moonlighting...

Whilst I've been terribly neglecting my own blog lately, you can catch a little snippet of some crafty loveliness on my guest post today over on my favourite blog of all- Lou's Littlegreendshed. 

Happy reading x

tangerine pyrex embroidery hoop

Happy Saturday everyone, I for one am delighted to see the sunshine peeping through the clouds on this January morning. 

This week, I picked up a gorgeous scrap of thrifted vintage fabric and decided it would be perfect for a little freestyle embroidery hoop, but I was rather indecisive about picking a subject. In the end, I thought I'd stick to what I know...

I'm so pleased with how doodley my lidded casserole dish turned out, and the randomly sized lazy daisies seem to lend themselves so well to giving the impression of a vintage Pyrex design.

I love the sunny tangerine tones too- just the perfect remedy for those threatening January blues!

love birds tea towel

Last night, Steve and I went to a wedding reception in a beautiful country hotel- it was lovely to have an excuse to put on our glad rags and have a night out without the girls. Not knowing the couple very well (the bride was a colleague of Steve's) I was a bit stuck as to what to do for a gift.

So I figured if Wills and Kate can have a commemorative tea towel, why couldn't they?

Pattern available on Etsy here.

save the vest till last

This afternoon Flora, Pearl and I have been having lots of fun at a friend's baby shower. Having not been to one before (and usually being rather stuffy and dismissive of American celebratory fads) I didn't have a clue what to expect. Flora was convinced we were going to actually put a baby in the shower, so we were relieved to find lots of tea, cake and games- including one that the girls found hilarious called 'guess what's in the nappy'.

We came bearing a small gift, that I had frantically stitched up this morning. My friend doesn't know what gender baby she's having, so I went for unisex red, embroidered with a little owl- everyone loves owls, after all!



the great autumn giveaway

I can't believe it's October already and I have now been blogging for six whole months. I'm quite amazed with myself that I've kept it up, when I think of the number of journals I started as a teenager that lasted about three days! Most suprising of all is that people seem to actually enjoy reading my ramblings and what started off as a personal record of my venture into growing veg has grown into a place to 'meet' lovely, creative new friends.

So, I wanted to offer a little bit of thanks for the thrifty creativity you inspire within your own blogs and welcome new readers with a little bit of giveaway fun. The prize is this colourful squirrel shopping bag, that I embroidered using one of Andrea Zuill's lovely patterns.

Inside will be a few other little surprises to warm those autumnal cockles.

To enter, all you need to do is reply to this post telling me what you love best about Autumn, follow the blog (if you aren't already) and then grab the blog badge on the right to display on your blog. Those overseas are welcome to enter as well.

Winner will be announced on 17th October.

Good luck!

ou est maman de purl?

Hello dear readers. You must forgive my rather long absence- my spare time has been taken up tolerating a troublesome toddler who has decided she doesn't like sleeping any more, which has been rather hampering my crafting of late.

However, I have managed to squeeze a little embroidery in between the tears and tantrums, so today I finally completed my bird-emblazoned bedding- hurrah!

All patterns, other than this one, are adapted from images found on google image search, with the 'line drawing' filter selected and were then traced on to the fabric with my transfer pen. I'm really delighted with the result and think it looks just right on my bed.

I'm now thinking I need some bird taxidermy to sit on the beam above the bed, to complete the look- what do you think? Too much? Too wacky? Too...... creepy??

embroiderers anonymous

I have a new addiction...

Embroidery is the new knitting!

and my creative juices have been liberated through the discovery of this very cool transfer pen.


All you have to do is trace whatever picture you want to embroider, go over the back of the tracing paper with the transfer pen and then iron it onto the fabric you want to decorate.

Voila!

I'm currently in the process of embroidering speckled birds onto my boring white Ikea pillow cases...

and I've just finished this cute little baby t-shirt for a friend, featuring the ever so brilliant Daniel Johnston's drawing, as made famous by Kurt Cobain.

Everything plain in the house will be getting an embroidery make-over!

mixtape satchel

Back when we were 19, Steve had a little canvass army-surplus haversack, in which he toted about his worldly goods (wallet, 10 b&h, tube ticket, recent edition of NME etc). I went off to university many miles away and he would post me mixtapes of our favourite twee indie songs, with soppy little notes enclosed. I'm so glad that mix-tapes are now back in vogue, as there's something very special about all the effort that goes into making one, that is not mirrored in the burning of an ipod playlist.

So, as today is his 31st birthday, I decided to combine those two aspects of our teenage nostalgia and embroidered this bag for him- I figured he would need one when he relinquishes his role as professional dad and returns to the weary world of work as a special needs teaching assistant in September.

I'm really getting into this embroidery lark and have a few more projects up my sleeve.

Oh, to be 19 again....

sassy librarian cushion

I picked up this amusing embroidery pattern during my birthday trip to the V&A in January. I'd completely forgotten I had it until it fell out of the pages of one of my sewing books last week and I decided to brave the first embroidery I have done since I was a child.

At my rather traditional primary school, the girls would have needlework lessons whilst the boys played football. We were instructed by a slightly terrifying teacher by the name of Mrs Fillial, who also taught history and country dancing. We would embroider samplers of rows of numerous different embroidery stitches, but would never actually make anything of use nor ornament. Most of the lesson was spent standing in a queue of other girls whose work had become tangled in a knot, waiting for the teacher to rescue it.

But at least something from those lessons had obviously sunk in, because as soon as I got going with this little project, I remembered quite a few different stitches. I did most of the outline in back stitch, her hair in chain stitch, the hairband in stem stitch and the glasses in split stitch. I was especially proud of the french knot I managed for her earring!

I also ad-libbed some extra strands of hair in her fringe and by the time I got onto the book I felt confident enough to add a little bit of fancy decoration.

I absolutely love the finished cushion, it's going to take pride of place in the lounge.


However, I can't help but hear Mrs Fillial's razor sharp voice in my mind- 'it should be as neat on the back as it is on the front'. Mine, I will bashfully confess, is not... but I have to say life is too short to worry about the bits that nobody ever sees!