Saturday 25 January 2014

Hello Everyone

Hello my lovely fellow Bloggers, how are you all doing?  It has been a long week and sadly that old dog is still at the door, but he is at the door and not laying on top of me anymore!  I hope you are all well and happy, do come in and share a coffee and some cake.

It has been such a busy week at work as always and I have also had to deal with some important family business which was not the easiest day but it has to be done, I know that all of you will have been through similar times as me.  I have tried to keep up to date with all the fabulous posts and this really brightens my days and keeps me going.

If you remember last week I showed you some absolutely fabulous fabric from Sanderson which I was thrilled to get from Rachel in my sewing class. Well I have been itching to get at it and managed to use it all up this week.  There was not a scrap of anything left over Folks except the bits taken off to straighten everything up so I was delighted to say the least - £24 well spent.


As always I stayed with my faithful Lillyblossom pattern as I am comfortable with this one and, because the fabric was so gorgeous I was terrified about making a mistake and ruining the whole thing.  I managed to get four decent size cushions out of the fabric was so over the moon.  I do hope you like them, I love them!


I used this lovely blue satin for the facings, didn't quite have enough for the ties as well so used the fabric instead.  I would have liked to have had the ties in the satin but I think it looks ok as it is.


Now I had a fair chunk left over but not enough for any more cushions and I didn't really want to make a smaller cushion or another bag so Rachel suggested placements.  I have never considered these before so set about seeing how many I could get.  I would have liked six but got four good sized mats out of what was left.  Now lovely Friends you know that one of my failings is my complete inability to sew anything straight.  Rachel suggested that I quilt these and then saw my ashen face and said it would be rather nice to sew around some of the buildings on the fabric.  Sigh of relief, thank goodness, yes I could do that.  Well I have only completed one up to now but then didn't start them until 8.30 pm on Thursday evening and I hand stitched the binding on last night.  Please do not look too closely at two of the corners as they are not very good, I took them out twice and re-stitched them and got them the best I could.  I am hoping that I will improve as I do the next three. Do you like it?  My lovely husband just loves it so I need to carry on with the next three. 


I think the blue spotty bias looks fun on this but I hope I can master the corners!


Last Saturday we had a lovely afternoon with our little Peeps and my gorgeous daughter-in-law.  My Son and our grandson has tickets to go and watch Liverpool Football Team play in Liverpool itself so they went there and came back for supper later.  It was fun to have all three girls to ourselves and the two little ones spent a lot of time in my tiny sewing place.  They decided that they needed to make a dress each for their Sophie Tilley dolls which my husband had painted for them both.  They each chose some fabric from my scrap box plus a little felt heart and an initial button and off we went.  I helped along the way but they did so well taking into account that they are only six and nearly four so hopefully budding crafters developing there.
 
 
Lovely Folks I found two wonderful shops on Etsy recently which I want to tell you about.  The first one is a lovely lady called Sarah who has been so patient and helpful with me.  She puts images onto fabric and I am just waiting for the arrival of my first two which are going on cushions for my little Peeps.  I am also doing a special one for their lovely Mum which I will tell you about in another post.  Sarah is so supportive in trying to help you get the best picture you can and I know that I will be visiting her shop a lot so please pop over and have a look Folks, I am sure you will be as delighted as I was.  Her shop is called MollyFelicityDesigns and she runs her shop from the wonderful country of Derbyshire.  More news on what I am doing with Sarah's products coming up soon I hope.
 
The other shop from Etsy is called Scrapiana and Eirlys is also very helpful and delightful.  I received my parcel from her this week and I was over the moon with what I got.  She was selling these lovely vintage squares of patchwork which I fell in love with and have already sent for more.  They have a wonderful faded look about them - there is something about hexagons which I love, especially old ones like these.  Do you like them?
 
 
 
 

 



I am not sure what I am doing with them yet and any ideas would be gratefully received - as you know I want to have a go at a small quilt sometime this year and would love to incorporate some hexagons as well as some vintage fabrics - advice from you lovely talented bloggers out there would be so wonderful as you always come up with such brilliant ideas.
 
Finally lovely Friends I found these two curtains yesterday on my way home in a thrift shop - for £1, I couldn't believe it as they are perfect without a mark on them.
 
 
Now the lining itself is quite heavy and will do for bags and even the back of a small quilt.  The fabric has lots of lovely figures which I can use to cut out. 
 
 
Do you like it?  I felt a bit guilty taking it as I am sure that there are lots of people out there who would use them as curtains.  When I said this to the lady in the shop she said they had been there for ages so they had put them at 50% off making them £1 - they also had the duvet cover and two pillowcases for £1 as well.  It seems such a shame to waste things when they are perfectly good.
 
Well lovely Friends I must leave you now as I have a ton of housework and marking to do.  I am hoping that you are all enjoying a good day/evening depending on where you are in our fabulous world.  The wind is howling here and we have torrential rain at the moment, there has also just been a tremendous storm of thunder and lightening so I am going to keep warm and toasty here and try and do some crafting later today. 
 
Look after yourselves everyone, sending you all hugs and cuddles.  Please leave a comment if you have time as I do love to hear from each and every one of you.  All my love as always, Dorothy :-)xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
 
 

9 comments:

  1. Great bargain finds. I often look at the curtains and duvet covers when searching for material. I found some lovely curtains covered in butterflies. There was a small pulled thread which is probably why they were given away. I repaired the thread and could use them as curtains or material.

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  2. My dear Dorothy, I really don't know where to begin.
    It is raining and howling here too. I am so glad I am safe at home. I always look out for curtains, in Charity Shops, just for the material.
    The cushions and place mats are fab, such lovely material. I must have a go at cushions. I bought some lovely purple plaid tea towels that I think will make lovely cushions. The dresses that your granddaughters have made for the Sophie Dolls are wonderful, the fabrics are brill.
    I am going to check out the two Etsy Shops that you have mentioned.
    I did have a look at the one with the French initial labels but there were non with suitable initials for me. Shame, they are such a nice touch.
    Glad the old dog is nearly out of the door.
    Hugs x

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  3. Dorothy your cushions have turned out splendidly the colours really are stunning, I so love to see blues and greens...maybe all that colour has kicked the old dog to the door and is so I am very glad to hear it...
    bestest weekend wishes from one 'D' to another.....xxx

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  4. Hi Dorothy, Your cushions are to out of this world, how expensive they look. I bought children's curtains today from a charity shop for £3 to make the back of some children's quilts! - How strange we are doing the same thing. I chuckled to myself...Jo x

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  5. Oh what lovely makes! Well done you, those cushions are just gorgeous. Glad you've had some precious time with your family amidst the busy-ness of the week & stay safe in this icy weather - we had the thunder & hail storm here too.
    Love & hugs xxx

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  6. Lovely Dorothy, I've so enjoyed seeing what you've been up to these past couple of weeks or so - unfortunately I've been behind with blog following again, just got my last post done and another nasty migraine hit!
    Your makes are so gorgeous especially those useful and pretty bags, and I love how you delight in your granddaughters, and making for them! I have still not got into quilting so can't offer advice but, I can really see some of those gorgeous vintage hexes in a bed cover - now wouldn't that be a big project to take on! And I'm sure when the time is right you'll be fit for it too! And I do love M & S tea towels - the best I've seen anywhere - and like the gorgeous fabrics that you keep finding, you seem to have a knack for picking the best of the best!
    Although we can't wish our lives away, I do hope that the blues that come with January will soon dissipate and you'll be feeling better again - Spring is around the corner for you, just watch for happy signs of new life!
    Much love my friend, Joy xo

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  7. your cushions are beautiful! So of course are the table mats, I like the idea of quilting round the shapes of the trees, buildings etc, much nicer than straight rows I think. Hope that you have fun with your patchwork pieces, they are so lovely, I am sure that you will have lots of ideas for what to make them into!! Hope that you have a good week and that you get the dog kicked all the way out soon. xx

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  8. Hope you've managed to shake off that 'old black dog'! Absolutely love the curtains. You'll have fun with those. What a bargain. Jacqui x

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  9. Hello lovely Dorothy. It's so lovely to stop by here and see all your gorgeous makes. I love your cushions, you've done such a lovely job with them, well done. I also really love your little quilted mats, they are going to make such lovely placemats!! I honestly wouldn't feel bad about using the curtain, we have all done it before and it is a great way to get fabric for the back of a quilt or for various other projects. I'm really looking forward to see what you make with it. I'm sorry to hear that the blog dog is still around, I wish you pop round for a cuppa my dear. I'm in bed at now instead of at the treacle market, this weather is too wild for my liking. Sending you much love and wishes for a better week and a positive and good start to feb and yes to us trying to raw diet. Btw I think your girls did a great job making pretty dresses for their lovely dolls, how very sweet and lovely that they want to do some sewing with the granny, I think that is so so special!! Take care of yourself lovely Dorothy xoxoxo

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