Just thought that I would share with you this very lovely wreath taken from our recent visit to Hardwick Hall to wish you all a great Christmas and New Year.
Thanks to you all for visiting my blog and for your lovely comments and appreciation. I hope that you all have a lovely time and here’s to a crafty 2017.
Love from Alison xxx
Hello again, one of the good things about the enforced being indoors has been more time for playing with fabric. I have had lots of marking to do but have managed to escape to the craft room for a couple of hours each evening and so have increased my productivity no end.
I have been experimenting with zips, still not got a zipper foot yet but have been doing ok with the one foot I have and have been using up some of things in my stash to make some more pouches.
I love Liberty fabrics and have lots of hexagons that I am in the process of putting together for a bag so I used one of them and some of my linen scraps for another zipped pouch using the same tutorial as before from Emkie Designs.
This one turned out ok but I put too much wadding in as it is a bit lumpy with the linen but it is fine for me.I am pleased with the neatness of the zig zagging for appliqueing on the patchwork though and do love the little ditsy fabrics!
I wanted to make a present for my aunt and decided that a little basket using linen and some of my vintage lace scraps would be good and am very pleased with the way this turned out. This is the second smallest version of the Friends of the One Hour Basket and uses up some of very cute lace collar that I was given by a friend.
I think I will make some more of these with matching pin cushions and needlebooks for Yarndale next year as I think they are very lovely and will sell well.
I then decided to get a bit more creative with the lovely lace zips and made this matching pouch using the tutorial from The Homemakery for a boxed pouch. I have found a new supplier for the lace zips as I had used all the little ones that I bought last year, Buddly Crafts have them at a great price and it was very speedy delivery.
I made an 8 inch by 8 inch pouch, with hindsight I would have made it 6 by 8 as it is a bit square and maybe should have moved the lace in a bit from the edge but as they say you live and learn and I think that they look very cute together.
I also made another little basket for a last minute Christmas gift for one of my other younger relatives, I made a similar one for her sister in the summer.
I have now finished work for the holidays, hurrah! Jake and I off to Ellie’s tomorrow so am really looking forward to that, then Ellie and I go to Spain for New Year, looking forward to my usual New Year’s Day beach picnic and paddle 🙂
Will pop in and say Merry Christmas to you all, meanwhile have fun with the last of your festive prep and thanks for visiting.
Hello there, the final countdown of Christmas crafting has begun, only 6 more days until we leave for Ellie’s. I have not been well this past week, have finally caught Jake’s horrible chest infection and have been confined to barracks but that answered the question about whether to buy or make the last few presents as I have not been able to go shopping.
Luckily I have lots of stash and lots of ideas and tutorials – thanks Pinterest 🙂 and I set about yesterday to make a pencil case pouch for one of my younger relatives.
I had made the little hexagons out of the cute cat fabric scraps I got from Simply Solids some time ago and used some of my recycled denim and stash fabric for the body of the pouch and have had lots of these cute lacy zips also hanging about.The hexagon was appliqued onto the denim with zig zag stitch.
The only thing I didn’t have was a zipper foot, naively I assumed they came with the machine but after careful checking of all three sets of feet from current and old machines discovered that is not true.
However I did manage to find a foot that only had a metal piece on one side, no idea what it is really for but have managed to cobble it together and it all turned out very well for a first attempt.
I used this tutorial here from Emkie Designs which was very easy to follow. The only thing that I did differently was stitch wadding to the lining pieces to give it a bit more body.
Have also been hard at work with the last of the Christmas ornaments, some bigger versions of the folded one with the addition of Suffolk Puffs, partly because I love them and partly because I have run out of ribbon roses!
I also made another cathedral window one but not sure about it, maybe it is the lack of contrast between the two patterned fabrics, maybe I am just not that into Scandi colours. It also turned out rectangular for some reason.I do like the wooden button though.
These are some I made a while ago, English paper pieced and stuffed, I really like the look of these but they took a very long time so not a bulk make ornament.
Just the Suffolk Puff tree to finish now and that will be it for ornaments 2016 though at the speed I was getting them done this year might start in Jan for next year!
However did find a very lovely post with links to tutorials for 100 different pouches so might have to make some more of those for gifts… after I have got a zipper foot of course!
Take care and thanks for visiting, will pop in later on in the week to wish you all festive greetings.
Hello
Just a quick post to say that my 9th blogaversary giveaway winner is Texas Quilting
I will leave a comment on your website with my contact details so that you can let me know your address for mailing the ornaments.
Thanks to all of you for following me!
Hello everyone ,hope you are all having a good time. I have had a very excellent weekend, have finally put up the Christmas decorations, been out to see a friend’s very good band play and spent all of Sunday binge watching a new and very exciting series on Netflix while finishing my Suffolk Puff wreath.
I came across this series by accident just from a mention in the newspaper we get free on the bus and am so glad I did as it has been very good. It is called Medici-Masters of Florence and is full of the most gorgeous period costume and lots of very tense drama.
I do love a man in period costume, they just look so wonderful and the women’s costume was amazingly beautiful. Sadly could not find many pictures so you will just have to watch it yourselves.
Watching it has been made all the more special by the fact that Mum and I visited Florence a couple of years ago so have seen lots of the paintings, buildings and art of the time. It brought back very happy memories and the way that Florence is portrayed in the series is very good, such beautiful scenery.
All this lovely entertainment made light work of finishing the wreath, which I am very pleased with.I bought the metal ring frame from Harrogate and covered it in red felt and ribbon before sewing the puffs to it. I have used up nearly all of my ribbon roses doing this so will have to order some more.
I am now making more puffs in an attempt to make a Suffolk Puff Christmas tree, I do still have a couple more ornaments to make at the weekend but this is nice evening in front of the telly creating.
Hope you have a lovely week ahead, this is the last week of term for me so am looking forward to Friday after which I will not have to get up quite so early, not a fan of going out and coming home in the dark!
Take care and thanks for visiting.
Hello everyone
In all the excitement about getting my ornaments done and general busyness I forgot to post about my blogaversary which was actually on the 4th Dec.
I have been busy with Suffolk puffs this week making myself a little wreath from them with a ring I bought from Harrogate. I do love Suffolk puffs, they are so easy to make and look so pretty, here’s more inspiration for me for future makes.I love that pale wreath.
Anyway as is traditional now I am going to do a giveaway for some Xmas ornaments, but I am going to vary it a little. I have been thrilled that so many people have chosen to follow my blog, now have 183 followers which is fantastic, so thank you everyone, I am very honored 🙂
Therefore I have decided to do a random number giveaway to one of my lovely followers, if you are not already a follower and want to join in then please do so and I will choose one of you on Weds 14th Dec by the miracles of the random number generator to send some ornaments to.
Take care and thanks for visiting and see you again soon.
Hello everyone, how are your Christmas crafting preparations going? Mine have got back up to speed thankfully with a couple of intensive sewing sessions over the last two weekends and I now have the majority of my ornaments made, just in time for the 1st of Dec!
I have made a cathedral window ornament and am very pleased with it. I would have two to show you but the second one is still a work in progress as it was so thick once I had finished folding that it jammed the machine three times then broke the needle so I am hand sewing it.
The first one I made turned out very well. I used this tutorial from Moda Bakeshop , it does use up a lot of fabric, but then I do have a lot of Xmas fabric 😉 and found it very easy to follow.
I also looked for some quicker ornament designs for presents and came across this lovely one which I remembered seeing a while ago. There is a very clear step by step video tutorial here by Crouton Crackerjacks and they are very simple to make.
I stuffed mine with wadding which I did by making a little slit in the back which is why I have a ribbon rose at the back as well as on the front to cover that up.
I already had some of the ribbon flowers in my stash but ordered some more from this Ebay seller.She has some gorgeous pastel coloured ones as well.
We had a lovely time at Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show, Ellie, Kerry and I were very restrained, I only bought 1 metre of Christmas fabric, some of which I have already used on some more folded ornaments, a few Christmas ribbons and some very cute buttons.
I also bought some little wooden bobbins to cover with fabric. I am going to make some glass jar sewing sets complete with pincushion tops for Sarah’s stall for next September at Yarndale, (planning ahead!), and am collecting jars to do that. Some will be jam and pickle jars but I have also bought these from the wonderful Chinese shop in Spain.They have all sorts of cute storage for less than a Euro apiece.
However these look so good on my shelf in the craft room they might have to stay, the other one is full of my ribbons with sewing themes.
I am off to stay with Ellie this weekend as we have our re-enactment group meeting on Sunday so we are going to go and visit a few Christmas themed events while we are in Worksop. She has promised me a visit to a Christmas tree festival at Worksop Priory and a visit to Hardwick Hall where she used to work to see the decorations there. So I will come home all festive ready to finish off the last few of mine.
I have the next two weekends at home after that so will be decorating my house then having some quality stitching time on the sofa with lots of TV and cups of tea to keep me going.it has been such a busy term and I am so glad things are calming down, my poor sewing room has been sadly neglected!
I hope that you have a very nice weekend and I will see you soon for another post, there may just be more pictures of ornaments! Take care and thanks for visiting.
Stitches of Time 