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Courthouse Steps Blanket

Courthouse Steps Blanket

Pattern: Courthouse Steps Blanket from Mason Dixon Knitting
Yarn: Anchor Magicline. 12x 50g in Pink (1462) & 6.5 x 50g in Green (1478)
Needles: 4.5mm
Time taken to knit: 15th May 2010 to 2nd February 2012.
Size: 99cm x 96cm


Courthouse Steps Blanket

I started this blanket when I was in LOT of pain due to my
knee injury. I sent DH up into the loft to dig out the yarn as I thought the bright colours might cheer me up.


Courthouse Steps Blanket

I then came to a halt for a bit as I ran out of yarn but I managed to buy more of the pink and 2 Ravellers came to my rescue with the green.



Courthouse Steps Blanket

It's an easy pattern to follow which is just what I needed at the time as my brain was frazzled due to pain and all the strong painkillers I was on.



Courthouse Steps Blanket


It can be folded into fun shapes.


Courthouse Steps Blanket

I've given it to the baby daughter of a very good friend of mine. It arrived during a very cold spell and the night before her parents had decided to buy a bigger blanket as little one is very good at kicking her blankets off. Then the postman delivered this...


Courthouse Steps Blanket

I edged it with a garter stitch border with mitred corners and bound off with an applied i-cord.


detail of the mitred corners, i-cord bindoff and the 'wrong side'

I enjoyed making it but was also pleased to give it away as I associated it with being in pain. Hopefully it will well used and keep a certain baby girl nice and warm.

More snow

It snowed again last night and this time we had about 2". So nothing horrendous and with winter tyres on the car and Yaktraks on my boots I enjoyed our walk this morning.

As did the dogs:

Annie seemed to have a bit of bounce but the snow revealed just how much she drags her hind paws when she walks.

They both slept well after breakfast...

A little bit of snow

We had our first snow of the winter last night and woke up to 3" on the ground.

Whilst it isn't a patch on last years snowfall it was still very welcome. Last night when I took Annie out for a 'comfort break' I realised that it was the first time I'd walked in snow since my accident on December 23rd 2009. Snow on the ground when in leg brace and on crutches means that I couldn't get out of the house and the following year I was using a walking stick and again I found myself housebound.

So I thoroughly enjoyed feeling the crunch of snow under my boots but not enough to give up my Sunday in bed. DH & DD took the dogs out this morning to play:



Annie is nearly 11 years old, blind and has been ill recently. She has arthritis and has been having problems with a middle ear infection recently which leaves her feeling very ill and often unable to walk. So I've been back and forth to the vets with her over the last couple of weeks and hope that the antibiotics do their stuff soon .

Oscar as always LOVES snow and acts like a total clown . Annie normally loves it too but it's too much for her now.

Pimp my vest...

I found a small hole recently on one of our duvet covers. Superking pure cotton duvet covers aren't cheap so I decided to repair it. As the duvet cover is a solid lilac colour I chose a scrap of a pretty purple floral fabric. Using the hearts die for my Accuquilt I applied bondaweb to the fabric before cutting the shapes out, ironed the shapes onto the duvet cover and then sewed around them with my sewing machine.


Purple hearts on a duvet cover

One heart covering the hole looked a bit lonely so I gave it some company. I wasn't that keen on the blanket stitch that the machine produced so continued but with hand sewing. :


Appliquéd hearts on short-sleeved baby vests

A friend of mine has a little baby girl which gave me a great excuse to buy some cheap white baby vests from a supermarket and raid my bag of fabric scraps.


Appliquéd hearts on long-sleeved baby vests

They have been very well received. After I'd sent them I found this blog post which has given me plenty of ideas for future gifts.

And just to demonstrate that there is also some knitting going on here's a photo of my latest project just before it was finished. It's currently blocking and I'll share more details when it's dry and photographed....


pile of garter stitch

From one charm pack....

Last weekend I did some sewing. It was my MILs' birthday 2 days before DHs' and what to get someone who has everything?

So I made her a present:


Quilted Tote Bag

Pattern: Mad Quilters' Quilted Tote Bag

Fabric: 22 5" charm squares of Moda Glace (which was given to me by a very lovely knitter), plus green cotton from my stash.


I added a few changes including a magnetic clasp


a magnetic clasp


an internal pocket

and


and a key retainer

The bag is very roomy for it's size:


2x 50g balls of sock yarn inside with plenty of room to spare

All these modifications were new to me and I used this tutorial for the Internal zipped pocket

I enjoyed the pattern but as a relative beginner found a few things a bit confusing.

Another 6 charms from the same pack were used last year when I made a little present for the physio assistant who was wonderful and helped me through the pain of using gym equipment for the first time since my accident:


Zippy Wallet in Moda Glace

Pattern: Zippy Wallet by noodlehead


Zippy Wallet in Moda Glace

I've made this pattern twice before for my niece and my Sister In Law and still enjoyed making it.


Zippy Wallet in Moda Glace

It was very well received and apparently the pocket is perfect for a hotel key card.

I still have a few charms (5" squares) left mainly of Christmas fabrics but have no plans for them yet.

I'm still behind on revealing my sewn projects and also have a knitted project that will be finished soon.

Happy Birthday DH

My gorgeous husband is celebrating his birthday today. We've had the day off work, went out for lunch and he has a great new 'toy' to play with.

His mum got him a great card which I had to share:

For Airedale lovers the card can be bought from Marks & Spencers

Twisted pleated project bag

I'm trying to catch up with my sewing projects as I've made loads of things but forgot to blog about them. I made this bag in November for Jacky on the Crafty Threads 'n' Yarns Forum in a birthday swap.


Twisted Pleated drawstring bag

It was a bit intimidating making her something to be honest as Jacky is an experienced seamstress whereas I'm still a bit of a novice. I spent AGES considering different patterns until I came across this:



I added a special touch to cover up the drawstring knots:


Japanese Flower trim

The use of pleats meant that it took a lot of fabric and a lot of sewing. I've never sewn pleats before and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be:


Twisted pleats on drawstring bag

And another view:


bottom of Twisted Pleated drawstring bag

This bag was very well received and is now being used daily as Jackys' knitting project bag.

Headphones pouch

As I go to the gym regularly now in an attempt to get full use of my leg back I'm using my ipod a lot whilst I'm exercising. So in November I made something to keep them in:


Headphones purse

Pattern: Circle Zip Earbud Pouch tutorial by Dog Under my Desk.

The fabric came in a scrap bag from Quilters Cloth and I LOVE fabric scraps. The lining fabric is a solid hot pink that matches the main fabric perfectly. I chose to add a clip rather than a key ring, as suggested in the pattern, as I don't always want to take it out with me. I've found this little pouch really useful and the wires don't get as tangled.

Charms

A sneaky peek

At what I was doing yesterday.....

Something cheery in January

Both DH and I returned to work today after the Christmas break. I always find January a long dismal month after Christmas so decided yesterday to make us both something to brighten up the working day.

These are for DH:

The pirate fabric was a small scrap from Arianwen when I first started sewing. DH has a thing about pirates and always enjoys International Talk like a Pirate day in September so the fabric had to be his. He asked for two coasters, one for his coffee and the other for his glass of water.

I also made myself a new coaster as my last coaster is looking a bit tatty.

I must wash this one more frequently as I often drink iced water and leave the coaster wet.

There are other projects to reveal but I'm waiting for DH to sort out the photos (hence using my mobile) and also some knitting.....

A little notebook cover

I decided to make a present for an friend of mine. We go back a long way but as we don't live near each other any more I don't see her very often & haven't been to her new flat. So what to make for this woman who has everything without knowing what colours she surrounds herself in. She isn't into technology (my first thought was a fabric phone cover but she hates her phone) but seems to be open to handmade items.

I decided a notebook cover (with a little notebook) was the way to go.

First I rummaged through my bag of scraps. These little triangles were given to me by a friend as leftovers from a quilt she'd made:

Then I found another scrap & made it a bit bigger:

I backed it with interfacing for stability and then did a bit of fancy stitching to jazz it up a bit (the colours are a bit off here the other 2 are more representative).

Finally with a little bit of elastic to hold the notebook inside it was ready to wrap up and post:

Anyway she loved it and was amazed to hear that it took an afternoon to put together. It would have been quicker if I hadn't been making it up as I went along.


I'm using my phone for photos at the moment so they're not wonderful.

Handmade gifts

I made these coasters for my Dad for Christmas and they were very well received. He uses the travel organiser I made him last year regularly and promises to do the same with these.

The other gifts I made were mainly chutneys, as I made 8 batches this year using the vegetables we grew,  and also made some Christmas cakes.

Another little handmade gift will appear soon.....

Tumblers

I got an Accuquilt for Christmas and have been having fun. So far I've sewn half the rows but haven't joined them together yet.

Post Christmas

We've had a relaxing time and are enjoying time at home. The furry creatures are chilling as well.....

Merry Christmas

I've been meaning to write a post for ages but never found the time.  Life has been busy since my last post. Yesterday was the second anniversary of my accident yesterday and although I'm not yet back to normal yet I have made good progress. I was discharged from both the hospital and Physio in July. I then did an 'exercise referral' at a local gym and now go regularly.

Knitting and sewing has been going on but I can't share any photos yet so instead have a peek at the basket of chutney I made for my Secret Santa gift at work.

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas.

Pot-tay-toes

No prizes for guessing what we had for had for dinner tonight....

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Green fingers

After my accident left me unable to walk last year DH took over the gardening. These photos were taken last weekend and there has been a lot of progress in that short time.

Last year DH grew lots of different vegetables some where more successful than others and this year he's carried on:

These were the strawberry plants we started with last year. The position they were in was a bit shaded so instead of fruit we got a lot of runners


strawberries

It was DD's job to plant them all up in tiny pots & then I put them into troughs at the end of the summer. This spring DH built a home for them with some timber we given to burn from a dismantled garage but it was put to better use:


strawberries shelves

There are 15 troughs of strawberries, 1 of lobellia to attract the bees and the 3 on the bottom shelf are lettuce seedlings. We've been enjoying strawberries for breakfast for the past 2 weeks and tonight had enough for pudding as well!

The original strawberry plants are much happier this year as they're against our new polycarbonate greenhouse so are very warm and toasty in a sheltered position. Last year DH grew both tomatoes and cucumbers in a cheap plastic greenhouse but this year he's taken things a bit further:


tomato plants in our new p/c greenhouse

He has grown 7 different varieties of tomatoes from seed most of which are in the 8 x10 ft polycarbonate greenhouse in the back garden with some chillies, okra and basil:


various plants in the greenhouse


It won't be too long before the crop starts...

The other tomatoes can be found at the front of the house with the strawberry shelves and the plastic greenhouse from last year.


Tomato tree

DH built the 'tree' last year when we bought the hanging grow bags. He 'over engineered' it so he can hang off it but it works wonderfully well and soon the plants will be covered in both cherry & cherry plum tomatoes. We've planted Petunias, trailing geranium and lobellia above them to encourage the bees.

In the plastic greenhouse he has cucumbers and courgettes:


cucumber and courgette plants

Last year this small 'greenhouse' held tomatoes and cucumbers and was far too crowded and it ended up being a nightmare to water and care for. So this year DH has ensured that all the plants have enough room to grow.

A tiny cucumber:


cucumber plant

We had our first cucumber yesterday and like those from last year it was gorgeous! Fresh cucumbers taste so different to those bought in the shops as do all the fruit and vegetables we've grown so far.

Returning to the back garden, we removed 2 trees this spring in an attempt to improve the light for our new greenhouse which we hated doing. The wood has been put to good use but still it felt wrong. So I bought 2 apples trees which are currently in pots but will be planted out soon:


apples

There are 3 varieties of eating apple on each tree so in a few years time we'll be self-sufficient in apples in the summer (as long DD doesn't eat them all) and the trees won't grow too tall so won't cause a problem with light.

We've also got salad potatoes growing which will be dug up next weekend:


salad potatoes grown in recycled dog food bags

The bags are left over from the dog food and we've found plenty of uses for them in the garden plus I've just given about 40 of them away on our local Freegle group. We had some potatoes growing at the end of last year but the early snow killed them off. This year we're planning on moving the bags into the greenhouse in the autumn when the other plants have finished which should help keep them going until Christmas.

Also growing but not photographed garlic (about 12 varieties), assorted lettuces, peas, beans, radishes, blueberries and plenty of herbs.

How does your garden grow?