Summer!

What is it about Summer - everything seems so more laid back  and timetables don't seem to matter.  We have been enjoying lazy days and holidays.
The sunflowers have been a great disappointment this year as they have all wilted and died!  Still never mind the rest of the plants are thriving.

St Annes Kite Festival was a great weekend as usual - not the bluest of skies all weekend but we had our fair share of sunshine and it was very hot!

The kites are always amazing and the atmosphere is great

I love this picture of St Ives which is one of my favourite places - we haven't been for a few years now but I would love to go soon.....

We have been fortunate though to have spent a fantastic week in Majorca.

The weather was superb and we didn't move far away from the pool!

Last weekend we went along to Texere Yarns in Bradford (www.texereyarns.co.uk) for their open Sunday and met with Lucy from Attic 24  who talked about her colourful crochet and organising Yarndale in Skipton which is nearly upon us - date for your diary 27 - 28 September!

Read all about it on her blog here: http://attic24.typepad.com

Bags and Bags and Bags......

I seem to have a bit of a bag thing going on at the moment - at least I am using up some of my stash!

A bag for my Redwork - Pattern by Mandy Shaw

Mandy produces some lovely patterns and designs and 

they are usually very easy to follow and give great results.

Details can be found here: http://dandeliondesigns.co.uk/

This is the same pattern in a different fabric and I am  using this to store my scraps 

and crochet granny square patterns 

I may have lots of projects on the go, but at least now I have pretty bags to keep them all in!

This is a reversible messenger bag - I loved this Wonder Woman fabric and wanted to use it on something I would use most days. This is another easy to follow pattern this time from Debbie Shore with an easy to follow tutorial on YouTube

and here is the reverse side - by putting a button on both sides it is easily reversible

New work

The pieces in the picture on the last post have now been used and I managed to produce two prototypes:

Not sure which background suits or even if I will change them both completely!

I also found some unfinished work in my box and decided to finish it off :

I have now framed it and it looks much better than  I thought it did when I pulled it out of the box!

For a change I decided to pick up my crochet again and bought this scrummy wool from Wool Warehouse to try a pattern from Attic 24 for a chunky cushion

The picture really does not do it justice, the colours are gorgeous and the chunky wool is so soft!  It can be found here: 

http://www.woolwarehouse.co.uk/accessories?product_type=9754

The pattern is a download from Attic 24 here:

http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2014/03/rainbow-raindrops-cushion-ta-dah.html

This cushion was really good to work and is so soft and squeezy!

New work coming up!

I rediscovered a book by Alisa Burke  on the shelf which I got a couple of Christmases ago and got really enthused so decided to try out a couple of the ideas.

 As you can tell from this little pile of fabric offcuts it is another idea for making something out of nothing and all the leftover bits and pieces, which I love doing!
Not quite finished yet but I am enjoying the process and will do a big reveal soon!

Meantime so not to get bored I set about decoupaging my kitchen door!  What a task - it =was ok until I got to the lower part of the door which really made my back ache!!
It was worthwhile though as it is now looking quite good - just need to distress and varnish it and it will be all finished.

Well you get the idea!  

I used a mixture of old book and topical cartoons and quite like the mix

Don't quite know what we will do when we tire of it - may need to buy a new door

Bags now for sale

I made the small collages shown in the previous post and stitched them onto canvas shopping bags. The bags are now for sale at Annie's Emporium on St Andrew's Road in St Annes.   This lovely emporium is a wonderland for things vintage and  painted furniture. Well worth a visit as you never know what you might find!

Catching up

I have been away from "Blog land" for quite  a while, but intend putting that right!  
I have been working on some prototype canvas shopping totes and decided to share the new designs:

I came up with the small collages as  a way to experiment with my new Oekaki sewing machine.  Mounted onto the bags these make quite nice summer tote bags.  Hopefully I can find an outlet and sell some of them as there are only so many bags a girl can use!