Done

I did it! I finished that blanket! It seems like it has taken FOREVER, but in reality it's only been about 6 months - not too bad considering how much other 'stuff' I have going on!!!

I'll be honest, I'm a bit exhausted by it. Now that it is finished I just want to get on with other stuff, not leap doing an excited dance of celebration. So I'll just show you a couple of pics and then go and make something new.

There it is, being all stripey.

And here it is, spread out on our bed - not where it will live as this blanket is for my in-laws, and it will live in Corfu. Lucky blanket.

And yes. Henry got in the photo again. Honestly this cat is in the way ALL OF THE TIME!!!! I know that he was having a wash, but it does look like he is chuckling to himself about sneaking into yet another picture!!

Blogger tells me that this is my 99th post. Now I feel under a HUGE amount of pressure to make post number 100 special. Hmmmm....

The edge

I'm on the edge people. Seriously. On. The. Edge. 

5 little ducks

Finally - I can share these with you!

I made them for my friend's daughter, for her first birthday. She is such a little cutie, she loves ducks and her favourite colour is pink, so I couldn't resist making these!

My lovely Molly had bought me Knitted Nursery Rhymes by Sarah Keen for Christmas and I hadn't knitted any of the patterns yet, I had looked at them lots, obviously! I knew that there was a pattern for 5 Little Ducks, so knitting them in pink just seemed perfect - silly, but perfect!

I didn't get them finished quite in time, and then I got some horrid germs that I didn't want to pass on, so I've been waiting to gift these little quackers for a couple of weeks. And I couldn't spoil the surprise so I've been waiting to share them here too!

So, these 5 little ducks and their Mama went to their new home yesterday. Little Isobella loved them - I'm pretty sure her mum loved them more though!!!

They were super-fun to knit, I love Sarah Keen's books, her patterns always knit up beautifully and they're so lovely!

Another finish :) But now I must get back to that big blanket. The end is in sight!!

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A present for Molly

Another finish! And this one has been a looong time coming! I started a piece of cross stitch for Molly, ooh, 2 1/2 years ago! It became clear, not long after I started it, that I didn't like it very much. The chart was one of those ones without very clear symbols, one colour was 6 and another was 6 on it's side - bleurgh!! Even enlarged on the photocopier it was hard work to follow.

So, I would pick it up and stitch half a sheep, and then stuff it back behind the sofa for a few months. I kept putting it on my things-I-must-finish lists, but that didn't seem to motivate me!! And then, as so often happens, I just decided, just felt like stitching it, just got on with it. And in no time at all, it was finished! Phew!!

It was originally going to go on her bedroom door, but in that last round of stitching we talked about turning it into a cushion instead. Molly loves cushions and been asking me to make some for her room, so this seemed like a good solution.

I picked out some pretty fabrics to go with the colours of the stitching and whizzed up a cushion front.                                                                                                                             

And a very simple cushion back, look - more sheep!!

And check out my hidden zip!!!! Pretty pleased with that I have to say!!

It was beautifully pressed and looked much neater than this. But I gave it to Molly when the light was bad and I didn't get to take photos straight away. So this is it now, having been slept on for a few nights! At least it shows that she loves it!

Her yellow hexie quilt is looking pretty well loved too - that girl does love a quilt!!

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Mother's Day gifts

Phew! Lots of projects getting finished around here! A couple of them have been secrets, so I've not shared them here on the blog, they may have sneaked their way into Instagram though!

So today is all about place mats. But you'll need a little catch up first.

Waaaay back in April last year, I made a table runner for my mum. She bought all the fabrics, told me what she wanted, I just provided the stitches. It was massive, 2.5m long - she has a big table! I blogged about it here. At the time there was some talk of matching place mats, but, you know how it is. Time slips by, other projects come along, so many other projects.

But then with the hand-made-gift-giving of 2014 I decided that the matching place mats would be a good Mother's Day present. So I dug out the fabrics I had left, took a little trip out to poppy patch where we had bought the fabrics a whole year ago. 

I held my breath a little bit. What if they didn't still have any of the fabrics? What would I do? I understand that, in reality, this is not a MAJOR PROBLEM. But at the time, in my little fabric blur it was AN ISSUE. Fortunately, there was no crying in the fabric shop, they had the exact same backing, the exact same binding and even my choice of extra fabrics for the middle of the mats - PHEW!!!

I set to work using this great tutorial and in next to no time I had 8 place mats :)

I went for easy-peasy straight line quilting, not too close together (I was starting to run out of time!)

I stitched down the fronts of all 8 binding strips, and then began the glorious task of hand-stitching the back of the binding. Just in case anyone thinks I'm being sarcastic here, I'm not. I love this bit. Tiny, neat, hidden stitches all around the back - heaven! 8 times - bliss!!!

Of course, Henry helped A LOT. With every stage, including photographing.

So that's it, 8 place mats all finished. I bundled them into some wrapping paper and took them to my mum's on Sunday. I'm pretty sure she liked them, I left her planning a dinner party.....