Cabin Update

Hello... I thought I would bring you a round up of how the cabin is building up it's own style. My Aunt and Uncle are visiting this week and they follow my blog so we are all going for a relax there this week because they have never been.

I bought six dessert bowls and one big bowl, all Wedgwood and matching, from an antique shop last week for £14.50. Bargain, now we don't have to eat teeny portions of pasta and cereal from plastic ikea bowls. YAY!

Bloke rigged up some great lamps from a solar panel for the girls to read, they actually play dentists under the bottom one!

Crochet blankets are a must at this time of year. I sit under one while I make another one.

Not sure what to do with the corner cupboard, haven't had any inspiration as yet but a moment will come one day, I'm sure.

The fire gets so hot we have to open the doors most times we are there but the girls love to sit close and get cosy.

The bedding is holding up. I left all that there this winter but I wasn't really sure how damp it would get but it has been fine. I love my first quilt, I put all my heart and soul into that for Little M.

So tropical inside, frosty outside. Perfect!

Yep, still loving the cabin even in February. There isn't a lot else to do in the my least favourite month of the year, we all feel really grateful and very lucky.

Jo xxxxx

Ta Dah! Friday Quilt Finish

Ta dah!

I normally say hooray! but that is not enough for this one so ta dah! I have to keep walking into the spare room to smile at it and I keep making the little ones look at it too. Their acting skill at saying the word 'Wooowww!' is starting to wear a bit thin but they have continued to humor me all week.

I could not do the whole quilting thing. My machine aperture was just about big enough to get five vertical stripes to sandwich everything together. I didn't want to spoil it with bad quilting because it is the colour and patchwork that I wanted to shine.

I made a bias binding last Sunday and then machine sewed it on Monday. Next I hand sewed, yes folks by hand, I sewed the other side of binding on the back. 

I have visitors staying for the week next week so my sewing/spare room will be resting but I think I am all done for a while on the machine, I am a bit sewed out. On the plus side, I have an empty drawer where all these scraps used to live and an heirloom bed quilt which I have always wanted to make.

Statistics:

• A collection of scraps from sewing projects, bloke's old shirts, my pyjama bottoms, given fabric pieces, girl's too small summer dresses and one Tilda charm pack.
• The backing is one Ikea double bed sheet in navy
• The wadding (batting) is made from recycled plastic bottles and can be found here
• Thread? any thread I had that was not guterman went into this quilt and cleared out my drawer nicely
• Binding was made by me using this tutorial
• Spotty fabric from an ebay shop
• Floral fabric from the same place
• Total cost,in money, not hours! £42 ($64)for wadding and border fabrics.

There is a story behind the jacket but that is for another day.

I will continue to waft in and out of the room taking a peek to see that it is all smooth for the rest of the weekend. 

Thanks for looking and following this momentous 

project every Friday.

Jo xx

Seaspray slippers #2

My second pair of Seaspray slippers. The pattern is on ravelry HERE. My crochet group made them, it took them two weeks but we got there in the end. I inadvertently ended up with another pair as I was demonstrating the clusters to six different people.

The yarn is Sirdar Folksong, I used two balls. A soft chunky yarn, perfect for watching TV and crocheting in.

Little M said, "is that wool called 'jungle'?". How clever I thought. It's not, but it should be.

I made sure this time that I started each slipper on the same colour run of yarn to get matching slippers. See my first pair HERE.

Stay warm and put your feet up. Thanks for looking. Jo xxxx

Trash and Treasure

My favourite type of crafting will always be making something out of nothing. I can get real satisfaction from that. Although I must say that having a job over the last four months has made me think a little more about how I use my craft time. It has also brought home the feeling that my frugal crafting of the last five years was fun but it is also great to have a few pounds to spend on good materials. You know what I am pondering; Ying or yang, time or money.

So when I needed to clear my desk to work. I got a bit excited about all the tat on it.

Mostly bits of interesting packaging from my birthday presents that I didn't want to throw in the bin. I made some cards for my card storage box and cleared my desk at the same time all in about an hour.

I like it when trash turns to treasure. I

 did get some lesson plans written, honestly!

Have a happy week whatever you are making. Jo x

Friday Quilt Progress

I need you to use your visualising techniques today and imagine what these four squares will look like repeated over the whole bed. Pretty awesome I am imagining. What are your thoughts?

I will need to turn the bottom right one round.

I had a little plan for this quilt, just cutting sizes for fabric quantities really so at every stage of this quilt I get a little more excited about the outcome. I am not following a pattern, picture or design, it is just happening and that feels very good indeed.

The spotty fabric is by Rose and Hubble and is the best quality cotton, it presses so well. A Sunday morning border cutting session finished the last of the fiddly cutting so I was ready to go this week in little pockets of time here and there.

Right, I am off to order a pack of green wadding made from recycled plastic bottles because I'm feeling like the next stage is coming fairly soon. 

Jo x

Love to you all

I am pattern sharing today with very few of my own words. Have a go at these, they were so much fun. Could you make one by Valentines day?

I loved making this, the construction is very simple but clever. The pattern is here on ravelry.

BRRRrrr!

Brutal,

bracing,

bounty,

beautiful.

Stay warm folks. I didn't last long at the allotment but I really had to prune the raspberries!

Jo xxxx