No corner for this baby!

A while ago Kristy and Erin blogged about using printed fabric panels from the Etsy Store of Cat and Vee to make up some fabulous cushions for Christmas presents. I had never come across Cat and Vee before, so was delighted to discover a new source of great, quirky fabric!

A couple of their cushion panels were perfect for gifts for my son's fiancee, so I ordered them immediately and crossed my fingers that they would arrive in time for their trip home for Christmas.

As you can see they did!

I trimmed the cushion panel with an edging of linen lace and made a simple envelope backing as, needless to say, I left this until the last minute!

My son works in the wine trade, so will undoubtedly appreciate the sentiment of this one:)

I had the perfect pink/white dotty linen in my stash for the back of the wine cushion too, it was obviously meant to be.

I have my eye on some more of Cat and Vee's panels for future gifts, (I think another son would appreciate the Moves like Jagger panel!) they were a real pleasure to do business with I cannot recommend them highly enough.

As well as completing these two cushions I also managed to get this Pleated Pouch finished just in time to put under the tree on Christmas Eve for my daughter-in-law. The pouch is another Pleated Pouch from Michelle Patterns. This is the third one of these pouches I have made and I really like the pattern. The original pattern calls for a Velcro closure with a false button front, but I hate sewing on Velcro, so stitched a buttonhole instead. My sewing machine apparently sews on buttons too, but I haven't been brave enough to try that yet :) I have images in my head of needles snapping and flying all over the place, but perhaps that is just an overactive imagination on my part!

If you have tried out buttonholes or anything else for the first time in December there is still time to link up to this month's Link Party

The New to Me Link Up will remain open until 23.59GMT on December 31st, so there's still time to try out one of the shiny new books or toys that were in your stocking on Christmas Day :)

Linking up to

New to Me in December

Merry Christmas to one and all, I hope you are having a lovely day!

Graphics Fairy image

Welcome to the last New to Me link up for 2013, this month in my Christmas gift making I have tried out a couple of projects that were very definitely New to Me

I have made my first ever jars of Chutney and Jelly, which are hopefully being opened by their recipients as you read this.

Sewn my first ever pair of pyjamas, and have already got a request for another pair :)

And tried out transferring an image onto wood for the very first time!

So what have you been up to this month?

Link up your New to Me posts below and share your triumphs and/or disasters.

As ever please help to spread the word by linking back to this post in your post and/or adding the blog button to your sidebar.

Check out the other links and leave a comment along the way. The emphasis of this link party is to celebrate the trying of something new, whether it works out exactly as planned or not, so a little encouragement here and there would not go amiss! 

The link will remain open until December 31st so if you found some exciting new tools or kits in your Christmas stocking you have time to try them out and link them up :)

If one of your New Year resolutions is to try out new things in 2014 then you will be pleased to hear that the New to Me Link party will continue in 2014. We have had an amazing array of new skills and activities tried out over 2013, from raising chickens and inserting zips to taking a hot-air balloon ride. I am really looking forward to seeing what everyone tries out in 2014.  Join with me on the 25th of each month as we celebrate our successes and commiserate over our failures!

An InLinkz Link-up

Christmas Cheeseboard - Making Christmas 2013 Week 11!

Well, the big day is almost upon us, so this is the last progress report on my list of makes for

I am still finishing off some last-minute gifts for my son's fiancee, but as they are not coming home until the New Year, I still have a few days grace!

So this fabric will be a completed Pleated Pouch by the time they arrive :)

I do have another finish to tick off that long list though.

A Christmas Mouse cheeseboard!

I found the plain wooden board in a local discount shop and knew that I wanted to try transferring an image onto the board. The mouse image is from that treasure trove website, The Graphics Fairy, and is taken from a vintage Natural History book.

To transfer the image I printed the mirror image on to the waxy side of a sheet of Freezer Paper, placed the wax sheet image side down on the board and then rubbed over the image with the back of a spoon. It's the first time I have tried this and I think I probably should have used a simpler image for my first attempt!

I left the board to dry overnight and then coated the board with two coats of matte Modge Podge to seal the image.

If you have attempted anything New to You in your Christmas gift making this month, don't forget that the last link up of this year will open on December 25th! As you might be otherwise occupied that day, there is no need to panic the link up will be open until December 31st :)

 As there are still so many things that I would like to try I will be hosting the monthly New to Me link up again next year, so look out for a new button soon!


So, here is how my Making Christmas list finally looks :

• A Christmas Table Runner for our new dining table MADE
• Two Pleated Pouches to fill with make-up/nail polishes for my daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law to be IN PROGRESS!
• One Liberty and linen jewellery roll for my sister-daughter-in-law NOT MADE
• Dieter's Chocolate Hamper MADE
• One Triple Zip pouch for my sister-in-law MADE
• A Knotwork Christmas cushion - for me! - ONE FOR NEXT YEAR!
• A Fairytale Cushion for my grandniece using one of Quiet Play's Happily Ever After paper-pieced patterns This is going to have to be a birthday present in the New Year!
  
• Homemade chutney for my brother and son MADE
• Homemade relish for my brother MADE
• More dishwasher vodka! MAKING TOMORROW!
• Biscuits for cheese for my brother SCRAPPED!
• Something to go with cheese! - A Cheeseboard :)MADE
• Meat rub, BBQ apron MADE 
• Pyjama trousers for my youngest son - MADE
• Appliqued pyjama top for youngest son MADE

  So, not too bad after all!

Thanks Janine and Rebecca for hosting such a great Link Party, and to everyone else who has supported and encouraged along the way, I would never have worked my way through so much of this list without you! 

Guiding light for Santa

I'm guest posting at today Lily's Quilts head on over there to find out how to make this lampshade.

It is just the thing to guide Santa and his reindeer to your door :)


The post is part of Lynne's series

Every month Lynne runs a competition to win £20 worth of supplies from Abakhan Fabrics for their Projects on a Budget series. Readers of Lynne's blog pitch their idea for a craft item made with Abakhan supplies and Lynne then selects her favourite to be made and written up as a guest blog post on Lily's Quilts. Naturally the theme for this month was Christmas and my idea of a guiding light for Santa and his reindeer was one of the projects picked! 

Thanks Lynne and Abakhan one more Christmas project done and dusted :) 

Hope you are rattling off those last minute projects too! 

Chocolate Indulgence - Making Christmas Week 10

 Another week gone and time to check on progress or the lack of for

This week Making Christmas is hosted by Susan at The Bored Zombie so don't forget to check out her post and link up your lists whilst you are there. 

By the time you read this I am hoping that this post's title will be particularly accurate as I will be working my way round the stalls at the Christmas Market in Brussels, and I will be very disappointed if chocolate isn't featuring heavily in my day :)
 
Before heading off to pile on the pounds I had some chocolate therapy of the guilt-free, diet variety to even things up.

My sister-in-law is a serious chocoholic but is also a serial dieter (do you think the two might be connected!!), so when I was trying to think of an appropriate Christmas present for her chocolate was always going to be in the mix somewhere.

When I saw the instructions for mint chocolate bath melts in the latest issue of Making magazine it occurred to me that I could combine her two interests in one by giving her a calorie-free chocolate hamper, so I set to work :)

This is what I came up with - a DVD of Chocolat, Johnny Depp and Chocolate, what a brilliant combination :), a White Chocolate Truffle candle and some handmade goodies. 

Earlier in the year I found these china pillboxes in a small vintage shop and knew that they would make great containers for handmade lip balms, so that is finally what they have become. The lip balm is flavoured with a square of dark chocolate and some sweet orange essential oil. I had enough to make extra pots for my daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law to be and still have some left over for myself. The lip balm contains beeswax, cocoa butter, shea butter and almond oil so we will have the softest lips around :)

Then I added the mint chocolate bath melts, which were simplicity itself, just melted dark cocoa butter, peppermint essential oil and almond oil poured into mini cupcake cases and left to set. The brown sugar body scrub has rose essential oil and chocolate scent added, naturally, to keep to the theme!

All I need do now is find some smart labels and ribbon and they are good to go and another gift can be ticked off the list!

My son and daughter-in-law are going to visit their relatives in Scotland next week so are taking all of the presents for them with them. As there is no way I will get the fairytale cushion for my grandniece made before they go I am going to scrap that as a Christmas present and make it instead for her birthday in the New Year.


So speaking of lists, here is how it is looking now

• A Christmas Table Runner for our new dining table MADE
• Two Pleated Pouches to fill with make-up/nail polishes for my daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law to be
• One Liberty and linen jewellery roll for my sister-daughter-in-law
• Dieter's Chocolate Hamper MADE
• One Triple Zip pouch for my sister-in-law MADE
• A Knotwork Christmas cushion - for me!
• A Fairytale Cushion for my grandniece using one of Quiet Play's Happily Ever After paper-pieced patterns This is going to have to be a birthday present in the New Year!
  
• Homemade chutney for my brother and son MADE
• Homemade relish for my brother MADE
• More dishwasher vodka!
• Biscuits for cheese for my brother SCRAPPED!
• Something to go with cheese! - A Cheeseboard :)This might get done in time!
• Meat rub, BBQ apron MADE and oven glove for my b-in-law ?
• Pyjama trousers for my youngest son - MADE
• Appliqued pyjama top for youngest son MADE

Hope you are making progress on your lists too. I shall be checking them out if I manage to waddle back on to the train for the journey home :)

Linking up to 

 

Adding to the WIP list!

A couple of weeks ago I spent a very enjoyable day at my LQS tracing and cutting and generally playing with fabric. The time just flew by!

I was at a Christmas craft class where we had several projects to pick from to work on on the day. Naturally I picked a project, an Applique Christmas Tree wallhanging,  that was unlikely to be finished in the time and so it proved.

This was as far as I got on the day!

Now I am hoping for a quiet moment (!!!) in the next week to tackle the applique otherwise it may well become a Christmas WIP for next year :(

What do you think the chances are?


Linking up to

Giveaway Day

Yay! It is the Sew Mama Sew giveaway day today, a chance to find lots of new blogs and maybe win a goodie or two along the way.

If you are new to my little corner of Blogland welcome I hope to see you again when the flurry of blog-reading that is giveaway day has passed :)

I am always on the look out for new things to try so on the 25th of every month I host a Link party to celebrate the trying with my fellow bloggers. If you like to turn your hand to new things, whether they turn out successfully or not come join us and share your experiences so that we can all learn together.

I have a very festive giveaway for you today. Before we moved back to the UK from Latvia last year, I took the opportunity to stock up on lots of lovely linens and linen/cotton blends as I knew I might never get the chance again. One of my favourite linen shops in Tallinn, Estonia stocked a great range of Christmas fabrics and I have 2/3 of a metre of one of them for one lucky winner.

The Giveaway is for 0.75m of the Christmas fabric which is a linen/cotton blend with stamped reindeer and Santa images. The fabric is 150cm wide. In addition I have 0.5m of Adoring by Sandy Gervais quilting cotton and 3 die-cut felt Reindeer.

Giveaway now closed. A huge thank you to everyone who entered, it was fun reading about the handmade presents that you would like to find under the tree. Details of the lucky winner as below.




Congratulations Jo!

I have used similar fabrics to make these Christmas Stockings, and if you wish to do the same you will have enough of the linen/cotton blend to make 2 Stockings.

To enter the Giveaway all you have to do is tell me which handmade present you would love to see under your tree this year. If you are a follower leave a comment telling me how you follow for an extra chance to win. International entries are of course welcome.

The Giveaway will close and a winner drawn at random on December 14th 09.00 GMT .

Good luck!

Making Christmas - Week 9

I finally managed to get my Act together to post my updated list on the same day as the next post for Making Christmas is due.

That in itself is a minor miracle!

This week Making Christmas is being hosted by the lovely Lucy at Charm About You she has been cross-stitching up some festive ornaments and has the charts free to download on her blog, so don't forget to check out her post and link up your own updated list whilst you are there too.

It's my youngest son's birthday tomorrow, which is a sure indication that I don't have a lot of time left!

Fortunately I have a couple more finishes to tick off the list, I bought a plain t-shirt in my local Tesco store and appliqued a black felt moose to the front for a matching top for the moose pyjamas.

When I showed them to my middle son, he put in a request for a pair of his own! Anyone know of a source for rabbit-themed flannel that isn't pink or babyish??

I also bought a plain wooden board to go with the relish and chutney with plans to decorate it somehow :) It might just stay a plain wooden board though if I run out of time!

There will be three jars of accompaniments with it though. My neighbour's apple trees produced an amazing amount of apples this year, so she was handing out bags of apples to all-comers. When I discovered a recipe for Winter Spice Jelly on the Good Food website, I knew exactly what to do with my bag of apples.

I have never made jelly before so invested in a jelly bag to strain the mixture. There was some inventiveness required to rig up a system to allow the jelly to strain overnight, fortunately my middle son came to the rescue with a Heath Robinsonesque contraption involving sinks, string and laundry baskets! The kitchen smelt gorgeous whilst all this was going on :)

Testing for the setting was a bit nerve-wracking and at one point I thought that I would have virtually no jelly left, but it all worked out in the end. The recipe states that it should yield two jars of jelly but I only had one full jar and a 1/4 filled jar in the end, so I think if I make it again I would use smaller jars.

There were more spices involved in the Spiced Meat Rub which is going to go with the BBQ Apron that is another finish this week.

I haven't yet decided whether to cut my losses with the Oven Gauntlet and downscale to a potholder or hang on in there and go for broke with the gauntlet:) Next week will be the crunch time with this as it needs to be all done and dusted and in the post soon! 

So here's how my list is looking now -

• A Christmas Table Runner for our new dining table MADE
• Two Pleated Pouches to fill with make-up/nail polishes for my daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law to be
• Two One Liberty and linen jewellery roll for my sister-in-law
• One Triple Zip pouch for my sister-in-law MADE
• A Knotwork Christmas cushion - for me!
• A Fairytale Cushion for my grandniece using one of Quiet Play's Happily Ever After paper-pieced patterns
• Homemade chutney for my brother and son MADE
• Homemade relish for my brother MADE
• More dishwasher vodka!
• Biscuits for cheese for my brother SCRAPPED!
• Something to go with cheese! - A Cheeseboard :)
• Meat rub, BBQ apron MADE and oven glove for my b-in-law ?
• Pyjama trousers for my youngest son - MADE
• Appliqued pyjama top for youngest son MADE

Looking forward to seeing everyone else's progress.

 

There's a Moose in the Hoose!

Just in time for the Birthday Boy on Sunday I have managed to finish and photograph the Moose flannel pyjama trousers without him catching sight of either!

This is the first proper clothing that I have sewn since school, which was a very long time ago!

I used a pattern from the Great British Sewing Bee, which was given away for free in the newspaper. I didn't see all of the TV programmes so I have no idea whether they actually made pyjama trousers in the programme or not.  I would guess that they didn't make anything as basic as these to show off their sewing talents though :)

I am not too happy with the white ties, but they were all that I had on hand, so I might change them to black ones later, but apart from that I am thrilled to bits to have finished these in time and that they are recognisably pyjama trousers! I made the Large size as I know my son likes his pyjamas loose, but I am keeping my fingers crossed that they are not too loose!

Having all boys in the family there wasn't much incentive to get into dressmaking when they were small, but now that I have made these I think I might just be making some more next year for the rest of the males in the family.

I went to a Christmas Stocking workshop at Made cafe with a non-sewing friend recently. There were only 5 of us in the workshop, which meant we all had enough time and attention to complete our Christmas Stockings on the night so here's mine.

My friend was so thrilled with her first handmade stocking that she is talking of getting a sewing machine for Christmas :) Another convert, yay!

I have another workshop planned for this weekend, this time to make a Garland, so, hopefully will have more finishes to share next week too.

Neither the stocking nor the garland are on any of my to-do lists, but hey, lists are only an indication of things I would like to do when I wrote them aren't they :)

Linking up to Finish it up Friday

Here be dragons!

Last week we took ourselves off to the wilds of Northumberland for a spot of lunch.

It was a glorious day and there was a walled garden next to the cafe, so after lunch we had a wander.

The garden had a number of old apple trees, many of which were festooned for the season in nature's own winter decoration.

There has been a bumper crop of berries around here this year, which according to folklore means that a hard winter is on the way! Do the trees know something we don't and, if so, how???

Berries are one thing to find in a walled garden, but even in the wilds of Northumberland I certainly was surprised to come across this sign!

The signpost was facing in the same direction as the children's play area, which certainly doesn't seem like a good idea to me :) Dragons, in European mythology at least, are generally fire-breathing, cave dwelling, bad news for human creatures as far as I can tell, so sending your children in their general direction seems a bit careless.

It sounds like a great threat though if your children were misbehaving :)

Linking up to

Christmas Lists again!

I was too busy making this

this,

and this

and then eating them, to put together a post at the weekend updating my list for

 

So, I am only just getting around to it now. 

There was a lot of baking and not very much sewing going on in these parts recently, so my Christmas Cake is now made and safely stored away but there aren't any other finishes to be ticked off the list. 

I did get to make a start on the pyjama trousers, the fabric is all cut out and ready to sew up. Whilst I was at it I also cut out the fabric for the BBQ apron too, but sadly that is as far as that has got too. The pyjama trousers need to be finished for Sunday as that is our youngest son's birthday and I would like to give him them as a birthday present. I am thinking that as well as making the pyjama trousers, I might have a go at appliqueing an appropriate motif to a plain t-shirt for a pyjama top. 

Last year I found this moose cutter in a wonderful shop nearby, Re-found Objects, it has the most quirky products imaginable. I can always guarantee finding something that will take my fancy. 

So, I am toying with the idea of using this as a template for the applique, needless to say it will depend entirely on whether I can find the time before Sunday :)

I have searched through all of my recipes and recipe books and cannot find anything suitable for the biscuits I wanted to make for my brother. I will not see him before Christmas so will have to make them long enough in advance to send, but all the recipes I have only have a shelf life of up to a week, so I am going to scrap them from the list and think of something else to go with the relish and chutney instead. All suggestions welcome :)

So, here's how the list looks now.

• A Christmas Table Runner for our new dining table MADE
• Two Pleated Pouches to fill with make-up/nail polishes for my daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law to be
• Two One Liberty and linen jewellery roll for my sister-in-law
• One Triple Zip pouch for my sister-in-law MADE
• A Knotwork Christmas cushion - for me!
• A Fairytale Cushion for my grandniece using one of Quiet Play's Happily Ever After paper-pieced patterns
• Homemade chutney for my brother and son MADE
• Homemade relish for my brother MADE
• More dishwasher vodka!
• Biscuits for cheese for my brother SCRAPPED!
• Something to go with cheese! 
• Meat rub, BBQ apron and oven glove for my b-in-law - apron cut out ready to sew!
• Pyjama trousers for my youngest son - cut out ready to sew!
• Appliqued pyjama top for youngest son

 If you have classmate gifts to make this year, you will definitely want to check out Erin's post for Making Christmas, her Lollipop Nose Critters are adorable!

Hope you are making more progress than I am :)