January makes

I haven't got as much sewn as I usually do this month as we're doing up our kitchen and it's taking up a lot of my sewing time. I'm really hoping we're now on the home stretch with that so that I can get my kitchen put back together and also get some time in my sewing room!

Here's what I did get made this month. A starry wallhanging:

... with its embroidered label.

I had a notion to try sewing some leather things - nothing huge, maybe a coin purse (not that I have any coins these days!) or a card wallet or similar wee things like that. I found some leather off-cuts on Amazon here - I see they're out of stock as I type this but I paid all of £5.19 for a 2kg bag of bits. With free P&P, I reckoned it was a fab price to pay to do some experimental sewing. Here's a picture of the leather that came - mostly black and dark brown with some lighter brown and maroon in there too.

My first experiment was to make some letters to fit on keyrings. I made mine first then one for Douglas and one for Joanna. They were a bit fiddly to make but I was really happy with the way they turned out.

When Tilly saw Joanna's J, she wanted to bite it. Not to eat it but to just hold it. She did that once with an old leather glove of mine. She held it in her mouth for what seemed like days only dropping it to eat, drink and sleep! I decided to try another experiment and this one worked even better than the letters.

As you can see, Tilly LOVES her new bone!

I then did a bit of a re-purposing thing. I had 3 nighties that I had bought last year - or maybe it was 2020! - from Asda's. I was really disappointed with them as they were quite short - and shrunk even more after washing! I'm only 5'4" and they barely covered my behind so people taller than I am would have been displaying parts of themselves they probably would rather keep hidden! I dug the nighties out of the back of the drawer, cut off about 8" and hemmed them and I'm now wearing them as jammie tops. I'm wearing them with mismatched jammie bottoms but I reckon it's dark when I'm wearing them so that's fine!

Lastly, I was going through my "needlecrafts" folder on my computer and throwing away all sorts of stuff that I know I will never make. Boy, that was freeing! As I was doing that, I found this which I had made up all by myself years ago. 15 February, 2012 to be exact! Wow! 10 years ago! I originally drew it in Photoshop and I haven't had that on my computer for a long, long time but, luckily, the file can be used in Pixelmator which I have now.

I decided it was time to try out my design so I wrote out what each quarter of the Supernova star would be -

- and started gathering the fabrics. I took this photo when I was still in the middle of getting all the pieces ready. They're now all sitting in the four baskets - one for each quarter - and I'll hopefully get on with it soon. It'll finish at about 56" square so more a quilt than a wallhanging but, if it looks anything like my plan, I'll be very happy!

what I made in December - and a few others

Let me start by wishing you all a Happy New Year. Let's hope 2022 won't be as "strange" as 2020 and 2021!

The main part of this post is what I made in December but I'll start off with the things I made in November which I couldn't show because they were for Christmas gifts.

First of all, I made a cover for Joanna's diary. She loves Russian dolls so I used my embroidery machine to embroider the 3 dolls, her name and the year on the front and the "made by" tag on the back. I used Russian doll fabric as the pockets and the lining. Thankfully, Jo loves it!

I wanted to make a cape for Joanna but didn't have a pattern. I searched around for one to buy but didn't find one I liked but I did find a blog post here where there were instructions on how to make a cape with a piece of wool fabric and a free hood pattern. I lined the fabric and then made it up as directed but I didn't like the square corners so I rounded them off and am much happier with the result. Again, thankfully, Jo loves it!

After all that Christmas sewing, I did an easy task - adding cotton tapes to some towels for Jo.

Next I made her some more masks. I suspect that we'll be wearing them for a while yet so best to have a choice, don't you think?

I then made some new cushion covers for her. She gave me the fabric and the cushion forms so it was a really easy job to take the old covers off, measure them and make new ones out of the navy fabric.

Next I made her a cover for her unit. Lovely!

I just noticed that everything so far is for Joanna! Who knew? Not me! LOL

The next thing I made is a wallhanging of a Christmas tree. I got the pattern for this one from Jordan Fabrics - video on youtube is here. The link for the free pattern is below that video. It was an easy sew and I was surprised that I had enough whites and creams for the background. I added some red and white starry buttons as tree dex and a big yellow bell button on the top of the tree. I love it!

I was contacted by a potential tartan bee customer on Etsy asking me if it was possible to buy a stocking that faced to the right rather than to the left as all mine do. I said I could, she ordered it and so I got on with it. The customer was delighted. Yay!

Next I made some more Christmas oven gloves. I wouldn't like to say how long I've had this fabric in my stash. Let's just say that, when we moved back to Fife from Inverness in 2000, this fabric came with us!

Lastly, is a "Ho Ho Ho" banner. I had seen the banner in the Patchwork and Quilting magazine which I had got when I took a free 2 month offer of Kindle Unlimited. I think it was the December issue but I can't swear to that!

As I didn't have the templates they offered in the real life magazine, I had to figure out myself how to make the Hs and the puddings. I printed out the Hs from a font I have for my embroidery machine then I did the same with an O from that same font for the bodies of the puddings. I drew some icing shapes and cut those out of white fabric. Then I found some holly leaf fabric to cut out the leaves for the tops. I appliquéed them on to linen type fabric and sewed on red buttons for the holly berries. Then I attached them all to a piece of leftover red quilt binding. I just love it.

Well, that's the makes for December. I've no doubt I'll be sewing something in January but no idea what yet. Time will tell!

Merry Christmas!

I have lots of makes to show but have decided to leave them until after the big day so I can show them all - some are not allowed to be shown until after the unwrapping has been done. So, a short post from me today wishing you all a very merry Christmas. I hope Santa is good to you!

what I made in November

I started the month by doing a quiltalong. I never do quiltalongs - or knitalongs, crochetalongs, dietalongs etc. - because I know myself well enough to know I would probably get distracted and not keep up! Well, that changed with this one! The quiltalong was from this blog. I liked the simplicity of it and that fact that, although it was a Christmas quiltalong, the fabrics were not specifically Christmas fabrics.

I started well, following along on her youtube channel and doing the blocks as directed. Then, when I only had 3 blocks left to do, I wanted to get them done so I worked out what I needed for those blocks and got them done. I have to say, I am VERY pleased with the result!

The front - please excuse Douglas's socks! LOL

The back - I didn't have enough of the spotty that I'd used on the front so just added a stripey fabric all around the bit I did have. I like it!

I then embroidered a label on my embroidery machine for it. Chuffed with that too!

Next I made a wallhanging of presents. The pattern is here. I have no idea how I found it - must have seen it on somebody's blog! - but the pattern was free (always a bonus!) so I got it and made it. Again, I didn't use specifically Christmas fabrics but I think it looks fab despite that. It will get hung on a wall soon!

The next are things I made for the girlies to add to their Christmas parcels. I wanted a tiger to go with their dressing gowns - shown here - but only had cat patterns so went with those. I tucked them into the pockets of their dressing gowns before I wrapped them.

I then made them each an ornament for the tree. I hope to make this a tradition so, by the time they leave home, they'll have tons of Grammie-made ornaments to take with them.

Joanna asked me to make her a gingham curtain for her kitchen so I did!

I made a few more stockings to keep up with the sales in the tartan bee.

I haven't sold as many this year as previous years but I'm fine with that. This is the first year in a long, long time that I haven't felt pressured to make more to keep up with demand. It means I've been able to make quilts and wall-hangings, cats and ornaments, gingham curtains and other things!

I made myself a new blouse. This took me a while to make as I wanted to make my favourite short-sleeved shirt but make it long-sleeved. Sounds easy enough but, when you use two patterns that don't actually fit each other at the armholes, it turns into a bit of a mind-bender! I made a few mock-up sleeve tops to make sure I'd got it right and I must say I'm really pleased with the result. The fabric just makes it all the better! I LOVE it!

Next, I made some new placemats. The ones we've used for years have always annoyed me because they're too small so I used some of my 2½" Christmas fabric squares and made some new ones. I then reminded myself how to make flanged binding and I think that wee hint of red before the green just sets it all off. Chuffed with those!

When I buy fabric to make the stockings, sometimes they just don't work. The squares on the stockings are cut at 2½" and sometimes the patterns just don't allow that to happen. So, I dug around in my pile of "these don't work for 2½" squares" fabrics and made some new napkins. A great way to use the fabrics!

So, another busy month of makes for me. And now it's December. I wonder how much I'll make this month?

back again

I find myself back here again but it's mostly for selfish reasons. If I want to know when I made a certain quilt or garment or embroidery etc etc and I can't find it in my photos because I can't remember when I made said item, I come here to search for it. If I don't blog about my makes, how am I going to know these things? Anyway, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. So here we go. I might fill in the months I've been away later - I might not. We'll all just have to wait and see.

These are the makes for October, 2021.

The first three photos are the patchwork Christmas stockings I make and sell in my tartan bee shop on Etsy. I've been making them steadily throughout the year and have just sold my first - hopefully of many - last week. Yay!

These ones are backed and lined with red -

These are backed and lined with green -

and these ones are backed and lined with dark yellow -

Next Joanna brought me some old towels and asked me if I'd make cloths out of them for her. I LOVE making cloths from old towels. The towels might be past their best but they're still very useful as cloths. Re-cycling and re-using at its best! There was the same amount of yellow as red but I'd already given the rest of the yellow ones to her before I took this photo.

These next two are dressing gowns I've made for Emily and Isla for their Christmas. I have to make them early as they've moved to Canada - 💔 - and I need to get them into the post soon. They are so soft and cuddly. I hope the girls love them! I'm sure they will.

This is Isla's -

and this is Emily's -

Next I made them both a Black Watch tartan pinafore each. I'm hoping they'll wear them as their Christmas outfits. Got to remind them that they might be half Canadian but they are also half Scottish!! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Then I went back to a habit that I had when my girls were wee - if I made something for them and had enough fabric left, I'd make something similar for their dollies. Aren't these just fab?

So that's the makes for October. Even if I only do one post a month, it will help me keep an eye on what I made and when I made it.

taking a break

I am taking a break from blogging ... again. Everything is fine with me, I just can't seem to work up any enthusiasm for blogging these days. Whether I return any time - soon or otherwise - remains to be seen. In the meantime, take care of yourselves!

quilt, skirts and snow

Last week I finished off a quilt which I had started last August. It might have taken me a while to get it done but, oh my goodness, I am so happy with it!

Next, I made a pair of oven gloves for myself. They are already in the rotation and the ones that they replaced because I noticed they had a melted bit on them are now in the bucket!

I made a couple of skirts for the wee girlies. I made Emily's one first - the front:

And the back:

And Isla's - front:

And back:

I've been keeping the Christmas stocking sewing ticking over. I now have 4 with the squares all sewn together and ready to quilt and another 6 already quilted ready to be made into stockings.

And lastly, we have had a huge amount of snow here. Our shopping delivery was cancelled on Tuesday. It was due between 6pm and 7pm but it didn't come and it didn't come. It was blizzarding outside and I was worried he had got stuck somewhere but we finally got an email just after 10pm saying that the van had been in an accident and that the delivery wouldn't be coming. I do hope the delivery man is okay! I managed to order a food box from Morrison's and it's coming this evening - hopefully!! That will tide us over (and then some) until next week's delivery comes.

Anyway, this was the view out of my favourite window on Tuesday - nothing to see here!!

This was halfway through - it was deeper than this later that day!

And this is the view across the fields this morning.

Douglas and I are going for our Covid jags next week. I don't think I've ever been pleased about getting a jag before but I'm really hoping that this is the light at the end of the Covid tunnel for all of us. In the meantime, stay safe out there!