bee handmade

unrelated things

A few random things to show you.

A lovely day with friends in Brighton. I can't get enough of these beachy colours.

A chocolate and blueberry jam cake

I go back to this recipe time and time again. It's Nigella Lawson's store cupboard cake from her book How to be a Domestic Goddess. It's easy, delicious, moist and perfect with a splodge of creme fraiche. I usually make it with marmalade but this time tried blueberry jam.  Lovely but I missed the tangy flavour of the orange. Part of my willingness to make it is that is takes nearly a whole jar of preserves, a perfect reason to liberate another Bonne Maman jar from the shop and reappropriate it as a storage device.

Mini Moopys

More baby presents. EVERYONE seems to be having babies. Pattern courtesy of Nest Studio. You can see lots of mini moopys here on Flickr. The pink Moopy was really well received, which always makes making things totally worthwhile. The blue Moopy is still in transit to his new home.

Jakob's baby quilt

A friend of mine had a baby just before Christmas and I decided to create a patchwork quilt for him. Possibly a tall order as I'd never made one before! I don't think people actually use baby quilts and blankets in cots now but he can hopefully use it as a play mat or something.

I knew he was going to be a boy but didn't want to go down the 'blue is for boys' route so opted for a fresh, spring-like colour palette of green, yellow and white. I didn't want it to be too cutesy as new mums seem to be inundated with a range of colours, patterns and styling they wouldn't ordinarily choose.

I assembled the squares to construct the front.

Then came the task of free motion quilting.  I really need to learn how to not inadvertently hold my breath while I'm sewing!  The results are by no means perfect. Some curves err a bit too much toward jagged rather than sweeping but it's getting easier.

The binding was machine sewn then hand finished. It feels like quite a soothing way to complete the project after the more frenetic quilting process.

I finished off by adding a couple of handmade labels incorporating a little bee handmade motif, the baby's initials and some washing instructions.

Ta da - the finished baby quilt.

Front view.

 

Back view.

 

Folded quilt.

I really like how tactile it seems once it's washed. I deliberately didn't prewash the fabrics as the soft, aged effect produced by the fabric puckering really adds to the whole look and feel of the quilt.

Now for a full size version for my own bed.  I have to admit that I was slightly reluctant to post this one off. I hope that Jakob enjoys it.

snow

Snowed in!  This was my station on Thursday morning.

It took 2 and a half hours to get to another station on rail replacement. I gve up the attempt to get into London in the end and came back home. A 4 and a half hour round trip!

I did however use my weekend quite productively. I made some almond and pistachio shortbread biscuits. You can see the recipe here. They are really easy to make and are scrumptious (especially when still warm out of the oven).

I made these with my new clover gadget which makes very light work of pom pom making.

I need to think of a use for them now (other than being cat toys).

I also made a linen tote to carry around in my bag. An anti carrier bag bag.

The birds are made out of an Ikea fabric, which I love, and their legs and eyes are stamped with little hand carved rubber stamps. Not the most flattering of pictures but I'm quite pleased with the bag itself. I had an old co-op one but it recently died. They don't last that long when you use them all the time.

Yesterday me and P went for a walk to take advantage of the snow AND sun.

We even made a miniature snowman (which I somehow managed to feel sorry for because he was on his own). Idiot.

The snow was so pretty. It's such a long time since I saw things this blanketed in white. There's hardly ever a decent snowfall in the south of England. It make me miss the north (and also spurred me on in my plan rip up our horrid bedroom carpet and paint it white).

w.i.p.

I generally have lots of projects on the go at once, mainly because I have a pretty eclectic approach to crafting. I sometimes think it would be nice to be a quilter or a knitter or an embroiderer ... In reality I get involved in and excited by an overwhelming range of disciplines. Jack of all trades and master of none!

I got this book a while ago and have adapted one of the patterns to make a bag for my current crochet w.i.p.

 

 

 

The learning curve for this one was that someone not great at maths shouldn't freestyle with measurements when scaling up a pattern! I ended up sheepishly trimming the central panel and zip.

The crochet project was something I've been meaning to start for ages. Ever since seeing this amazing blanket grow.  Here is the flickr group where you can see lots of hexagons and details of the book containing the pattern.

From baby cashmerino.

 

To the full set of colour combinations.

To the growing pile.

 

I've been doing a lot of sewing on my new machine lately which is great but not that sociable. I decided to start something which I could work on while sitting with P.  What a good wife!

Oh, one more thing. I have a whole bolt of the beautiful Kokka fabric and will be selling it on my ebay shop soon.