Craft Schmaft » Baby & Nursery

A little owl rattle

Claire — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:04:05 +0000

I got busy crafting a baby owl rattle for my tiny new niece, Olive. A couple of bells in a kinder surprise container created the rattling effect and then the baby owl went right on top of a “sock donut”. I used a colour variation embroidery thread for the eyes which was gorgeous – although the instagram photos don’t quite do it justice.

Meet Franklin

Claire — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 10:38:26 +0000

We knew that we were expecting a boy. We knew he would arrive on Saturday as I had to have a c-section. We had absolutely no idea that he would be so large (Born a whopping 4.75kg/nearly 11 pounds) nor that we could love him so much. He enjoys afternoon snuggles, big feeds and long walks on the beach.

Meet Franklin…

Thank you so much for all your well wishes. We had a very smooth delivery and a very happy healthy baby. Although it has to be said that he looked more like a toddler compared to the other tiny bubbas in the nursery!

I’m off to have a baby

Claire — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 10:26:00 +0000

Well I’m off to hospital at the crack of dawn tomorrow to have this baby of mine. Lots of gushing blogging to come but for now, here are some pics of the balloon nursery…

Making of the Balloon Nursery posts can be found here:

Balloon Nursery: Almost there

Claire — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 07:05:51 +0000

Balloons have come together.

Had their little baskets attached.

Teeny tiny fabric bunting ironed and cut.

Strung on a piece of perle.

Sheets have been made. The cradle is in place. All that’s left is for the mobile to be hung.

Balloon Nursery: a day in pictures

Claire — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 10:38:56 +0000

It’s been a big day of sewing on the balloon nursery front, hooray! The baby finally has a quilt to sleep under. I haven’t got pics of the finished item but I took some snaps along the way today to share. A word of warning, professional quilters may find the following wonky stitching and amateur technique offensive, you may wish to look away now!

It started with an unpick and rework. I reduced the amount of red in the quilt, I think it was starting to take over.

Lots of sewing onto an organic cotton wadding.

A little addition of ric rac which I love!

First attempt at felt basket. Not bad for a first attempt but it’s too big for the balloons so more experimenting tonight.

Balloons for the mobile starting to take shape.

And so with fingers nicely swollen from the oedema I think it’s time for me to eat some ice cream. Everyone keeps telling me I should enjoy these last weeks of pregnancy. This is proving difficult to do what with the waddling, constant peeing and sleeplessness but on the bright side there’s dessert. I believe when pregnant one must ALWAYS eat dessert!

Quilt coming together

Claire — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 11:18:02 +0000

Thanks for all your input, I think you’re absolutely right… whimsical is the way to go for the nursery. I pulled together the quilt panel this week although tomorrow I’m going to take out some of the red. It’s just a little too much. I have also been learning how to basket weave with felt for the balloon baskets and sewing them up for the mobile. It’s all starting to come together.

Balloon Nursery: Fabric dilemma

Claire — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 03:19:26 +0000

This morning I laid out all the fabrics for the quilt. This is one of my favourite things to do, I love that you never know which fabrics might work with others. Guaranteed some that you thought would be perfect together suck, and others make an unexpected match.

I thought I was all set to go after discovering quite a funky look with some umbrella prints fabric that I adore, the clouds and Heather Bailey’s stripes. Loved it… quite pop retro but surprisingly working well.

Then, of course, I had to keep playing around with some idea fabric I bought ages ago with this quilt in mind. I don’t like the whole piece of fabric but when I folded it to just show the strips that I like it worked. Suddenly the quilt looked all whimsical.

So my dilemma is this: pop retro or whimsical?

I also spent the morning creating a pattern for the balloons and sketching out the clouds which, I’m pleased to say, has worked. It’s all very rough but I just wanted to get the pattern pieces ready so as soon as I can finalise my fabrics then I should be able to whip up the mobile.

Balloon Stalemate

Claire — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 02:46:01 +0000

I have ground to a bit of a crafting halt on the Balloon Nursery.

Not really a good time to halt with only four weeks until the bubba is due but a halt nonetheless. I find that this happens to me when there’s something just not quite right about what I’m creating. Something in my subconscious is trying to tell me that another approach is needed. This leads to craftstipation.

Finally over the weekend I figured out what it was. The socks. I had done a little sock prototype which worked out fine, the shape was good and it was so ridiculously easy. Still something stopped me from carrying on. While the sock idea is easy it just wasn’t allowing me to get the colours or style that I wanted together. While this might sound like a disaster it’s actually a big relief to realise what it is that has been bugging me. So now I’m back to feeling enthusiastic and have been planning the construction of balloons using fabric. This leads me onto one of my favourite things to do – choose the fabric.

So far I’ve planned on using Cloud9 Blue Yonder and white linen for the quilt. With that as a base I’m looking at cherry reds to go with it. The other colour I’m tempted by is a yellow but I have a bit of a vision of red bunting so we’ll just have to see.

So now all I have to do is hope that this baby waits long enough for me to finish it!

Images: Bunting by GiggleBerry, Cloud9 Fabric at Duckcloth, Heather Baily Pocketbook, Pop Garden at Hawthorne Threads, Cosmo Red Stripes, Amy Butler Full Moon Dot and at Kelani Fabric

Baby Jessica’s Owls

Claire — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 10:04:48 +0000

It’s still all sickness and flu around here but I’ve been working on a little string of owls to go across a pram for the gorgeous baby Jessica. This was meant to be a newborn baby present and she’s now nearly four months old so I think it’s safe to say that I’m a little behind!

I put bells in a couple of them to make a little noise as she kicks them.

All the owls are finished, I’m just trying to track down some pink coloured elastic to thread them all together.

Nursery sketching

Claire — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 04:49:13 +0000

I’ve been planning and experimenting with sock air balloons and thinking that I might make a sock pup with flying goggles as a bit of a feature too. The first prototype is going quite well, the shape works and I think with a more interesting sock (I used an old one) and some bunting it could be quite nice. More pics soon!