in the month of May

I didn't think I would have much to post this month but it turns out I was wrong. There is a LOT to post about so let's make a start.

First of all, this is what I made this month:

Dresses for Emily and Isla. These are the Kitty dress from Puperita. I used bias binding around the neck and armholes rather than lining them and didn't use piping. They're fab!

Fronts:

Backs:

I decided I needed to do something with the wee squares I had in my "fussy cutting" box so I made (some of) them into square-in-a-square blocks. They all finish at 8½" so, if I decide to make something with all of them, they will fit together nicely - at least by size! I'm sot so sure they fit together nicely by colour!

I had to add a blue stripe into these ones to make them the same size. I think they turned out really well!

Debbie asked me to make another navy blue spotty mask for her. Apparently, a pen had leaked in her bag and her navy spotty mask took the brunt of it. An easy job to make a new one for her.

She asked me if I'd make a mask for Emily. She'll need to wear one soon and, because of her ears (hearing aids) she can't wear ones where the elastic goes around her ears. I had to figure out a way to get the elastic to go around the back of her head. Hopefully it'll work! I made one for Isla as well - no way could I make one for Emily and not make one for Isla!

I tried it on the teddies to see what I thought.

How the elastic works at the back.

Debbie also asked me to make a couple of shopping bags for the girls. Another easy job!

The dresses, masks and shopping bags are on their way to Canada as I type. Hopefully everything will fit!

After all that sewing, I decided I needed to do some scrap management. I had already taken the turquoise/jade box down when I took this photo but you can see how messy and full the scrap boxes are.

I decided to cut things into 2½" strips so that's what I did. I now have a full (messy!) box full of 2½" strips but the other boxes look much better. I deliberately didn't do the plain coloured boxes - more often than not, I need bigger pieces of these so I've left those full and messy!

Joanna and I had birthdays in the middle of the month - happy birthday to us! - and this was a surprise gift that she got for me! Button tubes!

I had a LOT of fun filling them.

Then I divided them into baskets ...

... made labels and put them on my shelves. This makes me so happy! Thanks again, Jo. What a great birthday present!

Lastly, I was finally tidying away all the bits of paper I used when making my Supernova quilt. As I was putting them all into the folder, I found this:

Oh. My. Goodness. This pre-dates even the Photoshop file (dated 2012) that I had found in my needlecraft folder on my computer and used to make the quilt. Can you read what it says at the bottom? Oh. My. Goodness! What a great idea! So I gathered some Christmas 2½" squares ...

... some white squares and bits to make the HSTs (half-square triangles).

Made the HSTs and divided them into 4 piles - one for each quarter of the hanging.

Divided it all into parts for each quarter.

And before I knew it, I had the top left quarter made. So cool!

I've already got some of the next quarter made and I'm so happy with the way it's turning out. A great way to use up 304 x 2½" squares of Christmas fabrics, 30 x 4½" squares of Christmas fabrics, 60 x 2½" squares of white fabric and 30 x 4½" squares of white fabric. The only things I had to cut were the 4½" squares of white fabric. All the rest were already cut so it was an easy job to gather all the bits. Now I just need to get it sewn. Happy days!

That was a busy month of May!

1 purse, 2 project bags and 3 shirts

I've been my usual busy self in the sewing room. This time I played around and made myself a wee purse with some of the leather scraps I talked about here in January and here in April. I had seen a tutorial on youtube showing how to make a purse using fabric so I adapted it to make mine out of leather. I am sooooo chuffed with it. Here's the outside:

The inside empty:

And the inside filled with cash. The joke of it is, I can't remember when I last used cash. I got this lot out of the machine in about November last year and it's still all as pristine as the day I got it out! Never mind, at least I have a cute purse to put it in, eh? LOL

I made a couple of project bags for no reason other than I felt like making them. I love them both!

And finally, I made another 3 shirts from my all time favourite shirt pattern, McCall's 5359. I have used other patterns occasionally but I always come back to this one. Mostly because it's so comfortable but also because I've made it so many times that I don't need to look at the instructions.

I did a rough count of all the shirts I've made using this pattern based on the photos I have on my computer. I'm not convinced the count is accurate but, if it is, these three are numbers 32, 33 and 34! I'd say I've got my money's worth out of this pattern!

My Supernova - all finished! 🌟

I finished My Supernova quilt the other day and, OMG, I *LOVE* it! I am so pleased with how it turned out! Not only the patchwork part of it or the quilting part of it but the fact that I designed it all myself makes me so chuffed that it turned out so well. That might sound like I'm boasting or blowing my own trumpet - I am! I am just so, so pleased with it!

It finished at 76" square which was too big for Douglas to hold up. He tried but his arms don't stretch to 76" wide, apparently! LOL Anyway, I just laid it out on the livingroom floor to get the pics and here they are.

The front:

The back: (I should have flattened it a bit more at the right side!)

The label - designed by me too!

And its final hanging space. I didn't want to put it on a bed as it would hardly get seen and I think this definitely deserves to be seen. It's anchored to the bookcases that are in our top hall with clamps but I've changed those and it's now hanging with big paper clips and they work beautifully.

Now, as a Maths teacher in a previous life, I just had to do the sums to see how many pieces were in the quilt.

MY SUPERNOVA QUILT: designed by me in February, 2012.

TOP:
2½" squares - coloured fabrics - 808
2½" squares - white - 212
2½" HSTs (half-square triangles) - half white, half coloured - 424 so 848 pieces
TOTAL: 1868 pieces

BACK:
4½" squares - coloured fabrics - 80
magenta sheeting - approx 50" x 80".

BINDING:
black - approx 320" x 2½" wide

At the risk of repeating myself ... I *LOVE* it! 🌟

a bag, spex cases and a quilt

I played around with the leather bits I showed back in my January makes post. I wanted to make myself a bag so I sewed them on to a piece of calico to help keep them stable. As it's leather, I didn't need to turn under the edges - thankfully! I tried to keep the amount of overlapped leather to a maximum of 2 pieces as the sewing machine didn't much care for more than 2 layers.

I made 2 pieces the same size:

Then I sewed them together to make my bag. I am sooooo happy with the way it turned out.

I made myself some new spex cases. I don't need three - the first one I made was a bit smaller than I meant it to be so the spex were a really tight fit. It's not a problem as the spex I use for cross-stitching are smaller than my normal spex so the new case fits those perfectly!

I finished the Supernova top. I wasn't totally happy with it. Can you see why?

Here's an arrow pointing to the mistake! That star's legs are definitely not right! Woops!

I also wasn't happy with the way the white legs of the big stars just got cut off (see at Douglas's right slipper for an example of what I mean) so I decided I would finish those off. Then after doing that, I decided I needed another outer row to make the star "float" - it wouldn't just end at the outside of the quilt top. Clear as mud? I know!

This is what it looks like now.

I then pinned it to the bump and backing ready for quilting - a mammoth task on an ordinary sewing machine.

I've started the quilting but have to take it a little at a time as it's a big quilt to move around - 76" square. I'll get there and, when it's finally done, I am absolutely certain it'll be FAB-U-LOUS! (if I do say so myself! LOL)

February's makes and stuff

Not many makes this month - or not as many as *I* would usually make. This is for a couple of reasons - firstly the kitchen re-do is still ongoing. We're not bothered by how long it's taking - we're not as young as we used to be and everything needs to be discussed (ad nauseam) so we don't have to do things twice. If only that worked! There's a tall cupboard that I've filled, unfilled and refilled 3 times - maybe 4! - because things weren't quite right. Now we think we might have to do the unfilling and filling again to see if we can get said tall unit closer to the wall. That could mean cutting the bottom of the back of the unit or trimming the skirting board neither of which sound good! Oh well.

The other reason is I had to go and get a steroid injection into one of the knuckles of my right hand. Boy, that was painful! My right hand was pretty useless for about 3 days. Ask me how easy it is to spread butter with my left hand - not as easy as I thought it would be!! After a few days, I was at least able to do some sewing but I had to be careful not to overdo. It's now been a week since I got that jag and my finger is much better. Fingers crossed it keeps improving - well, not literally as I don't think that would be a good idea!

Anyway, here's what I did do.

First of all, I had a pair of comfy trousers which were far too big for me. So big that, if I didn't tie the annoying cords around the waist, they'd fall down! This is sadly not due to losing lots of weight but due to the fact that I bought the wrong size! Anyway, I cut off the waistband that was there, managed to get the elastic out of that waistband - why it was overlocked and sewn into the seams is a puzzle to me - and then did a simple zigzag stitch to attach the elastic to the cut edge. As nobody ever sees the waistband, it doesn't matter how ugly it is. They fit me and that's all that counts!

My next makes were more masks for Douglas and myself. We have quite a decent supply of masks but it's surprising how many times Douglas had to ask me what jacket he had on the last time he went out as his mask would be in the pocket of that jacket. It's a bit like me and hankies - I have at least one in every pocket of every jacket. Now Douglas has enough masks to have one in every jacket and still have some in the basket in the hall where the masks are kept!

The next two are made from some of the first masks I made which I found I never wore as I prefer the shaped versions. It was an easy job to unpick them and remake them into the shaped version.

Next I made a pinafore dress for Emily's 5th birthday next week. How on earth is she 5 already??

This is the front:

And this is the back:

The pattern is the Bloomy pinafore from Puperita here. I then made both Emily and Isla wee tops.

This is the Liberty Style Blouse also from Puperita but it doesn't seem to be on her website at the moment. How odd!

I made Molly a leather bone like I had made for Tilly last month.

Those are all now in a box with other gifts heading on their way to Canada.

I next made myself some new cloths from some old towels. This has to be one of my favourite recycling jobs. 3 towels makes 18 cloths - not too shabby!

I haven't done much on my Supernova patchwork. I have made the top left quarter:

And made a start on the top right quarter.

I hope to get more of it done in March but we'll see how much the kitchen re-do and the finger allow.

two, two, two-ty two

I had to blog about this because it made me laugh so much. I ordered our prescriptions this morning on the online site and was writing on a piece of paper what I had ordered and today's date so I could write it in my diary when the pills would be ready.

Today's date? 2/2/22.

Two, two, two-ty two!

Shame it wasn't Two-sday! Two-sday, two, two, two-ty two!