Adorable bedroom

I love that this is such an interesting room - the shapes, the colours, the prints - amazing.

Mexican Suzani Bedspread

I know this doesn't fit my "not busy" brief, but gee it's very pretty. What a delicious bedspread!

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Cup and Saucer Embroidery

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A Print a Day has put up a lovely embroidery/crafty pattern of cups and saucers. Go on over and have a look - she has a PDF download available. So pretty!

Happy weekend, lovelies - I'll be back Monday after two baby showers, a welcome home party, a girls' dinner, some teaching and hopefully some quiet time reading on the couch. xx

The Dollhouse

This is one of the first times I've seen a child's toy and desperately wanted it to be mine. Actually, that's obviously a lie, but isn't this the most wondrous thing, ever? A dollhouse PILLOW? Too, too fabulous.

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Thought for the Day

via Black Eiffel

Felt Bird Brooch

Another little brooch I have made from my new-found love of felt. I am really loving this brooch-making fad! Available here.

Don't forget to leave me a message on my giveaway post before next Thursday!

Felt Flower Brooch

I made this felt brooch on the weekend and am so happy with how it turned out. I looked at some flickr photo galleries to get some inspiration (an all-round excellent thing to do if you're stuck) and was so struck my people's creativity. What clever little chickens!

Every Day in May: 22nd May

I borrowed my sister's sewing machine for these and I tell you straight-faced: it has changed my life! I filled them with rice to make boy/girl heat packs. I'm fairly happy with how they turned out, but I did a pretty messy job of sealing them up at the bottom (not pictured!).

I hope to spend some time writing over the weekend - see you Monday!
As I mentioned last post, the pattern I used is from GoodyGoody.

Every Day in May: 21st May

Hooray! I have been putting in a lot of time to this pencil roll and it's finished! I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out: I am not a natural seamstress and it was all hand stitched. (Which had more to do with my lack of a sewing machine as opposed to pure masochism).
The top orange flap is open, so I could pop my diary in there and just fold the roll over instead of wrapping it up.
But the top can also fold down to protect my Muji pens when necessary :)
This is the back side....
And all wrapped up and ready to go!

Upshot: I'm very excited to have tried something so new. It feels happy and good to try working with fabric - I really hope to get better with practice. And every time I reach for a pen, it's so easy and fun!

Every Day in May: 20th May

And here's the girl to go with the boy from yesterday. Whew. I think I should have played "Every Second Day in May" as this is really a huge effort on my part. But I'm excited by the (hopefully good) end result!

Every Day in May: 19th May

This is as far as I have got on this project. The pencil roll is killing me - but I will not admit defeat! Will hopefully have more to show on both of these soon.

*The pattern I'm using here can be found at goodygoody.

Every Day in May: 15th May

I should caveat this: it wasn't just made today. I started it at the beginning of the week, but it's all finished now. This (crumpled!) piece of embroidery will be a part of another project I'll work on next week. (I got the pattern at Pimp Stitch).

Have a lovely weekend!

Takashi Iwasaki

The lovely ii-kore-ne put me on to the work of Takashi Iwasaki, and I was so taken with his work that I had to share.
The embroidery seems to combine a bit of Miro and Matisse with completely different forms.
Have a look here for some more of his artwork. And have a lovely weekend! I'm off to have some much needed snoozes and spend a bit of quality time with the Pal.

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Megan Whitmarsh

These are kissy-hot embroideries by the lovely Megan Whitmarsh. I think I might ask her to adopt me, and we could sit and stitch things forever.

Images via here.

Good Eggs

Some time ago I made The Pal a 'Good Egg' t shirt using freezer paper as a stencil. It is one of his favourite expressions, so it made sense to make one for him, but it's seen better days after lots of washing. I thought I'd update it for his birthday this year with an embroidery one. Not as successful in some ways - I am terrible at embroidering words! - but a lot of fun.


It actually looks better than this photo makes out... Gee that's a crafty concession if ever there was. A bad stitcher blames their camera?!

If you like the design and idea, have a look in the shop for these Gocco cards I made, complete with cute yellow envelopes.

Anchors Away!

I have been neglecting my crafty impulses recently, and finally decided to rectify the situation. For a long time, a good friend and I used to use the phrases "ship it in" and "ship it out". Broadly, "ship it in" means, "yes please, more of that!" while "ship it out" means, "uh-uh, bad news, get rid of it"...

My Mum and one of her best friends (my second Mum!) have taken to using these phrases too, and giggle uproariously when they do so. So I made them these tea towels (or hand towels, I guess) and as I suspected, there were fits of giggles when I unveiled them.

Skull and Crossbones Embroidery

I never thought embroidery would be for me. Too many little stitches. Too impractical. And what would I make, anyway? No one I know is having a baby, and surely that's the limit of embroidery?

Uh-uh.

I am delighted to say that I am now all about stitching. I keep looking at everything I own, trying to determine if it is stitch-worthy or whether it would be better if covered in my amateur, desperately-trying to be neat stitches. And I can safely say the results aren't all bad.

I visited Sublime Stitching and they really know their patterns. I bought some packs including some by Julie West (that's her in the second picture - or rather her delightful space alien) and Kurt Halsey, a few big white hankies and set to work. The best thing is that you can re-use the iron-on patterns about eight times so there's less pressure to get it right the first time.

Happily, I've also started my own patterns, and am pretty smug about my punk pirate hanky. Those older ladies really know what they're talking about - I'm sold.

If anyone wants to organise a crafternoon soon, I will bring yummies!