A summer Holiday begins

We arrived in Seaford in time for tea and then decided to walk off dinner along the sea front.  This was the sunset that greeted us.  Lovely start to the holiday.

Hubby is working the next day so Sophie and I will wander round Seaford.

So the following day hubby drove of to Portsmouth and Sophie and I visited Toytown toy shop which is literally 50 yards away from where we are staying.  She found this cute felt kit and apart from putting a knot in the thread, Sophie made this herself, following the instructions as she went.

The felt flowers are pre-cut and the blue centre needed to be stitched with gold thread.

The other pieces are then stacked up.  Now Sophie, really is my daughter because just like my Mollie Makes kit, she wanted to change part of it.  Rather than having the red petals lined up she moved them to increase the petals that you could see.  A jewel needed to be stitched on and the thread went through the whole felt flower so that all of the layers were tight and secure.

The kit also had some elastic hair loops and the flower was attached to it using double thread and knotted off carefully.

There was enough in the kit to make two of these and Sophie was thrilled with them, she even went to bed with them still in her hair!  Ironic really, as she had got up that morning saying that she wished she had bought some hair ties with her.

Today (Tuesday) we decided to go the Lewes and visit some places that we really enjoy seeing once a year.  Firstly, we went to the Needlemakers in the hope of finding the vintage shop which usually has

boxes of buttons.  Sadly the shop had gone but I did stumble on a fabric shop that had these lovely old sewing machines on display.

I apologise if the pictures are not brilliant as I had to stand on tippy toe on a stool with the zoom full in to get these into shot as the display shelf was right up high by the ceiling!  There were one or tow that i had only seen in books.  Brilliant.

I struggled to get makers names, but the above machine name was very clear.  As for dates, I could research into this.  I want to show these pictures to my students in September so some background work will be carried out.  There were about 10 machines, I have not seen that many together all at the same time.

I would have loved to have had a closer look at these.  Aren't the ones shown above adorable!

The shop is called The Patchwork Dog and Basket in Lewes.  Worth a visit.  I bought some lovely fabric to finish off a quilt that I have been working on for some time.  I shall post about it once I get home.

 The weather here has been scorching.  I took a picture of the temperature gauge in the car!  I bit warm.  So off home for lunch.  Once the temp reduced a bit we then took Sophie to Eastbourne to Aqua Splash which is a play area with water involved.  She was on the go for over two hours and is now completely worn out!

We are not sure where we are going tomorrow, Brighton is looking high on the list at the moment.

xx

All wrapped up in Flowers.

You may remember last month that I made a smaller mouse mat for my new little netbook shown above. Despite the cost of some of these little laptops they do not come with any kind of bag or cover! However, this is a good excuse to make something too. This is about the fourth one I have made (one was a commission) and I find them really fun to do. May be not the most difficult of item to make but finding the right fabric is fun in itself.

There are some really lovely wide bindings around at the moment too such as this pink gingham one, which I did buy in France but I have seen them in fabric shops in the UK as well. 100% cotton.

I decided to take the pink bit5s of the main fabric and follow it through with the binding and the gingham lining. Fastening added too.

This is a much smaller version than I have made in the past. I have made two that were for carrying work dairies and all associated paper work too. I have one for my day job and it is amazing how much you can stuff in there during the day and look at it when you need to. Keeps it all in one place and it looks nice too.

Added one on my labels. I do not have many of these left. When they are used up then I think that it will be time to try something new.

I finished it last Wednesday but I have had trouble getting Blogger not to change the angle of my pictures! So it has been constant use since.

If you would like one of these then get in touch as it can be done via email. I send a choice of fabric pictures, you choose one, give me the measurements and off we go.

I can use a range of fastenings, button and loop, big poppers, velcro. I have added this to my Etsy shop for a while as I am going to revamp it but you can order here instead and i can send you an invoice via payapal or a cheque for UK residents.

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It is a lovely day here so some washing and gardening is in order!

Take care

xx

Dyeing Workshop

Last Saturday I went to an Embroiderers' Guild Dye Workshop. We arrived at about 10am and the room was all set up ready. We were shown the first task to do. It just so happens that the lady running the workshop is a fellow branch member but is also my City and Guilds Distance Learning Tutor who is now living down in Cornwall. Small world or what?

I then spent the rest of the day standing up over a table with various pieces of fabric, threads and wool and turning them into lots of different colours. Bliss....but surprising;y tiring!

Here are some of the results...

A mini washing line was set up in the garden once I had got home.

Lots of lovely dyed threads to use in future work.

There was some dye left over and it has a short shelf life so I was asked if Sophie would like to have a go when I got home. It is as safe as washing powder and so with supervision Sophie and I had lots of fun on Sunday out on the lawn.

The equipment was assembled. The dye remainders are in plastic bottles but it soon became apparent that tipping out of these was going to get messy, so I tipped it gradually into a paint pallet instead. The fabric was rinsed in water and then put in the bottom of the blue box.

The fabric was rinsed and then put in the bottom of a blue box and the dyes were sprayed on (need to use the spray bottles more next time) or add using a paintbrush. Once the dye had been added it then needed to be left for 30 minutes. After that, the fabric and threads are then washed in warm soapy water to remove any excess and hung up to dry.

Sophie found it easier to add the dye with a paintbrush, but she also enjoyed dipping them into different dyes to get variegated threads. All by herself she linked that to the knitting wool that I sometimes use. My daughter is not daft ya know!

The whole activity is safe (a bit messy, but a shower sorted that out but gloves are needed and splashes will wash off) and a lot of fun, but above all it was so easy it was child's play....

Show you the final results tomorrow ..

xx