Meet Looby Lou and Lulu Belle...

I'd like to introduce you to Looby Lou and Lulu Belle! LOL!


I have been wanting a mannequin forever, but every time I looked for vintage ones on Ebay, the price went so high that I just wan't prepared to pay the price.

New ones are just as expensive... but then I came across these two, both are new, and I am really happy with the style...

They are pinnable, so they are very functional, not just for looks.

And, because the price was so good, I decided to get both and it still cost me less than just one of the many I looked at.

Did you every sing the song "Here we go Looby Lou" when you were little??? Well, that's how I came up with Looby's name... now, every time I make her something I can say... here we go Looby Lou, VBG!

And Lulu Belle was a two-fold choice. One because it was kind of a spin off from Looby "Lu", and second because it's a name my Mum always loved and she always says it, so I decided to name the little one (size 3-4 years), Lulu Belle.

Now of course, they had to have a makeover because I wasn't keen on the white covering. But, living in a small town miles from anywhere, you're lucky if you can find things you need and I couldn't get a decent jersey knit... so I searched through my stash and I came across a piece that I had from when I used to make dolls... and I had previously tried to sell it in a garage sale for $2 but nobody bought it... lucky thing,because while it is slightly darker than I would like, it served its purpose well....


And here they are making their first modelling debut...


Looby Lou is wearing a lovely pink apron...


...made from a lovely vintage looking rose design fabric...


and it has hand embroidered detail at the top bodice...


....vintage buttons in almost the exact match of pink finishes it off.


Of course, how can you cook in this lovely apron without a matching set of micro mitts...

This set makes a great gift set... I made a couple more as Christmas gifts for this past Christmas....


Lulu Belle is also wearing a pretty pink apron, in the same style...


...a purchased felt flower adorns the front bodice...


...covered buttons in fabric to match the body of the apron finishes this cutie off.


Well, I hope you enjoyed meeting Looby Lou and Lulu Belle.

Peace, love and joy!

What are little sisters for, if not for bugging big sisters!

I have been anxiously waiting to show you this... but I had to wait until my sister got it before I could show you.

First of all, let me say, that there is something to be said for little sisters bugging their big sisters.... I love it, love it, love it... it is so much fun! LOL!

It certainly was a pleasure making it! I had asked if she would like something homemade for Christmas and she said yes. Let me tell you... she didn't get it for Christmas, because I wasn't done (but I did give her something small and homemade for Christmas to fill in the waiting time).... until she did get it. Tell me, do you think it was worth the wait???

When we talked at Christmas, I had Mum tell her, how gorgeous it was (not meaning to brag, but just to get her curiousity peaked!)... well, it got her curiousity peaked!

Do you know what she did, she wrote to my Mum and asked her for a hint!!!!!! Of course, I caught wind of it, because Mum asked me what she should tell her, so I said, "tell her it is big enough to carry around, but small enough to display".... then I immediately wrote to my sister when I got home and said "ahem, I hear you are asking for clues!", LOL!

And so, it went, back and forth I sent her some clues.... here they are:

Clue #2: It's got beige, brown, blue, green, peach, yellow and eggplant in it.... my sister likes beiges and greens... I am a pink/bue/green kind of person so I find her colours hard to work with, and I wanted to "confuse" her with the colours... I figured she would wonder what kind of "ugly" fabric was being used..... how do you think I did??

Clue #3: Sealed with a "string to a heart"... it dangles freely!" To which she replied "stop teasing, I am no good at all with charades! How can something dangle freely if it is sealed with a string to a heart???"

Clue #4: I responded to Clue #2 with "Oops, sorry (about the teasing)... but when it travels, all things will be contained!"... To which she replied that from Clues 1 and 2, she guessed it was on its way to her in the mail, to which I replied... "Hmmmm, could be... but then again, maybe not... however, when you do eventually see it, you will know what I meant by that clue (it had dual meaning because, yes it had been mailed).

Clue #5: When folded, it can fit in one hand, but when open it may take two.

Anyway.... I don't think she figured it out, because she never did give me any guesses... but, she got it today!

Can you figure it out??? See if you can spot the clues....

So, here's the back.... a notebook fits nicely in the pocket, and there's room for a pen too....


And this is the front with her initial on it... I created another one of my original drawings and I hand embroidered it. I usually use six-stranded cotton floss but use only one strand for the actual embroider of this type. (The embroider looks big in the picture, but probably only measures about 3x2 inches or so total).


And what is this on... well, it's a hussif of course!


See, it has a lacy thimble holder...

and see the embroidered circle, it has a magnet in it, so it is a "needle minder"... and some rings for hanging threads and ribbon. It has two pockets with zippers. Lots of little pockets that I filled with a notepad, ruler, a thread cutter/needle threader combination, a water soluble pen, a wooden cuticle stick which makes a handy little laying tool, scissors, and needle and pins... there's a flap with pieces of fabric to store theneedles and pins!


I also included a pin cushion, and a matching scissor fob:


I didn't want it to be "floppy" so, everything is lined, and some of the pieces have reinforcements which helped to give it the stiffness I was looking for.

I can't say this went without its hitches as I was designing as I went along and often changed my mind. For instance, the zippered pockets were a last minute thing and I put on the zippers but didn't like that you could see the zipper on the inside, so I ripped them off, undid the lining, then inserted the zippers properly.

Another small "blip" was when I sewed everything together and turned it inside out... well, I had so many layers that the hole I made to turn it inside out was not big enough and I struggled for an hour until I got it turned right side out, however, because I had used linen, it was so wrinkled and I couldn't get the wrinkles out that I ripped it apart again, reblocked, and used a different method for putting it together.

One last thing... I started off with a heart-shaped pocket for the scissors like I have seen on so many hussifs, but I decided it was really wasted space and I wanted to get the most out of the space that I could. So I replaced that with one big pocket that I divided into three for inserting things.

While it is not perfect, all in all I have to say it was a great learning experience and I am very happy with the design and will use this again, with a few minor alterations.

So what do you think? I am so jealous, because I haven't even made one for myself yet.... usually for all us stitchers, "myself" usually always comes last, so it will most likely be a while before I get around to making myself one. My Mum and her friend Kay already want one too.

So here's a recap of the clues:

1. Small enough to carry, but large enough to display - it measures approximately 6.25 X 9.25 inches in it's open state, 6.25 X 4+ inches when closed.
2. It's got beige, brown, blue, green, peach, yellow and eggplant in it... no, it wasn't all in the fabric!
3. Sealed with a "string to a heart"... it dangles freely! (Look closely at the closure, it is a button that you wrap with a string that just happens to have a heart on the end....)... I didn't want to use ribbon because it wrinkles and takes time to "tie a bow" and I didn't want a button loop.... so this was my solution.
4. When it travels, all things will be contained (does this only mean "it was mailed"!).
5. When folded, it can fit in one hand, but when open it may take two....

I am pleased to say this needlecase will accommodate most needlecraft techniques in that the zippered pockets are big enough to hold fair sized pieces of fabric, patterns, or tiny embellishments you don't want to get lost. You can fill the pockets with whatever suits your fancy for the craft you've chosen. And the best thing is you can take it with you anywhere because it will fit nicely in your purse!

My sister was happy with her gift and said the kindest words to me! Those words meant so much to me from my "big sister".

Luv ya Sis! XX

Peace, love and joy!

Surprises from the heart make the best gifts!

T his Christmas, my sister, Theresa, and I, worked on a crazy quilt cushion for our Mum. We have both only recently started in this type of needlework, but we wanted a surprise for our Mum.

The story goes like this...

This past year I introduced my sister to Crazy Quilting, which I too had just learned. In October she asked me if I was interested in working on a cushion together for our Mum. Of course I said yes. So, she pieced together the cushion (and I believe I recognize some of the fabric being from either my Mum or myself). Then she sent it to me. I started my share of the embellishing on it, sent it back to her along with some trim for the outside. She finished her part of the embellishing, added the trim, backing and zipper and then sent it back to me. I supplied the pillow form and wrapped it up.

Of course, Mum kept wondering why she had not received a gift from my sister yet (because she usually sends her gift on time... unlike me!) ... and I continued on with my "lying ways" that I had fallen into since October when we had started this project, VBG, and said that my sister was probably busy this year with some unexpected events that always seem to happen to the best of us.

On Christmas Day, as I "bubbled" (cried) away, I told Mum the story of the journey of the cushion - and all the lies that had went along with it... and of course when Mum opened the unexpected gift, she had even bigger "bubbles"... it was a wonderful "gift" for all three of us...

Mum's favourite colour is purple/lilac, and even though this was mostly pink, we were able to slip in her favourite colour... and it sorted of ended up with a bit of a butterfly theme because of once piece of the fabric...

and so, here's the cusion....


Here are a few close up pictures of what we did... well, a lot of pictures, VBG!

This is some of the work I did on the cushion....


And here's some of the work my sister did...




If you have a sister, close friend, or other relative that enjoys the same kind of work as you... then I highly recommend that you get together and make something special for someone you love. My sister and I had fun "keeping this secret", doing something together (even with the many miles between us), and the joy of surprising our Mum!

We have plans to work on something together again this year... but I think we might just try to get an earlier start on it... VBG!

Peace, love and joy....

Did I show you this?

I've been spending the last few days slowly updating bits and pieces of my blog... yes, I am getting tired of the way it looks, so it's time for a change... but it will happen slowly.

In the meantime, as I was looking through some of my pics, I came across one of a dress I had made for my great niece and I realized I had never showed it here on this blog...

So I thought I'd show you...

I decided to make a "cartoon" of Jace and her dog, and this is what I came up with....

Then I took this image and inserted it into an heirloom dress...

The dress is completely finished with french seams and the bodice is lined so you don't see the back stitching. Small floral buttons in a deep peach finish up the back. It is made from 100% cotton in a lovely floral pattern.

Peace, love and joy.

A Christmas treasure...

My good friend Judy asked me to exchange sewing Christmas postcards again this year, and I said yes...

The idea is to create a post card sized piece of "sewing craft", write a greeting on the back like a regular postcard, and then send it off....

Judy and I co-ordinated it so we would both open our cards at approximately the same time.... of course, I told Judy that we had to wait until at least the month of December to open them, VBG!

This year, Judy send me a beautiful Brazilian embroidered Christmas tree, presents and all... it is lovely, and makes another wonderful treasured keepsake.


Not only did Judy send me this wonderful postcard, but she also made me a delightful dorset button - I don't know how she did it, but it is wonderful....


.... and she enclosed a whole bunch of other goodies.... a whole pile of tea because she knows I am a passionate tea drinker, beads, rings to make my own Dorset buttons (and the directions to make the buttons which I forgot to include in the picture), some lovely faerie Christmas fabric because she knows I love faeries, and some brooch backs in case I want to turn my Dorset button into a bro0ch... she spoiled me. Thank you Judy... all the goodies are just wonderful with fantastic keepsakes.


Here's a picture of the post card I made to exchange with Judy...


Peace, love and joy!

And the winner is.....

First of all, I would like to say thank you to all who have entered my draw. To those of you new to my blog... welcome! If you didn't win this time... perhaps you'll be lucky next time.

Well, the consensus was that most everyone liked Birdie #3.... funny, I thought pink was a hot item.....

I asked my DH to pull the winner for me...



and the winner is.....

Kay!

Kay says the tradition for her each Christmas is to make dozens and dozens of Shortbread cookies that she gives away to many friends and family!

Enjoy your birdie Kay!

Season's Greetings!

Peace, love and joy!

Better to give than to receive.

'Tis the season! Are you in the midst of Christmas preparations, or is it still too early for that?

I've been doing some Christmas stitching ... I can't show them off yet because they're pressies. I stopped stitching because I needed a break, but I made these and I can show you them... there are quite a few, similar, but all different... (click image for a larger view)...


Balls #1, #2, #3


Birds #1, #2, #3, #4, #5
Hanging #1, #2, #3, #4

What do you think??? Are any of them worth giving away... would somebody want one? Would you want one?

If you were to wait for me to reach a hundred posts... you'll probably have a long long wait, so, in the spirit of the season, I have decided to give one of these away! I'm not sure which one yet... but perhaps you can help me decide. There's a couple of things you'll need to do to get your name into the draw, and they are....

1. Leave a comment on this post.
2. Tell me which ornie you'd choose if you could (by Item # please).
3. Tell me where you're from - I'd like to learn about who's visiting my blog, and if you have any special Christmas traditions in your family or country.
4. If you've been on my follower list before this posting, or are one of my regular posters, and you leave me a comment, I'll put your name in again just for your loyalty.
5. If you post about this giveaway on your blog, let me know, I'll check it out, and you'll get your name in again.

I'll be making the draw sometime next Sunday, November 22, 2009. Yup, short draw, but really, how long can it take for you to decide if you want one or not?!

Peace, love and joy!