Carboot treasure 3-uninspired title but nice goodies.

I didn't need these, I have a lot of mugs, but they are so beautiful and such a bargain- a lovely pair of 1970s Hornsea Clappison mugs.  If you are not familiar with John Clappison, put his name into Google images and a great selection of his work come up. 

Final goody is a 1950s Be-ro cook book.

I learnt to bake when I was a girl from the 70s version of this book and I always have a soft spot for these.  The recipes are reassuringly familiar even though some of them are not the nicest of cakes!

Carboot treasure 2

I bought this as a share, for Lula and for me. It is going in the living room so she can play with it and I can look at it.

The inside is just as good.  When I was looking at it the lady offered it to me for £3, how could I walk away?

As for the patterns on the sides, love them!

Lula has designated it as Sylvanian family holiday chalet.

Carboot treasure 1

I had a number of great finds at the car boot sale yesterday.  I found a great set of Galt memory game cards. By coincidence these are also up on Jane Foster's lovely blog

Beautiful images and a limited palette, I have grouped them according to different themes that ran through my head as I was playing with them.

I think they are destined for a big mosaic style display.  More booty to come, it was a bumper day...

Finishing Line

The end is in sight, well just about if I pull my finger out.  I have been working on this nest quilt for almost a year.   I have done lots of other stuff as well but this has been ongoing.   I have ordered a Japanese clothes pattern magazine and I want to make something out of it as soon as it arrives so realistically I have got to get this done.

Let's just pause a minute to contemplate the arrival of Pochee Magazine vol 7.............................

I cannot wait.  I have ordered it from an ebay seller ccalled pompadour24.  She has a beautiful selection of books available on ebay mailed from Japan.  She also includes lots of photos in the description to give you an idea of what you are getting.  These pics just make me feel that I have found my dress making destiny, it is like coming home.  But, this quilt has got to be finished first.  It is my first bigger quilt, although I guess it is only lap size, that is big for me.  I find big chunks of fabric difficult to handle so I am making it using Carolyn Forster's quilt-as-you-go method.  Works well but involves a lot of hand sewing.  Each square is machined to the next but the batting and backing have to be joined by hand.  This is the last sashed square awaiting machine quilting.

Then the batting is hand sewn.

And the baking fabrics are joined, yawn, by hand again.

It works well but the hand sewing is literally a pain. I had to put the pincushion in to the shot because it is so cute and very functional.  I'll try bigger sections of quilt with the next one.  Binding to come...

Blossom

How beautiful are these?  Great big tea cup size Magnolia blossom- at least I think that's what it is.  Taken at Exeter University grounds near where I live.  I feel incredibly lucky to live so close to town and yet so close to places like this.  The lovely weather has helped to ease in return to work and return to school run routine (it's not that hard really...)

Saturday Sew in the Sun

I found this project on Flickr, a very generous free tutorial for a cover/stand for a Kindle.  All the goodies ready to sew on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

Sun streaming into the backroom,  the lovely Dermot O' Leary on BBC Radio 2, dog has been walked, family time has taken place and now,  it's just me, the sewing machine and Lottie curled up watching...

A very clever tutorial, and finished in less than a couple of hours.  I love my Sony reader and now I no longer need to prop it up against random jars on the kitchen table, it has its own stand.

Clever little foldy bit makes it stand up beautifully

Bit of a wonky line of sewing at the top of the cover but in my excitement at its functionality and prettiness I will over look such trifles.

As Radiohead would say, "everything in its right place"

New Quilt Tasters

I'm making these as an incentive to finish my first quilt (nearly done) and start on this one proper.

Found this here

Adapted this from a Sewhip pattern 

and the rest of it is waiting....

Carboot sale goodness

Sunday car boot was enormous today- combo of sun and school holidays.  Found a few treasures...well Kathy got this for me,

A Singer doll's sewing kit to stitch on your Princess Singer Sewing machine.  This one is for Nathalie and all the instructions are in French.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find the sewing machine itself in the big piles of junk we were going through to unearth treasures such as this.

Despite my atheistic status, I love a bit of Catholic iconography.  This was from a 20p irish booklet explaining the Hail Mary to children.  I like the way everyone has eyeliner halo in blue.

Welcome to Crazy Town.  Winky lives in Crazy Town.   A gorgeous print from a shabby and tattered The Big Book of Fun.  As it is already falling to bits I won't feel guilt from plundering the pics.  Funny stories including much hilarity form Mrs Flaherty who went to sleep with an apron on her head and ends up with her neighbour being arrested for trying to murder her.  All works out fine in the end!  Bizarre story for children...

                                            

I just loved this, including the title, Flan Pie.  It illustrates a game.

Phone Cozy

I have bought a lot of fat 1/4s and bits of Japanese fabric recently which I've been itching to use.  Sometimes there is not enough time in the day to fit some sewing in, and sometimes I end up procrastinating and wasting time on the internet when I could be sewing and feeling a lot happier and more productive.  Don't know why I do this, but I do and it annoys me.

Moving on, I needed a phone cozy- I drop my phone a lot, so I came up with this and made it in an afternoon- don't you just love the school holidays.  It has a snappy top and a padded linen body.  Lula suggested I call it Piggy-in-the-middle.  I like her style...

I even remembered to sew the bits of tape on the side- forgotten to do this with other projects when I meant to and cursed afterwards.

Wonky coaster

I have been experimating with a bit more mini log cabin ideas.  I tried a bit of wonky log cabin with a £1 bag of Windham Storybook selvedge scraps from a quilting fair.  Not knocked out by this but the end result is cute- a mini coaster for Lula.

I have a plethora of images for Easter, starting with Miffy and the chicks- from an old lunch box...

Moving on to some lovely handcrafted birdie items by my friend Hesta in the Made shop, Libra Court, Sidmouth.  You can find more of her work at Green Glamour.

A bit more home spun, the Easter display on our mantel piece as designed by Lula.

A great time was had with Kathy, James and family dyeing eggs and running an Eggs-Factor contest to decide the best egg.

Finishing with homemade Simnel cake, Nigella Lawson recipe from Feast.  I always wonder whether I should bother to make this but I always do and I forget until then how great it tastes!

Happy Easter