Show and tell Christmas brooches!

Ok so I am trying to get my blog habit back and this is the second day running and I am doing more show and tell. Christmas brooches!

First off the little Monster Ninni made with left over fabric from Ellie's Bedtime Buddy.  I have no idea why these are called Monster Ninni's.  It's a stupid name.  From now on I shall call them Little Pals.  I am going to make more of these to put by for a craft stall next year.  I am going to make some medium sized ones too.  So in between these little ones and the very large Bedtime Buddies.

Speaking of a craft stall reminds me.... I have just had an invite to take part in a craft fair in Boston (Lincolnshire, England not Massachusetts USA!!)  I sell bits and pieces on Ebay and am starting to sell more, particularly the little felt brooches.  The lady who runs the craft fair saw my stuff and invited me to take part in her craft fair.  How nice is that?  I won't though as it is in December and there is no way that I have enough stuff to sell.

I do have more than enough little brooches for Ebay though and they are selling well.  I have been making Christmas ones and they are flying out.  Ok be prepared to be bored!

I love making these!  Can you tell? Off to do housework now.  I am having one of my half hour days.

Baby Youngs, Nala puss cat, plus some show and tell.

Yes, I am back again. There is family stuff here and more Show and Tell time.   In an attempt to work some blogging time into my day I have gone back to my old "half hour system". Haven't used that since we moved here.  You remember how that goes?  Half an hour of "work"  then half an hour of "me" time.  You get loads done and of course I will probably finish  the house work a little later than normal but I will still get lots of time to do what I want.

So...... "Show and Tell".  Here we go again..........
I am making a cot quilt for Verity and Steve's baby.  We went to  Leicester two weeks ago to visit Saskia and of course to go to the Fabric Guild where they have the most amazing selection of fabrics and notions and oh, so much more.  I love it.  Could spend a fortune there.  Hang on.... I did spend a fortune there!

We had a lovely time with Saskia who is also getting into sewing and she actually got some fabric to make some Christmas presents for her friends.  We had lunch out and then paid a quick visit to her house to meet her new baby.  Nala the puss cat.  She is gorgeous.

Where was I?   Oh yes, baby Youngs quilt. I got a lemon fabric with sort of small splodgy spots.  A mint green polka dot fabric and a multi coloured patterned fabric.  The quilt is made up of 15 blocks. Every other square is appliqued with either a bird or a squirrel. The middle square has a heart.  I am at the stage where the top is all sewn together and it is now awaiting the wadding and backing and then quilting.  I may get on to that this afternoon.  I will show it to you when it is completed. Here it is so far.

It isn't perfect but I am quite pleased with it and I think the new grandbaby will be happy.

That reminds me.  I haven't yet shown you all the latest scan pics have I?  Here we go, they are truly wonderful.

Baby Youngs 22 weeks.  Do you see the heart there?  how cool is that?  Everything is just fine and perfect.  We are all so thrilled.

Ok, back to Show and Tell.  A birthday card for Pete.

I made 3 tiny little felt brooches in the shape of strawberries.  They were a free magazine giveaway.  I will keep them for the craft stall in aid of the doggies next year.

I think I mentioned that each summer the Three Counties Dog Rescue have a dog show to raise money.  They have a few stalls there too.  Remember back in the summer, the gazillion cakes that I made for the cake stall?  Well they didn't have a craft stall so I am making bits and bobs so that we can have one next year.  I will be making small things.  Brooches, soft toys, peg bags, shopping bags, bum bags, cushions, that kind of thing.

Now, Three Counties dog rescue...........It is  a very special place that does the most amazing work and is staffed by volunteers and runs on donations and any money they can raise by any means. They are always desperate for funds.  That is why I have no shame in once again  reminding you all that my daughter Coralie is doing a sponsored cycle ride of 100km around the Isle of Wight on the 2nd of December.   If you are able to spare even just £1 or $1 then you can sponsor her here:

http://www.justgiving.com/CORALIE-HUSON/

Thank you.  A big thank you also to those of my friends who have already sponsored her.  To the person that told me it was not appropriate to ask for sponsorship on my blog, I have one thing to say.......  GO AWAY!

I am sorry if anyone finds it offensive but it is my blog and I can do what I like.  If you could see the poor creatures that are rescued  and see the work done then your heart would melt.  I have no shame in trying any which way I can to raise money so that this work may continue.  That means promoting it here.  You of course have every right to just skip right over this part and no one is holding a gun to your head.  We all give what we can where we can and we all have our favourite causes.

Ok, I'm off my soap box now. Time to do half an hour of housework.

Show and tell

Let's do show and tell.  I have made a gazillion things.  Well OK, maybe not exactly a gazillion but a lot.

First off, Bedtime Buddies.  Remember the little creature called a monster Ninni that I made?  Well I enlarged the pattern, drew it out myself and hey presto.... Bedtime Buddies.  They are made of fleece so they are very soft.  On the back they have a pocket for keeping pyjamas in.  Or in Evans case for keeping treasures in!  I have made one for each of the grandchildren for Christmas.  It is obvious which is Evan's and which Flynn's, I think!  I wish I could have got some patterned fleece rather than just the plain red but nothing seemed to be right.

The flowery one is for Ellie and the pink spotty one is for Jess.  There is quite a lot of left over fabric so I am thinking that I will make a variety of smaller ones which I can put by for next years Dog rescue show.  I am hoping to make enough bits and pieces over the year so that we can run a craft stall for them to raise funds.

Speaking of Jessica reminds me of the teddy that I made for her birthday.  I have made two teddies now.  Proper jointed teddies!  I would never have believed that I could do that but it is easier than I thought.  Just fiddly plus you need good strong wrists to bend those cotter pins in the joints. My wrists are weak due to multi operations on them years back.

It was Denise that suggested that we do a teddy and we did the first one together with Coralie.  I love it when we all work on the same thing at the same time.  I had intended to give that first one to Verity for the new grandbaby but I loved her so much I kept her for myself.  She is called Elsie.

I had some fabric left over so I decided to make a second one for Jessica for her birthday.  This one turned out even better.  She is called Jenny bear.  Elsie's ears were a little out of line but I did better with Jenny's and I like her face better too.  I think Jessica was pleased with her.

I am going to get some fur so that I can make one for the  new baby. Think I will get a golden fur this time.

What now?  I have so many things to show you!  Oh, remember the denim scrappy quilt that I was doing as a picnic rug?  Well it is finished.  It is OK.  It will make a great picnic rug just don't look too close! It looked OK until I washed it!  I had to wash it as that is what makes the frayed, frilly look on the edges.  That worked better in some areas than others.  What did happen was that loads of the T shirts squares on the back pulled apart from the denim, I think because it is stretchy fabric. I had to go all over it hand sewing them back in!  What a pain!!

The pattern that I had seen used fleece for the back and all the same denim.  I used a ton of different denim fabrics.  Some were heavier than others some even had stretch to them.  Couple that with the different stretchy T shirt squares and, well I guess it may work better if you use the same fabrics throughout. Don't think I will do this again.

Here it is;

OK, I'm taking a break now.  I'll post more later.

Here I am.....

Good lord, I just realised that it is 4 weeks since I did a blog.  Time flies.  I have been trying to keep up with reading all of your blogs, even the ones of my friends who went to far flung corners.  The trouble is that I seem to be really busy and that means that I end up on my computer really late at night.  By the time I have read blogs, I am sleepy and can't be bothered with writing my own.

I am still not fully settled at Blogger either.  I miss my old Multiply friends.  I just don't seem to get much response here.  Consequently, I think that I may start cross posting again to Blogster and also Ipernity.  Just the other day I saw a post from Sue about the possibility of starting a crafting group over at Ipernity so that is a bit of motivation for me. A group dedicated to all things crafty would be fantastic.

I have made a whole bunch of stuff in the last 4 weeks  including the living room curtains which I was just on the point of doing in my last blog.

So..... what have I been up to?  Well nothing out of the ordinary actually.  My days tend to follow the same pattern particularly at this time of year when it is rotten weather.  Today is cold, grey, windy and very wet.  Pretty much the same as it has been since this time last year!  Even summer was like that.  I digress, where was I?  Oh yeah, my day....... Housework in the mornings and crafting in the afternoons.  It works for me.

Of course I can't remember the details of the last 4 weeks to tell you but no matter you would be bored reading it all anyway.  We did have my Dad to visit over half term which was lovely.  We have also had 2 birthdays so far this month.  Little Jessica was 2 and Flynn 3.  Here are a few photos for you.

Later this month we have Samuel's birthday.  My eldest baby will be 32!!!  How the hell did that happen? That is followed closely by our wedding anniversary, then my Dad's birthday and then of course the big C.  Only 34 days to go!!!  Looks like ours is going to be a very quiet one this year and in fact it may end up just being the two of us for dinner.  That will be different!  We will see every one at some point though.

Oh, just remembered, I have to show you this photo of Joshua taken at Flynn's party.  He looks like Super Mario!  I was shocked when he walked in.  It won't last much longer though.  Apparently this month is called Movember and men grow moustaches to raise awareness of testicular cancer.  I had never heard of this.

Right time to go now as it is Simon's extra day off today and we have to go to Peterborough shortly to pick up the boys.  Coralie is at a funeral so we have to get Flynn from a child minder and then collect Evan from school.

Hopefully this will get my blogging habit back.  Going to do a sewing/craft blog soon so you can see what I have made.