Crafting in April - what have I been making?

The first answer is of course... not a lot!  Time seems to be stealing by so fast without space to take a breath, relax or make stuff.  The children, while taking up every ounce of my energy and every second of my time, seem to be growing up in the blink of an eye.  This week we've been potty training C.  Suddenly, with the dawning realisation that he is a "big boy" and in fact can wear pants and use the potty, it has dawned on him that he can be responsible in all sorts of other ways.  He's carrying things through to the kitchen, packing his own bag in the car, choosing his own clothes, putting dirty things in the laundry and putting clean ones away.  This week he isn't even a toddler anymore... he's a BIG BOY!

Anyway, what have I been making?  In our conservatory we had new blinds put in.  But we have an odd shaped window.  The only blinds that you can buy for this shape are vertical blinds, but we wanted horizontal.  Unfortunately, the sun streams in through this window in the evening, right into people's faces as they eat their dinner.  So... a plan was hatched...

We have a large African Savannah inspired stencil painting on the wall above the bookcases, and the walls are a warm sand colour.  I decided to stick with the theme, and use fabric paints to decorate a large cloth (hemmed to fit the shape of the window).  Here it is:

 And here's a close up of the ostrich and the woman:

I don't have a photo of it up in the window (and it's dark right now so I'm not going downstairs to take one), but it actually looks okay!

 Next, we were going to a 1st birthday party.  One of the little girls from toddlers.  I find it so hard to buy presents for little babies and toddlers, they aren't really in to their toys yet (and the toys for this age are so expensive for what they are), and you can't really get them crafty things yet either.  I decided to make a tabard for Ruby, so that as she gets older and does baking or art work she's got something personalised and individual to wear.

 The pattern was very simple, though in hindsight the neck hole could have been smaller.  I decided to do a contrasting zig-zag stitch around the edge to go with a decoration and her name.  I've never used the zig-zag function on my machine before and am not sure whether it was the tension I used, or the quality of the thread, but it kept snapping which was very annoying!

 Anyway, I used felt and a ribbon and a button to make a little flower to decorate, and zig-zag stitched her name too, which I then over-wrote with red fabric pen to add further definition.

I'm really not sure about the results.  It definitely doesn't look at all professional.  I've learned a few lessons about how I could improve it if I were to make another.  Sometimes I think I should just take a bit more time about these things and plan them a little better, or experiment more before going at a project full tilt - but then, where would I find the time right now?  Anyway, Ruby's mummy was very kind.  They didn't open the presents at the party, but afterwards made a real point of saying how much she loved it.