Making a Christmas felted floral centrepiece

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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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The Oak Leaves Embroidery

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The Oak Leaves Embroidery

This lovely project came together over many months and from many sources and it is one of my most favourite pieces EVER! It is quite a story from tiny beginnings to a framing restoration challenge, but it is now an heirloom and, I hope the start of taking my embroidery to a higher level.

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Visiting the exhibition 'Crown to Couture'

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Visiting the exhibition 'Crown to Couture'

Having just returned from a visit to London, I wanted so much to share with you a wonderful day spent at Kensington Palace to see the current exhibition ‘Crown to Couture’. The exhibition is billed as the ‘fashion show of centuries’ and it is.

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Making a capsule holiday wardrobe

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Making a capsule holiday wardrobe

… Anyhow, I set out to plan a capsule wardrobe for hot weather. Given that I am not really a pro dressmaker and everything is done with lowish expectations, I am so absolutely thrilled with my makes. Here’s how it went.

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Making the Yarn Minder Bag by SewSweetness

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Making the Yarn Minder Bag by SewSweetness

And then there were three…. It’s bag fest time. Last weekend was my annual foray into bag making and I get so much pleasure out of plotting and planning what it will be, researching the options and gathering the supplies. This year it is the Yarn Minder Bag by Sara Lawson of Sew Sweetness.

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Making a botanical fabric bucket

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Making a botanical fabric bucket

This project is this weeks result of longing to spend a bit of time in the sewing room and also opening boxes of stashed fabric and thinking….I need to do something with this. Because I sew..a lot….people give me fabric and honestly I have a room full of bits and pieces that I would need a hundred lifetimes to use up…

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Making a Coronation Pincushion

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Making a Coronation Pincushion

As the Coronation approaches it is a time to reflect and look back in history and a thousand years and more of monarchy. Whatever you might think of the institution and it’s place in the modern world, it will no doubt be a historic day that I am glad to be able to witness. My pincushion is a very grand addition to my sewing room, but tremendous fun and perhaps one day it will be part of the legacy of all my sewing endeavours.

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Making the You've Got Mail quilt

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Making the You've Got Mail quilt

It began on December 1st with a tiny paper scroll and it ended in March with a beautiful quilt that pays homage to the movie ‘You’ve Got Mail’. In truth though, it is about so much more than that…..this unexpected and wholly original project has a wonderful story that belongs only to this quilt and our family and is set to become an heirloom for generations to come.

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