Baby Gifts!

I finally got around to quilting my most recent baby blanket.

The front is really simple HST done in a variety of fabrics, I even dug into my precious stash and used some of my dashwood studio prints in there as well as some prints from the craft cotton company and abakhans. 

The couple don't know if they are having a boy or a girl so I went for a pretty neutral palette of yellows greys and teal. I think the whole thing looks really fresh and modern. 

It took me a while to find a fleece blanket to use on the back and in the interest of full disclosure Rikki chose this one from home and bargains. You'll have to take my word for it but it is SUPER soft!

Quilting wise I just quilted along each triangle using my walking foot, It took me barely any time at all. In fact hand stitching the binding down might have taken longer!

I added a handmade tag for a personal touch and naturally after I saw it all cute and folded up I just had to make a matching bunny and taggy blanket. These are made in exactly the same way as all of my other ones and feature a lot of the same prints!!!

This is my absolute favourite set I have ever made EVER!

It all just looks so adorable when its together and I can't wait to gift it when baby is born!

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxx

Pink Spotty Baby Bunny

Heya Folks hows it going? Coping with the weather? Me and Little Man were both snivelling wrecks by the time we got to school on friday apparently the only thing that can make the cold worse is having the wind blow it right into your face! 

But anyway this is a project I finished a while ago. My sister requested I make one for her to give as a baby gift. She knew what gender they were expecting so after I sent pictures of some fabric ideas and she okayed them I got cracking.

Both of the fabrics are by Dashwood studios, the pink spotty fabric is called flurry and the brown flowers are from the Suffolk garden range. They really are lush fabrics to work with and the colours are just so beautiful and vibrant! 

I didn't make any changes from the pattern apart from adding a small handmade tag to its back ear! 

It was a nice mindless sew to be honest and I'm hoping the recipient likes it! It did take me a while to choose colours for the face and the bow though but I think they turned out pretty cute!

In other news , I appear to be sleeping better but I'm sick of this weather. I literally cannot wait until I can start sewing cut summer dresses again!

My crochet blanket is coming along nicely and I'm hoping to have it finished soon. I've told myself I can;t start my new knitting project till its finished so hopefully that will motivate me! Although when I've finished crocheting all the squares I still have to attach them all together!!! 

Much Love

Frankie

New Baby Bunny!

I don't want to alarm you all but......

I'M GOING TO BE AN AUNTY AGAIN!

Seriously was there a power cut I don't know about? everybody seems to be popping out the babies!

Anyway I've already started its gift basket in fact its what this quilt top is for! 

I've tried to go pretty neutral on the bunny, both of the fabrics are from the craft cotton company. and as a nice touch the triangle fabric that's on the body is on the bunnies I made for its elder brother and sister for Easter.

I used my own Easter bunny tutorial, and didn't make any changes. I was tempted to make a mouse but its mum and dad requested a rabbit.

I'm very pleased with how it turned out I'm just wondering if I should change the ribbon round its neck for something darker? 

And I've already decided if its a girl I'm going to put a tutu on it!

Frankie

xxx

New! Easter Bunny Tutorial!

My latest tutorial is now up on the craft cotton company website! and this one is all about Easter!

These are from the official bunny photo shoot that I did, and yes I had to go to the shop for eggs!

You can find the tutorial here : https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3W6ct5H1sa7aVRNWWhJSFoyQ2s/view

And now its gone up I can show you some of the other bunnies I've made! 

This was the first bunny prototype i made to see if the idea would work.

then i made this one experimenting with the idea of adding arms , I think it looks cute with and without though!

Then 1 made one in more boyish colours!

And my final versions! Mr and Mrs bunny! All ready for Easter! And they made lovely gifts for those who don't eat or like chocolate! [or who are too young to have it!]

Hope you like them and if you make your own please send me a picture via email, or twitter or tag me in one on instagram!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx 

P.s The Pattern can be found on my patterns and tutorials page! 

3 Easter crafts for toddlers!

I love Easter! I love rabbits! I love chicks! I love egg hunts! And I REALLY love chocolate! 

Needless to say I usually make a pretty big deal if the whole Easter thing! For starters we buy lil Knitwit quite a few eggs , I know I'm spoiling him to to be quite frank I don't care! He isn't spoiled everyday so on special occasions we like to go all out! 

We also get our craft on! Here's the three Easter crafts we got stuck into this week! 

Easter bunny cards! 

Quite simply white card folded in half, ripped pink wrapping paper, spare ribbon, fabric scrap bunny silhouettes (I cut these not lil Knitwit) and cotton wool bunny tails! And then lots of sticking! 

Prep time : 10 mins? 

Make time : lil Knitwit is a super speedy gluer, and we made four! So about 30 mins? 

Verdict : excellent grandparents loved them! 

Paper mâché Easter eggs! 

These were a little harder to do, first if all I crammed a small stuffed toy into a balloon. 

 Then I blew it up

Then we did paper mâché, waited for it to dry and popped the balloon. 

Then on Easter Sunday we ripped them open and the toys were born! 

Prep time : about half and hour ? It took me 10 mins to find paint brushes! 

Make time : about two hours? I carried on after little Knitwit had gone to bed.

Verdict : I think I'll save this till he's a bit bigger, and also make sure we have pva glue in the house so were not just using paint, ripping them open was a bit if an anti climax too so I'll probably add sweets inside aswell next time. 

Easter nests!

Barely worth blogging about! Stupidly easy to make! Taste scrummy! And kids love making them! 

Melt chocolate, add cereal, spoon into cases, add eggs (according to lil knitwits the ratio is one big one, two lil ones, me eat one) 

Anyway I was spose to blog this yesterday but was struck down by a migraine! Hope you all had a lovely Easter  

Much love

Frankie

It's time to undeck your halls now!

I'm joking even I don't usually take my decorations down until after new year!

But merry Christmas! It's been! Santas been! It's over! It seemed like four weeks of stressing and organising ended after a lovely 24 hours (more on that in a bit) and then I crashed! 

Yep after two weeks of nursing lil Knitwit through his virus it hit me like a tonne of bricks! (I'm assuming it was the 25th time he sneezed in my face that finally did it) 

So yeah my Boxing Day went like this: 

8:30 - get up with lil Knitwit make breakfast (guzzle paracetomal)

9:30ish - mr knitwits parents and grand parents get up , they take pity and send my back to bed.

12:00 get back out if bed after sleep, guzzle more paracetamol, sit of kitchen floor when the room starts spinning

1:00 second roast! (I had two Yorkshires and a few roasties) help clear table then back to bed! 

4:30 get up (again) paracetamol (again) lie on sofa, and tell everyone I'm dying. 

6:30 bath lil Knitwit, eats a sausage roll and then yeah you guessed it! Back to bed! 

11:00 go downstairs to heat up my wheat bag again then back to bed

12:30 take all bed covers of mr Knitwit, tell him he's horrible not to let me have them all when I'm so cold, he feels my forehead BOOM! Fever!

1:30 wake mr Knitwit up (whilst sobbing hysterically) beg him to take me home. He calms me down and explains that he's had too much to drink and that the roads are still full of accidents from the days snow (apparently that happened when I was in bed!) promises we can go as soon as he wakes up

Next day- get up, packs bags, gets in car, passes out, gets home, takes temp (volcanic) had to phone my mum to say I wouldn't be round for her family day, more sobbing, bed, lil Knitwit sneezed all over bed sheets, strip bed then back to mine ! 

Yeah so fun! I'm over the worst now, just a sore throat and lots of nose blowing to contend with! 

But back to actual Christmas and my presents! 

As always I only really share my crafting related presents and this year I was properly spoiled! 

This was off mummy and daddy! It's a new dressmakers mannequin! (Which me knitwits built for me on the 27th to cheer me up, and positioned at the end of the bed, needless to say after waking up and seeing a looming white figure I thought my fever was back!) momma and poppa knitwit have earned some serious parenting points with this! 

This was from my lovely big sister and her husband! I've started it already and I'm loving it! I've admired Vivienne Westwood for years! Still can't quite believe she met the queen without knickers! I would never do that! Prince Harry maybe, but not the queen! 

I also revived this book from my sister and her hubby! (from mum and dad! forgive me I had flu!) It's full of rather funny newspaper articles about women in the 1930s and some of the photographs are stunning! 

I also got two pretty awesome presents from lil knitwits godfather (he's my friend aswell but we'd never admit it!) 

Yerp that's a vintage singer your looking at! 

Oop but then what's this ? 

Another one! Needless to say lil knitwits godfather is welcome to come round and have a brew whenever he wants! What a gem! (More on this machine later)

I honestly got some awesome presents this year! And it's great to see how well people know me! I got two owl bags! And three microwaveable wheat things, (apparently I'm always cold!) 

And I also got this lil guy 

Meet ronnie! Who's been living in our shed for the past two weeks! 

Isn't he the cutest! 

Anyway I'm going to go and try and shift the last of this cold/flu thing! And then hopefully I'll have the energy to blog about all the cool Christmas commissions I did! 

Much love

A super spoiled 

Frankie

Xxx

Bigger is not always Better

A little while ago I went through a stuffed toy obsession, I lusted over pictures of knitted , sewn and crocheted toys (mainly the crocheted ones! one day I will grasp the idea of only holding one needle in my hand) I pinned images and read patterns till I was blue in the face. But in my own particular style I wanted something quick, easy and hassle free, which is when I came across this little beauty . I'm not sure where is from its just popped up on my pinterest feed one day and I couldn't resist giving it ago. This is my version.

 

Lil bunny (just noticed that stray piece of wool)

 

I loved him! I mean who wouldn't! he's so tiny and adorable, I used about 30 stitches, very fine wool and tiny needles. it was just my kind of project quick easy , no complications just knit sew and then make a pompom!

 

But then I had a brain wave (I should really try and tame those) what if I made it bigger? Used bigger needles and thick wool? Basically made a larger toy , suddenly the snug crafter inside me was imagining giving these as gifts at baby showers and birthdays , so I tried it.  

 

Evil Bunny! Coming to a cinema near you

 

Definitely less cute, in fact in some lights it just looked down right scary! And it was large, about the size of a small football and the pompom was huge! Maybe he was too big, maybe the wool was to stiff maybe it was the dead bunny cross eyes I decided to add but I'm inclined to believe that's it was because it was so darn big! little things are cute but this! This was definitely not cute! In fact in fairly sure he's going to be cast in a horror movie any day now! 

 

Well what can I say, sometimes ideas don't work , and I can quite safely say I wont be giving any of these to small children anytime soon . I wouldn't want to give them nightmares!

 

by for now

 

Frankie

 

xxx