Soiree Cushion Covers

I am still playing with scraps from my Soiree jelly roll, and have heaps left so more to come.

I am on hols for a month as I have too much leave accrued, and as I am sooo sick of my work right now, I agreed to take some leave. So today I whipped up a couple of these mega-sized cushion covers and spent the rest of the day hand quilting in front of DVDs and the heater.

Sugar kept the heater warm for me while I was getting my piecing done.

While Spice just made a big old mess of the bed and decided to try to keep warm in there.

It's lucky I love these dogs so much because washing sheets and making beds are two of my least favourite things, and I wouldn't do them for just anybody!

Bits and pieces

It was too cold to venture too far from the heater yesterday so I spent a quiet day watching DVDs and doing a little hand quilting on some scraps.

These fabrics are so pretty, and I love the effect of big hand quilting on it. I think I will make these into little purses or bags. Or maybe a pin cushion.

Sugar's New Coat

I finally finished Sugar's new coat and I think she looks very beautiful in it.

I think she likes it. But she's looking a little nonplussed here, as I dragged her away from in front of the heater to take a photo outside. I don't know what the outdoor temperature is, but indoors it is 7 C right now, so I can totally understand!

Doggy things

Winter is here in Sydney and the days and nights are starting to get chilly.

I've been crocheting a new winter coat for Sugar in all the colours of the rainbow (see below):


I hope I finish it in time for her to get some use out of this winter. I've also just bought a new kennel for her. They have a kennel but Spice normally gets in first and refuses to share, so I decided it was time to get a second kennel to keep Sugar off the cold ground.


I put it together yesterday but as yet neither has gone in it! While I'm home the dogs are pretty much always in the house with me, and sleep in the house, so I guess they might give it a try when I'm back at work tomorrow. Hope so!

Soiree Arm Chair Caddy

I took advantage of the novel situation of being told not to go to work yesterday to get some sewing done!

I've been admiring these Soiree charm squares and jelly roll and wondering what to do with them, and looking at the mess around my arm chair and constantly losing everything under the cushion, decided to make an arm chair caddy.

I started with two appliqued circle blocks and then went from there, making it up as I went, so it ended up a bit of a riotous clash of colours!

Above is one side, with a largish pocket for all the quilty goods I need while I'm watching TV. And on the other side are three smaller pockets for my remotes (one of which is missing!).

I didn't put a pin cushion on this one, as I made this for the side of the chair the pups like to "greet" me from. And greeting usually entails faces and paws etc on the chair arm.

In retrospect, I think I could have done with a lot more white to break the fabrics up and make them more distinct. I was making this design up as I went, and really should have drawn a diagram or thought about it first! But, whatever, it certainly brightens the place up.

And here are a couple of dishcloths I made through the week:

Did I say dishcloths? I am going to use them as face washers instead.

More crochet from QUARANTINE

I have been a bit crochet mad lately. It's something easy to do while snuggled up in bed watching TV, now that it is getting wintery and I am still getting over the flu so haven't had much energy for anything else.

I made two sets of the above - the same as the white ones I made, but in a mercerised pink cotton.

And also this filet crochet runner for my dressing table:

As for the post heading, I am in QUARANTINE!

A work mate has a relative in the same dwelling with suspected swine flu, so as a precaution, my whole team was sent home this morning and told not to come back til Monday.

I'm thrilled cos I'm still feeling run down from the normal flu so am just ecstatic over getting to sleep in tomorrow and rest up more in bed.

We'll find out tomorrow if the person in question really does have swine flu, and if so, we'll all need to be tested and quarantined further. So hopefully it doesn't come to that and everyone is well and just gets a day off work!

Crochet from the sick bed

While confined to the house and doing nothing more exciting than watching crappy DVDs, I've managed to crochet this doiley for my new lamp:

I just love this pattern. I love the way each band just barely connects to the next. For once, my tension is right too so it actually sits flat!

And it seems to go well with my new lamp shade.

The best thing about this pattern is that you can make it in almost any size, by increasing or decreasing the number of bands. So I plan to make a matching one for the other bedside table and then a couple of coasters as well.

The pattern is from Australian Crochet V1 No3. I don't know what ever happened to this magazine. I think I bought this about 10 years ago and at that time, I purchased 3 issues and then it disappeared from the newsstands.