a doll for isabel

never, ever again. until the next one of course. baby isabel has arrived and i (stupidly) decided she needed a handmade doll as a "welcome to the earth" present. i have made this pattern once before (see here) and it went pretty well, with no major issues... but this time i wanted to ditch the doll and set fire to the pattern! hopefully she will love it... but i would be lying if i said that a lot of love went into it. more like a lot of cursing and anger haha.

but may i present the yet unnamed doll i finally managed to turn out for miss isabel. please feel free to offer name suggestions in the comments... but mark my words it will be a long time before i attempt another... if ever! augh.

a new old sewing machine

as a child, i learned to sew on my mums elna sewing machine. i would collect scraps and make little bags and whatever other easy things took my fancy. i watched her sew so many different things over the years and i have always had a love for her machine.

when the time came for me to have my own, mum searched for one the same to no avail. she eventually bought me a modern one which does the trick, but is plastic and just not the same. i had always hoped to find one the same one day and this week it finally happened! i was on the local buy, sell, swap page and it just happened to appear in the newsfeed... at an excellent price! i was so thrilled, as was mum when i showed it to her - as apparently it's the model up from hers! ♥

cannot wait to get sewing with my "new" machine

a mothers love

when i was 5 years old, my mother decided to make a quilt for my bed. i watched her spend a good part of the next year sewing these blocks up and then handstitching the entire thing stitch by stitch until it was done. i would hide underneath the fabric as she sewed each night and was thrilled to pieces when it was finally done and spread onto my bed for the first time. i loved it then and i still love it just as much. so all these years later, it seemed a waste for it to sit in a cupboard when madeline is using my old bed... so mum go to work once more and made it hers...

this new piece was added to the quilt a month or so ago, quilted over the top of four calico hearts with the letters of my name... and this week the quilt has one again taken pride of place on my old bed. madeline is thrilled to pieces and couldn't wait to snuggle under it this evening.

"those who sleep under a quilt, sleep under a blanket of love ♥ "