Still waiting...

So baby is far too comfortable and has proved everyone wrong and is officially late. Trying to avoid induction using every old wives tale there is but I'm starting to think I'll be pregnant forever..... No signs of baby wanting to arrive anyway!  On the up side, it has given me more time to do some baby related projects.

The first project I started with, using the lovely fabric that arrived just before my last post, is a bag for myself.  Now I hadn't quite appreciated how hard that cutting out pieces from a large piece of fabric laid out on the floor at over 40 weeks pregnant would be...  As such it was extremely slow progress and a rate of one piece every hour or so! Over the course of two days the pieces finally got cut out.  I've since ironed them all and backed with interfacing so they're ready to see together. Sadly, they are still waiting on the kitchen table:

So what have I actually finished?  Well I had a lot of fabric left over so had a think about what I could use it for.  Baby's room has something of an animal theme (it would be safari theme but we have a penguin and polar bear soft toys along with an elephant and hippo, plus many teddy bear items so it kind of falls apart a bit!).  As such, I wondered how I could use the fabric to make some pictures - like every other room in our house the walls are plain cream as it was a new build and we've yet to decorate.

I came up with the idea of using the fabric as a backing and putting animal silhouettes on them before framing.  Here are the finished pictures:

They were really quite simple to make, and here are the steps to do so:

1) First, you need a frame with a mount, some backing fabric the size of the frame, some fabric for the silhouettes (I used felt) and a template for the silhouettes (I searched the Internet for something I liked and re-sized it to fit the frame)

2) With the backing fabric, I added some iron on medium weight interfacing to add a bit of rigidity to the fabric

3) Using the template, cut out the animals.  If using light on dark, multiple layers may be required (I used two for the white elephants to prevent the backing showing through)

4) If using multiple layers attach them together either by sewing or you could glue them instead if you want a quicker finish

4) Then it's a case of positioning the animal on the backing fabric - to do this lay the mount on the fabric and position it where you'd like.  I've put mine centrally.  Once you're happy with the position you need to attach the silhouette to the backing fabric - again, you could sew or glue it in place

5) Finally attach the mount to the backing fabric - I used double sided tape to do this - then frame.

I hope you like them - I think they'll look great once we get round to actually hanging them up in baby's room!  For now, they're in the cot...

Anyway, hopefully for my post in two weeks time I'll have an exciting new arrival...  or I'll be breaking records for the longest recorded pregnancy!  Lets hope its the former...

So many plans...

Firstly, you'll probably notice it's been more than a week since I last posted. I've made the decision that I'll update this blog every two weeks - even though I'm now on maternity leave I just don't seem to have any free time!  It all seems to be taken going to numerous medical appointments, trying to get everything sorted, and generally being "busy" without really knowing what I've done...

Bump is growing nicely (a bit too well perhaps!) and whilst there have been many signs baby might come soon for the past 3 weeks or more, baby seems happy to just stay put.  Though it was amusing over the bank holiday weekend when the Braxton Hicks were every 3 minutes (as confirmed by monitor at the hospital) as my husband started to question whether I was 1) in labour or 2) if I'd know when labour comes!  Pretty sure I will know when the time comes... Thankfully they aren't always that regular, but I have been having a lot so lets hope it's not long before baby can model all my cute makes.

Since I finished work, I had assumed that I'd have lots of time for crafting activities, but I think baby has other ideas. It's uncomfortable to sit in the same place for more than about an hour, walking / standing tires me quickly and the unstable surface of my gym ball, whilst more comfortable, doesn't really mix with knitting / sewing!

Anyway, enough whining.  One thing I have managed to finish over the past couple of weeks is (yet another) baby cardigan.  Now I come from a family of knitters, so there's me, my mum and my grandma all knitting!  I think we now have in excess of 20 knitted cardigans / jumpers...  Not going to stop me knitting though!  A picture of my latest creation:

 

 

It's knitted in a chunky yarn and simple stocking stitch / garter stitch pattern - overall the pattern was very easy to follow (pattern 8491 from Stylecraft if you're interested). It's also a larger size than most that we have, so should fit baby in winter.  Being chunky, it knitted up fairly quickly - the delay in finishing was trying to decide whether to have the version with the hood or not.  I decided against it, and I'm pleased I did (not least because it meant it was finished quicker!) 

 

One thing you might notice (and if not, skip this paragraph!) is that the buttons aren't quite evenly spaced.  Not sure what happened here, but I didn't want to undo it (lazy, I know).  The buttonholes are made using a technique I'd not used before - casting off a couple of stitches before casting the equivalent number on in the next row.  This created larger buttonholes, allowing me to use some buttons that I bought for a different project on which the buttonholes were too small.  They have a flower in the centre, but if I have a baby boy I'll pretend it's a star!

 

So, hopefully next time I write a post it will make less sense than usual because I'm exhausted from having a newborn, but given everyone said baby would be early I think baby is being stubborn!  Hopefully I'll have time to make use of the delivery that arrived this morning:

 

 

 

I have lots of plans for this, so we'll have to see how far I get!  I'll let you know how I get on...