Primrose Corner

In this part of the world it’s depressingly dark this morning. It’s raining the kind of rain that drenches you to the very bones and the leaves that aren’t superglued to the pavements and verges are being whipped up by the wind, curling and spiralling around and basically smacking you in the face. Yuk! Folk are scurrying off to school and work hunched underneath dark, dripping umbrellas. Winter has it’s charms but today isn’t displaying any of them, thus far.

So, I thought I’d share this absolute blast of colour and outright cheerfulness.

It’s an excerpt from a new magazine that Amy Bulter has put together, which she calls her ‘Fall Look Book - Fashion Afield!’ which you can download for yourself and see what it has to say. Link. You’ll have to scholl down a little to find it.

Whilst I was nosing browsing around I noticed that under ‘Free Patterns’ there’s a button called ‘Me Holiday Crafts’ (that sounds so like my local dialect I felt embarassed typing it!) and listed here are some interesting projects, given that Christmas is doing that sneaky thing of creeping up behind you! There are patterns for napkins, felt stockings to hang, Snow Mum pillows, which look gorgeous, a christmas tree forest and patterns and designs for cards and bows and …… loads of things.

Not particularly linked to yukky weather, the lack of light or to Christmas is another, link I thought I’d share. It’s a free bag tutorial from ohfransson. It’s called a ‘Margaret Sling Bag’ and I just love the shape of it. The pattern is a downloadable PDF which is great. Potentially a gift idea for some lucky person? or maybe just for yourself? ‘Ohfransson’ is a fantastically busy, active, and crafty blog if you haven’t come across it before. Loads of inspiration to be found there.

Well, look at that! Would you believe it, it’s stopped raining and the sun has come out! Perhaps now is a good time to go to the Post Office before the weather changes it’s mind again.

It’s strange sometimes when you look at fabric and it almost tells you what it wants to be when it’s not longer flat wrapped around a carboard bolt.

That’s the kind of relationship I have with this
Barefoot Roses

It’s a beautiful old fashioned, blousy rose print and to me it always says ‘Grandma’ - my grandma. She used to love this kind of fabric print.

So, with a little bit ot sewing time I’ve made this -

it’s a simple little drawstring pouch. I used both the rosy and the polka dot fabrics, and pieced them together with the a soft pink fabric inbetween the main pieces, highlighting the pinks in the roses.

It’s a bit ot a sewing departure for me. If I make pouches, it is usually the zipped kind. But this is pretty, girly and pink….

It’s simply quilted with a cross-hatch design in a pale pink thread, which I thought would add to the old fashioned/vintage appeal of the fabric and the pink was again to draw attention to the roses.

I used the polka dot fabric as the lining and a narrow burgundy, velvet ribbon for the drawstrings. (Oops! I’ve hidden them a bit with the beads - I think I got a bit carried away.) Again, I thought the velvet has an old fashioned, opulent feel.

There - that’s without the beads

The beads? I raided them from my daughters dressing-up jewellery stash just for the photo. I’m trying to improve my photo’s and this is my attempt at creating a mood! (I need to sneak them back before she gets home from school! or I’ll know what mood means!). They probably were my grandmothers beads …. unintended realism?

What do you think to the bottom?

It’s a pleated, folded arrangement. Quite nice ? I’m thrilled that it turned out as well as it has.

Enjoy your weekend.

The last of the slightly wind battered echinacea flowers.

There isn’t a special reason, well not really. I haven’t made a 100 posts or even 50 yet (but I’m working on it). There’s nothing exciting going on …. unless you count the fact that my son had his brace changed this week and opted for blue ‘elastics’ across his top teeth and red (yes - I did say red) ‘elastics’ across his bottom teeth. Now, with the white teeth inbetween, what European flag do you think that most resembles? I can’t understand it, he’s usually such a quiet boy. I can only be thankful that the school photo’s have already been done and I don’t have to explain that to my mother!

This is really just shop stuff, not celebrating stuff.

I’m having a bit of a Amy Butler fabric sale in the shop at the moment with reductions of between 10% and 15% because I’m expecting new stock soon and I desperately need the space for it. I get a bit carried away sometimes. Imagine the scene when the rep comes to call (I’m sure he doesn’t mind me referring to him like that) and there’s fabric….. real fabric, spread out everywhere and sometimes it’s just too hard to resist and even when I think perhaps I shouldn’t… I do.

Secondly, I have lots of odd bits of fabric left from various cuttings and filling of orders. So, I thought I’d share them by having a little giveaway. (I haven’t done this before….. sometimes you just have to make your own excitement!) They range in size from just about 1/4 metre and there’s one or two almost but not quite, fat quarters in there. The fabrics are a mixture of moda’s , fabric from Amy Butler, (Those home decor fabrics are cut from a 54 inch bolt - that’s a large fat quarter! ) there’s a Joel Dewberry, a couple of Kaffe Fassett’s and some solid colour fabric from Moda. If you patchwork at all, these are all useful pieces.

So, please relieve me of the responsibility of using up these pieces of fabric. If you’re interested, just leave me a comment and on the 31st October at 6.00p.m., I’ll get Rosie to pull a name out of a ‘hat’ (It’ll probably be a bowl.) to see who the lucky person is. You’ll need to check back though to see if you’ve won.

Thanks for the lovely comments about the tutorial. I thought I’d show you the bag that the lining eventually got sewn into.

It’s just a little tote bag, petite some might say, but it’s large enough to fit the essentials into; phone, purse, cards that kind of thing. But, not so big that the family can’t resist filing it for you and you begin to understand what a pack horse feels like.

It’s vital statistics are: 28cm (11 inches) tall by 22.5cm (9 inches) wide and it has a depth of 2.5 cm (1 inch). The handle is 96cm (38 inches) long, you could wear it across the body. Inside, I added a divided pocket. Handy for those bits and pieces which otherwise gravitate to the bottom of your bag and get lost amongst the clutter that gathers there. What do you mean you’re bag doesn’t collect clutter? Really! Is that natural? I’m sure it’ll pass… don’t worry.

The lining is the bright red fabric that I was working with in the magnetic snap tutorial. I’m into strong contrasts between the interior and exterior of my bags at the moment. Must be the dull, dark weather we’re having.

Do you want to know about the interlining? O.K, I used a medium sew-in as the fabric needed some support because of the weight of the magnetic snap. I also wanted the bag to feel good in your hands, if you know what I mean.

The green fabric of the exterior has a marbled design on it, swirls of blues through greens and with a splash of light brown. Rich and complex. It’s a Rowan fabric by Carl Miller called Plume marble Quite appropriate really!

The black/grey damasky sort of patterned fabric is a Moda fabric; Muslin Mates sets it off quite nicely.

So, be honest what do you think to the o-ring and the beads? That’s something new for me. I don’t normally do much with beads, but from the look of my ‘craft’ box cupboard that may be changing. (eek! Is it a worsening of the button obsession?) I think it adds a nice touch and the red ‘thonging’ definately accentuates the other colours.

I’ve not done anything much with the back of the bag which may be a missed opportunity. I think I might try that shape and size again but with a zipped pocket where the two fabrics meet. Something to mull over!

One is for butterflies enjoying the sun;

Another is for blackberries of which we ate some…
Not that many are ripe yet!

A third is for baking..

Sorry about the dark and slightly blurry photo ! I can’t do another we’ve eaten it - eaten it all!

I love blackberry picking…eating….baking…eating some more….. I love this time of the year when the birds start to return to the garden and the leaves are just begining to take on all those rich, deep colours. Beautiful.

Some of our 5 lbs of blackberry treasure haul were frozen so that we had some to bake with over Christmas. Our way of remembering how lovely autumn can be, when winter can be so dark, damp and grey.

Hope you enjoyed this weekend of sunshine.

My daughter loves this book.

It’s full of absolutely everything that a young girl could wish to know - how to host a party. Vital facts about pets and first aid, how to treat a snake bite!. Not normally too much a problem hereabouts, but best to be prepared I suppose. There’s (book) reading recommendations, recipes, guidance on how to read the tea-leaves (She can’t stand tea! and she’d probably faint if she saw tealeaves.)

It explains how to play ‘Cat’s cradle’. (Do you remember playing that! ) There are absolutely loads of brilliant sewing, making and general ‘creating’ activities, “Muuuum, it even tells you how to sew on a button!” (Oh well that’s o.k then! You’ll always have a shirt to wear.”)

Her favourite section at the moment is the one on make-up! It is a source of some fascination. In a desperate attempt to prevent young girls looking like they’ve run away to join the circus the authors explain in absolute, no nonsense terms about skin care and how to apply cosmetics. The most chucklesome part is this. It’s an explanation about eyebrows. It begins”……..PLEASE,PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS - unless……” It’s referring to plucking eyebrows very thin. But this is the bit that makes me smile….. “…..done wrong and it will look as if you’ve had an accident with a very small lawnmower (diagram……).

So, don’t say I didn’t warn you of the perils that await should you decide on experimenting…. and if you see an ‘elephant’ in the tea-leaves, you’d best drop me a comment …… and I’ll see what I can do.

I wonder what this will be when it grows up……

It’s a tricky customer but fun……and very, very sparkly. Can you guess?

This is what I collected from school today!

I detest this part of the school year. I know that seems a bit strong but my daughter left primary school today. I can’t cope with the whole saying ‘goodbye’ thing. As a child I’d just walk away and avoid the situation as an adult I’ve had to learn to deal with it. So, it’s been a day full of goodbye’s and leavers services in church and tears and having to recognise that those next steps are into that near adult world. A world where you have to start to let go a little more and hope that you’ve taught them well enough.

No longer can wrap you wrap them up safely away from the world because time is urging them on and life is beckoning them forward. I’ll stop now. It’s all getting too sad. I suppose it’s not just a big change for her but for me and all the other Mum’s of year 6 children. No more ‘walking bus’, chats in the morning, struggling with guitars, cello’s, P.E. bags and the latest class project. Now it’ll be just waving as you pass each other in car parks waiting for the various bells to ring and release the little darlings.

In church they were each presented with a year photograph and a dictionary plus a DVD of excerpts from their school life. The bit as parents you don’t get to see. All those school disco’s and trips out, goodness only knows what that’ll be like. Will I need a box of tissues to catch tears of sadness or laughter? It could go either way. I think I’ll wait ’till she comes back from her friends party so that we can watch it as a family. (umm! Is that a good idea - big brother doesn’t need feeding more ammunition)

But joy, it must be the summer holidays. Panic!!!! I wonder how long it will be before one of them decides that there’s nothing to do…… Ahh! Remember the allotment - that’ll keep us more than a little occupied and then we’re away for a while. I’m sure we’ll have more than enough to do.

Happy Summer (school) holidays everyone.

Bernard the Bunny says Hi!

If you’re dropping in from my now redundant ‘Earthworks blog’ hello!  If you’re just dropping in, well hello to you too!  It’s lovely to have visitors and well, Bernard is very pleased to see you.

I’ve obviously jinxed the weather, it’s awful today.

Well, I know I haven’t said anything about it but I’m going to launch my own shop (online - not a bricks and mortar type) to sell my bags and fabric bits and pieces). Alongside that I’m going to sell the fabric and some other bits and pieces which I happen to buy because I use them.

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