Old Faithful

Old dear faithful....time for a new one

When I was at school many, many moons ago, the first thing I ever made with a sewing machine was this......

Have you guessed? It is a needle case and I seem to remember it took about 4 lessons to make.  Every bit of stitching on it is truly awful whether it is the machining or hand sewing but I still love her.

I was 11 when I made her and had loved sewing for what seemed like forever , but unfortunately my mum and sisters hated anything involving using a needle. I was never encouraged to explore my interest and made do with using scraps lying around to make little things for my dolls.  When secondary school included weekly Needlework lessons I still remember being so excited . I don,t remember any of my friends sharing my enthusiasm !!!!

Over the years , old faithful has never been far away.  Many sewing adventures, good and bad we
have "shared.

Lots of pricked fingers, sighs of happiness and exasperation, things created and mended.  We have had many house moves , many holidays from home and thankfully I have never lost or mislaid her.

However there comes a point when everything gets a bit old and in old faithful's case "tatty", sad but true.  So for the only second time in my life I decided time for a new faithful.  Yesterday my new faithful was finished and here she is.  A bit of machining and hand stitching.  Not my best sewing effort ever, but I love it.  I used English paper piecing for the front then added pretty things like
buttons , lots of fabric for pins and needles inside, a bit of lace here and there, a few charms, a new pair of scissors and scissor fob and a mouse pin cushion , bought I'm afraid , but oh isn't it cute!?   I made this case big because I use lots of different types of needles .  I also had to include a big pocket
so I could put my dear old faithful in so she can continue my sewing adventures with me.
Maybe I am being daft and sentimental , but I couldn,t put her in a old sewing box and forget about her.  To someone else , old faithful is worthless but she means so much to me. I have had old faithful
For over  35 years and I would not want to be without her. I'm sure I am not alone in loving something you have crafted with for many years, needles and hooks handed down to you, a old sewing machine (I have one of those too!) something you just can't bare to be parted with?

Here is old faithful II.  Ta dah....

Old faithful's new pretty home.

See you all again very soon.

Christmas in July 2015

Secret Christmas in July 2015 swap

The lovely Kim from Wisdom with needle and thread ( if you haven,t visited her blog please pop over and see how talented this lady is and how lovely her blog is.) hosted this secret swap.  I was partnered with Melanie from The Patchwork Robin ( again a lovely blog , go and have a look) her blog shows what I sent and this is what I received from my other partner the lovely Pilar from Cenefas de Flores

Thank you Pilar xxxx.  The ornaments are so lovely, all the goodies too.  I just wish you could  smell the scented petals , they are divine and now in a pretty bowl on my bedside table.

See you soon

Trying to get organised.

Thank you xxxxxxxxx

I want to say a huge thank to you all  for your lovely comments welcoming me to the world of blog.

 I have been so touched by your kindness.  I was warned this was going to be fun!!!!!

Today I got all my WIP's together (well the one's I could find)to compile a list and found one which I started back in 2003.
I know it was 2003 as I was pregnant with my daughter and planned to make it for the nursery! It has been in a dusty old bag for years , so I,m going to give it a little wash and see how it looks then
and see whether it's worth finishing or not.

I have made a little list on my home page of my current WIP's but am sure when I start unpacking my future craft room I will find more like I did today when I was looking for something else and found the pixies.  Above are 2 of my current x stitch projects and one I finished a couple of weeks ago which I need either to make into a cushion or hanging ornaments ...decisions, decisions.  I adore x stitch and especially Lizzie Kate.  I know it's only July and I'm stitching a Christmas design but I so love everything Christmas and couldn't,t resist!!

We have had a beautiful day here, still a bit windy but no rain.  Washing on the line and a coffee in the garden, simple pleasures.  I spent a hour or so in the craft room trying to find inspiration.  I am wondering how to store and arrange things and more importantly trying to find the mojo to begin! My husband walked in , looked, tutted and without a word walked out again, men !!!  My craft room is
my domain like his shed is his domain,  visiting by appointment only!  His shed however is lovely and useable.

This afternoon the children were out on a summer camp trip so I continued with a little project  I started a few months ago.  I'm hoping to finish that tonight or tomorrow.  Last night I made another hexie flower and though I don,t need them,even more hexies.  I just hope my good intentions continue and I manage a hexie flower most evenings.


Bye for now

Maria x

Sew much fun

SEW MUCH FUN!

I have always wanted a homemade quilt (by me) for our bed. I have some lovely shop bought ones but they are not lovely enough!  Looking at my ever increasing scrap baskets I decided this "want" could be achieved someday in the distant future.  So I have been a busy bee cutting these English paper piecing hexie flowers and it is very addictive.  So far I have sewn about two dozen of the flowers and must now have hundreds of the little hexies prepared to be sewn into flowers.  My intention is to try to sew a flower every night whilst watching TV , but I know this project is going to take time.  The thing I love about this type of sewing is you can pick it and put it down as you want, take it with you and you don,t have to worry about dropping stitches , loosing your place (like on a
cross stitch chart) and I think each flower looks so pretty.   My favourite colours appears to be the
periwinkle blue which is a mixture of violet and lilac.  However, my scrap basket seems to have so
far had a wide mixture of colours , each fabric a memory of something previously made and that
always puts a smile on my face.
I love spots and dots especially ( that wasn't the reason we got our beautiful dally Dexter honest !!!) dally is  an affectionate term used by Dalmatian owners, hence the caption dilly dally do! , our pet name for our boy.

In between a little bit of this and that of the housework variety! I have managed to do a bit of crotchet, yet another idea and WIP.  I am learning very slowly to crotchet with help of you tube .Now I don,t particularly knit especially in the "summer" months and I use that term "summer" lightly at the moment !!!!!, I cannot remember the last really hot day we had, we get snippets of sunshine but mostly it is raining and overcast.  I find when it's warm my hands get hot and wool for some reason makes my hands very hot.  However I had lots and lots of balls of various cottons to use up  so I thought I would have a go at a blanket and the cotton doesn,t feel uncomfortable using it when it's
warm .  The blanket is very simple but slowly growing and I am enjoying trying varying colour combinations and again a project that can be picked up as the fancy takes me.

In the meantime I have made a lap quilt for my sweet girl.  The blocks I finished months ago but they got put to the side whilst we were very busy with end of term activities.  The last couple of days I have put the batting and backing together and am now machine quilting it all together when I get the chance.  My sweet girl is waiting patiently and hopefully very soon it will be finished, another big tick off my very big WIP list!!!

Thank you for stopping by

Maria

Hello

Hello

Welcome to my new blog.  I have been planning one for some time and yippee , here she is and here is our beautiful spotty boy Dexter to welcome you.

I have many works in progress and now they are in double figures I thought by sharing them with you I might even get some finished! I love making things of all kinds.

We moved to West Wales 18 months ago and I am still unpacking.  I have a planned craft room, currently in total chaos.  I have pictures of the chaos but am too ashamed to share them at the moment! I am hoping in the next few months to finish the unpacking and have a beautiful space in which to create, fingers crossed!!!'

Thank you for visiting ,

Bye for now


Maria