Little Stitches

I spent Saturday at an embroidery class taught by the very lovely Aneela Hoey.

Aneela and Pennie did a fantastic job organising the day, especially considering that it was their first time at organising such an event. We were kept well fed and watered with tea & posh biscuits, a lovely lunch (in the sunshine) and afternoon cake (a-m-a-z-i-n-g chocolate brownies and cheesecake) Should you be in the Henley/Berks area and looking for a caterer then please look up Thames Catering. The company that Pennie runs alongside her Husband.


It was nice to see some faces that I had either met or recognised from The Fat Quarterly Retreat back in June as well as some new ones.





After practicing our stiches we all got stuck in to the “Cherry on the Tree Swing” pattern . I stitched onto some osnaberg, which is a natural, unbleached cotton fabric with a texture a bit like linen only about half the price. My filling stich needs a bit of practice – Aneela’s tip was to make fairly big stiches, mine are far too small but I am happy enough with my first attempt.


I love my copy of Little Stitches, and have been picking it up anytime I have a spare moment. If you love Aneela’s fabrics (sherbet pips, little apples, walk in the woods) or follow her blog, then you will really enjoy her book.  The book comes with 12 projects for using her designs as well as over 100 embroidery designs. You can trace the designs straight from the book or use the iron-on-transfers.


There are at least 3 patterns I am desperate to start once I have finished Cherry although I also fancy stitching another version, this time all in a dark graphite grey (like a pencil drawing) and then adding a pop of colour to just her dress maybe using applique?


Thank you Aneela, Pennie and all the other stitchy ladies! I had a fantastic day and it was well worth the course fee.


You can read more about the day from these guys, Ruth, Hadley, (who might have even got a picture or two of me) Kelly and  Elena.


Whilst I am on the subject of embroidery, my bloggy friend Miss Pixie has set up a shop selling her original embroidered makes that she has designed and made.  Please pay her a little visit

Summer 2012 (part 2) The Last Week

I know, I know  we are over half way through September (how did that happen!) and you are probably well over reading about everyone's Summer by now but I still haven’t managed to catch up with myself lol.


We had such an eventful final week of the school hols that it needed a separate blog post.


The Little Fella turned Five. We went bowling with the Cousins and a couple of Friends followed by a little Tea Party in our (newly tidied) garden. This years cake request was for Lightning McQueen. Unfortunately my cake decorating skills don’t stretch to making racing cars so we settled for this.





Buttercream frosting with crushed Oreo type cookies for the road, golden sugar for the sandy desert, fondant icing cactus and some little fudge and honeycomb ice-cream sprinkles for the small rocks/stones. Finished with some well-scrubbed toys.




For all previous Birthdays, I have bought Birthday T’shirts.  This year I decided to make my own. I cut a number 5 from Interfacing and then simply sewed scraps of boyish fabrics using the stich & flip method. Ironed on and then raw-edge appliqued into the shirt.


Next up was our annual family pilgrimage to Broadstairs in Kent. It is my favourite place in the world!  My Mum came here for day trips and holidays with her Grandparents as a child, my brother and I did the same when we were little and and now it is the turn of my children. That is FIVE generations of my family who have enjoyed this little seaside resort. And during all that time, very little has changed.





Finally there was our trip to the Paralympics. 

We had a fantastic morning watching the Athletics. We kept silent for the blind long jumpers that needed to hear their guides, watched blind runners running alongside their guides, hand- cycling, Saw Josie Pearson win us a Gold Medal for discus, but the best part of the day was watching an amazing javelin final, where all the competitors beat their PB and we saw the world record broken at least 6 times by Iran and China followed by crazy somersault celebrations from many of the competitors.

We then spent a very hot afternoon watching live bands in the Olympic Village. It was truly a once in a lifetime event, and I am so pleased that we had the opportunity to be there.



Then on to this week,


The Little Man started in Reception (full time) and my Little Fella started Nursery (part time). It was a far bigger event for me than for them. 

Both boys have been very excited for weeks, it was lovely to see how excited and happy they were when dropped off to their new classrooms, but at the same time I felt a little sad at saying goodbye to their baby days.


Now I have some spare time in the mornings whilst the The Little Fella is at Nursery School, I wonder if I will manage to get those curtains finished anytime soon!

Summer 2012 (Part One!)

Warning this is a long and picture heavy post mainly for my own benefit, with little or no mention of sewing/craft! You might not want to read on (unless you are nosy like me and always read to the bottom of the screen)

"None of us can make it rain - but we can all use less water"

I think the saying “be careful what you wish for” rang true this Summer in the UK.
No sooner had a near-country-wide drought been declared in April and households were banned from using hosepipes, than the rain began to fall, and fall and fall for about 12 weeks solid. The wettest UK Summer on record.

The Little Man either outgrew or put holes in the knees of ALL his school trousers in the last 3 weeks of term.  So despite the weather he was packed off to Nursery in shorts that were made from his cut down trousers.

teacher gifts - IKEA spice jars filled with chocolates and a homemade card

 

 

We said good bye to The Little Man’s Nursery Class and The Little Fella’s Preschool with a Prom!!!!! Both boys have been through the preschool so I have known the staff for 3 yrs. Gulp!
I found it very hard to say goodbye.

I love this photo- you can really see their different personalities.

The Olympic Flag passed through our little corner of Suburbia.  We were the first stop of the day, so we had to get out very early.  I was amazed by how many people lined the streets. The boys loved watching all the sponsers trucks passing by but were not very impressed by some man running past with a torch.That man happened to be James Cracknell Oh well at least they have a story to tell their grandchildren.


We attended the Blessing of my Cousin’s Marriage.  I felt honoured to be asked to do a reading. (Good ole’ Corinthians 13) and I made a card which I know I took a photo of but cannot find it anywhere!



We spent the best part of the Summer at Hurley.  On the River Thames between Henley and Marlow.  We spent 2 weeks here as a family and then the boys have been back and forth, staying with their Grandparents.


Playing with cousins, messing in the river, long walks to Hurley Lock for ice-cream, even longer walks to Marlow (3 miles each way) and never a single moan, The rain finally stopped apart from the odd day so we were able to get out and make the most of what was left of the Summer.


Whilst the boys were away The Husband and I painted the house and attacked the very neglected garden (we hadn’t stepped foot in there since Easter!, overgrown is an understatement!)

There was also the odd day out. Legoland (NOT my favourite place to go in school holidays!) Chessington World of Adventures, The Look Out Centre in Bracknell and Playground at Swinley Forest, Kids club at the local Cinema (£2.00 per child and adults free ) and of course the local park. (Luckily the MIL bought us all Merlin passes with her Tesco points which allow us free entry into the main theme parks, London Eye and some Aquariums. (How can those theme parks justify their admission prices??!!)

Evenings were spent glued to the Olympics – didn’t we do well? just shows what a bit of investment in the younger generations can do! We have even managed to get some Paralympic Athletics tickets, I am so excited to be part of something so special!

I didn't manage to get much sewing done, although I got into hand-embroidery and completed a couple of projects whilst in Hurley.

I finally have new curtains for the living/front/family room.  However, I have a very wide 1930’s bay window which requires me to sew two pairs together and take up as they are also a bit too long.  My time at the machine has been so limited lately that I cannot justify using the machine for anything else. So the curtains just sit there, looking at me, waiting.  In case you are wondering, it still works out cheaper for me to buy two pairs and sew them together rather than making them from scratch (which would be slightly easier).

So until they are done, things are going to carry on being quiet round here!

And well done to any of you that managed to read this far! Part Two is coming up next...

Feeling Stitchy

There was a time, not so long ago when I would declare my hatred for all hand sewing.  I think the 90’s cross stitch craze put me off, all those lovely patterns which I never actually finished because frankly cross stitch was downright boring.  (All that repetition and counting tiny squares)

However,  lately I have started AND finished a couple of embroidery projects and developed a new love for hand stitching (although you still wont find me hand stitching down binding!) So on our recent holiday to Hurley I tackled a couple of projects.



This lovely lady is part of a year long stich-a long by lilipopo.  She is the 3rd Princess in the series but the first I have stiched.  I have to say out of all the Princesses, she is my favourite. I am fairly happy with her, I need to work on my stitch length a bit more, but that will come with practice.  The Princesses are all free patterns, but you will need to email Lilipopo for the patterns.  Details are on her blog.

I wasn’t sure what to do with her once finished, but then remembered that I have a Christening coming up. So I added Babies' name and popped it into a frame. Voila

haha I struggled to get a good photo without me reflected in it and thought that I had succeeded

I couldn't find my photo of the finished embroidery, the pattern is from Bustle & Sew.  If you are into your embroidery , then I recommend you subscribe to the monthly e-zine, although it is also worth signing up to the newsletter & blog as well. Helen often posts wonderful freebies and Ben the dog is very handsome!



I fell in love with this pair, well that was until The Husband declared that I was just like the hedgehog (humph)

So I was on a bit of a roll when I spotted this, on the Comfortstiching Blog so promptly booked my place.  Henley is just a tiny bit up the river from Hurley, So Hubby & the boys will spend the day at his parents caravan, playing by the river.

My mum commented on the price, as materials are not included, but we live simply and within our means so we are able to spoil ourselves once in a while.  So the cost is irrelevant in a way.  I am sooo excited.

ugly/uglier

Jo, recently shared a child’s car playmat, that she had made for her son using a fabric panel that he had chosen. 

Jo declared the fabric the ugliest that she had ever used, however she did back it with a rather lovely Japanese print.  (how she can bring herself to lay the gorgeous & expensive Japanese fabric face-down in the dirt I don’t know)

It reminded me of a WIP that I have had for well over a year, maybe nearer two, using similar fabric.  Shameful I know, but I had a vision in my head of some kind of storage box-come-garage-come-playmat-come-overcomplicated thing, that I couldn’t quite work out, surprisingly!  In the end I got as far as quilting the panel, by following all the road outlines and then abandoned the project.



So in the end I made a little Quillow type pocket to fold the quilt into and stitched it to to the backing. I avoided all Jo’s binding problems by sewing the top & backing right sides together, leaving a turning gap and then top-stitching around the edge of the quilt for a nice finish. 

I then added carrying handles which were a real pain as I should have stitched them on before I stitched the pocket to the backing. (actually it still only has one carrying handle as I am too lazy to hand sew the other one)



I think my choice in backing fabric makes me the winner of the Ugliest Playmat, what do you think?



The backing is a Curtain my dear Mum picked up at a car boot in the “style of” Disney Cars. (I really don’t think it is the real McCoy lol)

Like Jo’s Playmat, mine has also been a great big hit. It has already accompanied us to a wedding where we found a quiet corner for the boys to play.  They also managed to stuff the bag with crayons, colouring books and a few random toys which managed to keep them entertained all day. (and into the evening)

Bye Bye Baby,

The Little Fella turned three over half term. 

 
We had a smallish “Royal” themed fancy-dress party in the local Church Hall.  We played pass the parcel, iced homemade crown shape biscuits, decorated crowns to wear, and coloured/painted some Royal themed pictures. 

I made both boys very, very quick “Mike the Knight” costumes from charity shop tees and some felt.  They already had helmets, swords and shields.

I created this masterpiece, which actually took less time than the (insert rude word of your choice here) crown biscuits. (too much rolling & putting in/out the fridge)



The Dummy fairy made a visit to our home a week or so after, swapping all the dummies that he put into her bag for some much desired Mike the Knight toys (which our little local toy shop had managed to stock before any of the big giants) So far so good! I am very proud of him.

So now my baby is officially a little boy and no longer a baby. (He tells me his brother is the Big Boy and he is the Little Boy)

Where has the time gone?

Fat Quarterly Retreat – The classes

Some time before the Retreat, we were sent a list of 10 different classes to rank in order of preference. It was a really difficult task to do, especially because I had no idea how many classes we would be doing over the weekend.  In the end I did,
Freezer Paper Piecing with Kerry from verykerryberry

Kerry was a really good teacher but I am afraid to say this really wasn't for me.  I have been following Kerry’s blog and seen the amazingly detailed freezer-paper pieced quilts/art that she does and really wanted to give it go. However, my freezer paper refused to stay stuck to the orange fabric, I found it far too fiddly for my chunky digits and I just didn’t have the concentration required on the day. So I only made one of the four blocks that Kerry had provided.
Embroidery with Aneela Hoey from Comfortstitching
 

I was looking forward to this class the most, as Comfortstitching was one of the very first blogs that I followed. Aneela was just as lovely as I had imagined. She taught us a variety of stitches and I managed to complete  this cute Robin. We were also given a free pack of Cosmo embroidery thread!
Foundation Pieced Union Jack Pillow with Lynne Goldworthy from Lily’s Quilts

I woke up on Sunday morning with a really sore-throat, probably from all the chatting on Saturday lol.  Which was probably for the best as Lynne's class like Kerry’s the day before required quite a bit of brain power. Lynne herself described the technique as Marmite (you either love it or hate it) I found it took me a while to get going, as you are having to work back-to-front, but the results are so good it is worth it. I went for a London theme but swapped one of my pre-bought fabrics for a freebie from my goodie bag. I only managed to finish one quarter of the flag in the class but I have been working on it this week, so should have a finish to share with you soon (who just laughed?)
Wonky Log Cabin With John Adams from Quiltdad

This was the perfect class to follow Lynne's and to end the weekend on.  The class and technique were both a lot of fun to do.  No matching up seams or points just sewing and trimming. Just my thing!
I was really pleased with all of my classes (even if the Freezer paper piecing wasn't for me, I am glad that I gave it a go), however after seeing all the samples produced, I really wish that I had also signed up for Lucie Summers Portholes class and either of the Purse classes (zipper or frame) Although given the chance I think I would have loved to have done every single class on the list – there is always next year.
The Fat Quarterly Special Retreat Issue is now available to buy (although I was gutted to see no Portholes tutorial ) It contains tutorials and patterns to make many of the projects taught in the workshops over the course of the weekend as well as some extra projects.  It is well worth the $5!