Wedding loveliness and a celebration give-away

Well it's been an exhausting, exciting week.  Thursday was Dan's 22nd birthday but this was rather overshadowed by .....

... the wedding here at last, and as you can see we were lucky to have the best sunny day for a while.

The happy couple were stunning and they had worked so hard to produce a beautiful handmade vintage wedding.  Invitations, order of service, place names,  table plans were all handprinted using decoration from vintage music.

Everyone had a vintage cup to take home (we bought 100 over the past year) and they even made their own teabags with a tiny label saying "drink me"

 

The flowers, arranged by a friend, were beautiful vintage English country garden.

 

A vintage leather suitcase lined with music for the table seating

 

Embroidered serviettes ...

 

Dan and his best man my step-son Chris .. how handsome are they?

and there was even a photo-booth for a bit of dressing up!

 

... and finally the promised photo of my dress (Vogue pattern  4260 from the 50s).  I didn't get a very good photo I'm afraid, but I got loads of complements (even from the young vintage wearers!) and I felt very proud and pleased that I had made my own dress, also great fun to dance in with my fluffy petticoat.

 

We had a wonderful day, though I could do with a holiday to recover, and in the spirit of celebration here is the promised giveaway.  There are three prizes which I hope appeal to a range of crafters.

 

Prize a: for the dressmakers: 4 patterns, including this vintage vogue pattern and 1 metre of some really soft, pink fabric, hopefully enough to make a blouse

 

 

Prize B: for the knitters; 3 balls of Noro Silk Garden and 2 balls of Katia Temis

 

 

 

Prize C for the sewing crafters an assortment of liberty style fabric, a kit for making cute Christmas decorations and Helen Philipps fantastic cross stitch book.

 

 

To enter just leave a comment stating which prize you would like to win.  You can enter for all 3 but just put your preferred order of gift.  Entries welcome from anywhere in the world and followers will get an extra entry.  Entries close September 15th, 2013.

 

So that's it from a much calmer household and next week back to an update on my sewing and knitting and plans for an Autumn wardrobe.

 



 

50th Post and Give-away

Well here I am on 50 posts already and as promised a bit of celebration by sharing a few goodies.  First you may remember I knitted 2 Isis and Giotto shawls and I knitted two because one is to give away.  Hopefully one of you will enjoy a bit of snuggly warmth.

By the way if you ever want to see all my knitted projects pop over to my ravelry page here.  The winner will also get a choice of books, either Helen Phillip's lovely cross-stitchn projects or a rather wacky Alice in Wonderland (which you will like if you like Mollie Makes.

There's also some fabric, a vintage tray cloth, chocolates and some buttons and binding.

 There will also be a second place which will have a book, two balls of wool (enough to knit a scarf) and some other suprises.

To enter all you need to do is leave a comment - and if you are a follower you will get an extra entry!  Good chance of winning so have ago.  The draw for the winner will take place on 19th November.

What else I have been up to.  Still working on my cross-stitch, which seems to be taking ages.  Sometimes I have enjoyed making a project and not been too happy with the result, when I've been really lucky I've enjoyed the making and the result.  This one, I love the result, but not enjoying the process as much because it is very slow.  Using 18 count Aida rather than 14 has really slowed me down (not to mention not so easy for my poor old eyes to see!) but I think it will be worth it in the end.

I've also finished my Mollie Makes pinnie!  After getting MollieMakes for over a year this is the first thing I have made!  I really loved this fabric which is by Michael Miller  and you can get from here.  I  enjoyed making this - though I think you can probably spot the bib is a little big.  I also did get a bit lost with the instructions and sort of made it up in the end.    Good practice too, as I intend to have a bash at making clothes soon (wide-leg trousers here I come!)

And because I had a new pinny I thought a bit of baking was in order.  I used my lovely new vintage TG Green mixing bowl, bought at the vintage fair last week.

.. and whipped up a batch of sticky toffee traybakes (this is a great recipe) and from the TV series I've been enjoying (The Home of Fabulous cakes) some blueberry, yoghurt cupcakes ... displayed on a vintage cake stand (also bought at the fair).

I didn't eat these all myself and there have been a few cakes given to friends and colleagues.  I also enjoyed a trip to the cinema to see Skyfall (the lastest Bond).  Theres something about Bond films which take me right back to being young!  Lots of action, quite a few laughs, a good baddy and of course Daniel Craig isn't bad either!

.... and we've had every season here in Cumbria   ... you can just about see the snow on the fells here and the rainbow after the rain (not to mention the sleet which had just fallen and some spots of lovely sun).

Hoping you have had some sunny, crafty spells to enjoy too!

Reasons to be cheerful (part 2)

As previously mentioned another couple of treats came ... some more Debbie Bliss wool  (lousy photo but you get the idea)

More about what I am going to use this for later.  I also bought my first teapot!  Yes, I've always managed with a mug and a bag in the past, but I had this vision of a pot of tea in the garden, a good book and some sunshine.  So the pot arrived ... lovely ... I'm very into the vintage postmark look and love this teapot from Greengate.  It is, perhaps, a little big for one, so I'll just have to drink lots.  On Saturday it was sunny and what better way to christen my pot than move into the garden for a restful cuppa ... OK that was rather optomistic because the wind in Cumbria has been anything but restful

So as I was attempting to take a quick photo my vintage embroidered tablecloth was taking off and the next shot was as it landed in the cup of tea and I had to quickly rescue my pot incase it took off too!

The wind added an additional challenge to the weekend walks and Rosie adopted a wind-swept look ...

Weather aside it has been a good month; what colour!

I've just loved enjoying all these!  I've also had a successful making month.  I have made:

My first quilt

a stuffed rabbit

2 easter hearts

1 needlecase and 3 pincushions

a knitted jacket for me

a knitted baby cardigan

An hyacinth cross-stitch

and almosts finished a baby sampler

Wow ...I'm impressed with the quantity even if the quality wasn't always quite there. 

I've had two lovely weeks with Dan and Gemma and some lovely days out.  So all in all great!!  Hope May turns out as well.

So back to the wool.  I came across a fair-isle jumper pattern and suddenly felt an urge to have a go.  Now this is quite strange as the only fair-isle I have attempted before was a little smaller (and I seem to remember actually thinking I couldn't keep going for a whole adult garment).  This is a pattern from the lovely http://www.maryjanestearoom.com/ (some of the loveliest photos on the internet).



So here I am for some reason very tempted, perhaps a fair-isle jumper is the macaron of the cooking world ... a real challenge.  Anyway the wool would be a big investment ,so I made a deal with myself.  If I enjoyed knitting some handwarmers then I would go ahead.  So here I am almost finished

Generally I have enjoyed it.  My usual lack of attention to the pattern and not enough care in checking the row is right, has resulted in having to pull back quite a lot of rows (this is a lesson I need to learn) and I found making the edges neat difficult, but overall I am pleased and yes I'm going to give the jumper a go (and as you can tell by the opening photo I have actually bought half the wool).

Finally my day has been made by reading the lovely comments made by Gillian (http://www.talesfromahappyhouse.com/) who won the runner's up prize in my give-way.  I felt almost famous reading it and it's increased my confidence no end - I feel able to actually call myself a crafter.  I'm loving this blogging.... it's really brought something to my life (woops sorry to sounds a bit corny). 

Have a happy May.

weekend fun and Give away winner

So I've had a fairly productive weekend.  I finished my Louisa Harding jacket, which is very chunky and so has only taken just over a week.  I'm reasonably happy and will definitely wear it ....

I realised that although I have knitted a few garments throughout my life - I didn't actually finish many of them and I find the making up a bit nerve wracking!   I have now discovered matress stitch and things have improved a lot so I did OK with the making-up here, although I really do find that hard and this was very thick wook with an uneven slub cotton running through it which I had to remove to use for sewing up.  The pattern had a very complicated knitted band but I went for a crochet picot edge again using a chain of 3 and extending this to 5 for the button loops.  My knitting confidence has raised a little and I am going to try some fair isle handwarmers and if that goes OK, who knows, maybe a fair isle jumper.

Gemma and I tried to make macarons... and I do say tried.  We didn't get the right texture, not runny enough, and although we were making 14 chocolate ones, after a bit too long in the oven only 3 were edible!  They all tasted OK and we are not downhearted but will try again soon.  It's interesting to have a bit of a technical challenge.

I bought a magazine I have never bought before, Sew Home, mainly because it had some free fabric charm squares and some makes from Helen Phillips whose work I really like.  You may remember when I made my quilt I struggled a bit with making all the edges meet accurately, so I decided to have a go a the little pin cushion in the mag with the free fabrics.  As I was making the 2 pieced sides I thought it wasn't really needed to have two pieced sides, so decided to make 2 and then to have a runner up prize in my giveaway.  It was still quite difficult for me ... don't know why  .... but I tried hard and hope they aren't too bad!  (Quite tiny though).  I do think I would find this level of technique in large quilting items quite challenging!  The magazine said it should take 45 minutes to make ..... I think it took nearly that to sew up the opening and the buttons on!

Winners

So I have drawn the winner of my giveaway which is ..... Trudy and for a runner-up Gillian.  So send me your addresses (try through my profile and if this doesn't work leave a comment and I reply with my email- as I'm not sure how it works).  Hope the items are OK!  I will have more in future.

I seem to be getting into the habit of a photo of Rosie in most blogs .... so here it is, bathtime ....

Spring Giveaway

So I have bravely decided to have a giveaway, for no better reason than to celebrate spring coming and how much I am enjoying blogging!  I only started crafting just over a year ago - I had had some pretty difficult years and I can't tell you what a difference both crafting and feeling part of a community has made.  I have got so much out of cross-stitching, knitting, crocheting and sewing.  I love buying the materials, deciding what to do next and reading others' blogs.  In fact I feel that I can once again look forward to something.  I've been blogging since January and it's great, infact I would say it is now urging me to do more ...just so that I have something interesting to write about in my blog!  Can only be good.  Anyway to the giveaway ...

.. to include Zakka Style book, some fat quarter, ribbon, buttons and because I thought there should be something I made (and this is the bit which is nerve-wracking, please remember I am new to the game and definitely not up to the standard of the lovely things many of you produce) - a needlecase and pin-cushion from the lovely Helen Phillip's Simple Sewn gifts book.  There may also be a surprise.  To enter leave a comment and if you are a follower (or join) you will get 2 entries.  Obviously you have a very good chance of winning and I am happy to post anywhere in the world (as I am very excited to see from the data that I have had some hits from over the globe).  I will draw the winner on Sunday 22nd April.

On the making front I made an Easter rabbit ... liking the little fluffy jumper ...

... and bought some more lovely baby cashmero wool (think I'm obsessed with this wool) to have another try at a baby jacket (photos in next post) - this is photographed on a vintage hand embroidered table cloth bought on Sunday at Arnside Vintage Fayre (for £8 a bargain).

Finally just a few photos from a wonderful walk we had in Silverdale (yes as beautiful as it sounds) ...

... and this is what Rosie thought ... it's such a joy to watch her when she is out ... she is so fast for a little dog and so joyous ...

Well back to work tomorrow.  Hope you had a lovely break.