It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

I have to admit it but this year I'm feeling so excited about Christmas. Seeing twinkling Christmas tree lights in windows of homes as I walk home, sampling mulled cider, and hearing Christmas music on the radio has got me into the spirit of things. This year I've decided to make a special effort to rekindle the magic of Christmas.

I hope that the countdown to the big day is full of joy and happiness, a time to enjoy traditions, and a chance to spend quality time with friends and family. I've been inspired even more than normal by doing Journal Your Christmas, a brilliant scrapbooking and journaling e-course run by Shimelle. Thinking about a Christmas manifesto at the start of December has been encouraged on the course. For me one of the core elements of my manifesto was to think about Christmas traditions and my favourite Christmas memories. I decided to try and make this Christmas even more special, by starting new traditions, recapturing old ones and creating new magical memories...

I'm rekindling the magic of making decorations for the home...I finished a Christmas cross stitch pattern from CrossStitcher Issue 244, Christmas 2011. I started this last year but never finished it. Take a look...

It is so pretty I want to make another one! I'm going to put this on display every Christmas to remind myself to take time and make things by hand and to relax.

I'm rekindling the magic of having a stocking...I'm making a stocking for Mr C and one for me too, so that we can recapture the fun of having a stocking. The fabric has been bought and over the next few weeks these fabrics will be turned into stockings, I can't wait to make them and start a new tradition of finding fun presents for our stockings.

I'm rekindling to joy of making and giving handmade Christmas cards...I've set aside time to make cards, which is something I haven't managed to achieve for a few years. I've made around 20 Christmas cards so far and still have quite a few to make! Here is a sneaky peak of what I have been creating...

I'm enjoying getting into the festive spirit listening to carol singers and sampling mulled cider and mulled wine...This weekend we've been getting festive in a local pub with a log fire and lovely Christmas tree, and seeing our friend Jo sing her heart out at a carol concert.

There are plenty more things to look forward to during the run up to Christmas...we need to decorate our home and put up the tree, see friends and sing carols by candlelight.

What are you doing to make it feel like Christmas? Are you making any gifts or decorations?

Handmade and stitched with love - My first quilt

You may have wondered where I’ve been for a few weeks! Well, life took over a little...as did finishing my top secret project! I’m delighted to let you know that today I can do the big reveal…

Since April I’ve been working hard to create my first quilt! Inspired by the taster day I did at the start of the year, and making the quilted sewing machine cover for my Mum, I fancied making a quilt on a bigger scale. It was a huge challenge for me and I had to do quite a bit of research before I got stuck in. Making a quilt has quite a few stages, all of which I didn’t know about until I started. Thanks to a few great books and blogs I discovered recently I managed to work my way through the complicated parts! Plus some great videos by The Missouri Star Quilt Company gave me the confidence to dive in and have a go.

Before I started this big project I had in mind what I wanted to make. I wanted to create something useful that could be a gift and something quite special all in one go. My friends Charlie and Vic had their first baby, Olivia, in April. In the months running up to Olivia being born I started buying fat quarters of fabrics I thought would work with the nursery colour scheme. Choosing the fabrics was such an exciting, and addictive, part of the project. 


...After many months of sewing I can reveal my first quilt! Ta-dah!!!

Here you can see the quilted squares and a few of the fabrics close up...

and a hand stitched label for the quilt on the back...

and you can just see the alphabet fabric I used to create the white border next to the binding...

I decided to hand deliver the quilt last weekend as I couldn’t bear the thought of it going missing in the post. I was so thrilled to watch them both open the quilt that I had carefully wrapped with brown paper and green ribbon. Seeing their eyes light up when they opened it was magical, and when they realised that it was handmade by me, it really was one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever experienced when giving a gift. Watching them looking at the colours, spotting all the details I’d thought of and included made me very happy.

I’d spent time choosing fabrics that would work with the colours of the nursery, adding a few ‘educational’ things like animals, different colours, patterns and shapes and the alphabet as choices for the squares. Watching their faces so happy (and slightly shocked!), I knew at that moment that every hour spent doing research, thinking, planning, shopping, cutting, patching, quilting and hand sewing was really worth it. The reaction from my friends brought a lump to my throat and when they told me it was one of the most beautiful gifts they have been given, it made me realise how very special handmade gifts are.  

Olivia’s quilt was stitched with so much love. I cant count the number of hours that I’ve put into thinking and making it, however I know now that every hour was worth it. I hope that Olivia uses her first quilt for lots of thing as she grows up, firstly as a play mat, a blanket to sit on for trips to the park in the sunshine…later as a snuggly cover for trips in the car, or even as a quilt for her bed.

If you do one thing this year make something as a gift for someone special. I can assure you that you will feel a real sense of achievement when you learn something new and see the joy in people’s faces when they open something handmade and stitched with love.

...In the next few days I’ll update you on how I made the quilt in a bit more detail.

Getting creative with fabric – special cushions for a special couple!

Take a look at this recent project in the pictures below that I have been working on with a few of my friends. I’ve been desperate to spill the beans but had to wait as it was a secret gift!

For a number of months a top secret dinner party had been planned for our friend Beth for the week before her wedding. A few friends and I wanted to create a special gift for Beth to take home after the party.  A personal and handmade gift was the plan and after some discussion and a few weeks of procrastination and project changes, we decided on a set of two cushions with the bride and groom’s name appliqued onto their own cushion.

In addition to their name on their own cushion we wanted to add some images that would mean something to them both. We decided to create a few embroidered pieces including a white snowflake, map of New Zealand, Cornish pasties and dog paw prints to form the four corners of the cushion. All four symbolise parts of their life so far that mean something close to their hearts. I embroidered the outline of a map of New Zealand and chose French knots for the simple design. I was delighted to do this part of the cushion as the country is close to my heart to as I travelled there at the start of the year.

 

My friend Kate found the fabulous patterned fabric squares on etsy and snapped them up quick to make a basis of the cushion, without these I really don’t think they would have looked as they do.  After a few evenings of hardwork and deliberation we put together the cushions using my Mum’s sewing machine. We made the cushions almost identical on the opposite side using a blue theme. Sarah found the checked fabric from an old shirt and ingeniously cut out the pockets for the cushion. We put a message in each pocket for the bride and groom on each cushion wishing them good luck for their lives together.

After weeks of waiting the day arrived for the party and we got together early to prepare the room and food, laying out glasses, blowing up cream balloons, adding silver snowflake table confetti to tables and lighting lots of tea lights. I made a heart garland to hang on the mirror in my lounge for Beth to take away with her too.

 

The girls and I were on the edge of our seats when we presented to Beth the large squidgy parcels wrapped up in brown paper and gold ribbon. Let’s just say they went down well! Even the groom liked the colours of his cushion as they matched the colours of the football team he supports, Norwich City.

The cushions were meant to be fun and hopefully will be out on display even if they are in the spare room! I think we successfully made something special for them to keep.

It certainly has inspired me to try a bit of quilt making on a larger scale and get stuck in to more crafty things for the home. I’ve started a love affair with my sewing machine...watch this space for new projects that will appear next year. I don’t know what to make first!

Crafty beginnings...

I have my Mum to thank for kick starting my interest in crafts. We spent lots of time when I was younger trying out a mixture of small projects, including making felt finger puppets, French knitting, calligraphy, pressing flowers, quilling, tapestry, creating Fimo models, and making Fingermouse puppets! I did think about trying others too, but never did...lace making springs to mind! My interest in making things went through cycles, however when I as a teenager I chose to study textiles at school rather than cooking or woodwork, so I got stuck in to creating projects regularly for a few years. I loved the textile lessons and the hours spent trying lots of techniques and creating projects using fabric and thread. I have fond memories of the final projects I made, a cushion and an embroidery panel. I earned the title of ‘the French knot queen’ by a friend at school, as one of my final projects involved an over ambitious desire to fill a large space of the embroidery panel with French knots…it took weeks to finish! I hold a real affection towards French knots and I’m sure that they will feature as a key stitch in future embroidery projects. When I finished school I did still have an interest in crafts which has stayed with me, but it was something that I have never acted on. Over the years I have collected magazines, lots of patterned paper and card, beads and ribbon samples but never dedicated time to making things with my supplies!

In August, with my desire to get started with something crafty, I mulled over the possibilities and I decided to start my craft journey with knitting. My mum taught me to knit when I was very young. Having completely forgotten the basic knit stitch, added to the fact that I had never cast on before, I had to work out what to do to get started. I turned to the internet to see what I could uncover to get me started…and wow there is a world of tutorial videos out there! After watching the videos and reading information about how to cast on, doing the knit and purl stitches, couldn’t wait to get started. I knitted a square (with added holes!) reasonably quickly and I had a good feeling about it, I definitely knew I’d made the right choice for the first skills to learn (again). I was so into it I signed up for a 6 week knitting course this Autumn and learnt so much more…I’ll tell you about that soon.

If you are looking to start knitting I recommend YouTube for great videos as a starting point…hopefully I will be able to find some good books that I can tell you about over the next few months as I continue to learn. So that’s where it all began…