Wednesday, December 30, 2020

2020...........Is it over yet?

Christmas 2020 will not be forgotten......Al fresco gift giving.

I didn't get to see my grandkids in person only a few pictures. Too much of a health risk for me. 

On a more positive note :)

I noticed that "Jenny of ELEFANTZ" is starting a free block of the month for 2021 called "Posies".  Not too complicated. A little bit of applique and little bit of embroidery. I might give it a go but with a different colour scheme I think. Not a fan of pink.

Take care and keep safe:)


Saturday, October 31, 2020

Happy Halloween...............

 .........next year because it's been cancelled in TO. We are in a stage 2 level of Covid so it is being encouraged to keep the kiddies home. It's hard to explain to the little ones why they can't trick or treat especially since they all go to school together and they all play on the street together.

Ah well. My son is still going to shell out but not in person. His plan is the put the treats out on the front yard and let the kids take some. I see flaws in his plan though. He doesn't care. He just wants to celebrate Halloween.

Take care and keep safe:)

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Genealogy Humour or not.....

I mentioned the other day that I was working on my family tree. This is an ongoing project that I started about 20 years ago. Yes it is addicting.

Okay here is your chuckle for today. I have spent a wee bit of time (hours) looking for an Anastasia Ryan born about 1870 in Scotland not realizing I had her record since 2018. I twigged yesterday. LOL Take a look.

Anastasia = Hannah-Stacey!!!

 

I guess the poor registrar had never run across that forename before and just winged it. It's a very common name in certain parts of Ireland but not in the Scotland of 1870  it seems:)

Take care and keep safe !




Friday, October 23, 2020

I'm still here......

Not much has been happening sewing wise. I've been making masks because people will lose them.

I have spent hours chasing down DNA matches so I can figure out my family tree. I think I'm done with that for awhile except I have a second cousin who is my research mate who keeps on emailing leads. Then I get busy again.

Another thing which is much more exciting is that our house is finally on the market. We moved out in February and now it's October. I know what the heck. However, something called Covid did a number on the housing market. They are now showing our house under strict Covid guidelines. 

So everybody please cross your fingers and say a wee prayer that some one buys our house soon so I can be less stressed.

Take care and keep safe :)  


Friday, August 21, 2020

When In Doubt Get The Glitter Glue Out.........

As requested, I made two more pairs of "Crocs" for my GD's American Doll. I made another pair awhile ago and two days after there was a mishap. The strap on one shoe came off. No worries. It was easily fixed with Aleene's Original Tacky Glue. BUT.

I wasn't too happy at the time with the idea of using eyelets to attached the straps to the shoe. True enough it looked great sorta but it was really only cosmetic. 

The mishap could have happened because the type of eyelet I was using wasn't correct but as far as I know they were the only type sold over the counter in my area. 

See here is where the strap gave way. The eyelet pulled out because a) it might not be the correct type or b) the foam is too soft and stretchy to hold. Don't know but there were tears...GD's and mine :)

This little eyelet has to go through two layers of the craft foam and hold it together? May be if the shoe is sitting in a drawer and not played with.

I really didn't want to have to repair the new shoes later on so I put the eyelets through just the straps like this and then glued the straps to the shoes.

 Voila!

Looks the same to a 10 year old who really doesn't care about the finer points of shoe making. I did get a wee bit carried away with the glue gun on one of the straps. It left an ugly glob of glue and it bothered me. So annoying.

To hide it I covered the blue shoe with a thin layer of blue glitter glue. Sorry you can't see the glitter clearly in the pic but it turned out really pretty. 

So, the point of all this is that if you are planning to make crocs like these beware the eyelet and maybe buy some glitter glue. 

Take care and keep safe :) 




Saturday, August 15, 2020

Little Shoes...........

I made some shoes for the GD's Wellie Wisher doll called Willa. The Wellie Wisher is another product from American Doll and in my humble opinion a much much cuter doll.

This is Willa......


And, here are the shoes I made. They are about 2 inches in length. They are fairly easy to make. I used a pattern from Pixie Faire called "Plain Jane Shoes" by Love U Bunches.

Take care and be safe :)

 



Tuesday, August 11, 2020

A Bit More Sewing........

A few more little outfits.

I had to shorten some track pants for a family member and used the bits I cut off to make a drop waist dress with pockets.

 

Then I made a skirt from a small piece of baby wale corduroy that I had completely forgotten about. My GD found it in my scrap drawer. It was a remnant I paid 10 cents for and I have lots left to make something else. It's so soft and a very bright pink :) This skirt is a free pattern that you can find here.

Last of all from another scrap she found I made some shorts.

Now I have a request for more shoes and a skort.  It's a good thing I'm retired.

Take care and keep safe:)


Saturday, August 8, 2020

Strangers In The Park........

In these times of Covid many people are working from home and that includes my son and his wife. It's not easy when you have a 10 year old and a 16 month old in situ.

The 10 year old is pretty good at entertaining herself and she has a best friend to play with that lives next door.  The 16 month old is a whole other thing. He goes to a day care three mornings a week. When he comes home he has his lunch and then goes down for a nap. So that's 3 days covered pretty  much :)

Two mornings a week he is taken to a local parkette by my husband, myself and his other granny. It's a great place with lots to do and he loves it. And, it does take three of us to watch him as he is a runner. He runs everywhere.

The other day we had five adults looking after him...me, my husband, his other granny and two great aunts. I find that very amusing.

Now the other granny and her sisters...the GA's....are locals. They have lived in the neighbourhood all their lives and everyone knows them and they know everybody in turn. Unlike me and the husband...we are newcomers. I had noticed people looking at us but because of Covid they haven't made any advances to find out who we are.

On this particular day, the GA's, granny and myself found some park benches in the shade and had a nice little natter about this and that while my husband played with the grandson on the swings.  It was a lovely day.

So, here we are sitting on the benches and I hear this little voice pipe up........"She's the granny that sews". I turn around and see a little girl standing with a couple of ladies. She was pointing at me.  I smiled and the ladies nodded.  I think they were a wee bit embarrassed.

I guess I'm not a stranger anymore..........I'm "The Granny That Sews".

Take care and keep safe :)


Thursday, August 6, 2020

Not much happening........

Except a lot of rain. What a wet summer we are having. Even tornado warnings. At the age of 16 our poor cat has developed a fear of storms. We know when a storm is about to happen as she hides under the bed. We were a bit worried about her as she stopped eating after a particularly bad few days. But, she seems to be back to her old self today. Her noisy demands for food are nice to hear :)

On the sewing front. My granddaughter has decided to play with her American Girl doll again so I have been asked to make more clothes and shoes.

This is an outfit from a PDF pattern she picked out on Etsy. It is a design called a culotte jumpsuit designed by Liberty Jane at Pixie Faire Patterns.

It's okay but I'm not in love with where the straps are placed. I think they should be a bit more to the middle of the shoulders rather than on the edge. They are placed where the princess seam is on the bodice.  Very awkward to fit right on the doll.  A re-design I think if I make this outfit again.

I made two of the three versions...the short and the long. The fabric was chosen by the granddaughter from my stash :)


I had to borrow her doll for a day as trying to guess the correct length of the long pants and how long the straps should be would be impossible without one.


Take care and keep safe :) 

Friday, July 24, 2020

WIP.........

I've finished the four cross stitch leaves. I really like the ombre effect that is used in some of the leaf sections.  It's very pretty. In person it's very clear but I'm not sure my pictures show it as the light wasn't that great to take pictures. 


The brown one made me think of chocolate the whole time I was working on it.

And.......I'm having a lucky summer it seems. I just won a $10 US coupon from the Dollmakers Journey Facebook page. They have a contest every week and I finally won. Already spent it on a doll pattern:)

Take care and keep safe:)





Monday, July 20, 2020

Green Fairy Quilts...................

When I won a $25 USD gift certificate from Green Fairy Quilts, because of the PPPP linky, I wasn't really sure what to buy as I'm not a quilter. I also knew that the delivery fees for a parcel from the USA to Canada was at least 20-25 dollars so that basically wiped out the value of my prize. 

But luck was with me in that Green Fairy had a 50% sale on their Moda scrap bags. I thought that was something I could use and ordered one.

It arrived today. OMG. I really love what they sent me. It's all 3 inch salvages from a Moda collection by Fig Tree & Co called "Scarlet & Sage".  Thirty one strips about 32 inches long.



So pretty and I can definitely use some of the strips for a little project I'm working on.

Take care and keep safe:)

Saturday, July 18, 2020

Life According to Covid.......

I finally was able to make an appointment with my hairdresser.  Usually I can get it the same day but this time it was in a couple of weeks. Understandable considering the present situation.

We don't live in her area of the city now but I felt that I needed to support an old friend. She has been cutting my hair for 20 years.

My hairdresser is in an office building at a major intersection of the city. I go to her because I used to work in the building.  I arrived a bit early and when I went in I saw only two people. The ground floor pedestrian area was completely empty. Usually there are lots of people hanging around.

Very eerie. I get to my hairdresser and the doors are closed. A notice said by appointment only. You must wear a mask and gloves. Gloves? Great!  I didn't know that and I don't have any.

I looked in the window and saw no one? Is it the wrong day?  Then a voice behind says "don't worry I was just getting a coffee." Sigh of relief.

I wear my hair very short and my hairdresser is always giving me a hard time because I wait too long between appointments...according to her anyway.  She took one look at my hair and groaned. The last time I saw her was in December and my hair was a bit long :)

We go in and it seems I am the only client. My hairdresser offers me a hand sanitizer, takes my temperature with one of those gun thingies and then asks me to put on some surgical gloves. No problem.

Masked, sanitized and gloved I go forth to get my hair washed. I ask if I should take off my mask. Apparently not. I had my hair washed with mask on. Okay. My mask did get a bit wet but it is washable.

Then I go to the chair, get the usual cape on and ask if I should take my mask off now. Apparently not. My hair was cut with mask on. Naturally I was a bit concerned about that. I had visions of her cutting the elastic on my mask as she cut the hair near my ears. I was also a bit worried about what this haircut was going to look like.

But, I'm happy to say that it was all fine. Whew.

She told me that she has had to learn a bunch of new skills. She is not a very happy hairdresser. Oh and I have gone greyer....I wonder why?

Take care and keep safe :)



Thursday, July 16, 2020

Not the Hockey Team................

I'm working on a new cross stitch pattern by Pamela Kellogg that I saw on her blog Kitty and Me Designs called Crazy Maple Leaves.

I love crazy quilting and I am Canadian and the maple leaf is on our flag so I thought hey that's for me.

I've done a lot of needlepoint over the years but not a lot of cross stitch. OMG! I made so many mistakes in this one little piece that it is ridiculous but it was good practice. 


There are a lot a  thread changes and I got so confused.

I made a temporary needle base for the next one I do. I took a bit of cardboard and punched holes in it with a paper punch. Then I put the colour number and threaded a needle for each one.

Much better :)


There are four different leaves and I thought that together they would make a nice wall hanging. Not sure yet how I'll do it.

Take care and keep safe :)


Thursday, July 2, 2020

Knot Bag........

I wanted to make a bag that is sometimes called a Knot Bag.

I had this half yard of batik cotton in my stash that is kinda summery. I also found a piece of polyester broadcloth that was a perfect match for a lining.



The pattern I used is called "Grab Bag" and was designed by Bonnie Kozowski. I found it at AllPeopleQuilt.com.

It was super easy and super quick to make. 

The designer suggests quilt batting or craft fleece to give thinner fabrics a bit of body. I lined mine with a type of craft fleece but it seems a bit rigid. I think it will probably soften as the bag is used. 

A small bag that goes over the wrist to carry hand sanitizer, mask, sunglasses, baby wipes and kiddie snacks when I go to the park.


Today is a very warm day and we don't have air conditioning. However, we are on the 5th floor and if we open the balcony doors at both ends of the apartment we get a lovely cool breeze off Lake Ontario.

Sometimes it's a bit too windy. My pattern piece blew off my sewing table and my son had to chase it before it went out the other door....ooops :)

Take care and keep safe :)

Wednesday, July 1, 2020

Life goes merrily along.........

Things are getting better here where I live as far as Covid19 restrictions. We are now allowed to get together in small family groups aka bubbles. I finally got to see my younger son and his family. We haven't been together in person since February. I got a shock to see how much my granddaughter had grown and my little grandson is walking and running full tilt :)

More and more stores are opening up and local major malls have been allowed to open to the public with serious new restrictions such as one way traffic lanes. Life has become a bit unreal in the world of retail.

What is sad are the number of small local stores that are still closed and may never reopen.  I was pondering the fact that so many people have been shopping for essentials online that they may continue to do so. 

Face masks or face coverings are now mandatory in all enclosed public places. That should have happened at the beginning in my humble opinion.

There are still lots of basic things missing from the shelves in our local supermarket such as yeast.  Tons of toilet paper though. They had it on sale even.

Hopefully I can get an appointment with my hair dresser soon as I need a haircut desperately. I look like something dragged through a hedge backwards.

Ah well.

On another subject altogether.

I was very fortunate to win a $25 dollar gift certificate from Green Fairy Quilts for participating in the Perfectly Pleasing Pincushion Parade. A very nice surprise.

The only downside is that I'm hooked on making pin cushions. I may have a few in process.

Take care and keep safe :)

Happy Canada Day.................!!!



Take care and keep safe:)

Saturday, June 20, 2020

Not A Pincushion.......

I was looking for some green felt and came across a UFO that I had forgotten about. It was a pattern given to me as a prize on an online doll club that sadly no longer exists.  I recall that the competition I entered was about fairy tales. I made this doll.

The Princess and the Pea.....

So naturally the prize was about a fairy tale....the Frog Prince. This is a design by Cynthia Treen.

I got this far with him then.....

After I started working on it again I remembered that I had issues making the eyeballs. Why I had started with them after making the arms...who knows. They were still a pain to make.

The whole frog is completely sewn by hand with itty bitty stitches. The toes and fingers....arrgghhh.....LOL

Anyway....he is finished and awaiting his Princess.


Take care and stay safe :)

Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Another Pincushion fot the PPPP.......

Here is one more pincushion for the Perfectly Pleasing Pincushion Parade.


First of all thank you everyone for your lovely comments and thank you Ida for organizing the PPPP event.  I'm really enjoying visiting everyone's blogs not only to see their pincushions but all the other lovely things they've made.

Now you cannot deny that this is a really weird looking pincushion. I really like it though...LOL


It was super easy and quick to make. If you're interested you can find the tutorial here.

And, to see more more pincushions in the parade visit the PPPP linky party at My Sister Made Me Do It......

I'm also linking up with the Needle and Thread Network .




It's been awhile since I posted on there because I haven't really been blogging. With all this "inside" time I have rediscovered how much I enjoy making stuff and blogging about it.

Take care and keep safe :)


Monday, June 8, 2020

The Perfectly Pleasing Pincushion Parade........


I have never participated in this event before but when I saw it advertised on My Sister Made Me Do It..... I thought that looks like fun.

So, here are my pincushions. All made by me.

Number one is a classic pincushion shape. I used a cereal bowl to get a circle and then scalloped the edges. The fabric is a very old piece of velveteen in a grey with mauve tones depending on the light.  To create the felt flower decoration I used a free pattern called "Spring Violets"  designed by Heather Bailey at Hello My Name Is Heather.

Very simple. It doesn't take a lot of fabric so you can use up those small pieces that you keep just in case :) 

Number two is a fun pattern called "Kitty Kat Pincushion". It's a free downloadable pattern designed by Sue Daniel at Dollmaker's Journey.

The base is made from a small piece of Harris tweed that I won from Susan Elliott at Plays With Needles way back in 2013. It's a beautiful weave of purple and turquoise which are two of my favourite colours.  I finally decided to use it. Now I can see it everyday.


Number three is a really cute and fun pincushion that I found at Bugs and Fishes designed by Manuela of imanufatti. It's made from felt and is really too cute to stick pins in....LOL


My final offering is a pincushion that I made about 2010ish. Sorry no link as this is my own creation.  And...of course it's in a purple shade which is my fave. 


My granddaughter plays with it.....sans pins... as I have a couple of mini teddy bears that are the right scale.

Well that's all from me. Hope you enjoyed looking at my pincushions. 

To see more pincushions go visit the PPPP linky party at My Sister Made Me Do It......

Take care and keep safe:)




Friday, May 29, 2020

May The Force Be With You.......

I made a Millennium Falcon for my grandson using the free pattern from Wild Olive.

I didn't have the same shade of grey tan felt that was suggested and since Michael's was not open I had to use what I had. I took a look at some pics online of the MF and it's all shades as is my version so I think I'm okay :)

I actually have a lot of grey felt from my mouse making days but the pieces are scraps basically. I did manage to squeak out the shape short of 1/8 of an inch on the length which was so lucky.  Whew!!

Mollie at Wild Olive used Sulky Sticky Fabri-Solvy for the embroidery template. I have none so plan B.

I used a piece of printer paper and taped on some tissue paper. I pulled one edge of the tissue over the edge and taped it down as this is the leading edge. I didn't want to jam the printer.

 

Then I got an inspiration. I ironed a piece of tissue paper to some freezer paper. It worked too.


I started the embroidery from the center and worked out from there. I used 3 strands of embroidery floss but I would rather have used perle cotton but I had none in grey. Since added to my future to buy list.

Here is my pattern pinned to the felt shape. 


However when I went to put the pieces together I soon discovered that the felt I was using was a bit too soft. It's 100% wool felt. I think what would be best is the acrylic felt that you can buy for kids crafts. Much firmer and the edge will stay and not "fray" for want of a better description. I decided the best thing to do was line the felt using some cotton I had. I zig zagged the edge in grey thread. I rationalized that it looks like riveting...wink wink :)


I originally trimmed the fabric to a 1/4 seam allowance all around. Then I decided..... after my first attempt to sew the bits together...to trim off the fabric right to the edge of the felt. 

Done!!

I think my version looks a bit clunky compared to the one made by Mollie at Wild Olive because I used a blanket stitch instead of a whip stitch. I can guarantee it will not come apart when played with. It's one of those squishy type of things that's just made to be thrown around.

I glued on the gun turrets and the cockpit at first then decided to sew them on as well. The camera certainly shows up all it's faults...oh well.  I really enjoyed making it as it was something different.

Now I've been asked to make another Millennium Falcon and to make a TIE Fighter.....hmm.

Take care and keep safe :)

Friday, May 22, 2020

Perfectly Pleasing Pincushion Parade !!

My Sister Made Me Do It....is hosting the Perfectly Pleasing Pincushion Parade !! 

LINK
You can find the details at the above link. I hope you join in :)

I know one pincushion that I'll definetly show but I think I should make a new one just because. 

Take care and keep safe :)
  

Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Can it get any worse..........?

We haven't been able to sell our house because of Covid so it sits empty. Someone must have noticed that we only go over on certain days and took the opportunity to break into it.

There is very little in the house at the moment. Just some odd furniture and boxes of books and dishes to go into storage eventually. They did break into a small safe which is now toast and will have to be dumped. No worries as there was nothing in it. It seems that they took nothing and were extremely tidy thieves.

Then......

My brother lives in a building that is an apartment block for seniors and they all have their own suites but have communal areas for meals and such. They have just tested everyone for Covid and they have one case. The building has been in lock down since mid February. Very scary and worrying.

I'm really really tired of the year 2020. 

Take care and stay safe!!!!

Friday, May 8, 2020

Blogger Issue re email notification.......

A few people recently have mentioned to me that they are not getting emails when someone leaves a comment on their blog. There is one way to fix this although to be honest it does not always work the first couple of times.

This email problem started about 4 or 5 years ago when Blogger did some sort of upgrade or change. It is not an unknown issue and I think it has stopped a lot of people from blogging.

Also, there are some commenters that you will never receive email notification from ever. I have about four followers like this. For this reason I check my blog comments so I don't miss them. This shouldn't happen and I don't know why. Sorry.

This explanation below is simplistic and I am making the assumption that the reader is not familiar with Blogger. I hope no one will take offence. I did it this way as I have written many how to guides for various systems and you cannot make the assumption that your audience knows what you know.

Here goes........

At the top left of your blog's front page you will see a link called "Design". Click on this. It will take you to the back end of Blogger.

On the left hand side there is an option called "Settings". Click on this.



You are now in the settings option area. You will see one called "Email".

Click on that and it will take you to a new area where you can make changes. It asks "Comment Notification email?" You will see a box and in it should be the email that you want your comment notification to go to.
All is good ....maybe....but maybe not.

Remove the email and click "Save settings".

Now reenter the email you wish to use for comment notification. Save settings again.

Repeat the above step again......remove your email......save settings.....input your email....save settings.

I know it doesn't make sense doing it twice or even three times but it is a necessary step.

You should then get an email from noreply+subscribe@blogger.com asking if you wish to subscribe to comment notification.


Click subscribe and you'll be taken to a new screen.....
So in the perfect world the problem should be fixed :)

There is one other step to take just in case.

On the settings sidebar there is an option "Posts, comments and sharing".

Click on this and take a look to see what you have set up. The question is "Who can Comment?.

What you wish to choose is of course up to you but I personally think the best choice is to select "Anyone".  If you restrict it to only users with Google Accounts then there will be some people who will not be able to leave comments ever.

So that's it. Hope this helps.

Take care :)