Monthly Makes

Just to let you know, I have joined the Monthly Make over at The Felt Fairy. You can join at any time and just copy and paste the badge into your blog. I did join in January, but I am a little late with my January and February makes!

January make is two Cupcake Door hangers


February make is a cute Valentine Love Heart Bunting

Felt Fairy 's blog is a great read and she also sells felt, buttons, ribbon and other yummy things from her webshop and on Etsy. There is a Flickr Group to post your makes too! So join in, get invloved and get making! :0)

Signs of Growth

Hi everyone, although the weather has become cooler, there are lots of little seedlings growing in the greenhouse.

Climbing Beans, Blue Lake

Globe Artichokes, Violetta di Chioggia

Tomatoes, Gardener's Delight

Beetroot

Peas,Onward

I had an idea to grow some salad leaves. If your a fan of those bags of salad in the supermarkets, it's well worth a go at growing your own. I borrowed a book about it from the library last year and then got lucky when the library had an old book sale in that I got it for 50p! I would recommend it to anyone wanting to grow salad, it's called Salad Leaves for All Seasons by Charles Dowding


This is my idea to grow some lettuces in an old bit of guttering placed on the greenhouse shelf! They are doing fairly well, hopefully the slugs won't reach them up there.:0)

Easter Bunny

Hi everyone, thought I would show you my Easter Bunny

He started out just as a drawing



Then became a pattern



Then in to cute fleece Easter Bunny!



Also made some Easter Greetings Cards to send to family. I didn't want to make them too fancy but not sure if they are a bit too plain!



Then made these cute Bunny Egg Cosies!



They are made with a pattern from Julie at Little Cotton Rabbits, if you haven't seen her blog yet then I would really recommend it. She makes the most beautifully knitted little animals, so cute!

Have a Happy Easter!:0)

Patchwork Skirt

I love fabric and can't resist buying it in any shape or form, fat quarters, by the metre or even tiny 3" squares. It's so addictive! Whilst trying to tidy up my sewing room the other day, I found these Patchwork squares.



I had completely forgotten that I had bought them! (I know I have some more somewhere with butterflies on them) So I started to sew them together and made Little one a new skirt. There seems to be a lot of patchwork around for childrenswear this season, there are some lovely dresses in Next with crochet bodices and patchwork skirts. I'd love to have a go at making one of those!



After three weeks of waiting (un)patiently, my seeds have germinated! I know I should have really had them in a heated propagator, but mine is underneath everything in the shed! Anyway, on the south facing kitchen window there was obviously enough heat to get them through.


As you can probably see from my home made label, these are Aubergines and Peppers


and these are Artichokes. I tried these once before, they came up well but when I planted them in the garden I put them in quite a shady spot and they didn't really grow much bigger, so I think these will need a sunny position. If you want to have a go at growing them, got my seeds from Sarah Raven, her site is great with lots of information about the plants and seeds she sells.

Summer Skirts

Spring is well on the way, so I've been thinking ahead to Summer and making some children's Summer clothes. I love designing and making childrenswear and have wanted to have my own range for a while now, but as it takes so much time to make all the patterns and the sizes etc I just haven't got around to it. So having a spare few minutes recently, I thought I would start off with some simple little skirts. You know, really pretty little designs that can be dressed up or worn as they are. I found some beautiful floral fabrics in my local fabric shop and have made a couple of designs.



One is a simple skirt with elasticated waist and pretty ribbon trim.


The other is a tiered skirt with ric-rac braid and contrast topstitching.


They are listed in my Etsy shop and I'm hoping to do Custom Orders for them. I love making clothes for Little One and she gets really excited when trying on my new creations! I just have to hide the ones I am selling otherwise she would take them all to put in her ever growing wardrobe!

Mother's Day Gift

It's been very Spring like today and we have washed out the Greenhouse. That's a good job done and one I've been avoiding it for ages! I really need to start off my seeds in there soon, so I couldn't really put it off any longer.

Thought I would also show you a gift I made for my MIL for Mother's Day.





She loves her teapot, so I thought she would love this too! Have a lovely Mother's Day!

Second Quilt

Spring is here at last and I have planted some seeds! Tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, chillis, artichokes and onions are all sitting happily on my kitchen window sill and I am waiting (not very) patiently for them to grow. I also have a lovely pot of hyacinths by the back door, which I think smell gorgeously of Spring.

I have made a second quilt and listed in my ebay shop to see how it goes. I did a bit more applique on this one and trimmed it with gingham ribbon and pink ric rac braid. (Not sure you can see it that well in these pictures though.)



It is made with a mini pink polka dot fabric, embroiderie anglais in pink and cream, red gingham, Laura Ashley Polka Dot in Eau de Nil and Cath Kidston's Little Rose, which is a really cute fabric.


I'm pleased with this one, the colours have come out well. I might try a boy's one next to make a change from all the pink!

Cheerful Bright Colours

It's been so dull lately with so much rain that the garden is completely waterlogged. But Spring is just around the corner and so, to celebrate, here's some more bunting, this time in some lovely bright colours!