the other runner and the next project

I finally managed to get some decent photos of the three Christmas table runners I've made recently (took different people with different cameras 2 days to get anything remotely decent!) and have now loaded them into the tartan bee shop. I showed the first two here already so here's the third.

I have to say, I love it. I love the other two as well but there's something about the simplicity of this one that really strikes a chord with me. Simple, yes, but that didn't mean it was a 5 minute job. Nothing like it, actually. Still, for all that, I just might have to make another one of these sometime soon.

The next project is Christmas stockings. I first of all went through some of my Christmas scraps and cut them into 2½" squares. Then I worked out how many I'd need to make the same size of stockings that I made the template for and resulting stockings last year. I'll show you stocking number 2 here as this photo shows the design before it's quilted or sewn up.

And here is the first one I made all quilted, sewn up and lined. The back and inside are plain green fabric - I'll try to remember to take photos of that next time!

I'm really happy with this design so I'm definitely going to make a few more of these for the shop. Hopefully I'll get some sewing time over the weekend to get on with them. :o)

a new dress and a couple of runners

Last week I finally got around to making a dress for Debbie. She's been asking (nagging) me to make it for a while so I thought maybe it was time to get on and just do it!

It's this pattern

which I'd made once before for her. I just re-read that post and I see I said I wasn't going to make it again. Mmmmmmm.

Anyway, I did make it again but this time I left out the 8 godets and she wanted the sleeveless version. That reduced the time it took me but not by much! Thankfully the dress fits her beautifully. Phew!

Over the weekend, I made a start to another Christmas table runner. I finished it yesterday.

Here's a close-up of the fabrics I used.

I'm hoping to get some decent photos of it soon - along with the other runner I made last week - and will load both into the tartan bee shop as soon as that's done.

Today I made another runner - a different pattern this time. Here it is before I hand-sewed the binding on the back.

I've now finished it and will also put it into my shop when I get decent photos of it. I love sewing Christmassy things! :o)

scrap sorting

So, why did I buy myself a 2½" square ruler? (The one Billy brought me last Friday.) Well, I decided that it was time to do something with the boxes of scraps that I have. I decided to cut them into 2½" or 4½" squares. Why those sizes? Well, the Go! cutter has those sizes on one of its cutting dies and, when I thought about it, those are the sizes I've used on some (most) of the baby quilts I've made so those seemed sensible sizes to go for.

This is a photo of the scrap boxes after I'd dealt with 3 of them. I think it's fairly easy to see which ones I'd done and the ones I still needed to deal with!

This is the pile out of the "creams" box ready to be dealt with.

I put them into piles of those that could be cut with the Go! cutter - I cut them with the cardboard templates first and then put them through the Go! - and those that needed to be done with the 2½" or 4½" square rulers because the pieces weren't big enough to cut them with the Go!

These are the boxes where I'm storing the 2½" and 4½" squares - filling up nicely. The big box at the back of the photo is holding bigger bits which I wanted to keep as big pieces in case I wanted them for something else.

I now only have the "reds & pinks" box to tackle. If you look back at the first photo, that's the box on the bottom left shelf. The fullest box. The one that's going to take me forever to get to the bottom of! I keep telling myself it'll be worth it when I've done it but that doesn't make the idea of tackling that box any less daunting! Eeeek!

a Christmas table runner

On Saturday afternoon I got a notion to make something Christmassy. I went through some of my quilty books and landed on this one.

The design I chose was the one on the cover but I needed to change it slightly. The one in the book is a runner for the bottom of a bed - a wee bit too big for a table runner. So out came the pencil and paper and I worked out what I wanted to do.

I then dug out some Christmassy fabrics, cut them to the hexagons and triangles I needed on my Go! cutter and then got on with the sewing. This morning I went back to it and got the top made.

I pinned it ready for quilting.

And quilted it using the goldy-coloured variegated thread that I seem to use for all my Christmas quilting.

This afternoon I added the binding and this is how it turned out.

I am sooooo pleased with it. It's currently sitting on top of the coffee table in the living room. I wonder if I'll just leave it there or is it maybe just a wee bit too early to start decorating for Christmas? :oD

Billy

I ordered a really small ruler - 2½" square - from amazon on Wednesday. I was notified that it had dispatched and was going to be delivered by DPD. I love when DPD delivers parcels because they give you precise timings of when your parcel will arrive.

Sure enough, yesterday morning I got an e-mail from DPD telling me that Billy would be delivering my parcel between 15:46 and 16:46. It also had a link to click so I could see where Billy and my parcel were.

I had such fun with that! Every time I was on the computer - or my iPad - I clicked on the link to see where Billy was. Each time he was just a wee bit closer and they'd tell me how far away he was (in time). This is a screenshot I took when he was 45 minutes away! (You should be able to ctrl-click on the photo to make it bigger - I had to make it smaller to fit on my blog.)

Isn't that cool? It reminded me of watching Norad tracking Santa on Christmas Eve.

Billy duly brought me my ruler and, as I was signing his wee black box, I told him I'd been following his progress all day. I obviously hadn't been the first person to say this to him as he said - and I quote - "Not another one. Don't you have anything better to do with your time?". I was a wee bit astounded by his attitude but realised that he'd been on the road for 4½ hours and probably just wanted to get home. Poor Billy. I just smiled, thanked him profusely and sent him on his way.

Thanks for my parcel, Billy. I really liked watching for you all day! :oD

my first custom order

I was contacted the other day by a person who was looking for a short frilly apron like the calico and tartan ones I sell in the tartan bee shop but instead of the tartan frill, she was looking for a red gingham frill. After a few messages back and forth, we decided on the length she wanted (16") and, yes, she'd prefer white cotton to the cream calico.

As it happened, I had just ordered some red gingham that day and had expected it to arrive on Friday. I was beginning to panic when it didn't arrive either on Friday or Saturday but, thankfully, it came yesterday so I set to and got busy with the sewing machine.

I finished it off this morning, sent her a photo to make sure it was what she wanted and she got back to me saying it was exactly how she imagined it would be. Yay!

I put it on my shop as a reserved listing with no photo (in case someone else decided to buy it!) and, within about 10 minutes of me giving her the link to the sale, it was all bought and paid for. I then wrapped it and posted it this afternoon. A wonderful experience for my first custom order!

summery clothes for a dolly

I spent some time making some doll's clothes today. They're for a wee girl who lives far, far away from here but they're going on a plane journey tomorrow and she'll get them much more quickly than having to wait for the mail. Carolyn, if you see this post, please don't let E see these! It'll spoil the surprise. :o)

Grace graciously (!!) offered to model them for us - the dolly these are for is identical to Grace. :o)

A lovely purple flowery dress which matches her shoes perfectly!

I adore this peasant style blouse and skirt. It's just so cute!

A fabulous sundress.

And sneaky peak at a pair of pants to under all these outfits. *blush*

I hope E loves these outfits as much as I do. Now Grace is asking for some outfits like these for herself. I'll have to see what I can come up with for her. :o)

searching for a new avatar

I decided the other day that I wanted to change my avatar for my blog to a photo of myself instead of the wee tartan bee. Of course, I didn't have a photo of myself in my iPhoto because, let's face it, who takes photos of themselves? Not me!

So, I decided to ask my loving family to send me any *decent* photos of me to maybe use as an avatar. I would be able to crop out background stuff so I was hopeful that they would have something I could use. Let me show you what they sent me.

My hair isn't this colour any more.

How many double chins do I have in this one????

I have no idea what that is in front of my face ... but it's probably just as well it's there!

I look like I just ate a bug!

Wrong colour of hair and the shadow isn't helping! At least Molly looks good!

This one isn't too bad but what about the expression on Douglas's face?

Was I caught mid-word or something?

I love the expression on Joanna's face!

This one is actually okay. I very nearly used it.

I liked this one too but my hair wasn't quite sticky-uppy enough!

This one was taken yesteday. I just rejected it because it looks like I've got a lamp growing out of my head. The teddy bear in my spex looks completely normal!

And finally, the one I chose.

I might look daft in most of these photos but the best thing is, so do they! Gotcha back! Hahahaha! :oD

another blouse and skirt

Over the last couple of days, I've made another blouse using my adjusted pattern and another skirt using Butterick 4461.

This photo shows the design on the blouse fabric more clearly and shows the true colour of the skirt. I love them both!

The best thing about both of these garments is that both pieces of fabric came from the remnant table in my local fabric shop. The blouse fabric cost me £4 and the skirt fabric cost me £2. Now that's what I call a great deal!

The buttons came from my button boxes so no extra cost there but I didn't have the right colour of zip for the skirt so I went to the same fabric shop today to get one. Needless to say, I took a look at the remnant table and picked up another piece of cotton for £4. I'll be making another bargain blouse with that one soon. I do love a bargain! :o)

scalloped hemmed skirt and an experimental blouse

Here's the skirt I made on Saturday. Just ignore the threads hanging from the blouse! :oD

I basically used my go-to skirt of this summer - Butterick 4461 - and scalloped the hem. To do that, I used this tutorial which is one of the very first things I ever pinned on my Pinterest boards.

Source: via Anne on Pinterest

I'm really pleased with the way it turned out and will definitely add scallops on to more skirts - and maybe even tops!

The blouse I made was a bit of an experiment. I took a blouse that I had made previously but hadn't fitted me as well as I would have liked. Basically, I cut the pattern apart and put it back together again. I moved the bust darts, the front and back darts, moved the front neck up a bit, made it longer and wider and pretty much made up my own sleeves. The photos are a bit out of focus but I think you can see how much the pattern has changed!

This is how the blouse turned out.

In the photos, I haven't finished off the buttons and buttonholes which accounts for the pins and the hanging threads but it's looking good. If it fits me as well as it fits the dummy, I'll be counting my experiment a success! Yay! :o)