French Knots

Felting

I have had a couple of ideas floating around in my head for a while and wanted some woollen jumpers to felt, so I could put the ideas to the test. All the wool jumpers in the charity shop were £4 or even more and as I've never tried felting in the washing machine before I wanted a cheaper option. There was a jumble sale on Saturday and I managed to pick up a huge blue Ikea bag full of treasures for only 3 quid, that's more like it! The Big Sister came with and helped read the labels to find the right sort of jumpers, she learnt a new word ' acrylic '!

In addition to some wool jumpers I got some old hand embroidered tray cloths and hankies that I'll be making into pin cushions, some jeans and a checked woollen skirt that I'll be recycling in projects too. I like giving old clothes and fabrics a new lease of life as something different.

I put the jumpers on a hot wash , with the jeans for friction, and am mostly pleased with the results apart from a couple of lambswool jumpers which came out exactly the same as they went it. I put them on a 90 degree wash and they still stayed the same, so I'm going wrong somewhere or does lambswool not felt? Any ideas welcome please

It's in the genes..

A quiet afternoon was much improved when My Little Helper said  ' Lets do cwafts Mummy', so we did. He enjoys cutting things up and loves stickers, he decided that he wanted to make a 'folder' influenced I think by The Big Sister who needed a folder to keep the lines for her play organised.

The next few weeks are busy with birthdays for family and friends, I have finished off a couple of projects so far with a fairly long list still to go - why do we set ourselves these challenges?! I enjoy making things as gifts and hope that the recipient feels the love with which they were made. I bought these scarf and gloves sets in the sales but they needed spiffing up a bit so I made some little felt corsages to make them a bit prettier.

After taking the photo I decided I didn't like the decoration on the back of the glove so I moved it to the cuff which looks better I think. So just a couple of note books, a baking set, some birthday cards, a valentines card to go in the next couple of days plus a half made toy to finish, several half done embroideries and the wretched sketches for the embroidered ballerinas and cowboys ( which I knew were beyond my drawing skills before I started !) for the tshirts......all activities to ward off the February Funk here, thank goodness.

Exciting parcels

Today's post brought some lovely surprises! I was lucky to be drawn out of the hat by Dollie Daydream or more accurately her Little Fella, she was celebrating her 100th post and today this parcel arrived.

Tied up with ribbon, with a super postcard and also if I'm not mistaken a lovely Moo card with a picture of some embroidery on it. Of course I exercised restraint and didn't rip the paper off as fast as I could...!   

Look what was inside! A wonderful tote bag made from soft baby cord in a lovely palette of colours. Thanks Caroline, I'll be using this a lot! I'm not usually lucky in draws and raffles.....unless you count the time about 20 years ago when I met my husband by buying a tombola ticket from him!

Also in the post was a lovely little package from Sarah at Paper and String which opened up to reveal a dinky little heart and some ribbon

The ribbon will be used later on a project I am working on for a friend's birthday. Thanks Sarah!

The final loveliness is some fabric from Kitty Craft, when Molly Chicken mentioned the shop was open on her blog I knew it would be dangerous to visit, but throwing caution and the weeks food budget to the wind I bought this

And this too

So what was a bit of a dull and ordinary day ( no snow here sadly) was transformed!

Wow and WIP

First the wow - the very talented Julie of Little Cotton Rabbits mentioned French Knots on her blog! I was really surprised and it made my day. Thanks Julie! Her lovely blog is a feast of yummy bunnies each with it's own little character.

Then the WIP, it's a little embroidery I'm working  but the colours don't seem to show up too well in the photo. It's stitched on a layer of painted silk with cotton behind to make it firmer. Lots of french knots of course, my favourite stitch!

I took a night school class years ago with a very talented teacher Sue Newhouse, we worked on 3 dimensional embroidery using painted, stiffened silk and water soluble fabric. The piece I'm working on will, hopefully, be waves once it is finished and the lower part of the picture will have lots of 3d action. This is one of the pictures I made during Sue's classes to give you an idea of what I'm waffling on about   

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Got the blues...

Despite the damp, grey day making taking photos a challenge,  I wanted to show a couple of recent acquisitions. This fabric was a recent win on ebay, it's a crisp cotton in a lovely shade of blue with mushrooms, rabbits, flowers and tortoises on. A child's print without being too twee. Of course I don't have a project in mind for it yet, I just wanted it!

And I have been lucky in the Charity shop for a change and found this fab tea set for only a couple of quid, it was made in Norway and has a super pattern in green and blues. Sorry about the poor photos

There are 5 cups and saucers but 6 plates so I could sell it as a set for 5 and still keep one lovely plate for me.                                                                                       

Blue is my favourite colour, to the horror of my son who believes, at 3 years old, that girls like pink and boys like blue. This misconception is only reinforced by his 7 year old and pink obsessed sister!

A little car

Have embroidered this little car onto a t shirt for my son to jazz it up a bit.  He now wants one with a cowboy on amd my daughter wants a swimmer, acrobat and a ballerina - not sure my drawing skills are up to the task! It's relaxing to sit in the evenings and do some embroidery, though now I'm at home all day relaxing is less of a problem. Am slowing adapting to my new life, it's a bit lonely when you are used to a busy office full of people but the time I'm getting to spend with my children is great. Instead of rushing home for a quick story before bedtime I can now enjoy their company and doing things with them much more. We have some baking planned for this afternoon, which can be a bit fraught and messy with a 3 year old, but I'll try and hang onto my patience!

My little helper

I was taking this picture of some finds from the charity shop which will be recycled into some new projects, the cotton and lawn hankies will be used for embroideries, the books for collage and I'm sure the cotton lace will come in for something, when my little assistant decided to help, bless him

which makes for a much better picture!

Handbags and Gladrags

I love handbags, I have far too many but keep them for years, sometimes putting them away for a while and then getting them out and enjoying them all over again.

This latest arm candy is a gift from my friends and colleagues from work. We went out for a few drinks (and then a few more...you know how it is sometimes!) to mark the occasion of my redundancy and they had bought me this lovely bag, amongst other things.

I love the organic way the the waves flow over the bag and am really touched at the time and care taken to choose me such a lovely gift.

Have been lucky in the local charity shop today and found this solid wood little table for only £4.50 so I snapped it up quickly before anyone else could.

I suppose it is a bedside table really but might use it for storing magazines in the living room. There are far too many Coast and Country Livings piled up on the floor and a home for them is long overdue. I will sand it back and give it a wax finish or maybe a lime wax, I'll see how I feel at the time.

Practise makes Perfect

Thanks you for the advice as to how to size my pictures, hopefully this one will be easier to see

Here is a little corner of my house, we have just repainted the room in Morris Blue which is a lovely greeny/bluey shade that I fell in love with on a Spring trip to Paris earlier this year. The bedroom in the hotel was painted this gorgeous shade and redecorating was the perfect opportunity to use it

Phew

Finally got the broadband back, what a relief after nearly 3 weeks. I really missed my daily fix of some of your fantastic and inspiring blogs so I'm going to enjoy a big catch up.

Have been using my time to work on some projects rather than spending so long in front of the screen so it's not been all bad! I've finished off some cushions and draught excluders as the wind has been invading the house through our creaky old front door. In fact having more time for mothering and nesting is wonderful and is a definite benefit of being made redundant.

I've been making some notebooks, some I've given away but this one is for me. It's made from recycled fabric, a dress I found in the charity shop and a pair of my husbands old jeans. The buckle came in a bag of odds and ends from the Antique Textile Fair that is held in Manchester. It's a treasure trove of inspiration and temptation and well worth a visit.

Humm, need to get this photo thing sorted out, not sure how to insert a photo that isn't tiny so will need to practise unless anyone can point me in the right direction