More inspiration!

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It is another wet and grey weekend here, I am secretly quite pleased as I had planned a sewing weekend so feel no guilt at not venturing out 🙂

Now that I have given Mum her birthday and Mother’s Day presents I can show you some of the latest lovely things I have been looking at. I am being very good and am finishing off things rather than starting new projects, apart from some hand stitching for evenings, but I have some new things on my wish list.

The first present was a new book, Quilt Petite, I think I found this as a recommendation on Amazon and then I went and looked at the blog of the author, her name is Sedef and the blog is called Down Grapevine Lane. She lives in Australia with two very cute kids and produces the most gorgeous things and is generous enough to have lots of tutorials on her site.

Quilt Petite Book 1

The book is just the sort that Mum loves, she does not read blogs and likes doing small projects so this is perfect for her. There are so many cute things like this Dresden pillow and hexagon doll quilt and the cutest thing of all is that pillow with the little girl’s feet and the rabbit!

She had a sew along for the book so you can see all of the lovely things that people made here. I am planning to make a Teddy Taggie Blanket for Ava from her tutorial, they look like really lovely quick makes.

The second book that I bought for Mum was All Points Patchwork by Diane Gilleland. She loves English Paper Piecing and this is a great book for extending skills.

All Points Patchwork Book 1

I love these pentagon flowers and the other ideas for combining shapes.

All Points Patchwork Book 2

All Points Patchwork Book 3

I am using the blog post that I wrote in Jan to remind me of all the things that I want to do and have just started another of The Splendid Sampler squares, this is the one by lovely Jenny of Elefantz and I am making it for my craft room.

31-splendid-sampler-jenny-reynolds-block-collagev2

She has just posted a gorgeous tutorial for using a vintage doily to make a needlebook, it is so lovely, you can find it here. Picture from Jenny’s web site.

ELEFANTZ doily needlebook main pic

So I hope you have all got a lovely weekend planned. Enjoy yourselves, whatever the weather and thanks for visiting.

 

Another one just for me!

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I am doing well at the moment, I have recently made a second pouch for myself! This is most unusual as I rarely keep things that I make.

However one of the recent purchases of fabric with flowers on was so pretty that I had to use it for a new make up bag .

Make up bag - linen and floral 1

I bought more of the lace back from Spain where it is available at bargain prices from the Chinese market shops so decided to have lace on both sides of the fabric strip.

The tutorial is from Jedi Craft Girl blog again and I am pleased with the zipper tabs this time, they have not got too squashed.

The zip is also put in evenly and the side seams nearly match!

The linen is part of my new supply from this Ebay supplier Craft Source and the flower fabric is from Always Knitting and Sewing.

Make up bag - linen and floral 6

I have used a dark pink paisley print from my stash for the lining so it won’t show dirt. I was debating whether or not to use this as I love it and only have a small amount left and then realised it has been in my stash for about 10 years! Do you even get like that, saving something so long for special projects that you never use it?

I have at least another two pouches waiting to be made up and a pincushion, I have been experimenting with Dresdens again so am aiming to get them made up this coming weekend. Am trying to be really good and finish projects before starting anything new 😉

Hope you have had a good week and have a nice relaxing weekend ahead, thanks for visiting.

 

 

 

Fiesta Days

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One of the things that I absolutely love about Spain is the number of fiestas they have. This is a nation that knows how to relax and have a good time! From the religious celebrations at Christmas and Easter through to all the little carnivals and local fiestas it seems that there is always something going on. Even little La Marina where Mum lives has a 3 day festival in August with live bands which is great.

I was lucky enough to visit two on my recent trip, the first the Easter Parade of icons in the tiny town of San Fulgencio, near La Marina and then the largest and most spectacular Moors and Christians celebration in Alcoy, a mountain town about an hour away, near to Barcelona.

I have been to both before but was very happy to return, particularly to the Moors and Christians one as I last went about 10 years ago, it falls on St George’s Day so I can only go in years when Easter is very late.

There is the usual lovely goldwork to look at on the icons and banners.

Aside from the two icons of Jesus and the Virgin Mary that get paraded from the church round the town, accompanied by a band and the usual gowned and tall hatted celebrants the main draw for me is seeing the beautiful Spanish women in their suits and lace mantillas. They look so stunning and I managed to get a couple of close up shots as well.

Spain Easter Fiesta 6

 

Spain Easter Fiesta 7

We went on a coach trip to Alcoy arriving just near to the end of the Christians parade so there were lots of people relaxing and refreshing themselves in the bar after their part of the parade.

The costumes are brilliant, such detail with everyone from each group dressed in the same outfit, even down to shoes and bags. there are mini versions for all the children as well, even the babies were dressed up.

We saw these lovely princesses in the parade and managed to get some close up shots as well, love that fabric!

Spain Alcoy 5 - princesses on float

Spain Alcoy 6 - princesses 2

Spain Alcoy 6 - princesses 3

We then had a couple of hours to wander, take photos of the gorgeous Art Deco buildings and then got a great spot to watch the second half of the parade when the Moors arrived.

They are a lot more flamboyant with sultans, dancing girls, camels and lots of riders on horseback showing off their skills.

There was just time for a few more pictures of the architecture on the way back to the coach.

Spain Alcoy 17 buildings

Spain Alcoy 18 buildings

I hope that you have all had a good week. Mine has been mainly full of marking and meetings as most of the teaching is over now. Saw Ellie briefly as she stayed overnight on her way to Spain, she is there now for a little break in between her busy Easter schedule and the start of her summer activities.

I have more marking and meetings ahead this week and weekend so I think it will just be a case of making a few more hexagons when I can, I am up to 47 now though so only 13 to go then I can start the process of removing all the papers and deciding on the layout.

Take care, have a good week ahead and thanks for visiting.

The sun shines on the righteous

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Hello, am just back from mainly sunny Spain where I had a fab time at a couple of fiestas so once I have sorted out the pictures will post them.

Meanwhile my lovely friends from Swords of Mercia were battling the evil dragon at their St George’s Day show at Bolsover Castle so I thought that I would show you some pictures of that including the new surcoat that I made in action.

We always have a couple of dragons, a cute comedy one for the kids and a big scary one as well as the Dragon Knight who captures the Princess, played by Ellie and brave St George comes along and fights them all and rescues her.

First this lovely picture of some of the group in the morning sun, from the left Trevor who plays the cute dragon, Sadie, Ellie, Kerry, (in her gorgeous new dress!) and Jamie who plays the scary dragon.

Bolsover April 2017 1

Bolsover April 2017 2

Here is the cute dragon, the kids love him and think that is an easy one for St George to battle until they see the scary one, look at those wings! And there is the evil Dragon Knight controlling his beast.

Bolsover April 2017 3

St George is very brave though, and he has a beautiful new surcoat 😉 to protect him so he manages to battle the dragon and save the Princess.

Bolsover April 2017 5

These great photos are courtesy of Kate, I love the one of the sun glinting off St George’s armour, brilliant shot!

Bolsover April 2017 4

The evil dragon is slain and St George is victorious!

I am looking forward to seeing everyone at our next show at the end of May at the beautiful Ashby Castle, can’t wait for re-enactment to start again, camping, sitting round the fire, barbecues and brilliant fun with my friends 🙂

Meanwhile there is the joy of crafting, not sure what I will make this afternoon but going to have a little play. Came back from Spain with more lovely ribbons, sadly the vintage fabric stall was not at the market but there may be a few pouches to be made!

Take care and I will be back soon, have a lovely Bank Holiday for those of you in the UK and thanks for visiting.

Fabric Serendipity

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You know when you have some fabric that has been in your stash for ages, maybe 7 years say, and it is really beautiful and every so often you take it out, look at it in its perfect stack and then put it away as it is not quite right for the project you have in mind and you don’t want to waste it?

Tea cup theme fabric 7

And maybe it is just the wrong colour, or the print is too large or too small or the theme is just all wrong. But one day when you are looking for something completely different for a project and you come across this fabric and something just says to you, ‘I now know what to make with this beautiful stuff!’

Well that my friends is fabric serendipity, one of my favourite words which means happy accident, and it happened to me at the weekend. I was actually looking for some lining fabric for the spool design pouch at the end of this post that I had finished stitching when I came across this gorgeous tea themed motifs and tea cup fabric.

I remember ordering it from Simply Solids when they first set up as I loved it and bought both the graphics print in several colourways and the very lovely tea cup print on both blue and cream backgrounds.

It nearly got used last year when Ellie was considering a tea theme for her Steampunk outfit so I gave it to her, and she gave it back a few weeks later.

I have just completed a mug rug for my Mum which is below, inspired by the Sew Illustrated book again and have used their motif but added a fabric band in Flurry from my scrap stash and buttons. I was very pleased with this and as I was searching through the stash for a blue lining for the spool pouch suddenly thought, ‘tea themed mug rugs…….. what a good idea!’

So here it is, I am using the individual tea cup motifs appliqued on with zig zag machine stitch, they are also stuck on with Steam – a – Seam fusible double sided web for extra staying power.

Tea mug rug 1

The linen is some I have just ordered from this Ebay supplier Ainsbury  , it is a beautiful quality and excellent value at £7.99 a metre. It  was a bit too beige for the Dresdens I have made but knew it would come in handy!

Very happy, loving the co-ordination and the crochet lace and the little vintage buttons! Now got to get back to what I was doing and finish the other pouches that I have embroidered. Is it any wonder that I have so many WIPs?

I did finish the spool pouch though and this one is mine all mine, love it and am taking it to knitting group tonight to show off!

Sew Ilustrated spool pouch 5

How very apt is that stitchery! At least this week I have had lots of crafting time as I have been getting up very early to do my marking so I can finish early and have a couple of hours each afternoon in my lovely sunny craft room 🙂

I am leaving for Spain on Saturday for two whole weeks with my lovely Mum and aunt and will have lots of time for reading and crafting and just general relaxing. Even though I holiday a lot I still get very excited at the thought of being away so shall be , as we say in the UK,  a giddy kipper for the rest of the week!

Take care, see you when I get back and thanks for visiting.

Angle experiments

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I have had a lovely time playing with Dresdens in my craft room over the last weekend. I have learnt a lot and made some pretty things.I am very much an experimenter when it comes to my crafting and am trying to expand my techniques. I never like to follow patterns or ideas directly and prefer using these as basis for a bit of creativity.

This is why I have ended up with such a variety of sizes, rather than actually following any instructions I just kept thinking, ‘what if I do this….?’

Which explains the giant Dresden, this measures 17 inches across and is a result of seeing what happens when you use the other end of the new Dresden ruler! I am not sure what this is going to be, was thinking bag but maybe a cushion cover with a large crochet piece in the centre from my stash and even a few Suffolk Puffs!

Large pink Dresden 1

This is the first one, the blades are 3 inches in length with the narrow end of my new ruler, worked out that you need 20 of these to complete the design so just kept adding fabric.

Medium Pink Dresden 1

Medium Pink Dresden 2

And this one is the, ‘what if I make it wider at the top’, experiment. done with a 2 length inch blade but wider at the top so only 12 were needed. I am not sure about the linen blades here, loved them but have now decided to applique this onto a linen pouch so may need to swap them out for a contrast fabric.

Doesn’t it look lovely with a bit of my vintage crochet in the centre?

Small Pink Dresden 1

One of the reasons I have been able to just play and add blades as needed is that I have been very naughty and bought new fabric, sush don’t tell the kids 😉

I bought two beautiful packs from a new supplier of ditsy florals that I found a while ago, Always Knitting and Sewing.

At the time I posted this wish list pic from the web site, and though I didn’t realise it when I ordered this it mostly what I bought.

bundle-10-fat-quarters-cream-floral-Always Knitting and Sewing

They came as two bundles, with ten 10 inch squares of beautiful quality fabric in each bundle,  very good value at £5.99 each. There is lots of choice of other colours as well. I ordered one cream and one pink bundle which has given me lots of beautiful things to play with. Aren’t they just absolutely gorgeous 🙂

This is one of my very favourite ones and as I need a new make up bag and have some more linen coming think I will save this for me!

Dresen Rose and Hubble fabrics 5

Most of their stock seems to be Rose and Hubble and Moda and I love all of it. I am very tempted by this beautiful colourway.

Red fabrics - wish list

I have also started another Sew Illustrated project, this one using one of the sewing motifs from the book and one of my favourite sayings, ‘Sew many projects, sew little time!’ This will be a pouch, again either for me to keep or a gift.

Sew Ilustrated spool pouch 1

Love using up my Liberty scraps on these and hope that they do look like spools.

Sew Ilustrated spool pouch 4

I do really love this time of year! I am able to go to work and come home in the light, the rhododendrons are just about to bloom and it is nearly time to go to Spain again 🙂

Also with my new role most of my teaching finishes next week, that means lots of marking for the next couple of months but that can mostly be done from the comfort of my sofa.

Then I have to do some serious work on my doctorate over the summer, but that still leaves plenty of time for crafting in the late afternoons, so along with the plan for my doctorate I have written a crafting plan for the summer.

So I am a very happy bunny. Hope that you are all having a nice Spring (or Autumn), take care and thanks for visiting.

Quilty maths and a sheep in progress

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Hello and hope that you are all having a very lovely weekend, after the busyness of the previous three I am having a very lovely time in my craft room. Last weekend I was helping Ellie paint her new house which went very well and this weekend I have a whole weekend devoted to sewing 🙂

She has a very lovely bathroom, very much a spa style gorgeous pamper place in grey so I made her this little pouch as a house warming gift.

Grey linen pouch 1

The grey linen, lining fabric and crochet lace are all from my stash and the little squares are from the Moda mini charm packs that I bought at the Quilt Festival in the summer.

I have been hard at work on Dresedens applying my maths knowledge to working out sizes and angles. It has been very much trial and error as I have not looked at any patterns just done some cutting and gone for it.

I have taught maths for most of the last 29 years and trained lots of maths teachers over the last 15 years and have always told them about the maths in crafting such as quilts so have been putting it into good practice.

Last week I made this lovely piece, was surprised how easily it went together and turned it into a mug rug for my craft room with the addition of one of my vintage crochet motifs.

I have just purchased a book that has been on my radar for a while, Sew Illustrated,  by Minki Kim and Kristin Esser and was inspired by all the lovely things in it to do something similar today.

Just look at all this cuteness, particularly liking the baskets and the little house bags, after making so many house pincushions can see this as a way of using up more ideas for fabric combinations in a more practical way. Need to find something cute for fussy cutting the door!

Sew Illustrated book 4

Sew Illustrated book 6

This is my work in progress sheep knitting notions bag, probably for Sarah’s Yarndale stall if I don’t decide it is too lovely and has to stay with me 🙂 I have been hand embroidering the sheep’s legs and head tonight while watching the third series of the excellent Grace and Frankie on Netflix.

Sheep knitting acessories bag 1

Sheep knitting acessories bag 2

Sheep knitting acessories bag 3

Have also made a couple of other Dresdens, one a little bigger than the above and an experiment with the other end of my new Dresden ruler that has ended up being rather on the large side 🙂

More on that in a future post, meanwhile happy crafting, thanks for visiting and see you soon.

Knit one, purl one

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Hello from damp and windy, (as usual), Yorkshire. I have had a busy time just lately with some very exciting things to do, namely helping Ellie move into the house she has just bought! I went down to Worksop last weekend and with Kerry and another friend James helped her move some of her things then the removal men came on Monday.

All very good, she is very pleased to have bought a lovely house in a little village not far from work and has been busy buying furniture and things for it this week. I am going down again next weekend to help her do some painting.

Meanwhile on the crafting front I have cast on some knitting. It has been about a year since I last did any, I put together the mouse for Ava which involved some finishing but have not knitted for a long time as I have had tendonitis in my left wrist which has been painful. I was inspired however by the fact that we have a new baby in the family so got some of my stash out and have cast on this cute cardigan from an old magazine so excuse the creases!

baby cardigan pic March 1

Am knitting the 6 month size so will have to finish it by August which should be fine, I have two weeks in Spain at Easter so will be sitting on the terrace in the sun with it.

baby cardigan knitting March 1

I have also made another little pouch, this one has some hair bobbles in and is for a friend’s daughter’s birthday. Same design and tutorial as before, Jedi Craft Girl

Blue linen pouch 1

The bow fabric is from the mini charm packs I bought at Quilt Festival last summer and it is lined with red linen which works well with the blue.

Blue linen pouch 2

The linen is all scrap from making kit for the boys.The deal is that I make things for them in return for a bottle of wine and the fabric left overs which seems like a very good deal to me 🙂

Blue linen pouch 3

I love the ric rac braid and thought that the motif on the charm squares was very appropriate for hair bobbles.

We are coming to the end of term now and teaching is slowing down and the evenings are getting brighter so I am feeling very springlike, apart from the rain the last few days, and am looking forward to the summer starting. Roll on warm days and camping!

Hope that you have a good week ahead, see you all in a couple of weeks for an update on a newly tried design, I made my first Dresden this afternoon and it went very well! Just needs the centre finishing and some backing and I can share it with you.

Thanks for visiting and see you soon.

Fit for a saint

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Here is the surcoat for Saint George. I decided to make it open sided, more of a tabard as it may well be worn by lots of people within our group over its lifetime and that way it will be a ,’one size fits all’, piece of kit.

St George's tabard 1

I designed the garment myself, a very simple and quick make as I only had one afternoon to do it.Basically it is two and a half metres of fabric folded in half lengthways with a little trimmed off the one edge.This meant I only had one side seam to sew. The width of it is 25″ before sewing it up.

I had planned to then use the length folded in half width ways to make front and back. The length of the tabard from shoulder to knee is 46″. I appliqued the cross onto the front before sewing up the side seam. The cross pattern I cut out from paper with a 2″ width for each end, tapering in to the middle. The fabric was cut as one piece then machine appliqued onto the background with zigzag stitch.

St George's tabard 3

I cut a hole in the middle for the head, this measures 12″ and I just drew round a plate and elongated it from the centre of the tabard. I bound the neck with a bias binding, using the quilt binding method of cutting a 2 and a half inch strip on the bias then machining it to the outside of the neck, folding it over to the inside then folding over the raw edge and slip stitching it to the inside.

St George's tabard 4

I am very pleased with how it has turned out and hopefully will have some pictures of it in action for you in a few weeks. I am not going to be at the event as I am in Spain but fingers crossed there will be a few on Facebook!

I have also managed to make a very cute pouch in between marking this week so will share that with you soon I am away this coming weekend at Ellie’s so will be back with you next weekend.

Thanks for visiting and have a lovely weekend and week ahead.

The internet is reading my mind!

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Well bits of the internet are anyway. As regular readers know I have been developing my skills with zippers in the last couple of months and have plans to make more of the lovely pouches that I have been making and maybe even experiment with some more designs.

So I was really pleased when I visited Amanda Jean’s Crazy Mom blog this evening to find that she had a link to a friend’s site,  A Little Crispy  – what a fab name for a blog – who is running a 52 Zippers Project, one for each week of the year! This is a screenshot of what she has made so far.

52-zipper-pouch-web-pic

How fantastic is that exactly 🙂 This is going to be a major source of inspiration for me this year as she has links to tutorials for each of the pouches for free and a basic pattern to print and there are some lovely ideas here.How kind people on the internet are!

I have not tried any curved pouches yet but these look lovely.Sadly I have other stuff to do this weekend and am busy for the next few weekends after that but the next free weekend I am going to lock myself in the craft room and go pouch mad, at last count I had about 50 zippers and I do have a little bit of fabric as well 😉

Hope that you have a great weekend ahead, I am hopefully going to be making a surcoat for St George this weekend for the show that the group has coming up at Easter.

Take care and thanks for visiting.