Challenge 7 - Got there at last!!!

Ok, I'll put my hand up, I'm the one that delayed this challenge for so long!

Lesley had her softie made and delivered to its recipient on time (a rather long time ago)

Whereas I have been piffling and pootling and faffing and pithering with a splash of bimbling thrown in for good measure (thanks for such great words Lesley!)

It's not that I haven't been productive - I have, honestly, just not on this project.

I cut it out and stitched the body weeks ago.....................

(time passes)


Then I started turning the limbs.......................


(time passes again)


Then I started stuffing the limbs and body.................................


(more time passes)


Then I turned a couple more limbs

(even more time passes)


Then I cut out the dress (from my very gorgeous Greengate napkin) ..........................

(half a day passes)


Until, finally, I actually sat myself down, detached myself from my knitting needles, untangled myself from the wool and gave myself a good talking to.

Then I plugged the iron and the sewing machine and got to work.

And hey presto, several hours later - look who's here


My very own "Floss" from this pattern.

I'm so pleased I have finished her.

And I'm very impressed with how patient and tolerant Lesley has been for waiting all this time for me to get my act together!

Thanks Lucy!

Well, I decided to make a Magoo monkey from this Melly & Me pattern for my nephew's 2nd birthday on (ahem) 2nd March!

I was very strong minded and made him out of fabric from my stash as I really couldn't justify buying even more!!

The pattern and instructions were so well laid out and so clear to follow that he was a delight to make. He's also rather huge!!

He seemed to go down ok with the birthday boy - I'd have appreciated a little more enthusiasm from his mother but she struggles to get the whole hand made thing - I get the impression she thinks I'm being cheap!!

I have three more patterns from Melly & Me's range that I want to make but then I also have several long lists of things I need to, want to, have to make so I'm not making myself any promises!!!

So although this one has been a long time coming we hope you like our finished goodies and that they were worth the wait!

Now we'd better have a staff meeting to decide what Challenge 8 will involve.

See you soon and have a very Happy Easter!

Lucy and Lesley xx

Challenge No.7

Our next challenge is going to be lovely. Lucy and I are both fans of the beautiful soft toy patterns designed by Melly and Me.

Therefore for Challenge No.7 we will each choose a soft toy to make using one of their patterns.

As always - please join in and send us a photo if you'd like to.

Back soon,


Lesley and Lucy xxxx

Time flies ...or 'I thought Valentine's Day was 25th February'

Er ...... sorry for the slight (11 day) delay on this one!!!!

Poor Lucy Locket has had her Valentine cushion all done and ready to blog since Valentine's Day itself. Unfortunately her challenge partner has been found somewhat wanting on the crafting front of late.

In my defence yer honour it's been a busy couple of weeks and I have been bravely battling the lurgy to beat all lurgies - I may even have caught the dreaded Man Flu but rest assured I've passed it back to Moogsdad :)

Onto the whole point of the post then!!!

Here's the cushion I've made for Moogsdad on behalf of his Minx who provided the beautiful artwork of herself, her Dad and her Teddy.

Please note the figures are not necessarily to scale ;) In real life Minx is not twice as big as her Dad - although volume-wise she is!!!


Here's a close up of Minx and Moogsdad (he's a little less assymmetrical in real life - ha haaaa!!):

Without further ado here is Lucy's beautiful cushion that has been ready for nearly two weeks!!! (good job she doesn't have a Moog as it would be looking very slobbered on by now!!)


I was quite happy to wait as long as Lesley wanted/needed/or forever really because I am not very impressed with what I made.

In my defence I made it while Mr Locket was at work on Valentine's day and it was finished for him coming home.

The quotation is from Robbie Burns "My love is like a red red rose" and I first heard this sung at a Burns' Night supper the year before Mr Locket and I got married and I loved it, especially the line "til all the seas gang dry my dear".

I appliqued a little heart on the back just to stop it looking too boring and because blogland has inspired me to do that little bit extra that you wouldn't necessarily see.

It's not my best piece of work and I had much greater ambition in mind but it goes well with the rest of our "hearty" cushions on the sofa and Mr Locket was very pleased with it which is what really matters.

I just wish I had produced something as amazing as Lesley's cushion!

Challenge No.6

For this challenge I suggested to Lesley that we make something Valentines-y.

But this time for us to keep.


Or, as I put it in the email to Lesley:

"I've had a thought for the next challenge. Could we maybe make something for Valentine's day for our home/husband? I'd quite like to make Mr Locket/the sofa a cushion"

Whether Mr Locket/the sofa would like a cushion is another matter! And I obviously don't call him that to his face.

So that's the plan for this week/fortnight/whenever. To make our dear husbands/sofas a luvverly valetines-y cushion-y thing-y.

As always, feel free to join in.

Lucy x

Happy cushions!

Lucy here!

This has been a fun challenge and I have really enjoyed stitching Daisy's bird's nest picture

I love the way she draws and tried to be as faithful to the original as possible although it was quite hard to trace as I didn't have access to a photocopier to make the lines bolder.

As it was Daisy's picture I decided to use some of her clothes to make it into a cushion. The pink gingham is from a pair of Boden trousers that were Dorothy's and then Daisy's and the denim is from a lovely hand-me-down pinafore dress that had a zip up the front. You can't see the denim very well from the front as the cushion inner is a bit big at the moment - I'm waiting for it to squish down!

The zip came in very handy for the opening on the back and I think it looks nice enough to have this way round too - especially with those lovely recycled pockets!!! I was really quite happy with it until I saw what Lesley had been doing................................

I decided to make two stitcheries - using one of Minx's and one of Sausage Monster's pictures. Believe me I'll do anything to avoid an argument!!!

The cushion on the left is Minx's design of the Moog making the sofa nice and hairy. I buried all my adult needs to make it 'right' and reproduced it exactly as Minx had drawn it - i.e. with the sofa lines going through the dog etc.

The one on the right is Monster's lovely drawing of our house - he's even drawn the downstairs loo extension on the side of the house :)

Their original drawings were on A5 paper so I enlarged them a couple of times on the photocopier and use dressmakers carbon paper to trace the images onto a piece of Scrapstore calico.

Minx's was a simple matter of back stitching over the traced lines using colours to represent our sofa and our dog!

Monster had drawn his picture with a thick orange felt tip which got even thicker with enlarging. As I don't have the patience or inclination to do the whole thing in satin stitch I used orange fabric paint and then stitched around the edges.

The cushion fronts were made with some patchwork fabric from the Hobbycraft sale basket. I kept the backs as simple as possible with an envelope closure - made from a nice big bit of Scrapstore fabric.

I'm really pleased with how these came out and may have to make more for the other sofa. Then there's the armchair. Maybe some floor cushions.....................

As we have said before we would love you to join in with any of our challenges if you feel the urge. Gina asked if she could come out to play this week! She mentioned that she didn't have any little people handy to draw her pictures. I emailed her this one that the Minx had done at the same time as her Moog picture.

Isn't she lovely?

Beautifully appliqued and freehand machine stitched outline!!!! I'm going to have to try doing that myself - it looks scary, especially the curly hair. Minx told me she thinks Gina is 'wicked' - such praise and so well deserved :)

Thanks so much for coming out to play Gina!

P.S From Lucy

I just have to show you the picture Fred has drawn which will be my next stitchery - once I have done all the things I HAVE to get done!

I thought they were aliens but apparently they are thumb-wrestlers!

Challenge No.5 - in stitches!

Thanks so much for all your lovely bunny comments!

After a little pondering we both agreed that our next challenge would involve some stitchery.

There was a lovely post last week on Mollychicken showing stitcheries made from children's drawings which had been made into cute little bags. Picking up this fab idea we have decided to use drawings done by our children and will turn them into a......something.......not 100% sure what yet but cushions seem like a possibility!

If you can please pop over to Monkee Maker's blog as the lovely MM is holding a very special raffle to raise vital funds to help a very brave little girl get the medical treatment she deserves.

Be back soon :)

Lucy and Lesley xxxx

Breeding like rabbits!!!

There's a great deal of truth in the belief that rabbits breed like....erm, rabbits.

We chose to make a Tilda Bunny each for our 4th challenge.

Here's the offering from the House of Moog. Once I'd stopped bleating about the other things I really have to get made at the moment I thoroughly enjoyed making my rabbit (singular).

The pattern and instructions were easy to follow and she went together without a hiccup.

Despite having to amputate her legs at one point as I'd sewn them on backwards. Ahem...

Well, apart from having to scrub her face prior to stuffing as a big black mark had appeared. Apart from that it was fine.

Mmmm, except for having to make the hat to hide the fact that her ears had somehow developed a yellowish tinge!!

Then there was 'antiqueing' the lace in a mug of strong coffee as my cream lace had 'disappeared'........

Easy :)

The rabbit's body, dress and trousers are all made from recent finds at the Scrapstore. the only bit of 'new' fabric is the red checked bit on her ears which I got from here - fantastic online service as the fabrics arrived less than 24 hours after ordering!

She's yet to be named but she has been 'bagsied' by the Minx!

Unfortunately my photos aren't as gorgeous as Lesley's - partly because while she had sunshine we had heavy slushy snow-showers (not nice stuff at all, although Lesley reckons she's jealous! I'd rather have sunshine anytime!)

My bunnies have definitely been multiplying! I went for the smaller version from the Tilda book and used the green cord trousers for various different bits and pieces.

I don't know what they are all looking at though! I wish they would pay attention when I am taking their photo.

And here is my other little bunny:


Not a Little Cotton Rabbit - do you really think I could have kept it quiet if I had managed to get one of Julie's wonderful creations????

No, this is a Debbie Bliss bunny knitted by yours truly - unfortunately I have lost one of the ties for her cardigan and haven't had time to make another one yet! She is meant to have a pink net tutu (oh, and some ballet shoes too) but I went for this velvet ribbon and broiderie anglaise combo.

The bunny is knitted from Eco-wool and the cardigan is made from some gorgeous Louisa Harding angora mix. It is so soft and was lovely to knit.

Considering I say I don't "do" knitting, I seem to be doing rather a lot lately!

I think both Lesley and I have really enjoyed making our bunnies so don't be surprised if they keep on breeding!