Dooshky, dooshky, dooo!!!

Here are a few more recipes that I have made over the past week. There are a few more, but time is precious (and I may not cook for another month!!!).

At weekend my daughter and I made some vanilla fudge. I had fudge on the brain when I read Florence's blog a few weeks ago (they had made peanut butter fudge). However, not being a peanut butter fan, I wasn't even going to give the recipe a try. Instead I went for plain old vanilla fudge. Mmmmmm.

Have a look here for my recipe.

Sorry, ran out of time. You will have to wait a little longer for the Chicken and Leek Pie (actually, it was Quorn and Leek as my hubby doesn't eat meat- and we re-named it love pie..... wait and see!!!). You can see where my priorities are when it comes to recipe sharing!!!

Last night I got all stitchy!

One minute I was browsing blogs, happily seeing what other people were up to, the next minute I was frantically snipping bits of paper (and my finger!!!), sticking and creating pretty random stitches, including some French Knots (which I love to do, I find them very therapeutic?!!). Each of the cards are different, and I thoroughly enjoyed the randomness of them after the restraints of stitching pinnies (which I still need to label) and doorstops. I am just hoping that other people will like them enough to buy so that I have an excuse to make some more (p.s you can buy them here).

New Doorstops

I have been busy on my sewing machine the past few days and have managed to finish (and put a few up for sale in my Folksy shop) some of my doorstops. I have been meaning to make some for a while as they went like hot cakes around Christmas. My daughter loves them, the first time she saw them she said 'oooo mummy I love your handbags'!!! I tend to use recycled fabrics for these, denim is good because it is strong. Here are the ones I have completed.

Although I do genuinely love the others, this one has to be my favourite. I just love this floral vintage fabric.

Just out of curiosity, do you have a favourite, and why?

Cushion Tutorial Part 1

I was commissioned to make some cushions for a lady. She didn't want to go and buy some from a department store, and had found some fabric that she wanted to use. I was recommended to her from someone who had previously bought table linen from me (hooray!). After having a chat with her and looking at some pics, she decided that she would use her patterned fabric bought from Laura Ashley (who have a lovely collection of fabric, you can have a peep here) to make some simple plain cushions.

This is it made up. A tutorial on how to make this cushion can be found on my new 'Tutorials and recipes for lovely crafty things' page on the right-hand side, or you can click here.

She also had a lovely mucky pink piece of linen and some natural linen, and had told me on the phone previously that she loved shell buttons (I just so happen to have a stash of them so took them along with me). She'd wanted to use pink, but her husband had objected. I suggested she just used a strip and that we could incorporate the buttons onto the strip.....

..... this is what I came up with.

Both went down a treat with her and her hubby (I am sure that her little boy, who has just started moving around, will love making cushion mountains out of them!!!!).

I will post a tutorial for this in the next week or so for anyone feeling a little more adventurous after making a really simple cushion.

Happy stitching.

Recycle, recycle, recycle

I have a problem. I hate throwing fabric away. Even if they are really teeny bits, I find it very difficult to head for the bin with them (even though that is where some of them belong!!). I also have fabric that I have reclaimed from items of clothing, often not big enough to do that much with. I decided over Easter that I would start cutting out triangles from my scraps and make them into bunting. I love bunting. It looks so cute flying about in the wind, and reminds me of the street parties as a young child! Ahh nostalgia. I particularly love the pink bunting that I have made as there are loads of bits of fabric that I have been unable to part with from garments my daughter has grown out of. What a great way of keeping bits of your children's things. Anyway. I did go a bit mad and made a little more than needed, so have put some up for sale in my Folksy shop.

A funny old week.

This week has been a funny old week. My husband took some time off work so that we could do stuff together whilst school was closed for the holidays, which was good. We played games, I got out in the garden and did a bit of digging! We also had a trip to the Sealife Centre at Blackpool!! Hmm.... Blackpool... funny old place. I struggled even thought the sun was shining. The Sealife Centre was okay, although I wouldn't bother going back to it, and the kids enjoyed it. Very expensive for the 1.5 hours we spent in there, and we had 1/2 price tickets! Anyway... a picnic by the sea and a donkey ride ended it nicely before we escaped.

The following day, brought trauma. Another beautiful day and a broken arm!!! A relaxing wander through the woods... tea at the local pub... and then a trip in an ambulance with my daughter who broke her arm (sooooo obviously broken- makes my stomach turn thinking about it!) falling off the monkey bars, and an over night stay in hospital while she got fixed up. Anyway all plastered, and we are very relieved it was just her arm.

I finished the week with a trip to Drumcroon Gallery to preview

the new exhibition (I was reluctant to leave my babe as my husband was working but mum insisted and I'm glad she did), Textile Narratives. My favourite part of the exhibition was the work done by an artist called Val Jackson (you can see a little more of her work via this link). Her work for this exhibition explored her 1950's childhood and growing into adulthood through the 1960's using the medium of a study of clothing worn during these times.

Val uses various machine stitching and layers of silk, metallic gauzes, tissues and collected scraps to create fantastic pieces of historical memorabilia. They really are worth a visit if you are in the area. Here are a couple of pictures, but you really do need to see them to appreciate them.

I loved this portrait. Fab.

New Recipe Page

I have decided to put a recipe page on my blog. I love cooking (which is where my thing about pinnies has come from) so thought it would be nice to share some of the recipes that I use (I have loads so it may take some time!). I will try and update on a regular basis, although cooking, sewing and snipping at bits of paper may prevent it from being as regular as I would like.

Todays recipe is for the yummy fruit tealoaf me and my daughter made this afternoon. You can click on the link above, or on the tool bar at the left hand side. Let me know what you think.

Here is ours.....

Afternoon at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

I crossed the border earlier in the week to spend a few days at my sisters in Yorkshire. The weather was kind enough to allow us to spend a few hours having a wander around Yorkshire Sculpture Park. This park really is a must for anyone in the area. You pay £4 for your parking and that is it, unless of course you then want to spoil yourselves with a cup of tea and cream scone at the end of the stroll as we did!!! It is a perfect place to take children and a picnic on glorious sunny days. Lots to see and plenty of open space to run around in. There are also often activities for children during holiday periods.

Here are a few of the things that took my fancy.

Sculptures by Peter Randall Page. I also loved some of his print work in one of the indoor galleries.

I was dragged in to touch a water feature in the conservatory by my little girl who had remembered it from our visit last year and just loved the pink flowers on the bendy branches.....

.... as I glanced over my shoulder when I was leaving I saw this....

...and had to have a closer look...

... and closer still.

The artist Sophie Ryder, had used metal objects in the castings. A great one to look at with children.

More of Sophie's work

This one has to be one of my favourites though. I know, it doesn't look like much, but you have to be there to experience this. The first time I saw this I was intrigued. As we walked across the grass all we could see were loads of people jumping and running around, and looking quite barmy. When we got closer we understood why. Inside the dome, where the little pink jumpered one is standing, there are planks. When you run and jump on

these planks, you make music. It truly is magical... and then leads you onto a fabulous walk through the under growth.

And for the novelty lamb photo. A must when you are out and about this time of year..... ahhh, aren't they cute. I just love their springy legs!

I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow sing a rainbow too.....

Red and yellow and pink and blue, purple and orange and blue (and turquoise, and pale lemon, and white!!!) la la la la laaa laaa, la la laa laa, la la la la laaaa!!!!! Oh what joy I have had making my first ever patchwork. I saw this patchwork in a recent(ish) addition of Sew Hip, and just had to make it. I didn't really think that patchwork was up my street, but it has been a joy to complete. After ordering my beautiful fabric from the little lavender patch .....

.... I set about cutting my rectangular pieces using my trusty scissors and a tape measure!

Once cut, and I had worked out where they were going I sewed them together to form squares.

This was then laid out on the floor (you may have noticed that the images are quite dark. This is because it was a job that had to be done at night once little feet had retired along with numerous toys!) before piecing together the strips for sewing.

The squares were pieced together diagonally ready for stitching.

Once I had stitched my square together to form strips, I then stitched the strips together and trimmed to form a ... I was going to say square, but it is actually slightly shorter on one side.

This was the bit I wasn't really looking forward to. I quilted and backed my patchwork, put binding around the edge and ........

...... ta daaa. This is what I ended up with. Oh how pleased I am with myself. I love it, and for a first attempt, I think I have done myself proud. Hmmmm ... what will be my next personal project?

Let me know what you think and if you have any quilting hints or tips.