June's Gifted Gorgeousness

It's time for June's Gifted Gorgeousness post, as organised by Jo from Serendipitous Stitching, where we show our gifted related stitching and crafting.

This month I'm sharing a travel pouch I've made for Naomi. 

The fabrics are from the "vacation" range by Makower. I made this pouch same way as the ones in this post, following the tutorial from SewCanShe, with the following slight alterations. I put it together with the short edge as the bottom rather than the long edge, made it a little over an inch bigger in each direction than in the instructions in order to fit a passport into it, but used the same size zip as given (extended with a strip of fabric). This means that it doesn't unzip right to the very bottom, which I thought would be more secure.

I also changed the configuration of the inside pockets (very hard to hold it open and take a picture of the inside at the same time by the way!)

It is meant to have a matching wrist strap attached by a carbine clip, but I'm waiting for the ribbon clamps to come so I'll have to add that later

Better Late Than Never

Two finishes!
The March and April Monthly Ornament Challenges from Needlecraft Haven (don't ask about the May Challenge, I'm thinking I'll skip it and move right on to June)
The March Challenge was from Sub Rosa here.
As always, I re-worked the little Cardinal birds to make them into robins. I wanted a simple finish for this one and planned just to hem-stitch the linen all around. Yes, well... I cut the fabric too close by mistake and my simple finish turned out to be anything but. It's taken me ages.
The idea is to tie it around a fat church candle at Christmas, but I don't have any of those to hand, so here it is tied around a Cornishware jug instead.

The April Challenge was from Romy's Cross Stitch here.
I don't know about you, but normally I start by choosing my thread colours, then pick the fabric that works best, and finally choose the trimmings when the stitching is finished. This one I went about completely backwards, by knowing which trimmings I wanted to use, namely two funky coloured jingle bells that came attached to a re-usable Christmas bubble bar/wand from Lush.
The result is definitely not what you would describe as being traditional Christmas colours, but I think it's rather fun.

Our New Toy

We have treated ourselves to an early anniversary present and we took our new baby out for a spin today. Here she is enjoying the sunshine at Polzeath.

A Little Spot of Summer...

...for the front door (because, apparently, there is a limit to how long you can have the 'bird's nest with eggs' wreath up)

Hope the birds don't hurt their beaks trying to pinch my plastic strawberries.

Gifted Gorgeousness - May Edition

It's the 15th of the month, the day set aside for Gifted Gorgeousness, as organised by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching, where we show off our gift related makes.
Today I am showing this coaster (Celtic Bird by Textile Heritage) which I've made as part of my gift for an upcoming exchange. It's safe to show it now as it is a secret exchange so even if the intended recipient sees it here, they won't know it is headed their way.

And shoe horning it's way into the theme is another item I've made this week. As a wedding present a school friend gave us a little lidded glass bonbon dish, about 4" in diameter. At the time I filled it with a pot pourri made from dried petals from my bouquet.
Now we will have been married 30 years this August, and as I was moving the dish to dust the bedroom windowsill earlier this week I came to the conclusion that 30 year old pot pourri is basically not very nice. 
It was uniformly brown, drab, odourless and pretty much crumbled beyond recognition
and I decided it was time to accept the fact that it wasn't even fit for compost, get rid of it, and give the dish a makeover.
So I made this teeny-tiny terrarium instead. (I left the lid off for the photo so you could see it better)

Sad bonbon dish is happy

And Here's The Other One

Makes the yellow one look subtle doesn't it? 

This fabric isn't as substantial as the other one, and it doesn't have the nice glazed finish, but I think it still makes quite a nice casual skirt for the summer.

I hacked the pattern a bit for this version, missed out the centre pleat and slashed and spread all the pattern pieces to make it flare out more.

 Eagle eyed readers will spot the contrast yoke. This was, of course, a completely deliberate style choice and absolutely not because I ran out of the print fabric...

If You Go Down in the Woods Today...

...you'll find bluebells and celandines

It must be spring, so I've been busy making springlike stuff.
Here is a little beaded bracelet made using AB beads. They really catch the light when it moves...

and here is a very springlike skirt.

Oh dear, should have pressed it before I took the picture.
Here's the back story. A little while ago I acquired, via a friend, a bag of fabrics and other assorted sundries from an ex-seamstress who was destashing. There was a lot of lining fabric and enough skirt zips to open my own haberdashery, and also two glorious 2yd lengths of floral fabrics that feel like glazed cotton. I have no idea of the provenance of these fabrics (no clues helpfully printed in the selvedges either), but from the patterns and colours, and the fact that they were cut in yards not metres, I'm hazarding a guess at 1960s. I could be completely wrong of course. It has been known to happen.
Anyway this skirt was made from one of them.
When I showed my husband my lovely sunny new skirt he said "Hmm, it's a bit flowery isn't it".

Wait till you get a load of the other one mate.

Bwa ha ha. Mine is an evil laugh

Finally, a couple of little zipped pouches I made following this tutorial from SewCanShe.

Yes, one is made from offcuts from the skirt. No, the other isn't from the 2nd length.
These are not as easy to make as you might think (didn't help that I had to adapt for shorter zips than those suggested) and these two are decidedly dodgy in the corners. The third one came out just fine, but I gave that to a friend for her birthday and forgot to get a picture so you'll have to take my word for it.