February's makes and stuff

Not many makes this month - or not as many as *I* would usually make. This is for a couple of reasons - firstly the kitchen re-do is still ongoing. We're not bothered by how long it's taking - we're not as young as we used to be and everything needs to be discussed (ad nauseam) so we don't have to do things twice. If only that worked! There's a tall cupboard that I've filled, unfilled and refilled 3 times - maybe 4! - because things weren't quite right. Now we think we might have to do the unfilling and filling again to see if we can get said tall unit closer to the wall. That could mean cutting the bottom of the back of the unit or trimming the skirting board neither of which sound good! Oh well.

The other reason is I had to go and get a steroid injection into one of the knuckles of my right hand. Boy, that was painful! My right hand was pretty useless for about 3 days. Ask me how easy it is to spread butter with my left hand - not as easy as I thought it would be!! After a few days, I was at least able to do some sewing but I had to be careful not to overdo. It's now been a week since I got that jag and my finger is much better. Fingers crossed it keeps improving - well, not literally as I don't think that would be a good idea!

Anyway, here's what I did do.

First of all, I had a pair of comfy trousers which were far too big for me. So big that, if I didn't tie the annoying cords around the waist, they'd fall down! This is sadly not due to losing lots of weight but due to the fact that I bought the wrong size! Anyway, I cut off the waistband that was there, managed to get the elastic out of that waistband - why it was overlocked and sewn into the seams is a puzzle to me - and then did a simple zigzag stitch to attach the elastic to the cut edge. As nobody ever sees the waistband, it doesn't matter how ugly it is. They fit me and that's all that counts!

My next makes were more masks for Douglas and myself. We have quite a decent supply of masks but it's surprising how many times Douglas had to ask me what jacket he had on the last time he went out as his mask would be in the pocket of that jacket. It's a bit like me and hankies - I have at least one in every pocket of every jacket. Now Douglas has enough masks to have one in every jacket and still have some in the basket in the hall where the masks are kept!

The next two are made from some of the first masks I made which I found I never wore as I prefer the shaped versions. It was an easy job to unpick them and remake them into the shaped version.

Next I made a pinafore dress for Emily's 5th birthday next week. How on earth is she 5 already??

This is the front:

And this is the back:

The pattern is the Bloomy pinafore from Puperita here. I then made both Emily and Isla wee tops.

This is the Liberty Style Blouse also from Puperita but it doesn't seem to be on her website at the moment. How odd!

I made Molly a leather bone like I had made for Tilly last month.

Those are all now in a box with other gifts heading on their way to Canada.

I next made myself some new cloths from some old towels. This has to be one of my favourite recycling jobs. 3 towels makes 18 cloths - not too shabby!

I haven't done much on my Supernova patchwork. I have made the top left quarter:

And made a start on the top right quarter.

I hope to get more of it done in March but we'll see how much the kitchen re-do and the finger allow.

lots of stuffs!

I thought I'd better write a blog post but didn't think I'd have much to show. How wrong was I? I'll show you!

First of all, I made a couple of dressing gowns for Emily and Isla for Christmas. (I'm showing them on here because neither Emily nor Isla read my blog! 🤣) This one is Emily's:

And this one is Isla's.

As I was cutting them out, I remembered when my girls were wee, I would usually make their dollies a similar garment with the leftover pieces. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough of either of the fleeces to make a dolly dressing gown but I had some fleece in my stash that I used instead. Grace kindly offered to model them.

Then it was back to making more Christmas stockings for the tartan bee. These all sold within days of me listing them.

I've now closed the tartan bee for a well-earned break over Christmas and New Year.

Next I made Molly and Tilly - my girls' dogs - each a monster for their Christmas. (I'm showing them on here because neither Molly nor Tilly read my blog! 🤣)

My original idea was to do these on my embroidery machine but, when I printed out the template, it was barely bigger than my hand which I felt would be too small so I needed a change of plan. I enlarged the template on the printer, cut out pieces of fleece and then just cut out bits of felt for the eyes and mouth, sewed them on, sewed the fleece bits together leaving a gap for stuffing, stuffed them, sewed the gap shut and called them done. To be honest, they could have been bigger but the dogs will love them and probably have them covered in spit within minutes of opening them!

On one of the many days I walked to the post office with Christmas stockings to post, I took photos of skeins of geese flying south for the winter. The noise was amazing!

When I got home, I showed Douglas the photos and he said he'd been talking to an old man when he was out for a walk who said that, when there are so many birds like that, it means we'd be in for snow. I just rolled my eyes thinking "yeah right!". Well, turns out the old man was right as this was what we woke up to the next day!

On that same walk, I passed these lovely beasts. I so wanted to stroke them but didn't think it would be wise considering the top wire of the inner fence between us is electrified!

And finally, I dug out an old image I made way back in my signature making days. I still love it as much as I did back then!

Please be safe! See you in 2021!

bits and pieces

I've been busy trying to use up the wee scraps of fabric that seem to breed when I'm not paying attention. I decided to gather some of them into two baskets - one full of strips and one full of bits.

Then I started sewing them together to make wee blocks.

Then into bigger blocks ...

... until they were roughly 12" square.

I now have 14 made and will keep going until I have enough to make a lap quilt. I'm enjoying doing it as playing with fabric - no matter how small! - is always a favourite game of mine.

I was over at Debbie's last week and got to play with these girlies. Just have to blow my own trumpet here to point out that both girls are wearing outfits I made for them.

Molly had to get in on the action too - she does like sniffing faces! Isla loves watching her.

I was there to help get Emily to her audiologist appointment. The testers were very impressed with her telling Debbie that one of the tests she did was usually only done with 5 year olds. Emily isn't even 3 yet. I'm sure I said last time that we are soooooo proud of her - and of Debbie and Jason too. Let's face it, they are the ones who are bringing up a child with hearing problems and they are doing a grand job!

I put away my small blocks temporarily as I wanted to make a small picnic blanket for Emily's birthday - she's 3 next week! Where has the time gone? Anyway, we're giving her this picnic set -

... and I wanted to make a blanket to go with it. I finished the top this afternoon and am absolutely delighted with it.

It's only 36" square which, hopefully, is a good size for a wee girl to have a picnic with her teddy bears and dollies. I doubt she'll get outside for a picnic any time soon - if it's not raining, it's snowing or blowing a gale! She'll be able to use it inside the house until it is warm enough to take it outside. I know she'll have fun with it wherever she plays with it!

a few of Emily

Today I have a few photos of our wee Emily to share. First of all, this is her in her Hallowe'en outfit. Isn't she adorable - and brave! I wouldn't touch that spider with a barge pole!!

This is her with her teddy. Awwwww!

She loved playing our piano when she was here a couple of weeks ago.

Sometimes life is exhausting for a baby - I look pretty tired too!

Watch how much fun she has with Molly's tail. No animals - or babies - were harmed in the making of this video!

Debbie has sent us a video this evening which shows Emily on the move. Yes, she's crawling. Uh oh!!

a miscellany of things

I've got a real mix of photos to show today. First, the last cushion cover. This one sits on the chair in the dining room which is why I missed it in my original count of Christmas cushion covers I needed to make.

Last weekend - or maybe it was the one before that?? - we went to visit Debbie and Jason. I did take lots of photos but most of them are out of focus or not worth sharing for some reason or another. Here's Molly wearing her antler headband - for all of about 5 seconds!

And this is Tilly wearing her Santa hat headband - for less than 5 seconds!

This is what can be done with a Tunnock's teacake, some icing and holly leaves and berries decorations. I admit it looks like I just threw the leaves and berries on - that's because I did! LOL

This was a wondrous thing. Joanna was helping Debbie to decorate her tree and she put her hand into the box of hanger things and didn't manage to grab one - she managed to grab a hundred and one!! It actually looked like it could be used as a decoration on its own.

Joanna asked me if I would make her a flower brooch for her to give as part of her Secret Santa gift at work. She asked for a dark tartan so I used Black Watch. I embroidered the design on my embroidery machine, cut around it then attached it to felt and sewed on a brooch pin on the back. We'll find out tomorrow how the recipient liked it!

I made another couple of owl keyrings - one of these will be in that same Secret Santa package.

I've actually done some dressmaking this week - but not for me. This is - believe it or not! - a brown pinafore dress for Joanna. The winter light does not make it easy to take photos of brown things!

This is a wee bit better but I have a deep dislike of using the flash. Blech! Anyway, this is the stripey bias binding - home-made, of course - that I used to bind the neck and armholes.

I used this pattern again - view A this time, all in one colour in case that's not obvious!

And then this afternoon, I made 2 batches of tablet - well, 3 if you count the stupidity that was my first attempt. No, Anne. 1 cup of sugar is NOT the same as 1lb of sugar so your tablet will NOT turn out right! Aaaargh!

Anyway, I made a batch of the usual recipe (no photo as Joanna took it all away before I thought of it but the recipe is here) for Joanna to take to the Secret Santa gift-giving party tomorrow and I also made this lot.

I have no idea where the recipe came from but it's made in the microwave. Very easy and very tasty - although I've found I can't eat more than one piece at a time. Maybe that's a good thing!

Here's my version of the recipe - I changed it around a bit.

1 tin of condensed milk (mine was 397g)
100g butter cut into smallish pieces
500g caster sugar

Put everything in a microwavable bowl with highish sides and stir.
Cook on high for 2 - 2½ minutes to melt the butter. Stir again.
Cook on high for 10 minutes in total stirring regularly. I stirred at 3 minutes, 3 minutes, 2 minutes and 2 minutes.
Pour into a lined swiss roll tin.
Cut into squares before it's fully set.
Eat.

One word of warning. Don't use a plastic spatula to stir the end result. Ask me how I know! :oD

the rusty dog

We're dog-sitting Molly for a few weeks whilst Debbie and Jason have gone back to Canada for a holiday. I noticed the fluff on Molly's neck was becoming discoloured and realised it was coming from her collar. She *loves* going in the sea - mostly to dig up stones from the sea bed - and the metal part of the collar was getting rusty with the sea water ... the photo's not too clear so I put on some arrows to show the rusty bits.

and transferring the rusty colour to her neck! Woops!

So this morning I went up to the pet shop and bought her a new collar with no metal bits on it. She LOVES it! I told her it was a glow-in-the-dark collar and she can't wait until night-time to check it out!

She was a bit bamboozled when I put her old collar on her monster toy!

Fun times whilst dog-sitting! :oD