lots of sewing and an Emily catch-up

First of all, let me show you what my friend Anne from frayedattheedge sent me. Anne had asked me if I would kindly make her a sheepie like the one in this post and, of course, I said I would. In return, she sent me a cute salt and pepper set for my collection.

I've already thanked Anne - probably more than once! - but thanks again, Anne. I really love them! :o)

I've done quite a bit of sewing recently. First, a top for myself. This is the pattern I used - Butterick 6024, view D.

I didn't do the opening at the front neck - I thought it might end up a wee bit low on me so just missed it out! Here's my version of it:

I used a stripey sheet from Asda's. I think I paid £7 for the sheet which gave me more than 2 metres x 2 metres of fabric. Bargain!

Next I made some rompers for Miss Emily using this pattern - Simplicity 1447, view C.

I used a remnant which I'd paid £3 for. Another bargain!

Next I sewed her a wee dress using Butterick 5017, view D.

This was another remnant which also cost £3. Yet another bargain!

I've also made the matching panties but I'm waiting for Debbie to measure Emily's waist and thighs so I can put the elastic in. I'll take a photo when they're elasticated.

This was my best bargain of the week - yes, even better than the ones I've already shown you. This was the piece of fleece left from the quilt I made last week. I straightened up the edges, cut off the selvedges and cut fringes on both ends. A free scarf!

Now a few photos of Emily to show you how big she is. Debbie took this one last week. She's not crawling but she wants to!

When we went to see them last weekend, Joanna and Emily chose Emily's hallowe'en outfit. Or at least the hat and shoes! LOL

Last one for now, Debbie sent this tonight. Emily holding tight to Mr Bunnykins. So cute!

You may have noticed in the "crawling" photo that Emily has a hearing aid in her ear. She's actually got them in both ears. Her hearing was tested twice when she was a few days old and she failed both tests. She was tested again at 3 weeks old and is hard of hearing in both ears. Basically what that means is she *can* hear but not as well as she should. It's really interesting to see her noticing things now that she didn't before. She always heard Molly barking but now she can hear Molly's toenails clicking on the wooden floors. She always heard loud noises but now scares herself when she hiccups! LOL

Naturally, we'd rather she didn't need the hearing aids but we realise how lucky she is to have been caught so early and to have hearing aids fitted at 3 months old is just incredible. I was talking recently to a primary school teacher and she told me that some children started school without having been tested. How much harder would it be to start wearing hearing aids at 5 years old? Yep, Miss Emily is a lucky wee girl!

a quilt and a cover

I've been a busy bee the couple of weeks making a new quilt. My quilt holder didn't duck down quite far enough when I took this photo - you can just see his head at the top of the quilt! LOL

I used a free pattern from here and was going to follow the tutorial to the letter but I didn't. No real surprise there! The pattern calls for 96 5" squares. I really didn't fancy cutting 96 5" squares when I have all those 4½" squares that I spent all that time cutting out whilst waiting for Miss Emily to put in an appearance. So, I decided to use those instead. Of course that meant I had to then re-calculate all the other sizes used in the quilt but that was no problem to this Maths-teacher-in-a-previous-life!

I made my sashings a lot wider than the pattern used as well so, basically, when it comes down to it, I changed almost everything. Well, other than the white square surrounded by some small squares of patterned fabrics and placing them on-point. Anyway, after all that calculating and sewing and quilting and binding, it's made and I'm really happy with it.

The back is a piece of fleece in the Black Watch tartan. I LOVE it! This quilt is for a gift - I hope they like it!

The other thing I sewed this week was much easier and less time-consuming than the quilt. My rotary washing line has a cover that was a disgrace! I had already mended it once and it was just getting tattier every time it came off or was put back on.

When I was looking for something else entirely in my cleaning things box in the upstairs hall cupboard, I found 2 shower curtains. Plain white shower curtains. 2 of them. I don't remember buying them - and, if I did buy them, why on earth would I put them in the cleaning box and not in the sewing room? Also, if I did buy them, why would I buy 2? We only have 1 shower in this house. Odd, most odd.

I cut one of them in half up the middle, folded it in half lengthwise and sewed one short edge and one long edge. I am now not ashamed of my washing line cover! Now all I need to do is ask Douglas to move the line to another part of the grass so that it stands up straight again.

Please note the passing train to Dundee - the blue and white bit through the trees! :o)

jam, tops and thank heaven!

I decided that it was about time - way past time - to make jam with the berries I bought and froze last summer. I made a batch of raspberry jam:

And a batch of strawberry jam. They are both soooooooo good.

Last week I made myself another top using this pattern: New Look 6344.

I made view C but lengthened it by 2" and changed the sleeves to a split sleeve.

Here's a close up of the sleeve - very comfy!

I made another embroidery for Miss Emily. The embroidery is from here. (They don't know who I am - just passing on the info in case anyone is interested.)

It's stapled on to one of those canvas frames that you can buy to paint on - or make a clock with like I did here. (Good grief, that's nearly 4 years ago!) I have quite a few more of those canvas frames so no doubt I'll be making a few more embroideries to attach to them.

This week I've made another top using the same New Look pattern as above with the adapted sleeves. Isn't this fabric just so much fun?

And here are the sleeves.

And finally, a photo of Emily lying on the starry quilt I made for her watching her new embroidered toys hanging above her. She has a hold of the orange octopus in one hand and later had a hold of the pink fish in the other hand (at the same time).

Fun times! :o)