Light relief

A couple of weeks ago I spent most of an afternoon and early evening crawling on the living room floor between layers of the curtain I'm sewing for the living room.  The cats were quite perplexed and thought it best to steer clear!

So, as a bit of light relief from that and the Christmas madness, I've been making some Christmas decorations.

I rather like the magazine, Cross Stitcher, and although there are lots of designs I'm sure I'll never make, there are quite a few that I find quite tempting.  November's issue had a free gift - the materials to make a garland of stars/snowflakes.  In the pack were three red and white patterened card stars and three perforated card stars ready to embroider, red and white embroidery silks, red and white cord for stringing it all together and a needle.  According to the instructions, each star should take two hours to make, but I think I managed each one in a little over an hour.

Initially I intended to decorate our dresser with greenery, but as I didn't think I'd have the time to make a traditional garland, these seemed to be the perfect substitute.  However, I found some fairy lights for the dresser, so I've found somewhere else to hang these now.  They're very pretty and I really like the perforated card stars - although I tend to roll fabric around my fingers as I stitch so I had to be careful not to bend the card too much!  Unfortunately it doesn't seem possible to buy more of the perforated stars, but I've found instructions how to make your own. What do you think?


I'm so pleased with them I think I may try more of their Christmas designs.  I've gone back through old issues and found the free gifts and spent my quiet time over the Christmas break making them.  My DH is a bit confused why I'm making Christmas decorations when we'll be taking the tree down soon, but I'm enjoying myself. 

There are also some pretty Scandinavian inspired decorations in the December issue that may well fit some of the Framecraft accessories I've had from years (yes, more Ebay purchases!).

Christmas gifts

Well, for my first post of 2013, I can finally reveal what I made as presents for my family.

Pretty in a pinny! MIL's feminine confection.

His 'n' Hers
Big sis and BIL modelling the blue versions - the red ones were for my other BIL and SIL

Curtains - progess report

The rolls of fabric I'll be using



Curtain no.1 in progress.

As you can see, I have a lot of fabric to deal with.  In fact there are 36 metres of fabric in each curtain, when you tot up the curtain fabric, lining and interlining.  Goodness knows how many miles of stitching I will have done by the time I've finished!

The sewing is actually really easy, but with so much fabric, trying to iron the seams etc is a nightmare.  The most difficult bit so far though was trying to get all three layers in order and inserting the buckram.  I literally had to crawl inside the curtain to do this!  Anyway, now all that is left to do on curtain no.1 is the pleating and hemming now.  I'm going to leave the hemming until I've put them up as I think the floor is uneven.

However, the Christmas tree is now up and in the way, so even if I finish the pleating before Christmas, we won't actually hang the curtains until 2013.

Curtain up II

In the prequel to this post I told you all about my sewing plans for our home and we've now finally reached the second project in that list.

I must admit that I can't wait to have curtains in our living room again.  After the new windows were installed we applied 'privacy film' to the living room windows and used the curtains that had previously been in the living room to replace the hideous blinds we'd inherited in the bedroom.  I can't tell you how nice it is to draw the curtains in our room every day.  It feels like such a luxury after two years of dirty, dusty venetian blinds!

Having said that, I'm also daunted at the prospect of making such HUGE curtains out of silk for the living room and also trying out a new curtain top to boot.

I've made numerous pairs of curtains over the years and have even tried my hand at roller blinds (although they weren't exactly that successful - let's just say it was a rather expensive lesson in how not to cut a straight edge by following the pattern in the fabric!), but the curtains have all had good ol' pencil pleat headings.  But for whatever reason, I've decided to go for triple pleats this time.

I may have mentioned once or twice (!) that they're going to be HUGE curtains, but naturally, you've no idea why.  Well, firstly we have a lovely bay window in our living room which measures about 4.5m in width.  We also have very high ceilings on the ground floor, so the curtains will be almost 3m long too!  As I asked here, how do I save myself from 'drowning' in so much fabric?

If I ever surface from the sea of fabric, I'll try to keep you all posted on my progress!

The holidays are coming ...

Not that I usually quote adverts, but ...

Anyway, I've had rather a productive few days preparing for Christmas and thought I'd shout about it a bit.

I spent my birthday last week and some of the weekend happily sewing presents for various members of the family.  I promise to post some photos of them soon, but just in case any of them read this, I don't want to spoil the surprise.  Although I could be tempted to post some cryptic shots so as not to disappoint the rest of you - so watch this space!

So, along with some shopping DH and I did at an eisteddfod over the summer, we have 7 presents sorted and 'only' 5 family members to go (and we've a few ideas for some of those) and nearly all of DH's god-children's and our foreign friends' presents have been bought too.  So that is the bulk of the Holiday Headache cleared.

And to add to the festive excitement, a robin decided to visit my DS's kitchen last week and wasn't keen on leaving before they all left for school/work!

Don't you think that deserves a glass of mulled wine?!

Catching up

I've been feeling guilty about not blogging much recently, so I've been reviewing what I've written and thought I'd at least give you an update on my reading progress, even if I haven't managed much of my UFOs, long list of projects etc.

In fact, I used to be the slow reader of the household and was constantly amazed at the speed DH could get through books (he's been known to read a whole book on a flight, and not a long haul one at that!).  But recently, he's reading less and less and I seem to be reading more (and speeding up a bit too).

So here are the additions to my previous list:
Through a Glass Darkly - Donna Leon (set amongst Murano's glass manufacturers)
Doctored Evidence - Donna Leon
Ellis Island - Kate Kerrigan (another work library contribution)
Long Song - Andrea Levy (after enjoying Small Island, I thought I'd give another of her books a go, but found this one hard going)
Tapas - selection of Welsh short stories by various authors, a refreshing change
Getting rid of Matthew - Jane Fallon (a bit of frivolous fluff!)
Anna Karenin - Tolstoy (and the complete opposite of GRoM above!!  A long, hard read.  Can't say I warmed to Anna and Vronsky, much preferred Kitty and Levin)
The Innocent - Ian McEwan (set in Berlin during Cold War; phone tapping etc; a bit of a disappointment)
The Tiger's Wife - Tea Obreht (Balkan best seller; different to what I usually read; intriguing)
Endlich - Ildiko von Kürthy (another German chick lit by an author I've enjoyed in the past - didn't think she was as successful with this one)
The Miracle of Grace - Kate Kerrigan (Spotted it in the work library and as I'd enjoyed Ellis Island and remembered reading about this one, thought I'd give it a go.  Surprisingly uplifting story considering the circumstances)

Following a trip to Amsterdam, I'm now re-reading Anne Frank's diary and finding it extremely moving - more-so than the first time - especially after visiting the Secret Annexe.  As a school-girl myself, I remember being struck by her ability to forgive others.  This time I feel so concerned about her relationship with her mother and that they probably never got to resolve things and also by the claustrophobia of the situation.  They must all have been going round the bend being cooped up in such confined quarters for so long - no wonder there was constant tension between them.  This time she also strikes me as being a great character and quite mature for her age, but as she says herself, she had to face things that not many other teenagers had to face, and coped admirably with it all.  It has just struck me how appropriate it is to be reading this at this time of year.

Pretty in a Pinny

Well hello - it is nice to be back with you all!  Please accept my apologies for my long absence.  It has been rather a hectic time since my last post, but we're finally getting straight again (and de-stressing in the process!).  And my, what a difference it has made already.  The ground floor is already much warmer and cosier.   The new windows are lovely and we planted ALL the bulbs (with a little lot of help from my parents).  Unfortunately, I didn't quite manage to finish the painting jobs as I'd hoped, but that will all be done next week, along with new curtain poles in three rooms (made by my lovely friend, Nia).

Right, back to the business in hand.

You may recall that back in February I mentioned some lovely craft/sewing books I'd acquired and that MIL requested that I make her an apron from one of them as her Christmas present.

Well, that time has come and I really need to get on with it before larger projects get in the way (eg living room curtains).

The book in question is the Liberty Book of Home Sewing and it is full of gorgeously, tempting projects to wear around the home and for the home.  My lovely MIL is a very keen cook, so an apron is just the thing for her, although I suspect that this one (as seen on Katherine Hannaford's Double Exposure blog - I'm dying to know if she managed to make every project in the book!) won't be her 'working' one, but more for show!

Having browsed through the book again (and drooled!) and chosen fabrics for MIL's gift (more drooling), I also got thinking about other projects in the book that would be fun to make and am now seriously considering some others as Christmas presents and possible additions to our home.  I'll keep you posted on how I get on with these soon.