Month: October 2018

Ta da!

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I have had a lovely week of stitching and am very pleased that I have already finished the first set of stockings.They are so pretty and have turned out even better than expected.

 

Jenny Xmas stocking 6

The designs are from the wonderful Jenny of Elefantz Stitchery Club and I followed her advice to back the fabric with interfacing which worked really well without a hoop.

 

Jenny Xmas stocking 7

Jenny Xmas stocking 8

Jenny Xmas stocking 9

I am so pleased with the stitching on these, especially the blanket stitch which I only learnt how to do this summer and though I say so myself has come out very neat 🙂 Now they just need to be cut out, backed and stuffed.

Apologies for the slightly blue pictures again, I even tried taking shots outside but even that did not make any difference.I did get a nice shot of the frosty hills behind the house though.Look at that lovely blue sky!

Frosty hills

I have been working almost solely on this project while watching lots of interesting things on Netflix, a very good murder mystery called Guilt and a competition program about cabins in the wild that has given me lots of ideas for future holidays as they feature lots of cabins from one of my favourite site Canopy and Stars!

Wouldn’t you love to stay in this tin tabernacle, or the very cute gardener’s hut or the geodome.

Canopy and Stars tin hut

Canopy and Stars gardener's shed

Canopy and Stars geodome

They have so many wonderful places on here that I am putting on my wish list for future trips. All pictures from their site.I am slightly addicted to watching tiny house videos on You Tube so this would satisfy some of my cravings to have my own tiny house.

Meanwhile we have booked mine and Mum’s city trip for next year, we will be going to Krakow in Poland in April. We were hoping to be able to get to Istanbul but flights and times were not good from here so we are now really looking forward to our first visit to Poland and to sights like this.

Krakow

We have not yet sorted a Spanish city trip but that will probably be done in June. Meanwhile back to reality and I have another set of stockings to prepare today.These have been so quick to do I think I may make more than six as I would like one as well.

Have a nice week ahead, hopefully on my next post I will have some good progress on the Steampunk jacket to report, so far all I have done is cut out pattern pieces, which took about 2 hours, and work out how much material I have, and discover I have not got enough interfacing or lining so I will have to buy those before I can progress much further.

My plan is to have at least the pieces cut out and possibly the bustle made before the end of the week. The jacket part is going to take more fitting so I have allowed a month for that as the event is on the 24th Nov and I know from past experience that it can take a while!

Take care and thanks for visiting.

 

Finally, a Bee in my Bonnet Block!

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I was visiting Lori’s gorgeous Bee in my Bonnet blog last week for my usual update on her lovely designs when I spotted a block in her sidebar from her Bloom quilt which she designed a few years ago. Lori very kindly keeps all of the tutorials on her blog so you can go back to them at any time.This is a beautiful quilt and one of my favourites of her designs.Picture from Lori’s blog.

Bloom quilt

I have not made any of her quilt blocks yet, partly as I don’t have the templates but then realised that I did have the shapes in my freebie set to make this block, and probably others.Picture is from Lori’s blog.

Bloom Block fifteen

Bloom block 1

I decided to make two flowers from Liberty as I thought the petals would look good in different fabrics and rather than make blocks to applique them straight onto the background fabric.

Bloom block 2

Lori uses a really good technique which is very clearly explained in all of her tutorials where you cut interfacing and the shape, sew them together and then turn inside out. You then glue them down onto the backing fabric and hand stitch. This gives a really nice raised look to the applique and is a lot better for getting neat shapes.

Bloom block 3

When I was machine stitching I used my clear foot which makes it a lot easier to see your lines of stitching.

Bloom block 4

The background fabric is linen from an old curtain that I must have had for at least 20 years, I only have a little bit left as I have used it for lots of pouches and baskets. I love using up old bits of fabric, makes me feel very thrifty!

Bloom block 5

Bloom block 6

I have made the stem a little smaller so that it can all fit on and my middle circle is smaller as well to show more of the Liberty. I am really pleased with how they have turned out and the hand stitching has been very nice and relaxing in the evenings.

I do like this time of year when I can light the candles, watch Netflix and stay in cosy in my house, as I was stitching these the rain was lashing down outside but I was nice and warm. I had new windows and doors fitted in my little house this summer so it is a lot warmer now, which will be very useful if we have another winter like last year!

I am halfway through making these into pouches for my Christmas present stock. I have at least another 4 pouches and a basket to make up as well so that will be my machine stitching for the next week and the Jenny stockings my hand stitching.

I have some time off next week 🙂 so will be pattern fitting and cutting out the black velvet for my next Steampunk jacket, wish me luck! I don’t really enjoy sewing with velvet, it is so slippery but I was gifted a large amount of the material so I am being thrifty and using that rather than but new.

I will post progress photos later next week, Have a good week whatever you are doing, take care and thanks for visiting.

A wonderful work in progress!

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As you know I have been eagerly awaiting the latest of Jenny’s Stitchery Club. I love stitching things for Christmas and was trying to decide what to make for the special set of 6 this year and then Jenny solved all of my problems with this lovely set of designs, picture from Jenny’s website.

elefantz-xmas-stockings-picture

I am altering the designs slightly as I am using all Christmas fabric so am also going to use some star sequins in place of some of the flower stitching. I am going to have so much fun embellishing them with little beads and lace as well so am really looking forward to spending more time this afternoon stitching these.I have done most of the outlines, now to start on the chain stitch around the applique and try and make it as neat as possible!

I prepared the designs in a slightly different way to usual as I wanted to use this lovely background fabric and I only have two quite small pieces of it. Normally I would use a hoop while I stitch but remembered that Jenny uses a fusible interfacing to stabilise the fabric and stitches without a hoop so I have done that and it is working well and saves on fabric needed.

Jenny Xmas stocking 1

I traced the designs in pencil rather than the usual Zig pen just because I was upstairs and didn’t have them with me.It has worked ok but may be a bit faint for you to see.

Jenny Xmas stocking 2

The applique pieces are attached with double sided fusible applique paper, there is a good tutorial on this technique on Jenny’s website here if you have not done this before.

Jenny Xmas stocking 3

Jenny Xmas stocking 4

I love this poinsettia design on this stocking, they are one of my favourite things to have in the house at Christmas.

I am so glad that Jenny included hexagons with the designs as I really love hexagons! As these ornaments will not need to be washed I have glued the paper piece inside each hexagon so that it will be nice and neat around the fussy cut area.

Jenny Xmas stocking 5

I am going to back each stocking with some of the same material that I have used for the front and stuff them and put hanging ribbons on.My plan is to do these three then start on the next batch and use different material but basically the same designs.

I think they are gorgeous designs and as well as using them for Christmas they would make lovely lavender sachets for drawers or a very pretty design for a stitched birthday card so I can see myself making lots more of these.

I have had a very lovely week, it has been mostly beautiful sunshine here and the autumn colours are just stunning. These pictures are from our local Facebook page.

Marden Autumn 1

Marden Autumn 2

I am feeling a lot better and fingers crossed this will continue, I am in a lot less pain and generally have more energy so I am hoping to be going on some lovely walks myself soon.

I also had a great night out with the Wool and Wine girls last night at the annual village quiz where we came a respectable fourth from the bottom. Next week is the last week before half term and I only have one Saturday left to teach so that will mean more time for crafting!

Hope you are having a nice weekend and have a good week ahead. Take care and thanks for visiting.

The wonderful Lake District – part one

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In June Ellie and I went camping to the Lake District, partly so that we could visit another few National Trust houses. The Lake District is a very important place for the National Trust, not only due to the amount of land it looks after there but also as it is a key part of its history.

Canon Rawnsley, one of the founding members lived there and worked to enhance education and employment opportunities and one of the key contributors to protecting the land was the children’s author Beatrix Potter who lived there and bought land which she donated to the Trust.

We have visited a small bit of the Lake District before on whilst on holidays to Centre Parks but never actually been to the area for any length of time which is very remiss of us as it is only 1 1/2 hours from here and is the most glorious place.

Lake District - camping 1

We stayed at Low Wray campsite which is owned by the Trust and is literally on the shores of Lake Windemere and right next to one of the properties we visited, Wray Castle. This is the view from the edge of the site. What an amazing place to stay and so cheap, 3 nights there only cost £54 which was a real bargain.It is a beautiful campsite with an outdoor pizza place and boat hire so if you are looking for a place to stay I would really recommend it.

Lake District - camping 2

Lake District - camping 3

We were camped just behind this ridge on the right of the picture above, they also have tepees and camping pods for hire if you don’t have a tent.

In total we visited four Trust properties which I will post about later and a Trust owned pub , The Sticklebarn in the amazing Langdales.

Lake district - pub 2

Lake district - pub 1

Lake district - pub 3

We also visited Grasmere and Derwentwater Lakes and the little town of Cockermouth which was also very beautiful. Just the drives were amazing in themselves, the scenery is truly breathtaking.

Lake district - Cannon's house

Lake district - Derwent 1

Lake district - Derwent 2

Lake district - Derwent 3

I definitely want to go back and spend more time there, another place for the retirement list, only another 3 years, 8 months and 17 days to go until I can do that, not that I am counting 🙂

It is a wet and windy day today which is such a pity as the Jazz Festival is on this weekend in the village. I am volunteering tonight and all day tomorrow so hopefully lots of people will wrap up warm and come and visit anyway.

I am working on some more applique from the free gift at the moment so will be able to show you some of that next week. Hope that you all have a nice week ahead and thanks for visiting.

Another freebie to play with

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I was actually looking at sewing magazines when I found my latest free gift, I am interested in getting more sewing patterns and know that the ones that come with magazines are often very nice. I have signed up for a trial of one so that arrives next month.

Applique shapes freebie 10

However I spotted the latest edition of Today’s Quilter with a really lovely set of applique shapes as the free gift and couldn’t resist.

Applique shapes freebie 11

I would love to build up my stock of shapes. Lori Holt  from Bee in my Bonnet has some fab sets but they are not easily available in the UK and the shipping from the US makes them very expensive so I have not bought any yet.

Applique shapes freebie 1

The magazine also has a pattern for a cute cushion but I was not sure who I could give that to but thought a little pouch would be more useful.

Applique shapes freebie 12

The shapes are lovely and there are lots of ways to combine them as well as using them singly.

Applique shapes freebie 2

 

 

Being a bit of a numpty and not looking at the instructions in the magazine I went ahead and cut the shapes straight out from the fabric forgetting that it would have been easier to apply the fusible web then draw round the shapes on that then cut out! I will remember for next time.

Applique shapes freebie 7

I just need to zig zag the outlines before attaching the bird’s wing and get some more of the Liberty fabric I have used for the bird for the base of the bag. The denim is from my stock of jeans for recycling as usual.

Applique shapes freebie 8

 

Applique shapes freebie 9

I have had another busy weekend as at the moment I am teaching Saturdays but that will finish in a month so I can really crack on with the gifts. I am eagerly awaiting the 17th Oct when Jenny’s next Stitchery Club is ready as she has the cutest design for Christmas stitching which I am planning to make lots of!

Hope that you have a good week ahead, mine is a bit quieter and then we have the Jazz Festival at the weekend, here’s hoping for good weather for that. Take care and thanks for visiting.

Lots of lovely stitching!

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Although I have not done much these past few weeks I have managed to get a few finishes done and a new project started. I am planning to make as many Christmas gifts as possible this year so have started in plenty of time, (I hope!).

This project was started in early June so it has taken a long time but I have really enjoyed it. It is another Jenny of Elefantz design of course from her Stitchery Club and I am going to make this into a folder to store part completed embroidery.

Jenny embroidery stitching 1

I loved doing all of the different stitches, some I had never used before like blanket stitch and I think they have all come out quite neatly for a first attempt.

The second one was a lot quicker and you can find the details here in my blog post if you wish to buy the design.

Jenny ring embroidery 1

I started this towards the end of last month and was originally going to put an initial in the middle but you know how much I love hexis and just thought the colours of this Liberty fabric were so suited to the embroidery. This will become another pouch.

Apologies for the fact that the photos look very blue! We have very little light today though we have had some beautiful autumn days with sun and blue skies. I am starting a second one of these tonight and will maybe put an initial in that one.All of the threads are either Silk Mill for the solids or Caron Waterlillies from Sew and So for the variegated threads.

I have another update for you at the weekend so until then enjoy yourselves, take care and thanks for visiting.