Flowery Bag

This makes me happy! A beautiful fabric made into a lovely bag. The materials to make this bag all came tucked into the Cath Kidston book "Sew". It is a pretty book with lots of projects, from simple to a little harder. Chief reason for purchase was to get my hands on the material. It is a wonderful heavy duck cotton. Love the bluey-gray background and the rosy pink flowers.

I changed the pattern a wee bit to add a lining of my own material-the green with white dots. The instructions for another bag in the book had some of the instructions for adding a lining, but in changing the handles of the bag I needed to work some of it out on my own. As you can see that some of the handle ended up showing inside the bag. It worked out tho.

Here is an end of the purse showing how the handle is attached. The original pattern has the handle attached with a button on each side. I sewed the handle down in the midst of laying in the upper rim lining.
One of the best tips in the book was to use matching thread for the topstitching. I would have used white but I like the matching thread so much better.

Cheery Checks

Slowly making some gingham curtains for the front bedroom. I am stitching on some white cross-stitches in a little pattern near the bottom.  

Red Riding Hood and her Wolfie

Here she is! Red and her pal Wolfie are all set to venture off through the woods to Grannies. Red started out as a pattern from Handmade Awards . I had a little trouble with the pattern as written. I hate when that happens. I think it was supposed to be made on double-pointed needles in the round but it never said so. I started making the body on two dpn, flat and when the instructions started getting confusing on the limbs I just made up my own pattern to make it come out the way I wanted. The dress is almost all my own pattern except for the zigzaging decorations. I made at least three dress fronts before I got it working out to my liking. I made the dress quite a bit longer and under the apron it gathers gently at the yoke.

Here is Red's pal Wolfie. In the pattern he is supposed to be a puppet, very cute idea, but I wanted a full-bodied wolf so I ad-libbed. Just added on at the back and changed the legs and tail to suit me. Devilish white teeth out of worsted weight. All the rest of the project is of fingering weight, Palette Yarn, from KnitPicks.

For Red's shoes, I used a pattern for a totally different doll, Tilly Twirl, by Amanda Jones, found in a Simply Knitting magazine's booklet from the Spring issue. I made up the shoes using a smaller set of needles and they fit Red. Yeah!

Finally, the food loaded up in the basket for Grannie. I used Handmade Award's pattern for the apple and roughly the basket but figured out my own patterns for the cheese wheel and bread. :-)

Fun Yet?

Sorry, I haven't posted much lately. We are busy, busy, busy.
Openings in roofs don't do well in rain storms--duh! Right? Well we had some water come in during the storms that roared through Ohio and on to New York. J was up on the roof pulling on more plastic in the middle of the first storm. No tornados right here though, thankfully. :-)
Tomorrow, I hope to get a photo up of the latest finished knitting.

Coincidence?

We are in the midst of fixing some things on our house this summer. Can you see here in this photo taken of an area where some of the siding was removed. These two painted letters, J & S represent my husband's and my own first initials. Isn't that just too funny! I don't know when these were put there. We just bought the house in January and we have felt so at home, right from the start. So it must be some kind of "fate" or something. :-) I don't know, but it is fun! 

Stash

In the Garden

Projects Stacking Up

The pile of projects grows and wobbles as I contemplate yet another knit up. I love the Mary, Mary Quite Contrary Mouse with her wee watering can in this project booklet found in the August copy of UK's Simply Knitting magazine. I want to pick the Alan Dart gingerbread cottage back up to finish for holiday decorating, but I also want to finish the hood for the little knit doll that I worked on up in Michigan. I've made some mistake in the knitting and am now laborously picking it back a few rows. All this knitting and I'm not even mentioning the fabric that is crying out to be quilted. Do you want to see some pictures? Wait a day or so and I'll post some photos. :-)