A Creative Fest of My Own!

Hi Everyone, how great to see you all again.  I do hope that life is treating you well and that you are enjoying happy days - wish I could meet you all and share a coffee or tea.  Well, after the very barren few days last week things changed dramatically this week.  We had big plans for family but due to illness and an impending operation for my lovely husband we found ourselves a little adrift with all the plans set.  The operation was planned for yesterday but just as we were leaving the house a call came through - operation cancelled today due to emergencies, come tomorrow (which was today).  So yesterday, having a free day I decided to do all the 'housewifey things' and cleaned the house and generally tidied up, even my sewing room got a tidy up.  I must say that I felt great last night with everything spic and span.  I can now hopefully find even more things in my sewing room.  It was amazing as I was sorting through everything, I found no end of bits and pieces I had forgotten all about - does this sound familiar lovely readers?

So today, up very early and ready to go to the hospital at the planned time.  I duly dropped my husband this morning on the ward, kissed him goodbye and made my way home.  Now, after all the hard work yesterday I thought I was owed a day of pleasure - what do you think everyone? 

I set to and had a little craft fest of my own - hope you are proud of me!  Yesterday I had found another kit from Hamble and Jemima - the previous one had been a bag and this was a makeup bag so out it all came from the cupboard.  The fabrics are just so lovely.

I also found a couple of really lovely tea towels which I had picked up in a sale ages ago, they seemed much too pretty for drying dishes so I had put them in my cupboard.  Lastly, I had some fabric over the bag I had made so decided I would make something with this too........are you impressed?

I wanted to really make sure that I was able to use up the fabric which was left over so decided to make a small makeup bag from the lovely materials I had not used from the first kit.  Because I had used some of the fabric to make the straps for the bag I had to use the lining as the main piece of the makeup bag and then had to piece the inner part to make it fit.  I had an idea that I wanted to continue with my bead theme which I had started on the last post and found some heart shapes which I had cut.  I have had a Sizzex machine for a few years and love using it.  I will write up a post about this machine later.  It helps me to cut flower shapes really accurately and it is so easy to use.  My plan was to make a heart with some flowers in the centre, filled with some lovely beads.   

I thought that this looked quite cute and really enjoyed sewing the beads on to the heart.  I found that the make up bag came along quite nicely and I am sorry that I didn't take more photos but I was keen to get on with the work and finish as much as I could.  Next time I will make sure that there are more images for you to look at. 

I hope you can see on the heart - I used backstitch and was so pleased with the result that it has spurred me on to try more embroidery stitches.  I was looking at the many embroidery patterns out in the magazines last night and am excited at the prospect of having a go at a few. 

I hope you like the beads, I love working with beads as they just bring something quite plain to life.  I can knit with beads but really want to try and work with crochet and beads, so fingers crossed on this one.

I took my time with the makeup bag and tried hard not to rush things and it came out better than any I have made before.  I didn't put a zip in as I wasn't that confident and didn't want to spoil the look of it.  The pattern I was using did not include a zip but was folded over at the back with a button to hold it down.  It was quite pretty but I would have preferred a zip to make it more secure.  Next time it has to be a zip! 

Here is the finished makeup bag with the bag from the previous post - I do hope you like it.  I was pleased that I had used up the bits of fabric left over and this has given me confidence to do this again rather than rushing out and buying more fabric.

Well lovely readers, I was on a roll now so quickly got started on the kit I was going to follow.  The outer fabric was really lovely but I wanted to embelish it a little so decided to cut out more little flowers and use these on the branches of the trees which were on the fabric with some beads............I used the embroidery hoop to good effect as it really helped to secure the flowers and was a joy to do.  I did this during my 'break' with my feet up watching an old film on TV - what bliss!

This is not a good photograph and again, I am disappointed with the quality so am thinking seriously about a camera for my blog - any helpful suggestions would be so welcomed with regards to a suitable one.  The make up bag came together quite quickly but my main enjoyment was working with the little flowers and the beads.  I do get a lot of pleasure from putting on the little extras to the things I make - I would never be able to work on large scale products would I readers - it would take forever..........

Well lovely readers I was coasting along now and ready to start on the tea towels - I cut them out using the same pattern and again stitched in some little beads into the roses.  I was working through this quite quickly as time was moving on and I was waiting for the hospital to ring me about my husband.  But...........the telephone rang and it was him saying that the operation had been cancelled once again because of emergencies coming in. The poor soul had been sat in his dressing gown all day with nothing to eat or drink before being asked to leave the ward with the rest of the other patients!  I obviously had to down tools and get over to pick him up so the final project was completed later that evening and was rather a rush job.  However, I was pleased with the result - it is more of a bag for filling so I plan to put some of my scraps which I save for my Sizzex machine.  It is quite pretty and pleasing to look at so a successful day all in all except for my poor husband.

I have a million and one ideas rushing through my mind now - I need to think about my blog and the images I present as they are not as good as they could be so a new camera may be on my present list - any ideas about make/price etc would be most welcome from you.  I also need to tackle zips as they are becoming a hurdle for me as I shy away from them all the time but needs must now lovely readers if I am going to improve my sewing.

I really enjoyed the day and felt that I had made a couple of pretty things which were passable but I really want to have more confidence in my work.  I guess that will come with time.

I will leave you now but please call back any time as I do love to you see you.  Please leave a comment if you feel you wish to.  I would love to hear your stories/views/ideas.  Have a lovely week and speak very soon.  Lots of love. Dorothy :-)xxxxxx