quilt, skirts and snow

Last week I finished off a quilt which I had started last August. It might have taken me a while to get it done but, oh my goodness, I am so happy with it!

Next, I made a pair of oven gloves for myself. They are already in the rotation and the ones that they replaced because I noticed they had a melted bit on them are now in the bucket!

I made a couple of skirts for the wee girlies. I made Emily's one first - the front:

And the back:

And Isla's - front:

And back:

I've been keeping the Christmas stocking sewing ticking over. I now have 4 with the squares all sewn together and ready to quilt and another 6 already quilted ready to be made into stockings.

And lastly, we have had a huge amount of snow here. Our shopping delivery was cancelled on Tuesday. It was due between 6pm and 7pm but it didn't come and it didn't come. It was blizzarding outside and I was worried he had got stuck somewhere but we finally got an email just after 10pm saying that the van had been in an accident and that the delivery wouldn't be coming. I do hope the delivery man is okay! I managed to order a food box from Morrison's and it's coming this evening - hopefully!! That will tide us over (and then some) until next week's delivery comes.

Anyway, this was the view out of my favourite window on Tuesday - nothing to see here!!

This was halfway through - it was deeper than this later that day!

And this is the view across the fields this morning.

Douglas and I are going for our Covid jags next week. I don't think I've ever been pleased about getting a jag before but I'm really hoping that this is the light at the end of the Covid tunnel for all of us. In the meantime, stay safe out there!

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!

showing off

So, that's Christmas is over for another year and now I can show off the things I wasn't able to show on here in the run up to the big day.

I made a bag for Joanna with an appliquéed Russian dolly (made on my embroidery machine) on the front.

2 Pairs of pyjama shorts for Joanna.

Also for Joanna, a onesie.

I thought it was enormous but Joanna tried it on on Christmas day and is delighted with it. Phew!

Next I made her usual diary cover. The front -

The back -

I had such a hard time with this one - this is the second attempt at getting it to fit - that I've told her that next year's diary cover will be made of brown paper with lots of stickers stuck on it!! :oD

I just checked on my revealing all post from last year and see that I had a hard time with the diary cover last year too. Maybe I really should do the brown paper thing next year!!

I made a pair of dungarees for Emily. They fit her. Yay!! This photo was taken before I'd put the hems up.

After all that Christmas present sewing, I had some time to relax before Christmas so I used up some leftovers to make myself a new pair of ovengloves.

Then Joanna and I dug out the Scrabble-type letters which I'd bought from eBay this time last year and used them to make some word art.

We went over to see Debbie, Jason, Emily & Molly on the 27th and had a lovely day with them all. This is my absolute favourite photo of that day - Emily and her Auntie Joanna. Isn't that lovely?

And finally, Debbie sent us this photo this morning. They'd had quite a lot of snow and so she took Emily out into the garden to let her see it. She was most intrigued!

That's me now until next year. I just have my "books read in 2017" post to do but I'll leave that until the last day in case I manage to get any more read between now and then. In the meantime, the graphic says it all!

fancy pants and raspberries

I elasticated the fancy pants to go with Miss Emily's wee dress which I showed in my last post. I have a suspicion they might be a bit HUGE on her! Oh well, it's not like she's going to be trying to walk and her fancy pants will fall down to her knees. Well, maybe not this month anyway! LOL

I had to sort the top I made myself (also shown in my last post). It was meant to be loose fitting but I didn't think it meant quite as loose as it was. I took it in by 3½" inches through the front and back and took a wedge out of each side seam as well. It fits me so much better now.

All we need is some good weather to be able to wear it. Our summer came in May and I had high hopes that we'd get some lovely warm weather and then June happened. Cold June. Wet June. Damp June. Yuck June! I was so hopeful that July would be better but, can you believe that our central heating actually kicked on one morning last week? I kid you not. Anyone who's sick of their hot sunny weather, please send some my way! I promise to make good use of it!

Anyway, enough ranting about the weather!

I made myself a couple of new nighties. It's my usual pattern that I've made so many times, the tissue paper is disintegrating in places.

I used the leftovers to make some spotty bindings.

I've been diddling about making another quilt.

It's one of those making-it-up-as-I-go-along type quilts and I'm enjoying the process very much. It won't be long before the top is all sewn together then I need to decide what to back it with.

I started some knitting this afternoon as I was watching the tennis from Wimbledon. I'm already a good bit further on that I was when I took this photo. More on that later.

Are you wondering about the raspberries in the title? Well, Miss Emily's daddy has taught her something. Hilarious!

ten things

1. Today the weather … started with HUGE thunder storms with lots of lightning and VERY loud thunder. Then, in the afternoon, it dried up and Douglas got the grass cut!

2. I am wearing … at the moment, I'm in what I call my comfy trousers and a polo shirt. During the day I actually wore a dress and I loved it. I need to wear dresses more often - they're very comfy in the sticky heat!

3. I am listening to … Aled Jones' CD "One Voice".

It's Aled (the adult) singing with recordings of himself when he was a boy. I bought it last week and have been playing it repeatedly ever since.

4. In the kitchen … I've been making Mars Bar cakes. So easy and so good. The recipe is here. (Scroll down)

5. I am feeling … too warm. It's almost worse than feeling cold. At least, when you feel cold, you can add more clothes or blankies or quilts. When you're warm, you can only take off so many things before you embarrass yourself - and all those around you too! :oD

6. I am going … to the supermarket in the morning. Not my favourite place to go but I'm thinking of looking at the duvet covers to see if I can pick up any bargains.

7. In the sewing room … I'm planning to make some bags like the one I made myself -

- to sell in the tartan bee. I've got the denim and plenty of lining fabrics - just waiting for some cover buttons to come in the post and I should be ready to sew.

8. In the garden … our raspberries are ripening beautifully. We had some with ice cream tonight - oh so good!

9. I am reading … a book on my Kindle called "Pariah" by Catherine Gayle. It's the second book of a series of three. I enjoyed the first one ("Wallflower") so am hoping that this one is good too.

10. A quote to live by … Don't criticise others until you've walked a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticise them, you're a mile away … and you have their shoes!!