January

Hibernating as much as possible: evenings by the fire to warm us and lift our hearts

Listening to Cat Power's 'Sun' over and over (and over)

Holding poorly children   all    day    long

Thinking about rainbows and spectrums

Eating 'Grand Mange' sarnies with salami and spinach

Feeling the endlessly grey January sky weigh too heavily

Reading and enjoying 'Surface Detail' by Iain M. Banks

I've been AWOL for a while, sorry! All the girls have been poorly; Tula being the worst and still no cessation of snot in sight. It's been a real struggle these past few weeks: this is my worst time of year when I find it hard to be a human being let alone a mum to three little ones or a wife or housekeeper. I don't like writing negative posts, but this is just how it is.

Jess is in France with Granny and Grandad, having a fine old time I'm sure. I miss her dreadfully, especially as when she returns she'll be straight back to school.

Trying to stop myself from plunging into any new projects until I've finished something first... I'm itching to start another quilt but can't stand the thought of having yet another pile of fabric hanging around for ever. I just don't have enough hands. So, I'm determined to finish the knitted blanket hopefully in time for Granny's birthday this year. So only a year late.

Not much left to do, but then I still have to sew it all together and knit the border too:

I bought this lovely patchwork skirt in a charity shop before Christmas and then caught it on a cupboard handle, so I'm hoping to add this new piece of silk (second pic) to cover the rip, though I have to say I'm struggling already with it, silk is near impossible to keep still!

And sticking to just dreaming about future quilt projects for now...

Here's to spring on it's way!

Two hours without kids

And

One finished phone case! Off to bed now :-)

Slowly getting it together

So here is a sample of the gifts I've finally starting making for Christmas....

Squirrel and acorn coaster

I am working from my lovely new book 'Super-Cute Felt' by Laura Howard of Lupin Handmade, who has a blog over at Bugs and Fishes.

Hedgehog phone cover

Still lots to do, and I haven't quite worked out what to do for the boys in the family...

Jess played an angel in her nativity play, which was really lovely.

Thankfully I'd managed to persuade her not to go in this rather fetching outfit she was sporting earlier in the week:

Mainly by turning her worn-out shoes into sparkly angel disco shoes! They just about lasted for the two performances; here they are looking slightly less fantastic, but still rather fun!

And the lovely sun-filled but frosty days we've had lately have returned to the more usual grey rain :-(

Luckily we made the most of this glorious morning to have a quick frolic on the beach before school started.

Slightly belatedly joining Fiona at Raindrops and Daisies for Green Day xx

Hello sunshine!

Hey there! Been a while, so sorry.... mostly we have been busy partying... 

Birthday flowers for me :-)

Birthday celebratory dinner at an excellent pub with most of the family in attendance 

(sadly no pictures yet of the Milly's Monster bash, but it was Berilliant!!!! - I was too busy to take pics, so I'm relying on sis-in-law's phone pics when she returns from Goa - no I'm not in the slightest bit jealous... 

Birthday girl being chomped by the Enormous Crococdile

enjoying the brief bursts of glorious sunshine between the grey rainy days... 

More birthday flowers! 

buying books (eek! - don't tell Jude!)... 

and watching the flowers grow :-)

Another lovely birthday gift for me and an early Christmas present bought for Tula peeking out on the left: slippers from Funky Feet

I've also been given a rather handsome stack of old magazines to snip up - yippee! At over three quid a pop, this is quite a haul! So that'll keep me and the girls busy for a bit....

and of course, it's nearly that time of year again....

Painty, stitchy glueyness....

Oooh, it's been awfully stitchy, painty and gluey round here lately in preparation for Milly's monster party this weekend. This lovely fellow has been hanging around our hall waiting for "Pin the Eye on the Monster":

He's made out of a piece of MDF painted by me with acrylic paint and then cut out by Jude.... here are the eyes:

They're machine-stitched out of fabric scraps from my stash and then glued onto cardboard. At one point the kitchen was covered with eyes on every surface:

They have a strip of double-sided sticky tape on the back so the kids can take turns sticking their eyes onto the Monster. And here are the party bags which are finally finished.... with a little help from my lovely friends (thanks Dotty!)

Each one was hand-stitched onto soft cotton bags which I made out of an old bedsheet, until I ran out of time and lovely Dotty ran them through the machine for me, being slightly more nimble with an electric needle than me. This was the prototype:

And this one's my favourite (I'm keeping him for myself!):

Also been making pressies for other kids: this is a cute little bag for a girl called Molly out of some great soft cord fabric I found in a charity shop recently:

I appliqued the M blanket-stitching it in place with embroidery thread.

And her card:

A few weeks ago I knocked up this little bag of marbles for another girl (see a trend developing here?):

And that's it for now, next post I'll show you Milly's homemade monster outfit....

xx

A Scarpered Sewing Muse and a Lovely View

Well my dears, this is my hundredth post... and I have made no progress with creating something for a giveaway to celebrate because my sewing muse has legged it. Done a runner, scarpered.

I'm too embarrassed to even show you the thing that I did make because a) it's so badly botched and b) I may be able to salvage it somehow and still turn it into something useable.... I have always had a real fear of cutting into lovely fabric - especially if I have very little of it - in case it all goes wrong, and this has happened a couple of times before as I am pretty new to the whole sewing malarkey.

So yes, I hacked into the pretty patchwork I was so pleased with and well, let's just say I've learnt my lesson: always practice something new on crap material FIRST!

So in the interlude while I coax the Muse back into my fingers, here are some pretty pictures to lift your spirits on what is today here in Cornwall a very murky, misty, damp sort of day :-)

Had to jump out of the car to snap this the other day

The view I see on my way back from school

Birds always look so cool perched on wires in flocks

Fun with yoghurt while Mum's back is turned!

Happy Green Day everyone!

Check out the other lovely green pics from all over the world at the very lovely Fiona of Raindrops and Daisies - who is also offering a very sweet giveaway herself....

Scraptastic! WOYWW is here again!

Happy Wednesday all!

As you can see, I'm taking a break from monster-making... I got a bit distracted by all my scraps

saved from all my (unfinished) projects

most of which are tiny  and useless

but being the veteran hoarder that I am, unable to throw anything vaguely useful away I've kept them, wondering what to do with them all

then I thought, what if I pin them in a long strip and then sew the strips together?

voilà!

I'm really pleased with this piece, and of course it does need more work, embellishing, stitching &c,

but - what do I do next? 

Do I carry on with all of the scraps to make one huge quilt/wall-hanging/thing?

Do I reinforce all of the edges and turn it into a bag? Possibly for Christmas presents?

Do I put it all away and get on with something for Christmas instead?! Only seven weeks to go, Granny's blanket is nowhere near finished....

Any ideas most welcome!

This is my 99th post.... I'm thinking of doing a giveaway to mark my next post - I'm not sure what it will be yet, but it may be fabric-related.... possibly patchwork....

Joining Julia at Stamping Ground and all the other creative desks for 

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday. Go take a look!

xx