Mending

My heat went out so I did the dishes, put away the laundry, took out all the trash, and tackled a bunch of mending projects I've had around for a.... long time. Don't ask me why, maybe I should be cold more often and I'd get more done.

I had a cheap scarf that I bought when I was a teen with frayed edges - I gave up and tossed that, the material was too cheap and I couldn't mend it. I had a little quilted thing with my name on it from when I was a kid - it used to be on a bag - I decided I didn't need it and tossed that too. I bought a darning egg to try and mend my special mittens. I'm going to bring back a pompom to fix a little stuffed bunny and I'm going to need a few other things to fix this little toy I have. I still have Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle's clothes to recreate.

I restuffed and sewed back up this little reversible doll - it goes with a bigger reversible doll. It's about four inches tall.

I've had this pillow for years - my grandmother made it, I think? I replaced the fur (NO, I didn't buy any bunny fur! There was a little envelope of fur with it and I'm not going to waste it!), restuffed, and resewed it up.

Skirt for Sara

This was a skirt I made for Sara. I started with Simplicity pattern 3568 (and threw away all the extras - I'm not making anything with darts. Forget it.) I used Sara's measurements to size it correctly and added additional panels. We tried it and it looked about right. Then I made a waistband and left it empty for Sara to do elastic or a drawstring as she preferred and I put lace on the bottom instead of a ruffle, since I wasn't sure how to expand the ruffle from the original pattern. I think this one came out pretty well - we'll have to see how Sara likes it, but I'm making a mock-up of the pattern if I decide to make another one with this general pattern.

Scrap quilt

Sara came down to try on her skirt and got roped into photographer's prop. I've been collecting scraps and sewing them together since my teens and I finally had enough for a small quilt. This is over 20 years old! Hard to believe it! I slapped on a green border and background, and freestyled some quilting over the edges.

Woodland Flannel quilt

Finally finished! This was just strips of squares, but took a long time. It's double-sided and the edges are just tucked in and sewed together. It is very warm. Yes, that is my unmade bed. I don't really have anywhere big enough to lay it out so you can see the pattern, but it's there (at least on one side the other side I ran out of a few squares.)

Tulip quilt

Finally finished a quilt! I've been saving these green and pink tulip squares for years. Gradually I sewed them together. Then gave up on every finding more. Then picked up some weird, stretchy green fabric somewhere that I used for backing. Then it sat for a while. Last weekend I finally used pink embroidery thread to knot it at several points, then I pinned the edge, then zigzag stitched it with pink on top and green on the bottom. Done!

Scarf

One last present! I used gold-colored silk embroidery thread and hemmed a lot of pieces of high-quality fleece together into a long, thin scarf. The person I gave this to likes to hike and this fabric is really, really warm so I thought it would be just right. I doubled a zigzag stitch to get the effect.

Scarf

This was also a present. I took a lot of very soft, high-quality fleece I had left from a cape I'd made years ago. I cut it into shape and then used my jewel-toned embroidery silks and a special stitch on the sewing machine to create the pattern. I had to stop halfway through and completely clean out the sewing machine because all the fluff clogged it and the thread caught several times, but I did it at last!

Scarf

This was a present. I lined a fancy fabric with pink flannel. I sewed it in a zigzag stitch with jewel-toned silk. It was a little tricky to get the seams right without the thread catching because of the different weight of it.

Vegetable bag

Another present. A shopping bag for someone who likes her veg! It's quite large - about two feet.

Tomato bag

This was a present.

Baked apples

crocheted bag

This is a bag I made to replace the one I haul my kindle and charging cord around in on occasion. I made the basic rectangle, then a second free-standing rectangle and hooked it across to make a pocket.

German apple cake

I bought a spring form pan just to bake this. It was ok - pretty easy to make, rather like a pound cake with apple on top. It's even better with tons of whipped cream dumped on it. Otherwise it's a bit dry for my tastes.

Peach cobbler

This was a recipe for crispy peach cobbler. I think it would have gone better if I'd had a broader pan. However, it was easy and the staff liked it.

Overnight blueberry french toast

I used this recipe (cut in half). Sort of. I didn't do the sauce (seriously? I'm not making a compote or whatever it is!) and I used frozen blueberries. I think I possibly had too much bread and didn't distribute the egg mixture evenly enough over it. and it could have used more blueberries. I just put a little butter on top in the last few minutes. It was actually quite edible though. I think I might use this again but tweak it a little more next time.

Chicken

I made this buttermilk chicken recipe from TND. It tasted ok. It was easy. But I realized I...don't think I've ever actually roasted chicken before, so I have nothing to compare it to.

Apple cake take 2

I tried again, this time with all the ingredients, and it's really, really good. Moist and appley. Sort of like apple pie filling with a little moist cake. Not remotely healthy, except for the apples, but yummy.

Crazy quilt

Finally finished one top. I've been sewing bits on this for YEARS. I think I'm just going to sew a plain muslin border and back to it.