Thank Heaven for Little Girls

A finish!

Single bed quilt.

Quilted with 'Swirling Daisies'.

These pictures were taken 

in a friend's lovely English Country Garden...

inclusive of local farm life ;o)

I think her sweet little dog

thinks I'm mad ;o)

*****

I've also finished some more little girl's dresses.

This one was inspired by the blue lace 

I bought from Coolcrafting.

I couldn't resist putting spotty buttons on too!:

 And these 2 new dresses are for Miss Kalico and her friend.

She kept nagging me to make her friend a little dress

so here it is... (or here they are!)

and looking at the 2 dresses, it always remind me of the book

by Julia Donaldson: ' Sharing a Shell':

"2 friends sharing a shell under a sky of blue,

romping all over the rockpool 

in their wonderful home for 2" (or something like that!)...

And I keep thinking when I see these dresses:

" 2 friends sharing a dress under a sky of blue,

romping all over the playground

in their wonderful dresses for 2" 

(or something like that LOL)

Wordless Wednesday - Weekend Walk

What's Been Up

Finally, I can dig my head out

and blog a little...

 Summer has been a great time for creatures.

Creatures in the house however have NOT been great.

This cat is on probation for Mousing!!!

(Trying to find a mouse under the sofa 

at one in the morning is not my idea of fun! 

Not finding it is even worse! 

Wondering for a few days if the half a mouse 

outside the back door was the same mouse is no good either LOL!)

*****

The school holidays are finally over and the little people

in the Kalico household are (mostly) back at school.

I didn't get much sewing done over the school holidays,

just a few dresses for Miss Kalico.

I cut a new dress pattern for her

and although it's a little on the large side,

she'll grow, and these dresses can be whipped up 

in a day...

Great for playing (and potty training!)

I made a reversible dress:

Roses on the one side... 

And baby cord with a pocket

on the other side...

*****

We had a week in South Wales: fabulous!

Family time is just so precious.

The other few weeks we were around and about locally... 

and just enjoyed the lovely weather...

A friend (and fellow blogger) 

and her family came to stay....

It was great having 'Southerners' to stay with us 'up North'

as we got to do some great walks and explore our local surrounds.

This is the walk from Clapham to Austwick 

and I had never done it before...

In Wales we'd done a 'herb walk' at the Botanical gardens

and I'd learnt that these were Burdock pods:

 Nice and sticky LOL.

We all walked through the tunnels to Clapham

 that were built by the local landowner many years ago 

so that he didn't have to watch his workers walk home...

Bit of a cheek, me thinks! But a nice walk.

*****

And now that the kids are out of the way ;o)

I have been able to quilt again

And why, yes, before you ask,

Miss Kalico does need another quilt :o) 

I cut the binding without measuring to check I had enough,

as I sewed the first side and a half on, I remembered I was going to measure...

But it fitted. Phew!

 With only a small piece left to spare!

*****

The next quilt is ironed and ready to be loaded.

Oh, I do love my Longarm machine!!

Wordless Wednesday - Back to School - Back to Quilting!

The Little Things

Sometimes the little things

can put a smile on your face...

a favourite mug on a beautiful mug mat

made by a talented friend..

Time spent embroidering an envelope

 to wish a teacher all the best on their new adventure...

A quick little sew to get 2 rows of a quilt together

when you didn't even have this quilt in mind...

A reminder of something fun you made years ago...

LOTS of little apple key rings

for the children's teachers....

Deconstructing pink shirts for patchworking....

Hours spent in playgrounds because a certain little girl

was just having so much fun...

Putting another 3 rows on the quilt...

(just some more sashing and borders to go!)

And Mummy's little helper...

Who definitely puts a smile on my face!

(well most of the time! ;o) )

Going AWOL

I don't mean to keep forgetting about my poor blog,

but I am always so easily distracted..

I saw these embroidered hearts on the internet

and just got hooked making them...

I love sending a Christmas decoration with my cards

to friends in faraway places -

so I have a bit of a head start here LOL

Then dolly needed a dress to match Miss Kalico...

With matching buttons on the back...

She even has shorts to match, 

but that photo is on my tablet.

And while I still had some of the 'matching' fabric left...

Miss Kalico got a new sunhat...

So I am not sitting idly resting my leg...

I'm actually too busy to blog ;o)

An Idea For Leftover Hexagons

After completing my Rose Hexagon quilt

I had quite a few leftover hexagons...

I thought to maybe do 'Grandmother's Flower Garden'...

 ...but that's not really my style

and I didn't have enough of the same pieces for the centres...

So I wondered how to sew my hexagons together

without them being just sewn together.

By dividing the hexagon shape into triangles,

using the triangles as my paper templates 

 And cutting white fabric triangles

to sew between the leftover hexagons

I found a new use for the 'leftovers'...

I sewed lots of pieces together

leaving lots of gaps to be sewn closed at a later stage

so that I could take it in my handbag

to sew at the hospital

(that way I didn't risk dropping pins all over the place!)