revealing all

Time to reveal the sewing I was doing but couldn't show before Christmas. First of all, I put some of my Christmas embroideries into plastic hoops and hung them on the walls. They looked fab!

I made a diary cover for Joanna. Honestly, this diary cover was such a pain in the neck to make. I had to take it apart twice because I just couldn't seem to make it fit! Aaaaargh! Och well, it fits now and Joanna loves it which is all that matters!

The front:

The back:

The inside - where the diary fits so only the flaps are seen.

I made Joanna another pinafore dress using McCall's 7241. This time it's back to view C.

Again, I had to use the flash - blech - but the pinafore's black and so it was hard to get a decent photo of it in our dull winter light.

I made a couple of bookmarks on my embroidery machine for the girls. This one is Joanna's -

And this one is Debbie's -

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And now all I have to do is wish you all a ...

Merry Christmas!

I don't have any sewing or embroidering to show as everything I've been making recently are secret things. I'll show them off after the big day!

In the meantime, let me wish you all a very merry Christmas. I hope you all have a wonderful time.

a miscellany of things

I've got a real mix of photos to show today. First, the last cushion cover. This one sits on the chair in the dining room which is why I missed it in my original count of Christmas cushion covers I needed to make.

Last weekend - or maybe it was the one before that?? - we went to visit Debbie and Jason. I did take lots of photos but most of them are out of focus or not worth sharing for some reason or another. Here's Molly wearing her antler headband - for all of about 5 seconds!

And this is Tilly wearing her Santa hat headband - for less than 5 seconds!

This is what can be done with a Tunnock's teacake, some icing and holly leaves and berries decorations. I admit it looks like I just threw the leaves and berries on - that's because I did! LOL

This was a wondrous thing. Joanna was helping Debbie to decorate her tree and she put her hand into the box of hanger things and didn't manage to grab one - she managed to grab a hundred and one!! It actually looked like it could be used as a decoration on its own.

Joanna asked me if I would make her a flower brooch for her to give as part of her Secret Santa gift at work. She asked for a dark tartan so I used Black Watch. I embroidered the design on my embroidery machine, cut around it then attached it to felt and sewed on a brooch pin on the back. We'll find out tomorrow how the recipient liked it!

I made another couple of owl keyrings - one of these will be in that same Secret Santa package.

I've actually done some dressmaking this week - but not for me. This is - believe it or not! - a brown pinafore dress for Joanna. The winter light does not make it easy to take photos of brown things!

This is a wee bit better but I have a deep dislike of using the flash. Blech! Anyway, this is the stripey bias binding - home-made, of course - that I used to bind the neck and armholes.

I used this pattern again - view A this time, all in one colour in case that's not obvious!

And then this afternoon, I made 2 batches of tablet - well, 3 if you count the stupidity that was my first attempt. No, Anne. 1 cup of sugar is NOT the same as 1lb of sugar so your tablet will NOT turn out right! Aaaargh!

Anyway, I made a batch of the usual recipe (no photo as Joanna took it all away before I thought of it but the recipe is here) for Joanna to take to the Secret Santa gift-giving party tomorrow and I also made this lot.

I have no idea where the recipe came from but it's made in the microwave. Very easy and very tasty - although I've found I can't eat more than one piece at a time. Maybe that's a good thing!

Here's my version of the recipe - I changed it around a bit.

1 tin of condensed milk (mine was 397g)
100g butter cut into smallish pieces
500g caster sugar

Put everything in a microwavable bowl with highish sides and stir.
Cook on high for 2 - 2½ minutes to melt the butter. Stir again.
Cook on high for 10 minutes in total stirring regularly. I stirred at 3 minutes, 3 minutes, 2 minutes and 2 minutes.
Pour into a lined swiss roll tin.
Cut into squares before it's fully set.
Eat.

One word of warning. Don't use a plastic spatula to stir the end result. Ask me how I know! :oD

Christmas cushion covers

Here are some of the other things I've been making recently. Christmas cushion covers!

I didn't buy new cushions - I just re-covered the ones we already had. The best thing about that was I didn't need to work out what sizes I needed - I just measured the covers that were already on the cushions and duplicated those sizes.

I used embroideries and appliqués on the fronts and used red or green polycotton on the backs. The stag's head is an appliqué I did on my "normal" sewing machine. I'd prefer it to be a bit bigger so I might unpick that one and do it again. Or I might just leave it alone!

I love them all but I have to make a special mention of the tree in the following one. This one is especially for Douglas. It's called "moustachemas tree". Yes, Douglas has a moustache - has had it since I met him all those years ago. The moustachemas tree makes me smile every time I see it!

I have another cushion cover up in the sewing room waiting for its back to be sewn on. Hopefully I'll get that done tomorrow. :o)

knitting, embroideries, sewing and moving things around

Want to see what I've been doing since I last blogged? First of all the baby cardies I was making finally got sewn up and the buttons attached. This is them (sort of) being blocked. More just a dampening with some water and pinned to a towel to take out the worst of the bumps.

I bought the blue mix yarn before we knew the baby was a girl but, as I told Debbie, it's okay for a girl to wear blue. My two certainly did!

Debbie gave me this orange-mix yarn to make something with so I made another smaller and plainer cardie -

This is a wee pair of bootees that I started last night to go with the orange-mix cardie. Same pattern as I blogged about here.

I've started a ripple crochet blankie for the baby too. Fun times!

I sewed a new bag for Joanna. It's the same pattern that I first blogged about here. Here's the bag -

A close-up of the flower -

And the inside of the bag -

I decided a few months ago that I wanted to be able to use all my machines at once - or at least not have to move the machines around each time I wanted to use one of them. Here's what my sewing machine table used to look like - my sewing machine is at the front (with its blue lid up) with the overlocker on the right and the embroidery machine behind (with its black lid up). Way too crammed to be effective!

It took a few days to get it all shifted - with a lot of help from Douglas - but we did it. Here are my machines all sitting side by side.

I can now set the embroidery machine going and can sew something on the sewing machine or overlocker whilst it's chugging away. I love this arrangement!

Finally, what did I do with the reindeer, you asked? I cut them to shape:

Backed them with snowmen fabric -

Sewed binding around them -

- and made them into bunting!

It's really hard to get a decent photo of the bunting as it's so wide but I hope you get the idea! I am so pleased with the way it turned out!

I have a few other things on the go which I hope to be able to share soon. Watch this space, as they say!

all sorts of sewing going on

The 5 patchwork stockings I was working on all got finished and loaded into the tartan bee shop.

Then I had to make 3 new bow tie brooches for the new ladies who joined the choir I sing in. I'm pretty sure they won't be taking part in our concert with us - 5 weeks to learn all 14 songs we'll be singing is a bit much really - but I thought it would be better to be prepared so I just went ahead and made the brooches for them.

I bought and planted 12 hyacinth bulbs - 4 bowls each with 3 bulbs in them. They'll be fabulous when they come out - and probably a bit overpowering scent-wise!

The biggest thing I've been doing lately is embroidering reindeer. I got the set here.

I was really pleased that there were the correct number of reindeer! "You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen ..." etc. I'm thinking of embroidering their names under each one so I'll have to choose which one is Rudolf so I can put a red sequin or a red button on his nose!

Oh and you might have noticed that, at one point, a plaster appeared on one of my fingers. I didn't sew through my finger but it did come into contact with the jaggy end of the machine needle! Ouchy!