a baby quilt and some dresses

I spent most of April and half of May making appliqués on my embroidery machine for a baby quilt. I was going to show all of the appliqués individually but, to be perfectly honest, the idea of posting 49 photos of appliqués kind of horrified me so I decided to just post a photo of the finished quilt. I am deeeeeelighted with the way it turned out. I hope the baby's mummy and daddy will love it and that the baby boy will have lots of fun with it.

This is the top:

On the back I used a royal blue fleece which matched the spotty fabric I'd used for the sashings and binding perfectly.

In the midst of making the 49 appliqués I made a couple of dresses for Emily and Isla. They've got them in Canada now and will hopefully get a lot of use out of them this summer.

I used the Kitty dress from Puperita. It's a nice pattern to sew and the girls LOVE the pockets - who doesn't like a dress with pockets? This photo shows the true colour of the green.

I used some flowery green buttons on the back. To be honest, when I went looking in my stash for buttons to match, I really didn't think I'd find any but I did! And they're perfect!

When I told Isla on Facetime that I was making dresses for herself and Emily she asked me if I could make dresses for their dolls as well. So I did!

When I sent the dresses, I put the dolly dresses in the pockets so that was a fun discovery for them!

There are a few more makes to show for May but I'll leave them until the month has finished as, no doubt, there will be others to add to the list! 😀

March makes

I finished 3 quilts in March. The first one I called "The Mish Mash Quilt" because it's literally just a mish mash of blocks and strips all joined together into a quilt. This is the last of the quilts made with all the blocks and strips I had been making as I went along with no definite plan. I must admit, I'm rather fond of this one!

The backing is the other side of a plain denim blue downie cover I'd used for the back of another quilt. Yep, jolly happy with this one!

The next quilt was one where I wanted to use fat quarters. Lots of fat quarters. 18 of them to be exact. They're paired up and hourglass blocks made with them and then I just put it together keeping each pairing together. Another one I am very happy with!

I used grey fleece on the back and the stripey binding was made from another 2 fat quarters. 20 fat quarters used up in this quilt - LOVE it!

The third quilt is an adaptation of one made by Jordan Fabrics on youtube - see it here. In her version, Donna used 10" squares but mine were only 8" square so I just went with those and added some black sashings and rainbow-coloured cornerstones to make it bigger. OMG, this is absolutely a favourite! I just LOVE it!

I used yellow fleece on the back -

As you can see from the label, I didn't call mine "mosaic" as Donna had called her version. Mine just looked like a stained glass window to me so that's what I called it.

As I said, I'm very happy with all of these quilts but the stained glass one is my absolute favourite.

diamond scraps and ombré diamonds quilts

I'm really pleased with the 2 quilts I finished in February. Both involved a lot of work but are totally worth it, in my opinion.

The first one is another rendition of the diamonds scraps quilt which I first made last year and blogged about here. This time I used pale yellows for the diamonds.

I used yellow fleece for the backing. I had to join a few fleeces together - I think it was three - to make it big enough. I used a pale yellow sheeting for the binding which finished it off nicely. I then used a piece of that same yellow sheet for the quilt label.

The second quilt I finished is one I'm calling "ombré diamonds". I had originally made a few HSTs (half square triangle blocks) using ombré colours.

I then joined them together in a row making each of the ombré triangle bits match their partners making diamonds. I don't have any photos of that row - no idea why! - but I didn't like it! I thought I would unpick the row and maybe join in some white blocks to make them into a quilt.

Luckily, I decided against that before I even got the white squares cut as big white squares in a quilt that will, hopefully, be used was like those old washing powder ads where I would always wonder why mums would send their children out to play in white clothes. Just asking for trouble! 🫣

So I made some more ombré HSTs and then joined them into big diamonds and this is the resulting quilt. I *LOVE* it!

I used black sashings and coloured cornerstones between the diamond blocks to stop me having even bigger white squares in the quilt. I think doing that has raised this quilt into a winner.

I used a pale grey fleece on the back and, since I had some of the yellow fleece left from the diamond scraps quilt, I used that to make the backing big enough. I must admit, I'm quite fond of that big T!

And then I added the quilt label. (The true colour of the grey fleece is shown in the photo above of the T backing.)

I've already started the next quilt which is using up more blocks from the odd blocks box. I'm hoping that box will be emptied soon!

my sewing journal, a quilt and some blocks

I started the year by adding the year to the front of my sewing journal. I only used up half of the journal with last year's makes so decided, rather than starting a new notebook, I'd just keep going in this one so it needed the numbers added. Thankfully, it was easier than I expected it to be!

Next I added sashings and cornerstones to some blocks I'd made last year. These are blocks that I'd learned from a work colleague I worked with in a fabric shop a long, long time ago - actually, it was in the last century!! I had found the instructions in an old notebook and played around with them to make them bigger and I'm delighted with the results. I'd called them "Janet's cross" in that old notebook so here's the "Janet's Cross quilt". I LOVE it!!

The back is - believe it or not! - a bottle green fleece.

I spent the rest of January making some diamond scraps blocks. I had made this quilt last year and blogged about it here. I had always thought I'd make another version. This time I used yellows for the diamonds and, even though I used a ton of scraps for the strips, there are still masses left. I swear they multiply when I'm not looking!

There are 24 blocks facing left.

And 24 blocks facing right.

My next job is to join them all together into a quilt top then quilt it and bind it. That shouldn't take too long. Hopefully!

last of the year

I was busy with other things in December which didn't leave much time for sewing. Not to worry, though. I know the sewing will pick up again after the New Year.

One of the things I did do was to make new covers for our dining room chairs. I covered the seat panels and then made new covers for the cushion pads that sit on top too. The fabric I used is from a pair of curtains which were reduced in Dunelm Mill. They were originally reduced to £40 (I don't know what the full price was) but had been reduced again to £20. 6 chairs covered and 3 cushion pads made for £20? Not too shabby!

This photo only shows 3 of the 6 chairs I covered. I'm delighted with them!

I also didn't do much of the Christmas cross-stitch but here's the photo of what it looked like at the end of December. The white line under the snowmen is the halfway line so there's as much to do down below that as there is above. Surely I'll get it done by December 2024?

That's it for 2023. See you in 2024!

November's makes

I made another orphan blocks quilt in November. In this one the blocks are all 14½" square (14" when sewn into the quilt) which are a good bit bigger than my "normal" size of blocks - usually about 9½" square. It made the quilt go together really quickly.

The back is a dark red fleece.

I made a new Christmas tree wallhanging using half-square triangles. I added some yellow and red ric rac and a yellow felt star to the top of the tree. It has been hung on the wall since I made it in early November!

The back shows off the quilting really well!

I started a tradition a few years ago of making Emily and Isla tree decorations to hang on their family tree for now and for their own trees when they have them. I'm very happy with the ones I made them this year. These ones are the dala horse ornaments from Embroidery Library.

I embroidered their names on to cotton tape and hand-stitched them to the back so the girls would know which one was theirs. Mind you, being that their favourite colours are purple and pink, it was probably pretty obvious which one was for which girl!

Another Christmas tradition for me is to make a diary cover for Joanna. This year I embroidered the cool chick design from Planet Appliqué. I love it - and, more to the point, so does Joanna!

This is the front:

The back:

The side pockets:

The lining - which isn't seen when the diary is being used.

This is where I was up to with the Christmas cross-stitch at the end of November. It's nowhere near finished - maybe about halfway done - but I knew it wouldn't be when I started it. Hopefully it will be by next Christmas!!

Just December to blog about and I'll be all caught up. It shouldn't take me long as I haven't been doing much sewing - been busy with other things, apparently! 🎅🏻 🎄

September and October makes

This is what I made in September. It looks like I didn't make a lot but I made a few blocks for quilts as well which I didn't take photos of for some reason!!

First of all, I made a couple of nighties for Emily and Isla. These are made from downie covers from Asda. This is one side of the downies - the other side was used for more nighties which will appear later in this post as they were made in October.

I then made a couple of "horse blankets" for the girls. I think the story was that they had one pony and were always fighting over it so we got them another one and I made these blankets for them to keep warm.

I also spent some time on my cross-stitch. This is where I was at the end of September.

Now, on to October's makes.

I had made a Carpenter's Star block and, for some reason, I cut out twice the number of pieces I needed so, naturally, I had to make another one! I then made them both into quilts by adding more blocks around the Carpenter's Star. I am so chuffed with both of these!

Carpenter's Star quilt 1 - front:

... and back:

Carpenter's Star quilt 2 - front:

... and back.

Here are the nighties I made for the girls from the other side of the downie covers:

Then I made orphan block quilt number 5. I think this one is my favourite so far ... but then I say that about all of them when I finish them! 🤣

This is the front:

... and the back:

And this is where I was at the end of October on my Christmas cross-stitch.

Only November and December to catch up on now and I'll be up to date. I wonder if I'll manage to get that done before the end of the year? I suppose we'll have to wait and see!