Friday 30 November 2012

The colours of Autumn

Hi Everyone, 

So Autumn is coming to an end and winter is on its way. Although it seems to have mostly rained for the last few months, the sun in some of these photos reminds me that we have had some beautiful crisp Autumn days and I have been on some lovely walks, bike rides and blackberry picking trips. The colours have been especially beautiful this year so I have put together a few of my favourite Autumn snaps to share with you. 











I am looking forward to some cold sunny days in Winter... Most people hate winter but I really enjoy it until Christmas is over and then I get excited about summer again... Which is good because this year I am off to warmer climates in January to go travelling for 4 months! More on our travel plans later xxx

Tuesday 20 November 2012

Craft Fair

Hi, 

In my last post I mentioned that I was doing my first fair on Saturday. I made a few sales and we raised some money for children in need. It was good practice and I'm looking into a few more fairs I can do before christmas. Here are some photos of my table and my crafts:








Mike also contributed with his Pudsey Bear biscuits, which looked great, unfortunately I didn't get a photo of them after they had been decorated... which is a shame because I'm not sure Mike will ever be baking again. I could hear little exclamations coming from the kitchen during the baking, my favourite of which was "you stupid bear" followed by "oh, his head fell off". Not all of the biscuits made it to the fair (headless pudseys might scare children)  but the ones that did were very cute and yummy:


xxx

Friday 16 November 2012

Christmas stockings and last minute jobs for tomorrow's fair.

I have been making more patchwork stockings this week to sell at tomorrow's fair. Each stocking is individual, and whilst they are all embellished with ribbons, each has something different to make it special and unique, including freestyle machine embroidery, beads, buttons and one has a felt machine stitched Robbin. I have been debating for days on how much to charge, I usually only make things for family and friends so I have never sold any thing before. From a bit of online research there seems to be a huge variety in what people charge for handmade stockings, from £8-£30! I have settled on £12.50 which is probably realistic and reasonable, although because I am a bit slow and "faffy" when I sew these take a few hours to make so I'm probably only paying myself about £3 for each hours work. I do enjoy it though so it's not really work. Does anyone else have this dilemma?















I have also been finishing off some Christmas bunting for tomorrow's fair. I made some last year for my own flat and I like it so much it has been there all year... Luckily the fabric was less obviously Christmassy!






I am going to finish up a few last things for the fair tonight, I will let you know how it goes next week. And I apologise for the small pictures, when I upload them on the blogger app there seems to be no way to control the size...and the quality is a bit pants on my iPad... I must remember to take my camera to the fair!! Have a nice weekend everyone xxx

Monday 29 October 2012

More Christmas Tree Decorations


I have been making more decorations this week. I had said in my last post that I would try making the robins using fabric father than just the embroidery...




... I actually quite like both designs, but these felt robins are very sweet!  I have been working on some other designs this week as well; including christmas trees, holly and stars...







I have realised it would actually be much more time efficient if I picked a design and made lots of one design before starting on the next because I waste so much time changing the foot on my machine and the tread etc! But I just can't seem to work that way, either I get bored, or the opposite happens and a new idea pops into my head and I get excited and start sewing. Often I don't know what Im actually going to make until its finished, for example, with the decoration above I cut out a star and started sewing, but I didn't pre plan the design, or the words... It just happens and I add bits until it looks finished. This doesn't always work out for the best... as those of you who have seen the fat robin on my facebook page will know www.facebook.com/afewofmyfavouritethings?ref=hl !! The first star decoration I made ended up as a Christmas card because the writing was so close to the edge there was no room for seam allowance! So I have come to the conclusion that I am a scatty sewer!! This doesn't make for time or cost effective creations but as I mainly sew for my own enjoyment I don't care, so I on that note, I appologise for the gap between posts, but like I said... disorganised sewer!! 

xxx

Wednesday 17 October 2012

Christmas tree decorations.

New Christmas tree decorations or hanging decorations for anywhere in the home! I'm hoping to make lots of these to sell at a craft fair in November. I have been playing around with designs, not sure if this is a little plain. Might try using some brown fabric for the robin's body so that not so much of the white linen is on show. Il share some more photos of other designs soon. The Christmas present list is coming along very slowly... The first one was almost completely finished in record time, and I had just the finishing touches to add.... But that was about 3 weeks ago and I still haven't done it! It's only October and I'm losing momentum, good job I started early! What has everyone else been up to?



Xxx

Saturday 6 October 2012

Christmas Cards

I Made some new Christmas cards today. I'm doing my first fair in November and I'm hoping this will be the perfect time to sell some of my crafts and get some feedback. I'm a bit worried my stockings in the first card look more like socks or floral golf clubs! Haha. I tested the design using old scraps of fabric but I think I will need to use Christmas fabric for the real cards, and maybe play around with the shape.




I like the holly designs, although I have run out of red buttons now so I'm going to have to wait for new stock before I can make more of these. I really like the "Merry Christmas" in freestyle machine embroidery. I did play around with ink and stamps but I think the embroidery looks less messy and is just as quick to do. What do you think?










Xxx

Tuesday 18 September 2012

iPad and Christmas cards!

Hi everyone,
This blog post comes to you from by brand new, shiny, lovely iPad! I'm not usually one to fall for expensive gadgets; although I do love apple products, I'm not one for upgrading every time something new comes out (my iPod is 8 years old and still going strong, and my MacBook is 6 years old... But slowing dying!). My MacBook charger gave up this week (the wires have been visible for months) so instead of replacing the charger at a cost of £30ish... I spent £479 on an iPad! Lol. Actually, that wasn't the only reason, I have been considering getting an iPad for when we go travelling anyway, although I was worried it would be a tad big to cart around... But now I have it I love it!! Expect lots more posts, and more photo collages etc! Exciting.




Anyway, enough of that. Today I have been working on some Christmas cards. I'm trying to be organised this year. I stuck to my usual style of machine sewn cards on a background of  white linen and mounted on my favourite "natural" card. The fabric used are all scraps left over from other projects.. You might recognise some of the fabric from my last post. Even tiny tiny bits don't get wasted, see the teeny tiny bunting? No two cards are the same and I like to make each one individual with buttons and lace.












I hope the layout looks ok, I'm uploading the pics using an app so it's difficult to see how it will turn out!

I think I have tried out a good range of Christmas tree designs so I will be experimenting with other designs in the week. We are going on a bike ride tomorrow and collecting blackberries... I do love autumn! Will be time to get the woollies and knitted jumpers out soon :) xxx

Thursday 13 September 2012

A sneaky peek...

Its that time of year again to start thinking about christmas! I know, I know... no one wants to hear about christmas in september, but when it comes to the lengthy task of making your own xmas pressies you have to get started way in advance otherwise you have a manic December (and a not particularly relaxing xmas)!  

So on that note, I have been busy sewing... but I can't show you what I have been making otherwise it will ruin the surprise... which doesn't make for very easy blogging! I will have to get a few smaller non-christmassy projects on the go just so I've got something to share with you guys. 

So here is just a little sneak preview of something I've been working on this week... look at all these yummy fabrics! I love mixing pinks and greens; it has that beautiful country cottage, shabby chic effect.


hmmm, what will they be... a cushion, a wall hanging, a table runner, shabby chic christmas cards...


... You will just have to wait and see.

Im on night shifts as of tonight for the whole weekend, so I hope you all have a lovely weekend and I'l post again in the week.

xxx

Sunday 9 September 2012

Garden Parties

We went home to Devon this weekend for my mum's garden party. After a very wet summer the sun thankfully decided to come out for the party and we had glorious sunshine all weekend. Everyone had a very busy day on friday preparing for the party; putting up and decorating the marquee, making curry and buffet food for 50 people and getting the garden ready. The party was lovely and everyone had a great time, possibly too good a time based on how I felt the following day!! Unfortunately there aren't many photos from the party as I had forgotten to charge my camera battery. Oops! I did manage a couple of quick snaps before it died though. I hope the people in the photo don't mind being on the blog but it was the only photo I got of the marquee...



The following morning we had breakfast in the garden for the people who had stayed over. The sun was shining and the garden table looked beautiful with all the flowers the guests had brought the night before. I love this garden table, with its reclaimed look and lovely blue picnic benches. And I love love love the wicker basket... and even the big fruit bowl looks pretty with its different colours.




The adults couldn't resist a bounce on the bouncy castle before it went back the next morning! Although we all quickly realised that bouncing with a hangover is not the greatest feeling, especially after I had shown off with a few somersaults! haha.


And finally, although it's completely unrelated, I couldn't resist showing you these photos! One of our friends is hand rearing four, 12 day old kittens, and because they need round the clock care and feeding she had to bring them along to the party, where they ended up being the main attraction!! How cute is this little kitty having its breakfast!!



I hope everyone else had a good weekend and managed to enjoy the sunshine! hopefully some more sewing posts coming this week before I go back to work. xxx