Friday Gratitudes

No photos^ or crafty bits this evening, I'm on the wrong computer. Instead I'm going to share somethings I'm grateful for this week.

Right now I'm feeling grateful for
::: Empty roads on our evening walk
::: Pub tea, yum!
::: Happy, creative, chatty children at work - the best start to a new year :)
::: Comfy sofas and a warm cat on my left knee
::: No alarm clock tomorrow *yawn*
::: Catching up with friends
::: Finding old photos of early mornings (^except this one)


Enjoy your weekend lovely people - more crafting tomorrow I promise.

A case for my new toy

No crafting to be had today as I've been slaving away with a bunch of hot and grumpy ponies so instead I will share my efforts from yesterday.
I recently bought a new netbook (a very cut HP mini 110 that is yet to disappoint me) and considered buying a case for it as I intend to take it to work with me rather than lugging my practically-a-desktop laptop around with me (it now has a typical battery life of about 10 minutes and requires a mouse as the touchpad has gone a bit haywire).
So, I picked apart an old laptop case on which the zip had well and truly died to get the insulation stuff out of it, found some lining from an old and now defunct parachute (oh the joys of being a teacher!) and chose a rather jazzy pattern from my fat quarter stash...

...and turned it from this (albeit in much larger quantities)...

to this!

Zig-zag stitch in a slightly contrasting colour - I'm
getting neater and I'm quite pleased with the
straightness of this :)

I'm a very slow hand-sewer and get bored fairly easily so the blanket stitch around the edge is predictably uneven but who doesn't like a bit of blanket stitch?

The tape is attached inside and acts as an easy way to remove the netbook... 

...has a cleverly hidden popper to seal the case.

...and the button on the end...

Total make time about 4 hours over two days, including the unpicking/pulling apart of the old bag. I'm really pleased with this one and I hope it will serve me well.
Happy crafting! x

The sewing box

I finally got a sewing machine for Christmas last year (a very cute John Lewis mini in red) and so far it has served me very well considering it's size and the amount of work it's had to do lately. So naturally along with a new machine came the need for a new sewing box. Search as I might I could not find one that I liked, was big enough to suit my needs yet cheap enough for me not to have to live off lentils for the next few months. What to do!

As so often happens, ebay came to the rescue and provided me with a blank, good quality wooden box that I could make my own in my own way. Cue my slightly drawn out asking-for-a-favour-tone of 'Saaam?' when i asked if I could borrow his knackered old soldering iron. Of course, being wonderful, he agreed straight away and I got to work on my first pyrography project.

And here is the end project. For a first attempt I'm very pleased with it (though I can't seem to get a decent photograph of it. Hmm, blurry anyone?)

I now have a proper pyro iron which is much faster and more versatile to use with inter-changeable nibs but I do still use Sam's occasionally as it gives such deep, thick, dark lines.
Happy crafting all. x

Gently coaxed into blogging...

Having been gently persuaded to share various craft projects through a blog I find myself following my friend's lead and jumping into this world of shared interests and many pretty pictures. A busy summer, first of finding room to make and  then of completing (or almost!) several projects has left me with various things to share here. So as not to 'over load' I will be spreading them out a bit, it'll also give me time to make more to share - I can see this is going to be a cyclical system!

So, here we are (hope you're satisfied Jo :))

One of my more ambitious projects this summer was to make a fairy for a friend's birthday. All in all I think it worked fairly well considering I had no pattern (or even picture) to work from and, aside from having to un-stitch the wings once due to my negligence as to which side of the fabric to put facing up, oops, my method worked well.

 The body is made of a dolly peg and stuffed with a little wadding and the arms have a pipe cleaner in so they can be positioned easily.

Quilting the wings - layer wadding then back fabric face up and top fabric face down (second time lucky!)

The hair was a cheat - glue required!

And then she was done and ready to fly off to her new home.
Roughly about 7 hours work and lots of fun (and problem solving) involved. I just hope no-one asks me to make another one as I'm sure this was beginner's luck!
Happy crafting! :)