A hand made gift

My lovely mother in law made me a patchwork table runner for our very long table in the dining room a couple of years ago. Being a little contrary, I decided to change the decor in there this year, so the old table runner no longer matched too well.

Luckily, Kathleen didn't feel put out; instead she collected some pieces of suitable cotton to patch together a new runner.  (The fabric came from my another family member running a fabric business in France; always good to keep it in the family!)

The new runner is so beautiful I made a card to thank Kathleen.  Hope she likes it.

And for those worrying that I am being wasteful with a hand made item it will reappear during the festive season as the runner will go perfectly with our Christmas tree!

Book Day Layout

At a crop on Saturday a friend of mine brought along a sketch for us to have a go at.  Although it had only one photo, I had three from last Thursday, so I matted my smaller ones onto a piece of patterned paper in a group to give the effect of the one larger picture.

I liked the way the map paper matched the idea of a 'National' event, always like a map!

 I used papers from a kit picked up in TK Maxx along with stamped and cut out images using the January Ali Edwards kit 'heart'.

 The title is die cut from orange fun foam using two die sets, one by Tim Holtz (the capitals) the other a very old Sizzlit set called Rat-a-Tat.

National Book Week

Many schools get involved in this annual event designed to get more of us reading and ours was no exception.  Both the children and many of the staff dressed up in costumes of their favourite character, a great deal of fun was had by all!

I already had a long brown haired wig and sparkly red shoes, so Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum seemed a perfect choice for me.  In my fabric stash I found a few metres of blue gingham I had picked up for a song last summer so  was making my own costume.

The sleeves came from an old blouse with ribbon and trim stitched around the cuffs. Once I had made the dress the neckline was too low for school, so I made use of the collar of the blouse, chopped it off and stitched across the front. The only things I needed to buy to finish it off were a zip and a pair of ankle socks.  The basket we had at home and one of my class loaned me a dog soft toy for the day.

Lots of my colleagues dresed up for the day too, from the Flowerpot Men to Wally, and Willy Wonka to Little Red Riding Hood.

My favourite part of the day was seeing the children's faces when I walked into the classroom. Priceless!

Festive Bunting.

My brother and sister in law live in France and own a fabric shop in a small town there. They were over here with a stand at the NEC back in  November selling fat quarters.  I had a look and saw a few lovely ones on red, cream and grey that I thought would make cute decorations.

 Lucky for me, Jac passed on some ends of rolls to me for free, so just before Christmas I made  template out of scrap paper and stitched this festive bunting.

They were handy for trying out my new sewing machine, as I played with the different stitches, altering them for each flag.

Simply pinned to the pelmet they added an extra home made touch to the dining room window in December.

I did have some spare to make as a gift too, just with slightly smaller flags.

A snapshot of the day.

On the 21st I was still getting ready for Christmas.  I had been given some pieces of fabric by my sister in law back in November, and because work was so buy I only had time to do anything with them once the school holiday started.

I made good use of my sewing machine an played with the range of stitches across the pennants to make the Christmas bunting, and sewed the jingle bells on by hand. The page shows the bunting just before I put it up, and in situ after my day sewing.

Made to Measure

I have always tried to encourage the kids in craft pursuits, and both girls have sewing machines now (I have yet to find a creative outlet for my boy yet... unless Lego counts!)

Over the February half term Katie and I put together a lovely cotton Liberty print dress, and although it was years since I last stitched anything to wear it all came flooding back!

The papers are by Crate with a vintage sewing theme, and the photos were taken on Mother's Day.

We have another batch of fabric, with the weather being so poor we might put together another little garment before the end of half term.

Bunting Tutorial

Everywhere you look at the moment bunting is the in-thing, for street parties, birthdays and bank holidays, a few flags fluttering in the breeze seem to be an absolute requirement. I saw some cute bunting in a shop in Leicestershire earlier in the week, but it was pricey, and would only really suit the royal wedding on Friday, so I decided (with some encouragement from my eldest daughter) to make my own.
So if you would like to have a go at making your own multi-purpose, double sided bunting, then take a look at how I did it below!!

Supplies
Gingham Fat quarters.
I bought a set on offer in Hobbycraft as It meant I didn't have to worry about wrong and right sides to the fabric, and they gave me 2 colour themes to use, one red, white and blue for an up coming wedding, the other pink, green and yellow for spring or general use.
White bias binding (wide, 7m)
A4 card
Pencil and ruler
Pins
Sewing machine
Pinking shears and dressmaking scissors.
Thread; red and white

Step 1; Making the template.
Unfold the fat quarter into a rectangle with 4 layers. (a)
Take the card, fold in half at the bottom only to find the mid point, then use a ruler to draw a line parallel with the bottom of the card, and mark the mid point.(c)
Next, draw lines from the mid point to the top corners of the card on the left and right to form a triangle. Cut out the card and you have your template.

Step 2. Pinning and cutting.
Place the template onto the folded fabric, with the raw edge at the bottom, pin in place. (f) Cut down the edges with pinking shears, (g) try to match the pattern up as you go for a neater finish. The top of the flags can be cut using ordinary dressmaking scissors.
Do this for all the colours you require. I cut out red and two shades of blue for one side of the bunting, and the spring colours for the other side.

Once you have cut out you will notice that 2 of the folded edges also form triangles (j) and when you unfold these (k) they make 2 extra flags. Each fat quarter will give you 6 flags.

Step 3; Sewing the flags.

Pin contrasting flags wrong sides together with one of each colour choice on each side ie; red, white and blue for one side, spring colours on the other. If you want to turn your flags so they have neat edges (I didn't, I just left the pinked edges and stitching showing) pin them right side together. Then use the machine to stitch them down each pinked side only. I used red thread for the red, white and blue side of the bunting (the top of the sewing) and white for the underside pastel flags (fill the bobbin with white).

Step 4 Make up the bunting.
Cut 3.5 m of bias binding, and start to put the top of the flags inside the binding (v) after leaving 40cm at the ends for tying onto things. Leave 11cm between each flag, fold over the binding and pin the whole length. (x) Make sure your flags are on the right side (ie all the red white and blue facing the same way). Stitch along the bias binding (I used zig zag, you could use straight or a decorative stitch if you have a fancier sewing machine than mine!)

Step 5 Finishing off
If your bunting flags don't match exactly, and one side overhangs a little, you can trim them once they are made using pinking shears. Press your bunting, tie it up and then enjoy!

A Crafty Follow up

No happy ending to the mousy tale I'm afraid, I found the little stiff....... (the mouse, that is!) in our room not long after posting. On the plus side my room is tidier and more organised than it has been for ages! Another page... this one shows why it is such a good thing to be crafting with friends, as they will always have a piece of kit or stash that will help out with a page. I had the idea to make a frame with the circles cut from a Cosmo Cricket piece of 12x12, but after cutting out 2 or 3 I got fed up, then as I was on retreat with friends, and there was probably more crafty stuff in the house than you would think possible, I had a thought; did someone have a circle punch to match the size of the circles on the paper?... silly question, and thanks to Nina, less than 5 minutes later I had punched out all the circles I needed! Next I used a sewing machine belonging to Pam, and the circles were stitched on, they look so much better than being simply glued.

The photo is from around 4 years ago on our annual trip to the south coast, lots of machine sewing, the title is die cut from chipboard using Sizzix thick die set, and I made the 'road at the bottom by cutting strips from Cosmo Cricket papers, and vehicles mounted on 3D foam. Looks a lot of work, but thanks to help received I got it done in {almost} no time!!

Holiday Memory

While down in Dorset last year we took a day trip out to Swanage.

As it was market day Kev and I had a look round the stalls, the children (including 15 year old Katie) spent this time in the nearby park. This is another page made at the November retreat ; hence the machine stitched border, we had sewing machines set up the whole weekend, so I tried to use them on my pages. Never one to leave hand stitching behind I part stitched the title, the rest is a Sizzix die, covered with Glossy Accents.

The papers are Cosmo Cricket, and the background cardstock is the very lovely embossed Core'dinations sanded to reveal the darker card behind. Sunshine is cut from paper covered chipboard using a very old Sizzix die.
Whatever you are doing, have a lovely weekend.

Saturday already

and I've only posted once this week. Well summer looks like it has finally arrived, how long it will stay is anyones guess, but we will be barbecuing while the sun shines :) I just hope we get a few good days once half term gets here in a weeks time. I don't mind the odd poor day, as it gives me chance to craft!! Talking of which, I'm out at 2 crops this weekend, and Kev is complaining about being a scrapbooking widower (again)

A page to share.....I used the technique I learned at the Coventry crop last weekend to add a border down 2 sides, the title is stamped (Tim Holtz alpha with added glossy accents, and a Papermania alphabet) and the papers are from the DCWV Latte stack. The photos were taken when we picked up our Christmas tree last year in a garden centre cafe.

Mmmmm, thinking about it, I don't know why Kev is complaining about being abandoned, he will be at Mum and Dads wallpapering for much of the day. He thinks it will be a quick job, but knowing how much of a perfectionist he is about decorating, i bet I'm back before him.

Have a lovely day in the sun all.

It's amazing....

...what you can make with a picture from an old magazine, a few scraps of fabric and lace, left over wallpaper, beads, sequins and a sewing machine. At the Nuneaton crop yesterday Pam and Michelle shared what they learned at a class at the NEC recently, and we all had a great time learning new skills and making lovely things to go onto scrapbook pages, or to use in their own right. My memo book cover started as two photos in a magazine (you can just see the picture behind the buttons, they gave the inspiration for the colours I chose) some organza fabric torn into strips and scraps of paper. I sewed these onto the pictures (after reinforcing the back with iron on interfacing) using a variety of sewing machine stitches. I then hand stitched on the flowers, sequins and beads, and finally bound the upper edges with ribbon. A few folds, and a piece of left over ribbon for the tie, and i have a cover for my shopping list book, which slides into a pocket inside the cover. Something unique, pretty and useful!

More inspectors in school tomorrow, as i work in a catholic school, the RE inspection is an added bonus for us all!!!