New things

I am just dropping in to say hello to everyone and to show you something that I have been working on.  

 I have been wanting to make a union jack cushion cover for a while now, but could find no suitable pattern that would make the right size for a (40cm by 40cm) cushion pad.  I decided that I had to take matters into my own hands and I made up a chart.  This was easier said than done as I have never designed a pattern chart before and it took the best part of two hours to work out!  I had done a tension square with the yarn I wanted to use (Stylecraft special chunky) and worked out the number of stitches and rows required for a 10cm by 10cm square and then did the maths to make it up to 40cm.

 I discovered the wonders of mattress stitch.  I can't believe that I have never learnt how to do it properly before!  I love doing it and the neat seam that it gives.

 I made an envelope closing for the back and sewed on three wooden buttons to secure it.  I am very pleased with how it has turned out and I am now working on different colours schemes.  It can be found for sale in my little Etsy shop.

I will catch up with all of your posts very soon.  I want to see what you have all been up to!

Fairy garden

A couple of weeks ago it was my lovely sister's birthday and we all met up to visit Furzey Gardens in the New Forest.  We were all very excited (well, me and my sister and my two boys, not so much the husbands!) because this garden is known to be home to some tiny inhabitants.  Fairies!  Yes, we found out that around the garden there are 30 fairy doors in secret locations.  We all had great fun looking in all the nooks and crannies for them!

 Isn't it so sweet?!  Me and my sister were so excited!  We went back to being little girls again and it was great fun!

 You can see some of us looking at a fairy door on the right hand side!

 See the tiny wellies.....

 

 There was even a fairy school which actually had a little blackboard inside.

 

Two happy boys running around there!

 

Lots of beautiful flowers.....

 And more fairy doors!

This must house a big family of fairies I think!  No actual fairies were seen but there was lots of fairy dust outside the doors so they must be there!  They were probably sleeping!

I know this post is very picture heavy but sometimes pictures are the best way to describe something!  I hope you enjoyed your visit to Furzey Gardens.  I would definitely recommend it for a lovely day out for the whole family.  I am now hoping to go again for my birthday in May when the gardens will be even more spectacular with the flowers in bloom.

Olympics inspired

Hello everyone!

It is good to be back again.  We have just had a lovely week in Scotland and it is a beautiful place.  We love it.  Pictures will follow in another post! 

I have a little finished project to show you.  Actually it is not so little because it took a lot of work to complete!  I was watching the Olympics for a lot of the time whilst I was making this item and it definitely helped to spur me on and give me extra enthusiasm for this project!

I was asked to make a union jack blanket for a baby.  I wasn't sure exactly how to tackle this project, especially as I have never attempted instarsia before!  But if someone puts a challenge before me, I am not one to give up lightly!

I found a union jack knitting chart and bought some suitably coloured aran yarn and began!  I also watched quite a lot of 'how to do instarsia' videos on the very helpful youtube!

 

At one point I was knitting with 13 little balls of wool!  I did get in a proper tangle on more than one occasion, but I persevered and I was very pleased with myself as it started to look like a union jack!

 

After about 30 hours of knitting, I had a knitted baby blanket that clearly depicted the union jack!  Mission complete!  The back actually looked surprisingly unmessy, but I decided to back it because I didn't want to risk little baby fingers or toes getting caught.  I used a navy blue cotton fabric and secured it by hand using the simple whip stitch.  Now, sewing has never been my forte at all, so I was very daunted by this final task, but again, I was fairly pleased with my efforts.  I am sure many of you would do a much more wonderful job, but the stitching was neat and it all held in place!

Hopefully Mum and baby will be happy with the addition to the red, white and blue themed nursery!

Finished blanket!

Hi everyone!

I feel like I have been out of blog world for ages!  The holidays are in full flow and going much too quickly for my liking!  I am enjoying time with the boys and the weather has been quite kind to us so far so lots of picnics have been happening!

I have a finished project to show you!

My Country Blossom blanket is finally finished!  It took a long time but I am very pleased with the result.  It will be making it's way to South Africa this week to my little baby neice where I hope it will be loved and well used.

 I put on a border using the bobble shell edging pattern from Lucy of Attic 24.  I think it finishes off the blanket in a very pretty way.

I have been very busy working on another project that I had been asked to do.  I will show you very soon!  I hope the holidays have been as stress - free as possible for those of you with little ones off school.  I will leave you with the pretty flowers that I have been enjoying on my windowsill this week.

Birds, birds, birds!

Birds on the brain!  That is what I have at the moment!  I am so thankful that my birds have proved a hit but I have been bird making all week and so my brain is full of them!  I still enjoy making them though.

I've been making lots - ones with bag tags and ones without.

Blue ones, green ones and pink ones!

And packing them all up reading for delivery!

I have loved it!  It is lovely when something that you make is appreciated and wanted by others.  I have felt a lot of satisfaction from it. 

Here is my own precious bird.

Look at that beautiful face!  In the middle of his breakfast.  Charlie continues to bring a lot of joy to the house and he is a dear little bird.  So friendly and never happier than when he is sitting on someone's shoulder involved in the family activity.  My hubby has been teaching him to wolf whistle and today Charlie has been wolf whistling away for the first time!  It does make us smile.

Hope you have all had a lovely week and have a wonderful weekend.  Here's hoping for a little bit of sunshine!

Birds in production

Hello!  This is a quick post as things are very busy here at the moment.  I had Little Budgie's sports day this morning (third attempt due to rain!) which all went well and this afternoon he was let out of school early so we can go and see the olympic torch because it is coming our way today.   We will join the crowds and hopefully catch a glimpse of it!  I'll let you know how we get on!

I am busy making birds to fulfil orders which is lovely.

My hubby thought they looked like little eggs hatching!  I am also in negotiations about a couple of different items from my shop for an online business thats want to sell them so it is all very exciting! 

Right, we better be off to now to go and find a space to park and a little spot to stand and wait!  Wish me luck!

Beautiful butterflies

Isn't there something captivating about butterflies?  I have always thought so, since I was very young.  I used to love going for walks with my butterfly book as a child and seeing how many different species I could spot. 

Mini Budgie was given a lovely present for his fourth birthday a couple of weeks ago of a butterfly hatching kit!  We sent off for the five little caterpillars that arrived in a pot complete with their food.  We watched amazed as they ate and grew during the next week.  They grew so fast!  We then watched the caterpillars turn into chrysalis' and transfered them into the butterfly hatching cage.  We watched and waited and two days ago came the exciting moment when the butterflies emerged, transformed and beautiful!  It truly is a miracle!  My boys and I then decorated the cage with fresh flowers which we soaked in sugar water (nectar) and watched the butterflies for a day. 

Yesterday, we released them into the garden.  They took a little encouragement but it was lovely to see them fly free after they had got used to the outside air.

Their little fluffy bodies and big eyes were adorable! These are Painted Lady butterflies and their markings and colours are exquisite.

I can definitely recommend a gift like this for children.  My boys absolutely loved it (and I did as well!).

I showed you my bookbag tag bird in my previous post and they have proved to be very popular which is lovely!  I have had quite a few requests for them which brings me a lot of excitement and joy!  People thought they were cute so asked if I could make them without the tag part as well.

Here are some more feathery friends with colour options available!  I love making them!  Although I make each one in the same way, they all have their own different character when put together! 

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.  Looking forward to hearing what you've been up to.  Thank you again to everyone who leaves lovely comments and reads my ramblings!  It really does touch me!