Shopping and Bunting

Yesterday I carried on with some more sewing for the kitchen. At the moment we have curtains and a pelmet, but I want to change that to a cast iron curtain rail and just curtains, however since we have had a pelmet since we built the house I thought the window might look slightly bare when the curtains are open, so I thought I would make some bunting to drape across.

What do you think?

The table cloth is in the same material that I've got for the curtains, and I think it blends in quite well. I've been putting off making the curtains as they are big and will be lined, and to be honest I don't like making them, but I think I'm now running out of other things to make so I will have to bite the bullet and get on with it...........actually, no there's an apron, shelf edging, table mats, napkins..........................................I wonder if I'll ever get around to it ;0)


I thought I would see what it looked like draped, with the help of the dining room chairs.



I then decided to take a trek over to Baileys . What a fantastic place, it is in several renovated old barns on a farm in lovely Herefordshire, and is like a treasure trove. They sell everything from cottage plants, recycled glasswear, eco cleaning products, furniture, vintage cake stands, wooden childrens toys and even the kitchen sink. I was absolutely in my element walking round...there were lots of things that I had thought "where can I get one of those?"...now I know, and lots of things that I remember from my childhood, either because I used them or because I could remember grand parents having them.

In the end I bought some lovely cotton ribbons to use with the brown recycled paper I bought to wrap presents.




and an oak dibber for my seedlings...

and the sweetest little willow trug for collecting in the eggs.........

They even have a little cafe so that you can have tea and cake whilst you decide on what to buy. They sell by mail order as well, but if you are within reach of the store it is well worth a visit.

I hope everyone has a happy easter....Bye for now

Piggy door stop

In preparation for the warmer weather, when I love to have all the windows open in the house, but always end up with slamming doors, I thought I'd make us some door stops. I've seen loads of lovely ones in craft shops and websites, but thought it can't be too difficult so decided to have as go myself....if it turned out rubbish, who cares I'll use it in the utility room out of sight :0)

Anyway I thought while I was at it I'd follow Mel's lead and take some photo's for a tutorial...either this is how you do it or don't do it this way depending on the finished product.

So here goes..........

Decide on what size you want your finished door stop to be, and whether you want a cube or an oblong, then add 2 cm all round to make allowance for your seams. I used baking paper to draw my pattern.

I decided on an 8" cube, mainly because I'd already drawn and cut my motif out and need the cube to be big enough to take them.....note to self do things in the right order next time!


I had a remnant of a thick linen with a gold thread through it and thought that it would be a nice neutral base.

You need 6 sides, if you are doing a cube they will be all the same size, if your are doing an oblong the top and bottom will be the same size as the base and top and the side lengths what ever extra you have decided on.

You then need an oblong of fabric for the handle......mine was 8", the same as the finished top should be, by 4".

I'd already drawn and cut out my motif's. Lovely spotty pigs. For any pig connisseurs please excuse the design art was never my strong point ;0)

I did the motif's in the Polka dot, in linen and eau de nil to match my heart hanger.

Back to the handle...take 1/2" all the way around and iron the seams, basically because the handle is narrow it would have been impossible to sew right sides facing and then turn inside out with the thick fabric I used so I had to neaten as I would be sewing the correct way out.

Then fold in half and iron....this gives you your handle.

Sew along the long side, and then make into a handle shape and sew to fix onto the piece that will be the top.

Place your motif into the centre of a side and sew all the way round. A satin stitch would have been good, but my trusty old sewing machine is limited in it's offer of stitches so I had to make do with a close zigzag.

Once all the motifs, or as many as you are using are stitched in place, sew the seams of the sizes to make a box shape, and then sew this onto the base. This may be the wrong order, (I dropped sewing at school in place of woodwork!) but I found it worked ok.

Now sew your top on, leaving an opening so that you can turn the box the right way round. Fill with rice, and if you like, some lavender and there you have it (once I've been to the supermarket for a large pack of rice).

What do you think?

Needles and Pins

Does anyone else get the urge to 'make' when the weather improves? I don't know what it is but as the seasons change I want to do different things. In the winter I like nothing more that curling up in front of a roaring fire, knitting with some lovely chunky wool. In the autumn, I'm love making preserves and getting things ready for Christmas. In the summer I like to be decorating, weather that be outside painting fences and sheds or if it's raining, inside either a complete re-paint or just freshening up walls and doors, and of course baking when the Hens go into egg laying over drive. Which brings me onto Spring.....a bit of a mixture, knitting with some finer wools or cottons, sewing or out in the garden getting things ready for the summer.

This year I've decided to completely change the decor in the Kitchen, I'm lucky as OH just lets me get on with whatever I want to change it to. At the moment it is terracotta, but hopefully by the summer it will be Laura Ashley pale eau de nil and cream. I've been busy collecting and making accessories to go with it and have gone a bit over the top.....making dish cloths to match.


The camera hasn't really done these colours justice.....or is that the photographer?! I've knitted these in Patons DK cotton in cream and Kiwi.

I don't know if I should actually have knitted in 4 ply, but as we don't have any actual wool shops around here anymore, I had to take what I could get in Hobby Craft.

Up until about 4 years ago there were 3 wool shops in town, but they all closed down within months of each other. It now means a 50 mile round trip to the nearest wool shop in a little market town, which is fine if you are buying wool for a jumper and want to see the colours in 'real life' but is rather excessive if you only want a couple of balls of cotton as I did. It means now buying off the internet and hoping that the colours and feel are what you want.....and it doesn't help with someone like me who decides to make something and wants to start now, not wait for Mr Postie.

Again the colours haven't come out well, but these hearts are in Laura Ashley Polka Dot cotton in Eau de Nil and Linen. They don't look much flat and unstuffed, but I hope they will look much better when they are filled with dried lavender. Yep I'm going to have to wait for Mr Postie again to finish them.

I thought I'd make them into a hanging to either go on the wall or hang from the door.

I know this is meant to be a cake stand....the one that No 1 bought me for mother's day, but I have so many eggs at the moment that I thought it would make a brilliant egg stand. I'd better get baking I think!

Isn't he clever, or rather his girlfriend! for choosing it in the cream and eau de nil to match the kitchen.