Its getting warmer!

It feels so good to see and feel the sun today, and the birds outside are in full song. I have had to hunt around the house for our displaced items but managed to find my doorstops. In realising I need mine, I have listed more for sale in my ebay shop, should you feel the need to open up your house too!

Up and running

Thankyou to everyone who sent good wishes, Sarah is back in school and doing ok. House is slowly coming to completion, I promise photos soon!

At present I am still working at the dining table but that should all change in the next fortnight as we do room swaps and I can claim a space all to myself! so excited about that... I cannot tell you how good it will be to have a space to leave my machine out ready to go!

Life here has been pretty frantic and stressful but now the strees is going and we are just left with frantic!! I am so busy with my ebay shop, sales of my cushion covers have been wonderful, and am also trying to keep stock back for a couple of Xmas fairs that I am doing. Blogging has very much taken a back seat.....sorry :(

sarah and I had fun making some leaf images in the back garden (not sure how the colours will show up for you at present as I am on a new laptop and have to sort the colour settings yet)

I made this LOVE cushion the other day and used four of the Pop Flowers colourways from Cath Kidston. I just don't get why this was discontinued it is the most popular Kidston fabric I use.

and for a bit of a Tadaaa! look at this vintage Magic Roundabout fabric I got, a perfect match for the blue spot, so I made up a pait of small cushions which are now in my ebay shop.

Must get around to sorting my Etsy shop which is looking very sad, and restocking Folksy too!

So much to do and so little time!

xxxxx

Something simple

Life has been really busy latelyand I have been making up plenty of stock for xmas as I am not sure if I will be able to do much sewing in October and November as we are having work done on the house (fingers crossed). Today I needed something simple and effective to do and so I used some bolder prints to make up some simple cushions and backed them with some bright colours on the back.

I then set up a little photography corner in an effort to improve my photos and I am pretty pleased with the results.

I tried so many colours on the back of this green one but went for the white in the end as its crispness just lets the green sing!

All of the above are listed in my ebay shop which is busy as usual despite the postal strikes.

I have also come by some lovely Orla Kiely cotton which I am going to be using for more cushions tomorrow, however if you would like some I have listed a piece on ebay too.

Cath Kidston Rosali

I listed these last night in my ebay shop and it occurred to me this morning that I really should let you lovely readers know. There is a double duvet cover and a total of four pillowcases ( listed separately) in the lovely Rosali Paisley design that Cath Kidston did for IKEA. They are no longer available to buy and the fabric is gorgeous.
So if you think you may be able to make useof them as they are or for thefabric do take a look they have a very low start price of 99p! and they finish on Saturday.

Good luck!

Cowgirl cushion

I regularly make personalised cushions and was recently asked to make these western themed ones. I am especially pleased with Laurens very cowgirl.

I spent quite some time fiddling the letters on Jacobs to place them amongst the Cath Kidston cowboy fabric.

I always use a satin stitch to edge this applique as it makes it a bit more substantial for children.

And I just love the mother of pearl buttons on the back. I have a long held love of mother of pearl it reminds me of crafting when I was little and of course of the coast.

Lots going on here at the moment, teenager doing internal exams (mocks to us oldies), rehearsals for a big summer show, house sale going through, plans for this house being prepared, allotment in full swing, and sewing for a very exciting and lovely event (of which I shall tell you more another day).

Marylebone High Street

Yesterday I was in London in Marylebone High Street on an errand. I had never been to this bit of London before, why I don't really know I used to live in London and as a southerner have been visiting London all my life. It is a great road for shopping with plenty of coffee stops along the way and boasts a wonderful Cath Kidston Further along there is Emma Bridgewater where the purple and green beakers came from and also the cute flower shaped pan scrubbers. I also paid a visit to Skandium where the staff are so friendly and unlike some designer stores were more than happy for me to browse and enjoy, especially downstairs where the lovely assistant showed me the different scandinavian fabric designers that they stock and gave me a marrimekko brochure to linger over later.

A few wrong turns later and I finally located VV Rouleaux who sell fibbons and trims like you have never seen before! I managed to limit myself to just three purchases but I will definitely be back and have promised to take the girls with me too!

I finally headed down through St Christophers Square to Oxford Street and bought some more wool for my crochet but also found two remnants of Amy Butler fabric which you can just see at the back of my photo.

Before I headed home I popped over to Garrick Street to Cybercandy to pick up some treats for everyone at home. I recommend this to those of you that have kids, don't read the labels this ain't healthy, but it is fascinating and yum!

Fresh Flowers back in stock!

Just a quickie for those people asking for these, they are now back in stock!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend, here in the UK it is a bank holiday weekend and the sun is shining! now that doesn't happen too often!

Fabric shopping

I have been off today buying more fabric as stocks are getting low, the above fabrics are from Cath Kidston and the one on the far right is a real find as it is now discontinued, I managed to stop myself hugging it inthe shop, I did get very excited!

And I have been playing with these Laura Ashley ginghams this afternoon for a customer who wants some western cowboy themed cushions! YeeeeHaaaaa!

New bags

I have listed these new bags in my etsy shop today.

I have had to make an extra red one as my daughter decided that she really needed one!
The retro Apple is my favourite and there is only one of these as I have no more fabric :(

This spotty one in stone is a classic and I have sold a lot of these in the past.

Time to put the kettle on and settle down with the new Cath Kidston catalogue which dropped through my letterbox this morning, and then maybe a quick bit of crochet before dinner!

New stock

Listed this Miffy cushion cover today over on Folksy

Hoping to get some sewing done tomorrow I haven't made any bags in some time so I may get on with those!

Thrift shop finds!

Yesterday I spent the morning browsing shops, what a luxury! and I thought you might like to see my thrifty finds. I love the name thrift shop, in the UK they are usually referred to as charity shops, but I love the US term, it feels very vintage, it feels very appropriate in the current climate, and so I have adopted it!

This cereal bowl was at the bottom of the pile and cost me 30p. I love the linear design with the touches of turquoise, I have been messing about with screenprinting and machine embroidery and the results are similar, I will show you sometime!

This is a find that I made on another trip, cost £1.00, it has Sweden printed on the back, and I would love to find out the designer but have no idea where to start.

These buttons came from the same shop as the bowl, I love the mushroom ones...... 15p

Not from the thrift shop but TKMaxx, I got this Designers Guild pillowcase for my daughters room £3.99 instead of £20

Also from TKMaxx some Cath Kidston plates and bowls

No shopping today....I have to make some more Miffy purses for my Folksy shop and as it is red Nose day here in the UK I need to do some baking. Sarah is doing a 5mile Charity Fun Run dressed in a purple tutu with a sharks head hat on! That's my girl!!

Hotchpotch cushions

Having given my machine a clean up this morning, (so much lint inside it looked like it had snowed!) I had fun making up some new Hotchpotch cushions.

These two are now in my Folksy shop!

Also check out this great giveaway from etsy seller chocolateandsteel, I want this ring!

Cushions for Valentines

Wanted to share some photos of my LOVE cushions which I love making. As you can see some are very bright and others are a tad more subtle, to suit all tastes. I have made these as personalised cushions in the past which has been fun, lots have been for new babies :)

I so enjoyed making these today, I have been so busy since xmas with orders for doorstops that it has been hard to find time to make anything else!!