Monday 16 September 2013

It fell into my basket.....

..honest 'Guv'!

OK, maybe not....oooops!

I hold my hands up to some purchases, want to have a look?

Come on then, my friends, let's have a browse.....

First there was this purchase, certainly not my sort of thing, but somehow irresistible.....



It was inspired by The Patchsmith blog and the desire she had awakened in me to find out more. It also satisfies my curiosity about patchwork on a small scale (compared to quilts for beds), applique and free motion embroidery and certainly provides food for thought on unrelated projects that I would like to get in to.

Then whilst out with Teenage Daughter the other day, we visited The Works and this jumped out at me..............



A bargain at £4.99 when I had seen it on Amazon for £12!

Crafty Friend had lent me this............



It is lovely, but even having made some basic clothes from a paper pattern, the instructions for making yourself a calico pattern were overwhelming.

Sew Serendipity provides a basic paper pattern with which to cut out the basic shapes from calico that you then fit to your body, I just felt it gave me the headstart that I needed.

 I have already cut out the paper pieces to make the skirt, I don't think I have ever started on something quite so swiftly after buying it. So, watch this space.

My third purchase was one (that I had again seen on Amazon for around £10), again from The Works at the bargain price of £3.99!!

The title made me laugh and pick up the book......



'Bend the rules Sewing' starts with some basics in transferring patterns and embroidery stitches for embellishing, it then goes on to some really sweet little projects from bags to different style pockets to sew onto a vintage style apron (one of the other projects!)

There are little quotes from Amy Karol's Gran such as, "Mistakes are much less noticeable after a week or so, and in a month the project will look amazing." I know this is true from experience when I have made the tiniest mistake and taken ages to make good and then made the same mistake and just carried on.

On the finished article, I struggle to find the mistake or the bit that I took ages to put right, so unless it is screamingly horrible, know when to not bother!

A Victorian Stitchers belief was that to achieve perfection was an insult to God, as only God was perfect. I like that thought so much that I have been known to cross-stitch a mistake into something, once it's not perfect in one place, I won't worry about other small mistakes.

I don't know how much I shall actually MAKE directly from these books, but I know they will be a great source of inspiration.

Did you notice in my photos another little Ebay purchase?

My lovely hand embroidered runner.......

 
Isn't it a delight?
 
Here's a close up of the detail.......

 
I love it!

Well, that's that news all up to date, have you got any favourite books adorning your bookshelf that you really should take down and revisit? Go on, have a look.

I shall return again very soon, you don't see me for weeks and then you are overwhelmed with all the posts!

Love
Nora
xxxx

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for dropping by, please don't leave without commenting as it's nice to know you were here x