Funny doll

This is a wee doll I made for the Children's Liturgy at church at the beginning of December.
I had committed to do it and I did as much as I could although circumstances changed big time between me saying I would do it and the due date.
I handed it in in bits and the lady organising it had to sew it all together before the 15th when they were doing their Nativity play.
I think this guy looks like he would be a good Innkeeper.
Yes, his hair and beard ARE supposed to be that bushy!
This is a dodgy mobile phone pic of it taken at the last minute.
I used Patons Diploma Gold DK which is a wool-synthetic blend, as it had to be washable. 2 balls Cherry, 2 balls White, 1 ball Cocoa and 1 ball Soft Caramel.
Apparently it was very well received and I'm on the list to help again next year, which is a kind of a compliment I'm sure. x K

Not late for Christmas '09, just organized for Christmas '10.

Here's another Christmas holiday make, this time it's for my new five-year-old niece who joined the family in December.

It's a stocking of about 28cm tall and 22cm across the foot.
It's not pieced, it's just fancy pre-printed faux patchwork cotton fabric I got at the SECC Hobbycrafts in 2007. The boot shape for you to cut round is printed on the cloth, and there are still three more boots of different designs left on my fabric piece.

The lining fabrics are gold on green, one having decorative smudges and the other "merry christmas", all lower case.
The wadding is a re-purposed padded pillow protector, and I machine quilted it with straight stitches along the grid pattern of the design.

The hanger is a little strip of spare fabric with musical notes on it which was an off-cut from my main piece. That little hanger was a devil to turn the right way out, even with sock knitting needles to help!

The recipient wasn't exactly enthusiastic, but I was showing her it on New Year's Day, maybe next Christmas when it's stuffed with goodies it will come into its own! As she joined the family in mid-December I didn't have the chance to finish it in time for the big day.

I hand-stitched the red bias binding round the top. It wasn't exactly quick but it has given it a good finish.

There will be more patchwork and quilting in my coming posts this week, but don't worry if you're all Christmassed-out, there won't be any more Christmas projects for a while yet. x K

Christmas Quilt

Back home in Glasgow to find the snow still here!
Long gone in Dumfries and Galloway, although they did do a great line in ice and black ice down there.

Took advantage of the Christmas holidays to do some sewing. I made this quilt from William Morris Christmas Cat fabric purchased at John Lewis in Glasgow.
I'm not a cat person, I'm not a pet of any description person, but these guys looked very festive and because I am crap, sorry, inexperienced, at sewing I thought the linear pattern would help my sewing and especially my quilting. (Plus, it was on special offer.)

I'm quite pleased with it overall and it doesn't bother me at all that it wasn't finished for Christmas Day- we've been getting the good of it over the Festive period, and will continue to do so for many years ahead.

Pic one is on the red armchair made famous by the Siesta Blanket .

Pic two is a close-up of the cat pattern and the buttons added to the centre for decorative reasons, and to help tame the wadding.

Pic three is of the complementary backing fabric.


Pic four is a little detail shot of the edgings and quilting. I added the black binding to cover my raw edges, then I added the gold ribbon to dress up the edges and frame the cats.

It wasn't all easy peasy, but we can admire it and snuggle up under it for years to come.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone.
Best wishes to you all.

Look how we brought in the new year, it was cool, a first for me!
Ok, so I only looked at the moon, but in much better detail than I'd ever seen it before.

You'll see from yesterday's post that it was a very moonsy night.
J persevered a bit longer and saw some stars and planets but the fact that the moon was so terrifically bright was working against him there.
What a way to bring in the bells!
Some neighbours were on the beach having a bonfire and we thought of joining them at one point but we got so carried away star-gazing the time went by.

With very best wishes for 2010. x K