Nothing if not predictable ...

It was always on the cards that there would be a cushion to sit atop my new quilt. It is the best way to use up the scraps from a bigger project and I wanted to eek out the Flea Market Fancy love as much as possible.

I decided on making the back-to-front version of the quilt block by using the plain white as the flower.

It gave me lots of scope to keep playing with my perle threads for the hand-quilting. There is something extraordinarily satisfying about a simple running stitch, both in terms of actually doing it and the finished result.

So my bed now has a summer look, and one that I am extremely happy with.  Although with this wonderful warm spell, the quilt is being thrown off with abandon!

Right now...

• I'm wishing I could get on with some crafty-type things but my right hand is still feeling very odd and uncomfortable due to the pins and needles from that trapped nerve. I am starting physio next week. My right arm feels like my left one! Do you know what I mean? It can do things, but not properly. Awkward. Let's look at the evening sun shining on the cosmos instead.

• My new eagerly awaited magazine fell through my letter box yesterday. Have you heard? Do go buy it, it is an absolute delight. The production is fabulous and the styling, well too stylish for words! I took advantage of the brilliant subscription offer of the first three issues for a fiver. It's still available, I think.

• There was only one place to sit and read it at my leisure - the hammock. The simplest of pleasures. Made even more special by being surrounded by the birds coming down to the feeders, for their tea. The tits and finches are not put off by the thuggish behaviour of the parakeets. For the first time this year, I also saw a pair of Nuthatches coming to feed on the sunflower hearts - what a delight, one of my favourite birds.

Checking me out!

• My new hens are settling in nicely. Still a bit timid but they are getting used to me going in the run each day with lettuce or some other kitchen scraps treats. Last week, my skyline hen started laying and has presented me with the most gorgeous of blue eggs every day since.

Violet, my Bovans Nera hen

• I made a sour dough loaf and had a delicious lunch of poached eggs on toast. This has become a little tradition of mine - to poach the first eggs. 

• It is the simplest things in life that give me the most pleasure. What's yours?

Revamp...

Let's talk about cushions. I love making cushions. I can never have too many cushions. When I don't have room for any more cushions, I love making new cushion covers to swap over with the ones I already have. Oh, yes. I do love cushions.

It goes with the territory of loving fabric, I suppose. They are quick and easy to make and a great way of trying out techniques or patterns on a smaller scale than a quilt.

The quilt WIP that I posted about last week is this pattern, which I'm loving, and so I thought it would be fun to upsize a block and make it cushion-sized. I cut the squares at 5½" rather than 2½" and it just about fitted a 20" cushion pad. I adore those peacocks!

I used my usual method of an envelope back, added a tiny bit of the selvedge as a label and made binding to sew the fronts and backs together.

For the two smaller cushions, I just sewed strips of the remaining fabrics together and did a bit of slicing and dicing to make the fronts.

Then I got stuck into a tutorial* that I have had bookmarked forever for inserting an invisible zip. I bought both the zips and the special foot for my sewing machine some time ago too and have been waiting for an opportunity to get stuck in. Would you believe me if I said it was simple? Really, it was.

Very neat, even if I do say so myself. There will be more of these to come. I can feel it.

They brighten up the conservatory and they hide a sofa that I'm not that keen on but happens to be very comfy and has lasted for years.

 Most importantly, they get the paws up of approval.

*the tutorial is actually part of this pattern which I purchased but I'm sure there are others out there.

18 :: Oh, Christmas Tree...

My tree is up, at last, having been in the garage since Wednesday.

It looks nice and twinkly in spite of my decorations being slightly sombre in colour.

It's not much fun putting it up on my own, to be honest, but No2 just shrugged when I suggested that he might like to come and help.  He doesn't seem to get Christmassy these days which makes finding the motivation to get it all ready for our guests a little difficult to come by sometimes.

I think I will call it a day with the decorations now. It is time to concentrate on the menu planning and ingredient buying.

My gallery…

I can’t believe it was way back in January that I started playing around with the layout of my photo from my swap with Mary.

I finally bought all the frames (nothing fancy, just Ribba from Ikea, but in an assortment of sizes) and then had a lesson in photo mounting from a friend.  It was just the sort of job that I love – plenty of required precision.  I knew that keeping my old square from my college days was a good idea.

 

I also love a bit of kit and the mount cutter was very satisfying to use.

 

 

 

 

 

I have to confess to being stupidly pleased with how they all turned out!

 

 

And, I am just LOVING them altogether on the wall in the living room.  I LOVE the eclectic subject matter.  I LOVE the simplicity of the frame with the white mount. 

Most of all, I LOVE that they travelled a long way to grace my wall and complete my room.

 

 

19 :: Twinkle…

My shopping arrived at 1am, on the dot.  I felt so sorry for the driver – he must have had a horrendous day but he was still smiling as delivered my shopping!  No2 and I carried it into the kitchen, put the fridge and freezer stuff away and left the rest until this morning!

In case you are interested, I did the ironing, made the tiramisu (I must post this recipe one day.  It was given to me by an Italian lady who lived next door to my friend when she lived in Warwick.  It is heavy on grappa, but oh, so good), wrapped a few presents and did some hand-quilting to while away the hours!

 

My Christmas tree is now in the living room and I spent a leisurely afternoon decorating it after clearing the car and drive of 8 inches of snow.  That’s a lot of snow for London.

 

At last, I have some twinkle.

 

When my parents moved house they gave me a couple of boxes of old books that belonged to my uncle’s father.  I decided to use them to decorate my fireplace.  I had put a couple on the mantle a couple of weeks ago and so added some more to the hearth.

 

 

Some of the titles are quite intriguing.  I think I might read them and better myself.

 

I am enjoying sitting here by candlelight, listening to my latest teenage tendency that has been on repeat for some time now.

 

 

I have lit my orange and clove candles and the room is filled with a Christmas aroma.  Just wish I’d made some more mince pies… perhaps tomorrow.

 

2 :: The Kitchen Table…

This morning when I ventured out to go food shopping, I was unable to resist buying these ornamental cabbages and lilies.

 

Equally, I couldn’t resist buying this tray at the Christmas shopping event I went to last week.  Initially, I thought it would be perfect to put my paperwhites on when I bring them inside in the New Year, but it seems a shame to let it wait for another month to enjoy it.

 

Now that we are in December, I feel the need to make a start on some seasonal decoration and what better than Clementine's?  Or gingerbread scented candles?

 

It is creating a splash of colour right in the hub of my home.  And created exactly the right feeling for a cosy dinner with friends and family tonight.

The Den, part 1…

So, The Den is the final piece of the jigsaw from when I decided to have a major sort out at home. 


No2 had been on at me for a while that he wanted a games room.  I guess this is the progression from a playroom.  We umm-ed and aah-ed for some time, deliberating over where we could make room for such a thing and we finally decided that the study/dumping ground that was redundant would be the most workable.
 
First stop was to re-house all the things in the study, namely a large, messy desk, lots of shelving, lots of stuff all over the floor and a running machine that served as a coat stand.
 
Way back here, with the help of my youngest sister, off we went to Ikea to make far better use of an empty store cupboard.


A transformation and über-organised! 


Oh yes!  Shelves that reach the ceiling!  This sight makes me very happy.  It is a joy to find a light bulb… or a battery…


Next stop was to re-organise the room that I had started making into my workroom back here.

With heavy hearts, we began to take down all the multi-sensory equipment and dismantle the water bed.  That was fun – siphoning out litre after litre of nine year old water!  This was the more or less blank canvas I was left with.


It was given a fresh coat of white paint and then I could start moving my desk in and repositioning my other worktable…


…and finally organise my fabric stash.




I can’t tell you how happy this room makes me.  I spend huge parts of my day in there (I’m sat at the table in the window with my laptop right now).  Still a few things to sort through and, ahem, organize but I’m getting there.  It feels like my playroom and takes me right back to the organised chaos of my office at work.

And so, then No2 got his den.  Another quick paintjob – the colours are by Crown and I’m loving the depth of them – and I have one happy teenager.


The Den, part 2  will be about the cushions.  The Den is all about the cushions!  It is possible that No2 has a Den just so I could make the cushions.  That’s the way my head works in a roundabout way…

Eleven...

Eleven days since I last posted!  Eleven things that have kept me busy:

• The one-step buttonhole foot on my new machine has been practiced with...

• ...and mastered. 

• I have been planting indoor bulbs now that all my outdoor ones are in.  Some are in the cupboard, in the warm but in the dark.  Some are in the greenhouse, in the cold but in the light.  Some are in the fridge, in the cold and the dark.  There is a bulb offer on in Marks and Spencer now - it is the same price as last year, but not such a good selection of bulbs, so I have refrained so far but would still recommend them as good buys for anyone that is interested...

• I am looking for some nice moss around the garden to add to the paperwhites I have planted in baskets.  There is some growing on the wall that I will soon be prising off carefully.

• We now have A Den.  This new addition to our living space has taken quite a few months to achieve and I think probably deserves a post of its own.  No2 is in his element and I am happy that he is now downstairs with me.  There is plenty of room for me to join him with my sewing as he plays on his x-box.  I don't last very long though...

• Birthday cakes have been made and hideously decorated for my nephew and my niece, who share the same birthday.  The coiled snake was the highlight of the day for a certain 10 year old!

• I have been slowly finishing off one of my Christmas quilts with some embroidered circles on the biggest square of the disappearing nine-patch.  All can be revealed very soon, just the binding to be hand-sewn.

• I have had my November fix of Kew Gardens with Nancy.  You can read about our day here but I think these wonderfully purple berries deserve a second outing in Blogland.

• It is f-r-e-e-z-i-n-g but a good opportunity to try and capture the sparkle of the frost in the garden.  I love this picture.

• We haven't had any snow yet (it's forecast for tomorrow night, I think) but we are prepared.

• Inspired from this gorgeous, gorgeous blog, I have been finding things from the garden to bring inside rather than buy flowers for my kitchen windowsill.