Pretty crafty home

For some time I have been reading Sandra's Cherry Heart blog, loving her crafting and sewing, but also inspired by her idea to make a pretty craft home in 2012.  As I have mentioned before we have a 60 year old, modest little home and I love ideas to help make it as nice as possible, so I have joined in with Sandra.  I have put her button on my side bar if you are interested.  And for my first pretty crafty task I took the time today to hang my cross stitch with some pretty china and some family photos.  It has brightened up a little spot in our hall.  I hope to get a new (old but newly painted!) shelf up in the kitchen soon and renovations in our bedroom will start soon too.

As far as sewing, I have dusted off my Farmer's Wife blocks and made four more, they are:  #77 Seasons: #74 Ribbons; #98 Waterwheel; #71 Puss in the Corner.  And I am slowly working my way through the blocks for the border of Charlie's quilt, I have appliquéd four of the ten flowers.  I have a quiet evening in front of the fire tonight as Paul and the kids have taken my father-in-law to the All Blacks and Irish test match so hopefully I will get some more blocks made, Wendy xx

Friday Night Sew In

One of the things I value is the older people in my life, my parents, grandparents and the lovely older people that are part of my church family.  I value the tradition of faith that they have held fast to and passed on.  Tomorrow we have a Celebrating Age service at church and a special lunch to honour them.  Which brings me to FNSI ... although I was late getting my name down for it I had a very productive evening, making twenty Criss-Cross coasters to gift to each of the oldies on Sunday.  The pattern is from the lovely Allsorts blog and they were quite quick and easy to make.  With the addition of a mug and a hot chocolate sachet I think it makes a nice little gift.

Speaking of gifts, I won a magazine give-away on my friend Kristen's blog and it arrived this week all the way from America.  Sweet Kristen was so generous to add in some amazing scissors, some note-cards with a 'W' (perfect!) and some cute erasers.  Thanks so much Kristen, I love my gifts. 

I have done some other little bits of sewing during the week but that will have to wait for another time, I must get back to my Saturday chores, Wendy xx

Introducing Bramble Bunny

Bramble Bunny - Cameron-James Designs

Lumiere table runner - Moda Bake Shop pattern

Pinwheel table runner

Bramble Bunny is finished, even down to a pompom tail.  He is the first knitted toy I've made so there are areas I could improve on however I think he's pretty cute.  I'm linking with Kandipandi's Pad for June's monthly make.

The very lovely Josie mentioned the table runner in the previous post so I thought I would show it properly.  In 2010 I was starting to get back into sewing and crafting and these two table runners were among my projects.  I loved making them and really enjoyed the process of hand quilting them, about this time I realised I much prefer hand sewing to machine quilting!  I also love the table runners because they help hide the dust!  The last photo is a project I made for Mother's Day with my two little nieces, a green heart!  And good news, Paul put the last coat of paint on some of my little projects so I hope I will be able to able to show them soon, Wendy xx

Penny rug catch up, tiny quilts and knitting

This week I decided to concentrate on catching up with the Home Sweet Home penny rug which is a free BOM with Melody.  Part 4 was the addition of a white picket fence and three bird houses, my wonky building was back in evidence unfortunately!  Part 5 was to add an autumn tree and a clothesline with two mini quilts.  The mini quilts were a bit tricky, I am making my penny rug at 70% so my quilts are only about 2x2", which meant very tiny bits of fabric.  They are not perfect but I think they look okay!  The penny rug is starting to look like quite a busy little village now and we are half way which is exciting.  As for the knitting, well I have been feeling like picking up my needles for some time now with the intention of making something useful like a scarf or cardy, instead I have started a pattern just for the fun of it!!  Can you guess what it is?  Wendy xx