A Short Break

I don't appear to have done anything lately do I!!! But I have been busy making lots of the little sewing sets so nothing different to show a picture of. I wanted to get a few of these sets made plus cover the lids of jars for use as storage because I'm sharing a stall at a school fair on Saturday and wanted the stall to look pretty. Will I make any profit, will I even make enough to cover the expense of the stall? I doubt it!!! But who cares - it's fun making things and fun having a couple of hours at the fair. The items I've made will come in very useful as gifts or for swaps. I've put away my sewing machine for a while and I've cleared my crafting table. This is all in readiness for doing a bit of 'mini-ing' . I've started making an outside WC and shed. It will be a bit of a challenge because apart from the miniature lavatory, that I had already got in my mini stash, I'm trying to come up with a building and interior from 'trash'. So far I've got a cardboard box that is just the right size and I've put a layer of polyfiller on the roof. That's as far as I've got and I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out!

Another Tin

Here is yet another covered tin - and I managed to cover it with fabric other than the one with little roses. Instead of felt to pad the lid I used some quilt wadding, it has given it a more domed look than the felt does. Also I ironed vilene to the back of the fabric for the sides, as I was using glue to stick this on I thought it needed a bit of thickness to stop the glue seeping through. Unfortunately you can still see the writing that is on the tin through the vilene backed fabric, it doesn't really matter, it's for me anyway!

Pochette à ouvrage

Just lately I've been getting a lot of inspiration from French blogs - I love their style. We used to get a French cross-stitch magazine here in the UK but I haven't seen it for a couple of years. I find that the cross-stitch magazines we get here aren't very sophisticated in the designs they contain. Anyway, knowing how I love this French look my dear husband has ordered a cross-stitch book for me, it's called Made in France (of course!). Hope it arrives soon.

I'm up to date now with all my swap commitments and I'm wondering what to make next. I bought a bargain length of fabric a couple of months ago, it was only £3.75 for 3 yards, and I want to make something, anything really, with it. I can see me making another set like the one above. I saw a little pouch containing soap (pochette de savon) told you I was going all French! So perhaps I could make some of these pouches to put soap in and give them as gifts.

Gift Tags

I made these gift tags using my Greeting Card Factory software. I got a sudden urge to make some tags and once I get this sort of urge I have to act on it! These are the garden themed ones, I've also made cat themed and have printed off some pictures ready to make some with a bird theme.

Sewing Sets continued

I can't stop making these little sets (as you've probably guessed!). This one was for Berit and was for the floss ring tag exchange on the Tiny Treasures blog. I stitched the tag first then luckily I found some fabric in my stash that matched the colours I'd chosen.

I'm having a little break from sewing and I'm making some gift tags, the first lot I made where absolutely horrible so I scrapped those and went for my usual style. I just can't seem to get the hang of doing arty stuff with paint etc, so I went back to my standard look, photos to follow!

Additions to the Sewing Tin

When I'm making something for myself I always get the feeling that I 'should' be doing something else. I don't know why and I'd love to find out what makes me think like this, it always spoils the enjoyment I want to feel. Enough whinging!!! I am enjoying making these little items for the sewing tin, they are probably totally useless because they are so small but I think they look very pretty.

Lovely Lavender

Peggy sent me some sachets filled with lavender that she had grown and dried herself.  The perfume from them is gorgeous, in fact you could smell them downstairs as I was in my craft room working on making bags for them this morning.  I decided to make them using some of my lace stash.  For a weird reason I was having trouble getting myself to use the lace I'd got and which I've had for years!  Anyway, rather than leave my stash to someone in my will (when whoever I left it to would probably throw most of it away!) I have at last given myself permission to use what I've got in any way I please, it's a very liberating thought.

While I was writing my last blog entry Graham came to see what I was doing.  He remarked that my pictures would look much better if the background wasn't my green cutting mat.  Yes, I already knew this but, being more practical then artistic, it just seemed a convenient place for my photo shoots.  I will try to be a bit more arty in future but I can't promise anything, I'll probably be too impatient to get the picture taken and go back to my cutting mat background!

I seem to have got quite a bit made lately.  That's because I've been using my sewing machine to make things.  I love using my sewing machine, I'm on my third machine since 1969.  The one I've got now is a Pfaff quilt expression 2046.  I still have panic attacks over how much it cost.