Busy Day

Saturday was a bit busy. My husband had several men from our church round for breakfast.

No,
I did not get up and do it, though I used to several years back when he was doing something similar. He really enjoyed making Caravaner's Pie...a recipe given to me by our former neighbour, who we still call "Clare Nextdoor". It is basically a full cooked English Breakfast cooked in the oven.
In a buttered oven dish... layer, Mashed Potatoes or (cubed and cooked if you are short on time). grated cheese, eggs (just cracked open over the other layers), bacon slices, sliced tomatoes, and a bit more grated cheese. Bake in the oven for 40 min to an hour depending on how much you have made. Clare says, don't use tinned tomatoes instead...her friend called it Roadkill pie when she did that!! LOL I am thinking you could actually get some mushrooms in there and have the real "full-cooked English".

There were several other things he made, including a blueberry muffin mix, etc. The men throughly enjoyed it. I stayed in bed! Good excuse for a lie in! (well, till the dog - who was banished out of the kitchen to the lounge - cried so much my husband brought her up to the bedroom. She was fine for about 5 min. So, much for going back to sleep! She thinks she has to be there when you are eating.)


Anyway, when they had gone, I tucked in to what was leftover. Then popped into town to the haberdashery stall in the market for petersham and some other bits for class on Monday.


And when I got back, I went with my friend to South Hill Park Christmas Fair...


which is why I started this post! among the interesting things we saw were some pots made by Lauren Denney from Caversham. The ones that attracted us are not on the website. They had small holes near the top through which Lauren had sewn buttons! and some with slots that she had threaded ribbon through and tied.

When we had finished looking round and had a cup of tea, we decided to go back. She had a few small ones without buttons so you could make your own. As I have plenty of unusual buttons, I am looking forward to showcasing them on the pot.

Here is a photo of the one I got, next to her card, showing one of the pots which already has a button. Mine has a place for 2 buttons...hmm which ones?

Lauren is selling more of her work at the All I want for Christmas event at the Caversham centre for New Directions. My friend is going to go along to that event to purchase one of the larger vases with buttons.
Oh, I just found a photo of one of the button pots.

Featured Blog

I haven't done a featured blog for some time. I was running out of interesting ones who posted regularly!

Anyway, one of the blogs I have a look at fairly regularly is 5 Orange Potatoes. Like the Magic Onions, it is an interesting blog about the sorts of things Lisa does with her 2 daughters. Very crafty nature type things and most are not childish at all. There are a lot of interesting things you can do with herbs and flowers. Fascinating.

So, the reason I wanted to tell you about it is that I am not the only one who enjoys the blog. 5 Orange Potatoes has been nominated for the Best Unschooling Blog 2009! If you go over to 5 Orange Potatoes and think you like it, too, then follow the link for Best Unschooling Blog 2009 and go vote for her! When I did, I saw she was at the top!

And here is one of the many learning things we used to do with our boy back in the day.
It is great to have a kid who loves to learn. You learn allsorts with him!

Fund Raiser - 3

I am trying out a few ideas of things to make for the charity Christmas Boutique.

Here are a few tree decorations. The thing is, if I am going to make enough for the day and with my current schedule, they can't be complicated.

The middle one is turned... too fiddley.

You may not be able to tell from the photo, but all are stitched with beads, etc. Elegant, but really too time consuming. I have started a few more with thoughts of using dimensional fabric paint. If it were some high class Christmas fair, I would do the beads. But as it is a charity event, the people who come are not likely to be expecting to pay prices that would reimburse your time. It is the small coins that go to make up the amounts in these instances.

I will show you the next lot when I have them done. Because I am just pinking the edges, I am drawing round my template onto doubled fabric with chalk, leaving a little bit of a gap between. Then I am stitching round each tree on the piece of fabric, and cutting them out with the pinking shears. I leave the bottom of the base open for stuffing.

I am not a great one for making loads of one thing, but I have a selection of quilting cottons, some in not-to-predictable greens and reds and golds. It gives a bit of interest and somewhat of a reason to buy because they are different...I hope.

Candles and Fleece

Not really connected, but here is what I went into town in the rain for today.

Candles for next week's workshop for Crafts @the Library and fleece for Christmas presents.

I am real chuffed with the fleece. I was going to get it at Tesco where I had found the lowest priced fleece throws for about £2.50 or so. You couldn't get the yardage for that!
However, there were only 2 designs I thought would be suitable for what I want to make (secret!).
But, when I went to another shop for dried cranberries, I saw that Bentalls (the posh shop). Has a shop where they are selling reduced items...maybe a credit crunch idea? Any way, they had these packs of 2 fleece throws for £5.95. Although, the price comes to a bit more, the colour choices are better. I can do alot of mix and matching. The leftovers from the Christmas presents will be used for the January workshop for Crafts @the Library.

Sample - Waistband faced with Petersham

Next week we are working on waistband samples in the City and Guilds Fashion Course. In the older version of the programme, a straight waistband was sufficient for a sample. But now, there are a few more requirements, depending on which type of skirt or trouser you choose to do. So, I worked on the steps to make a waistband faced with petersham. There are directions in the Reader's Digest Complete Book of sewing. It is a very useful technique if you have a heavyweight wool like the one above. The bulk is much less, because instead of self facing, you use petersham. It also helps to give a firm waistband that doesn't crumple and stretch. I like petersham in my waistbands anyway, so I think this is a good idea.

When I do a sample, I usually do most of the steps, but leave part of the work undone so that you can look and see what happened before the finishing. (As it is a sample, I didn't fuss about matching the side seams.)

I want to try another sample for a shaped faced waist from the book. It looks interesting as they do a bit of machine pad stitching when applying the interfacing to the facing. This gives it a bit of body, and helps it to stay firm on the body. The skirt then floats somewhat freely on it's own.

Celtic Dragon-finish

And here is the completed Celtic Dragon. I thought I would try out echo quilting. I haven't done much of that before. The varigated golds and beiges on the edges really worked well, because the lightest of the beige actually reads as if it were a similar colour to the colours on the dragon. In real life, the visual play between the two almost makes the border vibrate.

Next on the agenda, besides preparing for next week's Craft @the Library, is finishing off some of the EquilARTeral challenges before I get too far behind.

Inspiration Monday

Here is an idea for you.
Take a photo of an item that is commonly seen.Play with it in a paint programme.
And you create more of an iconic image. This type of thing can be used as inspiration for a series of textile art pieces that say a message...like safety. Or that just draws more attention to the common place.