HST quilt and using up some stash

Last month, I showed a photo of a pile of half square triangles all ready to be made into a quilt. I'm delighted to say, I got the quilt made and I LOVE it! See:

Here's a closer view to show off the quilting. I used a rainbow variegated thread and a serpentine stitch - aka the wiggly line stitch! - through the diagonals of all the squares and along the black sashings. I am so pleased with how that looks. I will definitely be using that thread and stitch again!

On the back, I used a grey fleece from my stash. I don't have many of these left - I'll need to keep an eye out for the next sale of fleeces in Asda! They're really lovely as quilt backings and, if I wait for a sale, they're also a good price! Win, win!

Next, I made myself a new nightie. I didn't have enough in the length of the fabric to get the full length of the nightie but I managed to cut a couple of strips out of the sides of the fabric and just joined it on to both ends of the fabric before cutting the nightie out. It worked out perfectly which pleased me no end! You can see the join but that doesn't bother me one bit. Another piece of fabric used up for a worthy cause!

I made myself a vest for my holiday. I took a pattern for a top (with sleeves) that I knew fit me and adapted it to be a slightly longer sleeveless version. It's very comfortable and will, I'm sure be well worn in the heat of July in Canada!

I decided to dig through some of my stash and use up some bits to make some new oven gloves.

You can see in this photo that I didn't have enough to make the backs so I just joined bits together to make them work. They're only oven gloves, for heaven's sake. Who cares if they're patched together as long as they do their job?

Lastly, I had a piece of fabric that was big enough for a couple of pinnies and a couple of pairs of oven gloves so that's what I did. I love them!

I'm so pleased to have used up more bits of my stash although it never seems to go down very much. Might be because I keep buying fabric, maybe?? 🤪

pinnies, oven gloves and joined up bump

I had some of the faces fabric I'd used earlier for pinnies and oven gloves for myself and Jo so I used it to make more of the same. First off, a couple of pinnies for Debbie:

and a pair of oven gloves:

Then I made a couple of mini versions for Emily and Isla. I won't be posting these as we're visiting them in Canada in July. I can't wait!!

This next "make" is a bit strange but, honestly, I am so pleased with it. Every time I make a quilt there is always bump left over - the wadding used inside the quilt. It's always small strips or bigger strips, small squares or bigger squares, small rectangles or bigger rectangles. You get the picture. Well, I decided to join all my leftover bits together to see how big a piece I could make. This is what I ended up with. It measures 52" x 50" so big enough to use in a quilt. All made out of leftovers. And, when it's used in a quilt, nobody would ever be able to tell it was joined up bits. I feel like I definitely got something for nothing there!

I made up some half square triangles for a future quilt. I hope to be able to show that soon!

I told you last month I was knitting a cardigan for Isla. I got it finished and I'm chuffed to bits with it. I know it'll be a bit big but, apparently, that's how the girls like their cardigans so it should be fine!

So, that's my March makes. I wonder what I'll get done in April?

makes for January 2025

I started the year by making a new smalls bag. The one I was using was beginning to show signs of over-use so a new one was needed. It's not particularly pretty but it does the job so that's fine by me!

I then decided it was time to put together the Squares and Chains quilt the blocks for which I showed back in November. This is the front - all made from the contents of my scraps boxes:

I LOVE it!

And this is the back with a label I sewed on my sewing machine. I was sure I could reduce the size of the font but I couldn't figure out how to do that so I just used it in this big size. I also should have balanced the lines better but, you know what, if anyone complains about it, I'll tell them where to go!! 😝

Jo gave me this faces fabric last year and I decided it was time to use it so I made a couple of pinnies ...

... and some oven gloves to match. Jo got one pinny and a pair of gloves and I kept the others. They've already been slotted in to the pinny/oven glove rotation. I LOVE them!

I'm now working on another Stained Glass quilt. I made this one back in March last year and decided I'd make another one this time for Jo.

All the squares and strips and sashings are cut and I've made a start to the blocks.

I'm loving re-making this one and I know it'll be just as stunning as the original one.

So, that's January done. How can a month of the year be gone already? 😵‍💫

the things I made in August

I started off the month tidying out some bits and pieces in the sewing room and came across some quilted bits that I'd intended to use for craft bags. I used them up for some oven gloves instead.

Next I made a couple of masks to go with the floaty frocks I made last month. The floaty frocks have sadly all been washed and hung back in the wardrobe for next year but, if we're still wearing masks next summer, these will get an airing then too!

Joanna had told us a while ago about an episode of Family Guy where the characters had met up with some of the Star Trek Next Generation characters. (I think that's right!) Anyway, one of the characters from Family Guy had asked why his washing up sponge got mouldy and smelly and, apparently, Jean Luc Picard said these words. It made us laugh so I had to make an embroidery for Joanna using the words. She found the sponge here and I added the words in my Embrilliance program. I plan to make one for my kitchen some time too.

I used up a piece of fabric that's been gathering dust on my shelves for ages. I didn't have quite enough to make my usual nightie pattern so I dug out another pattern (Butterick 5854, long out of print) and some lace and made that instead. I wore it a few times before the nights started getting a bit chilly so this will probably now sit on the bottom of the nightie pile until next summer. At least it's off the sewing room shelves!

I made a wee runner for the top of our hostess trolley. Yes, we have a hostess trolley and it's used faithfully every Christmas!

I then made a bigger runner for our pine cabinet.

I then decided to make another runner for each of them using Christmas fabrics. At the moment, the Christmas ones are sitting under the rest-of-the-year ones because I just couldn't be bothered putting them away!

This is the one for the hostess trolley:

And the one for the pine cabinet.

I bought a couple of new towels so they needed cotton tapes on them so they can be hung. Didn't take long.

I made a wee top for Emily. This is the Liberty top from Puperita which, for some reason isn't on her site any more. This is the front:

And the back:

I've been keeping up with the Summer Quiltalong I talked about in last month's post.These are Old Maid's Puzzle blocks:

5 piece chain blocks:

Windmill blocks:

I made one more double wedding ring block.

Lastly, these are just some of the tomatoes Douglas has been growing in the greenhouse. I worried that they weren't getting very big but it turns out they're cherry and baby plum tomatoes and so they're meant to be wee! They might be small but they are delicious!

what I made in December - and a few others

Let me start by wishing you all a Happy New Year. Let's hope 2022 won't be as "strange" as 2020 and 2021!

The main part of this post is what I made in December but I'll start off with the things I made in November which I couldn't show because they were for Christmas gifts.

First of all, I made a cover for Joanna's diary. She loves Russian dolls so I used my embroidery machine to embroider the 3 dolls, her name and the year on the front and the "made by" tag on the back. I used Russian doll fabric as the pockets and the lining. Thankfully, Jo loves it!

I wanted to make a cape for Joanna but didn't have a pattern. I searched around for one to buy but didn't find one I liked but I did find a blog post here where there were instructions on how to make a cape with a piece of wool fabric and a free hood pattern. I lined the fabric and then made it up as directed but I didn't like the square corners so I rounded them off and am much happier with the result. Again, thankfully, Jo loves it!

After all that Christmas sewing, I did an easy task - adding cotton tapes to some towels for Jo.

Next I made her some more masks. I suspect that we'll be wearing them for a while yet so best to have a choice, don't you think?

I then made some new cushion covers for her. She gave me the fabric and the cushion forms so it was a really easy job to take the old covers off, measure them and make new ones out of the navy fabric.

Next I made her a cover for her unit. Lovely!

I just noticed that everything so far is for Joanna! Who knew? Not me! LOL

The next thing I made is a wallhanging of a Christmas tree. I got the pattern for this one from Jordan Fabrics - video on youtube is here. The link for the free pattern is below that video. It was an easy sew and I was surprised that I had enough whites and creams for the background. I added some red and white starry buttons as tree dex and a big yellow bell button on the top of the tree. I love it!

I was contacted by a potential tartan bee customer on Etsy asking me if it was possible to buy a stocking that faced to the right rather than to the left as all mine do. I said I could, she ordered it and so I got on with it. The customer was delighted. Yay!

Next I made some more Christmas oven gloves. I wouldn't like to say how long I've had this fabric in my stash. Let's just say that, when we moved back to Fife from Inverness in 2000, this fabric came with us!

Lastly, is a "Ho Ho Ho" banner. I had seen the banner in the Patchwork and Quilting magazine which I had got when I took a free 2 month offer of Kindle Unlimited. I think it was the December issue but I can't swear to that!

As I didn't have the templates they offered in the real life magazine, I had to figure out myself how to make the Hs and the puddings. I printed out the Hs from a font I have for my embroidery machine then I did the same with an O from that same font for the bodies of the puddings. I drew some icing shapes and cut those out of white fabric. Then I found some holly leaf fabric to cut out the leaves for the tops. I appliquéed them on to linen type fabric and sewed on red buttons for the holly berries. Then I attached them all to a piece of leftover red quilt binding. I just love it.

Well, that's the makes for December. I've no doubt I'll be sewing something in January but no idea what yet. Time will tell!