What will today bring ?

Every day bring us a new challange in one way or another even if we dont relize it each day i try to be posative, helpfull and not moan as much as the prevoius day but working with the public can put a lot of strain on this theory so try to do to others what you can expect of them and it might just all work out nicely .if not just count to 10...........or in my case a 110 !!!

Wednesday 2 September 2015

Big grin 😆


On my travels around the delightful Coventry town centre lol yea right I came across these fabric squares in the ever growing pound land as I'm a fabric junkie I just had to pick up a couple of packets when I got home I got them out and they had some really nice colours in them so it got me thinking about quilting again so there I was placing all these little 4" squares together who knew that quilting could be so fun yea I know I'm a Sado and need to get out more but at the moment I'm just loving it.

I had enuf square to make four seat covers for my table and chairs and there was five left over as I hadn't got any seat pad to finishe the chairs of u till my next trip in to town I played around with the squares adding some strips along the sides this is called sashing if you want to get technical to creat a table runner.

I backed it with some curtain fabric and then got out "the walking foot" omg well you have got to get one of these if you want to play at quilting it's just fab the teeth just glide through the the material and doesn't pucker and look crap I was so impressed if I say so myself 
God help my poor house think it's gona turn out like little house on the praiyery forget chuck out ya chince bring on the quilts lol 








Tuesday 1 September 2015

The quilting bug




I haven't blogged for a while folks but I have been out of action for a while I had an eye operation so wasn't allowed to do any crafting for a while ( God it felt like a life time ) 
So whilst I was sitting on my comfortable size 15 backside I became addicted to crisp biscuits and YouTube videos on sewing tutorials god those yanks are so funny to watch and get really passionate about there projects well after about 3 weeks of watching I became hooked and started to order all sorts of bits n bobs of eBay can't images how much I spent but it was all in a good cause , well that's what I tell myself lol.

It started off with a new machine of course I have one already but you never can have enough  I wanted to treat myself to an all singing all dancing model and we. I did she's called Ruby and she's fab  every body needs a ruby in there life 



She is beautiful don't you agree well she came with lots of free gifts so it was rude not too and the best thing she has a needle threaded built in so no more screaming at Martyn to come and retread my needle he can carry on killing his Germans in peace on the Xbox .
Well I had to go slow to star because of my eye but it's bin 6 weeks now and I'm full steam ahead she runs like a dream and can do so many different stitches and alphabets I'm in Orr of her so the first thing I had to do is make a suitable dust cover for a fitting 



After watching all theses quilting videos I wanted to have a go so I laid out the plastic cover that came with it as a template and sort of Drew round it and then the rest I just made up as I went along I wanted it to fit in my sewing room decor on the blue the am but need to be as sticking as she is too so need to put some piping on the cover as I didn't have the supplies I needed I sent Martyn off to the trusted Mrs Ts to see Mandy for all my supplies asap I'm really pleased with how it turned out and think I've done her proud what you say hey RUBY RUBY RUBY  LOL  




Tuesday 19 May 2015

Busy busy busy


Hi there sorry I haven't posted for a while life has been very busy and hectic.
But lots has been happening so will fill you all in .

My sewing skills have been improving nicely over the last few months and I have made lots of lovely things so much so that we are now selling lots of my crafty makes in out new little emporium "The Pre loved Boutique".
My sister and I own a small little hairdressers that we have ran successfully for the last 11 years but as we all know lady's we get fed up so easily moving the furniture around and changing this helps stimulate new ideas. 
As my crafting came more popular and the ladies in the salon were asking for more and more we decided to turn the back part of out salon in to a little bit of heaven ,and that was how The Pre Loved boutique was launched.




As I was working hard busily sewing and crafting away my sister was painting and decorating a skill which she has perfected over the years and soon turned the boutique into a magical place of oohs and arris twinkly glass a fitting back drop to display our fancy goods and gifts.


Several weeks later I have sold no end of craft and constantly busy at work in my craft room at home replenishing new stock and ideas .

             Assorted cushions and peg bags 

Jackie has now sorted out a wonderful supplier of jewellery bags shoes and clothes so we now sell bits of everything and more stock is growing week by week.

Decoupage boxes and chest 

    Pin cushions 
Novelty cushions camper van 
We have launched a FB page and currently gathering more and more follower so give is a look and tell us what you think or pop in and come and have a look around your all more than welcome 

Tuesday 20 January 2015

Test

Test 

Sunday 18 January 2015

New Skills

I sent for some nice pieces of material off the Internet and when they arrived I was disappointed as they were only small  squares so much for my knowledge of measurement what am I going to do with theses.

Looking through my new cath kidston sewing book for insertion i couldn't decide so I just have a play and see if I can work out how to do patchwork .


How to arrange the squares can be tricky so they look random but in order if you know what I mean 


 I found it easier to sew three together and then create coloums and then sew those together in stripes each seam pressing with a hot iron as I went it can be time consuming but worth it


Now I have this lovely patchwork pannel what shal I do with it .......

Well it looks like another tote I think 
I had some nice cream material that would complement the patchwork lovely. Cutting out the parts and pressing them into place is half the battle.
This time I had a go at turning the corners like it shows you in my book and it makes the bag have a sturdy bottom.


I decided to sew the handle on the frount of the bag and finish of with wooden buttons to give it that rustic feel  I'm rather proud of this little project and I actually followed a pattern and it worked lol thanks to my Cath Kidson sewing book 






Sunday 11 January 2015

Pomagramit project bag

Well this was just a bit of a quick on whilst martyn was making my tea ........

After a lovely afternoon with the mad nuttie knitters at Mrs Ts wool we were putting the worlds to rights as we do every time we meet it was time to pack up and go home.
There we all are trying to stuff all out wonderful creations back in there bags and cases I noticed Sarah our talented seams mistress ( she's the curtin ladie that gives us the off cuts) was shoving her lovely crochet blanket in to an "Asda" carrer bag ......... No no no we can't have this I thought so as soon as I got in and checked that Marty was in the kitchen making my tea ... After a long hard afternoon of knitting,chatting drinking tea and eating biscuits     it's his job on Saturdays , I got straight to it.



I found a nice bright print out (that Sarah had given me lol) and Set to of course you are REALLY putting pressure upon yourself making something for "a true pro" like Sarah but she never gets the time to play as she works and has a proper job but I'm sure  she will over look my handy work and not score me too badly as it was the thort that counts .......... So here gose. 

Ta ta dar........ Hope she likes it 


Well it's got to be better than an ASDA  bag surley .......

Friday 9 January 2015

"Do you wana build a snowman?"

Well everybody by now must know all about the film frozen even us parents with grown up childeren do, I persanliy thought that the film wasn't as good as the classics Disney movies we watch but hey ho times move on. 
As it was on over Christmas my 17 yr old must have watched it 6 times at least. Holly I said how come your watching it again my love and she replied "mum do you want to biuld a snow man ?" 

Ha ha I said funny no I don't. Oh but pleases mum I would really love an Olaf for my birthday I thought she was joking but no she wasn't.
So at 11.30 on Tuesday night I got set too hum mmm her birthday is on the Friday loads of time not.
I looked at images on line at the charatures and got my creative juices flowing. 
Using Aran weight yarn but on 3.75 ml pins I made balls stuffed and shaped ,pip cleaners crochet over for arms and goolle eyes he turned out well don't you think?





 I then set too how can I make an elsa I found a cheep barbie doll with long blonde hair and set too the yarn I used wasn't quiet the blue green colur or her dress in the film but not bad match 
I used no 12 pins old size very thin but DK wool to make it look neat and sort of worked the pattern out as I went along.
The cloack was a little bit harder as The chevron stitch became a pain as I tryed to decrease but I got there in the end with a few DIMANTIES and sparkly bits of lace she thort it was the tops and is now displaying them in here bedroom (along with the urban decay make up and Mac lipstick see it shower your never too old for Disney 





Thursday 8 January 2015

A stitch in time

I have been a very lucky lady this Christmas as Santa did listen to me and got me what I asked for.
I have always wanted a place of my own to knitt and sew, all the times I have dreamed that when the kids grow up and move out I can utilise there bedrooms but I will have to wait forever........

But them Marty came up with a goodidea  ( Mr smarty pants) that if we got rid of our big computer desk and monitor moved everything around a bit in the den, I could have a corner in there hmmmm I thort this might work so after a few days of pushing and shoving moving wires around and sorting out xbox leads and PCs towers  chucking out old sofas and replacing it with two single chairs I now have a small craft courner of my own yippi (just need to decorated it now but got to give Marty time to breath first) 



I still need to get myself a fold up chair of some sort but for now I just used a dinning chair from the kitchen but I don't mind it just means that now I can sew in peace and in the middle of something I don't have to put it all away just so we can eat off the kitchen table that was always so frustrating.

So now my creative juices have been working overtime a fellow knitter from our Mrs T's group is a "proffesinal" seams mistress and has give me all theses beautiful pices of fabric from the spare basket at her curtain factory  and I've been sewing like the clappers to make things to make my corner cosy so a BIG BIG thank you to Miss Sarah for your help 
This is what I've been up to 



I made a nice cover for my machine as the one I had was an old plastic thing was ok whilst it was housed in the cuboard but now it's on show it's got to look posh don't you think 


I made a few bits for my knitty friend Vicki in the same material and I kept some for me too I have so many ideas running around in my head and not enough hours in the day to star them all.

When we threw away the old sofa I bought two nice chairs from ikea they were more practical and took up les space but the covers on them are cream arrrr! I know not a very practical colour however they are washable but I always intended to cover them or drap lovely knitted crochet throws over them but then I decided to make some quilted material runners instead and they came out a treat 




I backed the matrial with blue lining so to stop it slipping on the chair and make them a bit more robust for the "xbox King" when he's killing all his American friends at 2am in the morning whilst I'm in bed dreaming ..........of the next project arrr you see that is the secret of a happily 20 yr maraige ,xbox for him craft rooms for me bingo 



Here are some of my new bits I also got for Christmas 



So now I can knit sew to my hearts content and Marty can play ..... Smile Marty your on camera oh I forgot to mention that he also got a pair of head phones that DROWN OUT ALL THE SOUND TOO so I can listen to my books n music while I play bonus .