Finished Objects!

Another stunningly beautiful day today. In fact, if you were to think about the perfect Autumn day, this would surely be it. Perfect blue skies,

a thick frost indicating a nice chill in the air,

and the bright colours of the season (this leaf is in fact the brightest red you ever did see - except my ruddy camera doesn't capture it's colour so well).

Back home, I can show you my finished tapestry. You may recall that my brother kindly bought me this kit from the Historical Sampler Company (under specific instructions, of course), for Christmas. It's been by the side of my chair ever since and I've worked on it slowly over the months, a bit here and a bit there. Last night I finally finished it and unfurled it from it's frame. I'm going to make it into a cushion for the kitchen. Now, however, this does leave me with a tapestry 'gap' - should I wait until Christmas for big brother to get me another one? I doubt I could wait that long, really, although it would be a nice tradition, wouldn't it? One a year. And even more special to have to wait for it. Hmmmm.

I finished the little Halloween garland. The plain pumpkins do in fact have stitched pumpkin lines on them, but of course you can't see them from a distance. Wish I'd put the faces on them now. But it's quite cheery.

And this is the finished runner. In the end, because it was 7 foot long (!) I used a sheet that'd I'd dyed a while ago, for the border and binding, so as not to have any joins. Then I just ran some straight lines of stitching along them, to lightly quilt it, as it does have wadding in the middle. Am quite pleased with it and, remarkably, it has remained stain free so far, which is always a bonus.

Today I am making sweet treats for the school Halloween party tomorrow. I figure anything can look Halloween-y if it's either orange or black, or both :)

Cushion Accomplished

Okay, so I finally went with the patchwork on cushion no.2.


Am fairly pleased with it. Think the whole seating area needs more cushions, though, but hopefully my cupcakes tapestry will fill the gap. Although then, of course, I'll need another one to balance it out.

I got this tapestry kit from the Historical Sampler Company. It's the first one I've done and I have to say I really enjoy doing it. It's almost a cross between knitting and sewing and is a nice, gentle project to do whilst curled up in front of the fire/tv.

I've done the top row of cupcakes since I took this pic, so I'm on the home straight. It's a dreadful day here today, so I might just do something I never do in the daytime - catch up on some telly :)

Copy Cat

It was a very rainy day yesterday - like today - so what was a girl to do but catch up on some blogs? One in particular caught my eye - this one - which is all about being creatively thrifty and which I found really inspirational. So much so that I had to immediately dash out and get myself a wipeboard for the kitchen, which has already proved a great place to jot down the 101 things that I need to remember. My previous (small) blackboard just wasn't as user friendly.

So on here I can now put up my weekly menus, things to remember and stuff for the shopping list. Simples!

The other idea was a pretty simple one - one of those ideas that as soon as you try it you wonder why you didn't do it years ago. Mrs Thrifty is a very organised lady with her laundry and has set days for each type of wash, e.g. darks on Monday, handwash Tuesday, etc. I admit I'm not that organised (yet!), but the idea of having separate bags for each wash - instead of a laundry basket in each bedroom - seemed like a good one to try. So I did. Firstly I very thriftily made some laundry bags from old duvet covers. I've only made 2 so far and I'm using an existing laundry basket for sheets and towels. I think I may need another bag to keep downstairs in the utility room for tea towels and table linen. What I like about the bags is that you can immediately see how much washing there is, and then you can just pick up the whole bag and take it down to the machine, instead of dropping socks all the way downstairs with your arms full. As you can see, I still have quite a lot to plough through, despite every basket being empty last week ... such is life.

Meanwhile, one thing that is currently a little obsession of mine is pretty bed linen. Until a few weeks ago when the weather turned hot, I would not have been parted from my snuggly feather duvet. However, after searching the house high and low for the summer weight duvet it has mysteriously vanished and so an emergency sheet and blanket had to be found. And do you know, I actually quite like the old fashioned way of doing things! Somehow, the weight of the blanket and the crispness of the sheet is - perhaps - reminiscent of my childhood, I don't know. Anyhow, only having one flat sheet to my name, I realised that if I was going to spend the summer like this, I better invest in some sheets. And why not pretty ones? And I also have a bit of a thing for pillowcases. These (above) are Cath Kidston ones that I picked up for £6 A PAIR (yes!) from Holker Festival last weekend. Flamin' bargain if you ask me, I love them.

Well last night I decided to pick up this tapestry again. My brother gave it to me for Christmas and I went at it all January and then of course, such is the creative mind, I dropped it like a stone. But last night I just felt in the mood to do a bit more.

It will make a lovely cushion cover.

By the way, remember the sofa we bought on ebay on Sunday? Well we've contact the sellers and had no response at all! What does that mean? Does it mean they don't want to sell it anymore? Most strange.