Sean's Pics

I have been a little bit busy lately so have only done a little bit of sewing and I've started a punch needle project but I haven't had the chance to take any pictures, so I thought I would take the opportunity to show off my extremely talented nephews awesome photography.

Sean is my eldest nephew, he just turned 16 and has a passion and an eye for photography. He has recently started a blog so if you would like to see more of his pics, head on over here. Just keep in mind he is 16 and the odd swear word slips out :)

Sean is a surf junkie and most of his pictures are of the surf and his friends, some of whom are quite well known in the surfing world. Occassionally though he takes pictures of other things, this is one of my favourites:

Sean also likes taking portraits of his little cousins, here are all my babys:

MollyChloeJackAnd Emma

What a lucky mummy I am!

I will try to take pictures tommorow of the gorgeous bag I made for Chloes' first day at "little big school" (she is starting at the preschool tommorrow which is located at her sisters big school hehe). It is the mushroom bag from the Melly and Me book 'Kaleidoscope'. I think I have a thing for mushrooms hehehe. I absolutely Love the book and have made more things out of it, than any of my other books. I made Melvin the Moose, Bubbles the Unicorn and Bella the Bunny. There is pictures here and here, anyway, While I was looking for the web address for Melly and Me, to get the link, I found that Melanie has just made up a pattern by 'Make it Perfect', it just so happens that I just bought a pattern from them the other day to make a jacket for my girls, I really should get onto that before winter is over :).

My newest creation!

She has finally made her entry into this big world.

Emma was born last Friday a perfect 6 pound 12 oz. She is of course absolutely gorgeous and dispite a little time spent under lights for jaundice, everything went really well.We are finally home and although very tired, as is of course to be expected, we couldn't be happier! Thanks everyone for all your beautiful messages!

Hugs Paula xxx

It's Baby Time!

Well tommorow is the day! I'm so excited, but a little apprehensive as well. Anytime you go under the knife its a little scary, but the thought of holding my little bundle of joy in my arms will make the last 9 months well and truly worth it!

There's nothing like leaving things till the last minute and that was me today. I still needed to make a new nappy bag for my little girl and I had been looking at pretty much every single bag tutorial on the internet and ended up going with this amazing tutorial! It is one of the best tut's I have ever used and would have been more than happy to pay for the pleasure of using this awesome tut!

I only made a few little changes, I decided that I didn't want velcro on the pockets because it just gets in the way sometimes. I also decided not to divide one of the inside pockets (the back one) into 3 sections because I find sometimes you just need a big pocket.

I think the only other things I would do next time is put a heavier interfacing like timetex in the base, so it stands up better on its own, and I would put interfacing on the inside back panel as the zipper tends to weigh it down and it droops when its not full. Other than that I am just soooo happy with my bag! It even goes with my Amy butler Weekender bag that I use for my never ending hospital trips

I'd love to know what you think!

With that I will sign off for a little while and will be back in webland next week!

Hugs Paula xxx

What should these become?

I gave you a sneek peak the other day of some more of my little tweeters and when I finished stitching them I thought I should give you another look.

My idea was to combine some old fashioned crewel type embroidery with applique in a new funky way. Then I threw in some pencil shading just for fun :)

The original plan was also to make this into the front panel of a bowling type bag to use for toiletries, but having finished the embroidery I'm not so sure.

Now I'm thinking a needle case or a book cover or something similar.

What do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts....

On the baby front,my Blood pressure is still up, but we are trying to make it to 38 weeks so its bed rest for the next week. Ho Hum, lucky I have a comfy bed :)

Till next time,

Hugs Paula

More Baby fun!

I have been having such fun in my new sewing room!

Its an incredible mess with stuff everywhere, but I can wheel myself around and get to everything that I need. It's so great to be able to just walk in or out whenever inspiration strikes.

Thats what happened this morning, being 38 weeks pregnant I haven't been sleeping much and so when I was lying there trying to sleep this morning I decided that I wanted to add some applique to the white t-shirts that I bought for baby Emma. I also decided that I needed some pants to go with it. So when I got up, this is what happened.....

I am soooooo happy with them! It is the first time I have made my own pattern and have it be successful. Yeah!!

The pants are simple elastic waist pants and I'll have to wait till Baby Emmas arrival to see how they fit, but they measured up to a 000-00 next to some of the 'store bought' pants we have.
I sent a picture of them off to Victoria Thorpe the editor of my favourite magazine 'Handmade Magazine' and she loves them and wants to publish them in the Kids Issue thats coming up in a few months time! How exciting!!

I made some little sandals to go with them, but I'm not too sure about them. They are pretty cute, but need a bit of refining I think. (I'm not game to show you a pic yet :)

On the baby front, Emma may be making an earlier appearance than expected. I went for a check up yesterday and for some reason my blood pressure was through the roof (147 / 98). I had pre-eclampsia with both my other girls so she may have to be born earlier than next Friday. Another check up tonight will see the Dr make a decition. So If I'm a little quiet in the next little while, I'm sure you'll understand why :)

Baby needs a new pair of shoes!

Could these be the cutest thing you have ever seen in your life?

One of my favourite pass times of late is spending hours proweling the Etsy website looking at anything and everything. A few weeks ago I found these adorable little baby shoes in the sweet pea pattern etsy shop and just fell in love!

A few nights ago I was once again drooling over these beautiful little shoes and thought, 'Why the Heck not' and so I bought the patterns!

I chose the 3 for $12 option and when I emailed the lovely Cheri and told her I was having my 4th baby, I think she took pity on me and threw in an extra pattern for me! Cool hey!

Anyway, I told her I would do a bit of a review of her patterns and so here goes....

Let me start by saying I am a self taught sewer. I learn as I go from trying new things. One thing I have had trouble with is following the patterns from people like Butterick etc. so when I first did a quick read through I was a bit worried because it was written in such a professional way, especially the cutting guide, I was worried I wouldn't be able to follow it.

I must admit that my first effort was not perfect (when is a first effort ever perfect) but once I decided that I would just follow the tutorial one step at a time, the pattern was incredibly easy to follow.

I guess the problem I have is that I'm a quilter, not a dressmaker and certain things like a 1/4" seam are a given for me. In fact I find it hard to do anything else, so when I see things like draw a 1/4" stitching guide I just skip over that and move on to the next step.

What I learned with these patterns though, was that if I just do each step as it is written and don't try the old 'I know a better way of doing that', It works out perfect ever time. Funny that :)

Anyway onto the pictures, These are my first attempt. As I said I did have a few problems and one was miss reading the pattern and using fusible web instead of fusible fleece (ie. Pellon). This caused me to have to have the seams showing on the inside of the shoes, as once I ironed the top seam it had fused the top and bottom fabrics together and so I couldn't open it back up to hide the seams, but in the long run I think it was an O.K. effort for a first go.

I sent Cheri an email and told her of my mistake and she adjusted the pattern with the different wording, we both assumed that different countrys call them different things. How good is that! Some people can get very touchy when you offer constructive criticism.Cheri did suggest having a trial run of the pattern, but of course, me being me I just jumped in. :) I still like these Mary Janes and just want to add a little button or bead onto the tab for an added cute factor.

So Lessons learnt I moved on to the second pair and again made the Mary Janes pattern (I'm very stubborn, I have to get them right :)) This was my second attempt.I chose to use ribbon this time and am thrilled with the results! This time they are reversible as the first pair should have been, Yeah! The only disapointment is I prefer the pink and brown fabric I used in the first pair. I will definately be making another pair of these.

Next up was the Kimono Shoes (I chose to do these two first because I didn't have the elastic I needed for the Bella and seamless crib shoes). I found this pattern so easy to follow after my success with my second pair of Mary Janes.

My only critisism of the patterns is that there is a bit of wasted fabric using the suggested layout, again though I think this is because as a quilter I hate throwing any fabric away. :)

I think next time I will adjust the way I cut out the pieces to minimise wastage, but as I said before, if you decide to buy these patterns, follow it word for word the first time, or make just one sample with muslin or calico, so you 'get it' first.

I absolutely love these kimono shoes and I'm going to make another pair with polar fleece on the inside to use as slippers, nice and warm for my new cherub.

The beauty of Cheris' patterns is that each one comes with heaps of different size options, so I can remake these shoes as my angel grows. They go up to a size for 18 month olds.

Now I just need to make some matching outfits :)

I made the spotty ones to go with the spotty bibs I made the other day, they look so cute together.

I was going to give you a sneek peak at a new birdie project I started today too, but this post is already very long... oh why not, just a pic for now though. ;)

A bit obscure but just wait. A bit of embroidery and all will be revieled!

Early Bird Christmas Crafting & a new quilt!

My dear friend Judith from Creative Studio is inspiring us all to get organised for Christmas early this year, what a great idea huh! The challenge is going to be heaps of fun with prizes galore and amazing inspiration, not just for sewers, but for paper crafters and knitters too!

One part of the first challenge was to create a project with 2 fat eighths of fabric and any embellishments you like, these aren't technically christmas pressies (although they could be) I decided to create some new bibs for my baby, who is due to arrive in just 12 more sleeps! Yeah! I've been a bit slack with making new things for this baby, so the challenge was just what I needed to get motivated!

I was also inspired by Judith and all her birdie talk to sit down and do some sketching yesterday (something I haven't done for wayyy too long). I decided that I wanted to applique some birds on a new quilt I have been working on and as a test run I put a few of these little cuties on the front of the bibs. I have never done this type of machine applique before, so it was fun to get in and have a go.

Sorry about the quality of the pics, it was quite dark when I finally turned off the light in my sewing room :)

Another part of the challenge was to create something fluffy and cute with 1 ball of wool.

I had some chenille wool in my stash and so another baby project was created. The pic doesn't really do this little bunny justice. He is soft and cuddly and the perfect comforter for my new angel. I decided not to put eyes or anything on it because of the dangers of such embelishments for newborns, but I think she will love it. The head is actually stuffed with the leftover wool. Cool idea huh! I got the idea and pattern from here. From memory I think you have to be a member to get the free patterns, but it doesn't cost anything and they have a massive range of free patterns available.Finally tonight a quick sneek peak at my new quilt that I'm working on. Made with the Moda charm pack 'Hushabye' Which I absolutely love!! I decided that I want it to be a bigger quilt, so I got on etsy and ordered some more fat quarters to add another border or two. Anyway in the blank squares I am going to applique some of the birds I was talking about and maybe some hand embroidery in the white borders. I'm hoping that when this one is finished it might be picked up by a magazine. Fingers crossed.Anyway thats all for tonight, but get on over to Judiths Blog for heaps and heaps of inspiration, theres links to stacks of free tutorials, so why don't you join in the fun!

My new Bathmat and a new library bag

Well what a productive morning I have had! Not only did I finally finish the bathmat that I started last week for my new ensuite, I also finish my big school girls Library bag. Only a term and a half late. :)

I couldn't be happier with both though! The bathmat I made using up scraps of some adorable Robert Koffman fabric I had. I can't really call them scraps, I had a fat quarter pack and have really only used a few bits from it. I still have a stack of it left, but no idea what to do with it.... Oh well, no rush I suppose, it's been sitting in my stash for probably a year already. :)

I backed it with a towel as I have a habit of slipping over on wet floors and it also makes it wash really well. (was highly influenced by this awesome tutorial)

I didn't want to just turn it through though, I wanted to bind it, I just couldn't decide which fabric I wanted to bind it with, so I cut up a heap of bits and pieced them together for the binding and just love how it came up. I put the white Quilters Muslin in to break up the colours a bit. Hubby was complaining I always make everything girly, but really there's only a little bit of pink, and hardly any flowers at all ;)

Mollys Library bag came out great too! Thanks to Nan for all her help! I had 30cm of these 2 beautiful fabrics that I only just discovered are Amy Butler, She is the best designer!! Anyway, We cut them into 6 1/2 inch strips x the full length of the fabric and joined them using french seams. (I just did a quick search and there's heaps of tuts out there, if you don't know what they are. Just google French seam tutorial)

I also made the sides using french seams, This does away with the need for a lining as there is no raw edges to hide.

With the top, we folded over about an inch of fabric, leaving the selvedges as they all lined up perfectly. We then made 4 button holes down about 7/8" from the top, 2 on each side for the cord to go through and folded over the top again (about 3/4" this time so the button holes are on the outside) and stitched it in place. Then threaded 2 pieces of rope through and made knots in the ends.

Finally I made a pocket for the front, which was really so I had something to put her name on. I used a plain piece of matching fabric and used vlisofix to iron on the letters. I had been wanting to try raw edge machine applique for ages, so thats what I did. With right sides of the pocket together I then did a quarter inch seam around the edge of the pocket leaving a gap at the bottom. I turned it through and did a double row of stitching at the top, and attatched the pocket to the front of the bag.

Easy Peasy! But best of all, Miss Molly Loves it!

Long Time, No See....

Well it has really been a while but I have decided that it might be time for me to get back into the creative world of stitching, cooking and blogging :)


My health is still not great and I am still in and out of hospital (and back in a wheelchair, maybe for good) with my pesky knee, but on the exciting side, we are due to have our 4th baby on the 2nd of July. Yeah!!
We are expecting another little girl and are getting really excited now that the date of my ceasarian is getting so close. Here is a pic of our little cherub, she is laying on her back and the pic is a profile of her face and her beautiful little hands.
I don't want to sound like I'm whinging, but just to update you on everything, I was back in hospital late last week for a few days and have been given a weekend pass to come home and be with my babys. I miss them terribly when I'm away and the hospital I have to go to is about half an hour away (our local hospital doesn't have a maternity section) which makes visiting hard for my non-licenced hubby. Anyway, I have to go back on Monday morning so I can see all the specialists, Occupational Therapists, Physios etc.


Just to make life really interesting we have also just moved house :) Our old house was just a little too cozy for our growing family and when we were offered assistance to move into a house more suited to my disability, we jumped at it! Even though the timing was less than perfect. hehe Anyway the new house is fantastic!!! It's so HUGE I can manouver my way all around the house in my chair, and can even get into the kitchen again, something I have really missed! I've even enjoyed stacking the dishwasher :) But the best part is our new 4 bedroom home has enough bedrooms for all of us and I even get to use the study as my new sewing room!! Yeah!! I had to forfeit the formal dining area as a mancave for hubby, but worth it I recon :)


I must admit that for the last 6 months or so I havn't even picked up a needle or a drawing pad as some pretty harsh comments from a particular person robbed me of my passion for sewing, but I think with my new sewing room and the hope that my medical problems might just about be under control, it is time to get back into my beloved hobby.


Anyway enough of that and time for some pics, My gorgeous cherub #2 turned 4 at the start of May and requested a Fairy Toadstool cake. She actually wanted a heart cake to start with, but silly me convinced her that that was too easy and we should do something a bit fancier, yeah good idea Mum! ;) Anyway on the morning of her party I started icing the cake at 9am and 15 minutes before the party started at 2pm, I finally washed the last of the food colouring from my hands. Nothing like a bit of pressure to start a kids party hahaha. Anyway, here is what I came up with, admittedly I did steal the idea from a kids party book, but instead of using Marsipan (yuck!) I used royal ising on the bottom of the toadstool and for the fairys etc. and my favourite butter icing for the top. It was delicious!!


Thers was 5 different coloured fairys all around the house, just adorable and my Chloe was just exstatic about it, I was pretty pleased with it too.


She just loves fairys and princesses, (of course) and so we had a dress up party, Chloe's cousin Leah (on the right) just happened to arrive in the same dress, oops :) But they looked so gorgous they could be twins.




So anyway I should really go and get organised, it's back to the unpacking of the house and repacking for hospital. So until next time, night night.

My First published design!

Can you believe how excited I was when I received my latest issue of Handmade magazine in the mail yesterday? My first project to ever be published is in next months issue, so I excitedly turned to the back page just to see if I got a mention for my prjects and low and behold there is the most gorgeous photo of my countdown cubes! I literally started screaming! hehehe

My little man got quite a shock to see Mummy and Nan bouncing up and down with excitement :)

I took a quick piccy just to show you. My fellow Gumnut Judith Tetley also got a mention, so now the countdown begins till I get my hot little hands on the next issue! I'm so excited! Can you tell? :) To explain the project, there is 3 cubes two have numbers so you can countdown from 32 days until - Your Birthday, Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Australia Day and Our Holidays, My kids are constantly asking how many sleeps till this or that, so now we can countdown to more than just Christmas :)

Cherub #2 also just loves stacking them up and knocking them over again. Little man also likes to use them like a pillow :) hehehe Have a great day! I'm still up on a cloud!

Big News!

Well where do I start?

It seems the last few months have passed by in the blink of an eye!
I'm just trying to hang on and enjoy the ride :)

My designs have been accepted by some of my favourite craft and quilting magazines, so I will soon be a published designer! How exciting! I can't wait to see my projects photographed and my name on the pattern sheets! That will be a huge thrill! My first prject will be coming out in Decembers Handmade Kids special. Quite ironic really because.....

My husband and I are expecting our 4th baby! This will be our final cherub so we are really excited if not a little nervous at the thought of 4 little mouths to feed and educate, but I know there will be no shortage of love under our little and continually shrinking roof.

So to celebrate I am following Jenny of Elefantzs' lead and will be having a 48 hour sale on all my patterns! The sale will begin today and will continue until the end of the weekend Aus time! Maybe its a bit over 48 hours but you get the idea! :)


As part of the sale I am launching a new pattern! My new arm chair caddy! This caddy is so quick and easy you could whip it up in no time! This one is a complete machine project so you could have it finished today! I used the gorgeous and oh so bright Robert Kaufmann fabrics, but would look just as gorgeous in any colour scheme!

I am also launching my new pattern Blog! Paula Storm Designs will be the place to find all my free and for sale patterns. All my patterns at this stage are emailed to you as a PDF File. If you would like to receive a paper pattern just email me and I will see what I can do, but I have found that it is so much quick and more convenient for my customers to receive my patterns this way.

I hope you enjoy the new look and Low prices for the next few days!

Hugs Paula

Problems downloading BOM?

I have had a few people mention that they are having problems downloading the files, we have found that in most cases the problem is that you need to visit ADOBE for a free update of the latest version of Adobe Reader.

Part 3 Lifes a Hoot

Well it is time for part 3 and guess what! I'm on time! Yeah who'd have thunk it! (One of my dads favourite sayings)
So without further ado here it is with one of My favourite sayings, 'No day is so bad that it can't be fixed with a nap.'Here's a close up of mumma Owl.

It's a little hard to see in these pics, but bubby owl is asleep, while Mumma Owl has one eye half open, watching her little chick.

Click here to be taken to my site where you can download part 3.

How are you going with the BOM? I'd love to know and of course piccys are very welcome!

Some questions for you...

Well what a surprise I got the other day when a beautiful email found its way to my inbox. It constantly amazes me that I can sit here in my little house with my comfy little quilt over my knees (yes really :)) and have people from all over the world buy my patterns and then love them so much that they change them to suit themselves!
Jutta from Germany made these awesome Tea Cup Carriers. I just love the way she changed the second one. That African fabric is just stunning! Don't you love it!

What Have I been up to? Well even though I have been really quiet on my blog, I have been tearing my hair out trying to get my to do list done. I have 2 advent swaps to get finished, a pattern to write for my free pattern for the Gum Tree designers blog and I have been commissioned to do lots of projects for Express Publications. They are the makers of Handmade magazine, Patchwork and stitching magazine and Country Threads among many others.

I am so excited and can't wait to see my first project published in the Handmade issue that hits the stands in December. Keep an eye out for it.

What else have I been doing, well I am about to start on the free projects that my sisters from under the Gum trees have offered so far. I think I will make two of each so I can give them in my advent swap, I've also been drawing a few new things for the magazines and wishing my voice would come back :) I lost my voice a few days ago and actually its not been too bad. I haven't got the head cold, just no voice, so I have been able to sit down and get some stitching done. Unfortunately it is all secret at the moment so no pictures just yet. :) sorry hehe

A few questions for you:

What are you up to at the moment?

I'd love to know what you like to receive in your advent swap... do you like all handmade stuff or supplies or chocolate? This is my first advent swap as part of the Australian Yahoo group SCQIS... so I'm a bit nervous and want to get it just right.

till next time, hugs P xxx

New Pattern & Hug Swap

You may have noticed the new Pattern on my sidebar, a few people have been asking me for the sewing machine pattern that I made using my spring garden stitchery, so I have finally gotten my act together and typed it up for you :)

I've also been meaning to post about this for ages but kept forgetting, so here it is, my gorgeous Mug mat and Mug wrap that I received from my swap partner Dolores from True Blue Canadian Isn't it gorgeous!

New Flickr Site

I have been very slack lately with my blog I'm sorry. Since coming home from hospital I have just been enjoying being with my Cherubs.

Anyway, I have set up a Flickr site, because a few of my loyal readers have been showing me what they are doing with my designs. I can't tell you how much this excites me to see that people have liked my little drawings enough to print them out and actually stitch them up! Or better still, have spent a few hard earned dollars and actually bought one of my patterns.

If you have used any of my pattern I'd love you to put a pic up on the flickr site.

The address is http://www.flickr.com/groups/sewlittlefabric/

Maggi of To dream to stitch has been very busy and has whipped up these little beauties!Maggi has an awesome blog and is very inspiring, so check it out!

Don't forget a new design will be available for you on the Among the gum trees blog on Monday. Have you made the first 2 yet? Judith and Joy did such a great job on their designs didn't they!

Anyway I must go, the girls have to go to dancing lessons and I have missed so many of their classes that I really want to go with them today, so remember if you have made any of my designs I'd love for you to put them up on my Flickr site, or just email them through to me and I will do it for you. paula.storm@gmail.com

I Love Mail! Gumnut Babys and a Canvas work Pincushion

I'm sure by now you have heard of the Gum Tree Designers and the Among the gum trees blog, if you haven't you must have been hiding under a rock! These 8 other women that I have joined are the most generous, genuinely caring beautiful people I have ever met! As an example This is what turned up in the mail for me a little while ago, just because she saw some fabric that she thought I would like!!

I was recently commissioned to do a version of my tea cup carrier for 'Homespun Magazine' Yeah! Super excited! Anyway its for their Going Green issue and so Dawn found some beautiful 'Green' fabric and she thought I'd like it so sent it to me, but not just that, this amazing little tin full of beautiful buttons! I love then they are so cute! Thanks Dawn, I Love You, sis!Other stitching news I drew up and stitched out these 9 cute little gumnut babys, theres a story behind it I'll tell one day, but I'm having a hard time trying to decide what to put it on.... What are your favourite projects that you love to make?

And finally today, I promised Hubby I wouldn't be on the puter this weekend, oops :) You may remember I went to a Sewing day a few weeks ago and this was one of the projects we did, I finished up while I was watching the Rugby League Grand final (trying not to cry ;))
I just love it, thanks for the pattern Fiona. Fiona is my Embroidery groups Leader and a lovely Lovely person. Her blog is here. If you like embroidery, Fionas Blog is so full of inspiration, you will need another cupper!

I'm Back & Lifes a Hoot Part 2

Thank you soooo much to everyone who has sent such kind messages, prayers and wishes! I am finally home from hospital and hopefully don't have to go back! Yeah!

Although the views from my rooms weren't too bad. This was the view from my room in Batemans Bay....

And my view in Sydney :) Not bad huh! If you've got to be in hospital, it's not a bad view to have :)...Anyway onto the really important business, I must apologise for Part 2 of my BOM Life's a Hoot being a week late, but as you can imagine it is a challenge to update a blog when you computer is at the Drs and so are you :)

Without further ado, here is part 2 and I promise part 3 will be on time next month!

Have you started yet? I'd love to know. Oh and I hope you remembered the 1st christmas giveaway on the Among the gumtrees blog. Judiths Christmas gift bag is just gorgeous!

I'm sorry the BOM file is enormous, I've had no end of trouble trying to fix it, so maybe a long sleep and fresh eyes will find the problem, but I wanted to get this 2nd part up tonight.

*Update* I have finally got the PDF's working. I have been working on it since 9am and it is now 4pm. (I'm glad I didn't stay up last night to fix it) A whole day gone and not 1 stitch! Such a pain. Oh well I hope you like part 2. My pictures aren't the best but anyway. (Can you tell I'm a bit over part 2 :) Oh well thats life. Let me know if you are still having problems and a big thanks to the girls who let me know about the problems!

Hugs Paula xxx