Buy Handmade this Christmas

Inpsired by this lovely video on etsy https://www.etsy.com/blog/uk/2013/11/26/christmas-creative-coats/, I thought I would share a few photos of button making.

All my pieces are handmade by me, with care and thought.

You can buy from me in my etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Bigbluebed
and in my folksy shop http://folksy.com/shops/BigBlueBed

Working...

Working on orders, and new pieces for my shop.

Half Term

Last week was half term and therefore my daughter and I were off school/work. Hoorah!


So we ....

had fun at Halloween.

And we....

went to London.
Up at 6.20am. Got the train. Walked to Borough Markets. Tasted food, Bought fudge. Convent Garden. Silver men sitting. Gold men standing. Giant baubles. Tintin Shop. Dr Martens. Regent Street. Lovely old cars going to Brighton soon. Hamleys. Monster High Doll. Lots of people. Aaagh!  Natural History Museum. Queued in the rain. But worth it. Lovely meal in the restaurant. Well worth a visit.  Round and round the exhibits. Up an escalator into a volcano. Lots of stuffed animals. Is it really a Dodo? Maybe not. Nice museum shop. Harrods sparkling with lights in the rain. Insided toy shop is better than Hamleys. Another Monster High doll.  Pot of tea in the Disney Cafe. Very nice. Christmas shop. Train home. Back home at 10.10pm. Sleep.

And of course in Dr Martens I got my

BOOTS!

Earrings, earrings.

I think the title says it all.  I have been making lots and lots of earrings.  They are all listed in my etsy shop .

I have had great fun looking at colours and beads. Let me share with you what I have made.

I will be making lots more but if you want something similar in a different colour then just let me know.

Patchwork Cushion - Finished

I have made a little pad and pressed the cover, and here is the finished patchwork cushion at home with another bigger fellows.

I used my machine to make the pad but I hand-sewed the whole of the patchwork cushion.

Now, what patchwork shall I make next?

Patchwork Cushion Day 5

It is more or less done.  It needs a bit of tweaking - pressing, some of the fabric cut away along the inside, and the top and bottom should have the tops/bottoms of the hexagons poking out so I will pull these out if I want that look.

 This is the back and I am really happy with it.  I loved the pale fabric and so wanted a large piece of it and I like the way the hexagons either side poke into it.


Tomorrow I will do the tweaking and maybe start the cushion pad to go inside.

Thanks for coming along on this patchwork cushion journey. It has been fun.

Patchwork Cushion Day 4

I sat and looked at it for a while.  It goes very nicely with Maisy Cat on her cushion.

And then I decided what to do.

I didn't want to have cut hexagons on the edge. It looks fine on other works but I didn't fancy it for this.  So I have started to do more patchwork hexagons on the back by adding them as I go. If you look at the right and left side I hope you can see that I have added hexagons and sewed them right side together along the edges.  The left side I have gone a bit further.  So at the end I will have to turn it inside out and it will all work out. Maybe!

There will be the peaks..tips..er. what is the name of a top angle?... of the hexagons but it will be ok as I am going to make my own cushion pad which will just be square.

UPDATE:

Ok, so I didn't explain myself very well, did I?

Here are some more photos which I hope will help and if they don't then you will just have to trust me.

 And to help even more here is a link to a blog where the person explains it much better.

She is making a quilt and I am making a stuffable cushion so obviously I need mine open.

Hope that helps.

Patchwork Cushion Day 3

I haven't got much further on my patchwork.  I had to add another strip as it turned out that I couldn't do maths and it wasn't square.

I have taken out the tacking stitches and paper from the middle hexagons and now all I have to do is decide how I am going to do the border.  And this is the thing that is taking up all my time.  I do not know!

There has been surprise at how fast it has been over day 1 and 2 but the hexagons are not that big at only 4cm at their widest.   I have included a pen in the photo so you can see how small it really is.

Overall I am happy, there are a few bits which could have been sewn better but it is easy to get into a nice rhythm when sewing, and sewing the hexagons into a strip and then sewing strips together makes it go quickly.

So today (which is now Day 4) I have to decide about the border.

Patchwork Cushion Day Two

I know it seems like Day Two has come around quickly but worry not.  Day One was Saturday and Day Two was Sunday. I finished the patchwork  too late to take a photo so here is one I took this morning before I did any more to it.

I have another strip ready to add and then I need to think about the borders and backing and indeed whether it is big enough.


I do like this but next time I am going to use some brighter fabrics.

Patchwork Cushion - Day One

On Saturdays the girl has drama club so we bus down and whilst she has her club I enjoy 2 hours of me time which involves window shopping, real shopping, tea or coffee and a sit down in the library.

I love the library in Palmerston Road and I didn't think I was going to.  It moved into the old Woolworth's shop and it has a cafe and it is loud.  Not horrendously loud but a rather nice noise.  It made me realise that people talking, sometimes a baby club singing, ladies having a chat in the cafe is all a perfectly acceptable background noise.  In libraries where everything is dead quiet then someone speaking comes as a shock.  But in a library where there is already a level of noise, it doesn't. So I can sit in a chair with a coffee and happily read my book.

This Saturday was the first Saturday of the month and it is when Love Southsea hold a market with a mixture of stalls including lots of handmade.  It was also a Saturday when I was a bit skint so I will be popping along next time with more cash.  However poor I was I still seemed to squeeze some money out of my purse for some fabric. And I did.  I bought a few pieces including these three which I knew I was going to use in patchwork.

 I have been doing some patchwork with a couple of children at work which made me realise how much I fancied having another go myself. I have never used a sewing machine for patchwork as I don't really know how.  But I shall one day. Meanwhile I do enjoy hand sewing and patchwork is a great project to do in odd times and to take to the cafe with me next time I go.


I never knew until this weekend that this type of patchwork was called English paper piecing.  It is the only patchwork I ever ever done and I think I was taught it as a child at school.







It is an addictive craft and I kept sewing until very late (plus I spent a while on Pinterest compiling a Patchwork Board). 

 So here is what I have finished at the end of Day One.

Early Morning - Warning Contains Spider

For the past couple of weeks we have had a spider in our garden.  Obviously there must be lots and lots but this one has made itself a bit more prominent.  It has weaved its web between two trees/bushes above our back gate.  It is a shared garden so there are about 4 flats worth of people who potentially might go through.

But spider is still there. She is high enough for us to pass under and if her web gets a bit too low then we just break that bit.  But we have left her in peace.

I have tried, unsuccessfully, to get a photo of her to show you but it has been too windy, or too bright and mostly I am not good at photography.  But here is one I took the other day followed by one I took this morning.

As I opened the front door I spotted this foolish snail who was just in the right position to be trodden on.  I took a photo before I moved him.

 

Lastly I took this photo of a dandelion clock.  It is not a good macro shot as the focus is a bit off but I think it captures the seed head nicely.

I say early morning but it was after eight o'clock and just before I took the girl to school.  I suppose I have to get up a bit earlier to get nice sparkly dew shots.

Tintin Birthday Cake for the Greatest Fan

You might not know (where have you been?) that my daughter is a huge Tintin fan. With her 10th birthday coming up she stated that she wanted a Tintin birthday cake.   Of course, I said.

Several weeks later panic sets in.  Mostly due to my sister who I had hoped would help, being on holiday. How dare she! 


I was getting more and more worried.  I knew I was going to buy a ready made, ready iced cake (thank you Asda) but what to put on top.  If you google Tintin birthday cakes you will see some wonderful examples.  Panic!

But serendipity!

My lovely daughter said she would help. So I bought the cake, I bought packs of ready made icing, I bought tubes of stuff.  And the day before her party we did it.  WE DID IT! Together.

The cake was much admired.

New Earrings - Now in Stock and More Coming Soon

Here are some new earrings which are the first in a new range of earrings which I have been working on.  They are a variation on my handmade dorset buttons - using some of the same techniques but appealing to those who like the idea but do not want buttons (why not? You should as my buttons are lovely!).

Pink with Turquoise Glass Beads Fibre Earrings

Blue and gold sequins Fibre Earrings

They are available now in my etsy shop - click here.

If you love colour and colour combinations and want me to make you a pair of earrings to your colour choice then just let me know.

Wordless Wednesday - Foxes