Back Soon

Just a quick message to say I haven't disappeared. Just very very busy with work at the moment. I'll be back soon and am saving things up to blog about.

I'm also very much looking forward to having a new look to my blog,as I've got Artwork by Angie on the case :). 

Here is a nice picture to keep you going. I LOVE pom pom trim. These cushions are so simple but gorgeous.

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

Home is where the heart is

After a comment made by one of my friends, I realised that I'm a bit of a heart lover. On a quick glance around my living room I could count nine heart inspired items. I have a knitted dress covered in hearts tights with hearts on numerous necklaces with a heart as the pendant and a jumper with a red heart on it - amongst many other items in my wardrobe! I'm not suite sure why I like the motif so much. The only thing that springs to mind is the fact that it represents love and is a happy symbol.

Here are a few pics (badly taken I know) of some heart items from my home.

Dining room curtain fabric.

Jug (mainly used as a vase) with a sweet little red heart.

A large wooden heart which hangs in my entrance porch.

Another hanging heart. This time it hangs from a mirror.

A handmade picture with a heart print fabric as the background.

Candle holders on the fireplace in the living room.

A hand stitched heart above the fireplace.

I will post some more heart inspired items in the future. Has anyone else got a fetish for hearts? Or a love for a different emblem?

Thanks for reading.

Rachel xx

Craft Workshop

I don't know about you but even though I am crafty myself, I really enjoy going to a workshop to learn things and to meet new people. Sometime crafting on your own can be a little lonely and it's always great to get together with like-minded people who can teach you something new and give you information about crafty places and stockists. However, living in the North East of England, finding good workshops can be difficult, but I have been lucky enough to find a couple of really good ones recently!

My favourite was a rosette workshop by Little A Designs. I found Marna's (the artist and owner of the company) page on Facebook and was chuffed when I discovered she was fairly local to where I lived. I booked onto the rosette course and my Mum decided to join me.

We were nervous about going to he house of someone we only knew through Facebook, but Marna was brilliant at welcoming us into her pretty home and we felt comfortable more or less straight away. I cannot praise Marna enough, she was kind and generous with all of her materials and hadn't just chosen a small selection that we could chose from, but let us loose in her workroom so we could pick anything we wanted! She even provided us with drinks and snacks.

Although Mum and I could already sew, it was brilliant to have Marna's advice on material selection and how to put them together to create something quite unique.

Here is what we made.

Here is where you can find Marna.
www.littleadesigns.com
 http://www.facebook.com/#!/littleadesigns
She makes gorgeous things (I want to buy them all). If you ever get chance to go on one of her workshops, go for it!

Anyone else got some good experiences of workshops?

Thanks for reading.
Love Rachel x

Advice

I'm new to the blogging 'thing'. I decided to start writing a blog as I found myself being directed to so many inspirational blogs and wanted to be apart of it. Thing is,I don't think I'm doing very well at it!

I am very grateful to those of you who have decided to follow me, but I was wondering if you could direct me to any ways of getting more followers or interest on my blog?

I have myself followed blogs, I have also commented on a large array of blogs. I know my header and background aren't great and I have got someone to work on that for me but it won't be for a couple of months or so.

Anyway, any positive criticism would be warmly welcomed.

Thank-you

Rachel x

Mad about pattern.

I have always loved patterns. In fact if I wasn't a teacher, I would of been a pattern designer, designing wallpaper and wrapping paper. Maybe in another life. I love all these patterns, for house stuff or clothing. Mixing and matching pattern is even better! 

However, I have recently been finding more folky floral type patterns, here are some pics!

I love all of these! Especially the ribbon and pink fabric! Does anyone know where I can buy something similar or does anyone have anylovely folk floral items?

Thanks for reading.

Rachel xx

Books

Just a short post today. I know a few other people have been blogging about these, but I got two lovely books through the post within the last week and wanted to share them with you.

The first is this one by Selina Lake.

For some reason I was really reluctant to buy this book, but had seen some good reviews. All I can say is WOW, it is absolutely gorgeous, full of wonderful ideas and stunning photographs. I could frame each page and put it on the wall.

The next book is this crochet book which was advertised in Mollie Makes.

Again, this book is full of pictures of projects made in spring coloured yarn. It has three sections of varying difficulty, so I'm hoping some of the patterns will be OK for me.

I've picked this circular cushion as my first project from the book. I've ordered some 100% cotton yarn in shades of blues and greens  and can't wait for it to come to get started.

Anyone else got any good craft/housey books to recommend?

Thanks for reading.

Rachel. x