A Handmade Birthday

We threw a party for Kitty on Saturday and invited grandparents, aunts and uncles, and her baby friends and their parents so we had a house full.  Thankfully (for those who remember the elbow to elbow standing room only of her christening party) we had lovely weather and threw open the back doors to allow everyone out into the garden and we all had a wonderful time.


The banner (which had a little tag along banner with her name on it) was made to the pattern in Alicia Paulson's Stitched in Time book and while it was still pinned to the bias binding on her birthday itself, I managed to sew a few seams before the party.  The fabric and the fabric paint came from the stash.  It's a brilliant pattern and I'm wondering why I didn't make one for us, or one for Christmas sooner.  Actually, Christmas would be pretty - hmm, maybe one to add to the ever expanding to do list.

Auntie Zee and Uncle D came up early on Saturday morning and they, with Uncle and Auntie C helped transform our lounge and formed a seriously efficient cupcake assembly line.

We have lemon, vanilla, ginger and almond/blueberry cupcakes, each with a different case and different decorations to tell them apart.

Zee spent a good chunk of the morning painstakingly cutting out the little F's (yes, Kitty begins with an F) and teasing them away from the cutter with a toothpick. I think you'll agree that she did an excellent job.
The leftover cupcakes made their way to church on Sunday morning where they disappeared rapidly so I think they were a hit all round.

And of course, there was the birthday cake (take 2)
This time it was a lemon drizzle cake filled with strawberries and topped off with butterflies.  Kitty was a bit nervous of the candles again, but she clung to Daddy as we all blew out her candles and made her a wish.

I think she enjoyed being spoiled rotten by her nearest and dearest and she definitely enjoys her presents.  Auntie and Uncle C brought Lotty:
Who can either be a push along or rocking caterpillar.  Kit gives her big hugs around Lotty's neck and squeezes her ears for the songs to play.

Grannie and Grandpa gave her what I think may have be the toy of the afternoon - her tunnel.  I'd love to show you pictures of any one of the babies playing in it but it never seemed to have fewer than two babies in it at any one time and it was always moving.  They're all so speedy now that when I reached for my camera with Kitty climbing in the top end, this is all I got from the bottom end.
Two little Fs together. 
As I'm sure you guessed by my radio silence, the last few weeks have been full of present making.  I'm now 5/7 of the way through the other babies' presents, and I had time after finishing one and before starting the next to make presents for my lovely little girl.

First up:

Her sleepy time dolly (currently unnamed) made from the Whip Up pattern here
together with a little mini quilt made with leftover strawberry fabric to my own invented pattern. 
The dolly is lovely, and the pattern is pretty easy to follow, although despite a gazillion attempts I couldn't figure out how to make her bunches point downwards so she has perky pigtails, but I think they're cute.  The one change in construction that I made was to use a smidge of steam-a-seam to attach the collar and the arms just so that they didn't shift around so much while I was sewing down the edges - worked like a charm. 
For the quilt I made the top, cut batting and the backing to match and then layered them as the two fabric sides face together and the batting on the bottom.  I stitched around the edge with a walking foot leaving about a 5 inch gap, pinked the edges and flipped it the right way around.  The only quilting is a line around the edge, and a little label to finish it off.  I think I need some new labels really - or is it too twee to have 'Handmade by Mummy'?
I had started a jumper but the pattern just wasn't working so I pulled it all out and started a stripy dress.  As even I can't knit a whole ball of sock yarn in about 3 hours knitting time, it wasn't much of a surprise that it's still on the needles, and I now need an extra ball of yarn for little miss lanky-legs so that's going to be a little while still.

And last but not least, from the hand of Mummy:

Pirate trousers!

It's the quick change trouser pattern from Anna Maria Horner's Handmade Beginnings and it's brilliant.  The fabric is from Fabricworm and they're totally reversible -black skull and crossbones on one side and a blue sea with ships and treasure maps.  It says "Ahoy there mate" on her knees and I think they may be the cutest thing I have every sewn.

So there we have it, my little girl is one, wrapped in all the love, time and handmade cuddles that I can give her.  We spent today blackberrying with Godmummy Mandy and setting the world to rights, and now my freezer is stuffed with berries - crumble for Sunday lunch anyone?