Monday, February 27, 2017

Finish(es)

I decided to join along with Amy at Sew Incredibly Crazy and made a start on the Sun, Sand and Sea BOM. Here's the first block.

The sun and the sky. I used the right and wrong side of the yellow fabric to make my sun. It's all hand appliqued and didn't take long to make at all. 

I managed to sew this little sweater up for Severn. She likes pink. There is another button but I guess I forgot to do it up. The yarn is a bit more pink than this photo shows. It's James C. Brett Marble Chunky yarn. I have used the yarn before to make Teemu a hat and sweater in a pretty turquoise.

This is Mackenzie's sweater. I didn't knit this. My friend Marg picked it up at a church bazaar that she volunteered at and since it didn't sell, she wondered if I might want to buy it. Well, little Mackenzie has a passion for blue and because I was making the pink sweater, I grabbed this. They both fit the girls perfectly.

Now, I've got to see what I have on my list to complete next.

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Just a little block

Since I finished the vests for the boys, I decided to do a bit of quilt sewing. I have several kits and this one was just hanging around. It's most likely my smallest kit. Paper piecing isn't really a quick method and although this was a kit with all the fabrics included, I didn't like some of them and decided to use a few of my own. The googly eyes were not part of the kit but luckily, I didn't have to search too hard to find them.

The finished paper pieced block is 5" X 4." I added a black border and just left it raw. When it ends up as a totally finished block, the border can be cut down to whatever size I need.

Right now it will reside in the same box as this paper pieced crow. I may just slowly make assorted paper pieced birds and then put them into a small quilt.

This looks like a bunch of fabric squares and pieces but it's actually the background for a wall hanging I'm working on. I signed up for Ellen Lindner's Floral Improv class and even though all three week's lessons have been posted, I am slow starting. Illness, life and family took up my time and so now I am determined to get on with the course.

This was my upstairs hall as I was trying to decide what fabrics to use for the background. I had light blues and browns in bins but decided to use the teal/turquoise ones. I also had a bunch of gray fabrics too but since it was taking so long to make up my mind, I finally just chose what I had in abundance.

Saturday, February 18, 2017

Fleece vests

I have been doing more little people sewing. This time it's vests for two little boys. One with extra pockets and both with the back longer.

Fleece has two sides. One is smooth and the other is a bit ruffled. I made the body of the vest on the smooth side and the pockets are the ruffled side. 

 Both vests are lined with flannel. This purple fleece has been in my stash for quite a while and I'm glad that it is getting used. It's quite a bit thicker than the blue fleece.

We have a long weekend and the temperatures are really quite nice. Monday is Family Day and homemade pizza is on the menu. I need to start working on a baby quilt - or two.

Sunday, February 12, 2017

A little bit busy

I have been busy but not really with sewing or knitting. I have been busy the past few weeks looking after my little grandchildren. It seems that the whole family has had the flu and passed it on. One after the other, we all got it but we're okay now.

Little Teemu got another sleep sack. 

It has two different flannel linings. I was not paying attention and cut the first piece the wrong way. I did have enough of the little sheep flannel for both the front and the back but I just wasn't thinking when I pinned and cut the pattern.

Luckily I had enough thin quilt batting for the front and the back. I really didn't want to have to buy anything if I didn't have to.

The batting just gives it a bit more stability and warmth.

Here he is with his daddy, Casey, who just became a full fledged Canadian resident.

This photo is purposely upside down to show that I also made the front of this sleep sack upside down. It's the only way that the pattern fit the fabric. This way the animals on the fabric are the right way when Teemu looks at them.

This quilt may look a little familiar.

We finished putting it together and last week Marg found time to put it and the blue one on the frames.

Marg's daughter has MS and is wheelchair bound. This one is for her.

Initially, both quilts were bigger. Marg found out that her daughter was using a large bath towel on her lap to keep her warm. The lap quilt she had was just too big and so we revised our wheelchair lap quilt sizes to make them the same size as a large bath sheet. This way, nothing gets caught in the wheels.

On a sad note, our little Pixel left us. She was 19.5 which turned out to be about 94 in human years. 

I made these today along with two loaves of multigrain bread. These are Zucchini Tater Tots and you can find the recipe here. They are gluten free. Yesterday I made vegetarian chili to go along with the multigrain bread. We brought it all over to my son's place. With all the snow we got, his vehicle was snowed in and so he invited us over. It's all gone now.

Sunday, February 5, 2017

The mystery quilt revealed

I finally took time to sew all the blocks together for the Meadow Mystery quilt. It's all ironed too.

I will probably add a border but not right away. There is still some of the black floral fabric left so I would have to piece it. I also have quite a bit of the off white broadcloth. Two borders would be fine by me.  
I have other things now to sew, knit and quilt. There's no hurry to finish this quilt. The blocks are 12" finished so it's a 60" square quilt at the moment.