day”.


6:00 am Early morning tea for parents. The baby is changed, fed and returned to his cot.
7:00 am Parents rise
8:00 am Breakfast
9:00 am Sunbathe or exercise period for the baby in his cot.
9:30 am Bath and dress baby.
10:00 am Feed baby and put him down to sleep – outside if possible.
12:30 pm Lunch or dinner for family
1:30 – 2:00 Change baby, feed him and put him outside in the pram. Follow this with exercise period in crib or playpen
3:00 pm Afternoon tea and as baby grows older, an outing in the pram. Follow this with and exercise period in crib or playpen.
5:30 p.m Feed baby. Social time and then to bed in a quiet well ventilated room.
6:00 pm Family evening meal.
6:30-7:00 pm Recreation and relaxation.
9:30-10:00 Last feed for the baby. Change and tuck down.
10:00 Supper and bed for parents.

That mum is having a very long day, even if the baby is sleeping through the night. I like that she doesn’t clean the house either. I think we all look back and consider that there was some idyllic time for bringing up children, be it the 1950’s or the 1970’s. I console myself that this virtuous timetable was written at the same time as irreverent ( or even celebratory) songs like this (Miss Smith you will appreciate this one).

My time table is stuck to the fridge. It started as a list of things my mother could do to help when she arrived. I have added to it (in itallics) as I started to use it for myself whenever I had a spare moment. It reads: Meals, Laundry, Dishes, Sleep, Eat, Bathe. Much easier to follow and yes, I do need reminding of the last 3.

We had our last midwife appointment on Friday.

Last time, it took me by surprise. I felt sure I wasn’t ready to care for my baby without the training wheels. I found every reason I could to stall as the midwife left.


This time we were ready. E had picked out a gift, and I had even managed to get some photos developed. It’s high time I shared some.


The hat is from Janelle of Heartfelt fame and you can see more of the quilt here.

As my felted jersey stash reaches 25* and the temperatures reach -2, I’ve been thinking about keeping warm. I have finally cut into some of the favourites in my felted stash to make the baby blanket in “Warm Fuzzies”.

I’m so excited about the colours. The backing is a vintage flannelette sheet my mother found in the attic. It’s just perfect for this. Together, the colours just seem to hum. I’m so pleased I have enough fabric to make a second.


*I stopped counting at 25 as it got to be a bit embarrassing. However I have just trimmed and felted another 7.

It’s been a week and still, I am being surprised by new phrases. When my mother asked how ‘the girls’ were, I hadn’t really thought of it like that. The phrase “The Williams Sisters” took me by surprise too. Sisters. I always wanted one of those.

I remember being envious of my friends with sisters. They had someone who was always there in their life, whether they wanted it or not. Often a the sister was a closer friend and confidant for it too. My sister arrived when I was 14, so we have a different relationship again. One of us being at high school while the other is a baby and then one of us having babies while the other is at high school.


Already I can see that Little e (is she still little if she is a big sister?) is very protective of what she calls “my sis-sis”. Other kids can’t get near the baby as Little e waves them away with protests of “No”. Then there is the ever demanding cry of “knee knee” to let us know that she is sitting and ready to give her little sister a cuddle on HER knee.

I can’t tell if they will be friends yet, but I certainly hope so. While we were expecting a baby, the arrival of a sister has taken me by surprise. It’s just what I always wanted.

She is here. Hazel Elizabeth arrived last Monday morning, much to everyone’s delight. We have had a week of mutual admiration and remembering what it is like to have a newborn.

The work on the spare room is continuing. We have moved beyond sorting out the two bookcases in there and are now tackling the numerous boxes of books in the garage. The boxes have become an unexpected wonder.

Little e is having a fantastic time with the empty boxes, especially as she had recently discovered “hiding”. It often takes the form of opening a cupboard door and backing inside until her absence is noticed. It doesn’t faze her that she doesn’t fit into any cupboards as this is all about the trying to hide. It’s the fuss that we make looking for her that counts.

As we find books that we really don’t have the space for, they are getting put aside for various destinations. This pile here is destined for interested crafters. There is a distinctly quilting bent to them. If you’d like me to send one or two your way drop me line and I can get it in the post to you. However, given the horrendous postal costs, I’m going to have to restrict this to NZ addresses only. The books are :

“Quick and Easy Projects for the Weekend Quilter” Rosemary Wilkinson
“The Essential Quilter” Barbara Chainey
“Contemporary Machine Embroidery” Deborah Gonet
“Material Women 99”
“Art and Inspirations” Michael James
“Six Colour World” Yvonne Porcella

You’ll have to be quick as they will be off to the second hand bookstore next week if they haven’t found a home.

We’ve been talking about birth plans in the midwife appointments. These sorts of plans include words that you never think about until you have to have a baby, for example placenta, episiotomy and pethidine. I can think of some nicer plans, involving things that I have some semblance of control over. The plan goes like this:

After giving birth to my beautiful baby, and having that crucial skin to skin contact, I think I might be hungry. I will promptly tuck into some fresh sushi complete with all the raw fish I couldn’t eat while pregnant. I’m sure the sushi bar opened nearby purely to meet this need. This sushi will be washed down with a glass of champagne. Later, I will tuck into a bowl of hot chips with fresh aoli, made with real eggs – salmonella be damned, and maybe some shell fish or soft cheese.

Now that my appetite is sated, I will sleep for many hours without my bladder competing for space with a wriggly baby. The next morning, feeling fully refreshed after the long sleep, I will slip into my pre-pregnancy jeans before leaving the hospital with one darling tucked safely in my arms and the other two at my side.

Is that too much to ask? Ignoring the facts that my maternity jeans had more wear after, rather than during the last pregnancy, I’m not sure that I’m allowed champagne in the hospital and a full night’s sleep is going to be a very long way off.

I think I will just settle for a safe delivery and healthy baby to boot. That’s my plan.

A few weeks ago I had a go at felting some thrifted jerseys. There were two stubborn jerseys that despite 2 hot cycles still looked like new. They have met their fate and now I introduce to you the Three Dollar Thrifted Pants.

The other jersey had been re-purposed into a snuggly hotwater bottle cover for little e. Yep, both my babies will be keeping warm this winter.

I finished my new nappy bag a few weeks ago and it has been my “going to work” bag ever since. I can throw all manner of things into it as I am rushing out the door at 6 am, knitting, a book and sometimes even lunch.

The inside is lined blue with burnt orange pockets. I'm still losing things in the pockets and vow that I will label them soon. At least the cell phone is one the outside.

The pattern is from the Amy Butler range. It's supposed to be a diaper bag and is all set to be in a few months.

While I am not overly keen on knowing the gender of an unborn child, I would like to know what fabric to use for the next quilt. I'd love to be tucking into the pinks and yellows, but maybe, the blues and greens would be more appropriate?

Note: My Dearest is certain he wants to know, so it looks like we might have a split decision.

It's been a slow week at Casa Seven Stitches. Little e is getting over tonsillitis and my dearest and I are falling in her wake with various colds. Though, I have been able to get some binding done and a quilt finished during one of her really long sleeps.

I think little kids should be issued flags. Ones that go up in the morning with messages like – “I may be chirpy right now but give me a hour at daycare and I'll be ready to come home”, or “plan to do something big ,cos I'm going to sleep for almost 3 hours”. I went in to check on her an innumerable number of times during the latter and feel really bad about making the call to go to work with the former.

Cuddles are wonderful, but right now I'm looking forward cuddles of the “I'm glad to see you” type rather than the other sort.

Little e is looking up and getting over it. She spent much of the afternoon running around with a friend and is back into her food. I think our respective cold have fallen by the wayside too.


On the getting it finished front, I finished my first Jelly Roll quilt on Friday. I started it in a class in June and it is already taking pride of place on our bed. Just in time for all of us to snuggle under as we recover.

I was in awe of the Pencil Rolls I've seen coming from the Pink Chalk design. I cut out the pieces to make one a few months ago and finally finished it on Friday. Then I thought about taking a photo. Little e spotted it first and while this isn't how I planned it, I will let the pictures do the talking.

My next tip for knitting on a train would have to be “read the pattern carefully”, followed closely by “it's not too late to unpick” I have finished the cardigan for little e. It looks a little different from the picture on the pattern and possibly a little tighter.

I mis-read some instructions and cast the arms off a little too narrow. This would have been fine if my daughter was a cartoon character and had spaghetti arms. I only noticed this when knitting down the second half of the front and was very reluctant to unpick. I thought I was being clever when I devised a knitted gusset with contrast texture. Granted it looks great , but as I finished it, I had a feeling that it might have been quicker just to unpick in the first place.

After messing up the first button hole (yes, should have unpicked that too)I decided that I would sew domes on. A kilt pin will have to do while I work out where I put those pesky domes. The fleeting moment in which this cardigan fits my daughter may have already passed. For now, the kilt pin compliments my daughter's generous puku quite nicely.

I like the way this looks finished. When little e's puku finally wins the battle with the kilt pin, it will be lovingly washed and put aside in the baby box.

Maybe I'm getting a little hopeful but the signs of spring are around me this week. This is what greeted me at the kitchen window on Friday morning.

I love borrowed gardens. The neighbor's plum tree hangs over the fence at our kitchen window. From here I can see the other plums trees and a lone feijoa.

I've also been watching our magnolia closely. I'm sure it was flowering earlier last year. Aa it was our first winter in the house, we had no idea what colour it was going to be. I have fond memories of sitting in bed, nursing little e, and watching the spidery purple blossoms. I spent so much time inside, that at times, the flowers on this tree were my only real reminder that the seasons were changing.

Yep, there are more babies on the way. In case you were wondering, none of them are mine. The first of little E's friends becomes a big brother in just 4 weeks. So, it was back to the gown production line one Saturday at our place. The results:



3 new gowns (the green one was made earlier). I am getting attached to using striped fabric on the trim.


I was determined to use every inch of the yellow fabric and so came up with mint and yellow number. I'm not too sure about that one and beginning to wonder why I asked my dearest for colour advice. Now, I figure it's nothing that some well placed embroidery of yellow ducks on green grass can't fix.

I had an excuse to make real cupcakes over the weekend. These opportunities don't come along often so I grabbed it with both hands. Blemgorf had some beautiful panda cupcakes a while back so I just had to try them. So here goes...

I don't often get time to make real cupcakes. Though, I do use my silicon cupcake moulds a lot. They spend most of there time in the freezer holding & moulding baby food. It's also nice to know that there is always something cool in there to chew on for sore little gum.

I got excited about cupcakes last year. Patty cases were hard to find here so I bought everyone that caught my eye. I get a excited about the decorating rather than the recipe as no recipe has been able to match the Edmonds Cookbook one. When I confessed to a friend that I now have 7 different cases, she told me it was OK. If it's a hobby you can have as much as you like. I'm clinging to this as I justify my various stashes.

It's OK, It's a hobby. .

Edit: I have just found out about a cupcake swap over at Rachael Rabbit. The timing is very co-incidental and I'm really looking forward to it. Thinking up non-edible cupcake recipes already.