oddments blankie

Baby girl is still keeping us waiting. We were all hoping that she would come today so we could call her "Pancake". 😁 Joanna (Auntie-in-waiting) and I were laughing this evening when I said that it looks like our baby girl was going to be a March baby. Joanna's reply was "at the rate she's going, she's going to be a pumpkin!". 🎃 LOL

Last time we went to see Debbie (mum-in-waiting), I forgot to take my crocheting with me so she handed me a basket full of granny squares and said "here you go". I spent the afternoon crocheting them together with my usual slip stitch in the gap then 3 chain to the next gap. It makes joining squares together much more enjoyable when you get them done fairly quickly.

I then brought the joined squares home with me, joined in all the ends - somebody needs to invent a way of doing that quickly! - and then did a 3 row border of granny trebles around the outside. I think it turned out really well considering there was little to no planning of what square went where.

Here's a photo with my slippers showing to show the size of the blankie - not big but fun, bright and will probably be well-loved by baby girl.

another disappearing 9 patch quilt

No sign of baby girl yet - she was due today. In the meantime, I've been keeping myself busy making another disappearing nine patch quilt. I started with a pile of 4½" squares and sewed them up into 9 patch blocks - 16 of those.

Then I cut those blocks in half horizontally and vertically ending up with 64 smaller blocks.

Those got joined together into the quilt top and pinned ready for quilting.

I did my usual diagonal quilting.

I had enough of the pink spotty which I had used for cornerstones (the wee squares) to make the binding.

And here it is in all its glory.

The back is a lovely white with a small pink rose on it.

I'm so pleased with the way this turned out. I already have plans to make more of this design - I've decided it's one of my all time favourites quilts to make.

owls quilt - finished

I finally finished the owls quilt I was making for Debbie with the fabrics bought in Canada when she and Jason were there last year.

She had chosen this pattern (click on the photo for the pattern) which Joanna had found on Pinterest.

I played around in Photoshop putting the colours of Debbie's fabrics in where they would go and came up with this:

Debbie thought that the fabrics looked like they were "floating" and I could see what she meant - no real definition of the blocks. So Douglas and I went through my pile of plain colours and decided a bright pink would look best.

Back to Photoshop and this is how it looked now. Much better!

The eagle-eyed amongst you might have spotted that I changed a starry fabric for a turquoise fabric - 1st block on the left, second row down. I don't know if it was a mistake in the original pattern but it was the only block that didn't have all the colours in it. So I changed it. As you do. Or at least I do!

Anyway, Debbie liked this layout so the sewing began. I managed to get the top sewn together but then I got sick and the quilt sat for about 3 weeks with nothing being done to it. Last week, I finally sat down and got it quilted. I just sewed diagonal lines - the quilting part of making a quilt is my least favourite part of the process and, if I can think of a quick way to do it, that's the way I'll go.

Here's the quilt on our bed.

Here's a close-up of the fabrics - those owls are so cute!

Here's a better photo of the quilt with my trusty quilt holder (Douglas) holding it up.

The back is a fleece given to me by Joanna - this quilt has turned into a real family affair! The pink on the snowflakes is almost exactly the same colour as the pink Douglas and I chose to boost the blocks. Pure coincidence!

It's less than 2 weeks now until the baby's due. We're getting excited/scared/impatient around here! :o)

a thank you rose and a baby cardie

I didn't get nearly as much done last week as I'd hoped as I was struck down with a really bad cold. I basically sat or lay on the couch for 4 whole days feeling yucky. I'm on the mend now, thankfully. Crumbs I do hate being unwell.

I got a lovely parcel whilst I was feeling sorry for myself which made me feel a lot better! It was a box from interflora!

Inside the box was a lovely rose.

There was a card:

And on the card it said -

Oh my goodness. I was stunned! Gail - who I made the diary cover for shown in my last post - sent me a rose to thank me! How lovely! How kind! I only hope I can keep it alive!

The only crafty thing I managed last week was to finish off this wee cardigan.

I really was surprised at how far apart the colour changes were in this yarn. There was also no repeat of the colours so I couldn't start the second front in the same place as the first front. It's a bit weird but I don't think it's horrible. If Debbie doesn't like it, she can always make it a sleeping-only cardie. I do remember having a few sleeping-only cardies when my two were wee. You know, the ones that are just a wee bit strange for some reason or another.

I dug out my Hague linker to sew it up - much quicker than sewing it by hand.

This is the back of the cardigan. It looks like it was deliberate to have those dark pinks matching at the top of the back and sleeves - it wasn't. It's pure fluke!

Now for a laugh. I was standing making a cup of coffee in the utility room last week when I noticed this on the mug cupboard door.

It's a Christmas poem written by one of the girls when they were at Primary school. It - along with many others - gets stuck on the kitchen/utility room cupboard doors as part of our Christmas decor. Why is it still there? We use that mug cupboard every single day - at least 4 times a day. How did we not see it? How did Joanna not see it? It made me laugh so hard when I saw it. I wonder if there are any other Christmas decorations still in full sight? I wouldn't be at all surprised! :oD