Year of the Rooster

I couldn't find a Year of the Rooster design I liked so I adapted one I found at La Comtesse & Le Point de Croix, adding a small chinese lantern to make this New Year decoration.

And here I am wearing the snuggly new jacket I made at the weekend, using a sherpa backed faux suede fabric and a free pattern from Simply Sewing magazine. Just the thing as the weather has turned cold and damp.

QAYG and First Shoes of 2017

Contrary to what I may have previously believed, QAYG is not in fact the back-up computer aboard Red Dwarf.

That would be Queeg

QAYG, on the other hand, stands for quilt as you go, and I found a really good tutorial for making a zippered pouch using the technique at SOTAK Handmade.
Here is the pouch I made, incorporating, amongst other scraps, some vintage Liberty and Laura Ashley fabrics, an old pillowcase, and one of David's old shirts

I also upcycled a rescued section of one of my vintage embroidered cloths which somebody had managed to get tomato sauce on. This is why we can't have nice things. (Yes dear, I am writing about you on my blog).
I made some new quilted table mats as well. So far they are tomato free...

"And the shoes?" I hear you cry.
Check them out. Gotham City Sirens Converse. I am in Shoe Heaven

Gifted Gorgeousness 2017 - Washing Up and Sarcasm!

The first gifted Gorgeousness of 2017! Gifted Gorgeousness is the SAL organised by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching where once a month we show off anything craft and gift related (no matter how stretched and tenuous the link)
This month I've got two things to show. The first is something I made as a birthday present for my sister. (I made one each for me and the girls as well)
I scanned in one of the precious handwritten recipes I have from my Mum (complete with little smudge where it got wet and the ink ran), added a border, uploaded it to Spoonflower, and had it printed onto linen cotton canvas, then hemmed it up to make these tea towels.

There is a really good tutorial for sizing your scanned recipe properly on the Spoonflower Blog

The other gift is something I made for Eloise. I thought she could put it on her desk at work. I've seen a lot of designs quite like it around the interwebs but none of them were quite what I wanted so I ended up making my own version up. I finished it as a free-standing paperweight.

There is a tiny zip lock bag of yellow split peas inside to give it some weight, so if she gets really hungry at work it can always double as a convenient soup making resource.

First and Last (and a Competion and Prize)

Happy New Year!

Here is Naomi modelling my last finish of 2016, a Black Widow print skater skirt, (pattern adapted from the pinafore pattern in this post)  and my first finish of 2017, a rib swatch cowl in Rowan Fine Art Aran.

If you've been following my blog for a while you'll know that I offer a small prize to the person who most closely guesses my year end tally of finishes, books read and shoes bought.
For 2016 the totals were:-

Finishes  ~ 78
Books ~ 54
Shoes ~ 10.

The closest guess was Kerry with 64, 53, 11
Drop me an email with your postal address Kerry and I'll pop a little something in the post for you.

The counter has now been reset, so if you'd like to have a guess this year just pop a comment on this post