Random Round up of Creating and Cats

The start of last week saw me basting Olive's baby quilt......she's now over 4 months old but there's been a serious lack of sew-jo around here for the last little while and I've only just gotten back to her quilt in the last week or so.

And some quilting has even happened!!

SO, watch this space😊

I've also put together a cloth book for Olive, using one of those easy-to-sew panels....cut the pages apart, layer with scraps of batting, sew around the outside, turn it through and sew the pages together —

A little bit of kiwiana for our Hawaiian baby ♥

I realise that I haven't yet shared the pouch I made as a gift for our Make It, Fake It, Bake It swap for our Scrub Stitching retreat. It's always fun to see what everyone comes up with.

I came across a pattern for a wee bag which looked a little different - and Christine ended up with it —

Luckily Christine is a better recorder than I am and I have stolen the photos of it off her blog!

The top folds up to open the pouch (Christine's Luna Lapin is modelling the bag) —

(I used leftover fabric from my kiwiana dress for it. Dress shown in *this post*.)
And I included a cute scissor keep that Mum had made.

I found the pattern for the *Malmo Pouch here*.

While Sue and I were travelling for retreat, I completed the last few rounds of the crochet cat blanket I'd started whilst spending time at the hospital with Mum last year.

I've made three of these simple Afghans now - I just love having something mindless to crochet and the cats really do appreciate them!!!

Last year, in preparation for the arrive of McGeorgeous I made a little cat cubby. It was such a fun make but sadly once I'd finished it, the cats barely waved a whisker at it. Recently I realised it needed better structure so it would look more like a cat house than a cat bag. I found and inserted some foam coated wires. (These are intended for gardening and I bought them for making a Barbie tent. That didn't eventuate and recently the kids have been using them to dangle toys off when playing with the cats.)

Look at Miss Tammy! Success!

I very nearly had a very sad tale about McGeorgeous to tell this time. One evening last week he suddenly disappeared. We looked for him for DAYS and had given up all hope of ever seeing him again.

Thank goodness our son looked up at just the right time and spotted him at the window of our little garden shed one morning!! (We hardly ever go in there and seldom leave it opened.) He's a shy boy and the men had to empty the shed to get him out - and then he shot under the house.

After a lot of food and water he returned to life as normal and is wondering what all the fuss is about!

I had been in town and had 11 missed calls from the MOML trying to let me know he'd been found.

I think Tammy may have missed him a little as I've caught her letting him sleep near her a couple of times now! —

This winter, to celebrate 10 years in existence, the NZ Premmie Knitting Club has had a publicity drive, encouraging people from all walks of life to pull out their knitting needles and make some peggy squares. They're then sewn together to make blankets for premature babies across the country. It's been quite fun to see politicians, sports people and TV personalities promoting the cause by knitting squares themselves.

I've made a few squares which I will send off this week, along with some tiny booties and a beanie which I knitted a couple of years ago. I would have liked to make a few more but I started a bit late (they want them all by the end of this month, I think) but have also been struggling with a minor wrist strain/inflammation which seems aggravated by the knitting motion. So I've been limiting myself to a few rows a night.

I'll finish with this lovely sunset we had last night —

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn

Some Christmas sewing

In November, I shared a snap pouch which I said was a prototype for more.

It all began with a wee challenge with the Thursday sewers at the shop; we were given a wee stitchery pattern and two bullets of fabric (5"x 20") and a date to make something with them by.

The day rolled around and here is our Show and Tell.

Lots of beautiful creativity.

Here are the two snap top pouches that I made — 

You can maybe see that I was heading down a rabbit hole here; deciding to make pouches for the grandies for Christmas —

I completed six in time for Christmas - I had hopes to make another one at least but that didn't happen.

I stuffed them all with undies, chocolates and wee toys - they made a cute little additional gift.

(I think the stitcheries came from a panel for the A letter to my daughter quilt.)

Back in August we adopted McGeorgeous, a stray kitten my nieces had taken in. Getting into the Christmas spirit, I thought it would be nice for McGeorgeous to send a wee gift to Doug and Lizzy, his ex-room mates. Inspired by some scraps of Soft and Stable, and our rather worn cat-bowl mats, I whipped up a Christmas cat bowl mat for them.

I layered a FQ with the Soft and Stable and a random piece of (not very stretchy) t-shirt knit, cross hatched it all, shaped the corners and then sewed on the (bias) binding.

Coupled with a couple of cat bowls, it made a fun little gift. 

Doug was quick to lie on it, apparently, as soon as it was opened!

(One day I'll make one for our cats and see how well it washes and wears.)

You may remember in my last post, I shared a photo of a dress I'd just finished making, and said that a friend was making one using the same pattern at the same time.

We were both wearing them at a workday at the shop over the weekend so we had to take a photo. Suzanne was very creative in the making of her dress, using pieces of linen and a linen blouse for hers - check out the striped part of the skirt. You can see the neckline is the same but two totally different dresses!

Thank you for reading along!

'til next time,

Happy stitches,

Raewyn