Muscling in on the action

Here is part 2 of the dolls project. I finally got his face sewn on today and my niece helped me stuff him.



I hereby present the dynamic duo:

My first bag

I am DIZZY with excitement at having made my first bag! Whoop-de-dee!!!



The most exciting thing is opening it up to see the lovely pockets that are included in the inside of the bag! I made them!! To *my* specifications!! Admittedly I'm not too specific as I just cut some rectangles and bunged them on! ;)



And here is the inside of the bag with my mobile phone in the "phone slot" and a space for my glasses and keys. Am I the only one incredibly excited at the thought that I can just make up my own pockets to go ANYWHERE I WANT rather then being confined to some other bag makers idea of where I should put my stuff? OK.. shall calm down now. :D



I followed a mix of instructions to make this bag. I intially had the Amy Butler Messenger bag pattern but I decided I did not like that the bag closure was narrower then the actual bag. I found these instructions at craftster which was more of the type of bag I wanted, so I loosely followed those instructions and referenced the AB pattern for when the craftster instructions weren't quite clear (bag straps and inserting the lining - I had already sewn the lining together so AB's turning out instructions worked better).

I have used a stretched denim and a nasty print from SL. The print is definitely a polyester blend and it was horrible to work with for this type of project. The material seemed to stretch when I ironed it which meant that when I put iron-on interfacing onto it, it then warped when it cooled! There wasn't much I could do about it. I soldiered on but would definitely only use cottons in the future.

Bib for Bubs

The characters in this material are so cute! I bought the material ages ago to use for a quilt. I don't think I would ever use it nowadays though - its a little too bright for me, but it looks fantastic as a bib for bubs.

Potholder

I don't think you call these things potholders, but can't think of what they are called. I put batting in the middle, made a quilt sandwich, put bias binding around the edge. Fun :)

Fun in the garden

I was so chuffed with the tee that I gave it to Miss Boo to wear straight away.

Applique Elephant

I have finally had a go at putting an applique onto a tshirt. Thanks to Karen for all the advice she passed on to me. I have used vlisofix to attach the applique to the tshirt, then attached some vlisene to the back of the applique area to help with sewing the applique on. I have used various quilting books on advice of how to machine sew appliques in place. My Mum gave me the book that had this design in it - a US book from when she was in a quilting group there. I am very happy with the results and love the thought of being able to make one-off originals for my daughter! Plus, she needs some new tees!

Wishing

Who said that every wish would be heard and answered
when wished on the morning star?
Somebody thought of that
and someone believed it,
and look what it's done so far.
What's so amazing that keeps us stargazing?
And what do we think we might see?
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection,
the lovers, the dreamers and me.

I was looking up some song words for my daughter as my memory is a bit lacking from all my childhood songs and I found the Kermit song and the snippet above.. how gorgeous are those words? If you want a link for the melody - try Rainbow Connection

Love Musk