mostly doll's clothes and quilt blocks

October's sewing has mostly been making doll's clothes and quilt blocks. I did start the month with another patchwork runner. This one will go under the telly when the Christmas stuff comes out. (Not long now!) I worried when I was making it that it was too busy - nowhere for your eyes to rest - but, after finishing it, I really like it!

Then the doll's clothes making took over. Grace was very obliging in modelling them all!

Dresses:

Yes, Grace's shoes are on the wrong feet. I sorted them for the rest of the photos!

Sundresses:

Tee shirts - I made 2.

Then the knitting needles came out and I knitted jackets and hats.

I don't know if I'm finished yet but I had fun making them and I know the girlies will love them!

I've been making more quilt blocks. Every time I make them, voices in my head keep asking me what I'm going to do with them and why am I wasting my time making something I have no plans for. I just tell the voices to mind their own business! I can make whatever I want with them or just put them aside until I do decide.

The blocks are all made using this book:

As it says, it has 501 block patterns. Not all of them finish at the size I'm making (9½" which will finish at 9" in a quilt) but there are still plenty more for me to make! Yay!

Here are the ones I made this month:

Electric Fan:

Four Knaves:

9 patch straight furrow:

Pavement pattern:

Pennsylvania:

Turnstile:

Twelve triangles:

Union Square:

Windmill II:

Windmill Square:

Economy:

I'm still enjoying making all the quilt blocks so will keep doing them off and on until that stops or I come up with a plan for them.

So that's October done and dusted. I wonder what November will bring?

September's sewing

I started the month off by sewing a pinafore for Isla. It matches the one I made for Emily which I showed here. I again used the Bloomy pinafore pattern from Puperita.

I then sewed some tapes on to some towels for Joanna.

I made a lingerie bag for going into the washing machine. I've had this Ikea numbers fabric for a very long time - it's nearly all used up now but not quite!

I treated myself to a book about making letters from patchwork called "The Spelling Bee by Lori Holt". It wasn't cheap but I intend to make very good use of it. I practised with A, J and D but fully intend making all of them and sending them to the girls. I don't know when that will be but I'll work on it!

I decided to use up some of the square-in-a-square blocks I made back in May to make doll's quilts for the girls. These will be for part of their Christmas so have been put upstairs until I've made a few other things ready to post them.

I only had 6 ballerinas in total so embroidered two to make this second quilt - top left and bottom right. I got the embroideries here. I didn't have any of the black/pink circles fabric left so I replaced it with the pink flowery fabric. It makes the quilts the same but different - always a good thing!

I made another double wedding ring block. You might notice that there are unpicked stitches in the navy fabric at the bottom right. That's because I sewed the block together wrongly and had to take it apart! What a numpty! LOL

I made the last three blocks on the summertime quiltalong.

Practical Orchard:

4 X Variation:

Indiana Puzzle:

I decided I wasn't ready to sew these into a quilt yet so I dug put one of my patchwork books and made some more blocks.

Card Trick:

Light and Shadows:

King's Crown:

Lastly, I made a runner for the unit the television sits on.

Then I made 2 runners for the bookcase units that sit under the windows:

I backed these with Christmas fabrics so, in December, all I have to do is turn them over.

That's my sewing report for September. I've already made stuff this month but I'll save those for my October report!

the things I made in August

I started off the month tidying out some bits and pieces in the sewing room and came across some quilted bits that I'd intended to use for craft bags. I used them up for some oven gloves instead.

Next I made a couple of masks to go with the floaty frocks I made last month. The floaty frocks have sadly all been washed and hung back in the wardrobe for next year but, if we're still wearing masks next summer, these will get an airing then too!

Joanna had told us a while ago about an episode of Family Guy where the characters had met up with some of the Star Trek Next Generation characters. (I think that's right!) Anyway, one of the characters from Family Guy had asked why his washing up sponge got mouldy and smelly and, apparently, Jean Luc Picard said these words. It made us laugh so I had to make an embroidery for Joanna using the words. She found the sponge here and I added the words in my Embrilliance program. I plan to make one for my kitchen some time too.

I used up a piece of fabric that's been gathering dust on my shelves for ages. I didn't have quite enough to make my usual nightie pattern so I dug out another pattern (Butterick 5854, long out of print) and some lace and made that instead. I wore it a few times before the nights started getting a bit chilly so this will probably now sit on the bottom of the nightie pile until next summer. At least it's off the sewing room shelves!

I made a wee runner for the top of our hostess trolley. Yes, we have a hostess trolley and it's used faithfully every Christmas!

I then made a bigger runner for our pine cabinet.

I then decided to make another runner for each of them using Christmas fabrics. At the moment, the Christmas ones are sitting under the rest-of-the-year ones because I just couldn't be bothered putting them away!

This is the one for the hostess trolley:

And the one for the pine cabinet.

I bought a couple of new towels so they needed cotton tapes on them so they can be hung. Didn't take long.

I made a wee top for Emily. This is the Liberty top from Puperita which, for some reason isn't on her site any more. This is the front:

And the back:

I've been keeping up with the Summer Quiltalong I talked about in last month's post.These are Old Maid's Puzzle blocks:

5 piece chain blocks:

Windmill blocks:

I made one more double wedding ring block.

Lastly, these are just some of the tomatoes Douglas has been growing in the greenhouse. I worried that they weren't getting very big but it turns out they're cherry and baby plum tomatoes and so they're meant to be wee! They might be small but they are delicious!