Granbabies & Gifts

Greetings dear friends & readers,

Thank You All for your very kind comments & well wishes on my last post regarding my imminent grandchild

However, no sooner had I hit the "publish" button than my son phoned to tell me his wife Sarah, had gone into early labour.

8 days old

This beautiful boy - my grandson - made his early entrance to the world on May 18th at 12.40 pm.
They have named him Alec Raoul - he is beautiful & yes, I am indeed biased  :-)

My precious Grandson & his Granny Julie

My heart has well & truely been captured by this wee soul, who turns 2 weeks old tomorrow

And so ... begs the question ... what to be called ??
Although I love all the names ... Gran, Grandma, Nan, Nanny etc ... ever since I was a wee girl I have just adored the programme The Beverly Hillbillies.   One of my all-time favourite characters over all the decades was Granny ... I loved the way she would sit on the back of the truck with her shotgun in her arms ... Oh I thought she was wonderful.
And so I decided ... Granny it was to be    :-)

It is nothing short of a miracle that I have any completions to show you this week as my mind has been elsewhere.
I received an invite to my friend Sandy's daughters 21st birthday. When Sandy & I first met through our younger sons becoming friends, Abby was only 18 months old.
So I have watched her grow up through the years & become the lovely young woman that she is today.  
What to make Abby for her 21st birthday??
I knew she loved to cook & bake & spend time in her kitchen.  I also knew she loved blue. 
So I decided upon an apron ...

It was very much a "make it up as you go along" kind of project.
Firstly, as I wanted to personalise it, I embroidered the bib part with her name
(I must confess it was one of those occasions when I was thankful Abby had been blessed with a short name!!!)

I used the Stitchery Alphabet from month 6 of Jenny of elephantz Stitchery Club 

I decided to make it quite girly & feminine, so added a deep frill & lace to the bottom - Abby is about my height so it was easy to gauge how long to make it.

A pocket is always handy on an apron so I added a generous pocket & - of course - I had to add a doiley to it !!!
I also like quite long ties on my aprons so added these to the sides, & some button embellishments to finish off.

I had managed to buy some good quality teatowels in similar colourings to the apron fabric so decided to embellish these to match

I appliqued the words "cook" & "bake" to each one, then added a frill along the lower edge of the applique strip

To one I added ric rac & to the other, a simple daisy trim

I was really pleased with how these turned out & especially loved the checked one

A good quality wooden spoon & some matching stick-on labels completed the gift package.
I hope Abby enjoys many happy hours in her kitchen being a domestic goddess & wearing her new apron.

Another gift completed for a dear friend & posted away ... this is certainly a miracle as . . . well . . .  have you ever tried knitting with a kitten on your lap ???!!!**!

Once again ... a "make it up as you go along" gift.  Some small knitted squares from some scraps of wool ... hmmm ... what to do with these squares ... Oh, perhaps make a small shelf bunting in simple neutral tonings

I appliqued "I (heart) home" in Lynette Anderson fabrics, attached it to Lynette Anderson ribbon, then added Lynette Anderson buttons to each end  . . . for no particular reason other than I was using what I had in my stash at the time.  
This morning I have been trying to stuffing some soft toys at the kitchen table ... the help I have been getting is unfortunately not optional!!!!

I hope you all have a wonderful week ahead dear friends & readers,
 Thanks so much for popping by today so I can share my news with you all

with much love & friendship to you all,
Granny Julie x0x0