the last post of the year

As Christmas is now over, I can show Jo's diary cover which I made for her this year. I embroidered the design on my embroidery machine. She actually laughed out loud on Christmas Day when she opened it. It made me smile too! This is the front:

This is the inside which, sadly, isn't seen unless you take the cover off!

And the back.

I used to have such trouble getting the covers to fit well but these days, I buy the exact same make of diary every year - obviously one year on from the previous year!! - and then I know that the cover will be the same size every time.

Our next door neighbours had a baby girl at the end of November so, naturally, I made her a quilt. I'm really happy with how it turned out. All those wonky triangles just make me smile!

The back is one side of a downie cover bought in the sales at the end of summer. That's quite a quick turnaround for me to have used it already!

My next project was to make myself a dress to wear for Christmas Day. I decided to use McCall's 8553.

I am not scared/wary/terrified of zips in the slightest but this one nearly broke me. I was so close to just throwing the whole thing in the bucket but I didn't. In the end, I decided to ignore the pattern's instructions for the zip and did it the way I thought it should be done and that made all the difference. By the way, the pattern tells you to use a metal zip and to cut off the ends to make it fit. No way was I doing that! I used a normal plastic zip and it worked just fine!

I'm so glad I persevered. I LOVE this dress! (As usual, my facial expression is just silly! 🤣)

It was so comfy to wear on Christmas Day - no tight waistbands to worry about! LOL

Jo got a kit to make a "gingerbread house" out of chocolate. We had so much fun sticking it all together with melted chocolate. We've made a few real gingerbread houses over the years and they've never gone together as well as this one did!

And demolishing it a few days later was fun too! Nom nom nom! 🤣

This was the last thing I made this year. I have so many tree wallhangings that I've decided it's my thing. You know, some people collect frogs or pigs or whatever. I make tree hangings! That's okay, I enjoy doing it and there's plenty of wall space to hang them! 🤣

So, that's 2025 nearly over. See you in 2026!

piano topper and more holiday sewing

Jo asked me if I could make a topper for the piano which is now at her house. She told me to do whatever I fancied and this was what I came up with. It never ceases to amaze me what you can make out of scraps of fabric!

Jo loved it and here it is on the top of the piano. I love that tiger lamp! 🐯

Next it was more holiday sewing for me. Another couple of blouses using McCall's 5359.

I worked hard to get Emily's cardigan finished. With arthritis in some of my fingers, it's not always easy to knit but I knew I had to get it done and I did. Like Isla's one I showed earlier, it's going to be huge on Emily but that's the way they like their cardigans so who am I to argue?

Next I made myself a bag to take as my handbag on the plane. I wanted one with a zip, with pockets inside and out and the inside had to be big enough to take my iPad. I used the Mia Messenger Bag pattern from Blackbird Fabrics. I am really pleased with how it turned out. It was hard to take good photos of it but here it is:

The zip:

An inside pocket for my iPad:

and another sipped inside pocket perfect for passports.

Next I amused myself by making us luggage tags on my embroidery machine. These are for our suitcases:

On the back we have our names on them.

I made two like this for our bags for inside the plane. Obviously, Douglas's has his name on his! I made his blue - I can't find it right now to take a photo of it! I think he's already attached it to his bag!

I also decided to make the girls their Christmas ornaments just in case Canada Post goes on strike again this winter like they did last year! I'm very happy with these!

Last, I made myself a spec case for my sunglasses. I don't think it even took me half an hour to make but it will be well used!

So that's all my holiday sewing done. We head out on the 8th until the end of July. It will be wonderful to see Debbie and the girls again. It's nearly 4 years since they left and I miss them sooooo much. See you when we get home!

some December makes

I'm posting this earlier than normal but I doubt I'll do any more sewing this month. If I do, I'll just include in January's post.

First of all, I had 6 tea towels in a box in my sewing room waiting to be embroidered. I had bought them with the intention of selling them in the tartan bee (closed for now) but changed my mind. They've been languishing in that box for a while (maybe 2, 3 or 4 years??) so I decided just to get on and make them and use them myself. So I did!

The tea towels show up kind of creamy in the photos but they're white.

In case anyone is interested in these designs, they're all from Embroidery Library. In order of my photos, they are:

trees:
https://www.emblibrary.com/EL/Products.aspx?Catalog=Emblibrary&ProductID=ESP79736-4

tree:
https://www.emblibrary.com/EL/Products.aspx?Catalog=Emblibrary&ProductID=M16381

mittens:
https://www.emblibrary.com/EL/Products.aspx?Catalog=Emblibrary&ProductID=M33122

tree:
https://www.emblibrary.com/EL/Products.aspx?Catalog=Emblibrary&ProductID=M22034

Santa:
https://www.emblibrary.com/EL/Products.aspx?Catalog=Emblibrary&ProductID=M22059

Bells:
https://www.emblibrary.com/EL/Products.aspx?Catalog=Emblibrary&ProductID=M22054

Next I made a couple of placemats like the ones I made last year. I had always intended making 6 but only made 4 last year. I always write down how I make things so it was an easy job to find the instructions in my book and make 2 more.

This embroidery made me laugh when it came to my email last week from Embroidery Library. I bought it and made it immediately - a record for me! It's stapled on to a 20cm square canvas frame which makes it easy to display - see next photo!

It's now sitting on the piano along with the Ho Ho Ho banner I made last year - see here for how I did it.

The following photos are of some of the wall-hangings that I've hung on our walls (!) this year. I mainly took the photos to remind myself of where they fit as, every year, I have to think about that so maybe next year I won't have to! LOL

This is a tree that I made long before I knew much about patchwork and quilting - must be about 30 years ago if not more! The corners of the binding are not good but, you know what?, I love it as much now as when I made it. I remember the sense of achievement that I felt when I finished it and, boy, that felt sooooooo good. Perfection is NOT necessary to make beautiful things!

This corner has the presents wallhanging I made last year - the link for the instructions is in this post. The other tree hanging is one I made last year following the tutorial on youtube by Jordan fabrics.

This is a shot showing the reindeer hanging above the living room doors - originally blogged about here and here. It also shows the tree out on the hall, the circles tree hanging on the right wall as you go up the stairs and my Christmas Supernova is hanging below the stair window. In the distance you can see the door into the sewing room with all sorts of little hangings there! You can also see the hoover sitting out - just keeping it real! LOL

And finally, a couple of things I made yesterday - fudge on the left and tablet on the right. Recipes for those are in the "my recipes" link at the top of the blog.

I always laugh at the notes on my tablet recipe.

"This is kind of a hit and a miss recipe. I’ve been making it for years and it sometimes doesn't set. If that happens, I just scrape it all back into the pan, re-boil it, re-beat it and try again.

Sometimes, it sets before I can get it out of the pan on to the baking tray - no worries. It still tastes good even if it looks ugly! 😀"

This batch proves that point! Ugly but it tastes soooooooo good!

Finally, let me wish you all a very merry Christmas. I hope Santa is good to you all!

November's makes

Not nearly as many makes this month but a couple of the things I made took considerable thinking and figuring out! The first was my tree wallhanging. I saw the idea on this youtube video. I liked the idea of it but I didn't have the ruler that was needed to make it. I went searching for it and, to my dismay, could only find it on US sites. Not too bad but it cost something like £15 and the postage was something like £16! Good grief!

Now, I'm the first to admit that I have a LOT of quilting rulers but, if you use them all, why is that a bad thing? It's not! So, I dug through my collection and, sure enough, there was one with the same angles but mine was much shorter. No worries, said I to myself. You're a Maths teacher - or was! - and can figure it out for yourself! So I did. It took me a good few days and a good few attempts to get it right but I did it. This was my prototype:

And this is the final wallhanging. I *LOVE* it!

I was so pleased with it that I hung it up right away in the hall where it will stay until the decorations come down after Christmas.

The next thing I made was the head of a hobby horse for Isla's Christmas.

It's been sent on its journey to Canada with the instructions for mummy (and daddy) for how to finish it off. No way could I include the piece of wood for Isla to be able to ride it!

The pattern I used is this one. I made it for both my girls for Christmas 2000. Yes, they were grown-ups (aged 20 and 18) at the time but they loved them!

I made some more drawstring bags for the girls. Two have been sent already and the other two will go when there's room in a box!

Next, I wanted to make the girlies' dollies a cape each. I didn't have a pattern but had a look on Pinterest and found one I thought might work. The next day, when I looked at what I had downloaded, I realised I only had the front and the hood so back I went to find the pattern for the back. Well, imagine my hilarity when the back pattern had "cape for Barbie" written on it! Well, that wouldn't fit Grace by any stretch of the imagination!

So that started a good few days' worth of work trying to figure out how to make a cape that would fit Grace and, more to the point, would go over her hair! I eventually managed it - quite a few prototypes were made and discarded. Anyway, here are the finished capes. Grace loves them and she's positive Emily's and Isla's dollies will love them too!

The last thing I had to make before the Christmas box was sent to Canada was the girls' ornaments for their tree. This design is one I got from Embroidery Library shown here. It was made in grey felt on the pattern but I didn't have any grey so I used white instead. To be honest, I think it looks much better in white!

When Joanna saw them she threatened to steal them so I made one for her too!

There are other things I've made this month that can't be shown until later in the year so that'll do for now!