So many things, so little time!

I am bang in the middle of a creative frenzy at the moment, I'm working on an embroidered T-shirt which is taking forever and hopefully if it gets a good reaction, i will be posting a tutorial to show how i made it.

I have 2 new amazing books which i cant wait to get started on, 2 Built by Wendy patterns that I have had on standby for a while, and various other projects that I want to draft from scratch, I have just ordered a large roll of dot and cross paper to start cutting some patterns I have had in mind for a while.

Kitty lurve

I am utterly, insanely, head over heels in love with my cat, even though he puked up 6 times today - and I am literally phobic of puke in any form, but somehow the love for my kitty gave me the immunity to clear it up , and we have been cuddling for 2 hrs on the sofa to make him better.

Blissful.

Family gifting

As Mothering Sunday is this weekend I have decided to make my Mum a present this year, rather than the shop bought alternative.

I definitely inherited all my crafty genes from my Mum, she started off as a textile designer in the 70's, during the 80's she used to have a patchwork and quilting business called Patchwork People and later an interior design company, all whilst bringing up 3 very demanding children!
Growing up I can remember that she always had her hand in one craft or another, you name it - she's done it, and to a high standard.


So to make her something as a gift is somewhat of a brave decision, especially as it will never stand up to her own impeccable finishing, but unfortunately in the last 10 years she has started to get arthritis in her hands and wrists and now finds it too painful to do a lot of her old favourite crafts such as quilting, knitting and crochet.


Hopefully a mother's loving eyes will look past the 'rustic' quality of the bag, although if i may say, i am really happy with the results, it is the first time i have properly lined a bag and I'm also rather proud of the inside pockets! I made it a wee bit too tall so had to cut some off the top, with the parts that i cut off though i made her a jewellery pouch to carry around in the bag (although i expect this will house her digital camera)!

It is also my little brother's birthday next week and he is an avid creative just like the rest of us, so i made him a sketch book and felt tip pen pouch like some of the crayon versions i have seen around, i tried to butch it up a bit by using strong canvas and raw denim, black bias binding to finish it off and a velcro tab closure, i thought a tie closure might be a bit girly, and i think I have achieved something quite boyish - hopefully!

I just need to make something for my sis and my Dad now, she is just like me, super creative and she is pretty good at making things for herself so I'll have to be clever with her present, as for my Dad, he is a keen gardener and is always working on his allotment harvesting amazing vegetables for him and my mum to feast on, so I was thinking a gardening belt pouch thingy?!

I have way too many things that I want to make and not enough time!

I'm in love with my little brown bag.

This little bag is my new love, it is one of those rare but wonderful bargain finds from the local charity shop and was in mint condition although obviously vintage, and all for the princely sum of £3.

Beautiful.

Crochet goodness....

This is a little pouch that I whipped up one Sunday afternoon, a self indulgent little project that was very relaxing to make and I love the texture of the bobble stitch, it was my first attempt at bobbles and I will definately be planning some more projects using this stitch in the future, I'm thinking of a bag and matching purse, I do love a good bag project :)

The amazing 24 hour quilt!

Yes, that is correct, I made my first patchwork quilt in under 24 hours.



I thought that it would take me at least a week to cut, piece and sew everything together, ok - so I cheated a little and used a machine, and was really going at it like the clappers, but it would have taken me a year if I was going to sew it together by hand, and I'm all about the speedy results.




My favourite thing about this quilt is that it is made from several different fabrics that evoke fond memories for me, the first, third and fifth fabrics above are Liberty of London Tana Lawn cotton which was given to me for my birthday by my lovely friend Saron, the fourth fabric is my favourite - this is from the duvet cover that my granny used to put on my bed when we went to stay with her as children and it is so soft due to being washed so many times. I also used one of my boyfriend's shirts which is too small for him now for some of the panels, I liked it too much to give it away and thought it would be nice to encorporate it into my quilt.

I cut 30 13"x 3" strips of each of my 5 fabrics, to construct 30 squares, this made a quilt big enough to sit on top of our double bed, and is also the right size for snuggling under on the sofa.



I have to say that I am really rather pleased with the finished product, the design was inspired by Amy Butler's Mid Mod quilt, but I decided to carry the middle section over the whole quilt and used a large edge-binding to finish it off. I backed the top piece with a white sheet and then thick fleece blanket and finally finished it off with candy striped linen sheeting.



Finally I hand stitched the binding on which took me a couple of hours and was surprisingly therapeutic! Now I just need to figure out which type of quilting stitch to use to add texture to this quilt, I think i will give it a month or so before attempting this, it will no doubt take me a little longer than 24 hours!

How very British of me.....

It is 7.51am on a Sunday morning.

The fact that i am even out of bed at this time is all wrong, I know it is because I know all of my family and friends will still be tucked up in bed and fast asleep, enjoying their weekend lie-in.

I however, for some reason have started enjoying getting out of bed at around 7ish for the last few weekends, I am filled with excitement and fearful of wasting even one second of my precious weekend.

The routine has evolved as follows:

- Wake up.

- Immediately start thinking of all the things I can make on this glorious day off work.

- Jump out of bed, with way more enthusiasm than my snoozing boyfriend is happy with.

- Tend to and feed my cat, Murphy, who by this time is attention seeking on a grand scale by
jumping off things and mewing like a neglected child (which he most definately is NOT - that cat is a spoilt baby replacement if ever i saw one!)

- Put on my incredibly attractive stripey fleece dressing gown, slippers and scrape back my hair (oh yes, i bet this is what the boyf was imagining when we first got together, total granny chic).

- Go down to the kitchen and make myself a coffee (with the machine i bought the boyf for xmas, and have since totally dominated and as such feel a teensy bit guilty, but not enough to stop).

- Fling open the curtains in that way my mother used to when i was younger (i feel a little bit Julie Andrews at this point, and have to stop myself bursting into song).

- Sit myself down on the sofa in front of the bay window of our living room and bask in the glory of the morning sunshine streaming through (this has got to be an adult thing, I cannot recall ever having enjoyed such simplicity as a child).

- Read my favourite magazine 'Guardian Weekend' from Saturday's Guardian newspaper which i have started buying every weekend, cover to cover, whilst occasionally harrassing the cat (who is also basking ) with an ear scratch and a coo.

- Do the above until such time as the beast upstairs awakens and desires breakfast, at which point we'll argue over who's turn it is to make it and eventually go off and do our own things creatively, me on my quest to become domestic goddess (of the craft kind, I am no Nigella Lawson), and he to his beloved 'vintage' car.

So, to summarise, that is officially (in my eyes) a very British and mature thing to be enjoying on a Sunday morning and as such I am surprised that I appear to have 'grown up'.
In that sense at least, I happily still carry many an immature trait around with me, and that's just fine with me.

My first ever blog post!

Having bugged my boyfriend continually to make me website onto which i can unleash my creative and everyday outpourings, he finally suggested tonight that i just "sign up for one of those free blog things" and thus save him the effort of having to build me a website......genius.
Anyway, seems like a rather good idea to me , so here i am.

I have been super-duper creative for the last week and made so much more stuff in a short space of time than ever previously acheived so I have plenty of pictures to take and post up on my spanking new blog!!