My Home and My Workspace

I've not had any time for crafty stuff this week, so I thought it would be an opportunity to let you into a bit more detail about me.  I have always been a touch on the crafty side and now my boys are getting into their teens I'm going full steam ahead.

Looking around my home now you can tell I make things!  There isn't a room in the house that doesn't have one of my creations, well maybe the bathroom.  There are cross stitch pictures on the wall in the hall and the kitchen, the living room is adorned with a blanket and cushions, my bedroom also has a blanket and my sons room have cushions too.

 


The biggest tale tell sign of my antics is all the paraphernalia that goes with being crafty, the sewing machine, knitting needles, crochet hooks, fabric, wool, cotton, books, buttons and I must admit that has a tendancy to take over.  We only live in a small 3 bedroomed house, with a through living room/dining room but we are lucky to have a small conservatory, which during the warmer months I like to use as my workroom.  It's a perfect place to sit and sew with lots of lovely natural light, but does have a tendency to get a little warm sometimes.

The one thing I have struggled with is how do you keep all that stuff organised and I must admit I don't think being creative lends itself to being tidy!!  One problem is you do have a tendancy to hoard fabric and yarn because you never know when you might need it, but where and how do you store it?  I've looked lovingly at photos on Pinterest of very organised and beautiful crafts rooms ... maybe one day.  In the meantime I have the conservatory and an Expedit shelving unit from Ikea in the living room with boxes which are slowing filling up.

I have boxes everywhere with fabric, wool, ribbons, cottons, jars with buttons, there is some kind of organisation going on but nothing ever seems to be where I want or need it.  Recently I've been looking at cupboards to hang on the wall in the conservatory, I did fancy a dresser but think it's too big a piece of furniture for the room.  I fancy a bit of project so I've been trawling the charity shops looking for something solid that I can do up shabby chic style, nothing found yet but I'm still looking.  If you suffer with the same dilemmas get in touch and give me the heads up as to what you do with your stuff!

I'm hoping next week I'm going to be able to show off my latest creation, if I get time to finish it off that is ... 

Applique Cushions

Whilst out shopping I noticed how many stores now have applique cushions and whilst some are so reasonable, they all look a bit too well done for my tastes and what do I want to buy one for when I can make it myself.  I bought myself a new sewing machine when the trusty old one died a death and I've been eager to find a project to give it a go, sounds perfect.

I decided not to go out and buy fabric just for the project but have a rummage from the box of stash, I found 2 pieces of linen one natural and one red that I picked up in Abakhan in Chester.  I then googled and consulted http://pinterest.com/ for some inspiration.  I've a bit of thing for hearts, love nautical, beach huts and birds seem to be everywhere at the moment.  Luckily I found everything in the stash to complete 4 cushions.

The heart was first, I decided to applique on the machine and I'm fairly pleased with the result considering I've not used it before.

Next was a lighthouse, this was a little trickier and I did struggle a little with the applique pieces slipping on the linen, resulting in a slightly wonky lighthouse but it's fine for me.  I decided this time to do a bit of hand embellishment.  Whilst hand stitching I remembered how lovely it is to sew on linen and that's why I decided to hand stitch the next cushion.

I loved hand stitching my bird on a tree, stem stitch for the branches, running stitch on the leaves, blanket stitch around the bird and a french knot for the eye.

Like I said birds are everywhere, so here's another 2 little bluebirds with a heart birdhouse.  This one was all done on the machine and this time felt more confident and pleased with the result.

Well I think that's enough of cushions for me now, loved making every one of them.

Starting something new

Blogging about my crafty side has been something I've been contemplating for quite a while now, so here goes...

Maybe I should start by giving you some background ... I have been crafting and creating since I was a young girl thanks to some special women in my life, my Granny and my Auntie Margaret.

Granny taught me to knit and my aunt taught me to sew.  Granny used to sit there with her needles clicking away making school jumpers and complicated arans and still carry on watching the television or conversation without any effort, it was as if the needles were an extension of her. Thanks to Granny's patience I learnt how to knit making jumpers for myself eventually.  The most vivid recollection of Auntie Margaret was me standing on a chair while she snipped away to make a circular character skirt for my ballet lessons.  Once she was certain it was right the trusty sewing machine came out and to top it all she then had to sew a number of rounds of ric rac around the bottom to finish it off.  I used to stay at my aunt and uncles most summer holidays, when I arrived there was always a printed embroidery doilly, threads and Needles for me to keep me out of mischief.  Margaret used to painstakingly show me how to do satin stitch, french knots, stem stitch and then I got bought a cross stitch kit.  For a long time cross stitch was my passion, a trip to America opened my eyes to the wealth of possibilities and a whole host of projects both around my house and for gifts for momentous occasions like friends weddings.  I also thanks to my Mum and Gran discovered the art of machine sewing after receiving one for Christmas, I made clothes for myself and curtains and blinds for the house all self taught. Starting a family put all of this on hold, no time or energy with having 2 boys, 2 years apart.  I might have been a stay at home mum but I got involved in the local mother and toddlers, playgroup and then the primary school pta.

Well the new chapter has begun, the boys are both now in High School and I don't have the ties of pta and I better find something to do or I better get a a job!!  So I picked up the knitting needle again, got out the sewing machine and also decided it was time to learn a new skill, crochet!  The internet is a wonderful place to start, I discovered Lucy of Attic24, a Nikki Trench book and I was hooked with the help of a few videos on youtube too!!  Twelve months later I'm not looking back, I'm thoroughly addicted to being creative, boring my facebook friends with all my projects and eager to do more, tentatively seeing if I can also make some money out of this hobby, who knows!  I'm also going to blog about it!!