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!!

clearing some shelves

I decided it was about time I used up some fabric that had been on my shelves for a good long while so, first of all, I made a couple of bags and a pinny for Joanna. Joanna loves Russian dolls so this fabric is just perfect for her.

Then I made a pinny with some stripey fabric.

I had enough of this cat fabric (which I'd bought in Ikea many moons ago) to make 3 pinnies - one for me, one for Joanna and one for Debbie.

I made a couple of larger-sized shopping bags for myself:

Then I used the leftovers from the stripey bag to make a slightly smaller bag with different handles.

It feels good to have cleared these pieces off the shelves. I wonder how long it'll take me to replace them? Probably not long! :oD

pinafore dresses for Emily

I made a couple more bindings to add to my steadily growing pile. If the colours are right, it's very handy not having to make new bindings for every quilt.

Then I decided to make Miss Emily a pinafore dress with some fabric I'd got out of the remnant bin a few months ago. I used this pattern which has been in my pattern collection since the last millenium.

I made view 1 but wasn't sure that it was long enough.

After consulting with Debbie who measured a pinfore that Emily owns already, we decided I needed to lengthen it by 2" which I did with a flounce. Much better.

Then I made another ...

and another ...

Aren't they adorable? Best bit is they fit her - with room for growth - so that's very pleasing.

Debbie asked me if I'd make a few more bibs so I did. I cut 2 the same size as before and 3 just a smidge longer.

One of the 3 longer ones needed the towelling backing to be joined so I covered the join with a piece of the sticky fingers print I'd used on the front. Quite an appropriate print for a sticky-fingered baby!

an everlasting hug

I've finished the heart quilt and, I have to say, I am chuffed to bits with the way it's turned out. It's definitely worth all the unpicking I did. By the way, the borders are the same width all around - the photographer seems to have cut it off at one side!

I had quilted it diagonally in sort of heart shapes. You can maybe see that better on the back - the pink heart fleece just seemed appropriate for this one.

I was going to go with a pink binding but none of the ones I had in my (vast) collection was quite the right pink. When I noticed that this one had hearts on it, I thought it would be perfect. I think I was right!

I was going to put a label on the back saying something like "a quilt is like an everlasting hug and this one has family at the heart of it" but I decided just to go with my own label (as opposed to a tartan bee label) as it's a gift. The gift will actually be from Joanna so I suggested to her that she could write something like that on the gift tag if she wanted.

Now, when Douglas was photographing me holding up the quilt, Tilly - naturally - wanted to know what I was doing back there. Silly Tilly! :oD

a blankie and a quilt

I finally decided that the ripple blankie I was making for Emily was finished. That's the good thing about crocheting a baby blankie - if you've had enough of it and it's a decent size for a baby's cot, you can just call it finished!

This is a not-so-good photo of it but you'll get the idea.

This is an arty-type photo of the blankie all rolled up.

Emily loves the blankie so that's all that matters to me!

I've been busy making a heart quilt over the last two weeks. It all started off so well. I used a heart which I had designed in Photoshop.

I was even fairly pleased with it when I had sewn the rows together and put it on our bed to see how it looked.

But then I decided I didn't really like the deep pink around the heart or the pink I'd used as the background or the pink background for the embroidered "family heart" in the centre. So I unpicked all of those. Took me ages!

I then replaced the deep pink with the pink I'd used for the background in the original and changed the background to white. I also re-did the "family heart" embroidery on a white background. Much better.

Then I started to add the outside borders - alternating coloured/white squares. I only got the side borders put on ...

... before I decided I didn't like it! More unpicking was done.

I then decided to replace the alternating colour/white squares border and what would have been the outside white border with one wider pink border instead. Much better.

This was the quilt as it was on Saturday - all pinned and ready for quilting.

I have now done all the quilting and am about to attach the binding so, hopefully, it will get finished soon. This quilt has seemed to take ages but that's what happens when you change your mind about practically every part of it! *eyeroll*

skirt alterations, cloths, binding and some dressmaking

I finished the cloths I was making for Emily last week. I made them from 2 quilt panels which Debbie had bought many moons ago. We decided that Emily really didn't need any more quilts - at the moment - and the squares on the panels would make ideal cloths so cloths were made. Forty of them! They're all sewn on to a starry flannel sheet which I bought from Asda's. I still have some of the sheet left in case I need to make more - although I can't imagine that Emily will run out of cloths any time soon!

I also finished adding the extra flounces to Emily's skirts to make them longer for her.

I cut up a small piece of bright green sheeting to make bindings. This was the same green I'd used for the quilt panels I showed last time. I have 14m of the stuff for future projects!

Over the weekend, I made myself some black trousers. They're made using the Jalie 3243 pattern which I've made before - blogged here.

I think I might need to do a better ironing job on them before I wear them! LOL

Today I sewed the blouse I had cut out a few weeks ago. It's my old favourite pattern McCall's 5359.

It's not very clear in that photo that the white bits are bows.

Apologies for the threads - I still had to finish off the buttons and buttonholes when I took the photo.

I have no idea what I'll be sewing next. No doubt I'll think of something!

busy-ness

I knew I'd been pretty busy recently but it was only when I checked the photos on my camera that I realised how much I had done!

First of all, I made some cloths for Emily.

I'm in the process of making some more.

As you can see from this photo, these will be well used. Peas! Yum!!

Debbie had bought a couple of quilt panels long before Emily was born and they were just sitting on the shelves in my sewing room so I quilted them on to some fleeces which I bought in Asda's last week for £3 each. Can't complain about that price!

There's one with puppies on the front ...

... with a starry fleece on the back.

The other one has owls on the front ...

... with a heart fleece on the back.

Our garden swing seat tore - Douglas was sitting on it at the time! - so I got some swing seat fabric from eBay and sewed a replacement.

I can't say it was my favourite thing to sew but it works! Much cheaper than having to buy a new swing too!

I've got a few bags and pinnies cut out for the tartan bee ...

I've also got a blouse and a pair of trousers (for myself) cut out and ready to sew.

Remember the skirts I made for Emily here? Well, needless to say, they're far too short for her now so Debbie asked me if I could lengthen them. Thankfully, the waist still fits so I didn't need to sort that too. I did the denim one today and hope to get the pink and blue ones sorted tomorrow.

And finally - a photo of Emily and me chatting on Facetime. Isn't she adorable? :o)