I know that bird!

I bought a picture in Brighton a couple of years ago, which I adore.  It's called "Love birds" and is a screen print with vintage fabrics.

It's rather remiss, I know, but I hadn't really thought much about the artist until...well... until today when I was reading a magazine and came across this gorgeous outfit by Clothkits.

I know that bird! I squeal.

It turns out that my picture and this dress are by the rather talented Jane Foster, whose website and blog I have now found.  You can see more GORGEOUS things there so take a look.

Now, shall I succumb and buy Felix that dress, even though she's too small for it?!

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Here's one I made earlier...

We've got guests for the weekend, lots of them, so there is no way I am going to get time to do any sewing (without being impolite!).  Not that I'm wishing the guests weren't here, far from it, it's just that sewing/blogging time is a precious commodity!   Anyway, in the absence of anything new (a cushion is in the pipeline but it'll have to wait til next week) here are a couple of makes from about 3 months ago, before I started blogging, that might give you some inspiration.

The first is a Scrabble picture I made for James' birthday, featuring our little family.  Fortunately, he loved it!   The Scrabble set cost two quid from a charity shop and the most difficult part of this project was allowing myself to break up a board game (sob).

The second is a pair of socks I made for Felix - well actually, I bought the socks and then added the flowers which are made by sandwiching interfacing between two squares of fabric, then stitching a flower pattern.  I then cut round the flower shape, added another fabric for the centre of the flower and sewed the centre of the flower onto the socks.

Why, I can hear you asking, has she only photographed one?   OK, I admit it, these little socks have seen some wear since November and I am not totally sure where the other one is, baby socks rarely stay on baby feet, I've noticed....

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Ten minute crafting idea

Have just spent all evening doing my tax return, which has annoyingly stolen my precious sewing time, so I needed a quick fix!.  This project is inspired by something I saw at IKEA, takes no time at all and still looks great, I think.   Basically, you need a photo frame (one of those with multiple slots for pictures works best) and a few fabrics from the stash.   My example below is a photo clock, but I think ordinary frames would work just as well. 

Anyway, all you do is replace the photos with squares of fabric, and - hey presto! - wall art!

I've got a huge frame with lots of larger picture slots to do next, but I'm thinking I might have to stiffen the fabric first so it doesn't wrinkle up...will keep you updated

But now I'm going to go to bed and hopefully NOT dream about tax codes
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PS thank you to all my lovely friends and family for the birthday wishes and gifts etc  I am truly spoilt!

Mini quilt

As promised, a picture of the table runner, which I'm actually pretty chuffed with (yeay!)    The runner has a layer of fusible fleece in the middle if it, so making it is just like doing a quilt - in fact a quilt in these colours would look fabby-dabby dozy (showing my age?!)

Maybe when I've got a slightly smaller list of things to do, I'll give the quilt a go....

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Patchwork dog and basket

Had a super day out on Friday in Lewes (East Sussex).  Good food, good company (mother-in-law and Felix!) and good fabric!   Seriously, it's a lovely town with lots of independent shops including the most marvellous patchwork and quilting shop. I'd already spotted "The Patchwork dog and basket" in a magazine before we went there so we hunted it down in a lovely crafty/antique centre called the Needlemakers.  They have everything, from the modern fabrics I love to use, to more traditional quilting cottons, plus polka spots in a rainbow of colours and a great sale section.   Sue obligingly entertained Felix so I could have a proper nose around and I left the building a very happy girl....

Three sales fabrics that I have no idea what I'm going to do with, but I couldn't resist:

Two Michael Miller prints that caught my eye, bikes and dogs - love it!

Toadstools

This gorgeous flower print that would actually make a lovely top

and, last but by no means least, a Moda fabric from the Basicgrey range - this is printed like the lines of an old exercise book and I'm just itching to print onto it  (scan is not doing this one justice I'm afraid!)

Oh, and to top it all, the fabric came in this stylish recycled newspaper bag - felt like I'd got a free gift!

It's not been all buying and no making - I've finally finished the table runner I mentioned in an earlier post (hand binding that was a labour of love!) but the picture will have to wait until there's better light!  Instead I leave you with an image of Jane's garden room with my cushions in situ - fortunately she likes them!

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Shamed into action!

I've been following a few sewing blogs and recently a number of sewing goddesses have been revamping their sewing spaces. Tilly and the buttons, Handmade Jane and Hayley goes handmade have all shown their lovely, organised spaces and really put me to shame!  I'm lucky enough to have a devoted sewing room in the basement (one of the benefits of living in Hastings is that the property is cheapish!) however, I've let it get so messy that I've moved my machine to the kitchen and my stash is also gradually migrating up the stairs! See below for evidence! (the kettle belongs to our builder who has taken to using the room as his tea room!)

To be fair one reason for doing this was so that I could still sew whilst hanging out with James in the evenings, but the kitchen table take-over is not ideal! Having being shamed by all the lovely spaces, I resolve to get organised in the basement, give me one month and I shall report back!

The gorgeous Felix has been poorly, her first real cold I think :( so I have been a bit slow in production this week.  My latest project is a table runner for a small cottage.  The brief is modern, blues, lime greens and grey, and it needs to be about 1.2m long.  So far I have a front (see below) which uses that lovely IKEA fabric from Nikki I mentioned in an earlier post as well as some Amy Butler and some Moda plus various other fabrics from the stash.

I have also completed a reverse in plain colour blocks with the odd piece of patterned fabric which all needs to come together with appropriate binding.  Still haven't decided whether to quilt it or not...will come back to you with the finished product shortly (I hope!)

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Stripey revealed!

It's late, so I'll keep this short.  On Thursday, I delivered the stripey surprise, and I think he was well received!  See below for my first ever sock monster, complete with owners label made using an inkjet printer, white cotton and quilters paper.

Does he have a name, Sarah?!

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Fabric fortune...

No time for any sewing this week, Felix and I have been at Mum and Dads until today and we're off to Norwich tomorrow to see some lovely people and deliver the stripey surprise :)   Despite this hectic schedule, I've somehow managed to substantially increase my fabric stash!  First off, Mum empties her remnants box, saying I'll make more use of it than her, so I find myself the proud owner of some brown velvet and duck-egg blue corduroy (perfect for cushion backs) amongst other useful things.  Any ideas for the 80's print in the foreground gratefully received, I'll send it to anyone who thinks they can turn it into something marvellous!

Then, Dad and I take to the charity shops in Wallingford and one of them has a sewing display in the window, so I acquire a Sari panel, 1.5m of cream linen, 1.5m of white cotton and 1.5m of grey flecked mohair mix by Valentino (in love with this one!), plus some suede effect wool - all for £8.75!!!

And then to top it all off, today the wonderful Nikki appears with a gift from IKEA - 2m of this fab bird print!

 Could it get any better?!  (Errr...Yes it could, the non-fabric addicts are saying, the bemused James included!)
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Stripey surprise...

Oh, I SO want to post a picture of my latest make on here, but I can't...yet...because it's for my lovely friend Sarah's birthday and Sarah, cos she's lovely, reads my blog!   Instead I'll leave a little teaser photo and leave her, and any other readers in suspense - but only until next week :)

I did get time to squeeze another cushion in, which is a jolly good thing as I have a list of them to make now, and that's before I start creating any stock to sell.  So here you go, the latest patchwork cushion with fabrics chosen from my stash by Laura, whom this particular cushion is destined for...I hope you like it Laura!

Now, what next?
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Thank you cards

Before I get cracking on my mental list of crafty things to do in 2011, I need to say thank you to all the wonderful folk we know who sent Felix gifts for Christmas.   Never one to pass an opportunity for making something (!), I've done a bundle of hand-made thank you cards. 

If you fancy a crack at these, they're dead simple - just pick some nice fabrics, iron interfacing onto the back for stability and sew buttons and beads on.  I used PowerPoint to do the words, printed them out onto cream paper and used the machine to stitch those on too

Now, I must stop doing this and get on and write them!

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