Tag: sewing (page 3 of 4)

July 13, 2010 / 0 Comments

"Hello? Samantha?"

Dee-dee-dee-dee-d, Dee-dee-dee-dee-d. Well, I am wiggling my nose, but I guess I don’t have Samantha’s magic.

“Hello? Samantha? Are you there? Could you send a little magic my way, I am ready to wiggle my nose and have this order completed!”

I’m getting there, slowly and surely, in-between work, keeping up things around the house, so we are not swallowed up by “Mount Laundry”, and taking care of a sick husband, I am busy sewing away.

There is a basket of bears and bunnies at my feet, only a few more colors left to cut, embroider and piece together and then they will be on their way!

July 8, 2010 / 1 Comment

I have been working hard these last few days. I don’t seem to have gotten very far however, this week has been unbelievably busy. I have been out of the house more than I have been in and trying to do all my sewing in the in-between.

But, tonight I am inside, the dishes are done, the iron is hot and I am just about to make some Jenny Wren tags to sew into little bunny and bear legs. Before I do that, I am going to eat the last slice of this:

The marble cake we made for the Fourth of July has managed to stick around a few days longer than I thought since we have been out so much. So, the last slice, is mine! After all, a girl needs to keep up her strength when sewing so many little creatures together…

July 6, 2010 / 0 Comments

Above Water

Is this week over already? I am ready for it to be and it is only Tuesday! I got my biggest order yet from RosaBlue and I have been busily cutting away felt, embroidering pockets and faces on bears and bunnies, ironing wrens on fabric labels…

I am just trying to take it slow, to do them in color batches, so I don’t get overwhelmed. Between trying to keep the household chores up, take care of this order, go to work and prepare for my new job (in which I am doing the “handover” this week), I am endeavouring to keep my head above water.

But, when I feel overwhelmed and nothing seems to be getting accomplished, I take some “Jack Byrnes Wisdom” and I step back, take a deep breath, take a break and go back to it in a little while. It will all get accomplished, not everything all at once, maybe not as quickly as I intended or how I planned and organized it, but in the end it will all get done.

So, right now, I am just focusing on keeping my head above water, I’ve always liked a good challenge, so I am more than ready to take this on….

(Image: Esther Williams found on Flickr)

March 22, 2010 / 1 Comment

Ta-Daaaa!

We worked hard over the weekend, planting a few more flowers in the pots and cleaning up our little garden. It is amazing how many leaves and things get tucked between a planter and a wall over the winter, so the planters were moved and the leaves were swept out!

I also got to finish the project I started on Friday, living in a little cottage things can get dusty fast and there is not always enough space to keep everything tucked away, so with the inspiration of a Martha Stewart How-To I saw ages ago, I devised a plan.

With a simple tea towel, I reworked the pattern to fit my doll house sized treasure, creating almost origami styled folds, but making sure to leave enough room to get around all the parts:

Did you guess what it is? Your right, a new sewing machine cover to keep it dust free and sitting pretty!

(Vintage circus image from the Circus ABC by Kathryn Jackson, found on the Golden Gems Blogspot, embellished by Jennifer Michie)

March 19, 2010 / 0 Comments

What Will it Be?

Just working on a few sewing projects today, what will some of this fabric become?

The possibilities are endless, but I have something particular in mind. I think I will use the Cath Kidston Pairie fabric for this project, I can’t seem to get enough of those happy flowers lately.

What will it be? You’ll just have to wait and see….

March 7, 2010 / 0 Comments

Down the Rabbit Hole

It is late, it is very late, after 1am to be exact. I seem to be having another bout of insomnia, coupled with the lovely cold I seem to be getting! It is quiet this time of morning and very very cold so, I have wrapped myself up in one of my quilts. This one is an 1800’s quilt from the American Mid-West with a log cabin pattern.

I always stare at it when it is on me, looking at the fabric, wondering who made this, how long it took them to sew it, how long it took them to save the flour sacks or old dresses to have enough material to make this quilt? Was it the work of a young girl, practicing her hand at quilt making or that of a young woman for her wedding bed? A mother for her child? If only it could speak or was handed down to me from someone who knew its story…

Since, I am up I thought I would share with you a few more pieces of the wonderful Japanese illustrator Katogi Mari’s work. I used one of her illustrations in my Friday Post.

We saw Alice in Wonderland yesterday, it is all still sinking in. It was a kaleidoscope of color, fantastical, imaginative and it is amazing what a computer can create today with the help of many human hands and hours behind it.

I love the colorful yet simple designs, the clean yet detailed and whimsical nature of Katogi Mari’s work. This series sums up the fanciful side of Alice for me. And, I love the 1960’s Japanese-esque of it all.

I feel as if I have fallen down the rabbit hole myself with all the bunnies I am stitching for RosaBlue and my sinuses are making me feel as if I am in a topsy turvy world, I am waiting for cakes with eat me piped onto them and pianos and books and chairs and teapots to come floating by my head. I am now going back to stitch on more marshmallowy bunny tails, so they will have more hopping power to jump into their box when they are all sewn up!

March 5, 2010 / 0 Comments

Let the Wild Rumpus Begin!

I feel like Max this morning from “Where the Wild things Are” and I am ready for the wild rumpus of a weekend to start. There are still bears and bunnies to finish, Mother’s Day gifts to buy (they celebrate Mother’s Day early here) and my sweetie pie wants to see the new “Alice in Wonderland” film.

I loved reading the book as a child, what I loved most was that when I finished the first book, I had to turn it upside down to read the 2nd, “Alice Through the Looking Glass”. I am going into this film with my 3D glasses on and an open mind, I am not so sure about, it looks almost too out there, which my cute ginger argues with me is the point, so we shall see.

There is also a menu to be plan. My friends laugh at me, but I plan my menus for two weeks, we don’t have a large grocery store in our town, so it is a ride down the rails for groceries with my hessian bags and red granny cart in hand. I buy a few things to get us through locally as we need them, milk, bread, salad…

I am far from frugal, we eat very well and for the most part very healthy in our house, I don’t cook junk; I just don’t understand how they can randomly walk into a store and just see what they happen to find. One of my friends goes grocery shopping every morning and spends about £30-40 each time, that is insane!! I plan some meals for one nights, some will be leftovers some will have something entirely new made with their leftovers.

There will be a menu discussion in the house tonight, so far Aioli is on the menu one of my favorite pasta dishes and so simple, with oil and garlic and parsley; a mexican night with homemade bean burritoes, queso sauce and homemade guacamole; it is still very cold here so probably a stew maybe with dumplings and mashed potatoes on the side or just a hearty bowl with some buttermilk biscuits. Since we have had our first taste of spring, I really feel like either some homemade banana pudding or Nigella Lawson’s “Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake”. This cake is a favorite in our house, it has been made for many a birthday. Although I do make a few changes, I half the required dark chocolate for the icing and mix it with milk or use all milk chocolate, since I found the dark at times became too bitter. (click on the photo to get the recipe)

But in all this sewing, movie watching, grocery shopping crazy filled weekend we will have, I want to make sure that we carve out a little bit of time to just be. I know sometimes I am guilty of trying to do too much in the space of 48 hours, I just need to remember to sit back and breathe!

What are you doing for your weekend?

(Alice in Wonderland image by: Katogi Mari)

March 3, 2010 / 0 Comments

Blanket Statement

This morning the sun is shining yet again, the little pot of bulbs by my front door are ready to pop open and a rap at my racing green door was opened to find my jolly postman waiting for me with a parcel in his hands.

What was in my delicious parcel? This:

It was written by the lovely Vicki Haninger, who runs the Turkey Feathers Blog and the Pattern Bee web shop where she sells wonderful vintage and retro embroidery designs.

I have been desiring this little book ever since I saw her cute elephant doll, sweetly dressed for a party with a heart bejeweled crown on her head. But you could not get it in England and I could never find it when I went home to visit. So, thank goodness you can now get it through Amazon UK, that makes me 1 very happy camper!

So, sitting down with a steaming cup of tea, I tore into this package like a child on Christmas morning and I flipped through, oohed and aaghed and then I flipped through again and oohed and aaghed some more.

What a sweet treasure this book is and the other ideas it has already started spawning in my head… it is really adorable!

If you can’t wait to get your hands on your own copy, you can already begin making a project from her book. She offers this darling little lambkin pattern on her website. It looks like something straight out of a vintage shop. I can just see the 1950’s little girl it belonged to in her pink coat and matching bonnet with this little lamb tucked under her arm.

I can’t wait to get started making some of the projects out of here. But, first there are bears and bunnies to be made for RosaBlue, so I am busy happily stitching away!

Click on the Lambkin for a pattern and directions:

February 28, 2010 / 0 Comments

We are Living in a Technological World

We headed into Central London yesterday morning and as the train rolled down the tracks I looked around me. Okay, the day wasn’t perfect, there were some rain drops falling, but at this moment the sky was clear, the sun was shining, everything looked lush and green, a few blooms along the way showing that Spring could be on its way…

Everyone in our car section was talking away or sitting silently, concentration furrowing their brow. They weren’t talking to each other though or concentrating on reading a book; they were all, every single one of them with a phone in hand. Even my adorable red-head, was finishing off a game before he tucked it away to talk to me.

I could just feel the bangle, diamond, dripping lace cladded Madonna singing “We are Living in a Material World”, however I am not a Material Girl. I say this with a grain of salt because I know that I am a Blogger. But, I have my limits. Here was a perfectly beautiful day, the train was on time (sometimes a rarity) and not one soul was talking to each other or looking out the window.

Have we become so technologically advanced in this world we feel we don’t need anyone else, that we can shut ourselves off from everyone by hiding behind our technology? Now, I know I could talk the hind legs of a mule, but I am quite happy in silence, just watching, just observing. I hope that I never become so technologically advanced that I forget to look around me, to take in the sights, sounds and smells. To just sit quietly or talking hand-in-hand with my man as we ride on down the rails.

On a happier and less ranting note, Cath Kidston had the gorgeous material I have been after and so I stocked up on some, I have great plans for this: I am making a yoga mat bag, if I can bring myself to bring my scissors anywhere near this sweet pattern.

And we visited a store we have yet to discover, I LOVE this about London, no matter how long I have lived here and how well I know my way around the big streets, the side streets, the cut-throughs, there are still things to discover. We found La Fromagerie and I am in LOVE. Gorgeous cheese, Poilane bread, beautiful white bowls filled with candied fruits, fresh produce.

We slid back the heavy glass barn door to enter the cheese room, it was just everything you would have wanted! Walking in there was heaven! I could have just sat down right there on the floor with my fresh Poilane bread in hand, a knife to smear on goats cheese and lived in happiness for eternity.

(The image used was only an example, I have nothing against Apple, I am a Mac girl through and through, thanks to my husband, I have left the world of PCs and gone to the Dark Side…the images of La Fromagerie are copyright to them, since we forget the camera)

P.S. It must have been a truly foxy kind of week, because while entering Anthropologie and heading upstairs I found this vintage children’s playing card made into a greeting card and he decided he wanted to come home with me, so he did….

January 24, 2010 / 0 Comments

100th Post!

I can’t believe it! Today I am writing my 100th post! We have done a little work in the flowerpots this morning, cutting back and sweeping things up.

We had to make a milk run this a.m. and my grocery store surprise was 3 brightly colored primroses. So they are now happily nestled into their new homes and will bring a smile to my face every time I come into our cottage door.

I still can’t get rid of the last remnants of Christmas. With the weather still being so icy here, my Christmas wreath is still living merrily on my front door. So, off came the bow I had made for it and on went a heart hung in the middle for Valentine’s Day. I am going to keep enjoying this little wintry wreath as long as I can.

I am still hard at work on crafting my little bears, a personalized pink colored bear has been added on to my order. So, that will be my last bear to complete, along with 3 little bunnies that need to be stuffed.

They have just had their fluffy little tails sewn on and are more than ready to be filled with marshmallowy fluff and be sewn up, so they can hop on into their wee traveling box to be posted on their way to RosaBlue.

(Image of the Cake Invitation & Sweets from the BabyGardener, embellished by Jennifer Michie)