Mondays-make-do-or-mend-on-Wednesday

Dec 7, '11 10:00 AM for Jilly's friends, Jilly's family and Jilly's online buddies

It's 2 weeks since my last "Make do and mend" Blog and I haven't done as much as I would have liked. Don't really know why as I have had the time.  Lethagy has struck quite often. If you look at my sewing room though it looks like I was busy.  Look at the mess!

I did get the sofa quilt finished.  It took forever to sew on the binding.  I messed up one side and had to unpick it. 

Still it is done now and I can begin on a new quilting project in the new year. I laid it on a bed so you can see it.  It isn't as wrinkly as it looks!

Remember I made a little nick on the back?  I covered it with a patch!

I have been making little brooches from felt, fabric scraps and buttons.  I saw these in an Etsy store and they were selling for £12!  I just copied them myself and I am really pleased with how they are turning out.

This is the first one that I did.

Here is another one

Here are some more in various unfinished stages!

Before I begun on these I didn't have much of a button collection and I brought some from John Lewis to get me started.  Never again.  They were SO expensive.  I have since forund several good sources on the internet and have begun to build a collection so that I will always have the right button for a project.  Here are some of them.

I have been practising the crochet this week too.  I had ago when my friend Dixie posted instructions but I was struggling.  LOL. I'm still struggling!  Denise went over the basic stitch with me last week and said I had to keep practising It before I can move on.  Here is one of my attempts.  You will see that it gets narrower towards the top.  I think that I was missing out the last stitch each time.  I am still finding it hard to pick out the individual stitches hence sometimes I have less than what I started with and sometimes I have more! They come and go!  I WILL get the hang of this.

*  This photo is missing because I left the crochet at Denise' house!

I have also been working on the little dollies quilts for the bunk beds that Simon has made Ellie for Christmas.  I'm quite pleased with them. Here is one.

I have made 2 more sock monkeys. Both of them still need mouths!  They are snowman presents for Jessica and Flynn.

The pink one is for Jess.

The blue one is for Flynn.

This is another little felt and bead brooch half done.

I have another project underway that is for my new sewing room.  I saw a similar thing on the Etsy site and am going to copy it.  It is a button clock.  I have just started to decide on buttons and placement.

Finally......... those half finished brooches?  Here they are all done.

That's it for this time.  Given that I am hoping that I will have to start packing up my sewing stuff in the next few days, this will probably be the last "Make do and mend " blog for 2011. By the new year we will hopefully be organised in the new house and I can set up my dedicated sewing and craft room and get started on all the ideas that are currently running around my heard.  Bring it on!