More Sparkly Hearts for Christmas

I had so much fun making and decorating the Heart Wreath last year that I decided to make more!

I sourced all the sparkly fabrics and trims at the Knitting and Stitching show and the Autumn Quilt Festival at Duxford.

 Decorating the hearts is the best bit!

I now have a huge stash of sparkly bling!

Christmas Decorations

For once I started making Christmas decorations in good time and was able to make several.
First I made some trees using strips of various Christmas prints I had.

Then a sweet felt heart with a snowman looking up to the sky copying one I saw on Pinterest. My little grandson loved it.

I made a cat for my granddaughter (not just for Christmas, as they say!)

The last selection was made from a lovely pattern I bought at the Duxford fair recently called Deck the Advent Tree by Brenda Walker.

They were well received by my grandchildren yesterday and soon found spaces for them on their Christmas tree.
I love Christmas!

Barbie Wardrobe. Dress 1

I recently stayed with my friend in Spain and as we share our hobbies and ideas we jumped in and made a few things.
We worked on a couple of her miniature kits and then moved on to bigger scale dolls.

I have always understood the need to buy plenty of what I like (in case it goes out of fashion and I can't get it any more) but Barbie?!!!

My friend must have an insight, suggesting that Barbie production is about to end. I lost count of the Barbies that she got out of her cupboards and drawers. We laughed as yet another and another appeared!
Needless to say, we decided to make Barbie outfits and that mood continued after I arrived home. I dug out the most needy, shabby Barbie from my collection of three that I'd bought years ago from charity shops. One of them desperately needed a hair-do!

After a shampoo I conditioned her hair and combed it smooth and while it dried I made her a dress from two coordinating Tilda fabrics.

That was as far as my 'need to make Barbie clothes' went, I lost interest quickly.
This Barbie now sits on a shelf waiting for the rest of her wardrobe, which will come - one day when I get the 'need to make Barbie clothes' feeling again.

The End of the Applique Sheep!

At last, the sheep draught excluder is finished!

It was difficult to applique the last sheep because of the thickness of fabrics to squash up into my hand. Turning it round as I stitched was a problem. 

The sheep that were cut from the very loosely woven checked fabric wanted to fray so some very strange stitches were added to the buttonhole stitch here and there.

 This was the first sheep

Finally, it's finished and sitting along a door, keeping out the draught!

I made it for my sister who loved it but said it was too good to go on the floor and has it lying across the back of her sofa!

Maybe when winter comes and the house is cold she might need to put the sheep on the floor.

Thank you for looking, I hope your week is going well,

A Cute Sundress

I was shopping with my friend in Bramble Patch recently and was drawn to some pretty child's sundresses displayed.
Deciding it was perfect for my granddaughter I bought the pattern and with multi sizes given, it will last a few years especially as the style can be worn as a pinafore dress as well.
Then I had the problem of choosing the fabric! I love the Lewis & Irene fabrics; they are so pretty. I found it hard to choose, I wanted them all, it seemed such a pity to leave the others behind!
Eventually, I chose the Salisbury Spring in lavender.

 The dress is made from Lavender Spring.

For the facing, I chose Lavender Little Multi Daisies

I made covered buttons in the daisy print too.

The dress pattern was easy to make and fairly quick too!
Now I must get back to the applique sheep..............

The Rainbow, Reverse Cable Scarf

I couldn't resist using the Katia yarn for long and spent recent evenings knitting it into a beautiful, colourful scarf.
I had knitted the pattern before as it's a perfect stitch for a scarf because the reverse of the cables is the same as the front. It's a free pattern offered on Ravelry by Kristin Bellehumeur called Palindrome - A Reversible Cable Scarf.
Here is my rainbow version.

It's a very easy pattern to do, just two by two rib throughout, even on the cables.
I hope you're having a good weekend,

Beautiful Katia Paint Cake

I discovered this fabulous yarn yesterday in Sussex Crafts, a fab little yarn shop in Cuckfield, West Sussex.
All the years in Spain I knitted and crocheted with the Spanish made Katia yarns and this didn't exist.
I love Katia and was so surprised to find a stockist here.
Sussex Crafts has blossomed since the new owner took over and is a magical place to spend some time. It's impossible to leave without buying something because there are so many wonderful things shouting 'Take me home!'
This is the Gorgeous Katia Paint cake that I bought.

 There are several colour mixes to choose from.

The yarn is 80% Acrylic and 20% wool but feels and looks like wool. There is enough yarn in the 150gm cake to make a shawl or scarf but I won't be using it yet a while, I just want it on my desk to look at!

Play Food

My granddaughter was two years old recently and she had a little kitchen for her birthday. I thought I'd make her some food to cook. This is some of it but I forgot to take a photo of the chips, sausages, donuts and strawberries.

 She was delighted and played with it all day.

She had a birthday cake - dare I say 'Elsa' theme from Frozen...... we're all a little tired of Elsa now but my granddaughter wears her dress and the shoes all day, even though the shoes are so many sizes too big! Her little feet almost go right through the shoe. She's so cute but we just have to laugh.

I kept the ribbon from the cake and this weekend I made her an Elsa birthday cake to play with.

I used a CD container for the cake, covered it all with felt, printed a picture for the top and gathered up felt for the icing. I glued it all together with my glue gun. I'm not sure the candle will last long but I did support it from inside with 'feet' stuck all around it, on top of the CD case before putting on the picture.
I've also worked a little on the sheep for the draught excluder, I'll put on some photos next time.
Have a good week making things!