Just because...

And after saying I hadn't blogged for ages, how about another post straight after?  It never rains but it pours!

Found some pictures from Kingham that I thought I'd post too, just because they're pretty.  Kingham Lodge were hosting a sculpture exhibition as part of Oxfordshire Artweeks, so I dragged The Boy along.  It was really lovely, followed by cream tea, and a narrowly avoided dognapping!  I so desperately want a Welsh Springer Spaniel, but can't have one because we both work full time and it wouldn't be fair on the dog to be at home alone all day.  But the people who own Kingham Lodge have a beautiful brown Cocker Spaniel who was so gorgeous and kept following us begging to be stroked.  The words 'grab her and run' may have come out of my mouth, but The Boy talked me out of it!

Anyway, dognapping aside, here are the pics....

Bad Blogger

So that was what - 3 months? and I stopped blogging.  Poor form!  Excuses excuses but I was crazily busy with organising an enormous photoshoot for work and the blogging just got shoved to one side.  As did sewing.  So I am definitely still 'Sew Useless', just blog useless as well now!

To bring you back up to speed...very little sewing has taken place.  I've pieced all the four square rows for my Blue Lagoon quilt, but failed to take any pictures.  I've now got to piece the smaller rows and then I'll take and post some pics. 

I went to Malvern quilt show with Mum and spent rather a lot on fabric.  Although The Boy is convinced I found a surprising amount of bargains, and spent less than £100!  Hmm, probably just as well he doesn't know the price of cotton, or see my bank statements, or see my blog!  I bought some gorgeous fabrics though, had a small splurge at Fabrics Galore.  They had a lovely grey swallow bag which I'm going to attempt to recreate, so obviously had to buy that fabric.  And some stripy fabric that complements it oh so well that I can use for the handles!  They also had some beautiful elephant fabric which I'm going to turn into a cushion.  The Boy's already annoyed we've got so many, so one more can't hurt right?!  Got the backing fabric for my Blue Lagoon quilt there too, so that's almost all set.

Oh and I might have got carried away with some nauticals - no idea what for, but they're SO pretty!  Red and white stripes, navy base with cream anchors, and cream base with red anchors.  I'll find some use for them I'm sure!  And I might have got a quilt pack too, oops!  Now where on earth can I find some time to make them all?

So that's a sewing update.  The only thing I have managed to find time to do is bake.  A summer fruits cheesecake for The Boy, a red velvet layer cake for Mum's birthday, and some mini scones and Jubilee cupcakes.  I might also have found time for some Pimms and sunshine too! 

And with the beautiful weather we had (I guess that was all we're going to see of summer this year) my alliums finally flowered in the garden!  Picture below, because I'm so proud :)  And I had a fiddle on Instagram with a picture of the cow parsley that was growing out of the front lawn.

A few piccies of all that below, and I'll be back on the more regular blogging soon hopefully.   Although that said, I have got three more photoshoots to organise this year, so perhaps I shouldn't speak too soon!  I've got my first non-bank holiday day off since Christmas on Friday so very much looking forward to that.  A bit of National Trust (and fabric shopping!) with Mum, and perhaps I'll even get round to some sewing.xx

Bournemouth

The Boy has started training for two triathlons this summer and has been on desperate lookout for a road bike.  So I was rudely awakened on Saturday morning with "I've bought a bike on eBay so am going to Bournemouth to collect it"!  I managed to persuade him that it was such a beautiful day that we should go to the beach as well.  Apparently the thought hadn't occurred to him!!!

So here are a few pictures from our beautiful March beach trip.  Now I just need the weather to hold for my photoshoot in April!  Off to tackle the garden now, then going to bake some banana bread, and hopefully some time to carry on with my quilt.

Enjoy the sunshine!xx

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to my fabulous Mummy!

We had a joint brother's birthday/Mother's day combo yesterday, so here are some very quick piccies below of the present I made for her.  One Kilner jar filled with fabric and ribbons, preserving disc removed and pincushion in the lid:

And now out for lunch with The Boy's Mum!

What's the fastest cake in the world?

....Scone!  That joke still makes me chuckle, so here's a picture of the scones I made last weekend.

Teeny tiny miniature scones.  With clotted cream and raspberry jam.  So these are the good batch (the five that wouldn't fit on the tray of the first batch).  The first batch (of 18) got a little toasted.  And by a little, I mean a lot!  'Preheat oven to 200 degrees' was somehow interpreted by my feeble brain to mean 'preheat oven to max and cremate the scones'.  Oops!  But this lot were pretty good actually.

What to burn - I mean, BAKE - next? 

Sewing-wise, I've still been piecing together my Blue Lagoon quilt.  I've got all my calico rectangles joined to my four patch squares, and I've got all my individual squares cut up.  Now just to cut the remaining calico and I might have some actual quilting to do!

So until I've cut the rest of the calico, I sat and methodically planned where to put all my four patches.   They were predominantly red, so every set of yellow squares and blue squares is now paired to a red, and the leftover reds are paired with reds (obviously!).  So now I just have to sew the rest of them to each other to finish my rows.  Providing I don't lose my colour chart to remember which order to put them in!

And then once I've finished the rows, I'll put a picture up.  Now, I'm off to scoff the second Creme Egg of the season with a gigantic cuppa!

Birdy Bag

Well it doesn't look like spring's coming to Oxfordshire any time soon.  We've got a lovely mix of rain and snow coming down at the moment, so no glorious sunshine like last weekend.  Looks like the spring wardrobe is going to have to wait a while for its first outing!

So to cheer myself up yesterday I broke open the hot chocolate, and got cracking on my Lotta Jansdotter All Day Tote.  With fabulous results!  I used the bird fabric Mum bought in Malvern, and there's still just under half a metre left for something else.

The terrifying cutting up of all the pieces taken care of:

And the final bag:

Complete with magazine pouch and flask pocket

And interior pockets...

And key chain

I think I've been annoying The Boy with how excited I am about it, but he can't be that annoyed as he agreed to take the photos!  So I'm feeling incredibly positive about it, and not feeling quite "Sew Useless" as before.  It's still going to take some serious bravery to attempt the skirt though!

I've also finally finished piecing together all my four patch squares for my Blue Lagoon quilt.

Just starting on creating my rows now, but still lots of cutting of the calico to go.  More stealing Mum's rotary cutter!

I'm going to attempt making some soda bread now - got to use up the leftover buttermilk from the pink velvet cupcakes.  And then I might even make some scones.  First time for both of them, so really going all out with trying new things this weekend!  Will report back soon on how they both went x

Lots of pretty things

So it's been a pretty busy couple of weeks but I've got lots of nice pictures out of it!  First of all I baked chocolate biscuits for Valentine's day.  The recipe was for Two Chocolate Zebras from The Great British Bake Off book - dark chocolate and white chocolate.  Except I kept my two doughs separate, made little hearts and then sandwiched them together with a suitably Valentine'sy pink buttercream.

Last weekend Mum and I finally got round to starting on the hare.  We cut and stuffed all our pieces, but didn't have a doll needle to do the button joints.  So, this is what he looks like so far....

Not looking especially hare like just yet!  But if you hold all the pieces together you can imagine it.  Sort of!

And then a little more baking.  This time it was for my manager's 40th birthday surprise.  She's a great fan of pink, and I had a giant cup and saucer that I knew would be perfect for something.  So I made pink velvet cupcakes (Hummingbird Bakery's famous ones but with pink colouring instead), iced with cream cheese frosting, and decorated with wafer flowers.

And to go around the saucer, Nigel Slater's chocolate cookies.  Dark chocolate with finely chopped hazelnuts and white chocolate chips.  Deliciously chewy in the middle!

As a brilliant payday bonus, the email newsletter from Seamstar had their new feature of 40% off specific fabric.  And the fabric which was featured was Monaluna Marin Poppies which I've been lusting after for a looooong time!  Two metres for £18 - absolute bargain!  So at some point when I'm brave enough to attempt it, it should hopefully become a gorgeous A line skirt.

So, if that wasn't enough GORGEOUS photos for you....here are some pretty shoes I bought today.  £4, Primark, lovely summery yellow, job done! 

Until next time...xx

Snow day

Once again it has snowed in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds and it certainly feels chilly!  I wasn't brave enough to get out on the roads so am working from home.  And yes I am actually working.  She says, whilst quite obviously updating her blog!  I think you're still entitled to a lunch break when working from home so that's exactly what I've been doing.

I put some birdseed out last weekend for the little birdies, but what was left of it has been snowed over again, so they'll just have to hope it thaws quickly.  The snow's been great for bouncing some extra light into the house though, resulting in brighter than usual pictures for le blog.  Very pleased about that!

So after a stressful week at work (trying to get a school to let you shoot still and DVD photography is easier said than done, and not helped by extremely negative attitudes from unhelpful editors) I was very pleased when my robot fabric arrived from Utah!  Below is a much clearer picture than before and I'm so so happy with it.  Again, if only I had something to use it for.  It's really not helping the broodiness!

And here are some pictures of the bird fabric I'm going to use for my Lotta Jansdotter All Day Tote (when I get round to it), as well as some cute green word fabric which I bought in Wallingford with nothing specific in mind!  I'm sure I'll stumble across some project or other soon enough which will take my fancy.  Just as well the spare room's painted a similar shade of green so it will actually look good somewhere in the house!

Hoping to get over to Mum's this weekend to start work on the hare, and to steal her rotary cutter so I can continue on my quilt.  And that's all for now folks!

Let It Snow...

Winter has finally arrived!  The Boy and I went out for a little walk this morning in the snow.  Nowhere near as bad as Christmas 2010, but don't think I'll be making it into work tomorrow.  Fingers crossed for working from home snuggled on the sofa in my pjs.

No new sewing to report I'm afraid.  Am feeling "sew useless" at the moment...appropriate I suppose!  I can't work on my quilt because I need to steal Mum's rotary cutter and chop up the rest of my squares.  So I thought I'd start on my Lotta Jansdotter bag, but don't have the right coloured thread.  So I'm having a bit of a sewing slump at the moment.  Perhaps my creativity block will thaw out with the snow and I'll have something new to update with then.

In the meantime, here's some pictures from our snowy walk this morning.

And some baking I did yesterday.  Banana cupcakes...some with chocolate fudge frosting and some with vanilla buttercream.

And on that note I'm off for a cuppa, cupcake, and explore of some other people's lovely blogs!

Beautiful Bread

And we're finally reconnected with the world again!  No more crafting to report though as I've been really busy at work and with the MOT for my car.  So I've got a picture of the sewing I did last weekend that I couldn't upload then.  Only started sewing at the start of the month, but why not throw yourself in at the deep end with a quilt project?!  And not an especially simple one either.

Mum and I went to Malvern quilt show last year - I went to try out some sewing machines before I committed to having one, but got too nervous that I'd get frustrated and say too many swears in front of the stallholders that I didn't try any in the end!  Anyway, the point is...my first quilt show and (to Mum's hilarity) I came away with two fat quarters and a jelly roll.  The jelly roll is using the Hometown range by Sweetwater for Moda, and is GORGEOUS!  So I'm now attempting to make the Blue Lagoon quilt from Mum's Jelly Roll Quilts book.

Those are the four squares I've made so far, and the final batch of them will be made next time I pinch Mum's rotary cutter.  And in Wallingford I bought some calico to make the plain patches and border.  Just the backing and binding to find now.  Oh, and make it, and hope it looks halfway decent.  No mean feat!

So no new sewing to report, but I did bake my first ever loaf of bread today!  Still to be put to the taste test tonight with The Boy's sausage and lentil casserole, but it looks pretty good and sounds hollow.  Fingers crossed!x

Bag for Mum

Whilst having a little browse of my fave blogs, I was amazed to see that Florence of Flossie Teacakes has sewn a winter coat.  Now that's the opposite of 'Sew Useless' which I'm aspiring to be!

But it also reminded me of her lovely Tabitha bag which I thought would be a great project for Mum in light of our recent conversation about making a bag with little pleats in.  I love how you get little pops of colour peeking out, without being too fussy or frumpy.  A bit Amy Butler-esque without being too bright!

What do you think Mother?!xx

Filthy Thieves and Gorgeous Robots

So I was merrily updating my blog on Thursday night, switched off my computer when The Boy came home at 10:30.  He switches his on, no more internet.  It turns out that some filthy little thieves have stolen the copper wiring from the telephone exchange so our whole village is without phones or internet.  Seriously?  I mean, we go to work all week to afford that internet and phone line...why don't you try it instead of pinching the wiring WE'RE paying for to pay your bills?  Argh!  Anyway, rant over, all blogging now to be done sneakily at work... not so great!

On a more positive note though, Wallingford was a tres successful little outing.  After a small run in with a stupid 4x4 driver in sunglasses (hello?  It's JANUARY!) who decided to just barge at us when it was our right of way and we had to reverse back out onto a main road (in case you didn't know I have an innate hatred of 4x4 drivers who don't live in the country), we got our shop on!

I managed to get the plain fabric to go in between my four squares for my quilt (more on that another time), as well as some lining for a bag I'm planning to make, and some pretty lettered fabric just because it was nice.  Oh, and ultimate success...navy and green tartan brushed cotton for the hare!  I did take pictures, but they're uploaded to my computer at home so not ideal when blogging from work.  Will put them up shortly.

I also saw some gorgeous robot print fabric which I was totally in love with, but at £6.80 per 1/2 metre couldn't quite bring myself to buy without a small boy to make something for with it.  This is where I start to get broody again!

After much Googling, I found it was Robot Factory by Robert Kaufmann and have managed to get it on Etsy for half the price from the brilliant Stitch Stash Diva.  Piccies below of the ones I ordered.  Now to hide it away in a cupboard so The Boy doesn't find it, and hope that I'll be able to use it some time in the future before I go off it!

  

LOVE IT!  Anyway, better get back to work...more pictures etc when I remember to bring my memory stick with the photos on to work, or we get our internet back.xx

Wedding planning

So, not been up to any sewing since the cushion.  Am waiting for this weekend's trip to Wallingford with Mum to do some fabric shopping and cake gobbling.  And then if we find nice enough fabric we'll be getting out the hare pattern and giving it a bash.  I'm hoping for a really nice navy and green tartan brushed cotton.  One can dream right?!

In the meantime, I finally finished our save the dates.  And even The Boy's impressed with them.  Well who couldn't be when they only cost £15 for the cards, envelopes, stamp and ink?  If only the whole wedding could be similarly 'cost effective'!  So here's a sneak peak.....not too bad even if I do say so myself. 

So, roll on the weekend for fabrics galore and a lot of envelope writing.  And hopefully to be here in daylight to take some decent photos for the blog instead of the shadowy ones I've put up so far!