Archive for the 'creative' Category

It’s snowing at last

Published on 23/01/2013 by Mary in Christmas, creative and Paper piecing. 6 Comments

While the rest of the UK appears to have been blanketed in snow for the last week we’ve not had any. Travel 2 or 3 miles out of the city and I’m told you’ll find some, but this morning it is snowing.

So now seems the ideal time to show you a particular finished project. When I was sewing it last week, Bethan did ask me why I was making it now as Christmas had gone. I did point out that January was more likely to be snowy than Christmas despite what Christmas cards and marketing campaigns might suggest (I didn’t actually say that last bit to her!).

First a bit of background, the lovely Joanne who blogs at Rose and Dahlia had a giveaway to celebrate her 100th post and I was the lucky winner of this delicious bundle of goodies:

All contained in a gorgeous bag made by Joanne from the Ruby Star Wrapping book. Thank you so much Joanne, it was a delight to receive.

It arrived a little while before Christmas but I didn’t have time to create anything. A few weeks ago I saw that Threadbias were hosting a sew along using the book. It’s a year long sew along with projects picked for each month, they’re not all Christmas projects but it won’t hurt to be ahead of the seasons!

So for January the project is the Greetings from Antarctica cushion (and yes I know that polar bears don’t live in the Antarctic), there are 3 different options for this, I picked the hatless penguin:

I have very little embroidery experience but managed to add a few snowflakes to the front one evening.

It’s a paper piecing pattern which I don’t have a great deal of experience with but I managed it ok. The little penguin on the back seemed much easier to do maybe because it the same pattern just smaller or maybe because Bethan and I did it together on Saturday afternoon!

The back of the cushion has a zip hidden by a flap, I’ve not done one this way before, preferring to go with a concealed zip but as this cushion has binding on my brain couldn’t work out how to do that with a concealed zip.

I liked this pattern, I think I will make the polar bear and penguin with a hat so that the children have one each, not sure when they will get done…

One note of warning I have seen that there is errata for the penguin with a hat, details here.

And in the time it’s taken to write this post it hasn’t stopped snowing, but it doesn’t appear to be settling so it’s not looking remotely like the Antarctic (or Arctic for that matter). I hope you’re managing to stay warm (or cool if you’re in the southern hemisphere!)

Almost free stuff here

Published on 19/01/2013 by Mary in creative and Girls. 1 Comment

In preparation for the building work that is due to start here soon I’m having a bit of a tidy-up/clear out, you could be a beneficiary!

First up there’s a book, Sew Pretty Homestyle by Tilda/Tone Finnegan, you can read the Amazon reviews here.

It’s yours for the cost of postage and handling £3.00 (book RRP £12.99) in the UK (anywhere else please ask and I’ll let you know the cost). I’ve never made anything from it, it’s not my style but I’m sure someone will love it.

Next there is a new, unopened pattern by the Kati Cupcake Pattern Co:

Sizes 12 months to 10 years, there is no chance my girls would wear anything like this so I’d love it to go to a good home where it will be used! Yours for the cost of postage and handling £1.00 UK (anywhere else please ask and I’ll let you know the cost). Pattern RRP: $12.95 (£8.00 approx).

Here’s another new and unopened pattern:

Gabby’s sleepover jammies, by Izzy and Ivy designs, sizes 2 – 14 years, again not something my girls would entertain wearing. Yours for the cost of postage and handling £1.00 UK (anywhere else please ask and I’ll let you know the cost). Pattern RRP: $6.25 (£4.00 approx).

Rules? None, first to comment with a request gets the item, payment via paypal within 24 hrs otherwise they’ll be reoffered. Keep an eye out there might be more.

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day – sewing and craft supplies (now closed)

Published on 03/12/2012 by Mary in craft, creative, fabric, giveaway, Patchwork, thrifting, Upcycled and Vintage. 423 Comments

Hello and welcome to all of you lovely people visiting for the first time as part of the Sew Mama Sew giveaway day and happy Monday to all my regular readers.

I’m Mary, I live in the south west of England with 3 young children and a wonderful understanding husband who for the most part supports my sewing habit whole heartedly (even fabric shopping for me when on trips to the US), oh and today is my birthday.

Back in May I opened an Etsy shop as an outlet for my excessive vintage sheet collection, thanks to all you who been helping me out by buying the kits and charm packs!

Today I’m giving away 3 packs of vintage charms – 126 charms in total. You could use them to make some baby quilts or to make one big quilt. I’ve made a few baby size quilts and would love to make a large one using my charms so I’m hoping that giving away some packs will motivate me to get on and make one.

The charm packs will include a selection of fabrics the same or similar to the ones here:

I’ll also enclose a pack of Vintage Fabric Tape, made by me using up scraps from my charm cutting.

And just as a thank you for visiting and because it’s my birthday, this week I’m offering you 15% discount in my shop using the code SMS1212 until Sunday 9 December 2012 at 9pm (UK time).

To enter please leave a comment telling me what you are most looking forward to doing this week, I’m looking forward to eating chocolate cake with sour cream that my husband and middle child baked yesterday afternoon.

For additional entries you can:
Subscribe to my blog (top right of this page)
Add my Etsy shop to your favourites
Like my Facebook page

Just leave an additional comment letting me know any of those you do and please ensure that I have a way of contacting you if you win.

Open internationally

Comments will close on Friday December 7 at 5pm PST (which is 1am here in the UK, funnily enough I’ll probably be asleep at that time so any comments left after this time will be deleted!)

The winner will be selected using Random Number Generator and will be announced by Sunday December 9.

I should also mention that I’m organising a Vintage Sheet Fat Quarter swap (predominantly for the UK and Ireland due to postage costs).

If you are interested in joining in check out the flickr group here

Lastly but not least don’t forget to head back on over to Sew Mama Sew for so many other fantastic opportunities to win.

Ruby Star Post

Published on 02/12/2012 by Mary in creative and gifts. 3 Comments

I had a lovely package in the post last week from Amy/Sukie who blogs at ‘don’t you know who I am?‘

You may well have seen that Meloday Miller, fabric designer and illustrator has brought out a book – Ruby Star Wrapping in collaboration with Allison Tannery. Amy is hosting a Wrap-Along and had a giveaway for 5 books and I was one of the lucky winners. Not only did Amy send the book, she very kindly included a copy of Mollie Makes (that I don’t have), a children’s clothing pattern and some tailors chalk:

You can read Melody’s post about the book and see more images here.

I’ve been fairly busy since the book arrived but have sneaked half an hour with it at bedtime. I am impressed, there are stacks of projects in there for reusable gift packaging – helping us to stop wasting and start/continue reusing. So I’m hoping that in the next week or so I’ll have time to dig in and make some of the projects and maybe even get round to linking them up with the Wrap-Along. Thanks again Amy.

Come back tomorrow for your chance to win…

Andover here we have…

Published on 29/11/2012 by Mary in creative and featured item. 3 Comments

My Andover goodies:

A cloth bag which is great for filling at the shops (yep no plastic bags here), a charm pack of Dimples, one of each colour – that’s 135 charms!

A fat quarter bundle of Savannah Bop by Thomas Knauer

So why did they send me this? Ah ha because I entered an item that I had made using Andover fabric in to the Your Andover contest.

Made using fabrics from the Red Letter Day line by Lizzy House that I purchased from Saints and Pinners ages ago, I’ve eeked out the fabric to make the most of it because I love it so much!

You can see the blog post about my win here on the Andover blog.

There is still time to send in your entry, and there is also a grand prize of $500 Andover Fabrics Gift Certificate and a Dimples Fat Quarter Mega-Bundle of all 135 colours!

Thanks very much Andover for my wonderful prize, now to decide what to make with my Savannah Bop.

Old fabric, new life

Published on 01/10/2012 by Mary in accessories, creative, fabric, giveaway, Scraps, Upcycled and Vintage. 28 Comments

I’ve spent what feels like a lot of time cutting vintage sheet charm squares recently for my Etsy shop and have been wondering what to do with the off cuts. I already carefully cut each piece of fabric carefully before folding and putting through the Go! Baby but inevitably there are bits left.

I have a drawer in a chest in our bedroom that is stuffed full of sheet offcuts, some because they have a slight mark on and others because they are smaller than 5″ square, I also have narrow and wide hems in there!

In a mission to reduce the amount of fabric in the drawer I decided to try and make some fabric tape. Now here is a joyous moment when I realised that in the UK we have something that folks in the USA don’t seem to have – double sided sticky tape!

The long and short of my experimenting is that – it works! So from today I will be adding packets of fabric tape to my Etsy shop.

I’ve used it instead of clear sticky tape when wrapping presents, it adds a real ‘pop’ to the gift:

I gave a friend a birthday gift on Friday that was wrapped and used the tape on that, she was quite delighted, even more so when she realised the gift also contained a packet of tape for her own personal use, she then told me it would go in the special stationery box just to be looked at!

So I hope you like it and if you fancy a packet of your own to use (or keep) head on over to my Etsy shop. ~~You can also enter to win a packet, please leave a comment below and I’ll use the random number generator to pick a lucky winner next Sunday evening (7 October).~~ Giveaway now closed.

Linking up with:

I don’t know what to do

Published on 14/09/2012 by Mary in creative, Men and Scraps. 3 Comments

That phrase has been going over and over in my head for the last week or so.

I finished the secret piece of work and because of number of you are impatient and maybe even ~~nosey~~ curious so I’ll show you a sneak peek:

I completed another secret project for someone else and then I was stuck. I want to get another quilt started, I need to get making things for Christmas fairs and presents, I need to get ready for the workshops I’m teaching later this month. But still no inspiration came.

A couple of weeks ago Johanna wrote that she had a load of scraps she wanted to get rid of just for the cost of the postage, so I said yes, and not long afterwards a large shoe box arrived stuffed full with a lot of lovely scraps:

Bethan and I spent a few hours sorting through them and putting them into the right colour box.

Last night I started pulling out pieces and cutting them into 1.5? x 5.5? strips ready for a strip quilt, inspired by Rita’s one here and Cindy’s (in fact Cindy and I did some fabric scrap swapping with quite funny results!). I almost have all the strips cut just from scraps in my boxes.

So at least I am now doing something rather than dwelling on the fact that I’m doing nothing. Oh and I also made an infinity scarf for my wonderful husband:

I used the same Riley Blake flannels that I used in the one I made for Leah, I made it slightly longer but not much. I’m struggling to find any masculine flannel or voile which would be suitable for this sort of project for a man, I’m looking to find something that isn’t novelty – any suggestions gratefully received, especially as someone is trying to wangle another trip to the US and I could make sure it includes fabric shopping.

Tobit was quite pleased with the finished project and despite it being a sunny afternoon in September he offered to model it for me!

So at least someone is ready for the cooler weather!

My fingers are definitely crossed for a productive week.

Colouring and sewing

Published on 20/08/2012 by Mary in creative and fabric. 8 Comments

It’s been quiet here on the blog, I’ve been having a bit of a break, looking after the children, doing ‘stuff’ and not being motivated or inspired to sew or blog very much.

Anyway back in March we made a trip to Ikea, it’s not local so it’s a serious business and we have a specific purpose for the trip. Not too surprising though one of the things that was on the list was fabric, I’d seen the Britten Hus print by Emma Jones and thought I needed some of it for the children to play with.

During the Easter holidays I cut the children a square each to colour in using fabric pens. They spent a while on it but never finished them. Both girls got them out again last week and Leah completed hers ready for me to sew it up into a cushion cover:

I added a piece of wadding and lining to the back of the panel and although you can’t really see from the photo I quilted around the houses and some window to add a bit of definition. It’s backed with some lovely red corduroy that I picked up from a car boot sale in February. Another invisible zip and a little girl delighted with her art work. Big sister would like hers to be sewn up too but I think she needs to do some more colouring first…

Playing ball

Published on 12/07/2012 by Mary in Babies, creative, fabric, gifts and Girls. 6 Comments

I’ve been wanting to sew something fun but had too much to do, pieces of work that need completing and plans that need to be made, I also had a first birthday gift to think about.

On Monday an email popped up that caught my eye, the newsletter from Sew Can She which featured a tutorial for Fabric Beach Balls. (If you’re not familiar with Sew Can She check it out, there is a free sewing tutorial 6 days a week).

The balls looked simple to make so I decided that I did have time to play and other things could wait. I printed the template out and then stuck it onto card to make it easier to draw around and then cut my pieces, (ok I did first spend half an hour or so choosing fabric).

The instructions were clear and simple. For the circles at the end of each ball, rather than cutting one for each end I cut 2, sewed them rights sides together and then cut a slit in one side and turned it the right way out. This method meant that the piece already had neat edges saving me any fiddly turning under and was quick and easy to handsew on each end.

There you have it, one fabric ball, looking a bit lonely on it’s own. The tutorial has templates for 3 different sizes, I made the small one but think I might just make some more in larger sizes to go with it! I thought about it becoming a first birthday present but wasn’t sure so made something else instead which I know will be suitable and used for years to come, more on that another day.

This may be the only sort of beach ball we’ll be playing with if the rain continues this summer!

Fabrics: All from the Sugar and Spice collection by The Quilted Fish for Riley Blake

Another frame purse

Published on 21/06/2012 by Mary in creative, fabric and Patchwork. 5 Comments

Since attending a frame purse workshop at the FQ Retreat, I’ve become slightly obsessed/addicted. I made this one yesterday:

I drew my own pattern using the frame I had as a starting point and then made the fabric portion using the same technique as with a bag and turning it the right way out through the top (which is then inserted into the frame). For the exterior I used this technique which works wonderfully and seemed so much quicker than any alternative (other than buying preprinted patchwork fabric).

So next month I’ll be running a workshop at Arrietty on Magdalen Road in Exeter. It’s a new shop selling a selection of local artists pieces, vintage haberdashery items and homewares with beautiful things collected along the way.

They are running a number of workshops; beginners sewing, crochet, knitting, kids craft clubs and even a ukulele workshop! Visit their facebook page or follow them on Twitter to stay up to date with workshop details.

I’m entering this purse here: