2 weeks?

Really? It's been 2 weeks since I blethered on here? Wow! Time really does fly when you're having "fun"! Let me show you some of the "fun" I've been having in the last 2 weeks.

First of all, I tidied the freezers. Threw out some things that were better out than in ...

... and made lists of what's in there so, hopefully, there won't be any more "what the heck is this?" kind of things happening! (No guarantees on that if labels fall off! LOL)

Next I made a jacket to wear to the Singers' concert which took place last night.

I am trying to block from my mind the number of attempts at making this jacket and how many were abandoned/ripped down because they were ugly/far too big/etc. etc. This one, although it doesn't look that great on Diana the dummy, looks fine in real life on me. Phew!

I saw on Pinterest - where else? - that people cooked all sorts of things in their waffle maker so we had a bash at it too. First of all I cooked bacon - no pic of that - and then fried some eggs.

They were delish - a bit difficult to get out of the waffle maker in one piece but that wasn't too important! Just a note if you want to try doing the same - you cook the bacon with the lid closed but you leave it up to cook the eggs. Great fun!

We had about 2½ days of warm sunshine last week so Tilly and I sat outside for a wee while. I have no idea why she's sniffing my trouser leg! :oD

I sold one of my baby quilts from my Etsy shop - yay!! - so I wanted to make another one. This time I went with my sudoku quilt pattern - 9 colours, no 2 the same in the 9-patch or hoizontal/vertical rows. Using a completed sudoku puzzle is a great way of not having to decide what goes where. Here are some photos of the process:

And the finished quilt top just waiting for me to put in on to a fleece backing:

The most exciting thing that's happened is something I bought for myself. I thought long and hard about getting one of these - I'm talking at least 20 years! - then, last week, I saw that an online seller had dropped the price by £200. I jumped at it - £200 off was far too good to turn down!

What did I get? An embroidery machine! This is it as it came out of its box.

Within 20 minutes of it arriving, I had it set up and embroidering.

These are just a few of the designs I've done so far.

It's quite a learning curve I'm on at the moment but, boy, is it fun! Whoever said "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" was wrong! This old dog (!!) is learning a lot of new things - and having a lot of fun in the process too! :o)

lots of sewing - a catch-up post

There seems to have been a lot of sewing done that I haven't blogged about so I'll sort that out now.

First of all, 2 more versions of New Look 6344. This pattern is fast becoming a favourite!

Next, 2 more shirts using my old faithful shirt pattern - McCall's 5359.

In amongst all this dressmaking, I've been trying to make some semblance of order in my button jars. This is the green jar in progress.

I've only got the blacks, whites, purples and dark blues to sort now. It takes a long time to do a jar but it's going to be so much easier to find sets of buttons when I've finished. At least, that's the theory!

I designed a darted pouch.

I'm really chuffed with how it turned out.

The darts in the bottom corners:

The zip pull is a bit of an old earring.

The Janet's cross blocks that I'd sewn and cut apart have now all had their seams pressed open - phew! - and I've started sewing the blocks together.

I'm already re-thinking my idea of making a big quilt with these. I much prefer blocks (and quilts) that come together quickly and this block definitely doesn't do that. I'll finish the blocks I've already got cut and I'll decide what to do with them when I get them done.

I found an old notebook ...

I found an old notebook the other day (when I was looking for something else entirely!) and it had a lot of very interesting things in it. Actually, saying "I found" the notebook isn't true - it was never lost. I just hadn't opened it in years - more than 16 years in fact! - and so it was a bit of a surprise to see what was in there.

Instructions for how to make an angel ornament from sequin waste:

A scrap of paper telling me how to make a tutu:

I did make tutus for the girls when they were wee and went to dancing classes but I don't think this was how I made them.

Instructions for how to make scrunchies - this is Debbie's writing, I think.

How to make "Alice's box". I used to work with Alice in the fabric shop in Inverness and she showed me how to make these boxes out of old Christmas cards. (Anne - I think these are the same as you showed us last Christmas.)

There was also a patchwork block pattern which I had called "Janet's cross".

Janet also worked in the fabric shop with us and she was an amazing patchworker and quilter. She must have shown me how to make this cross but I confess, I don't think I ever made it.

But I have now! This was my first attempt:

Then I got the idea of making then with one coloured fabric and one white fabric on each block so I got to cutting out all my squares and made a start:

I've already got 20 of the blocks at the halfway stage - 2 squares sewn together and cut apart - but this is going to be another long term project, I think.

All those seams need to be pressed open which takes a lot longer than pressing them all to the dark side. I just hope it doesn't take me as long to finish it as it's taken for me to "find" that old notebook again!

pink flamingoes!

I made my second version of New Look 6344 and I love it just as much, if not more, than my first version!

Here's a close up of the fabric - pink flamingoes! Aren't they fab??

I dug around in my button box to find a suitable button for the back closure and chose this pink one. It was actually the spare button from a pink cardigan in my wardrobe so I knew the cardigan would be a perfect match for the top ... and it is!

I already have my next version cut out and ready to sew. Hopefully I'll get that done over the weekend!