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)

Books read in 2017 ... a lot!!