'Princess cardie' for the princess

I've begun my next project for in front of the TV, the Little Princess Cardie (a free pattern offered by Lion Brand) Its a swing style cardigan apparently suited for a beginner - that claim is about to be put to the test!

We don't get Lion Brand here so I chose some bamboo/cotton from Spotlight. It is so silky and soft. A bit challenging to work with as the fibres are almost like embroidery thread and are easy to split as your hook goes in and out but I seem to be getting the hang of it.

I'll keep you posted with my progress. Wish me luck!!

Quilting round-and-round

Remember this fabric? I finally cut into it and made Giles a quilt following one of Martha's tutorials.

It is a dead-easy quilt to make as "the design is created simply by sewing strips around a center piece to form concentric rectangles." I was able to cut the strips while The Boy was taking his bath (I did this on the floor of the bathroom!) and did all the piecing that night after he went to bed. All up, it took around 5 hours to make the quilt top.

The next night I sewed the backing on & machine quilted by stitching in the ditch in a concentric circle going out from the center rectangle (I don't have a good photo of the back to show you, but you get what I mean). As I didn't have any quilting batting, and am trying to 'use what I have', I used some printed polar fleece that a friend had given me that I was never quite sure what to do with. It is a great cheap alternative to quilters batting and it has made a thin, but nice & warm quilt.

I made the binding from the animal print fabric and followed Heather's instructions. Ta Da!

Editited to add: I forgot to say I found more of the animal print at Textile Traders for $9.95/m so bought some more to make a summer grobag/sleepsac as well. I used Bec's no bias binding tutorial. Mum laughs and says when he is in bed with the gorbag & quilt, he disappears and all you can see is a head. 

You can see a pretty crap photo of it HERE.