As promised a little peek at my next project

As my order from Bothy Threads won't be here for a few more weeks, I thought I'd start another cross stitch project.  I was going through some of my old cross stitch magazines and found a project I would like to try in this one.

It's a snakes and ladders set; except this one is vines and ladders.  Also as I can sew, I can make this up quite easily after I have done the cross stitch.

I looked up Debbie Harding whose pattern this is, and she has a website here.

It's going to be quite a large piece, my piece of Aida, is 20 inches square.  I bought Michaels own brand "Loops and Thread," Aida cloth and will say it's quite rough, but will work perfectly fine for this project.

This was taken after working on it on Friday.

The # 55 & 66 squares are totally finished, back stitch and all.  This is also my first time doing blackwork, which is the background stitching (orange and yellow stitching)

I keep all my threads I am using in that metal tin.

It's an old Crabtree and Evelyn tin.

This is the back of my work (later on Saturday).  It's not perfect but it's reasonably tidy.  I was always taught the back was as important as the front.  You won't see the back of it when finished as it will be covered in fabric.

I am hoping to have this project finished by mid April, as my goal is to sew a couple of squares per day.  Realistically though doing one a day is something I can achieve.

Easter and scrappy fabric makes..........

I am part of a group on Facebook called Scrappy Girls Club  The members post some neat things on there and occasionally I make some things.  As the name indicates things normally just use scraps of material and for anyone that sews we have plenty of them.

A lady posted about making mini fabric Easter baskets.  The link for the instructions are here.  Now despite them being super cute they are very fiddly to make.  I used some scraps of material I had left over from Paige's quilt, with some scrap pieces of green.  The rabbit print is a multi directional print, but would you believe every rabbit is upside down on the baskets....LOL

 This is what I put into the baskets.  Stickers, a plastic egg filled with candy.  Everything bought from the dollar store.  The grandchildren are getting a toy also, as I figured they get enough candy from the "Easter Bunny!!"

 It's a perfect size for the one egg.  It's also a perfect size for a Kinder Egg or a Cadbury's Cream Egg.

 I had half a dozen plastic eggs leftover, so I covered them with scraps of the Easter fabric using white glue.  Went to the park and cut some twigs and bought the yellow eggs at the dollar store for my "Easter Tree."  I am having to make a bit of an effort this year for Easter as I am hosting a lunch over Easter😏

Now I have to say the other project I am featuring is one of the best and useful things I have made in a long time.  It's a Wonder Clip Cushion and the instructions for making it are here.  This indeed does use just scraps of material.  I am also finding my hands are getting stiffer and more arthritic as I am getting older.  So this makes it so much easier to pick up the wonder clips.

 I use a lot of Wonder Clips especially when I am sewing with cork as you can't pin cork as it will make holes in it.

Have you come across any neat projects that use scraps of material recently?  Are you a member of the Scrappy Girls Club?

Our Little Man........

Our Little Man, turned 19 months in April and he finally had his first hair cut.  He had to wear it in a "man bun," which although fashionable, made him look like a girl.  He now looks like a true boy, thank goodness.  I don't have a recent photo of him, but will post one next week when I see them.

He is the shy, quiet type of boy and although not talking much gets his point over.  Mind you with his sister, who is affectionately called, Miss Chatterbox," he probably can't get a word in anyway!!

I have been sewing up a storm and have made Our Little Man a couple of things which I am hoping he'll love.  He loves to empty the dishwasher, so made him a Minion apron using this pattern.

I bought the bias binding for this one.  This is the third one I have made; will share photos of the other two over the next few days.

He has a lot of those little cars and so I thought I would make him something to store them in.

I used this tutorial as a guideline and added my own touches to it. 

I made it the width of the coat hanger.  I bought .85 of a metre of a cotton twill fabric as it had a bit more substance to it.  DO NOT use a lighter weight fabric.  For the pockets I used a cotton fabric.  I wanted to have a car fabric, but made the mistake of using a cheaper cotton; suffice to say it looks like I couldn't cut the fabric straight. It was a miserable fabric to work with.

I cut four inch panels of the car fabric and turned under a 1/2 inch hem top and bottom.  The pockets are around 2 1/2 inches wide each, but in future I will make them some of them a bit bigger to hold larger cars.  Adapt the pattern to suit your needs.

If adding embellishment's to the top, add them before you sew it all up!!!  I didn't and suffered for it.  I have enough of the blue fabric left to make a narrower version of this, using a bra hanger...........however I will adapt this as I want to make something for a teenage girl.

I have to say I am very pleased with how his projects turned out.  I have another thing planned for him, but not sure when I will get it finished.  I find there are lots of things to make for little girls, not as many for boys.  What do you think?