A Complete Cushion

This weekend, I finally managed to finish a project!! I'm always so busy with work, projects seem to last forever these days, which is not good for an impatient person like me!

 

 

 

I started this hand appliqued, hand quilted cushion back in February. I love applique and hand quilting, but it was the putting it together and the piping which stressed me out this weekend. It was very fiddly!

 

The pattern is from the lovely Sandra at Plain Navy who designed it herself as part of her 'Best in Show' quilt. Although my dog is a different breed, I love daschunds and this design is fab. He looks right at home on my Laura Ashley easy chair.  

 

 

Now that I've finished one project, I MUST finish another before I begin something new!

 

Thanks for reading.

Rachel x

 

Pinterest

I've got a little addicted too Pinterest recently. I love the way you can put all the things you like in one place. Then you can look at all the images together instead of scrawling through websites. Here are a couple of my current favourite images.

 

 

 

 

 

Pinterest is proving to be a massive source of inspiration for me at the moment, things to make, places to go, clothes to wear...the list is endless!

Artwork by Angie very kindly designed me my own Pinterest logo to match my blog design and header, here it is, what do you think?

Anyway, if you click on said logo on the side bar, it will *hopefully* take you to my Pinterest page. Is there anyone else out there who I can follow on Pinterest? Any recommendations?

 

Thanks for reading.

Rachel x

 

 

Liberty Love

On my little trip to London, my main aim was to go to the fabric department in Liberty's. I have visited Liberty's a few times, but never actually gone to the fabric department.

Usually, I can't get past the florist.

 

 

It's such a gorgeous display at the entrance to the shop. Inside, the shop is also stunning, with an old and intricate woodwork structure. 

 

 

I was blown away in the fabric department, it was so hard to decide what to buy. In the end, I got a bundle of fabrics in blues and greens. I also bought a cute mouse pin cushion, and a jar of liberty fabric covered buttons. My big treat was a new sewing box. Again, it took me ages to decide which one to get, but I'm pleased with my decision. I had a lot of fun filling the box when I got home!

 

 

It's safe to say my bank balance was a lot lighter after my wonderful trip to Liberty's!!

 

Thanks for reading.

Rachel x

 

 

Farbic Shopping in the City

The day after I did the lampshade making workshop, Mum and I went to London. We booked our train tickets a few weeks ago and managed to get quite a good deal. It only takes us a couple of hours to get there, so perfect to go just for the day. We go to London a couple of times a year, sometimes to shop, sometimes to see a show. This time, we wanted to only visit fabric/sewing shops and Liberty.

I did a bit of research before hand to find which fabric shops were worth visiting and where they were. We didn't want to spend all day zig-zagging our way over London, so had to decide not to visit some shops that were too far from central London. I found that Berwick Street, which is just off Oxford Street had a few shops worth visiting, so we headed there first. A few of the shops were very pricy, but great for browsing, but when I walked into The Cloth House, it was stunning!

 

 

The fabrics were gorgeous and really reasonably priced. They were all quite muted and were from all over the world. The natural coloured fabrics standing up behind the table in the above picture were all embroidered - gorgeous!

 

 

They also had ribbons, threads and trimmings galore. A lot of them were vintage too.

 

 

If you want somewhere special to go to buy fabric, this is it. The Cloth House is not only full to thr brim of gorgeousness, but it islaid out beautifully with stunning furniture and storage.

 

Thanks for reading.

Rachel x

Lampshade Making

It is already the second week of the school Easter holidays. Why do they always go so fast!?

The first week of the holidays was a bit of a jobs week for me, I did some decorating, carpet laying, cleaning, wardrobe building, that type of thing. What got me through all of that was knowing I had some nice things planned for the start of this week. The first of those nice things was a lampshade making workshop at 'Angel' in Easingwold. Angel is a lovely little shop, you can visit their website here http://www.angel-lifestyle.com/about-angel/info_1.html  It sells lovely one off pieces (like cushions) which are all handmade from vintage fabrics by the owner.

The workshop was run by Georgia, from Jorja Wilkinson Design.(http://www.jorjawilkinsondesign.co.uk/)

Georgia designs gorgeous fabrics, inspired by animals. She not only sells the fabrics by the metre, but makes them into cushions, lampshades and noticeboards which you can buy from her website.

 

 

Anyway, here we are at the workshop. Georgia made the lampshade making look easy, and actually, it wasn't as hard as you would expect. Mum made a really big one, which looks great on her standard lamp base, and I made a smaller one for a table lamp. Here is my completd shade on its base.

 

 

If you are interested, Angel are also running other workshops throughout the Spring. You can also find Angel and Jorja Wilkinson Designs on Facebook.

 

Thanks for reading.

Rachel

xx