sewing in Canada

You'd think, when I was on holiday, I'd get a rest from sewing. Nothing could be further from the truth! I did a ton of mending for Debbie which I didn't take photos of.

The biggest thing I mended was Emily's old rocking horse - Mayo-neighs. You would think by looking at this photo, that he looked perfectly healthy but his frame (inside) was broken and unfixable so we decided the best thing to do was to "just" take him apart and sew him up like a toy.

We had to cut his feet off to get him off the frame and we couldn't undo the fixings so had to think of how to deal with that.

We got his feet off the frame as best we could but he needed new soles so I used some blue fleece that Debbie had in her stash to make those.

I covered the holes where the handles had been with some felt.

Debbie, Emily and Isla stuffed him and I sewed him back together. I said that in 4 words but it took me a whole morning to do!

Here he is all fixed and admiring the girls' Lego boxes!

He looks fabulous now. The girls have been told he is not to be sat upon as he's not strong enough for that but he is strong enough for lots of hugs!

On my last day in Canada, I made nighties for the girls teddies - Howard and Albert.

We had a lovely holiday in Canada spending lots of fun time with Debbie and Emily and Isla. I was sad to leave them but I was also ready to come home. We flew back overnight and I didn't sleep for long on the plane - 2 hours if that! So, by the time Jo picked us up at the airport, we were fuzzy-brained and exhausted. It took a couple of days to get into our old routine again. No doubt the sewing will start up again soon - after all, I brought back a TON of fabric! LOL

October's makes

I spent most of October helping Joanna move house but I did manage to get this quilt made too. It's a pattern for a donut quilt. Doughnut?? Anyway, I wanted to make it with Christmas fabrics so I added a bow to the top of the "donuts" and called them Christmas wreaths. I am more than delighted with the results!

As I forgot to take photos of the individual wreath blocks, I took photos of each "quarter" of the quilt:

Here it is in full:

Tilly wanted to join in the fun! 🐶 💕

I used grey fleece on the back.

And the obligatory label made on my embroidery machine.

I LOVE it!

Mmmmm, I just spotted that the label says it was finished in September! Actually, that makes more sense because, as I was helping Joanna move, I hardly even set foot in the sewing room, far less made a quilt!! 😳

I also finished a couple of cardigans for Emily and Isla. They seemed to take me ages to do but, in truth, Emily's sat half done for months and, once I finished hers, Isla's was much quicker!

They look a bit big but that's not a bad thing really. It just means they'll last them more than one winter! These will head off to Canada in the next few weeks along with some small Christmas gifts and their traditional Christmas tree ornaments made by me. I haven't even thought about those yet so I need to get going! I can tell it's going to be a busy November!

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!

September's sewing

I started the month off by sewing a pinafore for Isla. It matches the one I made for Emily which I showed here. I again used the Bloomy pinafore pattern from Puperita.

I then sewed some tapes on to some towels for Joanna.

I made a lingerie bag for going into the washing machine. I've had this Ikea numbers fabric for a very long time - it's nearly all used up now but not quite!

I treated myself to a book about making letters from patchwork called "The Spelling Bee by Lori Holt". It wasn't cheap but I intend to make very good use of it. I practised with A, J and D but fully intend making all of them and sending them to the girls. I don't know when that will be but I'll work on it!

I decided to use up some of the square-in-a-square blocks I made back in May to make doll's quilts for the girls. These will be for part of their Christmas so have been put upstairs until I've made a few other things ready to post them.

I only had 6 ballerinas in total so embroidered two to make this second quilt - top left and bottom right. I got the embroideries here. I didn't have any of the black/pink circles fabric left so I replaced it with the pink flowery fabric. It makes the quilts the same but different - always a good thing!

I made another double wedding ring block. You might notice that there are unpicked stitches in the navy fabric at the bottom right. That's because I sewed the block together wrongly and had to take it apart! What a numpty! LOL

I made the last three blocks on the summertime quiltalong.

Practical Orchard:

4 X Variation:

Indiana Puzzle:

I decided I wasn't ready to sew these into a quilt yet so I dug put one of my patchwork books and made some more blocks.

Card Trick:

Light and Shadows:

King's Crown:

Lastly, I made a runner for the unit the television sits on.

Then I made 2 runners for the bookcase units that sit under the windows:

I backed these with Christmas fabrics so, in December, all I have to do is turn them over.

That's my sewing report for September. I've already made stuff this month but I'll save those for my October report!

July was a busy month!

I was gathering all the photos of what I'd made in July and was astounded at how much I'd done. I don't know why as I spend as long as I can in my sewing room - it really is my happy place! So let's make a start.

I had some Christmas stockings cut out and ready to make so I got on with those.

3 with red backs and linings:

2 with yellow backs and linings:

4 with green backs and linings.

They're all now hanging on the back of the spare room door with all the other stockings in the tartan bee stock - 60 in total!! - ready for whatever I plan to do with them.

I then made myself a couple of tops. These are both Simplicity 2599 - long out of print!

Then I made some tops for Emily and Isla. The first one is made from the leftovers of the pink top I made above.

They're both made from the Peppy top by Puperita.

I really must get these sent to Canada soon!

I've been wearing dresses for weeks. I don't usually wear dresses but, when the heat got so hot (!), it was lovely to be able to waft around in a floaty frock! I decided I needed more so I made this one. It's a mix of the bodice from the Style Arc Montana dress and the skirt and flounce from the Tammy Handmade Rhea dress. I LOVE it!

I decided to make another one. I had to jiggle the pattern pieces around on this one to get it out of what I had. I LOVE this one too!

Then on to some patchwork. Long before I started doing patchwork, I decided, if I ever tried it, I wanted to make a Double Wedding Ring Quilt. That's the one with interlocking circles - here are some photos to see what I mean. I didn't do anything about making one because it just looked so complicated and I didn't care for the rounded edges.

Then, Donna Jordan of Jordan Fabrics did a tutorial on youtube of how to make it using specially designed rulers. OMG! I wanted to do it. I got the rulers, tried it out and left it lying for a while. Then I decided now was the time so I cut out some bits for backgrounds etc:

Cut out the shapes for one block ...

...and put it together:

Then I made another 2:

...and another one:

I've decided that this will be a long term project so I won't be rushing it. I'll just get the bits ready for one block at a time and put it together. It's going to be FAB when it's done!

Finally, remember last November I posted about a quiltalong that I did for a Christmas quilt? Well, Beth now has a Summertime Quiltalong started on her youtube channel and I decided to join in. So far, we've made 3 blocks - 2 of each.

These are the Shoofly block:

These are the Propeller block:

These are the Thrifty block.

I'm enjoying these as she's only posting them every few days so I'm not getting bogged down with them. I'm also not cutting up any fabrics other than the backgrounds. Well, of course I'm cutting them but not out of "new" fabrics. I'm trying to just use bits from my massive scrap mountains!

Yep, July was a very busy month!