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Inspired by our 'nearly' summer...

Funny what can inspire a new design.  This week I was inspired by a lovely Bank Holiday weekend, a random purchase from Ebay and some yarn bought months ago because the colours reminded me of a summer garden.  The result was the Camellia Tote Bag.
 

 

 

The random purchase from Ebay were some unbleached cotton tote bags, which I intended to embellish with crocheted flowers but when they arrived they weren't sturdy enough for this.  But as only £1 each I was sure I could find a use for them and  I thought that they would be ideal for a lining to a crochet tote bag.

 

During the lovely Bank Holiday weekend, I was  wandering in the garden and admiring the camellia tree, about the only thing in flower, when I remembered a cushion I had made sometime ago embellished with camellia type flowers.  Finding yarn in summer colours in my stash completed the inspiration process and as the rain came down on Monday I got to work. 

 

The camellia flower in the centre was surrounded by a large granny square in these lovely summer colours.  The straps are green, pink and cream and are embellished with little lilac flowers where they join the bag.

 

 

 

 

 

The outer layer and straps were hand sewn to the lining.  There is something very soothing about hand sewing, sitting at the table with the radio on.

 



 



For Sale...

I have been looking into selling some of my products but not really sure of the best way to go about it.

To begin with I need to know what will sell. Finishing a baby afghan for a friend made me think about baby gifts and after scouring through books and patterns for inspiration, came up with a simple baby bib design and matching bootees as the perfect gift for a new born.

 
 

 

 

 

The yarn is a cotton/acrylic mix making it soft absorbent and most importantly washable.  The bib fasten with buttons and is adjustable.  The two colour ways shown here are for a boy and a girl but I intend to make it a number of different colours.

 

 

The second product is a vintage style flower corsage.  Made of soft cotton yearns, these lovely items have a painted wooden button at the centre and a brooch pin on the back.

 

 

 

 

Both will be wrapped in tissue and gift boxed.

 

So now I need to decide the best way to sell them :)





All the small things...

This week I have been concentrating on the little things that make life worthwhile.  I have been making pincushions, mug cosies, coasters etc.

 

 
I also made myself a lovely roll for my crochet hooks!

Fabric and more...

This morning I went on a shopping spree today and got some lovely cotton crochet threads from Hobbycraft - in lovely spring colours.  After this, a quick trip to Abakan Fabrics turned into an hour of browsing and I came away with some lovely fabrics, knitting wool, ribbons, thread and all sorts of lovely things. 

This afternoon I finished my crochet fusion cushion.  I got the idea from a quilt I saw on Sewing Daisies website and adapted the idea for a cushion cover. 

Crafty Wednesday..

Wednesday is my day off from school, so I like to spend some of the day working on my crafts.  Today, I had a trip to the Marsh Mill at Thornton.  There are several lovely craft shops there including the fab Grace and Favour Fabric shop, a wonderful haberdashery that also sells lovely handmade items.  They also run The Sewing Sanctuary, where I went for the rag rug workshop.  I only went to get some more hessian backing but came away with some beautiful fat quarters of fabric in various shades of pink that will be perfect for my next rug!

I also went to the wool shop and picked up some great bargains.  I was looking for cotton yarns to use to make motifs for pincushions.  I like to top little pincushion with a crocheted motif and I am trying out some from the book Beyond the Square Crochet Motifs to see which are suitable.  What do you think?

Welcome to my first post...

This is my first post to my brand new blog. 

Why did I start a blog?  Well, I decided to share with you my resurrected passion for all things handmade.  Over the last few years, I have made lots of beautiful things for myself, my friends and my home and I wanted to share them.

I have now started to create my own designs using traditional and modern design motifs and this seemed to be the ideal way to share them.

so, here goes....