Owl hold the door open for you !

Happy Tuesday dear blog friends, we are enjoying some lovely late summer sun here in my part of Cornwall, I do hope you are also enjoying some nice weather wherever you are.

Today's post is just a short one, I thought I'd share a sewing project I finished recently.  Isn't this Owl Doorstop is such a fun chap ?  I love him.

I visited our local Dunelm Store recently looking for new bedding and whilst there spotted a Great British Sewing Bee kit to make an Owl Doorstop which was marked down to half price.  I needed to make a tall door stop to hold our conservatory door open and I thought this would be perfect.

The kit contained all the fabrics needed, iron on stabiliser and a calico bag to hold rice or sand and provide a weight inside the owl.  I used rice to fill the bag, packed the toy stuffing from the kit into the head and ears then inserted the weighted bag. 

I used an applique stitch on my sewing machine to stitch around all the pieces of the owl, sewing with black thread as a contrast to the many colours in the fabrics.

He works perfectly to hold the door open and I'm so pleased with how it turned out.

Thanks for dropping by today to check out my latest projects.

Trying Something Different

Hi there, I apologise for not blogging for quite a while, I have been crafting although haven't been too well again so not felt up to blogging.  Feeling much brighter now and finding the energy to write up a few blog posts, so there will be more projects shared over the next few days.

The project I'm sharing with you today had me moving into an area of crafting I hadn't tried before - printing my own fabric.   It's thanks to my pal Clare and her ideas that I tried this, thank you so much Clare I really enjoyed it. 

So, starting with a piece of white sheeting and a few colours of ProMarker pens, I set about creating some designer fabric.  First stage, random scribbles and shapes using a few PM colours.

Stage 2 adding Ranger Alcohol Blending Solution randomly over the design - looking a lot different now !

Next stage using a black PM to doodle and enhance the background design plus random stamping using Versa Craft ink and a couple of script stamps

and a close up of a section of the finished design

I then used a section of the finished fabric, elastic cord, a Crop-a-dile and eyelets and a sewing machine to create a journal cover

Front cover

 

 

back cover

I also added a couple of small pockets at each end inside to slip the notebook cover into to hold it in place

I have some of the fabric left after making the journal cover, used a scrap to make a card topper and I'll share this card with you later.

Thanks for dropping by to check out my latest project, I hope you enjoyed it.

Time to share a sewing project I think

Happy Tuesday folks.  Today I thought that I'd share some of my sewing projects with you rather than another card. 

A few weeks ago during a get together sewing day with my lovely crafting pals, I made a fabric box/bag using a pattern and instructions from the Tilda 'Sew Pretty Homestyle' book.  I've had this lovely book for a long time and love to thumb through the pages, it always inspires me looking at such pretty things. 

Here's my first attempt

did you spot my wonky bottom ? 

I didn't quite get the measurements right when I made the boxed corners, I learned a valuable lesson though and since then I've managed to get my bottoms straight !

After the sewing day I went on to create a few more of these pretty and very useful boxes at home.

isn't this elephant fabric just the cutest thing ?

I made a slightly larger one with this fabby red and white zipper and pins fabric so it will hold some of my folded fat quarters of fabric and look cheerful in my craft room. 

 

 

doesn't it look fun with the red gingham in the bottom

 

 

I made one more box/bag which I'll share with you in another post.

 



I hope you enjoyed today's projects, thanks for visiting.



A Different Kind of Thank You

Hi there folks, I hope you are well and are having a wonderful day. 

I thought I'd share one of my little sewing projects with you today.  After Christmas (or any time of year) there are always Thank You cards/notes to send, but I decided to create something slightly different this year. 

I made these little lavender bags to say 'Thank You' for some of the gifts I received. Wrapped up prettily with gold tissue and tied with red ribbon they looked so nice.  Making them also used up some of the smaller pieces in my (large) fabric stash.

Here are a few of the bags

and a close up shot of a couple of them

They were very simple to construct, just squares cut from fabric and stitched together round the outside edge with right sides facing - leaving a small opening for turning.  They were then turned inside out (after clipping the corners off close to the stitching to minimise the bulk in the corners) and pressed before top stitching around the outside edges.  I filled them with dried lavender flowers and they are lovely to keep in lingerie or linen drawers to keep everything smelling sweet.  They could be refreshed with a couple of drops of Lavender oil once the natural flower scent has worn off.

I hope you enjoyed today's little project, I've a couple more sewing projects to share with you over the coming days.  Thanks for dropping by today, I really appreciate your taking time out to visit.  

A Masculine Card and other 'Stuff'

I'm back !  Just had a few days away from home, hence nothing much has been happening here on Stamping Grandma recently - now that I'm back, I hope to get a little more crafting done than of late. 

As a start, here's a card made for a man - I never find masculine cards easy to make, but this one came together quite easily once I'd decided on a design.

I've had the 12 x 12 Graphic 45 Communique paper pad for quite a while and had only cut into a couple of sheets.  I decided the colours and designs were perfect for my design for this card.

All of the backgrounds, images, labels and wording are from the Communique pad and as you can see there's a lot to choose from.

This was created as a birthday card, but I didn't feel a 'Happy Birthday' sentiment would fit onto the front, so stamped an appropriate message inside.

During my little trip away from home, I met up with a lovely crafting pal - thanks so much for such a lovely afternoon Lauren.  We visited a craft village in Essex called Barleylands and found lots of lovely things we never even knew we needed Ha Ha !   Here's my crafty haul from our trip.

I'm so looking forward to playing with these new goodies. I did also manage to pick up a few little Christmas gifts too which was an added bonus (of course I haven't included them in the pic of my new stash).

I've had a little play on my sewing machine since I got home and - inspired by the gift tag on Lauren's fabulous gift of homemade jam and pickled beetroot  - I stitched a couple of fabric tags.  These are my first couple of attempts and I'm sure I'll find ways to improve my production methods and designs!    I used one of my newly acquired stamps to decorate the larger heart cut from calico fabric and the sentiment is a Stampin'Up! stamp and used a couple of scraps of patterned fabric for the other one.  I'm thinking I might add some lace around the edge of the next one I make to pretty it up a bit more.

I've included a few different items in this post to make up for the lack of posts in recent days, I hope you've enjoyed your visit. 

Lovely soft cushion

I'm afraid that very little crafting has been happening here in Stamping Grandma's Crafty Space in the past couple of weeks.  These horrid bugs I managed to pick up have really taken their toll on me and I'm now on a course of antibiotics as I have an infection somewhere in my system which is causing me to continue with a fever.  This is my second day taking the meds and I think I can feel they are starting work as I don't feel quite so wretched as I have for almost two weeks.

So, today's project is the only thing I've managed to finish in the past few days.  A while back I shared my fleecy cushion as a Work in Progress and threatened to share pix once it was fully complete, so here it is.

I may add a few more embellishments in the coming days - if the mood takes me !  Now that I have pattern pieces which fit together well and create a square ideal for a cushion front, I may well make more as I have lots of bits of fleece left over from quilt backs in my stash.  I love how this came together in such a quirky fashion (anyone who knows me well will know how much I love 'quirky') and as it's made from fleece it's really nice to snuggle up with.

Got to get Mr Mojo fired up as I have a couple of birthday cards to finish off and post over the next 24 hours.

Thanks for dropping in to check today's project, let me know what you think of it, I love it when my Visitors leave me a comment.

A Miscellany.... and breaking 'Radio Silence'

Hi Bloggers, I know it's been a few days since I last posted on here but I managed to pick myself up some nasty bugs which laid me low for best part of a week.  I had a few 'Jammie' days and piled on the TLC and I think I'm coming out the other end now. 

Still need to work on getting my stamina back, but have been 'pootling' around with a few crafting bits and bobs in the past couple of days, so guess I must be recovering.  Didn't manage to complete anything but I've a few pix to share with you of projects I've started or have in preparation which I'm hoping to work on in the next couple of days. 

I spent a lovely couple of days with some online crafting pals in Hereford just before I got sick and thought I'd share some things I created during the weekend.  We were playing with inks, gesso, distress inks, masks and stamps etc - virtually anything we had with us and wanted to throw at the page to be honest !  It was really messy fun and so great to have room and time to just play without an end project in mind.

 

Between us we took along the full set of colours of Pan Pastels and all tried creating a landscape using them.  Here's my attempt (thanks to Kathy who managed to capture this great shot which is a huge improvement on the pic I took myself which was all blurry !)

 

 

As it was such a lovely sunny and breeze Spring day today, I decided to get a few pieces of my fabric stash washed, dried and ironed so they are ready to use when I decide on my next quilting project.  Don't these pieces look fabulous hanging on the line, a rainbow in my own garden !

 

 

......and here they are pressed and ready to go into my Fat Quarter storage bag - got some projects in mind but not sure which one to start first !

 

 

 

Finally, here's a sewing Work in Progress (WiP)  it's a crazy-patchwork design cushion using bits of fleece left over from quilt backings. 

It's in the very early stages and I plan to add buttons, topstitching and anything else that takes my fancy.  I'll share pix once it's completely finished.

 

Thanks for dropping by today, hope you've enjoyed checking out my latest crafty activities. 

Gifts for Pals

This weekend I'm with an awesome group of crafting gals, all of us met through an online forum and for the past three years have managed to meet up for a weekend long 'Craftathon'.   This year we are meeting in Hereford as the lovely Clare has arranged space for us to craft to our hearts' content for the weekend. 

I do love making gifts for friends and family, and I've made one of these 'thread catchers' for each of my crafting pals.  I've pre-scheduled this post so hopefully I will have handed the gifts out to everyone before this post goes live.  I know not all of my pals are stitchers, but these work just as well as desk tidies for paper and card scraps and I know they are all papercrafters.  They are really handy to pop into a bag or tote to take along when crafting away from home too.

Here's the thread catchers closed up

and here's a shot of them opened

 



I've tried to select fabric in the colours I think they like, I'll let you know if there was any swapping around after they all received them !

Little Miss Muffet.......

The project I'm sharing today is one I've been wanting to make for a while to help make sitting at my sewing machine more comfortable.  A nice soft cushion is just what I needed to put on the wooden chair I sit on whilst I sew and when I found the pattern for this pretty design I knew it was just what I wanted.  I had a few fat quarters of fabrics in black and white with sewing related designs on each and I used them to cut out the pattern pieces.

Here's the front of the cushion

 

and the view up close

 

The front of the cushion was constructed from wedge shaped pieces of fabric sewn together to create a circle. I cut a circle from one of the fabrics used on the front to make the cushion backing.

 

Here's a close up shot

As a finishing touch, I covered a couple of buttons using scraps of the leftover fabrics and attached one on front and back.

This 'Little Miss Muffet' is now sitting much more comfortably on her 'Tuffet' ! with a nice softly padded cushion.

Thanks for dropping by to check out today's project, please leave me a comment and let me know if you enjoyed today's post.

A sewing machine..... a sewing machine......

I'm loving my sewing machine right now, bit of a fabric obsession going on too !  Over the past few days I made these items to take along for sale at a Christmas Fayre in a local nursing home on saturday.

Here are a few sets of fabric coasters all parcelled up for sale

Some pretty fabric gift bags

 

Tree shaped ornaments made from felt

 

 

more ornaments

 

 

I have also been knitting !  made these 100% cotton dishcloths

 

 

Finally, here's a sneaky peek at my latest work in progress, it's going to be a table runner for on our festive table at Christmas.  I've stitched the fabric into a 'disappearing nine patch' pattern and still have to add the backing and do the quilting.  I'll share the finished item later.

 

 

another area of the design

 

 

 

I am still cardmaking, should have some new projects to share with you in the next few days.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Bags of Hearts

 

Today I'm sharing another couple of little sewing projects with you, I'm still besotted with my lovely new sewing/quilting machine so I've been busy trying out some new ideas.

Fabric padded hearts seem to be everywhere at the moment and, despite being a tad costly, I've bought a couple to hang on the door handles in my kitchen.  So, I thought I'd have a go at making some myself using up scraps of fabric in my stash and the remains of a bag of toy filling I've had for ages.

I used my set of Spellbinders scalloped hearts dies in my Cuttlebug to cut out red felt and natural wool scraps, and heart dies from Marianne's for smaller layers to embellish the basic heart shape.  For smooth edged hearts I used a zig-zag stitch around the edge and  for the scalloped hearts a straight stich around just inside the scallop.  I also used some Marianne's button dies to cut out felt buttons to embellish the hearts.  I made hangers from ribbon I had in my stash and I used real buttons on some of them, with or instead of the felt buttons.

My other sewing project is a couple of little fabric gift bags

Fairly simple to make, once I'd worked out how to put them together and I think I'll have a go at making some larger ones using a piece of calico I have in my stash.

Thanks for dropping by today to check my projects, I'll have a card to share with you tomorrow so I hope you'll be back to check it out.