A Catch Up

It has been such a long time since I did a blog post that I thought it was time for a catch up! The last things I wrote about happened in January.

 

 

I had a few days in the sunshine in Tenerife in February, it was lovely to see some blue skies and feel some warmth.

 

My big brother also turned 30 in February. What's a better way to celebrate than with an M&S Colin the Caterpillar cake!?

 

March was a busy month, it began with my friends hen do, which involved some spa treatments, a night out dressed as various animals, and cocktails served from teapots!

I also had a trip with work to Hungary, which allowed me a small amount of time to see some of the beautiful city of Budapest.

 

 April begun with the beautiful wedding of my friend Anna, the bride looked beautiful and it was a happy and emotional day. Here is a photo of the table centrepieces from the day.

 

That brings me about up to date. Now I'm enjoying the Easter holidays, with not much planned apart from enjoying myself, catching up with friends and family and attending another wedding. I'm enjoying a spot of sewing and signs of Spring.

 

 

 

Thanks for reading.

Rachel

xxx

 

Before and After

I had wanted a new chair for my sewing table for quite a while when I came across an old, battered, wooden one in a reclamation shop which for some odd reason, I liked. A fiver later, I was trying to squueze it into the back of my little Corsa :-).

It stayed in the garage for ages until the summer holidays arrived and I had a bit more time than usual to give it a little TLC. Someone with woodwork knowledge very kindly made it sturdy again and sanded in down, in a much better way than I could. Here is what the chair looked like after the first couple of steps.

 

 

From here, I gave painted it with white undercoat, and then two coats of my chosen coloured emulsion. I had my paint mixed but it's still not the ideal colour. I'd have preferred it to be a bit more green.

Once it was dry I used a decorating knife to scrape off parts of the paint to reveal the wood underneath, giving it an old, battered effect. Finally, I painted it with quick drying emulsion and upholstered a drop in seat pad with some nice, new fabric.

 

The photo isn't the great quality and you can't see the colours very well but hopefully, you get the idea. I must admit, it was quite a bit of work to get the chair to this point, but I'm happy that it's completely individual and it does look lovely in my sewing room :-).

 

Thanks for reading.

Rachel xx 

 

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

 

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

 

Work in progress.

This weekend, amongst housework, school work, shopping and nursing an ear infection, my 'work in progress basket' has made an appearance.

I started a quilting course a couple of weeks ago. The lady who runs it is really lovely and creaed some amazing quilts and other bits and pieces. I have done patchwork etc before but have always just been self taught. It was great to be taught the 'proper' way to do things and I discovered there were mistakes I had been making, such as pressing the seams open instead of pressing them onto the dark side of the fabric. Sandra also taught me how to sew strips of fabric together and then cut across instead of cutting out individual squares like I had been doing!!

My basket was full of fat quarters and five squares made from nine smaller squares. My homework from the course was to stitch triangles onto the sides to create bigger squares. Here are two completed squares. They are not perfect and still need trimming but I am impressed with my efforts (even though I got a bit frustrated!).

These squares will (fingers crossed) be part of the quilt that I will make over the course of the ten week course. It is only a small quilt but I can't wait to complete it.

My basket is now full of completed squares to take to the course on Wednesday.

See www.plainnavy.co.uk for details of the course.

Anyone else been crafting this weekend?

Thanks for reading.

Rachel xx

Bunting

A lot of crazes seem to appear out of the blue and some are definitely to be forgotten about! But for about five years now bunting has made a big impression on us all, it’s appearing everywhere and is ever changing and evolving.

However, bunting isn’t a new invention, apparently it has been around since the seventeenth century and was used for Royal Navy signal flags and of course, to decorate many a church and village fete.

In recent years, bunting has become a fashionable item to decorate many places, it appears in house and home magazines, lovely little boutique type shops and I must admit, I love it!! 

I have completely and utterly thrown myself into the bunting craze, and just wish I had more space in which to put it! I even have bunting in the classroom in which I teach. 

A lot of us are getting crafty and having a go at making our own, We are seeing bunting come along way from the typical red, white and blue flags hung at street parties after the war.

Bunting is, bright, pale, 'shabby chic', seaside themed, crocheted, lace, doily, customised with lettering, small, tied wth ribbon, string or twine. The list goes on! 

This is a set of crocheted bunting I made, and am planning to hang in my little spare/craft room.

I have also made some brightly coloured fabric bunting for a friend.

What's next? I don't know, but there are loads of ideas in this book.

The question is, how do you like your bunting?  

Thanks for reading.

Love Rachel xx