Feeling decidedly vintage!!!

Had a lovely day on Saturday at the market - met some really friendly, lovely customers who made my day. So thank you - you know who you are!!

Since then, it has been a definite shock to realise I have only 3 days to get ready for the first Vintage market which is on Wednesday!!

I sewed some lavender sachets last night with vintage fabric and lace from my Grandma's collection which was really therapeutic. I do so enjoy putting the fabrics and lace together. I will take some pics when I have time.

In the meantime, here are some new cafetiere cosies I made on Friday - in a bright cheery red polka dot and a gorgeous paisley:

Can't decide which I like the best, I used bright candy pink felt for the lining and I love the shock of the contrast, especially with the red-

Maybe I'll make some out of vintage fabrics? Then again, I have to make vintage cushions, vintage hearts, vintage bunting to make, not forgetting the table cloth needs edging, the vintage embroidered cloths need ironing.....suddenly I am feeling a bit vintage myself!

Might just call it a day and get up bright and early tomorrow! x

perfect morning...

Well, I have just had the most lovely morning - first it is the day of the ribbon swap that I'm in with Swap-bot and I was assigned my partners. So I had great fun assembling the packs of ribbons and I'm really looking forward to getting mine - I LOVE ribbons!! I'll show you what I sent when I know that my partners have got theirs and of course, I'll show you what I get too!!

Then I had just made myself a snack,

and guess what? Just at that moment the postman arrived with THIS:-

How's that for perfect timing?!!!

Of course I realise I'm a little behind most of you all in blogland with my discovery of Amanda Soule and her great blog, so I just had to send for this great book - and I am not disappointed. It is real eye candy and very inspiring.

When I finally dragged myself away from all the handmade yumminess, I made something which I have been wanting to make for a while:-

it took longer than I thought but was really satisfying,

I do so love rainbow colours together. x

A bit of crafting

Now that she has received the parcel and seen it, I can show you the bag I designed and made for my favourite Aunt's birthday.

Using an existing bag that was the right shape as a guide, I cut out the wonderful pear fabric and chose some stripey fabric for the lining. The existing bag didn't have lining, so I added this to the pattern - I also added a pocket inside. I used iron-on interfacing to give it a little more sturdiness. My Aunt had said that she would like good length straps to make it easy to carry so I increased the length of these.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out -

I also worked on a cushion commission - for a wedding present. A new take on the LOVE cushion:-

I added a polka dot fabric reverse -

Now I just have not one, not two but THREE mountains of ironing.....so no more crafting today!! Hopefully more to show you tomorrow - of more making, not the ironing! x

Vintage finds and polka dots

Following my success in the charity shop a couple of days ago, I thought I would just pop in whilst passing and, lurking at the back of a shelf, hidden behind some hideous statues, LOOK what I found:

How fab is that?! On the base, it is stamped T G Green England, who are the people who make the lovely blue and white striped Cornishware. I was so happy - it was a little bit greasy but I popped it in the dishwasher and it came out looking like new. I couldn't resist doing a bit of research on good old Google and I found out it is from around 1970 and the pattern is called Channel Islands Jersey Blue! I think it was sold in Habitat.

It's amazingly satisfying to find something old and unloved and make it shiny and new again! It is certainly loved now!!

Had some more good news, well not me personally, but my good friend Lisa found out she won the Umbrella Prints challenge!! Fantastic!! Yay Lisa!!

This is my favourite of her fabric pictures - if you have a spare few minutes, you should pop over to her blog and see how she did it - what a creative lady - don't know how she finds the time!!

Oh, and the lovely Julie from 'On the Dot Creations' has featured one of my patchwork tractor cushions on her blog here - it really is lovely when someone out there in bloggy land finds something I've made, let alone likes it enough to feature it!!! x

A fruitful day...

It's been an absolutely gorgeous day here in Yorkshire. Warm, one might even say, balmy, with blue skies and sunshine! It was however a bit blowy - washing had to be pegged a little more than normal but it managed to stay on the line!

The sunshine has helped to ripen my cherry tomatoes at last and they did look lovely:

It was sooo satisfying to pick some of the little red ones to have with my lunch - and yes, they did taste better than shop bought ones.

We are lucky enough to have a really mini 'orchard' in our sadly neglected higgeldy piggeldy garden (well, we have 2 apple trees and 2 pear trees!) The apples have been very good this year and Flossie and her Dad spent a happy hour with cutters and sticks (don't ask) collecting this little lot -

I love having the apples, but I do wish they ripened a few at a time, enough for one crumble or pie each time - wouldn't that be great?! In the meantime, if anyone has some good 'apple" recipes I would be very grateful. I can make sauce, pie and crumble but there my repertoire ends! Help!!

I have had a lovely day playing with felt. I packed up some orders then realised I had run out of the 40 packs. So, nothing to be done but spend some time listening to Radio 4 and making piles of rainbows-

Then I got to play with the camera AND the felt!! I am so loving the colours....

I do so love my job! x

Friends for the duck

I was in a charity shop (thrift store) the other day and just couldn't resist this -

I just loved the 70s-ness of it! Love the simple design and it just had to come home with me. It has a matching sugar basin too.

On the crafting front, excuse the badly lit photo but just had to show you this! The little shared duck of the last post has some new friends!! Flossie has turned into a little duck-making machine and one after another produced some friends....

Hmmm, think I'd better make something before all the felt is gone! x

A little bit of Christmas and an early gift...

Well, I have spent nearly all day on the computer, updating the supplies website with all manner of lovely things - amongst them some Christmas, yes you did read correctly - Christmas supplies, some cute little Christmas Tree buttons, holly sprigs, presents and Santa buttons. I love them all and I must say, I did begin to feel a little Christmassy excitement when I was photographing and loading them onto the website. (I had to keep that bit quiet though, as S. belongs to the 'no sign of Christmas before December brigade!!') But for those of you who do like a little bit of early Christmas, here's a sneak preview.....don't tell the others!!

Well, it did take quite a long time as my hyperlinks kept moving unexpectedly every time I updated a page so things weren't linked properly. Don't know why, but it was very frustrating!!

I managed to sort it out though and I must say I am quite pleased with how it's all looking now. It leaves me free to do some actual creating now that all the admin type jobs are getting done.

I have soooo many plans for things I want to make that sometimes I feel paralysed not knowing what to do first!

My daughter Flossie, as she is known here, hasn't had that problem this weekend. She asked for some felt and disappeared for a while then presented me with this beautifully wrapped surprise...

I opened it to find this:-

a beautiful little lavender-smelling duck - it was a real lump at the back of the throat moment - she was so proud of the little fellow and you could tell she really wanted to keep him but generous as she is, she wanted me to have him as well!

We're going to share him. xx

A little bit of shopping..

Before it gets too late, I wanted to share with you some of the goodies I bought at the Festival of Quilts. There was so much yumminess on show that it was all exceedingly tempting but I tried to restrain myself!!

I only bought four ribbons:-

2 patterns, one skirt and one dress with some fabric ready to make it:-

some gorgeous polka dot flannelette fabric:-a bit more fabric.....oooh, and some more.....er......fabric....and a book about....er.....fabric.....with a title which says it all really. x

Because.....

Okay - so I have many cushions to make, a bunting commission, button brooches to glue, hair combs to shape, felt to order, buttons to photograph, not to mention the giant mountain of ironing in my bedroom, the windows we can't see through they are so finger-marked......and yet, what did I do with my little bit of time last evening?

Why, I made this, of course:-

because I had an urge to use some of the gorgeous new fabric I bought at the Festival...

because that fabric was just calling out to me....

because I just HAD to.

D'you know what I mean?