splash mat

I've been sewing up the chair cushions for our dining room, so I needed a leader and ender project.  If you haven't come across this method before, it's a way of wasting less thread.  Instead of cutting the thread after each set of chain piecing, you have a little pile of squares or HSTs that you can sew and then leave on the machine, ready for the next set of piecing.  Did that make any sense??  

Basically, whilst sewing some of the blocks for the chair cushions, I didn't want to get confused so sewed two pieces together for each block, cut them apart, pressed them and got the next piece ready.  When I'd finished the first set, instead of cutting my thread, I sewed together 2 mini charm squares and left them on the machine.  When I was ready for my next set of pieces, I just carried on sewing - no big lengths of thread left dangling.  

Very quickly those mini charm squares became this.  A very simple pattern, I used a Happy Go Lucky mini charm pack and an FQ of one of the prints.  I arranged the minis in colour order and sewed them into columns, each was then sewn to a strip of the FQ and finally a border of the same print was put on.

I sewed it right sides together with an old towel, turned through and top stitched.  I then quilted it using lines 1/4" from each seam, using the colour of the minis in each row.

This was a progress shot - does anyone else have a cutting table that looks like this??

Because of the right sides together and turn method, no binding!  Hurray!

The pattern I chose meant I didn't have to match up loads of seams, especially difficult with precuts I find, but my rows were wonkier than I thought, see the way the quilting curves?

I couldn't get a decent shot of the different colours of quilting, especially as the towel I backed it with is blue.

I love the finished product, shown here on top of the bunnies' run as there isn't a great deal of light on the floor of my kitchen.

And it does it's job well.  The previous one used a lot of white fabric and gets dirty so quickly, this won't show the dirt so much and now I can always have a mat down when one is being washed.

See, told you there's not much light on the kitchen floor. 

crochet sailing boats

Well it's been a long time since I did any Pretty, Crafty Homing, but I succeeded at the weekend.

I made one of these:

Do you know what it is?  It's being blocked in the photo above, and below you can see it hanging.

I've hung it in the bathroom. Mr CA hasn't noticed yet.  Or at least he hasn't mentioned it!  I can just imagine what he'll say when he does.

The pattern is by Bunny Mummy.  It's a fab pattern.  It works up quickly and uses tiny bits of yarn.  I shamelessly copied and added the same kind of embellishments.

The chunky glass beads and the little fish finish it off nicely.  I think so anyway.

And that's it today.  Not feeling very wordy.  I've spent hours and hour and hours today listing items in my new shop (I'm writing this post on Sunday).  Want to see my new shop?  Go on then, it's here.


Don't forget to enter my Something Old, Something New competition.  The deadline is 31st July and there is a prize!

Pretty Crafty Home - Kitchen shelves

Now I know that a lot of people in the Pretty Crafty Home challenge have deep cleaned and decluttered their entire houses, but for me the challenge is moving a little more slowly.  I have deep cleaned and decluttered these small (22" long) shelves in my gross kitchen. 

Panic-yee not people.  The picture above is the BEFORE!  First things first, they came off the wall and went out side to be spray painted.  I thought spray painting would be easy.  It's not.  The result is very shabby chic, though that's not what I was aiming for!

Back on the wall they went and I did some serious decluttering before replacing some of the stuff.  It didn't look right, it needed something else.  I completely neglected to take a photo so you'll just have to take my word for it.  I know!  Shelf edging...

I dug out a teapot applique pattern from one of my old Crafts Beautiful magazines and got to work Bondawebbing and cutting.  My plan was to applique them onto a strip of scalloped linen.  I thought a test piece on an old piece of shirt was in order...

Yes, this does look alarmingly like a bum.  That's not the problem though as I was planning on 5 scallops.  Look at the middle bit, the bum crack if you like.  How do you stop that happening?  I went downstairs to make a cuppa and looked at the shelves.  Then it hit me.  Measuring might have been in order, if I carried on with my plan, the edging would basically obscure the entire shelf!  A new plan was hatched.

Mini bunting!  I've bought some fabric for curtains and it features red, blue, green and yellow so I dug out some scraps in those colours and made these little 2" tall flags then sewed them onto the tiny pom pom trim.

Love it!  I took it down stairs and pinned it into place with drawing pins. Perhaps not the best solution but the only one I have for now.

It makes me smile every time I see it.  The strange thing was that Mr CA was at work yesterday when I made this.  He came home and doesn't seem to have noticed... He'd already seen that I'd painted the shelves, but seriously, how could he not have noticed the bunting?  Unless he has and hates it!  That's tough though, it's staying.

Pretty Crafty Home - Kitchen drawer

Hello ladies.  I've just finished the second week-from-hell at work and I'm looking forward to some weekend crafting and home prettifying.  Oh yes, I have plans to paint the bathroom.  Probably.  Anyway, you may have forgotten (as it's been a while) but I joined up with Pretty Crafty Home at Cherry Heart and last weekend I did some PCHing.  Not much, just a smidgen, but every smidgen counts.

We bought this house almost 5 years ago.  Whilst huge and a great bargain, it had been a student house for 20 odd years and so basically everything had been spray painted white, repeatedly.  The kitchen and bathroom are both from the 1970's.  At the moment, we can't afford to remodel them, though it is on the list, so I'm going to have a go at smartening up what I've got.  I started small.  With the kitchen drawer.

 

This was our cutlery drawer.  We could never find what we wanted in there.  So I decided to do something about it.  I think I was avoiding doing something else I was supposed to be doing, but I can't remember what... painting the bathroom?

Yuck!  How gross is that?  I gave it a bloody good clean, peeled up that horrible drawer liner and sprayed the whole thing with bleach.  Whilst it was marinating, I went upstairs to make some storage for the drawer.

Look what I made!  Well actually, that's just the scraps... loads of 2.5 inch squares... they might be turned into something at some point.  No, what I made was these:

The photos are appalling, I just couldn't get a good colour to them.  I measured the drawer and then drafted up my own pattern.  Due to a slight cutting error, it went from 3 fabric baskets to 4. 

Each is slightly different, but all are made with co-ordinating fabrics.

Wow, look how messy my craft room is in the background!  I have taken some "before" photos of that too, but it'll be a long time before I've done much "after" to it!  I did tidy up though.

Anyway, enough about the fabric baskets, back to that drawer.  I mod podges some scrapbook paper (leftovers from my wedding stationery) in place, then covered it with clear self-adhesive vinyl.

Much better already!  I then loaded all the stuff back in, throwing some bits away at the same time.

Ta dah!  I have another drawer which houses the foil and the dreaded cling film and stuff which I'll have a go at soon, and then two large drawers with saucepans and the like in them, they're also in my sights!

I do also have plans to paint the kitchen, wait until I show you shots of how it looks now and you'll see my reluctance to get started!  I also bought some Michael Miller, Put a Lid on It today, I'm going to have a gorgeous cafe curtain!  I did a little browsing for suitable material for the bathroom curtain, but to no avail so I'm going to try and use what I've got.

In other news, I washed and dried the baby quilt last night, I was so scared!  It's come out intact and I'm madly in love with it!  Photos tomorrow, light permitting.

Sorting stuff out

Afternoon ladies.  I'm afraid I have nothing crafty to show you.  Again.  I really do need to sort myself out!  Unfortunately, I haven't got time.  I got up this morning and took 6 rubbish bags of rabbit poo to the tip, then I cleaned out the bunnies and took another 6 bags of rabbit poo to the tip.  I came home and started painting some shelves, then had to sort my husband out as he's locked the car keys in the boot and we don't have a spare set!  Luckily I remember my breakdown insurance had expired... I renewed it 2 days ago!

That's Tiff chewing through the "window" of the cardboard "castle" I'd made for the bunnies.  Anyway, I thought I'd drop in and tell you about the home-sorting challenge I'm involved in and show you some pictures of what I'm working with.  I know it's a bit off topic and I usually write about crafts, but this will have a crafting element to it and to be honest, if I don't publish these pictures, I don't think I'll get round to doing anything about my mess of a home.



Cherry Heart is running Pretty Crafty Home which is all about sorting out your home, getting rid of clutter and adding handmade touches - so it is sort of about craft.  I bought my house 4 years ago, it had been a student house for about 15 years and it showed.  Brown or red carpets through, textured wallpaper that'd been painted over with about 25 coats of GLOSS, chipped and peeling wood-work, brown bathroom suit (yes, brown!), ancient kitchen... 

The plan was always to do it up, but time and money have kind of got in the way.  So far we've only really painted what is now my craft room (because my cousin lived with us for a while and we couldn't ask her to pay rent the state it was in) and my step-daughter's room, and done some work to the living room / dinning room.  Unfortunately I don't have any before pictures of the downstairs as the pictures were on my laptop which was stolen in a burglary about 3 years ago. 

The following photos are of the dining room and living room as it is now.

Originally, there were two rooms downstairs, as is common in Victorian houses (my house was built in 1884) but we knocked through to make one large, light room and added a coat cupboard as Victorian houses lack storage.  Above is the tip of a dining room.  I decided not to clean it up as it will look even better when I show you the "after" pictures!

Bit orange that one.  There is a chimney breast and two alcoves.  We've fitted the alcoves with bookshelves and I've painted the shelves on the left.  I'm currently painting the shelves to the right (just waiting for Mr CA to come home with some more paint before I can continue - after he gets back in the car...), then we'll finish loading them with books.  You can see my little computer desk above which is where I'm sitting now.

This room is painted and has the wallpaper and floor done, all that remains to do is the shelves and the beading.  Then I'll add a touch of homemade.  I'm thinking of painting the furniture white, making curtain tie-backs, chair seat cushions, table cloth etc.  The oven will be in the kitchen when Mr CA gets round to sorting it out...

Here's the view into the living room.

Oh, and the kitchen door needs painting and putting back on its hinges!

The living room is also done bar the beading (I've now been waiting 2 years for Mr CA to do that!).  I'm thinking of painting the coffee table in here, adding a crochet blanket or two, some more cushions...

And some more shelves to the right of the fireplace.  See the fireplace?  It's beautiful, it's made of slate and is divine.  The previous owner had painted it gloss white.  It took weeks to strip it back and I love it.

Definitely room for something hand made here.

I'm thinking the curtains look a little boring - I could embroider them? 

So there we go.  Here is my home at the moment, stay tuned to find out what it turns into.  And no, it wont be next week!