I’ve been waiting to get my hands on some of Sublime Stitching‘s new embroidery threads for a while, such great colours and I love the collection names…
I bought ‘Parlour’ from Ray Stitch earlier in the week, so I’m hoping to give it a road test this weekend. I’ve also got a Christmas stocking project on the horizon, as well as the final push on the 2012 Christmas cards… What’s on your weekend to-do list?
X
I love Christmas… the festivity, the decorations, the food, the gathering together and the celebration. And of course, the crafty opportunities. A big part of it all for me is the chance to make some new decorations for our tree. This year I’m somewhat tight on time, so anything I make has to be quick and easy. And realistically, that means achievable over the course of one or two nap times otherwise it ain’t happening. I thought it might be fun to share a few ideas here, so let’s kick off with the festive button heart I made this morning…
Here’s what you’ll need
The circle of felt is a cheap coaster I picked up from Butlers and is pretty thick. I did try making this with normal felt stiffened with some starch spray, but it wasn’t sturdy enough to support the buttons and ended up looking wilted and floppy. Disappointing. So either search out a similar coaster or thicker-than-usual felt for the best results.
First off, trace a heart shape on the felt and cut it out. Then sketch a line around the inside, creating a border just marginally thicker than your buttons. Cut this internal heart shape out, leaving the narrow border shape you see in the far right above.
At this stage, stitch your loop of ribbon to the mid back of the heart. Take care to make neat, small stitches otherwise they might peek through. Without glueing at this stage, place your buttons around the heart to see how many you’ll need. I did this by placing the bottom button first and then worked my way around, mirroring placement on each side to make sure it was symmetrical. Then go back around placing a dot of glue on the back of each button. You could stitch the buttons if you prefer, but when time is of the essence glueing works just as well. Just make sure you use a glue that dries clear, so it won’t matter if any splodges out.
And there you have it, a new handmade decoration in well under an hour… I’ve still got a week to wait until we get our tree, so there’s time yet to make a few more decorations. In theory…
X
We spent the weekend in Cologne… proving once again that, for us, there’s nothing quite like a German Christmas market to kick-start the festive spirit. It was especially fun as it was our first road trip with B, who was a star throughout.
Three days of oompa bands, gluhwein and sparkly lights and we’re ready for Christmas around here. Let’s go December!
X
I came across a great new site this morning, Musha-Makes…
Charlotte has picked a lovely selection of craft supplies, all reasonably priced and shipped from the UK… and her blog makes for an inspiring read too.
There’s lots to inspire some Christmas crafting on a wet and windy Saturday… I’m quite taken with the idea of a simple, festive wreath…
What takes your fancy?
X
After reading so much great stuff about the first Blogcademy in New York, I was beyond excited to hear that the second would be in London in January… It sounds completely amazing – full of inspiring stuff taught by three incredible women. The first workshop sold out in 24 hours, but they’ve just announced a second the week after. Take a look, I think it’s going to be the best way to kick off 2013 – I can’t wait!
X
The most recent edition of Uppercase introduced me to the work of Josephine Kimberling… have you come across her? She’s a textile designer from Seattle and my eye was caught by this amazing back-drop she handpainted (yep – handpainted) for her latest launch…
Apparently it took her just five hours to do with stamps cut out of foam and glued to pieces of foam core (amazing – I’m sure something this big and intricate would take me days!)
I just love the colours and the concept – it’s such a stunning way to make a fairly traditional pattern feel really contemporary. Luckily for us, it’s also available as a fabric in her Hope Chest collection… all inspired by Jane Austin and 19th Century England. Beautiful!
X
I caved. I couldn’t help myself. Carina’s snowflake patterns are too, too pretty and I absolutely had to have them…
All photos taken from Carina’s online shop
We’re going to have snowflaked napkins for Christmas… I’d love to do a matching tablecloth but suspect that might be over-reaching myself. Maybe next year…
X
PS. If you have a moment, take a look at Carina’s blog… she has stacks of pretty patterns and some really inspiring posts.
I haven’t had the chance to do much stitching since I finished up my first module at the RSN earlier this year… and whilst I don’t miss the concentration and intensity required for RSN standards right now, I do miss dabbling for my own entertainment.
Which led me to checking out some inspiring books on Amazon… This one looks like it has some gorgeous, modern designs that incorporate traditional crewel stitches. I love the design on the cover, it’s exactly the kind of thing I’d love to work on – colours and all.
Not that I’m in need of any new craft books at the moment, but it doesn’t hurt to window-shop, does it!?
X
I’ve spent the last couple of weeks thinking about blogging a lot, but not actually finding time to do it. I’ve also spent a lot of time thinking about various different projects and yet not quite getting round to making progress or starting any of them…
At the risk of sounding totally naive, I think the biggest learning curve for me after having B has really been how much I’ve had to scale back my expectations on what I can achieve on any given day. Which sounds ridiculous, I know. That probably should have been obvious. But it’s taken a real shift for me to be comfortable with abandoning to-do list churn and being more realistic about what I can get done.
And you know what, it’s no sacrifice. Because I get to spend my days with this cheeky guy and I couldn’t be more thankful or feel more lucky.
That’s not to say it’s easy and doesn’t involve hard work, because it isn’t and it does. But it’s so, so worth it. The best thing we’ve done by miles.
But in amongst all the scaling back and readjusting, I’ve been giving serious thought to why I blog. This beautifully written post by Erin came at just the right time, it’s definitely worth a read if you already blog or are tempted to start. I’m in awe of her blogging pedigree and love the consideration she’s given to how it’s complemented or driven different phases of her life.
And whilst I haven’t got many blogging miles on the clock yet (a couple of years is a drop in the ocean, right?!) I do think I’ve learnt a lot since I began.
I started blogging because I wanted a space to document my craft projects and in doing so, I really hoped to find motivation to up my output and improve my crafting stamina when it came to the longer-haul stuff. I also hoped I might connect with other crafters and share experiences along the way. I honestly didn’t realise how much I’d enjoy it… but I also didn’t realise how much time and effort it involves to do it well.
I have no way of knowing if I’ve produced more over the past two years because of blogging, but I do know I’ve definitely enjoyed the act of creating stuff more as a result of the blogging about it. Making connections to other crafters and bloggers turned out to be harder than I thought it might be — having been an avid reader and comment-lurker on other blogs for years, actually starting to frequently comment was surprisingly hard! But I’m getting there. And the people I’ve met and connections I’ve made along the way have been all the sweeter because they haven’t necessarily come easy for me.
This space has also taken me in other unexpected directions… I’ve discovered how much I love to take and share photos – not just of crafting projects, but of random stuff. Everyday stuff. I’ve discovered that it’s fun to share Etsy finds. And different knitting patterns. And other, inspiring bloggers and makers. I’ve realised I want to do more of my own ‘from scratch’ creating and follow through some of my own ideas, rather than always following existing patterns and tutorials.
Ultimately, I think I’ve realised this space is a work-in-progress and will change and grow as I do. To that end, I’m going to be making some tweaks over the next couple of weeks (well – that’s the loose goal!) and I have some exciting plans for December. I’m slightly obsessed about Christmas, so have lots of ideas bubbling up! Although the most important thing I’m keeping in mind is not to beat myself up if I don’t quite achieve what’s spinning round in my head. As long as I’m enjoying it, that’s the main thing – isn’t it?
How has your attitude to blogging changed over the years? I’d love to hear any thoughts, stories or advice! I can honestly say that BrambleBird has meant so much more to me than I originally thought it might and I’m excited about what’s to come. Thank you for reading so far!
X
