Hello and Happy New Year to you all. I must admit to being a little tired after a hectic but really lovely family Christmas and my plan is to approach January at a slow pace. Taking time to recalibrate and think about what is in store for 2023, both in and out of the sewing room.
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreSo 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.
Read MoreMaybe it is the sight of the trees turning golden or that sort of nesting feeling that comes with the nip in the air and the promise of chillier days ahead, but my SewJo seems to have returned. Whatever it is, I have been sewing and working on projects that have been on the table for a while. First up is my new camera bag and I am really excited to share this with you.
Read MoreThe thing about having a National Trust membership is that you visit places that might otherwise slip through the net and oh how sorry I would have been to have missed this one. It is quite simply one of the best houses I have ever visited, probably because of it’s 1930’s vibe, but it also is part of a much bigger story that is filled with great ambition, great wealth, great success and ultimately great sadness.
Read MoreI finished this project just before we set off for Summer travels and I am just delighted now that autumn is approaching to have it ready and waiting for the cooler days ahead. I’m a little bit in catch up mode with journal postings so you may have seen this on instagram a few weeks ago, but I wanted to document it in a little bit more detail as it is just such a lovely thing.
Read MoreAs summer fades, we arrived home from holiday on the day the Queen died. I didn’t expect to feel such a sense of loss at this news and yet…probably like most British people who have lived all their lives with her as a constant, it is hard to process. Before all this happened though, we had been on a little road trip on a southern westerly path in search of sunshine, seaside and perhaps in some measure, for me at least, a literary pilgrimage too. I hope you will enjoy a few journal postings about our travels and that his little series of ‘Postcards’ will give you a flavour of some great places to visit.
Read MoreEdinburgh! This was not my first visit to this wonderful city, but after all the months and months of not going anywhere, I seem to feel the need to let the words tumble out about the last few days and have a lot to write about this trip and not least because it is a city full of surprises.
Read MoreMaking a book quilt has got to be one of my absolute favourite things to do…being as I love books and I love making quilts…and the idea of combining patchwork and embroidery with literary gems that are close to my heart makes this project such a fun project to work on. It’s going to be not just a quilt, but an embroidered wall hanging laden with literary references.
Read MoreI thought this weekend I would pop up a little book review for a lovely new book that has just been published by Debra Scala Giokas about First Ladies and their connections in the crafting world.
Read MoreWith the BBC’s ‘Sewing Bee’ in full flight at the moment, I find myself with twitchy fingers to try a little dressmaking and I had long harboured a dream of making a long floral duster coat. Jubilee Weekend seems like the sort of time you would wear something like this and as much as it is a wistful backwards glance at those Laura Ashley days, it is also quintessentially English in it’s style and as comfortable over jeans today as it has would’ve been a couple of decades ago.
Read MoreHello there…. a short and sweet post today about a short and sweet project. This gorgeous Boro Inspired Kinchaku bag was just exactly what I needed as a project to weave in between weekends away visiting family and long over due jobs in the house and garden. It is a non messy, user up of scraps and entirely relaxing little sewing project that produces something super pretty and super useful too.
Read MoreMaking Embroidery Modern
