Sewing Stories ~ Baby Sleeping Bag

My best friend had her second baby earlier this year. For her first child, I made a patchwork cot quilt. After having my son six months later, and being given a cot quilt which we didn't really use, I wondered how much she'd used hers.

We found the baby sleeping bags really useful so I decided to make one for her second baby. After looking on the internet for ideas and patterns, I decided to just use a sleeping bag that I'd kept, as a template.

My son helped me choose the fabric - slightly tricky as we didn't know if the baby was going to be a boy or a girl. The patterned fabric is cotton and the lining is a lovely soft brushed cotton. I was going to use some quilting batting in between but I didn't want the baby to overheat.

I laid the sleeping bag I had onto paper and traced the shape out. I used binding all the way round to join the front and back of each piece, then machine stitched on the binding join to join the front of the bag to the back, with a zip inserted in the side and poppers on the shoulders to get baby in and out.

With the left over material I made a simple square blanket for big sister to use with her dolls. The baby is a boy :-)

Knitting Notes ~ Re-knitted Top

I knitted this top last year for summer and wore it once but wasn't quite happy with it. I used the same yarn as the pattern and I always do a tension square but somehow it didn't sit on me properly. So I put it in a cupboard and, typical of me, started on another project.

This year I fished it out of the cupboard to decide what I wanted to do with it. I thought that it may have been the lacy pattern at the back - should I just do stocking stitch for the back? The only trouble is that I didn't have much spare yarn left and didn't want to run out.

Should I substitute the lacy stitch for another that wasn't as open? In the end I decided to do the pattern the same just in smaller size needles.

Eh voila! It worked. The top isn't as baggy and sits much more nicely. Worth undoing and trying again.

 

The pattern is by Sirdar and the yarn is Summer Stripes.

Watercolour ~ Mount Rundle, Alberta, Canada

Yeah yeah, I know that my challenge to myself this year was paint one watercolour each month of a North East scene but when we got back from our trip to the Canadian Rockies I was just itching to paint the mountains!

This is one of my favourite views in the world. I have been fortunate enough to have visited it twice now. I have also painted it twice. The first watercolour I did was many years ago for my dad as a present. Here is my latest one.

Mount Rundle is actually a range of peaks numbered from 1 - 7 that stretch from Banff to Canmore. This distinctive peak is number 1 at Banff, seen from Vermillion Lakes.

I used Cerulean Blue Hue, Prussian Blue, Cadmium Yellow Hue, Burnt Umber and Payne's Grey.

I am really happy with the way this has turned out. I may even frame this original and hang it on our wall...although perhaps I should wait until I have done my other mountain paintings!

You can find cards and giclee prints of Mount Rundle, Alberta, Canada to purchase on my Fine Art website.

Thank you for looking!

Gillian.