Sewing and Cross Stitch

Towards the end of the summer holidays during a visit to my local library I found some lovely books, one of which was 21 Sensational Patchwork Bags. I was only the fourth person to borrow it, so it was lovely and new.

Emily fell in love with the saddle bag so I willingly said I would make her one. She chose her favourite fabrics from my small stash and I started work. I soon realised that although I am quite experienced at clothes, I was struggling with the bag. I found it difficult to follow the instructions as there were very few diagrams or pictures of work in progress. Finally I abandoned the book and made my own bag, it could do with being a little bigger but Em loves it. The stripped fabric came from Ikea, the butterfly fabric I purchased to make a dress but never got around to it. The cat squares we found last year in a wonderful fabric shop in Sturminster Newton.

I have also been cross stitching a picture of Audrey Hepburn for Ali, which I gave her last weekend to take to her new lodgings at Uni. She loved the picture as Audrey is her favourite actress. My latest project is a beautiful poppy which was featured in the October edition of Cross Stitcher

I

And the Winner is ..........

The winner of the pincushion giveaway is raining sheep for the hand needlecase and pincushion.



















Then I decided to put another cushion into the giveaway so the winner of the double flower cushion is sunnie_fairy.
Congratulations ladies, please email me your addresses so I can post them to you. orac1(at)tiscali(dot)co(dot)uk

Stitching and Giveaway

In our old house I had a sewing corner which I shared with the model railway, then the railway expanded, and I put my machine in the cupboard! Emily arrived and my machine had to live in the bottom of the wardrobe as the hobbie room became her bedroom. When Alice moved out I put a small table into her room and used that as my sewing base. But now Tony has put up some shelves for me to keep my sewing on (the rest is in the cupboard) It is lovely and so much easier having everything to hand. I didn't convert the whole room as I still want Ali to come home to visit (when she's not at Uni or my parents) and I share the room with Em's computer, and the model railway is hiding on a board under the bed :-)

During the last few weeks of holiday I have been cross stitching a biscornu which is a french eight sided cushion, I found: Own Two Hands, Finishing School, and The Floss Box most helpful although if you google it there are lots of links to free patterns and tutorials for making one up.
I enjoyed it so much I plan to make some more in the future.

I have finally finished the pincushions I was making, although there are a few more I'd like to try I'm running out of holiday as we return to school on the 4th September. I made a daisy pincushion, then I stacked a couple together

Then I made a thumb cushion and an ordinary cushion.



























For the giveaway I made a needlecase and matching cushion, so if you'd like a chance to win this matching pair please leave a comment and I will have a draw in a weeks time. I hope you have a lovely weekend. Jane x

Family Visit

This week has raced by (no sewing has been done) and the family have been visiting us, Al has been ill with an allergic reaction to a friends cat, which triggered an asthma attack. (The cat slept on her and the bed whilst she was visiting her friends house) So she's on steriods and Ventolin to combat the tight chest etc. Al doesn't normally suffer with asthma so we're hoping that she will recover and not need inhalers.

As the weather has been so wet, and Al so ill, we haven't done much until today when we went to the cinema. Tony and Al went to see Get Smart, verdict: brilliant and funny. Granny and Em went to see Wild Child, verdict: fantastic, funny and lived up to their expectations. Grandad and I went to Chichester Caravans for a gas refill. Whilst there we had a look in the caravans, a very serious amount of money is needed to purchase a brand new 'van, up to £15000 ouch! But they are very plush.

Later we went to Bosham (Bozzum) for a walk along the quay side and around the church, then we had a cream tea after. The village was full of tourists, us included! we couldn't get near the craft centre. Tomorrow we are taking our bears to Amberley Working Museum to the Teddy Bears Picnic, I just hope it doesn't rain. Hope you have a good Bank Holiday Monday Jane.

Added to post on Bank Holiday Monday:

Alison gave me an award. Thank you Alison I'm glad you enjoy reading my blog, I love reading yours too.

The rules are:

Please accept this award from me and ...

1. Please put the logo on your blog.

2. Link the person from whom you received your award .

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4. Put the links of those blogs on to your blog.

5. Leave a message on their blogs to tell them!

I'd like to nominate the following bloggers for this award as I love their blogs too DottyCookie, Fan my Flame, Kaz's craft bits, Kittycafe, Lucy Locket, Moogsmum, Raining Sheep, Suzie Sews, Willow's Cottage. (yes I know that's nine - I lost count!)

Our Holiday

This week we have visited Hinton Ampner, a National Trust house near Winchester. The house is lovely with beautifully restored rooms following a fire in the 1960's. The gardens were quite large with many paths winding around the borders. It also has a walled garden for vegetables and flowers.

Our next day trip was to London to visit Docklands Museum which tells the story of the Port of London from Roman times through to the present day covering slavery, world trade, the Second World War and todays regeneration. It was a fascinating visit which filled most of our day. Later we went for a ride on the Docklands Light Railway (Em and I hadn't been before but Tony uses DLR for work)

Tuesday afternoon we all went to see Wall. E. which we all enjoyed.
Wednesday we travelled up to London again, this time to visit Tower Bridge exhibition which took us up to the walkways above the bridge. We were able to look out across London and spot the places we knew, for Tony and Em it was a first visit but I had visited when I was the same age as Em is now with my Dad and a couple of friends. This time we went up in a lift but on my first visit we had to walk up a staircase that seemed to go on and on for ever. Later we also saw the engine room with the steam engine that used to lift the bridge until 1976 when it was replaced. We walked along the banks of the River Thames past City Hall and on to Hayes Galleria which gave us protection from a deluge of rain and provided a shopping opportunity.

Thursday we stayed at home. On Friday we went to Polesdon Lacey (National Trust) in Surrey which is the former home of Mrs Greville, a well known Edwardian hostess who entertained royalty including King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Yesterday and today have been full of odd jobs and house work.

Dorset and Pincushions

Photos from our holiday in Dorset at the end of July.

Old Sherborne Castle, which was dismantled during the Civil War after it fell to the Parliamentarians.

Castleton Waterwheel, Sherborne, now fully restored

Clevedon Court, Bristol.

This week I have been sewing - Pincushions. This all came about because a few months ago one of my frequently visited blogs (it may have been Lucy or Lesley) did a post about pincushions and I realised that I don't have a pincushion! I trawled the web and found some wonderful patterns: Flower Pincushion Square Pincushion Hedgehog Pincushion Pretty Patchwork waterlilly Chicken Small Flower Thumb Pincushion Mothers sewing box in between doing other things around the house I have been busy sewing. They aren't quite ready to be photographed yet but when they are I will post a photo and do a give away to celebrate a year and 1 month blogging (1year and 3 months being a member of blogger).

Finally a photo of the finished Sydney collage hung up at Guide Camp last week.

Happy crafting Jane x

Awards and holidays

Gina and Willow have both given awards out to their readers/commenters of which I am one. Thank you ladies, the rules are: Post the logo, link to the sender, and pass it on to five/seven other blogs. I have decided to give it to everyone who reads and comments on my blog, because I in turn read and enjoy your blogs. Thank you.

Em and I went down to Dorset to visit my parents, our days out included Weymouth beach on the day that it was featured on BBC1's The One Show and the film crew took a shot of our sand castle, we were very excited but sadly our castle didn't make it onto the show.

We also spent time visiting Clevedon Court, Bristol (NT) and Old Sherborne castle which is a ruin from the Civil War and the recently restored Castleton Water Wheel. The weather was beautiful with blue skies and sunshine.

We also went to see two films: Mamma Mia! which was just brilliant and we'd love to see again, then we also went to see Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging which was another good film.

Sadly during the week we heard from the owner of the house we were going to stay in Brugges in a couple of weeks time. During restoration to the house next door the builders have found problem with the water supply which affects both houses. We have been to Brugges before but were looking forward to visiting all our favourite places again. We can have a full refund but now will be staying at home for the week.

Tomorrow Em is off to Guide camp for the week and is very excited about it all. Quite by accident we have discovered that Em is dairy intolerant so have stopped her eating all dairy products. Immediately she recovered from the illness that has plagued her for weeks. Still no Biopsy results, but the blood test came back negative. So, she may not be coeliac after all but for the moment, to give her tummy time to recover, she is to stay wheat and dairy free. After Guide holiday we may try wheat food and see if she is ok or not. Happy weekend Jane x