Well i'm not sure how but i think i may have just found five minutes - it was a blink and you missed it moment but it definately happened and now i have my very own little piece of abstract art...
I dipped into the scrap basket and these lovely oranges jumped out at me..
I didn't think about it just started sewing and layering & now i have a nice little picture - pride of place in the loo!!
Go on girls - find five minutes you might surprise yourself!
Lisa xx
For we have sinned..... well ok we haven't been that bad but we have been cheating a little bit - we've discovered another form of blogging, a 'lighter' way to blog if you willand it has turned our heads a little.... if you haven't guessed we're just a little addicted to Twitter! Now don't worry we haven't forgotten you all we've just been incredibly busy visiting suppliers and getting ready for our next show - the Chilford Quilt show on the 13th-15th of March. So if you visit here often and want to know what we are up to why not follow us on Twitter too? It's quick and easy and we update it almost every day with one liners! You can even see us prattling on if you look over on the right of the blog right now - look there it is!
Anyhooooo back to the main reason why we have been so quiet.... take a sneaky peak at the new items we'll be showing at Chilford....
Right then if all went to plan, that title will be in Japanese!!!
It means "Progress" or at least that's what an English to Japanese translation website assures me it means! I have no idea because I can't speak or read or write a single word of Japanese and that is sad because I am utterly addicted to these:
I have these amazing Japanese craft books all around my house (I retrieved this pile from under my bed to photograph them as I was too lazy to wander downstairs!) I would LOVE to be able to read them
But then, to be honest, with pictures like these painting at least 1000 words each, does it really matter??
I have endured many smirks and eye-rolls from friends about this but today it ends because today I am ready to unveil my first ever project made from one of these wonderful books. Ladies and possibly gentlemen I give you...POT MAT OF PEA
Yes that is it's name and I love that as much as anything. I know that the binding is poor and needs redoing and I know that Jo (the recipient) would no more stand a pot on this than I would and that some of the peas are more like 50 pence pieces but nonetheless I love it!
I also feel that the floodgates are open and I am no longer afraid to plunge headlong into these books and give it a go! Today "Pot Mat of Pea", tomorrow "Luncheon mat of flower"....possibly.
Emma :o)
Well it is that time of year again, you know the time - when nine months after Mummy's and Daddy's were fed up of the short dark nights and little to watch on T.V. - yes, the influx of new borns joining our little world has begun again. Well in my world anyway, I swear I have a real life queue and 2 year old backlog for little quilts to wrap all those new arrivals in!
I have taken a little break in my gruelling schedule to pop by, say hi (hey that rhymes - i'm a poet & i know it.... hmmm okay it sounded better when i was five) and show you a few photos of my first gift all packaged up and ready to go to it's new owner, who should arrive very shortly!!
Since the quilt is for a little 'un i only used 100% cotton & washed it all once it was completed on a 30 degree wash. I then simply line dried & popped it in the tumble dryer for a few minutes to give that ruffled, softened look to make it nice and inviting! These quilts get better with age, i find the more they're washed and used the better! I popped the care instructions on the back of the gift label and simply rolled it all up and tied with a bow....
The quilt itself was made with charm squares from Moda's folklorique range, it is really beautiful and very versatile - i was easily able to swap in other fabrics from my stash! I decided to add a little bit of lace here and there to give it a vintage girly feel, this was really simple to do i just stitched the lace in whilst joining my squares horizontally, i then pressed the lace into position when pressing my seams before joining all my rows together. If anyone is interested in more detail as to how this is done just shout!
I also actually started off by hand quilting this project, it is something i have always really wanted to do but never had much confidence, unfortunately i got half way through and bottled it as it was taking me so long (i'm such a novice), that i knew i would never finish in time!!
In the end I quilted in the same style using the machine, i backed it in a simple yellow Moda essential dot and bound it in some beautiful pink polka from lecien!
Phew! Now i'm sure that was much more of a break than i am allowed so i best get back to it, 1 down, many more to go!!
Lisa xxx
PS: thanks so much to all of you who have left a comment on our "facelift" post. If you haven't - there's still time! We'll draw the winnder next week...good luck!
Hello - how great is it when you rummage about looking for something and end up finding something EVEN better! Serendipity - that might be the word. Anyway, whatever the word is, look please just LOOK at what I found when rummaging for some embroidery threads at my mum's house.
As soon as I saw these I remembered them from when I was little (yes, only 5 years ago - you can tell from the style of them.....) but how could I NOT have remembered them until then?? They are - to quote Lisa* - "awesome"!!! My mum and my auntie made them (this is the tip of the iceberg) and when asked what they were to become I just got blank looks and a "well, nothing". They just did it for the sheer joy of sitting and sewing and chatting (I say "chat" as it sounds nicer than "gossip") The outputs might be different but the principle is still the same for us today when we meet on a Tuesday (and on a Thursday in mum and auntie's case - how dare they have that much free time....)
I just can't believe the work that went into these.....just look!
Now for the real clincher. Uncropped you can see what they are made from - panels from a linen skirt!!! Recycling before it was fashionable!
I desperately want these to become something, I don't know what. I can't even credit the person who wrote the pattern as I've not a clue (neither have they) where it came from! I can't (daren't) iron them for now so I'll just be content in looking at them in all their funky feline glory.
Emma xx
*I have not locked Lisa up. She is working her socks off on our facelift (I'm being helpful by saying - "shall I eat some biscuits, will that help?"), she's built a deck at her house, made numerous quilts and is now making costumes for the entire cast of a dance show. She's just lazy really. (And I of course am able to write this confident in the knowledge that the poor girl won't have the time to read it!)
Well, since that last post, you will be surprised to hear that the met office have NOT been on the phone and they have NOT offered me a job forecasting weather for them!!! If you were lucky enough to have some of the amazing weather we had in Suffolk this weekend then you'll know what I mean! I shall write predicting rain more often!
I did however stay true to my word and dig into that stash - rather fortuitously, this book that I'd ordered a while ago arrived on Saturday (what an appropriate name)
It's a lovely book and has lots of inspiring projects which really do encourage use of stash and the quilts are photographed in really nice settings (the one of the front is on the beach which put me even more in the mood to play with fabric, even though the weather was mighty fine!)
In particular, a project called "Sweet Dreams" caught my eye. It uses this block which is called "Walter's Place" apparantly. (I know it's not pressed properly and the points are off but just squint ok, it'll look great)
I have made a start - see...
The jar is to stop the blocks flying all over the place and I also stuffed the offcuts in there - actually, it's quite a good tip because when you're cutting lots of different fabrics you can see at a glance the balance of colour by checking out the offcuts jar. I discovered that quite by accident! There are (and this is an estimate) about four million triangles in each block so you can imagine my horror when I lovingly arranged the blocks I've made on my bed and at a conservative estimate I need to make 57 of the blighters to actually cover my bed. I am not a person with a great deal of patience so I'm sharing this in the hope it will guilt me into finishing this project!
Finally, and totally unrelated to anything at all, I wanted to show you this ronunculous (and do PLEASE leave a comment if you know how to spell that properly!) that is blooming gorgeously in our garden, just got it lined up (would've cropped that bag out, obviously) and see who gatecrashed the picture...
Hope the sun is shining on you :o) Emma xxx
is finally complete!! If people had told me a few months ago i'd have a sanctuary of my very own, a fully fledged Buttonberry Satellite Office, i would have laughed it off and carried on hoovering stray cottons from the bathroom (how do they get everywhere??) but the day did come and project haven was a complete success so i thought i would share some pictures of the journey with you all......
Alas the original room made my eyes bleed so there are no real before photos, but take my word for it, it would never have been a sanctuary as it was!! First things first out with the old and in with the new so i bought a lovely non offensive beige (yes, beige) carpet..... i figured plain was good, plain was calming - then painted the walls white and i was there.....
Umm what's that i hear you say? It needs something? ..... I can't here any giggles of glee..... it certainly doesn't look like a crafter's haven quite yet... some acessories mebeeee....
aaah now it is starting to take shape...... maybe some window dressing is in order!! I couldn't compromise - there was a gorgeous blind and red ticking curtains - there was no way i was walking away and leaving one on the shelf so BOTH came home and how glad i am!!
Sooo i think we're there, let's stnad back and take a little look at my NEW corner of HEAVEN shall we? (Heaven by Day) 
(Heaven by Night - Cosy!)
Ta-daaaaaaaaaaa! And there we have it Project Haven complete...... (that's one WIP i have actually complete this year)
Are any of you ladies lucky enough to have a corner of heaven just like this one??
Lisa xxxx
I don’t know if you’re like me but I find reeeeally difficult to throw away or commit to the charity bag any sort of fabric that I like, whatever form it’s in. Even the oldest pair of won out pyjamas has to be prised from my hands to be disposed of. In fact, I am a big believer in re-cycling and all things “green” it makes me feel all virtuous and glowing inside! The truth is, that while I am obviously concerned with the state of the planet, not contributing to landfill is a perfect excuse for hoarding!!
When I decided to make cot quilts as a Christening gift for my beautiful friend Anna’s twins, I obviously started by rummaging through my old scraps - sorry, treasures! The pattern was from a book of childrens quilts and as it had a bit of a cowboy theme I got to use lots of different checks and ginghams (my favourite)! The fabrics I used were mostly from my stash or re-cycled from old clothes. I went through a bit of a checked shirt phase when I was a student so there were plenty of old favourites to cut up!
In fact I came across a piece of lovely blue checked cotton material. It was all soft and washed out in a snugly, comforting sort of way. Perfect for a tiny persons bed. I used it in the blue quilt and realised in a rather wonderful “circle of life” type scenario that it was cut from a shirt that Anna (the twins Mum) had bought for me 14 years ago!!!!
See, you should never throw anything away; you never know when it will come in useful!
Love Jo xxx
Well not literally although they are getting quite dark nowadays and are in much need of a beautiful bright summer or a nice jar of bleach, but less of the hair chat, i was trying to be more philosophical!
With everything going on from frantically tidying up before guests arrive, entertaining, madly tidying up after said guests leave, being ill and trying to catch up on actually being in our new home I haven't felt very creative. This year I already have a dining table covered in new UFO's, yes NEW, none of which are particularly inspiring or exciting and we're only a few weeks in. I really don't know why i started them as the motivation to settle down and sew is serious lacking in comparison to vegging with some Quality Street on sofa!!
So when a 'real live' creative bolt struck me i was actually a little excited (easily pleased i know), all of a sudden i really fancied getting right back to my creative 'arty' roots and had energy with which to do it! Here are the results, some rather simple and very rough 'Bag for Life' projects created using canvas bags i already had stored away, carrier bags a little imagination.....
It was really fun to not worry about being neat, just playing with the textures and composition.
The carrier bags on the front give a certain sturdiness to an otherwise quite flimsy canvas structure, which i think would work well if the 'bag for life' itself was made completely in this manner (something else to try), you could even go so far as to 'padding' the handles and put even more of those horrid old plastic bags to use!
I really enjoyed my five minutes of madness, just being creative for creative sake again and love the outcome! I think i'll actually use these bags all the time as a nice reminder of how rotten those carrier bags really are.... i have cupboards full of things and this year that is going to change!
Have any of you made anything similar? I'd love to see your creations!!
Happy 'crazy creative' moments,
Lisa xxx
This is a story of missed deadlines. It happens regularly in our lives,
we live by lists and there are some items that just keep slipping right down. This one is a very VERY bad example! I had decided to make a quilt for my oldest friend (not that she is advanced in years, she has just stuck around for quite a few years and knows too much...) for her birthday. Last year. Ahem...anyway. Here at BB we like to think we work well under pressure so we are inclined to leave tings to the 11th hour. Unfortunately, last year on this very day, I missed it. I just had not finished and was mortified. An alternative present was located and the time rumbled on. Anyway, the birthday has rolled around again, and I am ashamed to say, I finished it at 8:34pm last night! THE NIGHT BEFORE.
It is an extended version of a pattern I found in this book (WHY did I extend it? 3 vines of trumpet flowers is enough for anyone!) I'm sorry about the photos as well. The weather here has been appalling and in the absence of being able to hoist it up anywhere indoors, this is the best I could do!
I also made her a couple of other things to go with it from some fantastic patterns by Mary at Euro Japan links (our lovely neighbours at Chilford Quilt Show - we spent most of our float there on all three days!)
So this quilt is a full year late. I am glad that I have 27 other years of friendship to lose this particular deadline in but there are some things that are too important for lists! Happy Birthday Sarah xxx
