Red sampler cushion

Yes, Dear Readers, I know I said I had done my last  cushion, but as I was searching through my stuff looking for something else, I came across the red cross stitch sampler that was made a long while ago.

 Having all the materials needed to make it into a cushion it would have been silly to have stuffed it back into

 the drawer wouldn't it!                                                                                                                                                                                                    

When I was originally sewing it, I did think of turning it into a  picture, but as I was on a cushion mission here it is.

The back which is my favourite envelope style and with a little label to complete the look.

                                         Final resting place, ontop of my bed.

And that IS the last cushion.......for this year!!

Watercolours

A few years ago I went to a painting class to try and learn watercolours. This was my first ever attempt. Being a cheapskate and not wanting to purchase proper watercolour paper, I bought some cheapo paper to start off with. Have to say that was a big mistake, you cant see it very well in the photo but it's quite grainy and didn't take the paint very well so I ditched that paper and got some big girl stuff!

I then became obsessed with pansies and trying to catch their friendly little faces. I did so many the teacher got fed up with me. :0D

These are the two that are the last ones I did before I threw in the towel and not painted a pansy since. I'm always saying practise, practise but dont always use that advise meself!!

    I really must dust off my paint brushes and have a splosh around as I havn't touched them for ages. So many projects....so little time.


   Anyway be careful out there......you never know who's watching :0D

Red and linen cushion cover

This cover is made from red patchwork fabric and linen material. It has, of course, a couple of Quirky houses sewn onto one of the corners! I have hand appliqued them and then oversewn with the machine. Took longer than I thought but was enjoyable to make.
                                                              
                                                      The Begining.....

                                                  
                                                             Finished......

                                                               Back view which is a simple envelope design.....

                                                                  Now  sold.



                                                     All three together........

Hope you like them!

The Terrible Twins!

Let me introduce you to Onslow and Oswald the terrible twin monkeys!!
They have their knitted jumpers, hats and scarfs on as it is getting very cold and they were getting goose bumps.
With their little watches on they are never late!

                                

                                                            Best mates as well as brothers!

Quirky Cushion

Finally finished the Quirky cushion cover that was in the pipe line. I used some material for the backing that was bought from Dunhelm Mill, which is a heavier weight of material, it has also added a bit of texture which I rather like.

Here is the cover before it was stuffed.

              Some close up. I have embroidered some flowers at the windows of some of the houses.

                                     And the back which is done in an envelope style.                    

            

           Tis nice and cheerful and makes me smile.....I baggsy the long tall building cos you can put g'kids up there and wouldn't hear them! lol  


                                                     And now onto the next project!!

Peek a boo!

Here's a peek at something that I'm making at the moment. Hopefully it will be finished by the weekend and then if it's turned out right, will show you then. (Tis a bit bright white as it was taken at night with a flash!)

Quirky Quilt Patch

What does one do when the electric is switched off for the whole day?(We were given prior warning that the power would be off due to repairs)
  Normally  that day would have been filled with cooking, cleaning, ironing, washing etc etc.......NOT! haha
 But I was going to use the sewing machine. Still not one to be outwitted I carried on with my knitted quilt which only requires me and two needles! But I had to make a label for when it's finished....eventually..... probably next year.
So here is the label.....

Yep a little house....did you think it would be anything else!!! It's not been ironed yet. And it will go on the end of this (the photo is picking up the wrong shades of green) It's been hand appliqued so took ages. I have to say it looks really nice in real life. This house has some window boxes full of flowers and some apples growing on the tree.

It is a nicer green than the photo, more like the small patch in the first photo.

                                                                         Close Up

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

There are quite a few patches to go....or until I run out of the wool as I wont be able to get any more. Lots of different patterns, some of which are my own and some are taken from the book '200 patchwork blocks'. It's taking me back to when I used to do lots of knitting for the children (in the olden days!) and some of  the patterns that I would have used. Oh well, the electric has been re-connected so no excuse to sit about :0D

                                                                                        

                                                              

Pin Cushion

Well me dearies, what with itchy fingers needing to make something and not having a pin cushion, thought it would be a good idea to make me one! So out comes all the scraps and I thought it would be a good idea to quilt the top....well it wasn't as 1) it was to thick to stick me pins in and 2) the wretched machine wouldn't do free embroidery. Why I don't know as it was fine when I did the other projects so was a bit miffed I can tell you!

Next one I do will not be padded and then the corners will be a lot crisper.

Anyway it had to be a Quirky House didn't it! haha

Bottles

You may remember the bottles that Head Honcho dug up in the garden back in May, well I thought they  lacked a certain something and were a bit boring (and one was rather cracked, which happened when I dropped it after being in the ground all that time without a scratch!) So found some old fashioned labels copyright free to print out.

As the round bottle is a poison bottle that got the danger label. The ingredients that is on the label to the left is enough to make you keel over AND you can give it to babies 1 month old!! Hopefully they no longer produce that particular medicine. haha.

Tis a monkey!

Yep, havn't put a monkey post up for a little while so I can't have that! :0P
Hot off the press is Maureen Monkey

She has monkey faces and bananas all over her. Her bag is to put some more bananas in!

A bit of cross stitch

I'm further on with my large cross stitch than I thought I would be, mainly due to using a blue washable pen to mark out the lines in blocks so mistakes are easily picked up. Having finished more or less 3 pages out of 9 so am pleased with that. Although it is still going to be one of those projects that you amble along on so not an overnight whiz!

 At the moment it doesn't look much but I hope it turns out as nice as the other one that I did in the same series.

Mojo returning.....hopefully!

I hope the loss of the crafting mojo was just a blip! I fancied making something a bit more subdued and feminine than I have been doing of late, and fortunately had the material in my stash.

 Making some sort of pattern and cutting it out. As you might be able to tell the buff coloured fabric is linen, and doesn't it crease but so lovely to sew.

 Finished product, which I'm fairly pleased with as all the patches actually meet in the middle! Yep, there is a little house....well had to put one in didn't I. (It was either that or a monkey haha) This time for the applique house I turned the edges in and slipped stitched all the house.

                                                              Close Ups

                                                       

                                          For the edge binding I put the linen with the pattern and
                                          pattern with the linen which looks really nice in real life.

                                           The back is a simple slip on with no buttons (which
                                           means no button holes!!)

For the front I gently eased some wadding in half so that the patchwork and quilting has a slightly padded effect. With the cushion inserted the linen looks so much better.

Even daughter was impressed and she doesn't do pink! I have an urge to do some more cushions, I've got some ideas for some different mottos to embroider on.....watch this space!

A boquet of button flowers!

There seems to be a lot of button boquets about on peoples blogs so I thought that as I have a box full of buttons and the other equipment to hand....give it a go. Great to find inspiration on others blogs.

This minature vase of flowers was made from shirt buttons, pearls and paper, then twisted with florist wire. The mini vase was the one shown a few posts back that Head Honcho had dug up from the garden. It's so tiny, what could it have been used for?

The pound coin shows how small it is. The buttons must have been in my button box for the last 40 years!

The label is just a stick on one, with coffee painted on around the edges to make it look older, and with it saying Petite Flowers finished off with a bit of ribbon string.

In situ. Most suprised that HH even thought it looked cute! Now the other bottles are bigger and one of them says poisonous on the side (they are those pale green ones) so will need to think about what to do with them, bigger boquet maybe?

A bit of activity in the kitchen

I thought I would try out a way of preserving the carrots and beans that were grown in the garden as the freezer was rather full. Having heard about salting beans and that sounded pretty easy, but, why not carrots as well. So mixed plenty of salt with water (no weighing involved!) and sterilized the jars. These two have been in a dark cupboard for nearly two months. I'm going to keep them for a few more months and then have a taste (after much rinsing!) If it works it would be a good way to store food and leave more freezer space for other things.

p.s. They were put in the jars uncooked. Will let you know the outcome.

Mojo lost

Have had a bit of a lull in the crafting side of things :0(
Have tried 2 different things (not saying what!) and neither have so far turned out right and I don't have the oomph to correct them as yet.

On a better note I have knitted a few more squares for the blanket so now upto 26 blocks, still a loonng way to go tho.
So no pictures to put up.....maybe it's the overcast weather making it hard to get going! Do others have the same problem?

Cute things for the house

When we went for our rellie visiting trip I mentioned that we went to the shops (and more shops!) and my favourite shop now for bits and bobs is Wilkinsons. This little bird  was £2 and the 3 drawer cupboard  £3. It's a handy size for storing those small bits that you don't know where to put! Also got this matching home sign for £2. The colours are a light sagey green and the birdie is a lime green. Bargains!!
They are housed on the mantlepiece now. I still havn't seen a Wilkes in Scotland, although I know they are on-line but there is nothing like seeing items in real life!