it's still his birthday year

OK, so it was back in February and now it's June. June 6th to be exact and my niece's 2nd birthday today - Happy Birthday gorgeous girl! So, in celebration of her birthday and only 4 months and 2 days after my little man's birthday - here's his cake!



It's a train!

The design is from the Women's Weekly kids birthday cake book. The new one. I think the vintage reprint came out afterwards. I have it now. I made it with a chocolate cake that our nephews can eat (allergy boys). It's egg and dairy free.

a bit of sunshine

I wish I could find the time and the guts to use a platform like this blog to create and store memories of my time with my little angels, like some other bloggers out there - I'm particularly thinking of Rebekah from a bit of sunshine, when skies are grey.

Also, I wouldn't mind living in Seattle for a while. Let's be honest.

chloe's christening quilt

I can't believe I thought I could do it. And I also can't believe I actually did it. I realised on Monday night that I wasn't going to be able to get a gift for little Chloe's christening that I would like to give her.

As in, I couldn't really think of anything and the second daughter always misses out on things because there are always loads of hand-me-downs from big sister. So Monday night I thought to myself - I'll make her a quilt. And I went to the stash, pulled out a bunch of pinks and bright sky blues, shuffled them around and thought, yep, there's enough there. Then I googled to see what dimensions I needed to make a cot size quilt (100 x 120cm or 40 x 48inches approx). After that, I got a piece of paper and drew up the design (coins? I think it's called) and worked out my piece sizes.

Much to my husbands annoyance (he was trying to watch Q&A), I finished sewing up the top that night. YAY!

Today, Friday, I finished off the last of the binding.



In between, I went to both Quiltsmith AND Calico and Ivy to get wadding, bias binding (no time for DIY) and a new thimble.





I'm very pleased with myself (can you tell?). I made sure it was clear this was Chloe's very own special quilt especially for her, by quilting her name into it. I've only ever hand quilted, so this time I made sure it was simple enough to finish on time.