bee handmade

snippets

Well I couldn't resist dipping into the new fabric stash and I used a few snippets. It's hard to see the lovely colours just sitting there winking at me invitingly. I decided to try out a pattern from one of my new Japanese craft books. This is it and there are pictures uploaded onto flickr here.

The book contains some nice ideas and patterns for household accessories, bags etc and has a hint of french bistro flavour in it's design.

Here is my finished mitt.

 

Sorry about the really poor light on the pictures. The combination of living in a cottage with small windows and dreary weather makes for disappointing photography! The 'hot' motif was stamped onto the linen using a rubber stamp I hand carved (I'm still using leftovers from shortening some inexpensive curtains from good old Ikea!) .

I love doing these stamps, it's like cutting through butter. I'm storing up a little stack of them, although I'm not sure how often I'll need to stamp 'hot' on things!

On a more exciting note I bought a new sewing machine on Saturday so I've upgraded from this old girl, which is nearly 20 years old, to a Janome 8077. My machine has done really good service but one thing it won't do is freemotion quilting. The new one is pretty modest (no fancy dancey alphabets and shapes) but it's SO smooth and quiet in comparison to my clackety Newhome.

Now for the quilting practice. Wish me luck, I imagine there will be lots of unpicking action!

breath of fresh air

I had the day off work on Friday and P and me went on a little jaunt in the car.  We made for the Norfolk coast and ended up in Cley next the Sea. It was a beautiful day, sunny and breezy. We parked the car and walked through the village, past this

Windmills are so pretty and atmospheric (almost as good as lighthouses) and redolent of another time. You can stay in Clay Windmill and it's only about a 10 minute walk across the reed marshes to the beach. It blew the cobwebs away after a week in the office and the beach was peaceful and quiet.

Now, onto things of a more crafty nature. I've been purchasing some new bits and pieces of fabric from Cotton Patch and Ebay. I have a project in mind that I can't say too much about as it's a surprise for someone but I don't think there is any harm in showing you these.

 

If they don't make me get my machine out I don't know what will!

felt flowering

I succombed to the lure of Yesasia recently and one of my purchases was this book on corsage making. Wise Craft blogged about it here.

book cover

The book contains some really beautiful fabric flowers and I'd love to make all of them. Of course I can't read it but the diagrams are pretty good so with some trial and error I'll hopefully be able to figure them out. I made one yesterday with some scraps of felt left over from this lady.

Fairy bluebell

felt corsage

 

It's not as autumnal as I'd like considering the bite in the air and the change of season but I don't have any scraps with richer tones. It's really nice felt to work with and is 100% wool. It's from Myriad Toys. Synthetic felt really sets my teeth on edge, one of those chalk squeaking on a blackboard things.

I'm such a flipperty gibbett when it comes to my crafting activities. I frequently think it would be much more sensible to restrict my interest to one thing, or at least one category. I just can't do it though. There are too many crafting avenues out there waiting to be explored.

Here's to the kaleidescope approach!