New Year Resolutions

Just a quick peek at what is keeping me busy this week,

One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to make a baby quilt (see my list here), for no other reason than for my personal enjoyment, by happy coincidence my nephew’s wife is expecting so it gave me the push I needed to get it started 🙂

As you can see I have been busy quilting on my trusty Bernina.

 

I love the soft colours of this quilt, the teddy bears are so sweet. In fact there’s a friendly bear, or two, enjoying a snooze on the quilt,

 

 

 

 

and maybe even a very cheeky bear up to mischief 😉

 

 

All the quilting is now done and today I shall be sewing on the binding,

 

 

 

I’m really glad the weather is a bit cooler today as sewing whilst covered in a quilt is hot work 🙂

Have a lovely weekend,

Until next time,

Chris x

July Makes

Thought you might like to see my July collage of makes 🙂

I definitely had an obsession with bugs last month! I don’t think August will be so productive – not much sewing going on here at the moment (the garden seems to be taking a lot of taming!)

Have a great week end.

Until next time,

Chris x

Breathing New Life into Old Things

Some time ago my lovely Mum had a bit of a clear out and gave me some crafty bits and pieces I’d made many years ago.

There were these…

and this…

and another little embroidery of a bird (I must have had a thing about birds at the time 😉 ).

Well I really didn’t want these ending up in another drawer so I pondered about what to do with them. I can’t say I’ve been particularly innovative but this is what I decided to do.

The little cross stitch birds aren’t my cup of tea anymore. I’m not a bright colours person but I thought they’d be great as lavender bags – useful but tucked away out of sight! (Yes OK – in a drawer!). I found some bright fabrics to use as backings…

and made these…

they’re not lavender bags yet because I only cut the lavender last week and it’s drying in the greenhouse – but soon 🙂

The little bird embroidery had a horrible stain on it which I tried to wash out but, although it faded a bit, wouldn’t disappear. I cut away as much of it as possible and stitched a border on it to make a little mat.

so that’s two rescues 🙂

Which takes me to the crochet dove. I can remember working out this pattern and carefully crocheting it. I was so proud of it! I framed it and it was on display in my childhood bedroom for a long time.

So this is special and I’m turning it into a wall hanging – seemed fitting some how 🙂

I’ve stitched it onto a lovely dotty fabric, it was a bit of a job teasing it out so it was as straight edged as possible, and now I shall edge the edges (!) with ribbon.

Watch this space!

Until next time,

Chris x

Elderflowers and MORE bugs!

We’ve had a glorious weekend and I’ve spent a lot of time outside, either gardening or pottering 🙂

My hubby and I went for a walking mission to find elderflowers. We mistakenly thought it would be easy as they grow just about everywhere, but no, the ones we found which were suitable (not near any heavy roads because of pollution) were heavily protected by nettles surrounding them!

We did eventually find enough flowers to make elderflower cordial – recipe here – it’s really easy to make and tastes delicious.

I use slightly less sugar than in the recipe and 4 lemons rather than a mix of lemons and limes.

 

 

Are you fed up of my bugs yet?

I did spend quite a bit of time at the weekend making some more – I made a beautiful metallic blue one 🙂  as well as others.

AND I decided what to do with them too.

In my bedroom I hang my necklaces from a hook on the wall – not a pretty hook – we’re talking about pure function here.

So I thought, ‘I wonder if my necklaces would look good hanging from my bug buttons?’

and one thing led to another and before you knew it a Tah-dah moment was born!

Those of you who are eagle eyed will notice that the rather ugly, but functional, hook is still on view so I’ll still have to do something about that!

Until next time,

Chris x

It’s a Bug’s Life

A big thank you to Jon, who tactfully enlightened me on how to use the different settings on my camera! If you recall, my photos were seriously less than perfect on my last post and he suggested that I needed to use a macro setting. Well not only did I find a macro setting on my camera (only had it for a year!) but there was a ‘super macro’ setting too!

Here are some more photos of my bugs using the correct settings – enjoy 🙂

This little bug is 1/2 inch long – sooo cute!

Buttons!!

I’m thinking of making more buttons with these, no reason, just because 😉

And finally – couldn’t resist sharing this rose with you. I was given it last year by some special people and it’s blooming away magnificently

I think it’s called Sweet Blessings

Have a lovely week end,

Until next time,

Chris x