Moving In

I have just moved in to a new place, it feels a little bit more grown up than anywhere I have lived before, just because I am no longer a student and I am starting my first full-time job tomorrow!

The house is really lovely, but since I was so disorganised dealing with my move, first from where I was in Watford back home, then up to my aunt's place and now here to my new house in Newcastle, there are a few things that I didn't have sorted, so I used all my innovation to make things nice here.

Firstly was the coat hanger crisis.... well I realised that I needed some coat hangers.

I wanted them to be pretty, but for two reasons I bought very cheap ugly ones. Firstly on the day I went to get them, I couldn't seem to find a coat hanger anywhere, so once I finally found two options in Morrisons, I had to choose one of them. Secondly, I don't like parting with my money very much, especially since I probably won't get paid for a little while, so I went for the 'cheap, lots of ' option.

I did have an idea though to make them more attractive....

Like a true girl guide I used a ball of string and some knots to customise my hangers...

You pretty much just wrap string around, but pass it through the loop on your way round. This makes a half hitch on each go, so produces the little bump or line along the bottom that you can see in this picture. As long as you go the same way each time it stays even.

This is my new 'Rachel Berry' dress that I bought in Oxfam for a fiver :)

Here it is with my nice new dress  on! It's quite time consuming so I have only actually completed five of the ten that I am going to do, but I probably could complete one an evening just sitting in front of the TV.

The other thing that I was missing was a way to hang my pictures up. I can't fix anything to the walls without permission, and I wanted to find a creative way to hang things so that I could still see them and without having to resort to the devil blu-tak.

So I devised my photo-bunting. I have done this with post-its before when I was revising Russian vocabulary, but the photos and post cards are much more jolly than random Russian words.

I hope you like my little ideas for making dull things more pretty!

Love and God Bless

Naomi

Tiny roses!

This is another TAST challenge from pintangle.com and quite a challenging one too! This week was drizzle stitch which took me a while to master, but here is my (second) attempt at a little sample of this stitch.

I was impressed with the way that the stitches fell when they were complete, and made nice little spirals, which, I found, with a little anchoring stitch to hold it in place I could make little spirally blobs that look like tiny roses!

Tiny roses on (my current favourite) blue and white cotton.

I learnt the bullion knot as well, so that I could make tiny leaves to go with my roses. I put together different shades of pink, with light green for the leaves, on a background of blue and white stripes.

I think it's quite cute, and could be a motif for some kind of weddingy something!

God bless,

Naomi
x

{Update}

Here's a better photo:

Love Heart Pin Cushion

I have been brewing a little idea about how to make and present a pretty pin cushion. This is partly in response to the fact that I don't have one yet (or at least I didn't until now!) So when I decided that I wanted to try the TAST (Take a Stitch Tuesday) Challenge from pintangle.com I thought I would combine the two ideas.

The TAST challenge, challenges you to try a new stitch, and there is a chance to get involved each week. This week is the Linked Double Chain stitch. It provides an unusual effect and I really liked the way that it created an element of texture to the piece - especially with my uneven stitching!

The first stage of the project

With the linked double chain stitches, I kept them quite narrow, which meant that it is more the weight of the stitches that shows rather than the shape of the chain. I should try again giving myself more space, but for this project, I enjoyed the texture and the handcrafted feel that this gave.

As I was getting excited about texture, I decided to finish it off with my other new skill - french knots. Lots of! 

The finished motif

I chose an ombre pattern with my french knots, I don't mind admitting that I got knotted up all over the place doing these knots, front and back of the fabric and everywhere I didn't want the knots to be. But we got there in the end! And now I have a lovely new pin cushion:

The finished article

I mounted it on a glass bowl, I think the whole lot looks like a fancy ice cream!

God bless,

Naomi

xx

P.s. If you are in London anytime soon, pop down to the crypt at St Martin in the Fields, where there is a wonderful exhibition of embroidery created to celebrate the Olympics and Paralympics by members of the Embroiderers Guild. I loved it and found lots of great ideas there.

Bows and Flows

Well, I have just become an entrepreneur. When I actually make a sale, I will call myself a businesswoman... as yet I have just published my first listing on Etsy.com (which is ebay but pretty!)

The piece that I have made to try and sell is called Bows and Flows, after the Joni Mitchel lyric from Both Sides now:

Bows and flows of angel hair,

And ice cream castles in the air,

And feather canyons everywhere,

I've looked at clouds that way.

So my inspiration came from clouds, and flowing hair and feathers. This is the first piece of really abstract work that I have completed, and I must say that I enjoyed the freedom and the flexibility of working like this.

Bows and Flows

I used some of the leftover lace from my revamped T-shirt from a couple of weeks ago, as a sort of background for the embroidery. This was a challenge to work with, just to make sure that the detail did not just blend in with the lace, but it has certainly produced a delicate kind of pretty!

I also discovered the secret of the french knot (either that or I have invented the Watford knot) in any case, I have fallen in love a little bit, and you can expect more knots in my future projects.

If you would be so kind as to visit the listing on Etsy, you might just make my day! Here's the link (It has had about 3 views so far, and I'm pretty sure they were all me!)

God bless,

Naomi

xx

Log Cabin Quilt

So my housemate and I were very impressed with a friend's quilting, and we thought it would be a great idea to make our own as we thought we'd have a quiet summer. We pinned a lot of quilting ideas onto pinterest, and then made a start. Inspiration is a great thing, but actually making the thing takes a lot longer than googling it!

I chose a log cabin pattern, pretty much on impulse. I suppose it is mainly because they are so pretty, but they also look quite traditional, well it is a traditional pattern to use. I even found some brilliant instructions to follow here.

For my own work, I decided to hand sew the whole thing, this is partly because I don't have a sewing machine, but that wasn't the only reason (honest!) I have always enjoyed sewing, even if I haven't always been the best at it, and perhaps things do fall apart moments after I have sewn them together sometimes, but I'm always trying to learn.

It's something that women in the past have always been able to do. It is such a simple and essential skill, attaching fabric together using needle and thread is just so basic and fundamental, and yet when artistry is involved it becomes a fine craft. I am amazed sometimes when I see historical garments to think that they have all been hand sewn, and I have such respect for the women of the past who would have done this work to clothe their families - and it seems so strange that as we rely more and more on manufacturing, we lose the intricacy and artistry of clothing that there used to be.

In any case, I have pieced this quilt together by hand to practice for when I take on a more intricate project. It's not finished yet, the next step will be to add a border around the edge and then I think things will get even more complicated, so I'm looking at loads more tutorials in the interim.

My log cabin quilt pieced together.

Also I'm loving buying all of the tools and equipment I need to do my sewing projects. For example see my lovely new scissors below!

Embroidery scissors (from John Lewis incidentally also  available at the V&A)

God bless,

Naomi
x

Inspiration - imperfections

I was in the V&A again last weekend (before going out onto Brompton Road to watch the men's Olympic road cyclists whizz past) and I found some wonderful pieces that I've not seen before.

These pieces are absolutely stunning, such skilled work, all done by hand, mainly by women in past centuries, however what really caught my eye was the fact that these amazing pieces were still not perfect. It makes me feel better about my own work when I see things like this, and it reminds me that, like in music when you play a wrong note with confidence, it is an interpretation, when your needlework is well designed and beautiful, the imperfections are character!

Chair back cover by Jane Vigor from the collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

This is one of the pieces I spent an age staring at! I was amazed at all the detail, and the way that the colours were used but I did spot that on the right hand side - you won't be able to see it in the photo- there are some pencil marks around the flowers, where she clearly has changed her mind about how they were going to look. It was fascinating to see that because it teaches you something about the way that the piece was made, but also just the fact of being able to see that the piece was not immaculately perfect.

I know that my work is not perfect, far from it, so to see a piece like that, which I know is amazing, which also has imperfections it makes me hopeful that I can make my work better, and tells me that what I do is fine too.

I have plenty of choice when it comes to showing you some of the imperfections in my work, so I thought I'd show you a first glimpse of the cutwork that I am working on...

A first look at my cutwork project, you can see how it's gone  a little bit frilly!

I'm learning as I go, so some of the stitching is a little bit messy, but I think that it will still look nice in the end, and the more important thing is that the next time, I will know how it's done!

Summer T-Shirt Revamp

I read a fashion article about lace, and 24 hours later the following ensued....

I took an old t-shirt in blue...

My t-shirt before revampage (with my -second- 21st birthday poster)

bought some lacy trimming from the nice lady at Watford Market...

Watford lace

did some cutting and stitching and ended up with this....

my new favourite t-shirt

I must say, it was a rather pleasant affair, what with the sunshine, our newly tidy(ish) back garden and the odd G&T, so I might repeat the process in the coming weeks!

Perhaps one day when I've combed my hair I'll show you what it looks like on!

God bless,

Naomi

{Update}

I took a picture with the t-shirt on this morning (in fact I took about 8 pictures before I got a decent one, but that's life!)

I'm really pleased with it

God bless,
N