♥ Rosie ♥

It's a very sad day here today. Rosie's heart hadn't been good and she'd been on medication since January. Unfortunately, today her heart failed. We took her to the vet but she died there.

♥ Rosie ♥ : 13 Jan 2003 - 10 July 2013

She knew she was loved and we know she loved us back. The house just isn't the same without her. I miss her so much. :o(

For this post, I won't be replying to any comments. I hope you'll understand.

denim skirt and doggies

I realised today that I hadn't shown off the finished denim skirt which I showed in its cut out stage here. Well, here it is in all its glory.

And can I just say - I LOVE it! It is so comfortable and easy to wear. I can see myself re-making this skirt again and again. In case anyone's interested, it's Butterick 5649 .

Oh and I have no idea what's going on with my arm in that photo. It didn't/doesn't look anything like that in real life ... honest! :oD

Now for something completely different. Every single day Molly makes us laugh. She was playing with this toy and the way she had it in her mouth, it looked like she was grinning.

And, because I can't leave Rosie out, here's one of her. Molly maybe makes us laugh but Rosie makes us smile. Who could look at that face and not think "Awwww, isn't she sweet!"?

a week's worth!

I knew I hadn't blogged much last week but I was surprised to see it had been a whole week I'd taken off! Jings!

Anyway, here's what I made in the last 7 days.

A couple of diary covers for the tartan bee shop. They're not loaded in yet but they will be soon.

I used up some oddments of fabric by making them into bias binding. I got approx 4.2m out of a 15" square of this one ...

... and 7.2m out of a 21" square of this one:

I knitted myself some mittens but they were quite long in the fingers so I gave them to Joanna. Rosie was very interested in them when Joanna was trying them on.

She - Rosie - loves to play with hands that are in gloves! The fuzzyness of her tail shows how quickly it was wagging! :oD

And finally, I made a slightly modified version of the wee owl which I blogged about here. I much prefer this one as the closing isn't on the curve which is always difficult to keep neat. This will also end up in the shop - soon.

I'm in the middle of my second pair of mittens and this pair fit me much better. It's been fun knitting something that comes up quickly. I sometimes think I'd like to knit myself a scarf to go with the mittens but that could take ages so I'm not so sure I should even start it. I'll finish the mittens first and then see what I think.

at last!

At 10pm last night, I typed the last title into the computer and that was the end of the music sorting. As quite a few of the songs in the list said "Hallelujah".

Here's the emptied crate - this was taken this morning as, at 10pm these days, it's pitch dark around this neck of the woods. (Please excuse the tatty dog bed. Rosie is hoping that Santa might bring her a new one - or that her mum will sort this one. Either option is fine by her! :oD)

And here's the second of the organised crates.

The music is now all upstairs waiting for me to put it all into cardboard storage boxes and stack it out of the way until I need to look for something.

Another "at last" is the fact that I actually got some sewing done today. I didn't know what I was going to do when I remembered that I had a few flirty frilly half pinnies (aprons) cut out and ready to sew. Why didn't I sew them when I cut them out? Well, Joanna had one, Debbie had one and I don't wear short pinnies as I wipe my hands everywhere when I cook/bake so I *need* to wear a full length pinny! Now that I have the tartan bee shop, I can make the pinnies up and add them to my stock.

So here are the 5 pinnies all sitting on my sewing room table waiting for the next step in their construction - the attaching of the frills. Hopefully I'll get that done this weekend.

And finally - how could I resist taking this photo of Rosie? She is such a silly wee dog!

PS: (feel free to ignore this bit) - Christmas stockings, a Christmas wallhanging and a couple more pairs of oven gloves were added to the tartan bee this morning. Sue, I hope to get some owls made soon which I'll add in if I think they're good enough. :o)

baby quilt and carpets

This has been a busy week - and not much of that busy-ness has been sewing related. Having said that, I did get a baby quilt made.

I love the pictures of the animals especially the piggy in the green wellies -

... and the cow -

The funniest thing about this quilt is I wanted to make the binding for the edge on the bias because I thought the stripes would look cool at an angle. Could I remember how to make bias binding? No I couldn't! What to do? Well, I know someone (that would be me!) had put a tutorial on how to make bias binding so I headed downstairs to the computer to print it out. When I got there I realised I didn't need to print it out - I could take the iPad up to the sewing room and could follow the tute from there. Brilliant!

Here's how the binding looks.

Now all it needs is a wash and then hung on the line to dry so I'll need to wait for a dry day to do that!

Here's the main reason for the busyness this week. Joanna's house went from floors like this:

To floors like this:

And of course, when Rosie sat there looking so cute, I had to take a photo of her on the new carpet! :oD

Last 3 photos are from my phone so they're not very good. But you get the idea, I'm sure.

We spent a l-o-t of time emptying bookshelves and wardrobes and cupboards and moving furniture so the carpet fitters could do their magic. Now it all has to be done in reverse! Joanna has decided that if she ever moves into a house with yucky carpets/bare floors again, she's going to get the carpets fitted *before* she moves in. I second that idea!!

a few pinnies and Rosie

Over the last few days, I've been busy sewing a few pinnies. They'll be heading over the ocean to Debbie in Canada soon.

I made 2 like this ...

... and 2 like this:

I made them using calico and tartan which I had in my stash. I don't have enough tartan left to make any more so I'll need to go and see if the local shop has any. If not, I might try online although I'd much rather buy "in real life" as I like to see - and handle - the fabrics to make sure they're exactly what I want.

Now, whilst I was sewing this morning, I had put my rainjacket at the top of the stairs to take down and Rosie decided she wanted to make sure I didn't sneak out the door without her knowing. Silly Rosie! :oD

And yes, that is a big laminated notice which I made to make sure I switch off things before I go downstairs. Sad? Yes. But it works! :oD

cushions and sweetpeas

Debbie and Jason are coming for a visit tomorrow so the spare room had to be tidied/re-organised to make room for them. In the process of that tidying, I found a couple of cushion pads I had bought to fill the round cushion covers I was knitting. I'd bought the wrong size - too small - so I'd just tossed them on the spare bed and thought I'd make covers for them "some day". Well, today was that day.

Of course, me being me, I couldn't just make 2 covers and be done with it, could I? Oh no. I decided that it was about time that the 4 cushions which sat on the couches in the living room could do with some new covers too. So, instead of making 2 new covers, I made 6 - 2 each of 3 fabrics.

Here they are on the couches. This one shows the round cushion as well. Don't they all look fab alongside the crochet blankies? I think so! :o)

And here are the other two with Rosie snoozing nearby.

The best bit - apart from them looking fab - is that I used 3 pieces of my stash to make them. No buttons or zips were used as I made them with envelope backs.

Here are the sweetpeas which Douglas sewed last week. They're really growing quickly. I swear, if you stood watching them, you'd see them growing! Roll on the summer when they bloom and I can cut them and bring them into the house.

If I'm not around here much in the next 2 weeks, it's because I'm entertaining Debbie and Jason ... or more likely snoozing on the couch like Rosie because I'm exhausted from the entertaining! :oD

baby quilt - almost done

I got on really well with the baby quilt today. Here's the top all sewn together: I *LOVE* it!

Pinned and ready for quilting:

With the stripey binding sewn on and ready for pinning and hand-sewing.

I have now pinned the binding to the back but am leaving the hand-sewing until tomorrow. :o)

And, just in case you think I get the exact photo I want on the first attempt ...

... not only was the sun so strong that the shadows were really dark but Rosie also decided to come and see if she could help! :oD

a few finishes

I finished a few things this week. First of all a snowman to hang on our wall. I found the tutorial here.

It's meant to be a mug rug but I decided I wanted to add a smile to mine which doesn't leave a lot of room for a mug. But that's okay. I think he'll look fab hanging on the wall.

The next thing I made was a dress for myself. Apologies for the fuzzy photo!

I love it and will most definitely make it again. The pattern is Burda 8379.

Each time I make something for myself and put it on the dummy, I think I need to make her more my shape. My boobular area is more shapely than hers. Her stomach is flatter than mine but my bum isn't as big as hers so that's something to be pleased about. I think! :oD

Today I played around with another shape for oven gloves.

Well, I suppose this is more of a pot lid holder or a get-the-beans-out-of-the-microwave glove. Here's the back.

And my hand tucked in it to show the size - a 7" circle.

Douglas tried it on but his hand didn't fit in the pocket. I think, if I want him to get the beans out of the microwave, I'll need to make it with an 8" or 9" circle.

And lastly - what does a wee doggy do when her mum is upstairs sewing (again)? She finds a patch of sunlight and has a snooze. Rosie's not daft! :o)

Christmas singing's all done - and some photos

The choir I sing in held it's second (and last) Christmas concert this evening. It went really well. The fact that the first Christmas concert we did (last Sunday) also went really well means we have an astounded musical director, an "to be honest, I'm amazed" accompanist and a very happy choir. It really does feel good to know that we did a good job. Go us!!

Just to finish the week off, I'm going to post some photos just because I can!

First, a photo of another frilly flirty half pinny that I made earlier in the week.

Then a photo of some zips I ordered from zipit on etsy.

They came all the way from the US in 4 days - some UK firms could should learn from this! - and they only cost me $15.75 for 10 x 8" and 10 x 14" zips. That's £10.09 in my money. My local shop sells 8" zips for £1.60 and 14" zips for £2.20 so, if I'd bought the zips in there, I'd have had to spend £38. And their zips aren't as good quailty as the zipit zips are nor do they stock these amazing colours. No wonder I'm so pleased. Great zips, fantastic price, speedy delivery and wonderful customer service. I will most certainly be buying from zipit again.

And finally, a photo of Rosie. I'd told her I was only going downstairs for my camera and that she didn't need to come down with me. She didn't come all the way down - only down 3 steps and then wasn't quite sure how to turn and go back up when I arrived with said camera! :oD

a few things to show ...

I've got a few things to show today. First of all, the last (for now) of the flirty frilly pinnies for Debbie.

Next, the last (again for now) of the double oven gloves for Debbie.

Next a sparkly top which I made for myself over the weekend.

To be honest, I was a bit wary of sewing this as the fabric is net with silver sequins on it and it could have been a nightmare to sew but it wasn't. I think the reason why it wasn't was that my walking foot had been on the sewing machine when I went to thread it up with black thread and I had a lightbulb moment thinking that the walking foot would make the net soooooo much easier to sew. It was true!

Also, I decided to sew the seams using the French seam method. (I didn't press it like the lady on the video did - the net and/or the sequins might have melted!) I hadn't sewn French seams for years - decades?? - but, it was like riding a bike. Once you know how, you never forget. (Although, truth be told, I'd hate to try riding a bike after all these years - decades! :oD)

Today I made a long-sleeved black blouse to wear under the sparkly top.

It's not finished yet as I've still the buttonholes and buttons to do and the sleeves will need shortened as well. But here's what the top and blouse look like together. I think I'll be quite a bright spark at the Singers concert next week wearing these! :oD

Apologies for the photos. I had to switch the flash on to get anything to show up!!

Now, just because it's a while since Rosie appeared on here -

And, here's what a 29 year old and her 56 year old dad do on a Sunday afternoon when the internet and cable television aren't working. They had a blast! :oD