It’s been raining hard again so I’ve stayed indoors and played with patchwork pieces, experimenting with autumn colours. Continue reading Keeping busy
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 This was the first one he had at about 3 years old. I’m sat here with goosebumps, cold feet, cold hands, a cold nose and I’m thinking about putting on a hat and fingerless mittens. And yes, the heating’s on! Continue reading I made a hat with flaps!  My handy new bag I need a new bag I thought to myself. Well, actually I probably didn’t. But then again, I only have one (I’m so not your typical female am I?!) and it’s fairly small so maybe I did. I went shopping and discovered that the sort of bag I had in mind costs rather more than I had to spend. Nothing new there. But looking at them I thought, pah, I could make that myself in an hour or two. And for less than half the price. I’ve been thinking that a lot lately. I recently made myself two pairs of linen trousers for less than £50 (including all the zips and threads), which is roughly the price of one pair of trousers from somewhere like White Stuff. Result, I thought. So if I wanted a bag with the sort of money I had to spend I’d have to make one. Not a problem. And for around £10 and a couple of hours work I designed and made myself a lovely stripey number. Oh yes, lovely it is! If I were making it again, I would of course do some things differently. I have a bad habit of ‘designing on the hoof’ – ie I pretty much make it up as I go along. Well, I start off with a plan, a pattern, but then change my mind and alter it half way through. It seems to be much the same way I do anything. I should make a toile first. Well I would if it was something important or expensive, but for something simple like this I’m happy to just go with the flow!  I made it in one of my beloved Kaffe Fassett fabrics  and used a Suffolk puff to decorate the closure.  Big enough to hold something A4, but not too big to lose things forever. Perfect! Very simple as it may be I was pleased with the Suffolk puff detail on the closure – little things please little minds! I like the added texture and change in direction of the stripe. I also like the way I made the centre of it match the binding and inside strap fabric (a black linen). I must’ve been on a creative roll there! I enjoyed working out how to make the puff like this and thought that maybe you’d like to have a go too, so I wrote a simple tutorial which is in the next post. Let me know what you think! I don’t know how, but it’s got to the wee small hours already, so I’ll say ta ra for now and will be back soon. Love Stephie x I thought it might be nice to have something to lighten the mood around here a bit today, a bit of light relief from my outpourings; what do you think of these? They’ll shortly be available from Art House 2. Not only do they look sweet, they smell as sweet as roses too!  Scented sachets  Hanging hearts  Some of them have vintage lace and vintage or reused fabrics  One of them isn't even a heart!  But they've each got their own hand painted hearty label! I feel I’ve neglected you for far too long this week, and I humbly apologise. You’ve been in my thoughts a lot though, my lovely reader, honest. I’m going to try and do much better in the future, be a regular ‘writer’. That’s what I’d like; would you like it too? Or maybe you don’t mind the haphazard approach I’ve adopted of late? Maybe you think I should give you a daily round-up, or a thrice weekly catch-up, or maybe just once a week of my gibberish is enough for you!? Let me know and I’ll see what I can do, I aim to please! While you cogitate on that wee matter, here’s one of the things I’ve been working on this past week. Yes, yes, it’s the on-going hearty star quilt for you-know-who this Christmas. I very randomly patched the backing for the quilt using scraps from the fabrics for the quilt top. I really didn’t want to spend any more money on fabric for the back of the quilt, so I’m quite pleased with the thrifty outcome . Being thrifty is something I’m trying to cultivate; not easy when you’re surrounded by some wonderful fabrics that surely need buying… Good grief, I’ve just noticed the time: 3.35 AM, yes AM! Why am I still awake I wonder? Do you have the answer? If you do, please let me know, cos I sure could do with some tips on getting to sleep!  Randomly pieced back for the hearty star quilt  Detail of my random piecing!  Hand appliqued and embroidered hearts along the borders, all pinned and ready for basting then hand hand quilting. Well hello! Hope you’re having a good weekend? If you’ve been here before you might notice that I’ve been fiddling about with the design of this blog over the last couple of days. Or you may not, but I have been! Finally, I feel that I’ve got some images up in the header that ‘work’ (on ALL the pages) and give some indication as to what this blog’s about! I love the image at the top of this page; there will definitely be an assortment of posts, but I’m not sure I can really guarantee gaiety! Oh, go on then, I’ll try. But you know me… I’m most pleased with the reddishness of everything here; I love the richness of it, it’s so positive. And perky! There are still a number of things I feel I have to get right (Me? Perfectionist? Ha!): some annoying little quirks in the css; make the sidebar more colourful; categorise and tag all the old Blogger posts…but I’m pleased with the way it’s going so far. A bit of trimming of the pages and some radical pruning on the About page has been a fulfilling de-cluttering event this weekend! What have you been up to? I notice Kootoyoo has been doing a little spring cleaning over at her place too… |
I'm running a 28 mile marathon in memory of Josie this February. Come and find out why. |
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