my creative space

... is looking for inspiration for the brooch swap. I think I've found it, I'm completely hooked by all the flowers that are everywhere right now. The Chelsea Flower Show is on, it's so inspiring, maybe one year I'll plan ahead and actually get there. 

1. Close up of vibrant purple flowers (Allium Lucy Ball) and a visiting bee!, 2. Chelsea Flower Show 2011, 3. Chelsea Flower Show 2011, 4. Chelsea Flower Show 2011, 5. Chelsea Flower Show 2011, 6. Lisianthus destined for Chelsea

I adore flowers, but I don't manage to grow many, I have oodles of roses, which are beautiful. But a bit of variety would be nice.

I have a plan now for the brooch, thankfully. Just need to sit and do now.  

I have many plans for the garden, not sure they'll happen.

This week has been wedding dress sewing (yes, still on that!) and whipping up a quick German National Dress costume for school's international week. We found out on Wednesday they were dressing up on Friday - who has international costumes hanging around? A bit more notice would have been nice... still nothing like pressure to get things done. 

See some actual creative work DONE over here. 

Happy Weekend. x

my creative space

Love in the air.  

I'm in the middle of making a card for my best friends wedding. I cut out the wedding related entries from an old dictionary and sandwiched it between some silk organza and duchess satin and I'm stitching a heart around it. 

And then there's the drying of petals. For confetti and for decorations for my brothers wedding.

Simple. Beautiful.

More creative spaces over here.

 

kcwc day 9

Days 4,5,6,7 and 8 didn't really happen, too much other stuff going on. I cut the fabric, made the pocket and kept getting it out, and putting it away again. But you see it was Mr's birthday so we had to make and bake and celebrate and eat cake so the sewing got delayed.

So this morning I made up for lost time and got Little Missy's dress done. It's called My Garden Dress. 
My girls are opposites of each other, Little Missy loves to get dirty, and take risks, and loves bright colours, and loves finding worms while we dig at the allotment, and dances and lives in the moment. This dress is all about her, she chose the fabrics and I thought a garden theme would suit her, I love freestyle machine embroidery - you can just draw as you sew. Perfect.

The big flower is a pocket and I wanted a sketchy garden around it, that was fun to do, I added Mr Worm as she loves worms, she fed him one of her baked beans for lunch. I like the butterfly on the sleeve too, it makes me think of a sneaky tattoo. 

The spotty fabric I bought new, the sleeves are a thrifty pillowcase find and the pink pocket is from an old Indian cotton top I found in the charity shop. I think they work really well together.

Take a look at the Elsie Marley flickr group to see what some very, very busy people got up to.

She loves it, and it's not a bad fit. Yay!!

Onto the wedding dress next - yikes.

kcwc day 3 and 4??? a jam packed creative space

Yesterday (day 3) went well, and in 45 minutes I finished the dress. However it was a little big when tried on, so I spent the evening adjusting it. And today she refused to try it on, so I can only hope it fits.

Missy Big chose the fabric for this dress and has patiently waited since last summer - I guess I'm being too hopeful for enthusiasm, she has waited, and waited, and waited...

But she tells me she loves it, and she's happy, so I'm happy.

 

So tonight I plan to attack these and see if I can achieve anything before day 4 is over.

I love Little Missy's choices - more my kind of colours too.

I need to share our first harvest from the allotment too - my it tastes good, even though it's super early. We had to share, it's the only one that was ripe enough to eat - I'm sure we'll have a few more by the weekend.

Whilst zooming around the shops this morning I picked up Mollie Makes, the much blogged about new crafty mag (some bedtime reading) and a fab tin - a giant jammie dodger, filled with jammie dodgers oooh heavenly, it'll sit nicely with the custard cream tin I got last year. (thank you M&S - I see another collection starting) Gorgeous roses (also beautifully early) picked by Mr from the garden - it made my day to come home to find them in the kitchen.

More creative spaces here, in a brand new home of their own.

kcwc day 2

Well my good intentions of altering the pattern and cutting the fabric on Sunday, ready for the Kids Clothes Week Challenge didn't happen. So day 1 (yesterday) was spent doing the boring bits and finding suitable pocket fabric.

Today the fun started, I didn't quite manage an hour - but the day isn't over yet. So here's the pocket, well it's a start....

I also received a little bit of happy in the post, you may remember the great big stitched postcard swap,  well my card finally arrived today - it's had quite a journey, came some of the way, went back and now has managed to find it's new home. I love it, it's from Stella at food art love. Her inspiration was the Robert Indiana LOVE statue in Philadelphia. 

Lucky me. Thanks Stella.

my creative space

Finishing off Little Missy's skirt, so now they both have one, and they twirl enough. Funny how that's always their first concern.

Very happy that one of the endless 'practice' crochet flowers was the perfect colour for the pocket.

Wishing I'd made these pockets a little smaller - they are a bit overpowering.

 

Loving that they love to wear them.

And there's a whole lot of planing, mostly in my head. It the Kids Clothes Week Challenge next week, which is just the kick up the pants I need as Missy Big has grown out of just about evertything and is in desperate need of some everyday dresses. 

She chose some fabric last summer, so it's about time I made something. If only I could find the patterns I made last year - where, oh where are they? 

Signing up for more swaps too - I just love brooches and wear them all the time - so this swap at Flowerpress sounds perfect. 


What are you up to? 
More creative people over at Kootoyoo.

London Town

Isn't it surprising how quickly we come to rely on technology? I'm very glad to have the computer back, and working. But without it, I did manage to get things 'done', lots of half finished jobs got finished, I read articles that have been hanging around for ages and I didn't lose hours on the web. Of course now I have way too many photos to upload, too many e-mails to write and so many blogs to catch up on, but first I do need to share our fab day out...


Another visit to the Museum of London, such a great place, so much to see and do and tons of really interesting stuff. 

These models really caught my attention, whole streets of houses and shops in the most incredible detail. Rubbish spewing out of dustbins, the inside of someones bedroom, broken walls, tiny trees - amazing and fascinating, and based on real communities.  

We also saw the new exhibitions - London Street Photography a visual history of the city, it shows so many similarities between the social problems of then and now, fascinating. And Hand-drawn London, a small exhibition of maps hand-drawn by ordinary Londoners based on their experiences and memories of the city with a little imagination thrown in, they are so charming and quirky I could have gazed for hours, but little ones were getting fed up...   
If you're nearby - pop in - they are well worth the visit. 

On our way out we stopped at the gates of some gardens, the girls wanted to go in, it was Postman's Park. I was delighted and moved, it's somewhere I've wanted to visit for a long time.

The small area includes a Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice, such a moving tribute to those who gave their lives whilst attempting to save someone else's. A series of tiled plaques name the individuals and how they gave their lives, men, women and a surprising number of children trying to save siblings and friends. It certainly reminds you just how precious life is, and how quickly it can be taken.

After taking in such moving tributes we walked towards the river past St Paul's Cathedral and over the Millennium Bridge, pausing to take in the views and characters. 

This man was sketching outside the Tate. I was immediately taken in by his work - line drawings of architecture - a favourite of mine, as we looked he pulled out a selection of his other work. £10 each. I felt like I was robbing him as I handed over the cash. Thank you Robbie MacGregor, I will treasure this and add it to my small collection of work I have bought from artists selling their work on the streets, in the countries I have visited.

A great day, finished off with a pub dinner. Perfect. 
(if you don't include the thunder and lightning and the tube delays on the way home)