Nook Case

About a week ago Rob bought a Nook e-reader (they were on sale for very silly prices) and yesterday he asked me if I would make him a case for it. This made me very happy so I dug out the sewing machine to get  to work - I make quite a few bits for myself but I take it as a great compliment that he likes my work enough to want something made for himself! It took me about an hour to make the case (including picking out the fabric etc) and he appears quite pleased with the result so I am satisfied with my evenings work.

Anyway, here is the Nook case; the outside is made out of recycled jeans denim and the lining is some grey Kona cotton from my stash.

 The front of the case is plain denim and I used some simple straight line quilting to attach the denim to a bit of cotton wadding so that the screen has a little extra protection from keys and other pointy things.

The back makes use of on the the back pockets from the jeans so that the charging cable can be stashed when travelling; we were careful to pick a pair of jeans without metal studs for this project!

The case is fairly snug so that the Nook won't fall out too easily but it's got enough slack to allow access to the pocket and removal of the device.

A Soup Bowl Holder

Lately I've been taking soup to work and heating it up in the microwave, every day I tentatively edge the bowl out of the microwave and wrap it in kitchen roll to get it back to my desk without burning my fingers.  Today there was no kitchen roll :(

I decided it was high time I did something about this sorry state of affairs so I present: A Microwavable Soup Bowl Holder featuring "Happy Alligators"

The bowl holder was embarrassingly easy to make given how long it's taken me to get around to making something.  It's simply two squares of fabric with darts in and some cotton wadding to make it heat-resistant.

I used a tutorial by Syzygy of Me and the whole thing was finished within an hour; if I get admiring looks from the other soup-eating ladies at work I may be tempted to treat their fingers too and make them each one of their own!

That little tab at the front is not in the pattern; I might have slightly sewn and cut one of the darts the wrong way around and needed something to cover up the gap... but if I hadn't mentioned it I bet you'd think it was an intentional "feature"!

I've read that it's important to stick to natural materials to avoid melting/setting on fire so I used 100% cotton fabric  thread and wadding - I tested the finished holder it in the microwave for 5 minutes and it showed no signs of sizzling so I don't think I will have any trouble.

Pocket Bear

Say Hello to Pocket Bear! 

For my birthday my godparents gave me some money to spend and I decided to invest in a few more knitting supplies.  I wanted to thank them so I decided to knit them a little gift and fell in love with this little fellow on Ravelry.  He's quite small but rather cute and I'm sure he will be very happy in his new home.

Pocket Bear on Ravelry

Fire & Ice Update

I had a very productive weekend and decided to make a start on my UFO's.  I decided to start with one of the earlier ones and dragged Fire & Ice out of the cupboard.  2 hours later I had finished assembling the quilt top and I can't believe it's taken me this long to get around to it! It looks a bit wavy because all the pieces are paper-backed and it got a bit scrunched up in the cupboard but I'm confident that once the papers are off it will lay flat!

I started by trimming all the blocks down and then assembled them into 4-block squares, then into three long rows and finally into one big quilt.  The next task is to remove all the papers from the back.  There are an awful lot of tiny little pieces and, to make it even more fun, most of them are printer paper stuck on with pritt-stick so its going to take a while to clear down.  Still, it's good telly-watching activity so I'm fairly hopeful that this will get done shortly - I managed to get about a third of it cleared off on Sunday night so I should get there before too long... then I just have to decide how to quilt this Beauty.

Spike the Ankylosaurus

Meet Spike. Spike is a herbivorous Ankylosaurus from the Cretaceous period and has large armoured plates on his back to protect him from nasty carnivores like Tyrannosauruses.  

Spike is a quiet sort of dinosaur who likes to bumble around in the undergrowth and hunt out tasty ferns but if he gets angry he can protect himself with his hefty tail clubs.

Spike has a Ravelry page here

A Friend for Flipper

Flipper finally has a friend; I will name him tomorrow... tonight sleep!

A Quilted Quilt Bag

I made this bag for my mum for Mother's Day. It was a bit of a cheat as she actually bought the kit herself at a quilt show a few years ago but it still seemed to go down well!  The outer fabric was part of the kit and the inner is an old duvet cover.  

The construction was interesting in that the inner lining is simply the backing of the quilted panels rather than a separate piece and the seams are covered up at the end with binding. It gives a nice secure inner and is a method I would use again but wouldn't have thought of myself!

Flipper the Plesiosaur

Meet Flipper the Plesiosaur; were Flipper a fully grown dinosaur he would have been one of the largest marine predators alive measuring a massive 20 metres in length... but Flipper is just a baby so he's a bit smaller and measures about 20 cm from nose to tail!

Despite being aquatic by nature Flipper manages to look exceedingly cute when he tries to walk around on dry land, of course all the walking takes it's toll and he also likes to have a little sit down at regular intervals.

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Flipper is my first knitting project in about 14 years - I was given the amazing book Knitted Dinosaurs for Christmas and just couldn't resist all the gorgeous little monsters contained within.  I dashed straight to the (online) shops and bough knitting needles and wool and got stuck in making this little fellow.  It took a few false starts but about 15 hours later I had this gorgeous little dino.

He is knitted with Merino wool and is wonderfully soft to the touch, his back is decorated with semi-transparent sequins and his eyes are made from tiny little buttons and a bit of white felt.

Rob suggested I join Ravelry so he has a project page there too.