My Home

Thank you all for your kind comments on my last post. I certainly do feel like there is a bright future ahead, even if this particular chapter has come to a close. I'm enjoying living in my own place and working to maintain it. I truly do love making my flat into a cosy, warm place that I love to be in. I knew I had to put my own stamp on the place, and what better way with cushions!

I bought reasonable inserts from the massive Fabric Land in town. Making your own is certainly cheaper than buying anything from the high street. And you can make them unique too :) So, after making my fabric choices . . .

. . . and measuring, cutting, pinning and tacking the pieces . . .

. . . I began my wrestling match with the sewing machine. Now the thing is, I love my sewing machine, it was such a good buy. But it's sort of a love-hate relationship - I have a short temper when it comes to sewing. I will sit patiently and stitching for hours at a time, but sewing? I want it over and done with as soon as possible :P Still, they didn't turn out too badly. This is my new little living area . . .

I made the two base cushions and the brown/orange one on the left. I love the mismatched style and they're very cosy :)

The wicker sofa isn't particularly comfortable but the addition of cushions and a throw has improved it greatly :)

Next up, SFS update and a new project.

Best wishes to you all,

Bekca

Lookey Look!

Woohoo! It's here, it's arrived! I am at last reunited with my stash and as you can probably tell, I'm giddy with excitement :D

I can't wait to go stash diving and find new projects. But I've also got my sewing machine and fabric box back, so I'm keen to finish finish some older projects too. I will hopefully have much more to share in September compared to August :)

As much as I would like to play with my sewing stuff all day, I'm working all weekend. Mustn't grumble though, as I've only got a few shifts left before my holiday next weekend. Lawrence and I are jetting off to spend a much needed week of relaxation in Lisbon. We've both been saving for a long time for this holiday and we're both so looking forward to it.

Hopefully I'll be back for a bit of show and tell soon. I hope you all have a fabulous weekend. Best wishes,

Stitch From Stash Update: April

It's that grand time of the month again. And for the first time this year, I actually have some stash spends to report! Me and my house mate made an order from 123Stitch and these are the goodies I received.

3 packs of clearance stickers to add to my Europe 2013 scrapbook. (I had to buy them immediately, in case the store ran out of the matching ones!)

32ct Light Mocha Belfast Linen

Country Cottage Needleworks - The Needlework Shop

Little House Needleworks - Miss Peepers

Just a small stash enhancement, but it really made me smile. I can't wait to get started on the new charts. So, my grand total was (not including posting and darn custom charges we were forced to pay) . . .

£21.81

Out of a total of £100 I could have spent this year, I've only spent £21.81 of it. I'd say that's a pretty good track record :) And I've still got plenty of items in my stash to work on, so I don't think I'll have to buy anything else this year, maybe just a couple of thread colours. 

Onto the stitching update!

Current WIPs:

White Magic is coming along beautifully. I'm enjoying this piece so much, I've even got into the swing of the blended thread sections. I'm nearly half way through this piece, nearly onto the second set of pages. 

Finished WIPs:

This is my latest finish - Country Cottage Needlework's The Tea Room. I hope to finish the three charts of this set that I have in order to frame them to decorate my new home in the summer. I don't quite know where I'll be living yet, but I know I'll have some pretty pieces to decorate it with!

I also finished up this cute hippo as a gift for my sister.

I'm nearly finished with my last assignments and then I've got a bit of free time heading my way. You can be sure I'll be spending lots of time stitching this summer!

Best wishes to all,

 

Festive Fun

Wow! Thank you so much for your kind comments and well wishes on my last blog post. And thank you also for your blog reading tips, I've added a couple to my reader :) There is still time to enter my 200th post giveaway, just leave a comment on this post here.

As I've possibly mentioned before, I'm making a lot of my Christmas gifts this year. In between days filled with reading and writing, I decided to have a day off to play with my craft stuff. This is my creative mess!

 

As well as cutting fabric for a few presents, I also managed to finish up a couple of decorations for my own tree. They just needed sewing up and adding some ribbon. I can't wait to display these on our Christmas tree! First up is a Prairie Schooler freebie I stitched up awhile ago, now complete with "Merry Christmas" ribbon and cute heart buttons.

 

And I added ribbon and a pin to this other little design (I'm sorry, I can't remember the designer!) so that it will now hang neatly on the branch :)

 

I shall take pictures of all the completed gifts when they are ready to be wrapped and share them all. I'm really enjoyed making some special presents for the people closest to me :)

Have a lovely weekend!

 

 

Crafting up a Storm

I've spent the past couple of days tacking and sewing bits of material into skirts. Why did I volunteer myself for this, I will never know. It's for costume for our Drama performance, and as we couldn't find suitable khaki skirts in the shops, I suggested we have a go at making them.
I really do have a love/hate relationship with my sewing machine. When everything is working as it should, I think it is the greatest invention in the world. Then it suddenly stops working for no apparent reason and I feel like throwing it out of the window.
However, through the struggle of making five, identical khaki skirts, I have learned a lot. I have learnt to change the needle, as I snapped the first one. I have learned how to change the bobbin quickly. I have learnt how to fix it if the thread gets snagged underneath. After all this hullabaloo with the skirts, finishing cross stitch pieces should be easy!
Here's a pic of my (very messy!) workstation . . .


I will be very glad when they are all done. I hope to share a photo of us all in full costume if I can.

In other crafty news, I'm not having much luck with the knitting. I know I'm doing something wrong somewhere, but I don't quite know what it is. My stitches are too tight on the right hand needle and I'm not quite sure why? I've put that on hold for awhile whilst I focus on my upcoming Drama performance.

And finally, an update on Farmhouse, my BAP. I'm really enjoying stitching on this. It's block colour and comes together so quickly. I really do think I'll have this done by the end of the year :)

I hope you've all had a brilliant start to the week. I'm just off to go and find dinner; tuna salad with roasted red onion - yum yum!