Video needle book course!

It has been a long time since I posted anything, times has flown by! I hope this post finds everyone well and happy! 

Finally I have prepared my first online course! In this course you will realise a beautiful needlebooks completely hand sewn.

This video course will teach you how to make these wonderful needlebook from scratch. You will learn how to:

-collage your fabrics
-how I approach colour and texture
-how to create your base with invisible stitches
-further embellishing your pieces with laces and embroidery
-how to construct the needlebook
-ideas for future projects using similar techniques.

No sewing machine is required, just a needle and thread. 

Both beginners and advanced sewers will enjoy this course, you can make the needle books as simple or as embellished as you like.

This course is nearly 3 hours and has been divided into segments of approximately 30 mins (give or take) so you can easily complete this project at your leisure. Picking it up and putting it down as time permits.

Introductory video is here

Thank you so much!

Labour of love!

As my daughter is finishing elementary school and moving onto middle school the other mother's in her class asked if I would make some cushion for their teachers. Of I said yes with great pleasure!

On one side they are embroidered with the kid's names - 20 of them. There are 3 teachers so 3 cushions and 60 names to embroider! I methodically worked through the embroidery, it took forever! To give you an idea a 5 letter name took approximately 1 hour! I used a gorgeous antique handwove hemp as the base.

Recently I've also been madly buying vintage and antique French and English floral fabrics. Just love those! So I decidied to to include a little on the reverse side. The colours in the fabrics worked well with the colours I used to embroider the names.

Finally I was also asked to embroider a quote for the teachers as well. I did this on vintage doilies which I stitched in the center.

I will certainly say these gift were a labour of love!

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Pretty needlebooks

Lately I' ve been making all kinds of different things. One of my favourites has been these gorgeous needlebooks. I just love them I need to make one for myself! Most of these have sold a couple are left in my shop . I will be making more soon!

I made them with vintage hand embroidered fabrics, antique and vintage trims and laces, antique fabrics and fun new bindings and trims. They are so much fun to make, I love the way the trims and fabrics clash but co-ordinate at the same time!

They have plenty of space for needles and pins but also pockets to slip your embroidery thread in, buttons, scissors, trims and so on!

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Needle books snail mail on the go!

At the moment I have many small projects on the go! Needle books, snail mail, so many ideas are flying around in my head confusing me! Hopefully I will sort out my thoughts soon, I want to do too many things, end result nothing! It's so frustrating!!! Anyway here are a few works in progress nearing completion!

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Organising!

I love making these covered card holders. I combine antique handwoven fabrics with vintage and antique trims, new fabrics, stamped fabric and handmade buttons. They are great to store business cards and store fedelity cards. I have one in my bag which I carry everywhere. They are very light!

Cardholders with 72 pockets

Cardholders with 30 pockets

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Pretty journal covers

In August more journal covers went to new homes. I used antique hemp, linen, trims, buttons and hand embroidery to create these

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Pretty hearts

I love to pull out my favourite things and create! Gorgeous textures with buttons, jute cord, antique hemps, linens and trims. The muslin or cheese close I hand dyed in tea. Add a few random stitches and the project is ready to be made up!

I loved making these so much I made 11! A few are in my shop but not all as I will have a month of Christmas markets in San Marino starting end of November! So excited!!! I will have one of those gorgeous little wooden shops like you see in the North of Italy, Germany and Austria at Christmas time. The atmosphere will be wonderful!

Here are a few othe hearts completed.

Lampshade love

I'm so excited I did a lampshade making online course with Marna Lunt and here is my first shade. I made it for my daughter Lulu and she loves it. it's made with antique Italian linen, machine applique and is hand embtoidered. I can't wait to make my next one!

With the light off!

With the light on!

Fabric journal

I finally have been able to work on a fabic journal. I've been wanting to make one for some time now. It was so much fun and I just loved making it. It has several pages and pockets, each page has been embellished. It comes with a small covered notebook for writing notes or doing small drawings. I think it would be a great gift for a bridal shower as the bride could use it as an organiser or as a keepsake for wedding memorabilia. Another great use would be for sewing!

To make the book there was a lot of collaging different textured fabrics, hand embroidery and stitching, applique and machine sewing. I used some new fabrics but also a lot of antique handwoven hemp and trims. Oh and of course old and new buttons!

Front and back covers of the fabric journal and small notebook

Some of the internal pages

Back to work

Now it's back to work! I arrived last week and hit the ground running! I've already completed several orders and are working on more!

I just finished this gorgeous growth chart with peacocks. I just loved doing those!

Before I left I made many charts for boys, here are a couple of them.

More creations are on their way!

Gifts for the teachers

This year I was asked to make the end of year gifts for Lulu’s teacher. It was such an honour and pleasure to do this. The other mummies chose fabric storage baskets. I decided to keep them quite neutral (linens) so that way they could fit in most homes. 

To make the baskets I took my linen and antique hemp scraps ( I have a lot of these!) and I sewed them together using the ‘quilt as you go method’. I then I appliqued a vintage doily to each and made up the baskets. 

For their teacher who retired but still comes to school to do creative workshops I made these gorgeous lavender sachets.

To complete the gift I made personalised gift tags with appliqued bits and pieces and embroidery. On the reverse side I embroidered each teacher’s name and ‘class 4A 2015’ so they will always remember our kids!