More multiple sewing and knitting

It turns out that my two eldest grandsons (aged 5 and 7 but soon to be 6 and 8) are almost the same size. In weight and clothing if not in height. I had made some fleece vests earlier for them but they have outgrown them.

These are their new ones.

Pockets. That's what Patric likes.

This is the lining. It's flannel and those creatures are spiders. 

Both sides of the lining also have pockets - in both vests.

I also knitted them some new hats out of Paton's Decor.

Since Patric already had a ribbed hat in his chosen black and gray yarn, I made his brother Luc a hat out of his chosen colour too. He also requested hand warmers. So now they will both have two hats to choose from.

And lastly, I knitted two baby hats for my youngest daughter's friend who is due April 1st. the one on the right is now finished but I forgot to take a photo.

I think that's it for a while. Maybe I can get in some quilting.

Shhh, A Quiet Book

My middle daughter Maili, has two little children and the whole family were off to visit the other set of grandparents in California. Taking a five hour airplane ride could very well be quite boring for the little ones and stressful for the parents. I made one of the I-Spy roll-ups for them to take but my daughter really wanted a quiet book. She knew I had a lot of other things to sew and so she wasn't really expecting anything. The night before they left, after the little ones were in bed, I surprised them with both the roll-up and a felt book that I had just finished.

Creating can be very messy. This is the kitchen table with all of my felt all over the place.

One of the first pages I made was a monster with a zipper mouth and five cookies. I figured that the 'chocolate chips' could help with counting.

This weaving page was fun and not hard to put together at all.

This was the very first page I made. The apples are snapped off and on and hidden or gathered into the basket. It's a combination of different ideas that I got off the internet.

My daughter really liked the bead page. My other granddaughters counted the beads and exclaimed that it was a rainbow.

I decided that the peek-a-boo teddy bear would be the cover.

I was going to make a lion or some other animal but in the end, I settled on the little bear.

Shape matching page. There is a reason why they all have holes.

This is the lacing page. The big triangle was made to hold all the shapes from the facing page. The holes in the shapes were put there so they could be used on the lacing page too.

This was the very last page I made and it was fun. There are different shoes out there to look at and then of course, you have to figure out how to put it all together.

Here it is all put together. This is the cover.

The next two pages.

The middle pages. I just zigzagged them altogether.

The next two pages.

And, the last page.

Here's little Esme and her daddy. She's the one who liked the quiet book.

Her brother, little Teemu who watched cartoons instead.

The quiet book was fun to do. My eldest daughter said she could have used one for her boys while travelling back and forth across the country. They are now almost 6 and 8 so I wonder if one would hold their attention for long.

Sewing multiples

I got a request from my youngest daughter, Ayla, to make a longer sleep sack for her little son, Atticus. He has always been long and just keeps growing.

I already had the Thomas the Train fabric on my shelves and the flannel lining was purchased a while ago when Fabricland had a sale.

 The buttons don't match but they are roughly the same size. 

I didn't have to buy anything for this because I even had the long 22 inch zipper in my stash.

Here's the other one. I actually added a thin batting in between. I don't normally add extra batting but I wanted to try it out to see how thick it would be. This polyester batting is very thin and meant to be used in garments.

I originally cut this flannel lining to be inside the Thomas the Train sleep sack but I thought it was way too busy. I did purchase both the outer fabric and the zipper for this. It's yellow instead of the white I wanted. My closest Fabricland is closing and when I was there, the selection of zippers was sparse.

This time, the buttons do match. 

Two sleep sacks done. 

Eye spy roll-up travel games.
I had so much fun making these. I needed a small diversion and this one just fit the bill. I don't know how I came to find the site but the free pattern is here.

Each one takes 44 little 3 inch by 4 inch pieces of fabric.

I made two. There are 22 pieces on the front and 22 on the back.

Most of the fabrics were the same in each one.

One was for my granddaughter and other for my grandson (two different families) so a few of the rectangles were different.

I could have used velcro or a snap to close the strap.

But I decided to use a button and buttonhole instead. Once they are rolled up, they are small enough that they can just be thrown into a diaper bag or a purse.

My middle daughter and her family were going to visit the other set of grandparents and I made mug rugs for them of the little ones' hands.

They were fun to do. The bigger ones belong to Teemu and the other set are his sister Esme's.

Since most of my grandchildren wear (or wore) cloth diapers, sometimes store-bought pants don't fit all too well. I had made some 'big bum' pants before for Teemu and thought that I could make a few more for his little cousin Wren. These are gray, thick and thin wale corduroy.

All of the fabrics are soft and these are navy, thin wale corduroy.

Mauve sweatsuit fleece.

Little Wren wearing a brushed cotton light burgundy pair. I hope they all keep her warm.

So now you all know what's been keeping me busy sewing and not posting on this blog.



Oh, but there's still more to come.

Just a few things

I keep busy sewing, knitting and a bit of quilting.

I haven't made a scarf in a long time but I found some really soft yarn that had wool in it and the label actually had a pattern for the scarf. The yarn was so soft and since the scarf took two balls and it was thick, I thought it wouldn't take long to knit up. 

It curled a lot and so I thought I could block it. I couldn't find my foam squares but there was this long, thin piece of styrofoam that came with the new big screen TV and it seemed to be the perfect size in both width and length.

There is actually a front and back to the pattern which repeats every four rows. I made this for my eldest son, Mark, who went to the far, cold north (Yellowknife) just after the New Year.

I am in the middle of several new projects and I like to keep things in one place.

I found these at Dollar Tree and thought the colour coding would be perfect. The ones on the bottom on the right are shorter in height but wider and I thought it would perfect to use them for finished blocks.

Another little block

Every Tuesday a new 6.5" block pattern is posted at the Canadian Quilters Association website and I thought I might just follow along. It's 52 blocks in 52 weeks and since I have so much fabric to use up and since they don't take long to make, I am hoping to keep up. 

Here they are together. Week one on the left and this week's block is on the right. The patterns call for three different fabrics and I decided to stick with one colour in three shades.