Lovey Dovey Birdies.

Well Sunday has rolled around again and this weeks makes consist of some love birds. Here they are waiting patiently for me to finish them.

The back with their little cute red buttons. The two on the right are made from linen and love heart red fabric. They are for my d.i.l. and the other two are calico and left over material from my red quilt so they are destined for my bedroom.

Just hanging around.....

Hmmm maybe they need something a little bit extra.....

So now they have a beak full of hearts instead of worms!

I finally finished the cushion with an extra monogram for d.i.l and son

                                             Finished cushion, it does look like there is an abstract line running through the middle but the patchwork is padded out and is part of the quilted look that I've sewn onto it.

Back to finishing off a field of cactus/cacti that I'm making. So cheerio till next week.

Will be putting this on these linky parties:
http://www.1stuniquegifts.co.uk/blog/
http://www.flamingotoes.com/
http://www.homemakeronadime.com/
http://sewmanyways.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/sew%20darn%20crafty
http://sewchatty.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.craftskeepmesane.blogspot.co.uk/
http://thecreativeitchboutique.blogspot.co.uk/
http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.elizabethandco.blogspot.co.uk/
http://sewmanyways.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/sew%20darn%20crafty
http://www.finecraftguild.com/party/
http://www.michellestastycreations.blogspot.co.uk/

 So how does your garden grow......

This is something that I've been upto this week. Catus that you don't need to water.....ever!

The red spotty flower pot on the left was made from a little bowl, which came with an Andrex puppy years ago and the top part is a deodrant top. (I know I have some strange bits and pieces stashed around the cottage!)I glue the fabric to the bottom first and then covered the deodrant cap with the fabric, then glued them both together and tied some raffia around to cover the join.
The other two flower pots were nicked from Head Honcho's shed and are those little peat/cardboard containers for seedlings. Painted and with a spotty dot are just the ticket.

The tinsy, bitsy, tiny catus was my practise piece, and I used a bottle cap from a drink which then was covered in some fabric and raffia. This one measures 2 and half inches and the others are nearly 6".
Stuck some pins in there you have it, useful and decorative at the same time!

This lime green catus, which has cherry fabric flowers, (yes strange I know but then you can do anything ya like when you're making it!!) sits nicely in amongst my little dresser collection. (Wonders where can I squeeze in a nice big dresser in my little cottage as it's getting a bit full)

Even tho these pictures were taken with my super duper new camer, the colours still don't seem to come out nice and bright.....unless it's my computer screen, or could it be my photographing skills!

I will be popping this onto handmade monday and/
http://iamonly1woman.blogspot.com.ar/
http://www.niftythriftythings.com/
show off monday
http://www.sweetlittlegals.com/
http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.co.uk/
http://jannolson.blogspot.co.uk/
http://joyfulstamper.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Inspire%20Me%20Fridays
http://www.bedifferentactnormal.com/2012/04/show-and-tell-saturday-042812.html
hungryhypo.blogspot


Forgot to add that you can see all sorts of different ways of making cactus if you google catus images, and then let your imagination rip :0D

Mongrammes and tea tidy

I have always liked monogrammes, especially the posh intertwinned white/cream on linen. Here is my first one. I hope to make something for my d.i.l. with it. I used 1 strand of Anchor thread on linen. I wonder if it's a tad to dark?
This is the start;

Finished 'T'

I did realise to late that the rose in the middle of the T is more or less the same red as the T so it doesn't stand out as well.

Here is a close up;

For some reason the T looks a tad wonky but in real life it's straight!
 The white strands are ordinary sewing cotton (as I couldn't be bothered to get up and used what was beside me in my sewing box!) but I think it looks OK. I do a have some 'proper' silk threads which I might have a practise with on something else. Got to finish this one first!

On a completely different note here is a Spotty cat. I commissioned him from a lady on a craft forum I frequent who does pottery. www.clairemanwani.com I wanted something that goes in with the rest of my kitchen and to replace the dull manky brown tea bag holder that I had.

Look at his sweet face and blue eyes, and here he is with a tea bag (Scottish blend of course :0P )

The photo doesn't do him the justice he deserves. Why does red never photograph properly? Gotta go and have a cuppa!

handmade Monday and also http://iamonly1woman.blogspot.com.ar/ and http://sewmanyways.blogspot.co.uk/ and http://www.handymancraftywoman.com/ has once more come around with lots of crafty blogs.

Gerald Goth/Biker

And here he is, Gerald Biker Bunny haha.

He was influenced by his dad's friend and fellow biker, Barry, shown here

But as he is only young his mum wont let him go the whole hog and is only letting him have a nose ring, earing and necklace!

And here he is showing you his little secret heart.

This little rabbit has got a black aran sweater on and sports some little whiskers. The ring is on his little pink nose. He has a saucy little smile.

Gerald has been knitted with some hairy wool, which I don't know what it is. (could be a sort of mohair) Tis very hairy anyway, so hairy in fact that I had to give him a haircut. Daughter found the ball in a charity shop and thought, lovely, mum would just want that! (mum didn't, it was hard to knit with. and I thought I'd finished with rabbits for a wee while!)

Anyway hope your like Gerald, he's not as black as his knitted!!

Starting to do a little embroidery now and regret selling off all my old embroidery books when we moved, as they had lots of good references for different stitches.

I have popped this onto  http://www.handymancraftywoman.com/ blog and also
sewmanyways

New shopping Bag

Tahdah... I can go shopping now I have a new bag! There isn't a pattern I just cut and hoped for the best. I did come unstuck with that method as, even tho it was measured ever so carefully, one side was larger than the other! Nearly gave up then I can tell you, but we are a tenacious lot in our house and had a light bulb moment and added an extra bit of material around the top of the orange velvet which I think looks OK.

Back view which I've left plain in case I get so many bargains the bag gets to heavy to carry and Head Honcho has to carry it!!  (All tho he really likes it, he's said that no way is he ever going to carry it anywhere :0D )

 This is the inside. Made from a skirt that was in the Tesco sale. Didn't see until it was home that it had lots of seams in it so not the huge piece of fabric that I wanted. Never mind it's done the job. There is a little side pocket for bits and pieces.

 

                                        
                            Close up of the Quirky Houses. I really like the blue                                 roofs against the orange velvet.

     The free hand embroidery. The green leaves and stems took one and three quarters skeins of anchor thread. Three strands were used through out.

Since taking the above photos I've stitched down the lace with a tiny stitch at each point as for some reason they kept rolling over.

So there ya go, finished! Nice and bright and zany, just my cup of tea. Made from a wool blanket and some velvet which were already in my stash. If you spot me in Tesco's with my bag, come up and say Hello!

Here is a linky to Wendy's Handmade Monday blogspot.

Slowly, slowly.

As the title suggests its a slow slog. I am quite disappointed at myself that the quilt went awry. I think I should have starched the sashing so it was a firmer fabric instead of being quite thin and floppy. I also had enough backing (sheet) fabric so why did I cut it to short not only that but strangly a square was also cut out (not sure how that happened) so had to patch it up. That wasn't the end tho.....there is some cobbled as well.... sigh. Still I bet you wouldn't have noticed if I didn't point it all out haha.

The circles in the sashing are part of the hand quilting, thought I would try them. I have drawn it with my trusty blue marker which washes out (I have used it with the straight stitches as well)

I also am not to excited with the binding either. double sigh.

My little Quirky house patch that I've sewn on which also hides a hole..triple sigh...and on the right you might just see a pin sticking out which is where the patch needs to go ontop of the patch that I've already put in which also wasn't big enough....quardraple sigh!!!!

Still whilst that is on one side for the moment, this is an update on the shopping bag.

                                             Bright and zany eh!

And here is a closer view. The orange is felt attached to the blue material with a buttonhole stitch, a little blue seed bead added. Then with 3 strands of bright blue embroidery thread I buttonholed over the top of the blue material and it's given it a raised effect. There needs to be a bit more greenery to balance it all out, and then it might get stitched together.

And as one project is nearly finished another 6 start up!! Here is one of them, more bits of wood from the wood pile!

Be interesting to see if they can turn into something interesting.

Once again I'm linking up with  handmade Monday