A start on winter sewing

I'm right into the winter sewing now that my latest Crafty Mamas order is here and the biting cold weather is a great motivator.  For the littlest one I used my trusty Ottobre 301 top pattern. Don't you love that mushroom print?

I also did a new pair of leggings (Burda pattern) which my girls love to live in. Usually I'd put a skirt over the top, it looks so cute.
I'm a little excited about the cooler weather because I'm right into knitting this year and my skills are improving really fast. The hardest part is waiting on materials purchased online to arrive as sadly there are no wonderful knitting stores near me.

Is the cool weather motivating you to make certain things? A warm quilt or blanket perhaps? Knitted cardies or hats? Do tell!

Happy Easter!

Last year we dyed our eggs with regular kitchen food dye, but this year husband got his hands on some Greek easter egg dye (basically food dye but much stronger colour). Aren't the colours amazing?!
The trick to the shine is to rub olive oil all over the eggs after dyeing and drying.

Wishing you all a very happy and holy Easter!

A sewist in the making

My 6 year old wanted to give her Grandmother an Easter gift, so I (naturally) suggested a fabric item :) After some discussion we decided she could use my sewing machine for the first time. Great excitement, mixed with some anxiety on my part, followed.

We transferred this beautiful image of Our Lord onto some homespun, sewed on some borders, along with some ribbon for hanging, some wadding and backing. I was surprised how quickly she got a feel for the machine. I was pleased too.

Having completed the wallhanging ready to gift to her Gran on the Easter weekend, we received a card from the dear lady herself and were amused to see she had chosen this very same image for our card! We think she'll like it!

Mushroom house key fobs

New in my Etsy shop today!

The first is bold colours in 100% wool felt with a little Euro ribbon to match.

The second is hand dyed wool felt, which is just totally gorgeous!

Which one do you like? Red or rainbow?

Cute, no?

Embroidered key fob

So I declared on my Facebook page last week that I'd finally decided what I wanted to be when I grew up - an embroidery artist! Sounds good anyway :)

This got me to thinking. If I'm going to go around calling myself an embroidery artist then I'm probably obligated to produce some embroidery art.

So here we are with sweet little key fob that hopefully someone will buy sometime, thus further validating my desire to call myself an embroidery artist :)

I love this shabby chic fabric I used at the back. For further info head on over to my Etsy shop, and if this one is not to your liking I'll be making a few different ones as well as some other embroidered accessories.

Bye for now!

A good week with generous people

I was the lucky winner of Hilary's giveaway recently and received the parcel today. Some beautiful charm squares for small projects.

And this I really love.

A gorgeous sewing kit, just look at the inside. It has a scissors keep, pin cushion, needle keeper and zippered pouch for extras.

Trust me Hilary, this will be very well used!

I also received not one but 2 boxes of Seton books from a virtual stranger. These books are worth so much money and are in great condition. They also happen to suit the level my son is at. I've always wanted to try quality Catholic curriculum but the cost has always been something that restricted me, so these books are truly the answer to my prayers.

I would like to say thank you and God bless all you generous people out there :)

A lovely vintage giveaway...

Visit my clever crafty friend Baukje for a giveaway where you get to choose from two beautiful vintage prize packs!

A little crewel

I've had my crewel wools out again, it just feels right when the cooler weather comes on to work with wool. I drew up a design for a needle book and this is how it looks thus far.

Stitched on linen/cotton blend with Appleton crewel wools. Stitches include satin, long and short, chain, french knots, stem, split backstitch and probably some others that fail to spring to memory.

It's sitting unfinished as I can't decide whether the inside should have more embroidery or just a pretty fabric or both.

I'll be doing a lot more crewel over the coming months, it is really so lovely and versatile.

Hope you're having a great weekend, God bless.

New embroidery pattern

Just in time for Easter!

I'm having a giveaway for the PDF on Facebook.

Simply "like" my Facebook page and leave a comment for a chance to win. If you're already a liker just leave a comment :)

Frogging!

It was all going so well, but after many hours of knitting (long after this photo was taken) it became apparent that I had stuffed up.

Allow me to explain. With my limited knitting capabilities (hey, my dishcloths look great!) I decided to set myself a challenge in the form of the Oriental Lily pattern by Tikki. No, I'd never knitted with increases, used circular needles or even stitch markers, but so many people are good at this knitting thing, how hard can it be?

Lets just say I'm humbled and am now familiar with the knitter's term "frogging" and no, it doesn't involve any lovely little amphibians but does involve a fair bit of heartache.

Back to the drawing board and thank God for youtube tutorials!

I'm guest blogger today...

On the Schooling at Home Etsians Team blog. My article is on how to begin homeschooling. Pop over for a read!