Bye Bye January 2010

Bye bye January 2010, how you have flown by! Usually I find January the slowest month and then by mid February time speeds up to start whizzing through March, April ,May as Spring takes hold and then gallops through the summer months to slow down again in October....

Not so this year! JJ set up his own business and my business: Thame Marketing has a website that sells IT equipment: www.itvaluewarehouse.com
OK that's IT for the advertising, all this had kept us very busy! Then there was all that SNOW!
But also I want to remember that this month I did quite a bit of SEWING again!
The little bag above was a birthday present for a friend and took about 6-8 hours to make.
The green approach was adopted in that 3 out of 4 fabrics came from dresses we have enjoyed wearing in the past! 2 from toddler dresses and one from a sundress of mine. Sewn together and quilted , the far left one in a free maching way.
The lining,batting and zipper were ''new'', the lining was a present very many years- at least a decade- ago.

I just LOVE love love the folded ends! Such fun and such a discovery in a quilting book from the library: ''A PASSION FOR PATCHWORK''by Lise Bergene.

First I had made a try out one for myself: from the sleeve of a machine knitted jumper that had gone ''wrong'' and had lived in my attic since the early 1980's....

VOILA!

This now houses a small portable crochet project. Like the donkey I had been planning to make....

This is the underside. January also saw me do much DE-CLUTTERING'' in the home and I cleared especially the ''prosperity corner according to the Feng Shui Bagua theory; which just happens to be Miss Y's room......and this is usually a mess with no floor visible!

A triumph I feel and well worth the many hours spent.

Long may it look like this!

Also in January I sewed Miss E some new pyamas from scratch in a lovely cotton lawn using a Burda pattern, it turned out a bit on the big ( not to say huge) side but she's chuffed to bits and declared they are the comfiest PJ'S EVER! So eventually she will grow entirely into them....

( even with an 11cm hem in the legs!)

Tomorrow will be February and who knows what adventures and creations lie ahead?!!!

PS There are a few recipes due in February blogland and a crochet cardigan is almost finished!

Also working on more patterns for Inside Crochet and looking forward to seeing- 2?!!!_ of my designs in issue 6!!!

Have fun and see you soon, work,children,dogs and home permitting....

Christmas present preview: TA DAH!!!!

Did I mention that 2009 is a very DIY Christmas? Did I? And I remember mentioning that 10 years ago I made stockings, an advent calendar and lots of sewn stuffed X-mas tree decs all from Rose and Hubble printed design kits from the sewing shop that we still had at that time in Thame... Long gone now alas.
Now you see my youngest is only 9 and she has ''made do'' with ''my'' stocking for all these years where I had quickly sewn a personal- daughter-name label over the holly leaf which stated ''mum'' on it.... This year we agreed it was time she had her very OWN stocking.

So luckily I had bought the fabric ( for some spares)- like you do- all those years ago and it has been in our beloved: ''treasure trove'' attic for the past 10 years. It was supposed to be a teddy on one side and patch work on the other but miss chose patchwork on both sides so I have been quilting almost all day yesterday and little miss helped sew the lining and sew it together:

SEE ABOVE! Her very own named stocking at last.

Then all that quilting got me thinking.... And I had some wadding spare: as I'd bought this especially to make the stocking. ( the mice had eaten the wadding in the attic)

And and and..... BANG! I had an idea and then got sooo gripped by this that I spent all last night : evening and into 3am- ness and most of today making THIS!!!

I AM SOOO EXCITED: I'm really happy and pleased how it's turned out!

My very own Liberty print crochet hook roll.

Ta daaaaaah!!! It's to be wrapped and put under the tree and I'm very grateful for the help the girls and JJ gave me with cooking dinner and shopping and walking the dogs so to release time for me to sew!

I quilted the Liberty print Tana lawn in this lovely classic Art Nouveau print and then made the separate red polka dot lining with all the hook pockets.

I made it full width of the 90 cm wide fabric and it has 28 hook pockets and a small pocket for scissors with a gingham ribbon to tie the scissors on with and room for a tape measure and gauge ruler.

And 2 D-ring tabs to keep my stitch markers safe and handy with the hooks.

It turns out I have more than 28 hooks- once we started looking for them- in jam jars or under sofa cushions....so some sizes snuggle together. A long flap at the top stops them falling out.

I may add a few red felt squares to keep wool needles handy for finishing and sewing in ends , but I have only just thought of that so it will be a later addition.

It looks terrific from the side also! A Crochety Christmas Rose!

I am so excited about this present and I had the fabrics sitting in my ancient stash!

It's like someone has bought me a ''Cath Kidston'' inspired crochet hook roll!!!!

I love luv loooove almost ALL CK bags you see and had been having a really bad case of the saddle bag ''wanties''.......

Now what about my very boooring 2010 diary? Shall I crochet a cover or sew a quilted one and if the latter shall I do patchwork or use fabric ''as is''?

Decisions decisions!

Tony Robbins would be proud of me for I've been excercising my'' decision making muscles''...

''Tune'' in later to see the outcome!

Have a GREAT Christmas!!!