Friday, January 13, 2012

I've started.....


So I'll finish!  Eventually.  I made several of these blocks quite a while ago when I was on another 'use it, don't buy it' mission.  I made a red one into a stand for my tea pot the other week and finished these this morning. They are lined with insulated wadding so they are excellent for putting hot things on.  If I ever get round to it I will put them in my shop.





Now, I said I would get back on here to talk about selling knitted Jelly Babies for the Milton EACH where my lovely nephew William goes.  I have knitted 3 and am starting another but haven't sewn any up. I will get them sewn up, stuffed and photographed at the weekend.  I would like £5 each for them and all of that money will go to the hospice :)   William is currently back in hospital due to lots of fits at the weekend and they are trying him on new drugs. I really hope he can come home tomorrow.

Monday, January 09, 2012

Manic Monday....

Teaching a lot this week so have to cram everything into 2 days.  This is one of our new designs that will go on a bag.....





I also have a sewing table that looks like this......


And I keep forgetting to show this present from my lovely bestest friend, the Kazebo...she got me several things for christmas but this is the one that made me SQUEAL with delight.....


Mini milk bottles...in a mini crate!!!!!  How cool are they!!!!!
I LOVE THEM!!!

Saturday, January 07, 2012

Jelly Babies

Emma asked yesterday to see the purple jelly baby.  Unfortunately, this is the state it is in at the moment.....

The other arm is actually finished now and I have finished the arms of a lurid green one but I have the dreaded 'sewing up' task. I find it frankly bizarre that the one thing I hate about knitting, given that I am a self confessed sewing addict, is the sewing up.  Am thinking I might knit all the bodies for 5, sew them up, knit all the arms, sew then up....you get it.  I don't have a picture of the 2 I previously made as they were for my rather delicious nephew, William (who is now a star of the screen but I shall leave that for another time).  I think one was orange and one was possibly green too.  Am thinking a whole load to sell to raise money for EACH where William goes so will be mentioning all that in another post.

Here is what they look like when they are finished.  It is a Jean Greenhowe pattern.  The photo is taken from her site, hence the link back and why it is a bit grainy...I love her stuff but SO much sewing up.  I have knitted a fair few of her patterns and I love them. I once spent hours knitting the topsy turvey Cinderalla doll for my niece and each of my boys have a couple of Robin hoods and the like but these Jelly Babies are really quick.  Mostly because they don't have separate legs and you just stitch them up.
Jelly Babies



I did get a photo, albeit rather rubbish, of the cushion though.....
The fabric is from the same collection as previously. Emmabear wanted to know.  It is Shangri-La by Moda.  I'm sure it's all from that same collection but I might be wrong.  It is a few years old now so probably not that easy to get hold of.  I LOVE IT

Here's the back..... It's 'vintage' Laura Ashley, don't you know :)  The fabric was my parent's bedroom curtain's about 30 years ago and then they became  our dining room curtains in our old house...and then I mercilessly butchered them and used them.  I had no idea it was vintage until I was looking for some online.

I feel a terrible headache coming on.  Mostly due to over indulgence in food, last night,  that Gertie Gallbladder does not like.  I am away to lie down in a darkened room for as long as I think I can get away with it!

Thursday, January 05, 2012

I'm on a roll....

Today is the first day since Christmas that I haven't sewn!  I have made a tea cosy, a tea pot stand, a cushion cover, a quilt top, 3 small pieces to go on the wall, 2 huge other patchwork bits made from scraps, on of them half the size of the bed, 2 messenger bags, appliqued designs on 2 other bags...err..I think that might be it...but I may have done more.  I don't know what's got into me!?!!  The weather has been so dull, rainy and windiferous that I haven't taken many pictures but I will...I don't set myself very high standards with photography but it is nice to see what you are actually supposed to be looking at! Plus, Blogger is really giving me a headache adding pictures at the minute and I have no idea why.

Hoooo-blooming-rah!!  Finally, his has only taken 15 minutes to add the photo. This is on of 3 that I made form stuff I had.  Was thinking of maybe a runner by joining them all or table mats, have to make another, but decided to back them and bind them and display them on the wall going up the stairs.  It is a large expanse of boring magnolia (previous owners) and it desperately needs some colour.  I love my house but it is dullsville in the colour department and we don't really have the funds spare to decorate.  Our old house was full of colour so I do feel like we are all washed out here.  Never mind.....one day.....We'll get it done eventually....Mr Chops needs a new bedroom carpet first.  Life will still go on, even with magnolia walls.....unlike the very shallow moment I had when the dishwasher broke down the other day...but that is another story :)


I did knit this morning though.....a purple jelly baby :)

Monday, January 02, 2012

Finally...

finished Mr Chop's messenger bag!  I think he had given up hope of it ever being finished.  It is to match his pencil case.  The annoying thing is that it was simply the fact that I never got round to doing it.  It was all cut out and then this morning, following my post-Christmas craft and create burst, I finished it in under 30 mins :).  Here it is.....


I have several more photos but Blogger is deciding to be temperamental tonight and won't let me upload any more.  Wonder if it will let me post one of my teapot stand....


There it is...matches my tea cosy :)   That is a small tea pot, by the way, not a huge mug!  The teapot belonged to Mr C's Nan. I love old cups and saucers and teapots and always use them.  they feel 'proper' somehow.  We even have tealeaves.

I have also made a cushion cover, quilt top and them some proper 'patchwork' but on the machine.  Basically I went through my scraps and have been machining like a mad thing. This is the only thing Mr C regards as quilting/patchwork.  He doesn't understand why you would buy fabric, cut it up and then sew it back together again - philistine! I now have a piece half as big as our king size bed so maybe it will be done soon....  I have also made 3 placemats or 1 runner, depending on how I decide to finish them.

Busy day today then.  Sewing, fish pie making (disappointing!), hoovering and getting the tree out and entertaining lovely friends.  I have also, finally, reached the bottom of the washing pile and now am back to only having one days worth in a pile to be done.  It will all go to pot once term has started but for now I am allowing myself to be slightly smug about it.

I am sure that none of this will last once we get bogged down in term time and school.  With 4 of us running to that timetable things quickly pile up and get out of hand.  I won't be as busy as before Christmas though when I thought I might meet myself coming back...it was hectic.

One more day of the holidays.......