Flower Pin cushion

I've been making lots of pin cushions to go with the decorated pins. So for the flowers I made a pretty flower pin cushion which went home with a friend along with some of the pins. 

Its double sided with matching materials. 

1. First cut out two circles in matching materials, leaving about 1/2 cm for the hem. 
2. Stitch around the circle with the materials back to back, leaving about 1inch gap to turn inside out. 
3. Turn the material the right way round and stuff to your firmness, and hand stitch the gap. 
4. Thread a needle with either cotton or cross-stitch silks and knot so you are sewing with 4 lengths thickness.
5. Stitch in the middle and take thread right the way round the cushion and stitch back in the same place, making sure that it is tighter than the cushion. Repeat this twice more. 
6. Put a button on the top and bottom to cover stitching. And Bobs your uncle. 

 :) xx

Pimp my pins

I've fallen in love with poly clay at the moment and have been making pretty tops on pins. Which my sister has named Pimp my pins so I apologies for this but I haven't been able to come up with a better name.

So I've been making loads of fruit toppers to go with my apple and pear pin cushions in the last post.

I've also been making lots of flowers and pretty mushrooms and cupcakes which I will upload pictures soon.
But they are really pretty.

:) xx
 

Apple and pear pin cushion

So I found this tutorial for apple and pear pin cushions, so I though I would have a go. I really enjoyed making these.

http://uklassinus.blogspot.com/2007/11/apple-pin-cushion-tutorial.html

1. Cut out 6 pieces of any material of your choice, I mix the material and the colours, using the template leaving over 1/2 cm for the seem. 
2. Sew 3 pieces together inside out so when they are folded out they make half a ball. do the same for the other 3. 
3. Role a piece of felt into a stalk and stitch to hold. Sew to the top (were the smaller end of the templates meet) of one of the halfs. 
4. Sew to two halfs together, leaving a gap near the bottom of one of sides for filling. 
5. Fill with stuffing and hand stitch the hole. 
6. Stitch on a circle of felt onto the bottom to tidy. 

and Bobs your uncle. Please experiment with loads of different colours have fun. 

I preferred the pear pin cushion it was much easier and it came out better. The templates can be printed out and blown up or shrunk as wanted.

:) xx

Felt decorations

So recently I have had a bit of a thing about felt, so I have been making lots of felt decorations. It started as simple padded decorations with novelty buttons and I plan on making keyring's out of the same idea but smaller :)

But its a simple little stitching project that can be used for many different things, murals, key rings, hanging decorations, just let your imagination run away with you.
All you need is felt in a few different colours some templates of your choice (I usually just print out some outlines and draw round them onto the felt), 3 or 4 beads, some thread to make the teasel, 20cm of ribbon and some pretty buttons.

• Cut out two large pieces of felt to be the background.  
• And a few smaller shapes to decorate, you can choose if you decorate both sides. 
• Decide how you want them laid out and glue the small bits to the bigger bits. 
• Stitch round the deigns to make fix them properly and to make the shapes look more interesting (using different colour threads). 
• To make the teasel, cut approx. 20 lengths of thread about 20cm, line them all up and tie in the middle with a bit of thread about 30cm and fold in half, with a piece a thread about 30cm start rapping around the top of the folded in half teasel, and secure with a small knot. Thread the beads onto the the top and knot. 
• Attach the ribbon (folded in half) to the inside top of one of the large pieces of thread and the teasel to the bottom (be careful not to go through the felt with the stitches). 
• Put the two large pieces of felt back to back and with blanket stitch run about the the outside locking them together, use your judgement to leave enough gap to put in the stuffing, once filled finish the blanket stitch. And Bobs your uncle.

Using the same design I also made a big star to go on top of the Christmas tree, it was a bit rushed because my family could not find the fairy anywhere, and we couldn't have nothing on the tree.


Merry Christmas
xx

Button jar labels

So all my buttons were just in a box and I thought I better have a massive sort out (best thing was finding buttons I had forgotten about). So in the interest of organisation mass labelling was needed. This was the outcome.

The problem is that lots of my buttons are in individual stacking pots, sorted into colours and styles, and I don't want to mix them in the jars but keep changing my mind about which ones to put in. Rubbish I know!!!!! at some point I will screw up the courage to mix them all up.

I love them, they are really pretty :-D but yes I know a little on the twee side.
Happy Christmas xx

Vintage Fonts

I thought I would find some vintage fonts that I could stitch onto fabrics. :) These are some of my favourite

Matchbook 

Riesling 

Fontleroy Brown 

Lemon Chicken 

BP Script 

Upper East Side

I plan on using these as soon as possible

http://webdesignledger.com/freebies/30-fonts-perfect-for-vintage-and-retro-style-design

:) xx

Biscuits

So today I though I would make a start on the Christmas food. So here come the cupcakes and biscuits.

Really fatty biscuits but they are amazing.

Only problem is they spread out when cooked which is funny first lot ended up as a blob lol

Ingredients

500g butter, softened

200g caster sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

500g plain flour

Preparation method

1.	Preheat oven to 180 C / Gas mark 4.
2.	Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Stir in vanilla; add flour and mix well.
3.	Put through biscuit press and form biscuits onto baking trays. Alternatively, roll out to 1cm thickness and cut out desired shaped with biscuit cutters. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

Pasted from <http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/6330/shortbread-biscuits.aspx>