I know it's been a while since I posted anything, but working on a website and new patterns is so much more work than I ever imagined. Anyhow, as it is still under construction - and as I am wholly tired of staring at a computer screen - I decided to actually do some sewing for a change! This little project was inspired by the recent BBC adaptation of War & Peace. Did you see it? It was totally wonderful and it reminded me of our Moscow days.
Read Morewell, what do you think? Pretty darn cute? It is surprisingly pleasing on the eye - I am not sure I would have believed it really. It's not perfect though (for a start I got the text print upside down) - I learnt a few things about working with faux leather, along the way ... as you do....
* You can't unpick it - once your sewing machine needle has gone through it, it is marked permanently, so sew carefully
* You can't iron it - it melts....I KNOW!
* You need to find a way to hold your seams open on the inside to avoid bulky seams. I searched on the internet for a solution.....glue was suggested, but I wasn't at all sure I liked this idea. I ended up, sewing the inside edge down to keep it flat and out of the way of the seam line, but having sewn it from the wrong side -it wasn't a perfect result on the right side!!!! and I should have matched the thread!
Read MoreHope you had a good Christmas and are ready for some sewing and some new projects for 2016. I have been a bit sluggish on my blog, I know, but that's because I have been busy scheming and designing and stitching - at least I was until my sewing room got squished into a corner to make room for the Christmas Table Tennis arena! It's all very well and the daily house competitions are fun, but I do have itchy fingers after a week without a needle and thread.
Read MoreI know I have been away for a while, but it is a busy time of year and my first pattern designing ideas are very time consuming. More about all that soon, but I wanted to write this week about my experiences of distance learning and the City & Guilds course that I have now completed. I started the course while we were living in Paris and continued to work on it, once we moved to Stockholm in Sweden.
Read MoreIn 2006 we moved from Moscow to Paris. It was a big upheaval and quite an adjustment. Paris of course is a beautiful city and we lived in a charming western suburb near to the British School. The children were all in the senior school by now and slotted into life in our new enviroment easily and John was buried in the maze of a Head Office of a huge multi-national company. What would I find to do this time. Brushing up my french, of course .... but I had itchy fingers and my needles & threads had spent weeks in boxes in transit.
Read MoreI have been completely buried working on, what I hope will be, my first pattern designs and I hope to be able to show them to you soon. But in the meantime, I am taking a tea break to catch up on the blog and I thought it might be appropriate to tell you how I actually came to be doing any of this. It has been a long and accidental apprenticeship of sorts.
Read MoreThe Swoon quilt must be one of the most popular quilts around - it is always popping up on instagram and they are always beautiful. Camille Roskelley's design has these large stylish blocks, so it grows quickly and it is modern and bright, whilst retaining some of the traditional style of quilting along the way.
Read MoreHope your summer is full of balmy days and a chance to relax. I have to confess, not alot of sewing going on around here really these last few weeks, but perhaps a chance to catch up with my travel journal on the blog. I know that last post was a bit epic, so a little light sight seeing scrapbooking from the rest of our travels in the US coming up today.
Read MoreWe are back from the US and our trip to Massachusetts and after gathering my thoughts, I am finally ready to tell you quite a story..... all about Abigail's House and the quilt which preceded the visit.
Read MoreJust about got over the jet lag and so much to tell you about our travels in the Massachusetts & Rhode Island. But I need a 'mo' to sort through my photos and my memories of all that we saw and did, so in the meantime, I wanted to show you something that I actually took with me and worked on while we were in the US. You may remember that I was somewhat enamoured with Venice, when we visited in May and came home inspired to make a quilt to encompass all the elements that make up this amazing city - the wonderful colours, the architecture, the water, the history and the whole aroma of this romantic place. I raided my stash for fabrics that I thought met this brief and then set about thinking what exactly might such a quilt even look like.
Read MoreSo, I am hastily writing this post from a Boston Hotel Room! A trip came up at quite short notice and I am here with my 'better' half for the 4th of July - amazing! Anyway, no doubt more about that after the big day. For now, I wanted to tell you about the 'Painting Flowers' bag. From the moment I first saw a picture of this, it shot straight to the top of my 'to do' list!
Read MoreDid you know that this year is the 150th anniversary of the publication of this all-time classic book by Lewis Carroll? My mum grew up with Alice, I grew up with Alice and my daughter grew up with Alice. Liberty have a wonderful range of fabrics to celebrate this landmark and this prompted me to design my own little tribute to such a much loved story.
Read MoreMaking Embroidery Modern
