Baby quilt: Patchwork

Another present for the baby boy!

Ages and ages ago, I bought a baby quilt kit to make for a friend who was about to adopt, at the point at which there seemed to be some last minute complications... sort of a gesture of faith that it would all work out. I fell in love with the fabric, but whenever I went to look for quilt kits I never found anything I liked nearly as much.

And then Arjan found the fabric panel which had been used to make up the main part of the quilt kit on Etsy, because someone in America was clearing out her fabric stash. It was called "A's, Bees and Dandelion Seeds" by Red Rooster.

Cutting up the panel was very daunting, as I was aware that I had no hope of getting a replacement piece, but eventually I summed up the courage. The brown fabric on the edges was used as separators, just as in the original kit, with the corner squares being used as well.

And so the sewing (in anally retentive backstitch) began!

Once the main nine alphabet squares were all sewn together, the next issue raised itself - I didn't have any fabric to make the edges of the quilt, between the corner squares. Some more internet browsing later, and I found someone selling some last pieces of fabric from the same range and bought one for the edges, and a plainer fabric for the back.

In the original kit, the flowers had been used for the edges, but they had been blue, and the only version of the fabric I could find had been with peach flowers, which I didn't like as much. However, it also came with alphabet edging, which was amazing - even if it would take more fiddly cutting and sewing to make it work.

The patchwork is now complete, which leaves me with the next step, which I'm not so fond of doing - the quilting itself.

The procrastination has begun already...

Catch up: Outdoor plant shelves

I wanted somewhere to put plants, which were potted up and living outside, whilst growing bigger to go into the ground. So Arjan took some old pallet wood which we had from getting our garden edging stones delivered and made me a set of slatted shelves.

And as everything inevitably does, they got appropriated by the cats for their own purposes...

Catch up: Baby cardigan

Having finished the blanket, and made the hat out of the spare edging wool, next up was my very first piece of complicated clothing (as in not a scarf!), which was a baby cardigan.

It was quite a simple style, which I liked as it would go with pretty much anything else he wore, and came from this book.

The cardigan was made up of 5 individual pieces which were then all knitted together when knitting the yoke and collar of the cardigan.

I then had a couple of new skills to learn, as I'd never had to pick up stitches before to put edges onto knitting before. So I made a small practise piece. Which is also where I practised making button holes for the first time.

Next up was sewing the arm seams together, which was impressively neat when following the method suggested in the book.

Finally the buttons were added, and the cardigan was finished!

Catch up: Baby blanket

After finding out I was pregnant, I looked for a knitting project to do for the baby once he arrived, and decided to make a giant papoose style baby blanket.

The blanket was made up of one square piece, a large triangle to make the body pouch, a small triangle to make a hood, and 4 pieces of knitted edging in a different colour and wool.

These were then sewn together to make a very large, and very cosy, blanket!

Catch up: Miscellaneous

Yes, once again there have been no updates for absolutely ages, and an update session is needed. However this time I feel we have a great excuse, and reason for many of the craft projects we've done in the last year - since it was about this time last year that we found out we were expecting our son.

I'll do individual posts for some of the bigger projects that we've done, but small projects that have been finished since the last update include:

The bookmark kit which I was given for Christmas 2014 and took me until October 2015 to complete!

I was particularly impressed with the back, as I wove a cover for the ugly back of the cross stitch, using the left over embroidery thread.

The hat I knitted for the baby to wear as a newborn.

The holder which Arjan made to put our Angelcare monitor camera in, so that it pointed exactly at the right spot on the cotbed, without having to trail wires across the room.

And finally, a little bit of decoupage to cover a cardboard frame which was the right size for a drawing of Pooh bear which I received years ago as a birthday card, and wanted to make part of my picture display.

Kitchen hanging

I've been looking for a kitchen conversion poster for ages, but have never found one I really liked.

And then I found a £3 tea towel at Sainsburys which had all the stuff I wanted on it! 

After sewing in some dowel rod top and bottom, ready to hang.

Catch up: Planter cage

Another garden project!

I have a couple of planters for fruit and vegetable growing. But I need to protect them, both from birds (when/if any fruit finally turns up), but perhaps more importantly from my cats who see compost as a lovely clean outdoor catlit tray.

For a while I had netting hanging down over the planters, but it was annoying to move and hold out of the way to work on the planter contents.

Now, on one of the planters (the other one is empty right now), I have a newly made cage sitting on the top.

It even has doors!

Catch up: Trellis

I had this exciting plan for a winter flowering clematis at the bottom of the garden... But, a climber needs something to climb up.

Again, Arjan has provided, using wood left behind by the previous owners of the house - since it was perfectly aged to match our existing trellis!

Catch up: Cass' Christmas Stocking

Since being made part of Arjan's Dutch family I have managed to sneak in the odd British tradition. One of these is Christmas stockings.

As a new addition last year, Cass the black Labrador puppy was the only one without his own stocking. So he had to have one... right?

Catch up: Clothes shelf

In our bedroom in the flat, we had less wardrobe space, but I had a chair where I could dump clothes that weren't clean, or ready for washing.

Our current bedroom doesn't have space for a chair, so instead Arjan has made me a shelf for clothes to hang from, and bits and pieces to sit on.

Catch up: Christmas ornaments

Yes, this is about 6 months late! some of the following posts will be even more so.

For Sinterklaas last year, Arjan made his parents, sister and brother each a set of wooden Christmas tree ornaments. Also done by cutting, drilling and filing.

TV Riser

Ever since we got our current TV, it has been lifted up off the TV bench by an ugly plastic monitor stand. This was partly to add height, as we generally watch TV whilst also using laptops, but also because we have a surround sound system where the voice speaker is best placed centrally over or under the TV. We also have a kinect that we still haven't unpacked.

I've always wanted to have the riser made of wood, but haven't been able to find one. And so, Arjan to the rescue!

He designed something to echo the TV bench we're using - a Benno from Ikea.

Obviously, first he cut the pieces out.

Then assembled it (using just dowels and glue, no screws allowed!).

And finally, a couple of coats of varnish, and then put in place.

Sinterklaas gifts: Sackboy.

A while back, Arjan's brother and a couple of their friends came to stay, and whilst they were playing games, I was busy making the presents for Ellena's baby shower.

Dennis was so impressed with my (just learning) knitting skills, that he said "Oooh, cool, you could knit me a Sackboy!". Given how new I was to knitting, I said that was way beyond me.

But Sinterklaas approached and I went online and found that someone had of course created a knitting pattern for the cute character from Little Big Planet, and had made it freely available here.

Following the pattern was definitely beyond my skills when I started, given I'd never done purl, increase, decrease or turn - but Steve, the knitting expert from work was a great help in translating for me!

Definitely knitting fingers was the trickiest bit...

But eventually, he came together well!

And now he's part of Dennis' Christmas decorations.

Sinterklaas gifts: Wooden box.

Now that we've had a lovely weekend celebrating Sinterklaas, I can add posts about the two presents which were surprises. 

First up is the box which Arjan made for his Oma (grandmother). I found and adapted a pattern from the internet, which we drew onto a thin piece of plywood.

Arjan then began (very patiently) drilling and filing out the pattern.

And then more...

Until the entire pattern was done.

After that, the rest of the box was made, including comb joint corners.

Finally, it was varnished, before being filled with biscuits and wrapped with a ribbon!

Bed runner: Finished!

No posting didn't mean no crafting was going on!
I've been busy quilting and binding the runner, and have finally finished.

The quilting is maybe slightly easier to see when looking at the back.

But of course, when in the intended spot on the bed, it's all about the front!