New Year, New Decade, Still Furtling

January doesn't seem to have been as endless as it usually is and I am feeling reasonably pleased with my progress for the month.

I continued with my hot water bottle covers making them after reading Helen's success in making hers more rectangular than bottle shaped.

I made a normal sized one -

Then a wee one - very squinty stitch and flip!

and for comparison -

In recent months whilst browsing Pinterest I found lots of articles and instructions for making a burrito style pillowcase - I hadn't come across this technique and became slightly desperate to try it out. ( Do have a browse online, you'll find lots of references to this) Anyway, I bought some white polycotton and partnered it with cotton from stash and was delighted to make a pair of these -

The main difference to a usual pillowcase is the lack of the envelope flap but I enjoyed the process and would do it again.

My next accomplishment was a finish, first of the year - am I the only one who starts off a project with enthusiasm, even almost gets to the finish line and then, it sort of gets forgotten about for some considerable time. The benefit with this one was that it didn't take too long to complete it. I haven't actually hung this yet but I do have a space planned for it. I decided to add a frameless binding which I think is just right and doesn't take anything away from the impact of the pattern's design.

I found the pattern for this puss at the Festival of Quilts in 2018 from craftyretreatts.com

I have just checked the website and see no mention of such patterns but I do have the correct link so if you are desperate to find the pattern perhaps an email would work?

I also made another decision in January - almost 3 years ago I bought wool, sorted out a pattern and got started on a hoodie for my grandaughter. I think my knitting dreams are beyond my capabilities and I would struggle  at times, many times, and when I actually got to the hood, many months had elapsed since the previous knitting spurt and I was totally unhappy with it...........as this year dawned I finally accepted that Ava would be 8 in March and had just turned 5 when I cast on.

So I ripped the whole thing down and am now happily knitting a simple blanket. I do feel like a weight has slipped from my shoulders, I am so glad not to have this UFO looking at me.

I will keep on furtling and am linking to Mini Archie's Furtling adventures

Last Year, New Year

So, another decade begins and I am still not up to scratch with my blogging.

Like most of you, the run up to Christmas is alway so busy. I can see from my last blog that my Christmas sewing must have started pretty much after Halloween and first project was a stocking for youngest Grandchild, Murray. I used my favourite pattern from an old Thimbleberries book, I love its traditional look and usually add in the name using my embroidery machine.

Moving on from this, I had planned, in my head, a book cushion for each of my nephews. I looked on Pinterest and on blogs and cobbled up a mixture of all, taking hints and tips where I found them. Once again I made good use of my embroidery machine as well as using piecing methods for one of them. 

I included a torch in the smaller pocket, and slippped a book token and some chocolate into the bigger pocket. They were well received.

It was during this project that I began to entertain thoughts of upgrading my embroidery machine. I had been gifted my Janome 300E by my very generous employer, back in 2005 and I reckon I had given it a fair run but machine embroidery had never overtaken my quilting. It can however be successfully combined with quilting so my deliberations continued until I decided to go ahead and after even more thought I plumped for the Janome 500E, now affectionately referred to by me as Mission Control - suffice to say, furniture had to be moved to accommodate it. I am enjoying it a lot and got started quickly on my first project - an apron for my son in law. Now he loves to BBQ and will do so at all times of the year, with his addition this year of a pizza oven for the barbie, he has produced many a fine pizza, so was born my themed selection of gifts for his Christmas.

It stitched out beautifully and I have to say so far my favourite feature of the machine is its automatic clipping of jump threads - pure heaven. And I am glad to report that this gift also was well received.

My next project was a birthday gift for my quilty pal Janet who has this year, become the most amazing crocheter. I combined both of my techniques and with guidance from a You Tube tutorial, I made a quilted Japanes knot bag for her crochet. I added a little embroidery which might have tested the depth of our friendship, but glad to say all is well. (wink)

Other gifts that consumed my time in November / December were these Ouch Pouches and inspired by this pattern.

These were well accepted and make a great wee gift, can be tailored to the recipient's needs, and are so handy to keep in the car.

I continued to play with my new machine and made these quick projects.

A slightly wonky Christmas bird,

A cheery coaster

And a quilted notebook cover. 

Being back into embroidery I was re-acquainted with Emblibrary and bought this design for a "Pillow Wrap". I made a couple - one for daughter and one for daughter in law. It's a great concept if you have plainish cushions, to Christmas them up a little.

My current wip is a new hot water bottle cover and I am inspired in this by Helen, whose recent make has taken us from shaped cover to a more boxy (and brilliant IMO) shape. Just waiting to purchase some bias binding to finish this one off.

(SO far, made entirely from stash - a piece of very old flannel for top, a piece of Ikea microfleece in place of wadding, and yet another of son in law's cotton shirts to back!)

And I'll leave you lovelies with a pic of my own wee lovelies when I got them altogether on 28th.

                   Happy New Year. Linking to Mini Archie's Furtling Around the Blogosphere.