Month: February 2021

My daughter, the creative genius

stitchesoftime4 Comments

Ellen has been here a lot recently, helping me decorate. Not only is that wonderful of her, but it is also brilliant to have actual human company so often! We bought some plants and various things for the bathroom refurbishment last week, and as it was very sunny this week I have emptied all the old pots and done some re-planting so everything is starting to look lovely and Spring like. Along with the latest announcements about easing of restrictions things are starting to look a lot more positive.

Ellen usually brings some sewing with her and recently brought up the project she has been working on for the last few months. I posted about quiet books a long time ago, and have still not made one yet but she has made this amazing book for her friend’s little boy. He is just two and so she has made him some pages that he can play with now, and is intending to add to the book as he grows.

She is so talented, she did not use a pattern for any of this and has made the cutest bears and crayons as well as this adorable lion with a ribbon mane. The farmyard animals are all finger puppets so he can play with them.

I love it and so did the recipient. She has made so many wonderful things over the years, the Worth dress out of curtains, the flower fairy costume as well as many wonderful Steampunk outfits and everyday clothes. I am so proud of her and so glad that she enjoys crafting, not just because we can share fabric and help each other with fittings!

Due to all the decorating I have not done much creative work myself. I have finished all of the knitted trainers so when they are made up will take some pictures for you. The pattern was very easy to follow as always and I am excited to finish the animals. I did have a little bit of leave last week so had a small amount of craft room time, making this dress for Barbie. This is a combination of patterns, one from the tutorial here and the skirt pattern I drafted myself.

My oldest great-niece, Ava, had Barbies for her fourth birthday so I am making some outfits for them. She had two of the new, more diverse range with larger bodies and one has a prosthetic leg so I have been checking sizing carefully as I discovered over summer that even the standard Barbies vary in waist size quite a bit. I have still kept one of my diversity Barbies, Alexa in the picture below, for fitting purposes (and because she is gorgeous and I love her hair) so still have four from my original collection of ten.

I have some more clothes cut out from the silk and satin scraps from the Steampunk jacket I made last year and some pink cotton from an old shirt so hopefully will spend some time tomorrow sewing those up. We are decorating again next weekend so I am makig most of this one.

I am going out for a walk this afternoon with an old friend from my Polytechnic days, 37 years ago. We made contact again a few years ago and have been meaning to meet up for so long but with current restrictions we have not been able to arrange anything yet so thought at least a walk would be lovely. It is a sunny day so I am really lookin forward to that.

My sister has been spending time refurbishing her camper van, she has been off work after a major operation and has spent the time adding to the storage and moving furniture. It looks fantastic now (these photos are from her Facebook) and I can’t wait to see it. Hopefully we are going to be able to go away for a few nights after Easter to the Dales.

So lots of lovely things to look foward to and I am feeling very positive at the moment. Fingers crossed we can do some nice things later in the summer and I only have another four weeks of teaching to go! I will be at work until the end of June as I have tutorials and marking to do until then but only another 124 days until freedom 🙂

I hope that you are having a nice weekend, have fun, take care and stay safe. Thanks for visiting.

A very welcome break

stitchesoftime2 Comments

I have just finished work for the week, my very last bit of Saturday teaching, being involved in an online open day. From here on (hopefully) my weekends are free to do what I want, starting with this weekend where I must get some serious knitting done.

I also have next week off. I know that term only started four weeks ago but there have been very many long days and I am really looking forward to not having to be on the computer so much. I am having some problems with my eyes, and have new glasses to pick up in while, so it will be lovely to do other things that will give my eyes a bit of a rest.

I have been doing puzzles in the evenings again, rather than anything else, as I have not wanted to strain my eyes further and have just completed this gorgeous one.

I would love to just climb into the picture and be there now. Jackie (my sister) and I would love to go away in her camper van as soon as we can. Meanwhile I am keeping myself amused watching travel vlogs filmed pre-pandemic. I have found a new favourite You Tube channel, Flora and the Novice Explorers.

Not only have they had some fabulous trips through Europe they also have a very useful website with lots of good info and recipes. I first came across them as they were driving down the coast near where my house in Spain is. Just look at the view here, this is one of their wild camping spots just up the coast from me, how beautiful is this! Picture from their blog.

I have just started this one of a quilt shop. I plan to make lots of full-size quilts after retirement and love all the colourful ones in this picture. Again I would just love to climb in and be in that shop, maybe taking a class. If we are allowed I will try and attend some over the summer, the quilt shop Sharon and I visited in September often holds them so that would be a nice birthday treat.

Meanwhile there are some more quilt alongs happening. I did one at the start of the first lockdown and made lots of lovely Liberty blocks. That was from Riley Blake and they have a new one happening now. You can find the schedule here and all of the patterns on the Riley Blake website here. I won’t have time to start the blocks now, they look a little more complex than the ones I did last year, but am saving them all for future use. Photo of instructions from link above.

The first one is the Pinwheel Star Block, made by Jedi Craft Girl. I have used her pouch tutorials in the past. Picture from her website. This one doesn’t look too difficult, although with my inaccurate piecing I doubt the corner squares would be as neat!

The second is the Shining Star Block, from Bev at Flamingo Toes. Again I have used her tutorials for the lovely camper van embroidery hangings I have done. I love the outline stitching around the centre star here. Picture from her website and photo of instructions from Riley Blake site as before.

The rest of this weekend’s task is to try and finish the removable trainers for some knitted animals, I am nearly finished with the second one, after having to undo a lot of knitting. They look so cute when finished though, so hopefully mine will look as good. Picture is from the pattern, my first pair are in turquoise shades.

These are from the amazingly talented Julie from Little Cotton Rabbits, who keeps coming up with ever more gorgeous things for us to knit. I can’t wait to have a go at the little shoes with eyelets as well. I have been inspired once again by the people on the Little Cotton Rabbits Facebook group who are all far more productive than I am at the moment!

The sun is shining today, so hopefully it will melt the snow and ice, I did venture out on Wednesday for a walk but had a bad fall on the ice so am a bit bruised. I am therefore not risking it again until all the paths are clear. I was rescued by a very lovely older gentleman who was concerned that I might have broken my hip and came out in his crampons to get me! I do live in a very lovely place.

Take care, have a nice week ahead, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

The kindness of strangers

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It never ceases to amaze me how kind bloggers are in giving away free patterns for things. I know sometimes that is to promote things like a new fabric line, but you don’t have to buy anything to be able to take advantage of their generosity and I love collecting ideas. They will all be for future makes as I have enough to keep me going in live projects until about September.

I say strangers but I do think of these people as friends, well imaginary friends though the wonderful Jenny of Elefantz and I have corresponded by e-mail. She is always giving away beautiful designs and this year she has two things for everyone.

The first is her Posies Block of the Month Quilt. These are gorgeous little stitcheries that would make great gifts appliques onto a bag or lavender sachet if you didn’t want to make them into a quilt.

Each one is very quick to do and I love the combinations of colours that she has chosen. All pictures are from her website.

She is also producing a magazine this year, The Homemakers Heart, and the first edition is full of lovely things. I knew I would love it as soon as I saw the cover, this looks so much like my craft room stash (picture from Jenny’s website).

This month’s edition has the first of a days of the week stitchery set, a quilt block and a journal cover as well as recipes and other delights. It really is gorgeous and is totally free! Thank you so much Jenny 🙂

Lori Holt of Bee in my Bonnet also has a new quilt design out called Flea Market Flowers. I love Lori’s designs and this one really appeals to me because of the Dresdens it uses.

I had a flurry of Dresden making a few years ago when I got a ruler free with a quilt magazine and made lots of pouches with them on. I loved combining them with vintage crochet.

Not only do you get the free quilt pattern and a step by step weekly tutorial with such lovely pictures but there is also a download for the quilt info pack which includes this notepaper and clip art set. You can download them from the links on this page here.

We are so lucky to have the internet for all these lovely things and such wonderful people sharing their talent through it. It all makes me very happy.

It is another very busy week here, with more snow. We have had so much more this year, I think it is Nature’s way of giving the children a break from all the online home schooling they are having to do during lockdown and there were lots of them enjoying it today.

I managed a long frosty walk up on the hills yesterday lunchtime which was lovely. I am trying to get as much exercise as I can do and it was sunny and gorgeous, a real promise of Spring.

I hope that you are having a good week, I shall be back at the weekend hopefully to share some more loveliness with you. Meanwhile have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.