Steam pug helmet

Things are going well, the only things I still have to do are waistcoat buttonholes and buttons and a tail on the pug costume. And do a makeup trial run as I'm going to attempt fancy eyeshadow which may prove to be outside my core area of competence! But that's what YouTube tutorials are for right? Well that and crafty things.

Here is Hazel's Steam Pug helmet, based on Doggleheim's iconic poster (available here and yes you need one)

Now we're going to have our own version sporting goggles AND a helmet. How flash. The colour has gone a bit weird, the helmet is a much richer brown in RL. 

I stupidly put everything on the helmet before I tried the goggles on top but luckily they just fit around all the tubes and ears. Phew! I've made SO many mistakes over the last few weeks I'm glad that wasn't yet another or I might have cried. 

Two finishes

I have a real issue with finishing things, they'll sit 99% done for ages before I spend the 10 minutes needed to sew on a button or finish off a seam. So when I say that I finished TWO things yesterday it really should have party streamers and balloons and noise makers surrounding it. I'm pleased with both of them but I must admit a certain amount of trepidation in showing them here because they will reveal the extent to which I have become a tragic pug owner who has "all the pug-related merchandise made by anyone, ever" to quote this Gemma Correll poster. Or in this case, made by me. And yes, I have that poster too!

 

This cute little guy is destined for the (human) new baby brother of Ace, one of Ollie's mates. I think his head ended up a bit big due to overstuffing, but he manages to stay upright despite it. The pattern was from Jaravee on Etsy.

 

 The second was this embroidery, from Bridgeen, also off Etsy. I changed it a little from the original so it looked a bit more like Ollie looking up at me with big eyes so that I'll give him an almond.



And yes, he usually does get the almond - who could resist?

Bee blocks. Actually make that crochet.

When I started to type the title for this post it was going to be about two lots of bee blocks I've made for our Monday Modern group - but when I went to find the photos they weren't there. I have no idea where they are, I know I took them! I had a bit of trouble the last time I downloaded from the big camera and I'm wondering if they got lost somehow, hope they're still on the camera! What kind of blogger loses photos of projects? You can see others' versions on our Flickr group.

So on to some crochet I've been doing. Before Ollie came along I had a bit more spare time, and I filled it making odd but charming things like decorative frills for the jars I often use for flowers. The pattern came from Simple Crochet, but I adapted it to fit the jars I had. They didn't turn out quite as nice as the book's examples but it was fun and I think I'll do it again but just use some of the edging patterns I have in various crochet books and nicer cotton yarn.

I've also been working on some motifs from the same book using Perle 8 and mercer thread no.20 which is a lot more fiddly but very satisfying when it comes out nicely! There's a nice little collection growing for a particular project I have in mind. I've also conquered the slip ring start which has been a struggle for me up till now.



And lastly, there is Ollie, who at 13 weeks continues to be both delightful and gorgeous along with seriously annoying and a pain-in-the-butt. At least once a day he get deposited rather unceremoniously into his playpen after biting too hard one time too many; but is then reprieved after a short while by being so adorably cute. Often I think the issue is just too much excess energy for us to burn off. Luckily Helen's boxer Woody is very fond of puppies and it turns out that Ollie is very fond of him too and two dogs can expend a lot of energy in a backyard. Here they are on their first date (and no, Woody is NOT doing anything untoward to Ollie, which is what my husband suggested, they are simply sharing a water bowl). You can really tell there is pug in boxer breeding can't you!



And here is an arty black and white Ollie early one morning seconds before he leaped wildly towards the camera.

Scrappy Tripalong top finished

Oh my god being a puppy-mummy is hard work! Getting easier but still, not a lot of time for sewing because if Ollie doesn't need attention then Hazel does! It's going to be much easier when she goes back to school on Tuesday, but also a bit lonely. She's really looking forward to it though, starting Year 3, up to the Middle school, new room, new teacher, and a couple of good friends to keep her company.

I finished up the Scrappy Tripalong quilt top last night. It had stalled a bit when I discovered that at least two of the blocks were too small in one dimension to be used so I decided it would be better to just make a few more and use them than try and sort out the old blocks and made 8 more. As it turned out (of course), it was just the two blocks I'd initially identified that were a problem, so I have 8 more blocks to do something with! Hazel has asked to have this so there's no point in adding more to the quilt for a single bed. It's not perfect, there are some seams with a big of a jag between blocks, but it's so busy you can't really tell. I think the problem was one particular fabric that must have been on more of the bias than I realised, and has stretched a bit. I'm really picky about cutting on the bias but with vintage sheets it can be quite hard at times as they are cheaply made, and sometimes super-wonky - the weave doesn't run perpendicular to the selvedge, or even straight across in many cases, so sometimes I just had to say "f**k it" and cut however.

I enjoyed making it, now I just have to make myself keep going and get it quilted. Not sure how well my machine will cope with it, it's the biggest thing I've made so far. I know I can do a smaller single but this might just be a bit too big for the throat of the machine. Very simple quilting ahoy! Of course I had some help with taking the photos...

It's hard to get the colours to show up properly, it always seems to look darker than it really is. It's quite light and bright actually, more the top of the big photo than towards the bottom (which is probably a bit in the shade).