Manchester Craft Fair

One of the things I love about living in a Manchester is having so many events on my doorstep. We have loads of markets, my favourites being the Christmas Markets and absolutely I can't wait til November when they open! This year alone I've been to the Spring Markets where I got this little fella




a Vintage Fair in the Triagle (I love love loved this) and yesterday a last minute trip to the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair in Spinningfields. There were some really beautiful designs, lots of lovely jewellery, cushions, art work, paintings, knitted things - If I'd have one that £113m on the Lotto I would have walked away with a lot more than my modest purchase I tell you! More on that later. Most of the designers had little postcards to take away with their details, here are some of my favourites:

These fab tea towels were only £10 although my friend and I both agreed we could never use them for drying dishes even though the girls on the stand encouraged us that we could! She bought three in the end (it was a difficult choice!) one to frame and hang in her own kitchen and two to part with as Christmas presents; lucky friends!

This last little stand was my absolute favourite, no need to explain why I'm sure. Loooooooooook at the little knitted cacti pin cushion! What a fabulous idea! The pins are its needles see! OH I loved this so much, I think I might have done a little dance in the shop (which was tiny!) Just as exciting were the Christmas Tree pin cushions which had pins with those coloured pearly heads to look like lights and baubles!! Ahhhh pure loveliness.

It was pretty obvious then that my modest purchase was of course going to be:

I.Love.It.

Short days and short weekends

With the days getting shorter and shorter by the time I get home from work there isn't much light left so I haven't been quite as busy making things as I'd like, but aren't the sunsets looking beautiful?

Weekends are my favourite time so on Saturday I got up nice and early (well it was about 10 o'clock, but thats early by my standards!) and decided to get the sewing machine out. I recently took a trip to Hobbycraft and came back with some lovely material, to replace the old first cushion cover I made way way back last year. Don't feel too sorry for it, it had a good life!

You will need an 8 inch zip, pins and thread. The smaller cushion which I have photographed is 12"x12".

Cut two squares measuring 13"x13".

Draw a 1/4" guide around the edge for the seams.

Place the two squares together, right sides facing. Using the bottom seam, sew two 3" lines from across the two edges; this will leave you with an 6" gap for the zip.

This is the tricky bit. Fold the top seam of each square and press with an iron. Place with the right side facing up and position the zip underneath. You can pin and tack the zip to the fabric if you wish.

Use the zipper foot of your sewing machine and sew around the zip. This is what it will look like from the back:

And from the front:

Now you can sew up the remaining side BUT remember to open up the zip first. You will not believe how many covers I've had to un-pick because I couldn't turn it inside out!

Patchwork cusion

I promised in an early blog post that I would start writing some tutorials, but I always seem to follow other peoples patterns so there is no need! However I've just finished making a patch work cuschion from my growing fabric stash which I wanted to share, I think it's just lovely!

Here it is, looking very comfy on my un-finished Granny Stripe. The process is a little time consuming at the beginning, setting everything up but I promise it is well worth it. I've used 5 different fabrics here:



Corners:

1. Take fabric's a and b and cut a strip of each measuring 7" x 3.5" / 16cm x 8cm

2. Cut the strips in half to make squares measuring 3.5" x 3.5" / 8cm x 8cm



Middles

3. Still using fabrics a and b, cut a smaller strip measuring 5" x 2.5" / 12cm x 6cm

4. Cut these strips in half to make small 2.5" x 2.5" / 6cm x 6cm squares



5. Take fabric e and cut a square measuring 5" x 5" / 12cm x 12cm.

6. Cut in four equal smaller squares measuring 2.5" x 2.5" / 6cm x 6cm



Sides:

7. Take fabric d and cut a strip measuring 14" x 7" / 32cm x 15cm

8. Cut into 4 equal pieces measuring 3.5" x 7" / 8cm x 15cm



Triangles:

9. Take fabric c and cut a strip measuring 14" x 7" / 32cm x 15cm

10. Cut into 8 equal squares measuring 3.5" x 3.5" / 8cm x 8cm



Seams:

11. Draw a border around each piece 0.25" (1/4") / 0.25cm from the edge.



Making up the triangles:

12. Take one piece of fabric c and lay it on top of a piece of fabric d. Draw a line diagonally from the top middle to the bottom corner





13. Sew diagonally down the line.



14. Fold the triangle back and press.



15. Repeat for the opposite side.



16. Do this for the remaining 3 sides.



17. Stop for some cake. This step is very important!



Making up the middle:

18. Take 3 small squares of a, b and e.



19. Turn over and sew down the seam lines.





20. Repeat with the remaining middles to make a pattern like this:

b e a
e d e
a e b



21. Sew all three strips together.



Making up the sides:

22. Take the triangle pieces and attach the larger squares of a and b to the ends, alternating with a at the top of one piece and the bottom of the other.



Those of you with a keen eye will notice I have sewn the ends on wrong here! I un-picked and re-sewed them but forgot to take a photo!

Final assembly:

23. Sew the remaining two triangle pieces to the middle square



24. Then sew the sides to the middle.



25. Almost time for a cup of tea! Now time for the back. I usually put zips on my cushions but you need an extra wide seam at the bottom which I forgot to do. I have opted for a flap instead and may put buttons on it at some point.



26. Lightly press. Now definitely time for a brew!



This is a modified version (only slightly) of this tutorial on About.com. I found the sizes they gave were a lot bigger as it was for a quilt and not a cushion, so I have reduced things down a little.

Granny Stripe Update: 2

It would be nice to have a finished "ta dah" post but we're not quite there yet with the Granny Stripes. I thought I'd give an update anyway as it's probably at least half way there now, 46.5 rows!

Do you like my slippers? I wish I could make things like this!

I started to do the first round of the border before finishing purely because I'm impatient and I wanted to see what it would look like! Using a different colour to the stripes and I think it works quite well.

Garden bunting

I haven't been able to blog about this yet as it was a present for my mum who is a reader (possibly my only reader!) but now I've given it to her I can share it with the wider world!



It's very easy to do. Zig-zag stitch the triangles and cut them out after, I find this makes it easier to machine sew because you have more material to hold. Do as many triangles as you like! The more the better I think.





Experiment with the order you like the best by laying them next to each other.



The finishing touch it to sew bias binding to the tops of the triangles, and sew the ends into loops for hanging. Voila, beautiful bunting, and at a fraction of the price in some stores, even though bunting is probably worth every penny.

My herb garden

For ages I've wanted a herb garden, I don't know why exactly as I don't often cook with herbs but I think I just liked the idea you know? So I had chives before, and creeping pennyroyal (smells like pepper mint) rosemary, thyme and a couple of others. Guess what! They're all dead. I don't know what I've been doing wrong so I hope this time I do a bit better.

My pots are stackable so I can move them around easily, they've got lots of crocking in the bottom and I drilled holes for drainage. The gravel apart from looking good should also help with drainage so fingers crossed to a better herb year.




Oregano


Sage


Chives


Creeping Pennyroyal


Thyme


Oregano