wind down?

There has definitely been no wind down this week following the completion of Country Living but it has somehow been very relaxing in the process.

What there has been is that much needed time for attention on other things like commissioned orders, FLickr group swap makes, not to mention Chanukah and Christmas present makes.

Here is a look at just some of the things I have managed to tick off this week, clockwise from left to right:

1. Lavender bag sets for a shop order;

2. An Ayumi basket for my niece...to be filled with lots of sewing necessities;

3. a special zipper pouch for a special friend in need;

4. a commissioned wool and screen printed bag and

5. more commissioned work...soon to be pouches

It feel good, really good to get on top of things and have time for more than just CL makes.

Next week will be even better.

 Are you playing along with Umbrella Prints Trimmings Competition?

 I am a big fan of Amy's designs so didn't need asking twice when I saw details of the competition.

My fabric pack arrived quite a few weeks ago now and has been sitting on my desk begging to be played with.

 The fabrics sat there teasing me for far too long and this week when stress levels were beyond high, it seemed a perfect time to take a little break and do some therapeutic sewing.

 To be honest when I starting cutting them I had no idea what I was going to make. 

Before I knew it HSTs had been cut (actually this was a couple of weeks ago) and sewn and still I had no idea what they were going to turn into.

 Today it became a little more obvious and now we have the set of Umbrella Coasters, matched with linen and vintage braid detail and, irrespective of the fact that in my book you can never have enough mustard and grey and linen hanging around the house, I'm rather chuffed with the results.

 I think it's fair to say a little amount of beautiful prints goes a long way. The itty bitty scrap bits were even turned into details on the backs (I knew there was a reason I didn't throw them away).

I don't care too much if I don't win as making these today was just what the doctor ordered.

Actually I do care if I don't win...have you seen the prizes???!!

I don't know about you, but I occasionally get what I think are spam comments on my Flickr pics.

I mean, congratulating me on Explore...isn't that for, like, AMAZING shots.

Well, thanks to Lynne for putting me straight that apparently I have been on Explore and so they are legit Congrats AND what's more I've been on 11 times!

I am seriously over-whelmed, amazed, flattered that some of my pics have been picked out, for whatever reason and caught someone's eye, so THANK YOU, Mr (Ms) Explorer Dude for liking me enough to do just that.

And here for you are my 11 Explorer Stars...

1. log cabin olivia, 2. triangle mania 1, 3. brit pillow swap ..., 4. Pillow swap pillow, 5. Pillow Swap...getting there, 6. Pretty Little Pouch Swap Goodies, 7. Pretty Pouch Swap idea, 8. bird cushion 1, 9. 014, 10. 011, 11. hand2b

It's dead easy to see if you have any too (thanks to a quick lesson from Lynne...) simply go to Big Huge Labs Scout. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised ;-)

Hello and Happy Monday to you!

I can't tell you how much I am loving life being calmer and being in control. Don't get me wrong, I still give my fair share of crabby irrational crossness, but generally life is cope-able at the mo.

Just as I say that watch it change...

First weekend for a long time with no visitors, no trips, nothing pressing, leaving me to get started on a commissioned cushion for a new baby.

I really love doing these log cabin cushions. Every one seems to be different. One of the recent ones was a bit too pink for this customer, so I pulled in a bit more green and teal. Log cabins are perfect for adding a little special piece of fabric without hyper-ventilating at the thought of using up precious stash. Just a little row of Lu Summer's Hearts, along with Mikodesign's Matryoshka dolls work a treat. Oh and let's not miss a couple of teal Scruffy Daisy's here and there ;-) I love the pop of colour in the Erin McMorris Lollie fabrics too.

I've just embroidered the centre panel and am finishing off the personalisation, then magic it up into a cushion and we are good to go.

I have a couple more in the queue...let's hope I'm still enthusiastic about them after I'm done.

By the way...quick question...

I'm thinking of adding to my Take Away Kits and making a Log Cabin Cushion Cover Kit. What do you reckon? Is this something you'd like to see? Will possibly be based on my screen printed fabrics, along with coordinating plains. What do you reckon? A goer or a noer? If a goer , what would you particularly like to see in them?

Answers on a postcard please, and you never know, there may be a little something in it for you... ;-)

This is my last full child-free week until November 7. How crazy is that? With the way the Jewish festivals have fallen this year, Ruby, being at a Jewish school, breaks up on Wednesday for 10 days. She goes back the day the boys break up for 2 weeks...yes, 2 WEEKS!!

Of course I am panicking just a tad about the stock I have committed to get to stockists by end of October, knowing I have just 4 more child-free work days before then.

But I am also panicking a little about other commitments I have made, like this Flickr Pillow Swap. As usual I got off to a flying start, but as usual if the project doesn't get completed in that time, it tends to sit to one side when other things jump the queue. I hate letting people down and as pictures were being posted about completed pillows I glanced to my half-finished one in one corner of the studio. So last night, as I was spurred on by something - guilt, most probably - I finished the pillow. I had so many more plans for this pillow that time wouldn't allow but hopefully my partner will love it and won't think there is anything missing... I've also included a few nice surprises to soften the blow.

You'd think I would learn and not commit myself to any further challenges on my time...but oh no, I've just signed up for this...

p.s. thank you for all your advice on fabrics for the European Pouches...I really appreciate it...and if you haven't done so already, you've got until tomorrow to give me your opinion and enter my giveaway x

Every now and then I shock myself and sit down and yearn to do something a little different (different for me in any case).

I'm normally quite a simple kinda gal..simple needs, simple likes and that particularly applies to my sewing tastes.

But every so often I see something that inspires me and gets me wishing to try something a little different. This also coincided with me being asked to produce a piece with something a bit more than my usual minimalistic style.

I can't say too much about the above piece and the project. I'm not even sure I should be showing even this fuzzy glimpse, but, hey, it's my blog right? And you'll know soon enough... (suffice it to say I'm just a teensy bit excited about what it's for...)

In the meantime, while I was in this crazy phase, (I know, wild, huh?) I also played around with some of my pieces of fabric, just to see what happened and how it would turn out.

There isn't really much more to show than this. It's merely time out from my usual to spend some time creating something that I wouldn't normally.

I really should step out of my comfort zone more often...I do enjoy it so.

I started designing a new tote last night with the wool felt I picked up form Fabworks that I'm rather pleased with. I haven't worked with this wool felt before and it is a joy. It obviously doesn't fray like cotton fabric, so just a cut and an overlapping sew and it's sorted.

Since I couldn't decide which of the delectable felts that I bought to use, I went for using all 3 - 2 shades of grey and a teal.

I like that there is unity with the teal on both sides, but with the 2 shades of grey making it less perfectly matching.

I lined the tote with my favourite stripy linen and made coordinating handles with it too.

Some sashiko stitching to finish it off and we have a useful seasonal tote. This one is in the shop now and I'm hoping to get to Fabworks this week to get different coloured felt, so if you have any requests give me a shout...

I promised I'd show you the picture we bought at Knitting & Stitching last week. As I'm writing "last week" that sounds so weird. Time has seemed to have stood still this last week in the UK. We've been blessed? thwarted? with the biggest and earliest snowstorm of recent years, which has caused no end of disruption to our normal routine...

Hour round trips to do just 3 miles...

School buses not turning up...

Only to get phone calls a couple of hours later declaring school was closing anyway.

So to think that it wasn't even a week ago that we bought this picture seems ludicrous.

I absolutely adore this picture and it was just one of many of Fiona Wilson's pieces that I could have bought.

In fact, matthew and I did stand there for a fair while looking at them all, shortlisting, agreeing, disagreeing, convincing each other, changing our minds and eventually deciding on this one.

Like all Fiona's pieces, there is so much in this picture. Her attention to detail is mind-blowing.From the cut out houses above to the pink screen-printed houses below, with the embroidered coastline.

Fiona is inspired by maps and uses this in a very innovative way in all her work. Check out her website for a taste of this. Her work is incredibly appealing and draws you right in. There is just so much to explore in her pictures.

It's not quite framed and up on the wall (I'm not quite sure how something can be "not quite" up on the wall...it either is or it isn't) but I am enjoying it alot.

And once this phase of winter passes us, I'll be straight down to a large home-wares store near me to pick up the necessary frame and actually have it up on the wall.

Not only are December and Christmas creeping upon us oh too quickly, we are just one sleep away from Chanukah. Chanukah fluctuates every year, as the Hebrew calendar is lunar. December 1st is the earliest it ever is and it throws me every time it is this early. We are all geared up commercially for Christmas and when Chanukah comes 24 days earlier, it's more than I can manage. We don't celebrate Christmas so you would think it wouldn't matter. But, it's there everywhere and also, obviously, my business is centred around Christmas.

So now I'm panicking. I did a big Amazon shop last night (thank goodness for Amazon) and

fortunately I got an early start with some of my handmade gifts, but I still have the Poppy Doll to do for Ruby.

All the family are coming over to us for candles, presents and dinner on Friday and whilst we normally only buy the children gifts at Chanukah, I wanted to give each of the ladies a gift - a gift FOR the ladies, but for the men to USE, obviously...

I've made each of them a pretty tea towel to match each of their kitchens. The pink one above is my Mum's. She has the prettiest palest pink kitchen.

This yellow one isn't actually for anyone, but how I could sew something and not do a yellow and grey version? It will however be in my Etsy shop, along with several others very shortly.

Can you guess who this one below is for?

I'm feeling a little more relaxed and prepared now that I have these made.

But no relaxing just yet...it's our wedding anniversary tomorrow too...and I haven't done a darn thing about that...

I'm popping into Harewood House tomorrow to see how my collection with them has gone down. It must have gone down pretty well as I've been asked to bring some other pieces in for them to see.

I haven't actually seen it all in situ yet, so I'm very excited. Quite a few people have let me know they've seen it. One of the lovely things about having a stockist on the doorstep is friends and family stumbling across my work in a real live shop. I don't about you, but I'm always hesitant telling people about my things, but when they catch sight of it themselves, it gives a certain satisfaction.

One thing I've been asked to bring along is some cot quilts. Typically I haven't any in at the mo, so it's Operation Sewing. Not that I need to be asked twice. I love making quilts. All that expanse of fabric and the softness you can create when it's all quilted together, makes me wish I could just quilt all day every day.

And then of course there's my little penchant to adding some hand embroidery onto the requisite linen I have to use. All in all, so not a chore. So not what I call work.

I'm awaiting some of this lovely fabric that I want to design the range around. It comes in 2 fab colourways ~ pinks and tealy blue. I've been dying to get my hands on some of this gorgeous flannel and to make winter quilts with it seems the perfect excuse. Unfortunately I won't be able to make the quilts up in time with this, but am hopeful that it will at least arrive in time and I'll be able to take a little mood board with me to entice Beck with it's loveliness.

I've been working on Ruby's quilt this weekend and would have finished it if the sun hadn't been shining quite so much (I know, such an inconvenience).

We had one of those weekends where everyone was just chilling and doing what they wanted. Our kids and the kids next door spent the weekend hopping from our garden to theirs and back again. We were never quite sure whether we had 6 kids about or none!

Because everyone was happily doing their own thing, I snuck some guiltless time in the attic and pieced together the quilt. I actually thought Ruby would be able to take it to bed last night but that didn't quite happen. It was one of those gorgeous evenings so all activities were temporarily halted when we decided to stroll up the road to our local Pizza Express.

A shared bottle of wine later and children not in bed at a decent hour stopped any further progress being made last night. Since I had nothing pressing to be done this morning I decided to finish what was almost completed so at least tonight Ruby would have it.

Translate that to mean a bribery to get one overtired little girl into bed at a reasonable hour, after her galavanting about far too late the night before.

I seem to have kick started myself back into action. First the blog post, next doing something with the cut out squares for Ruby's quilt that have been lying on the studio floor for several weeks.

Maybe it's the weather. Maybe it's waking up from my little hibernation.

Maybe it's not having to make any more paint/wallpaper choices (don't mention the carpet/curtains/rugs/wardrobes...)

Whatever it is, hopefully it will hang around a while as this quilt still has a long way to go.

The Hoop Up Swap on Flickr that I've been involved with for a while now is finally coming to completion.

I have to admit that it has been quite a challenge to fulfil. I go through phases when I am able to sit and embroider and also when I am in the mood to do so. I don't think everyone has received my best, as some of the pieces I've felt under pressure to complete when I haven't been wholly in the mood.

It has however been good to be taken out of my comfort zone working to someone else's brief and do some pieces that I may not have thought about doing. I have also met some great people along the way whose paths I may not have crossed.

(stitchery adapted from www.incywincytogs.blogspot.com)

So I shall take the positives from the experience and look forward to receiving and sharing with you, the pieces that others have kindly and thoughtfully embroidered for me.

I haven't had alot of time for playing in my studio recently and I'm not even sure I've felt the desire to do so either. My mojo has definitely left me stranded. Part of me has wanted to just escape to the studio, but a bigger part hasn't even had the energy to do that.

I do know however that if I can just get myself back into the swing of it I will feel a whole lot better about everything. So yesterday I forced myself to start cutting squares out of the fabrics Ruby had chosen for her quilt.

Isn't it amazing how with those first cuts a rush of excitement enters and you just want to do more? You start to see the design in your head. The fabrics start talking to you and leading you and you wonder why it took you so long in the first place.

This afternoon I'm going to start laying them out and see where we get to. It's going to be interesting to see how it all blends. The quilt is for Ruby so I did have to let her choose what she wanted. However, as we all know, kids choices aren't necessarily the right ones, so I have added a couple of my own and taken out a couple of hers. There were some that where non negotiable...from both of us.

By the time they are all together and I've added the necessary (for me) linen and embroidering, I'm hoping it will be pleasing to us both. Time will tell and I'll be sure to let you know how our journey goes...