my mother's stash

At the weekend we visited my mother. She'd been telling me for a while that she wanted to show me her collection of fabrics, thread and notions. She loves that I'm enjoying sewing (she taught me - well, her and YouTube, haha!) and wanted to give me as much as I could squeeze into my cupboards.

My plan for this pretty striped fabric is to make summer trousers for my toddler using this wonderful tutorial. This was something mum threw in at the last minute. Before that, she showed me her piles and piles of treasures. It was vintage sewing heaven! She had huge boxes of cottons - some of which were quite old.

I took a handful of the ever-useful whites/creams, having tested them for snapping first (some others were from the 1920s/30s and snapped at the slightest pull - they were soooo pretty but not very useful!) Mum had hoarded decorative old soap boxes and used them to store embroidery flosses and ribbons.

Aren't they sweet? This is such a lovely way to store buttons and ribbons. She had some empty ones which I took home to use for some of the sewing things I have trailing around.

At one point she got me to reach up onto a high shelf and pull down a woven wicker box. Inside was a paradise of ribbons, trims and lace! I wanted to take everything but I tried to select just a few of the loveliest things - and ones I could see myself using very soon.

She also showed me all the pieces of scrap fabric she had used in her lavender bag making when I was a child. This brought back a lot of memories! I wrote about them in this post last year, when I started making lavender sachets myself.

The crazy thing was a whole pile of them had already been sewn and were just waiting to be filled and closed! She always made circles and used to sew a circle of lace around the edge. She really wanted me to have these - to make and sell. I am not quite sure what I'm going to do with them yet but there are so many that some will definitely be finding their way to my Etsy shop in some form or another!

Perhaps most stunning of all was her collection of fabrics. She had old liberty lawn, cottons, jerseys, silk, upholstery fabric and so many beautiful prints and patterns! She told me she used to buy up scraps and off-cuts on the cheap - in the 1960s you could still buy big bags full of these for next-to-nothing.

She also used to rummage through the bins of posh fabric shops in London and get piles of good quality scraps and trimmings for free! These days it is so hard to find inexpensive fabric, let alone for free.

I came home with a bag full of pretty fabric I just cannot wait to use. It made me really wish I had more time to spend sewing! I think it amuses and delights my mum that I have become just as obsessed as she once was! Getting out some of the materials also inspired her to start making a patchwork quilt again, something she hasn't done for a long time. She says she has less patience these days.

I wanted to end this post with an image of this beautiful old lace. I don't know the date but mum thinks it is really quite old. I feel so incredibly lucky and privileged to be given these materials that money simply couldn't buy - because they come from my mother.

the highs and lows of sewing

On Friday night I made this cushion cover for a naked cushion that had been lying around the house. This lovely tutorial by Polkadot-pretties helped me to work out how to make an envelope-style cover.

I used some of the vintage feed sack material I bought in Austin and wrote about in this post. I thought it was such lovely, decorative fabric that it didn't need any extra embellishment. I just added some lining because the fabric was fairly thin (on the front only - next time I'll do the back too).

The lows: my sewing machine decided to go a little crazy. I had left it all ready to run from last time I sewed, on which occasion everything went smoothly. But for some reason this time there was a kind of disconnect between the top and bottom threads.

No matter what I did, it wouldn't pick up the bottom thread! It was so frustrating! I nearly gave up but in the end just tried using some different thread and suddenly it worked: any sewing experts who want to explain this to me, I'd be eternally grateful!

The highs: it was so satisfying to make something quickly that instantly made a difference to our home and filled a need. I was happy I kept going and didn't give up despite the mysterious machine problems. I also loved using this fabric, knowing it has come from faraway and long ago.

What's more, I learnt that, even though the sizing might be ever-so-slightly on the large side I am actually pretty good at 'winging it' - I made this without making a pattern first, just guessing using the cushion form and a tape measure to check it before the final sewing up. Sometimes on a Friday evening I just want to make something quickly & easily in the simplest way possible!

Now if only my machine would just play nice...!

snail mail, art & friendship

In this post I wrote about the penpal letters my friend Ash and I decided to write to each other on the 1st of each month. A few days ago the beautiful card she made for me finally arrived!

Ash being Ash, her card is a beautiful work of art: an original painting of a sweet redhead drinking tea on a polka-dot background. I love that strand of hair falling into her eyes, her little heart tattoo and how calm she is as she balances all those teacups on her head. I like to call her Miss Teacup. She has pretty blue eyes like the artist who painted her.

I also enjoyed the stamped on the back of the card with its cute little threat! Don't worry, I am not about to take any risks with my derrière: this little lady is going into a frame, with the lovely letter enclosed safely inside. I will love having Miss Teacup on my wall to look at as I drink my many cups of tea each day. If only I had such a pretty collection of teacups!

Above is a sneak (instagram) peek of the card I sent to Ash. You can see more on her blog, here. I realise I should have taken more care with the way I wrote the date on the front (not pictured here). I wanted to mark that date of our first exchange but should have made it prettier - but hey, you live you learn! Our first exchange has been wonderful. I simply cannot wait till 1st March and our next letter day!

While on the subject of snail mail, I also received letters in the post from two other lovely bloggers, Claire and Polly. Claire's pretty letter (above) included some adorable stickers. I love the way Polly's card (below) shows a set of nesting dolls, with a mama matryoshka and three girlies: just like Polly and her girls!

Hooray for snail mail! It may take a little longer to arrive, but it has its own particular pleasures that can't quite be matched by electronic communication.

donut cravings

Fact: I am made of donuts. My mum had an incessant craving for them while she was pregnant with me. I don't know whether this explains why I don't like to eat them. It is rather odd, because I love pretty much anything sweet: except donuts.

whimsical floor cushion by Big Birds Boutique

It's a shame really, since I love the look of donuts, their circular shape, the cute little hole in the middle (in fact traditional donuts in the UK are just circular, with jam hidden in the middle instead of a hole). I think my donut love has been displaced onto cushions: pretty, stripey, donut cushions (like the one above from Big Birds Boutique).

source: design milk

Or these fabulous stripey cushions by Camilla Hounsel Halvorsen - even more donut-like as they are made from upholstered inner tubes and therefore really have a hole in the middle! So appealing, right?

I'd never heard of these large, stripey floor cushions dipping to a button in the middle before but suddenly they are everywhere... and I really want to make one! There is a nice tutorial on the two monkeys fabrics blog. Clearly, the smaller your triangles the rounder the edges will be (and the longer it will take to make...)

Of course this concept can be taken to its logical conclusion: by making a giant cushion that looks just like a donut, with sprinkles, icing and everything. Huckleberry Prairie shares a tutorial for this one on her blog. I am tempted, especially when I see this: 

Awwww! Now I am feeling broody. Suppose I were to get pregnant again... I wonder what my craving would be? With my son it was chocolate milkshakes... but I don't think that would make a great cushion!

I left my soul there...

Last year I shared a post about 10 things I'll always love: the sea was on that list. Whenever I am by the sea I always feel as though I have arrived home: a home in motion, stretching out towards infinity, its feet in the darkness its head in the light.

Biarritz November 2011

'Je ne me sens "chez moi" que sur les bords de la mer. Car je ne saurais me bâtir une patrie que de l'écume des vagues' (Paul Cioran)

('I only feel "at home" by the sea. For I could never construct a homeland for myself except one made from the froth of the waves')

handpainted beach pebbles by Natasha Newton

I love anything to do with the sea or the ocean. Beachcombing is a favourite activity of mine. Picking up pretty shells, wet pebbles and smooth-edged translucent beach glass appeals to the collector in me. They are little connections to the sea that I can hold in my hand.

necklace by Newfoundlander at Heart

So I was delighted to discover that I had won this sweet necklace by Newfoundlander at Heart (thanks to a big birthday giveaway hosted on the Whimsical Poppysmic blog). It is a little glass bottle filled with tiny beachcombed objects, as Margot explains:

"Beachcombed items include: small pebbles, gently tumbled by the rolling tide; colourful snail shells; and cods ears... huh? The white shell like items are small bones found inside a Codfish's head that helps it balance - Newfoundlanders call them Cod's Ears."

I love the idea of these little tide-washed messages in a bottle, travelling to me from a faraway beach! I hear she'll be listing them in her shop soon, so add it to your favourites ;)

starfish aquarium photograph by Rachele of The Nearsighted Owl

I've been delighting in the Winter Beach series of posts on the Nearsighted Owl blog (the beach in Winter is so beautiful, I think). Rachele takes amazing photographs: of the aquarium and of stones her niece found on the beach. I love sea creatures and always try to see them - whether admiring exotic fish for sale at our local garden centre with my little one or snorkelling on a coral reef (just once, Heron Island in Australia - we swam with sharks).

Fish tanks at Scotsdales - a free aquarium visit!

I love this pretty sea creature print by Ashlie Blake (available on Etsy). It really makes me dream of being by the sea and captures something of the childlike happiness that I get from being by the sea (or even just thinking about it!)

This charming print will soon be available as fabric on Spoonflower. I'd so love to wear these sweet creatures to the beach this summer! 


Finally I will leave you with one of my favourite sea songs: "The Sea" by Morcheeba. The image of seagulls stealing ice-creams feels very British to me. While I love to explore any stretch of coastline, I'll always have a soft spot for the British seaside resorts of my childhood memories.

find me elsewhere

Today I'm excited to be guesting on my friend Ashlie's blog, PaintingBliss! (You may remember her recent guest post on The Owl Club).  She invited me to write about re-using things that people usually throw away. It was so much fun scouring the web for ideas and including some of my own too, such as these pinback badges made from chocolate wrappers...

You can read my post HERE!

I was also very flattered to have some gifts I made for Laura featured on her blog, Blue Eyed Night Owl, recently. I love the way she has photographed them. She also shared some other sweet handmade things she received by post. I love seeing what people have made and glimpsing how they put parcels together!

See the full post HERE!

hearts for Haiti

I thought I'd take a moment to tell you about the Share your Heart for Haiti Campaign by Picture a Healthier World (PAHW). This is an organisation that brings together photography enthusiasts and makes their photos available for sale in a bid to raise awareness and money for good causes.

The photograph I contributed is of a page from my failed Sketchbook Project. As photographs go, it is not  technically great, but I do like thing itself: a page of tiny hearts created from trash such as envelopes, sweet wrappers, flyers and receipts, on a gold background.

In fact I like it so much I have used it as the background for one of my buttons (available in the right-hand sidebar) as well as for a forthcoming guest post on PaintingBliss about the re-use of waste items in craft projects.

So it has a lot of personal significance for me. These hearts stand for a lot of things I love: recycling, collage, colour...One of the organisers came across the image on Flickr and invited me to submit it to their project.

The idea is that On March 22 - World Water Day - PAHW will introduce a collage featuring all the submitted heart photos, and 100% of net proceeds from these items will support UNICEF's Haiti 365 project.

The project operates in Haiti to expand water resources to remote communities, supply chlorine tablets to protect families from cholera, and provide latrines to reduce the spread of disease.  Over two years after the earthquake on January 12, 2010, poor sanitation and unclean water continues to needlessly claim the lives of the earthquake's victims.

If you have any heart photos - or ideas for them - you might consider donating one to the collage. 

Alternatively you might consider voting for my photo by "liking" it in the Share your Heart for Haiti Campaign Facebook album. The photo with the most votes will win a $50 Amazon gift card and the PAHW print of his/her choice! Obviously I'd be incredibly grateful for your votes - although I admit there are a lot of pretty photos in the album!

You can vote until midnight on 29th February 2012.