Special Birthday Present Revealed

So here it is - it is a Cushion!!  With a paper chain of girls and boys.  I had loads of fun choosing fabric, then appliqué, free hand machine embroidery and hand embroidery of french knots and running stitch.  The cushion itself is Japanese linen that I bought on eBay - not cheap stuff, but it is beautiful and 'solid' to work with.

The squiggles and dots have french knots inside them, in yellow and green.  In hindsight, I should have used a brighter embroidery thread, as neither yellow or green stand out as much as I would have liked.  The little spotty purple hearts have a green running stitch around them.

The backside of the cushion, complete with my TLF label and spikey flower accent.

I think that this flower might just be my favourite part of the cushion.

All in all, I am really pleased with this little cushion...I hope my friend is too.

I have been wondering if anyone might be interested in the DIY instructions and pattern templates for this cushion design...I might just do a downloadable instructional for it - and include my tips on free hand machine embroidery....let me know!

Happy 40th Birthday to M, my friend today and a very Happy Leap Year Day to you too.

Enjoy!

Drywors and a Bargain

We popped out today to post a Very Important Parcel and to go to our local South African butchers.  The VIP had to be posted to my friend whose birthday is tomorrow.  She is having a lovely dinner tomorrow night, which we had planned on going to, having organised our very first baby sitter.  Typical that the baby sitter had to cancel yesterday because of a death in her family.  We don't have a back up plan.  So, as we can't deliver the VIP, I decided to post it instead.

At the butchers we bought some drywors - a spiced dried sausage - YUM.  Chloe approved of her first taster.  Ava ate half of mine then a load of Daddies when he arrived home.

Did you notice the plaster on Chloe's finger up there?  Ava caught Chloe's finger in the door this morning - so she has a huge skin flap on her little finger.  Peeled the top layer of skin right back...poor little chicken.  Daddy nearly passed out - ha!

At Hobby Craft this afternoon we found a £1 goody bag haul.  All these fun bits and bobs for £1!  The Pebeo tubes are relief outliners, not sure what I will do with those yet.  Am not even sure what surfaces they are intended for.  The paint is that fun Setacolor Soleil - in vermillion, cardinal red and buttercup.  I have been really tempted by these before now...we can look foward to the weather warming up to give them a go.  Then there are also a bunch of silk cushion covers.  No idea what those will be used for, but I can see loads of fun experimentation in the near future.

The ankle biters were worn out and passed out in the car.  They actually slept for a bit in the house too.  Great, except that Ava then decided that bed time was 9pm tonight, instead of 7pm.  She doesn't normally have a daytime nap anymore...

Have an excellent and special Leap Year Day tomorrow.

Enjoy!

Trainee Photographer

To distract Ava while taking photo's for my 2 new Spring Dresses today, I gave her my phone.  She is an expert photographer on that thing.  She probably knows how to use the ruddy thing better than me!  She even knows how to use pinchy fingers to zoom - she isn't even 3 yet...

This is my new photography spot, until I find somewhere else with better natural lighting...or spring/summer arrives with lovely sunshiny days - whichever happens first.  It is our Granny Room (others would call it a spare room), which is now also my Sewing Room.  My sewing space used to be in a corner in our lounge...which drove the daddy of the flowers rather nuts - me and my Mess.

This wall is a kind of greyish-blueish-greenish sort of colour.  Pretty.  But looks a bit bleugh in the pics as it isn't white.  It is the same wall that I have used behind my colouring in softies.

Anyhooo - the 1st of the two Spring Dresses are up on Etsy as well as my webshop.  More will hopefully follow next week.  And even more hopefully, they will have some pretty Patty Young knit fabrics included in them....I ordered some last week :).  My hands are ITCHING for them to arrive!!

Enjoy!

Funny Friday

Funny Friday = Cheesy Smiley Scrunchy Nose Face

Have a great weekend!

Enjoy!

Spring Dress Sneak Peak

With Ava at nursery on Wednesday I managed to get a bit of Spring Dress preparations underway.  It takes me a while to prepare the patterns and then choose fabric groups for each dress.  And the fabric choosing takes time for Each and Every dress, because Each and Every dress is unique.

I only had time to cut out 2 dresses - one is 2-3yr and the other in 3-4yr.  I hope to have these sewn and ready to photo at some point over the weekend to be ready for my shops early next week, so that I can do more dress preparation again next Wednesday.

All good things take time...and these are Sure to be Good!

The pics are taken with my iPhone...so are a bit fuzzy....

I really do need to get cracking with adding to my shops again - I plan to have lovely floppy brimmed hats, more dresses and maybe even some boys t's there by the time Spring has Sprung.  I also have a pile of dish towels that I am itching to screenprint with some pictures for colouring in...one day!

It is a lovely early spring day here at home.  To be enjoyed, just in case it turns freezing again before March arrives.

Enjoy!

Life is Short

I have just stumbled across this video.  It has arrived in front of me on a rather emotional day...I am just a little sad about my real life job today.  Anyhow, I can think of some friends and family that would appreciate it too.

On the upside, I have been 'allowed' 10 minutes to sew for myself today.  I finally talked myself into buying this Sew Liberated pattern - the Schoolhouse tunic.  I bought it from Backstitch, and it arrived so very, very quickly!  I am desperate to carry on sewing, but the little people are being demanding {as they should be}.

Best I be off....

Enjoy!

What a week it has been!

Oi...!  It has been a week and a half here.  What with week long Man Flu (seriously, the doctor this morning said that it was mainly men being affected) and Ava being off colour all week which has just developed into a weepy ear infection needing antibiotics.  Never mind me with a weeks worth of the tummy bug doing the rounds.  So far Chloe has steered clear of it all, but what with Ava coughing all over us - Chloe and I will be lucky to escape the cold.  {fingers and toes crossed that we do}

On the upside, having an extra body in the house has meant that I have been able to sneak in a bit of sewing - rather a luxury these days!  I finished a very special birthday present:

And had loads of fun with appliqué, free hand machine embroidery and good old fashioned hand embroidery.

Playing with colours was fun too.  This special friend with an extra special birthday (40th on 29 Feb...how lucky that it is a leap year) isn't into the crazy bright colours that I would ordinarily choose.  Although I did restrain myself, it is still rather brightly coloured.  I will ta-da it once she has received it - - - just in case she happens to pop in and totally squash her surprise.

Today I also made a little teeny weeny apron for Ava.  Mom brought me this super cute fabric ages ago.  I look at it almost every day and scheme about making something with it - something Special Enough.  I finally decided that today it was going to be made into the Sew Liberated apron.  The backing fabric is re-purposed and unbleached calico.

Sorry, the pics are awful.  My phone was recently upgraded to the iPhone 4 (hubby hand-me-down) and I have been playing with the camera on it.  Never mind the busy-body photo subject constantly moving!

Enjoy!

Sneaky Peaky of a Custom Dress

There is just a little more stitching, buttonholes and buttons to be done and then this dress is ready for its new home.

I just love the fabric combination chosen by Ella's mommy.

Enjoy!