knickers etc

I thought, instead of another post showing how I'm getting on with the scrappy quilt - it's going really well! - I thought I'd just post some of the wee things I'm doing to try and make my days just a bit different. Please note - if the sight of underwear drawers upsets you, maybe you should click away and come back another time!

Don't say you haven't been warned! :oD

Whilst we're told to stay home, I'm trying to do small jobs that don't take more than maybe 15 or 20 minutes at a time - mostly so I don't get fed up with the job and leave it half done. I started with my aforementioned underwear drawer. It's never really untidy but I got it all straightened up - although I have to say, those 2 pairs of socks that aren't lined up are a bit annoying to me! Only sensible underwear in my underwear drawer - how boring! LOL

Then my PJs and nightie drawer. I'm hoping the nighties will come back into circulation soon. It's still too cold for them at the moment but, hopefully soon!

I then tidied all my Christmas jumpers into the one box - they had previously been in 2 places.

I then moved on to the bookcase of my favourite books. I took them all off, dusted then put them back in alphabetical order. Sad but true! Needless to say I read a few endings whilst I was doing this one! LOL

Next came the blanket box at the bottom of the bed which holds my aran cardies and some jumpers. As I was doing this one, I decided to wash some of the jumpers and cardies as it was a lovely drying day. They now smell that unique smell of things that have been dried outside. There's nothing quite like that smell!

This is a job that Douglas did for me. The slatted shelf was in this cupboard when we moved in but it was lying against the wall. We think the boiler must have been replaced at some point and the shelf taken down from its original place (you can see the wooden bits on the sides where it had been before). Douglas fitted some more wood to the walls and put it back up for me. It's already being used.

This was my 15 minute job this morning - to tidy my stud earrings. They're always fairly tidy but now they make some sort of sense - at least to me!

Lastly, we've been doing some jigsaws. We're deliberately only doing smallish ones - no 3000 piecers for me! If you look closely, you can see this one has some bird shapes in it.

So that's just some of the wee jobbies I've been doing this week - in between sewing, of course! :o)

coming along nicely

In my bits and pieces post, I showed some bits and pieces (!) I was sewing together with a view to making a quilt top with them. This was how the baskets of bits and pieces looked then - 29th February this year:

This is how the baskets looked yesterday - 20th March:

I had thought I'd make 20 blocks but, when I had made 20, there were still so many bits and pieces left, I decided to keep going until I had used them all up. I didn't quite use them all up, there were still some strips left but I decided that 40 blocks - enough for 2 quilt tops - was enough to be going on with ... for now!

Not only were there a few strips left, but also some shapes - circles, drunkard's paths and tumblers - which I decided to leave for another project on another day.

I was pondering how to put the blocks together - I want to put some sort of plain colour around them. I decided I'd use navy blue as I had a navy sheet in my stash which would do the job perfectly. Then I came up with the idea of doing the quilt as you go (QAYG) method to quilt these. What that means is I'd only be quilting 12½" squares and not a big quilt. I've used the QYAG method a few times before (here's one and here's another) and was very happy with the outcome and let's face it, quilting 12½" squares is much easier (for me) than quilting a 62½" by 50" quilt!

Anyway, that decided, I got to thinking about what I'd use on the back and had a brainwave - or was it a crazy idea?? - to use some of my massive collection of 4½" squares. I'd need 9 per block so for 40 blocks, I'd need 360. Totally do-able!

Today I got started sewing them together. At this moment, they're in rows of 3 just waiting to have their seams pressed to one side.

Next job is to make them into 9 patches and start quilting the blocks. I'm quite looking forward to that - mind you, after doing 40 of them, I can imagine I'll be well and truly sick of them!

Finally, I think it would be remiss of me to not say anything about what we're *all* facing just now. Please stay safe. Stay away from people - staying away from my wee girlies has to be the hardest thing for me to do but I will do it for their (and my own) safety! Be sensible. Wash. Your. Hands!

!!! 3 !!!

Our wee Emily is 3 today. Goodness me! How did that happen? I remember exactly where I was when Jason phoned me to tell me she had arrived ... at long last!

We all went to Emily's house on Sunday to have a birthday picnic/party with her. No way could we go outside but we were all quite happy inside! Before I show off the photos of her playing with her picnic basket and blanket, let me show you the finished quilt - the front:

The back and the embroidered label:

I made some mini napkins to go with it:

Then I had some fun making "food". First of all some sandwiches - ham and lettuce on the left and cheese on the right.

Some Oreos and jammie dodgers:

Some ginger nuts on the left and crackers with cheese on the right:

Some triangle cheese and some babybels:

And some egg sandwitches on white bread.

Honestly, I had way too much fun making the food and had to make myself stop! LOL

Here's Emily on Sunday emptying out her picnic basket with all the goodies inside. You'll notice she had put the quilt upside down - Pooh had to be upwards!

She had lots of fun sorting things out -

Then her mummy and Auntie Jo joined in the picnic fun pouring cups of tea and filling plates for anybody who wanted one!

Isla was very tired as she sat on her Grammie's knee wearing her bear ears hairband but she would not give in!

We all had a lovely time - it was a really fun day.

Happy birthday, Miss Emily. Have a lovely day! 🥰

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!

where to start?

Well, here we are again. Thinking about giving this blogging malarkey another go. Why? Well, because I missed it! I missed being able to look up when something happened or when I made something. I know I can look all the photos up on the computer but it's not the same. I actually enjoy reading my blethers that go along with the makes - don't know if anybody else does but that's okay. I'll eventually post all the things I've made in the last 2 years in backdated posts. It might take a while as there are, not really surpringly, a LOT of photos!

In the meantime, what's been happening around these parts? Well, these parts have changed in that we moved house. The house we're in now is as close to our dream house as we can get. Not in a town. Not in the country. Big enough for me to have a sewing room that doesn't have to double up as a guest room. Big enough for Douglas to have a study/office where he does whatever he does in there. Safer not to ask! LOL

The garden is fairly big but not too hard to look after. The street we're in is quiet but there is also always some activity. We live close enough to big towns to be at the supermarket in under 10 minutes but there's a local shop & post office close enough to walk to - which we do often. Use it or lose it, as they say!

We got a wood-burning stove fitted last month and that just makes the house even more of our dream house. We've always wanted a fire and this one is just the bees knees! This was the day it was fitted - Douglas couldn't wait to get it lit and just sit by it. Of course, Tilly had to sit beside him!

We still need to redecorate that wall but all in good time.

The most important change is that our new granddaughter, Isla, made her debut last October. A wee sister for our Miss Emily and adored by all. She is now 4½ months old and watches everything Emily does.

You can see that she's desperate to be able to play with Emily. Won't be long!

Emily is nearly 3. Where has the time gone? She is such a clever wee thing. Her (lack of) hearing has not stopped her in the slightest. In fact, the speech and language lady who came to their house just to check how her development was coming on has signed Emily off as she is as good as, if not better than, hearing children her age. So proud!

She's a good help around the house for her mummy - although I'm not sure the Clangers appreciate her trying to iron them! Hahaha

The tartan bee is doing well. I sold so many Christmas stockings last year that I've already started sewing them so I might have a good stock by the time the buying of Christmas stockings restarts - in about August!! I've also recently designed and sewn some project bags which I am inordinately chuffed with. This is the one I finished this morning and just loaded into the shop.

We'll see how these go before I make more.

I'm going to stop there. There's so much more I could say but we'll go with this for now.

PS: Gosh, it took me a while to remember how to load in photos and make links open another window. I think I got it!

I have decided ...

After a lot of thought, I have decided to take a break from blogging. There's nothing wrong, I'm just a bit bored with it, to be honest. I don't know how long the break will be - I suppose we'll all find out together!

So, in the meantime, look after yourselves. :o)

quite a bit!

There's been quite a bit of sewing going on around these parts. Mind you, there usually is!! :oD

I made another oven glove to match the one I "designed" last week. I put the hanger of this one on the long side so it won't get in the way when the gloves are in use. I unpicked the hanger on the original one and moved it too.

Then I made another pair ... just because I could.

I had some of the orange fabric I'd used for the bias binding on those gloves left so I used it to make some more bias.

Then I cut up some other small pieces of fabric and made some more. I wasn't paying attention when I cut the two red stripey pieces and managed to get the stripes facing the opposite directions! No harm done - it'll still get used.

Remember the denim skirt I made for Debbie last year? Well, it was now a bit big for her so I brought it home and put in some darts at the waist and took in the side seams. Hopefully it'll fit her better now.

I had cut out some bags for the tartan bee months ago and made myself sew some of them up. I still have more to do but at least I've made a start to them. All I need to do is give them a good press, take photos and load them into Etsy. I wonder how long that will take me??

Oh, this photo reminded me that I recovered our dining room chair seats before Christmas. I got the fabric in Ikea. It was £4 a metre. £8 for covering 6 chairs isn't too shabby!!

My tartan bee labels were getting a bit low so I made some more. I ran out of cotton tape so I've got that other page still to do.

Debbie asked me to make an owl for a friend's wee girl so I did that this morning. Isn't it adorable?

Then this afternoon, I made a ball for Emily. It's not perfect by any means but I'm sure Emily won't care that the top and bottom aren't perfectly lined up!

first make of the New Year!

Happy New Year! Let's hope it's a good one!

I've already sewn something. It's a bit of an experiment and it's worked ... for the most part! I wanted to make a new type of oven glove which had two pockets for my fingers instead of my usual one. That meant the oven glove had to be longer so some guessing, drawing and paper cutting was needed.

Then I dug through my box of bits of odds and ends, found some already quilted bits so I made use of those. Next I dug out some bias binding not bothering if it matched my quilted bits or not. This is what I came up with.

The side with the two pockets.

This is how it looks with my fingers inside.

The other side.

I'm really pleased with this ... except for one thing. The hanger needs to be moved around on to the long side because it's going to dip into whatever I'm taking out of the oven or microwave the way it is right now.

Apart from that, I'm chuffed with how this has worked. I'm actually surprised at finding that I'm not bothered that the bias binding doesn't match the fabrics I used. Food for thought for the future! I now have to make copious notes of what I did so I can repeat it!

A good start to the year! :o)