Cushions!

Mmm - this seems to almost becoming a quarterly blog! It wasn't intended - I think it is because I thought I knew what I wanted to say when I started, but have realised that I am not actually sure how I want this blog to be........

Anyway.... cushions! (or pillows if you are in North America). We currently have none in our living room ( I threw most of ours away and then pinched the last 2 to go on the chair I sit on when using the sewing machine). Having been inspired by Pillow Month on the Sew Mama Sew! blog , and by the Bloggers pillow party, I bought 4 cushions to cover from Ikea.

Several fat quarters of Amy Butler's "Love" fabric later, some Klona solid (from Backstitch, although the Remnant House also stock it) and inspiration from Red Pepper Quilts, I have got this far

I wasn't planning on quilting the front, but sadly at the moment, most of the windmills/pinwheels don't really stand out, and I think very simple quilting around them will help.

I did consider leaving it pinned to the study blind as I quite like the stained glass effect, but having sewn all 76 pieces of fabric together, I feel the need to finish and display it! (our study is a bit of a glory hole/dumping ground - I don't willingly let any non family members in there)

I am hoping to make several very different cushions using the same fabric (though I am not sure I have enough of the grey solid...) so hopefully they will coordinate and I will get lots of practice at piecing (without losing the will to live...)

Discussion with a 4 year old...

I had an interesting discussion with child 3 after picking him up from preschool on Wednesday. He had had a lovely day, doing lots of making - including rockets and a flying saucer.

Child 3: We watched a film about flying saucers
Me: Really? That's sounds very interesting.
Child 3: They make them in Africa
Me: I didn't know that!
Child 3: Except for the blue bits. The Aliens make those.
Me: Mmm. So why do the Aliens make the blue bits?
Child 3: Because the blue bits will kill you.

I still don't know what the blue bits are exactly.......or why flying saucers are made in Africa.

Not posting...

Well, I was looking through some photos and thought of all my "Not Posts" (you know, the ones I planned to write, but somehow never did...)

So, here is a brief whirlwind tour of some of the  "Not Posts"!

There was the October half term trip to the Lakes (in the caravan) where it hit -6 on the first night and all the campsite stand pipes froze....

It was incredibly beautiful though. (The rest of the week was much warmer - and MUCH wetter).

There was also the 2 day Beginners Patchwork course I took with Annabel Groom at the Patchwork Dog and Basket in Lewes, which resulted in this

I also went and did a short workshop with Mandy Shaw (you may have seen her on Kirstie's Homemade Home) making a Russian Doll tree ornament (please excuse the poor photo - my camera was dying and Santa was yet to make his visit...)

I have found out that actually I really like hand sewing..........

There have been birthdays (which required cakes...)

And currently I am working my way through a Busy Lizzie quilt kit. all the blocks have been sewn and trimmed

 

 

 Sewing them together though will have to wait - I have a tweenage girl's birthday party to organise and apparently I need to sew some party bags....and make another cake.......

Ah well at least I have ten months before the birthday party season starts again.

'Tis the Season......

For Snow!

I think we have about a foot of snow! (That's about 30cm in metric) - it is beautifully silent outside and warm and cosy inside.

It was Child  3's birthday yesterday and apparently having Snow on Your Birthday is the best thing EVER - even better than presents that have (plastic) screwdrivers in them!

Recipe books

Reading about some of Sue's delicious creations and cookbooks (particularly here ) it made me think about how many cookbooks I have.

I have finally counted them.

I have excluded pamphlet types such as " The Lea and Perrins Worcestershire Sauce " cookbook (and the must have "Bero " cookbook for nostalgic purposes if nothing else)

I have 115.

That does not include the 31 cake decorating books I have (though I did include the pamphlet type in that total).

That's not too many right?

Cinnamon Rolls

I have quite a weakness for cinnamon and after trying and loving the Pioneer Woman's chocolate sheet cake I decided to try her cinnamon rolls.


I printed off the recipe and saw that it served 8 - a little much perhaps as there are 5 of us but I took the view that everyone would happily eat a bit more later in the day. So I followed the recipe to the letter- thought it looked quite a bit, but.........

Serves 8?

Serves 8 WHAT??????

Crochet

I have a confession - I have a fairly large stash of yarn. Some of it is nice yarn (think Kid Silk Haze, Regia Sock Yarn) but more of it is either Vintage (but not vintage enough..) or a bit " What was I Thinking?" yarn! I confess I cannot resist a bargain, though i am finally learning that I really should!

Anyway this leads me on to my granny shawl. I really wanted to join in the Attic 24 Granny Stripe Blanket crochet-a-long going on in the Ravelry Group, but my stash glowered at me, and in truth, I could not justify spending more money on yarn.

I have 2 balls of Sirdo YoYo in Caramel (comes into the "What was I thinking?" category in case you hadn't already guessed - actually I was thinking of the Ten stitch spiral blanket, but I digress) so I decided that I would use that to make one of the many half granny shawls I have seen on Ravelry.

  And actually it was quite nice to crochet - no stitch definition but I think it has turned out rather well, it was interesting to see how the stripes became much more pronounced as the shawl got larger. It didn't quite use up one ball, and amazingly I came across no knots - surprising in a 400g ball of yarn.

However I could not restrain myself any longer with Yarn buying. I have wanted to make this blanket for a while.

The down side was whenever I considered quite how many balls of yarn I would have to buy in order to get enough different colours for the centres meant it was just too costly. (Unfortunately having a very large proportion of "What was I thinking" yarn in your stash does tend to mean that there is not a lot of solid coloured DK yarn  - with or without natural fibre content)

Then whilst wasting lots of time researching on the Internet, I discovered that country Crafts sell mixed packs of DK  oddments. So I ordered five (differently coloured) packs.

 Each pack totals approximately 100g and I should need about 400g - so I am hoping there will be enough. I'm not planning on using the fairly flourescent green or orange ballettes though......

Yes it is acrylic - but I have three children aged 10 and under - I am positive that it will spend at least some of its time in the washing machine.


However - don't hold your breath, based upon current progress (the shawl was an abberration) it should take - ooo - about 3 years to finish.