Sewing, stitching, baking, cooking, gardening, shopping and general homemaking.

Wednesday 29 April 2009

Spring At Last

At last some lovely spring sunshine and the plants in our garden are really appreciating it. This is clematis Cartmanii Joe. It was in a pot for a couple of years but last autumn we decided to put it into the ground and it is enjoying it's new home. I love clematis (mind you I love hundreds of plants) and this one is such a gorgeous greeny white that shines out on the shady side of our fence.
We've had this daisy for years, it's been moved from one spot to another. First it nearly got killed by the slugs and snails we are plagued with, then it was in a position that was too dry for it and it really struggled. Finally we've found a spot it likes and it has really flourished. I forget the name of it, it's aways a reliable flowerer, even in the old positions it flowered well. What a beautiful golden yellow it is.

Thursday 16 April 2009

More Cross-stitch

I've stitched this to make into a floss tag. The pattern is a free one from here. The back will have initials in it, maybe mine if I keep it, maybe the person I get in the Tiny Treasures Exchange. I have started another design and hope to get a few stitched then make them up into the tags. Today I'm suffering a bit with my back so I can't see too much getting done. Here's a link to a site with floss tags.

Sunday 5 April 2009

Dolls House Miniatures

I was showing some pictures of my dolls house stuff to a friend on one of the groups I'm in and it really got me wanting to do a bit of mini-ing. Above is a picture of the house I have in my dining room. Trouble is, these houses are a bit big for my home and take up a lot of room so my other house is in my shed aka mini workshop.
This room box is supposed to be a war time kitchen, I started it ages ago and haven't finished it, maybe now I've got it out of a cupboard I'll get on with it again.

The washstand and tray in this picture are things I bought from White Cottage Miniatures. I love her work, they way she puts things together is so realistic.


I made this kitchen range out of thick card, wood and a tap washer with bits of peel-off sticker and gold pen for the detail.



These two samplers are tiny, do you see our names and marriage date in the one on the right?


This room box is made of thick card with card, wood and fimo details. All except the metal things and the pump are what I made.


Graham bought me this kit, I decorated the box, assembled and stained the furniture and bought most of the rest.

Most bought furniture is a varnished brown so I spray painted this cupboard, used a gold felt tip for the detail and made the little accessories.


Because the one inch scale houses take up so much room I decided to have half inch scale and this wardrobe and settee are for this scale, they are tiny! I made them out of card, the settee is padded with felt then covered with fabric.


Petite Properties make these beautiful little half-scale houses, I just couldn't resist them. The bakery is the one I've decided to make furniture for just now.

Wednesday 1 April 2009

Fancy Storage

A couple of weeks ago I stitched a cover for the lid of my button jar and I liked it so much I've got a collection of jars ready for tarting up. So far I've done one for my pins, which is just a piece of fabric stuck to the lid with some ribbon around it, and one for lace which is a circle of calico with lace stitched around the edge, then the whole thing is glued to the lid and another piece of lace glued round the rim of the lid. In my feeble efforts to take an artist picture I've added a sewing roll that I made last year and thimble that I found in a second hand sewing basket bought at a charity auction They are all standing on a box someone gave me that I keep my fancy sewing machine feet in. I've got lots of these extra feet. Think I'll have to take a picture of those for my blog sometime. Pity I couldn't find a nice background to take the picture against instead of one of my Ikea storage cartons but the light was just right here!