Making an embroidered bobbin candlestick

Making an embroidered bobbin candlestick

Living in West Yorkshire, the landscape is peppered with old mill buildings that tell the story of our industrial past. Some of these mills are vast affairs and reflect the huge scale of the cloth industry in this region. Sadly it is all long gone and while many of the old mills have been restored and repurposed, many also stand deserted and decaying. Not long after we came to this area, I came across these old mill bobbins and I loved how tactile they are, steeped in the history of wool production and heralding a day when we produced high quality cloth here in the north.

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Making a Christmas felted floral centrepiece

Making a Christmas felted floral centrepiece

A Scandinavian Christmas is always my go to idea of how to decorate our home. We lived for 3 years in Stockholm and the sight of tiny candles glimmering through frosted windows, will always stay with me. Everything was beautifully decorated there without any of the garish, cheap and nasty plastic junk that pops up in the shops here. Silver candles and golden stars with natural wreaths and handmade decorations in felt, paper and wood, were what I took away from our time in Scandinavia and this year, I went all out to solve a problem with this candelabra.

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Making Mr. Scrooge

Making Mr. Scrooge

The weeks before Christmas are simply the best. I love all the build up to the celebration and take great pride in decorating my house. I always love to add something homemade to the feast and this year it was Mr. Scrooge.

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Making a Sashiko Christmas Tree

Making a Sashiko Christmas Tree

So Christmas is coming (Yay!) and I am working on some bits and bobs for the festive season, but I wanted to return to something I made late in December last year and didn’t have time to write up a post about. It will be one of the first things I put out this year on December 1st.

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Making a knitted nordic Christmas garland

Making a knitted nordic Christmas garland

Tiny knitted christmas trees adorned with pearl buttons and wooden stars….sounds like a dreamy little project doesn’t it. This is something I have been wanting to make for several years and somehow it always gets left too late and I am not organised with the right sort of wool and it gets relegated to the next year list yet again.

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New Embroidery Pattern : Ski Days

New Embroidery Pattern : Ski Days

As the colder weather encroaches it is lovely to sit by the fire with the some hand stitching and this little project has been so much fun. I know it has been quite a while since I posted a new pattern and this is in part because I have been thinking hard about what direction to take my work in. I often worry that I have such a mish-mash of stuff going on and perhaps it is time to focus things a little. I have always wanted to make embroidery modern and more fun and perhaps more enticing for young people. My daughter inspired this design with a sketch … new to skiing, she is totally smitten and it seems to me that for youngsters it is really a wonderful holiday. I had already decided to make a ‘skating days’ design (more about that to come) so skiing is a natural partner for a new pair of designs.

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Christmas Gift Ideas to sew - a fabric manicure box

Christmas Gift Ideas to sew - a fabric manicure box

I love this time of year, thinking about Christmas gifts and planning what to make. I love to put together something small and handmade for all the girls in our family and thought it would be fun to post some ideas up on the journal. Early last year, I did a post about how to make a little fabric box. It can be used for whatever you like really, but in our case it has become a permanent fixture on the kitchen island where it looks after our nail polish and manicure tools. It has been a real hit. Friends and family alike sit around pottering with the pretty colours and painting their nails and for me, often in the early morning hours I like to sit by the Aga, with a candle and a book and do a ‘home manicure’. Our daughter is starting her first proper job in London next week and in packing up and sorting things out, she asked me for a nail box to take away with her. I was quite surprised but realised just how useful it has been. I made her a pretty one with Rifle Paper co. ‘Wonderland’ fabric and bought her a few nice bits and bobs to go in it. She loves it and we both said what a great idea it was for a Christmas gift, so I revisited it, revamped it and wrote a pdf tutorial.

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The Nutcracker Christmas Tree Skirt Pattern

The Nutcracker Christmas Tree Skirt Pattern

It has been a bizarre week!  Despite the unusual heatwave that has been with us for quite a while, I found myself rummaging around in the garage, lugging boxes of Christmas stuff into the house, putting up the tree and decorating it...taking photos and then putting it all away again - even Basil the cat thought I had lost the plot.  However, it was totally worth it because now I can bring you my new pattern....a Christmas tree skirt.

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Tilda's Patchwork Santa

Tilda's Patchwork Santa

I mean, seriously....isn't he just darling?!?!?!  In fact, this statement would apply to just about anything in the book that he came from -  the latest book from Tilda's Tone Finnanger, 'Sewing by Heart'.  I think the only way to describe it is 'divine'.  Glorious photographs of beautiful hand made things with a Scandinavian flavour - it is an all year around book, with projects for every season.

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The song of winter

The song of winter

I love this time of year....the colours....the chilling air, the early morning sparkle of frost, pulling out favourite sweaters and making soup, but most of all I love the promise of Christmas.    I think winter is the season that I love the most, although I don't believe this was always the case.

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The Elves Stockings

The Elves Stockings

When I was a little girl, my father's work sometimes took him to London. He would travel by train from Yorkshire and on the way home he often brought a small gift for me. He told me that there was a magic barrel situated in Kings Cross Station and he would put in his hand in to see if there was something for me, if I had been good enough.

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