Buttonberry

No Valentine? No Problem!

You don't need to worry girlies because we've taken a little walk around BBHQ and the BB Satellite office to find some lovely hearts just for you!

 

 

 We hope you all have a lovely time with the special people in your lives this Valentines day!

Lisa & Emma xx
 
 
  
 
 
  

Word of the Day: Upcycle

I learnt this word whilst hanging about on Etsy recently and it means making something of more value from something old. Or something like that anyway.  Here’s an example…

Hands up who looks forward to using a tea towel – show of hands please….ok that’s precisely none of you and that’s as it should be. If anyone wanted to admit to being happy with wiping up then I’m afraid I’d have to ask you to leave.  So we know we’re not so keen on household chores – hands up who likes shopping…..well that’s good.  That’s everyone!  So how about we take a tea towel and make it into a shopping bag?  That my friends is what upcycling means to me! 

I’m sure there are a million “bag-for-life” tutorials out there but there must be room for another one so here goes..

 

From your main bag fabric (in this case, linen tea towel – 3 for £3 – bargain!) and lining fabric, cut out your bag pieces.  With clever folding and adjustment of sizes as necessary, you can make it so you only need to sew side seams. I was able to make my bag 15” x 17”.  Fold your fabrics in half and cut to size – the piece (when unfolded) measured 15 ½” x 34 ½”.  I think it’s a good idea to make the lining piece a tiny bit shorter – I cut mine to measure 15 ½” x 34”.  It just seems to make the lining sit in better. 

To give it a bit of “oomph” I ironed on some Vilene H640 wadding but you don’t have to do this – your fabric might be perfectly oomphy enough without it.  Also, as this was going to be a little gift for a friend, I wanted to pretty it up a bit.  I raided the stash and found the fab tree fabric, gritted my teeth and cut a design out, after ironing on a bit of “Wonder Under” first.  I ironed the tree on to the main bag piece, then using the free motion foot on my sewing machine, went round the edge to hold it in place – over time, this will fray and give a lovely effect.

 

Next, line up the short edges of the main fabric and lining, right sides together, and pin to hold together.  Sew down both of these edges (NB: If you’ve made your lining a bit shorter, don’t expect both pieces of fabric to line up and lay flat, they won’t – this is perfectly normal and nothing to get upset about – have a biscuit if you need to calm your nerves)  You’ll now have a big tube.  Flatten the tube out, still with right sides together.  Lining up main fabric on main fabric and lining on lining, make sure that the seams line up and pin the long edges in place to hold them.  Sew down both long edges but leave a 3” opening on one edge – in the lining fabric – for turning.

 

 

 

Turn through and give the whole thing a good press.  Slip stitch or sewing machine stitch the opening closed and run a little top stitch around the top of the bag to make it look nice and neat and perfeshernul. 

 

 

Set aside – handles time…

I think handles are personal preference so I tend to make them long  then “try the bag on” for size before shortening them to the length I like.  I chose to make this one a shoulder bag but I think it would work just as well with shorter handles.  Cut 2 pieces 3 ½” by whatever length you fancy – again, I added Vilene H640 for a bit of oomph but if I’m being absolutely honest, I did live to regret it and would probably just use a lighter interfacing for handles next time round.  I learn by mistakes so you don’t have to! 

 

 

Ok, fold the handles in half along the long length, wrong sides together and press.  Open out again and fold each short end in about ½”, press carefully.  Fold each long side in about 1/2” and press carefully.  Fold in half again so that the folded in sides are on top of each other and you have no raw edges.  Top stitch along the short sides and both long sides, about ¼” in.  Ta daaaaaaaa you have handles.

Position on your bag as you like them and pin in place.  Using the same stitching line you made when you top stitched, attach the handles to the bag, sewing backwards and forwards a few times to reinforce.

 

 

And there you have it.  A bag from a tea towel – upcycling at work!  I like to think this bag will be put to good use with trips to the shop for a forgotton pint of milk or for transporting interesting library books or a nice packed lunch – anything that doesn’t involve gym work or anything stressy.  In short, nothing that could feasibly require a tea towel!

A little inspiration....

Do you ever see just one thing, one item in a store window or a magazine and immediately you see a finished room and are instantly inspired? Well my current favourite artist whose work does this to me all the time is Tord Boontje an artist from the Netherlands, so i'd thought i would share! He creates beautiful works of art and pieces for the home out of paper - his designs are so intricate you can spend hours finding new things to look at! Check out an interview with Tord here & see some of his fab drawings...

I recently purchased this "curtain" as a modern replacement for nets for our landing window and i never get tired of looking at it, with the changing light of the day shadows depicting  different woodland scenes scatter across the landing - i love it!

The curtain was very long so when i cut it to size i had some left over for a project - don't you just love a bargain? Two fab pieces for the price of one! I'm just not 100% set on what to do with my extra piece, i think i would like this to be a picture for the bedroom  - it's currently hung in place while i think!

 

What about mixing this fab piece with some of my most fave fabric & layering it behind a frame? Too many ideas - too little time!

What's inspired you today ladies? xx
 

While we've been away....

Wow has it really been that long? My, my it seems like only yesterday - we have been bad! We are so sorry for our prolonged break from the blog-o-sphere ladies but we do have a bit of an excuse as a few things have been going on to keep us busy....

For starters this happened....

Which as you can appreciate took up a little bit of our time ;)

We have also been busy shopping, planning and shopping some more for our upcoming Block of the Month Project - "Down in the Garden" by Leanne Beasley which will use the brand new gorgeous fabric range "Grandmother's Flower Garden" designed by Rosaie Quinlan! We are so excited about this project and can't wait to get hold of the patterns so we can get started on our frist new project of 2010!!

Can you believe we have also found a bit of time for some of our own projects so we'll be back very soon with pics to share.

Until then take care,

Lisa xxx

Deja Vu, a new winner and spot the difference!

Hello - it's us again and yes we're giving stuff away again - yay!

This time, the lucky recipients will be 3 of our Tail Feathers ladies who have all received a little draw ticket in their parcels.

So if you could all do your own little drumroll, we'll wheel in the mystical Buttonberry bowl of dreams (erm, more a redundant fruit bowl which has never had so much as a sniff of a healthy food item) and draw a winner....

....and the winner issssssss HANG ON THERE A MINUTE WOAH WOAH WOAH THERE COWBOY...what is this we see??  Yes, there is a real "spot the difference "moment here.  If you'd care to cast your eyes over our previous post you will see almost exactly this action shot.  Hmm now something is catching the eye here, what is it what is it - oh yes, it's the enormous great rock on Lisa's significant finger there!  That's right, happy happy news here at BBHQ, gorgeous girlie Lisa Loo Lar is now officially betrothed to her fabulous fella Tim and he, the clever old stick, sealed the deal with that sparkler.  Congratulations to you two xx Hats and tissues at the ready girls, we do love a wedding!

Ok ok, we know you love good news but lets get to the business in hand shall we (it IS sparkly though..) the winner of a £25 Buttonberry shopping spree is the holder of this little ticket....

Now then if you don't hold that ticket, don't worry, because you've 2 more chances to bag yourself a prize - £10 to spend on the website.  If you hold either of these tickets then yay - it's you!

Don't forget, this is the draw for the Tail Feathers girls, if you are a Redworker or a Kitty scroll down a bit as your draw is the last post!  Congratulations to Stephanie who won first prize but come on girlies we still have 2 runners up prizes up for grabs.

Whichever winner you happen to be, congratulations to you - drop us a line using the "email me" link on the top left.  If you've not won this time then we're ever so sorry but maybe next time? 

In the meantime, keep sewing and smiling!

And the winner is...

Good afternoon to everyone - we've been missing in action again haven't we?  Well what a way to make a come back - we're doing a draw!

This particular one is for our gorgeous girls taking part in A Kitten's Tale" or "A Redwork Christmas" blocks of the month only  - if you are a lovely lady on our "Tail Feathers" program then you have a little while longer to wait!

But without further ado, if you are a Kitten or a Redworker then rummage for those pink tickets and eyes down girls. 

Look at our action shot - this is Lisa reaching for the golden (Well, pink) ticket.  We did drumroll sound effects and everything.

And the winner is....

 

Well would you look at that, it's "top of the shop"!If you are currently looking at the twin of this ticket then congratulations, you've just won a little £25 spree on our site!  Get in touch using the "email me" link at the top left of this blog and we'll sort you out with some goodies!

If that's not your ticket then maybe one of these is..

  

...if so then hurrah for you because you have also just won a little prize!  £10 to spend on whatever you like on our site!  Again, get in touch using the "email me" link above and we'll get your goodies sorted.

We have another draw coming up in a couple of weeks for the Tail Feathers girlies but until then, congratulations to our winners, whoever you are - we look forward to hearing from you!

Creative five minutes....

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

It's Coming...

 

 

 

Assume positions by the letter box girls - Royal Mail are on their way!

2 Posts in 2 Days – surely not...

...yep, seriously, we are SO back again!  We wanted to let you know 

what has been keeping us busy over in the day to day workings of BBHQ

 

We are about to kick off the much-anticipated and longed for “Tail 

Feathers” by lovely Natalie from Cinderberry Stitches.  As a result we are boxed 

in here at BBHQ behind these.....

 

 

 

It’s no hardship really.  If you signed up for a place, not long now girls!

 

We also caught a fleeting glimpse of THE most divine patterns from Kellie Wulfosohn of “Don’t Look Now”.  It truly was fleeting, these beauties flitted it and out again before we got much chance to coo and cuddle them – you girls know class when you see it!  We have more on the way but for now if you’ve not seen Kellie’s blog, please put it on your to-do list at once.  It will actually make your mouth water.  Honestly.

 

We are also eagerly awaiting Kaleidoscope – the new book from Melly & Me.  It is sure to be scrumptious if the blog about the photoshoot is anything to go by.

 

With all this gorgeousness popping up all over the place you’d think we’d got nothing left in our “coo” reserves.  Not so, we did manage to squeeze a bit of “ooooooooh look” out when we accidentally wandered on to Etsy and unfortunately bought these...

 

 

Yup.  Don’t need to say anything really do I?  If you NEED one of these yourself, pop over and visit the lovely Posh Plushies on Etsy.

 

Oh and if you’re going to have a new pincushion, you probably need new pins to go in it don’t you?  Oh, oh what is this we have here….

 

 

 

Yum yum – go have a little peep at Parallel Botany’s lovely things here.

 

As you can see, we have really indulged ourselves in other people’s creativity lately.  It is a lovely guilty pleasure – well we don’t feel THAT guilty.  These girls deserve the support!  We do intend to crack on with some of our own ideas though – we can’t wait to have stuff to show you but for now, content yourselves with looking at the raw materials......

 

 

Blasts From the Past (That's Us)

Has absence made the heart grow fonder or are you thinking “who are you”?  We wouldn’t blame you if you were leaning more towards the latter there.

 

Sadly, life in the BB camp is not all glamour (or indeed, any glamour!) sometimes it’s hard slog and spreadsheets and frankly, who wants to see pics of that?  (Mr C has got his hand up but he doesn’t count as he’s a geek). 

 

We have looked up from the Excel for a moment though to realise we’ve got stuff to tell you and pics to share. We haven’t actually told you about Malvern yet have we?  Did you go along?  If not you missed this....

 

 

Our little “shop front”

 

 A close up of the gorgeous “Friendship’s Greeting” beautifully made and generously loaned to us by Janet Corbett

 Some gorgeous non-fattening treats

 A nervous-looking Dilbert.  Well wouldn’t you be? We all know that Pippi invites trouble…

Apart from us showing off, you also missed out on some fantastic quilts on display.  Here are just 2  of our favourites for now…

 “Fields of Somerset” This is an altar frontal made for St Peter’s Church in Lydford,

Somerset

by the amazingly talented Caryl Larkins, Marion Topp & Catherine Millar

And oh wow look at this.....

 

This is an absolutely amazing piece of work called “Bat out of Heaven” by Janet Grist.  She says her inspiration was “a bat flower in a garden centre in

Spain

.  It was so gorgeous and glamorous that I thought it ought to have a portrait to show off its curves and textures – so I stitched one!”  Just like that!

We stayed here.....

 

...with the lovely Kim from Worn and Washed.  If you don’t know about Kimmy Kim Kim’s products you neeeeeeeed to know.  They’re gorge.  She trots around the charity shops of this fair land and reclaims lovely bits of cotton.  She washes, irons, carefully cuts and packages and 

you end up with this...

 

 

Ah yes and there is the little matter of the

Liberty

pieces......

 

ahem....4 (count them) bags came home with us.

 

See whilst we had a ball meeting everyone and obviously tempting you all with gorgeous gorgeous things, we got tempted fairly well ourselves.  Here is just a glimpse of what else came home with us!

 

Now then, you try standing next to Euro Japan Links – our neighbours for 2 shows now and the loveliest people – for 4 days and coming away empty handed.  Not going to happen people! They have scrumptious treats such as this....

 

We are mightily addicted to making Mary’s fabulous Bane pattern. Please try it , it’s beautiful!

 The great thing is you can buy the little clips separately and so I made up the Strawberry one from my own fabrics.  Lovely.  I have enough to make 8 more!!

 

Our other neighbour was the very clever, very funny and super lovely Sue Hawkins.  We hadn’t met Sue before, nor had we seen her simply gorgeous wares – look at this please!!!

 

 

We admit, we had never tried canvaswork before but we do like to get involved in all sorts of craftyness (I don’t mean that in a fiddling expenses kind of way) and lo and behold, a new addiction has been born.  Excellent, we were wondering what to do with all that spare 

time...

 

Gosh we have got more news to catch up on in terms of stuff happening over there on our site...more tomorrow soon!