Procrastinating

Oh, I can waste time so easily, me.

This morning I received an email from Paperchase promoting their Father's Day cards and I was rather taken with a few of their designs. 

This, in turn, led me to look at FD cards on Etsy

thepixelrainbow

SheMakesSheBakes

Solitaire

Hannah Stevens

and then to Not on the High Street

Old English Company

Becka Griffin Illustration

Doodle Love

Oh yes, and I don't actually have anyone to send one to!

See, very good at time wasting me!

Thanks for visiting

Have a lovely weekend - I have it on good authority that the sun will shine EVERYWHERE!

xXx

Take Note

Hello

How was your (bank holiday in the UK) weekend?

Here in

it was extremely soggy!

Saturday wasn't too bad so Mr B and I pottered around locally, visiting various places including a couple of large charity shops and the farm shop. Sunday and Monday were spent pottering in the garden and doing a bit of sewing.

I have to say I have fallen completely in love with freehand machine embroidery! 

This is my weekend project, something I've been thinking about for a little while

A5 loose covered notebooks

These are made using a combination of applique, fabric paints and free motion embroidery.

My ideas are running away with me now - I'm going to do a range called 'Pretty Dresess' and make coordinating items like glasses cases, pocket mirrors, badges, cushion covers and key rings, and possibly brooches too! I'm also thinking of doing other themes including

Home Sweet Home

Sew Lovely

Life is a Journey

Free as a bird

See what I mean?!! Quite when I'm going to find the time I do not know...

I've been lucky with my charity shop finds recently - lots of wooden cotton reels, buttons and pretty cloths...

I've also bought these for a project I saw somewhere on the internet!

I'll show you when I get around to doing it.

By far my favourite find is this

dinky vintage suitcase.

I am fortunate to have a collection of vintage suitcases (great for storage), several of them have been given to me by friends.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings...

Thanks for visiting

xXx

I have Been...

...inspired by 10 year old Mabel who invited me to have a table at her Fun Day.

(should have tidied my table before taking the photo!)

Mabel is aiming to raise £1,000 for Water Aid. So far she has raised over £500. Amazing!

...working to finish my free motion embroidery pictures that I started at the class taught by Lara Sparks

and trying not to notice the not-so-good bits!

...finally listing some items in my Etsy shop, after setting it up several years ago,

and sold them to one of my lovely blog friends, Joy

...making presents for (and based on) a friend

...listening to the new album from the wonderfully talented Paul Heaton and Jaqui Abbott

it's excellent!

...reading, reading, reading! Can't get enough of fiction books at the moment

this is the one I've just finished, you probably won't be surprised to learn that I was drawn to it by the buttons on the cover! It's a good (and quick) read.

Plus, of course, a lot of gardening and trips out enjoying the sunshine!

Youngest Boy is taking his GCSE exams at the moment and is making the most of the lovely weather by revising in the garden.

How are you spending your time at the moment?

Thanks for visiting

xXx

Pin Here

Hello All,
How are you?
 I'm recovering from yet another stinky cold - I've never had a year like it for colds!!
Yet again I am playing catch up with blogland...

Someone said to me very recently that there's no point making pincushions to sell as people only ever use one pincushion.

I must be the odd one out then because I LOVE pincushions and actually have several - and I use them all!

This one is vintage and an Ebay buy, bought on a whim because I'm rather fond of seagulls. I must admit to not using this one much as it's really difficult to get the pins into.

I made this one several years ago. I saw the egg cup in a vintage shop with it's gorgeous cross stitch pattern and knew immediately what I'd do with it. I use this a lot - it's a great portable pincushion.

A bought pincushion from Cath Kidston, good to look at but not very practical as it's very lightweight and keeps falling over. I may actually get rid of this one...

This fab strawberry pincushion was a handmade gift a couple of years ago. It's really useful and hangs from the lamp on my sewing table.

A handmade (by me) pincushion - good because of it's small size, it fits nicely into my sewing box. And it means I can keep a bit of the fab green floral fabric that I love and look at it often.

Paul, as this pincushion is called (I know he's got pastel floral buttons but he's in touch with his feminine side), is currently my favourite. He's not truly a pincushion but a (rejected) lavender bunny that I managed to poke a hole in when turning through. He hangs usefully from my sewing machine and I love his happy, friendly face. He says he's happy to be useful and it doesn't hurt a bit having pins stuck in him, he rather likes the smell of lavender anyway!

And of course, Penelope who I introduced you to in a previous post...

Finally, here are my first two pincushion people that I've made to sell.

 I'm going to try selling them on Etsy (I've had a shop for a couple of years but have never listed anything!), if I ever get around to listing them that is!

Do you have more than one pincushion, or one that you always use?

Thanks for visiting

xXx

Sewing Class

Hello. How are you?

During the week I took a day off work to attend a class run by the amazingly talented Lara Sparks at the Eclectic Maker, a fabric shop (and online shop) in my home town. I've attended one of Lara's classes previously, a couple of years ago now, where I made a 'Things we Love' cushion. This time I'm making a bird textile picture. The class is run over two separate days, the second one is next week.

This week we were given a ready prepared panel to practice our free motion machine embroidery on before we started on our main project, I didn't want to miss the opportunity of having a Lara Sparks design to keep so I wanted mine to be as good as I could possibly make it! There wasn't enough time to finish it in class so I had a go at it when I got home too.

Above is the panel after I'd done the machine embroidery, I was pleased with it but felt the bird needed some colour, I remembered I had some fabric paints and pens so had a go at it with them.

Then I sewed a border on and, because I think everything looks better with a button or two (and I didn't like the sewing on the year), I added three vintage mother of pearl buttons.

Here is the finished panel, bit rustic but I'm feeling very inspired and have lots of ideas running through my head !

Thanks for visiting

xXx

Allow me to introduce...

For some time now I've had an idea buzzing through my head, and despite last Saturday feeling like I didn't want to see my sewing machine for a long time, by yesterday I was itching to make something!

And that something is a pincushion (my idea is for a range of pincushion people!).

This is my first attempt at a prototype

it does have a certain charm about it but the head is too small I think. The face and hair is drawn on this one but will  be embroidered.

So, I made another template, this time with the same size body but a larger head.

As you can see I didn't even finish this one as I just wanted to see if the proportions were right.

A bit rough around the edges, but this is the design I'm going with...

PENELOPE

definitely need to work on that face (same size eyes would be a good start!).

The idea is to have different faces, hair colour, clothing etc and they will all have a name, possibly embroidered on them somewhere.

What do you think to sticking pins in 'people'?

I have more trouble sticking them in 'animals' myself - wonder what that says about me?!!

Have you had a crafty weekend?

Thanks for visiting

xXx

This picture sums up how I felt at 2.30pm on Saturday....

"it's over and it was a success"

Thank you for all your comments.

I am so looking forward to having a month or so off from craft fair organising (next one 19th July).

Watch out for my return to blogland!

xXx

Nearly There...

The Spring fair I am organising is tomorrow and I've had to accept that some things won't be making their way to the fair - kitchen candles (again - and I SO want to do these), lavender pooches and owls, embroidery art etc etc.!

This is a small selection of what I will be taking

This is the first fair I've organised alone (although I have had a lot of support and help from friends and family) and it's rather taken over my life, especially as I'm trying to embrace Facebook - a challenge that seems to be working though!

Wish me luck!

I'm looking forward to re joining you and your blogs after the fair.

xXx

A Warren of Bunnies

I've finally got my making mojo back (I was getting a bit worried as the next fair is the 5th April).

These are my latest makes - lavender bunnies, and one lavender kitty (prototype - hopefully more will be made soon). I'm rather loving them, hopefully others will too.

Organising the fair is taking up a lot of my time at the moment (the person I was organising the fairs with is unable to do it anymore) and seems to have dominated the year so far, I still have lots bunting and a fabric banner to make as well as all the paperwork, and things to make for my stall.

A lot of work, but enjoyable, creative work! 

Do you plan to sell at fairs this year?

What do you plan to make?

Thanks for visiting

xXx

She's Been A Wandering Again.... (or Unfinished)

Can it really be over a month since I last blogged? And I've had so much to blog about too - so many lovely vintage finds and gifts, breakfasts at Bill's, days out, catch ups with friends (and even a night away with Mr B) and new friends of the four legged variety to fall in love with. So many photographs taken with the intention of sharing!

What I haven't done a lot of is making things. Oh, I've started OK but finishing is another matter! 

Bags

(in an attempt to use some of my huge amount of fabric)

I've enjoyed making the bags bit but I'm putting off making the handles - a bit of a boring job for me.

Cards

Started well but just lost enthusiasm

Sewing project bag

Used my favourite fabric (the cross stitch one), enjoyed choosing the fabrics but again, fell at the last hurdle (handles).

Quilt as you go cushion

Will probably never finish this, love the fabric but it doesn't go with anything in my house plus, it's a bit puffy for my liking!

Bunting

This is to decorate the craft fair venue not to sell. I actually have a good reason this isn't finished - I need to measure the space.

There's probably even more that I've forgotten about and will stumble upon one day....

How is your making going at the moment?

Thanks for visiting

xXx