All about Liam..........

Our little man was 11 months the other day.  He is growing up so fast.

I made him a bunny when he was born.  However due to it being his go too toy that he sleeps with it has now seen better days.  So I was asked to make him something else.  I had a number of flannel scraps leftover from another project and some felt, so I made him a monster.  It had to have ears on it, as that is what he chews on!!  It is lightly stuffed so it is light enough for him to cart around with him.

Liam has 6 teeth, which he is very proud of.  He likes to make sure they are nice and sharp and chews on his crib to sharpen them.  So I was asked to make something to cover the top rails and this is what I came up with.

A bit of colour

Popped into the garden centre on Saturday and despite there being snow on the ground..............yes it flipping well snowed on April 27th........I was NOT impressed.........there was plenty of signs that we will be planting in our gardens soon........well no annuals until after May 24th here, we are in Zone 5.

So please enjoy the lovely colours.

All photos taken on my Apple iPhone 8.

Before and after........

I posted the photo below the other day of the furniture on our front porch.  As you can see on the right hand chair cushion it has been eaten by something.  Also the fabric was awfully faded with the sun.  I think this set is 5 years old now.  Luckily for me our daughter-in-law gave me some left over fabric from a project at their house.  So I was able to make new cushion covers for them.

 Here is the after photo.  It's such a bright and summery fabric.  I decided to do the sides of the chair cushions in the plain blue as then I didn't have to fiddle around trying to match the stripes up.

Best thing about this project all it cost me was my time.  Now if it would only stop raining.

All done - The Sling Along Bag

Took me three classes and a little bit of homework to get the bag completed.

Below is my fabric choice, which is "Spring Awakens," by Debi Hron for Henry Glass & Co.  The bag pattern is "The Sling Along," by Studio Kat Designs.  I ended up swapping out the striped fabric for a plain orange one, as I only wanted to deal with one directional print.  I am so glad I did that!!

 There are many pieces to this pattern and it took a couple of hours just to cut everything out.

 After the first class and after I did my homework, this is where I got too.

 Here it is all finished.  

 Love the pop of colour with the orange.  The hardware for this bag does add up, as it consists of many pieces.  However it is all metal and will last forever.  The pattern tells you to use webbing for the straps. We made our own which looks a lot nice.  They also said to use store bought binding for finished edge of the bag, again we all made our own.

 Back of the bag.

This bag does involve hand sewing, so if you don't like doing that I would avoid this bag.   The instructions are not the best.  I was glad to have Laurie helping us along in class; I took the class at Country Concessions again.  Would I make another one........yes I think this is the best type of bag to have if you're traveling, as it leaves your hands free, and has so many pockets and compartments.

(If I remember I will take photos of everyone else's bags in class this coming week.)

Bird House

My dad has a busy hobby making and selling bird houses.  He brought me one when they were up over Easter:

We have a big shed in the back yard and thought in the gable end it would be a perfect place to put the bird house.

Now lets see if anyone moves in?

Hold on a minute............

who is that in the back of my car?

Yep, it's the Queen...............the Queen is riding in the "Queen's" car!!

I first saw this decal in the UK last September and fell in love with it then.  When I got home I discovered I could get one from Amazon; here's a link to it.  I have had it in my basket at Amazon for a while.  The other day I cashed in my Swagbucks for a $25 Amazon gift card and decided to buy it along with a couple of other things I wanted.

Why did I buy this you ask?  Well for three reasons:

1. Because I liked it.

2. Because it'll make it a whole lot easier to find my car in the parking lot at Wal-Mart.........or any other store come to think of it.  As believe me when I say I have never seen one on a car where we live...LOL

3. Because it will irritate the two children I gave birth too......a mother has to get her kicks from somewhere!!!  Both will whine when they borrow my car....

When is first thing in the morning to you?

To me first thing is 8 am when scheduling people to come and do work at the house.  So when I made arrangements for the HVAC people to install the air conditioning unit, I asked the lady when do they start work?  She said 7:30 am, but they'll have to load up the truck etc., so probably won't arrive until after 8 am, more likely 8:30 am.

8:45 am and still no sign of anyone, so call the office and ask if they are arriving today and she said yes they're on their way.  The office is less than five minutes away.  One guy arrives, takes a look and then disappears.  It is 10 am when him and another guy comes back and starts work.  That is not first thing!!!

I was not impressed .  What a disorganized bunch they were.  Plus we were forecast for rain after lunch, so if they had started when they should have the job would have been finished before the rain started.............but no, due to the late start they got wet!!!

One guy was an apprentice and the other guy was training him.........fair enough.  Then the apprentice gets a call, he has to leave for another job at 2 pm.  To cut a very long and exasperating story, the guy finally left at 8 pm. 

Thank goodness my dh had done all the electrical for them as it would have been midnight before he left.  We have had air conditioning units installed before but it has NEVER EVER been a 10 hour job, NEVER.

Anyway, it's installed now, and we are ready for the heat, so that's a good thing!!

I now need to sort out that side of the house garden as it is messy, but more about that another time!!

Lots of "front's"

We have a really lovely front porch. Gets the evening sun.

I am going to be sewing new covers for the cushions this week as something/one has chewed a big hole in one of them. (I will be showing more photos of the front porch in coming week, as we have to do a bit of work on it.)

We inherited a lovely screen door in front of our front door.

 We have a bit of repair work to do on the door though on one of the bottom panels.

We have a lovely front hall as well.  Marigold takes pride of place in our front hall.  It doesn't show up well but it's a lovely crystal light as well.

Love how it shines on the wall. 

The shelf was left by the prior owners. 

The one post that is being "spammed" a lot at the moment is this one about paper clips for some reason?

Knitting bag instructions..........

I made a knitting/project bag with matching key fob and pouch for my step-mother for this upcoming Mother's Day.  I said I would share with you how I made it.   

If you have basic sewing knowledge this bag should be pretty easy to make.

(PLEASE NOTE I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL PATTERN MAKER AND FOLLOWING ARE JUST BASIC INSTRUCTIONS THIS IS MAINLY TO GIVE YOU THE MEASUREMENTS OF ALL PIECES NEEDED)

 The material I used was:

1 metre or yard of outer fabric (I used "Wound Up, by Cloud 9 Fabrics)
13 " by width of fabric for lining (I just used a left over piece from another project).
40 " by 3 1/2 inches wide Pellon SF 101 interfacing (a light interfacing is all that's needed)
Medium to Heavy Weight fusible fleece, for example Heat and Bond
A pair of magnetic snaps
12 inches elastic
thread

(seam allowance 1/4 inch unless otherwise noted)

This is what you need to cut out:

Main Fabric (exterior of bag):

2 x 13 inches by 13 inches for front and back of bag
3 x 5 inches wide by 13 inches for sides and bottom of bag
2 x 4 inches by 20 inches for straps
4 x 7 inches wide by 8 inches high for side pockets
2 x 13 inches wide by 10 inches high for inside pocket

Lining fabric (interior of bag):

2 x 13 inches by 13 inches for front and back of bag
3 x 5 inches wide by 13 inches for sides and bottom of bag

Fusible Fleece (ALL THIS TO BE FUSED ONTO EXTERIOR FABRIC):
2 x 13 inches by 13 inches for front and back of bag
3 x 5 inches wide by 13 inches for sides and bottom of bag

1 x 13 inches by 10 inches for inside pocket

Pellon SF 101:

2 x 4 inches by 20 inches for straps, (FUSE ONTO STRAPS).

Cut out fabric following instructions above and fuse interfacing where necessary.  Notice how I pinned pieces of paper to each section so I knew what was what.

This was all the elastic I had on hand so I used that, you can use whatever width up to around 1/2 inch.

To make the straps, fuse on interfacing.  Fold over fabric and iron, so you have a centre line.  Open up and match edges to the centre line, iron again.

Then fold over so the outer edges are in the centre, then sew down the edges to secure.

Take the two inner pocket pieces, one which has the fusible fleece on it.  Sew right sides together, turn rights sides out, press seam open, then iron.  Top stitch (1/8").  Place on interior lining piece, so bottom of pocket and lining are matching (as in photo).  Sew a seam down the middle of the pocket, so now you will have two pockets when the sides and bottom are sewn up.  You will do this later.

The side pocket pieces.  Sew two together, press the seam open.  Take a piece of elastic and pop it under the seam like in the photo.  Fold the top piece of the fabric over and baste the side of the elastic on the side of the pocket.  Then stitch a seam just under the elastic making sure you don't catch your elastic.  As the width of that fabric is 7 inches you need to pull the elastic through gathering the fabric until it is 5 inches wide.  Make sure you stitch the elastic at the side and then cut the elastic when you are sure the top measures 5 inches. 

Take your outer side fabric and attach it to the pocket.  Remember you have an extra couple of inches width wise on the bottom of the pocket, so make a couple of pleats in the fabric so it fits nicely and then baste it onto the outer fabric using a scant 1/8 inch seam allowance.  I found there is no need to use interfacing on these pockets as they are strong enough without it.

For the magnetic snaps I marked the centre of the fabric and then went down 1 1/2 inches from the top and inserted them on the front and back inner lining.  I also ironed on a scrap of interfacing to strengthen that area.

I placed the handles 2 inches in from the edge and basted them onto the top of the bag (see photo below).  I then sewed the sides and the bottom of the outside bag and inside bag, so I had two bags, the outer and inner bag.  Make sure when sewing on the bottom of the bag lining to the rest of the bag lining to leave a gap of around 4 inches so you can use that to turn your back right way out.

As you can see the lining bag is on the outside, with right side in; with the outer bag inside with the right side facing the lining back.  Match up seams and make sure your handles are facing down.  Sew around the top twice, once with a stitch length of 2 and then with a stitch length of 3.

Pull out bag through the gap in the lining and sew up the gap, either with machine or hand sew.  Then top stitch close to the top of the bag, stitch length 3 is fine, it's more decorative than anything.  Then top stitch where the handles meet the top of the bag just for extra security as that is weak point.  Iron the bag and then you're all done.

I made the pockets extra deep, and so that the edges all were hidden in the seams.  Same with the side pockets I wanted the sides to be hidden in the seams.

I had enough fabric leftover for the simple pouch and the key fob. 

You may find this video useful as I used some of this lady's ideas for this bag.  I did not do a zippered pocket, but do think that would be pretty useful.  She also made a zippered top to her bag, but I didn't feel like this bag needed it for the purpose I was making it for.

Sunglasses Case..........

I saw this free pattern a while back and thought it looked neat to put my sunglasses in.  It's by Pink Pony Design and is called the Raccoon Case.

I will say I ran into a couple of issues.  For some reason when printing out the pattern, it printed out too short, but wide enough.  I measured from top to bottom to make sure it was 9 inches in length, otherwise it will be too short.

****If you are having trouble finding a long enough zipper, I found a duvet zipper in WalMart which is 60 inches long, all I need are three more zipper heads and I will have enough zippers to make four of these cases***

 Thankfully I used matching fabric, as I inserted my zipper back to front, so the quilted part of the fabric is inside....oops  It is still fine and very functional.

The fabric I used was Inkwell from the collection of Judie Rothermel for Marcus Fabrics.  I have had it in my stash for quite a while.

Thanks Pink Pony Designs, will be making more of these.