Thursday 30 September 2010

Cath Kidston Gift

After much thought I sadly decided to resign from the Cornwall Branch committee of the Embroiderers' Guild. I have been on there for a bit longer than my agreed time, but meetings took place during the week and getting to workshops for the past year has been impossible.
Anyway, at the AGM I was presented with the above. I thought it was a tin of biscuits which I do have a weakness for especially with a nice cuppa!
However, I carefully opened it up to find a lovely Cath Kidston tin. This would have been more than enough, could sit on my white dresser quite happily.
So I opened it to find this..................
A lovely china mud with roses on it!! Which I can drink my cuppa out of with my caramel digestives.
It was so unexpected and a lovely gesture that I felt a bit guilty for giving them a reason to buy this. They are a lovely group of ladies and I shall try to help as much as I can with my limited spare time. My first little bit of help might be to gain some additional info on CRB checks for them so that they can go into schools to run classes.
Many thanks ladies a truly lovely gift.
xx





Wednesday 29 September 2010

Opam September....

Due to the new school term only three Opam makes have been achieved this month. My worse total so far I think!

A useful little zippered purse for money or make up.

Plus a matching slouchy "chuck in quick" type of bag. Both if these can be found in Etsy.


Finally.............my latest offering for the QATW Christmas Challenge.

Been a very busy month at work, so hoping that October will be more settled.

Take care

xx

Monday 27 September 2010

Tuesday's Treasures

Tuesday's certainly hurtle round fast don't they?
As promised, and on time, this compact is quite special and one of the best of my collection.

It is made by Stratton, you can spot their compacts of the time by the slightly fluted shape.Inside there is a mirror and the powder section. However on the other side there is a special handle.

This is the handle for the musical mechanism, which as you can see you must not over wind!The original label showing that the tune is Danube Waves is still attached, showing that this compact has never been used.

Musical powder compacts are getting harder and harder to find now so I ma very pleased with my lucky find one day during a visit to a small Antique shop in Fowey, Cornwall.

xx

Saturday 25 September 2010

Alice in Wonderland.........

A couple of weekends ago we decided to visit Antony House in Torpoint. It was one of the locations for the recent remake of Alice in Wonderland.
It was lovely day, quite hot really. We took a picnic and after the drive there we decided to eat this first!
The above was one of the first links to the film that we saw. Quite large and Sophie recognised it straight away.

We had visited Antony House before, ages ago not long after Sophie was born. Due to having a pram we did not actual take the tour of the house, which is still owned privately.

The tour was lovely and Sophie was really interested in the older features such as the sinks(?) which are very different to what we have today. Not by much but a lot to a 7 year old. This is one of the reasons why we take her round National Trust houses, to learn a bit about the past first hand so to speak.

The gardens are lovely, see above.

The above picture shows a clock and we sat down and wait for it to strike 3pm. We waited.......... and we waited................ and eventually a white rabbit suddenly appeared and by automation rushed around the clock to music saying that he was very late. Sophie was glued to it and I thought it was one of the funniest things I have seen in ages. Brilliant.

Wandering around the gardens on a lovely hot summers day (yes! we actually had a few of those this year) is a perfect way to spend a day.

I took some lovely pictures of Sophie (sorry, but I prefer not to put her on the Internet) and she is so much more photogenic than me, she has a lovely little face and smile.


There was a little fenced off section under a tree and it has this fantastic fungus growing. I used to take pictures like this all of the time when I was on my City and Guilds course and I am afraid that I am still prone to doing it! Lovely colours and clearly special to these looking after the grounds of the house.

We had a great afternoon and Sophie had lots of fun searching for all of the Alice in Wonderland pieces. She walked into a little natural hut created by a tree and triggered off a projection of the Cheshire Cat and a bit of dialogue, you should have seen the look on her face. It was priceless.

I have finally finished some sewing, more on this tomorrow. Has anyone else had problems with blogger this week? I have been having trouble accessing my blog at times.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend, we are off to Creative Stitches in Exeter tomorrow! Some craft retail therapy I think.

xx

Wednesday 22 September 2010

Tree Hugging

Things are a bit slow on the crafting front at the moment, so another find on google images.
I found this here and thought WOW! Not sure how practical it is but certainly fun. If you google knitting on trees you will be amazed what you find. Do the same with crochet too. I tried to enlarge the image and it is a little blurred hopefully you can see all of the work that has gone into this. Must have taken ages. I do have a dodgy old chair at school.....I wonder?
xx

Tuesday 21 September 2010

Tuesday's treasures


I thought this week I would show you one of my powder compacts from my collection. It is not really the nicest as such but it is unusual, which is one of the criteria that I have when adding a new compact. There is a painted picture on the front and the sides and back seem to be made of Mother of pearl.
There are two little catches at the front which when pressed opens up the lid. There is no makers name inside which is unusual and suggests that it is reasonably old. The red section it where lipstick or rouge is likely to have been, it is not all gone.

There is a little handle on top of the powder lid which enables you to lift it up. Also empty, but this is good as it makes it easier to clean and look after.

It is quite small and fits in the palm of my hand easily.

As I said not the most outstanding, but I do not have very many with a painting/ picture like this on the front. Next week I shall show you my absolute favourite one!

xx

Monday 20 September 2010

Crochet Protection....

I found this image ages ago on Flickr and forgot to post it.
Isn't it brilliant!!
An original way to prevent those annoying mysterious scratches that you get on your car when you are at the supermarket!!
xx

Saturday 18 September 2010

Bags of fun!

Well one bag to be exact, although I do have another four cut out ready.
I am taking part in a little Christmas Craft Fair at the end of November and adding to my Etsy shop, so I need to add to my stock.
This is the latest bag......

It is made using a bright pink fabric with a yellow leaf design on it. 100% cotton from IKEA. I love their fabric, lovely to work with, iron and very strong.

Plenty of space to just throw items in when you are in a hurry, you now the school run or just running late. The bag has a lovely crisp white lining so that you can see inside it easily.

Magnetic fastening and to add to the fun there are matching........


Make-up bag or large zippered purse with front pocket.

Well off to work on the next one.

The above will be listed on Etsy. The purse is already listed and there are two in stock. I love this bag because it can be folded up and put in a suitcase or will fold up and not take up too much room. This is a really simple design and I have kept the interfacing to a minimum so that it will not require too much ironing. I have another couple in the making process in different colours which I will feature here before Christmas then list in Etsy. If anyone prefers to deal via Folksy then let me know which bag you would like and I shall do a special button on Folksy for you for that particular bag. I am just trying to avoid doubling up then two people buy the same bag when I only have one to offer. Hope that makes sense.

I took part in a table top sale yesterday with a load of Sophie's toys etc and I was approached by two ladies who liked my cream spiral scarf. Asked if I was going to the Craft Fayre in November etc...so guess what i shall be casting on my needles this evening?

Hope you are all having a good weekend!

xx

Wednesday 15 September 2010

Sparkle Designer

Sophie is now beginning to want to read on her own more and one of her favourite magazines is Sparkle World.
It is very pink and sparkly and she loves it. She noticed that there was a drawing competition and after mentioning it several times I suggested that she enter.
I remember using some highlighters in a colouring comp when I was about 6 and I won a £1.00 postal order, so you never know.
She disappeared off and started to do the drawing above. It is based on the fairy book series here in the UK and Sophie has drawn all of the fairies in the collection. I did not help here at all and she brought it with her to my last sewing group. For a 7 year old I think it is really detailed, some of it is not as clear in picture due to poor natural light. She thought of using the books as a guide for colour etc and spent ages drawing them all individually. Hubby and I are really impressed with this as it is a turning point in her drawing and I am afraid that I had a proud Mummy moment.
Sophie wrote out the envelop and put it in the post. We are waiting to see what happens and I did carefully say to her that it may not appear in the comic, but you never know.
xx

Friday 10 September 2010

Granny stripe Blanket

This summer I have been quite keen with crocheting a Granny Blanket. Using a tutorial over at Attic24.
It was only meant to be a small practice sample but when I had managed to complete a couple of rows and all was going well so I just kept going!

It grew and it grew and it grew! I used a 5mm hook and a variety of acrylic wool in lots of colours.
I have been quite surprised at how well it has turned out and with the colder weather coming will be in much use.
It has already been put to the test and a request for a pink and white one has been made.
Since taking all of these pictures I have decided to add more rows to the blanket so that it will fit our double bed. I have also bought some 100% cotton wool to make another one, more square in shape.
Then Toffy, who seems to have taken a liking to all of my knitting and crochet work, I am going to make several small blankets to put over the top of the sofa and chair backs to try and keep them a little fur free.
Have a great weekend whatever you have planned to do. We have ballet and a trip to Truro.
xx

Wednesday 8 September 2010

Help... Spinning Wheel Search


Does anyone know if there is such a thing as a miniature spinning wheel? Would like to try and get hold of one to use at school, space an issue. I have looked on Ebay etc. I am going to try Free cycle next.
Busy at work hence posts being a bit sparse. More later in the week.
xx

Monday 6 September 2010

Tuesday's Treasures

I know it is still Monday but tomorrow is such a busy day for me I am bound to forget!
My Treasure this week is actually a Powder Compact collection from which I shall feature a few more in detail another time.
It all started about 14 years ago when we went to an Antiques fair in the town we were living in and I picked up a double mirror compact. Then at another fair I found a powder compact. I go for those which are eye-catching, not their worth. I have about 100 of them now in a display cabinet and they will be passed on to my daughter Sophie. She loves looking at them, you know like we looked through our Gran's button box etc. She does not have to buy any herself but I hope in this age of disposable items Sophie will have a potential heirloom collection that she will want to keep and in turn pass in.

Here is an example of one of them. There are others which have special features and I shall pick out one of them for next time.

xx

Saturday 4 September 2010

Christmas Tree Block


Using a variation of the Flying Geese block I recently made this Christmas Tree block for the Quilting Bee that I am working with.

I was surprised how well this went together and is in keeping with the rest of the Quilt so far.

My second block is an interlaced star. I decided to make a draft version of this block first. The Father Christmas fabric belongs to the owner of the final quilt and a large piece of this fabric is travelling round with the quilt so that we can all use a little bit in each of our blocks. There will be a common theme running through the final quilt. Lovely idea!

There is now a little gap before I get the next one so I have been crocheting and knitting and I shall hopefully have something worth looking at next week.

Have a good weekend.

xx

Wednesday 1 September 2010

UK Handmade - Autumn Issue 2010

UK Handmade
If you like handmade then you might like to pop over and look at the latest issue of the online Magazine produced by UK Handmade.
It is fun to read and has lovely photographs.
There is a forum, blog and various groups that you can join and then contribute to if you wish or simply read for fun.
Pop over and take a look Here.
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