Rocking Robins,

If you fancy a little sewing project in the run up to Christmas, there is a new magazine out from My Time Media, the team behind titles including Popular Patchwork.  Its called "Make your own Gifts & Toys".

I have a pattern in there to make a matching pair of Robins,

there is a little Mama bird,

and also a baby one too, both with the cutest wire legs!

The magazine is out in the shops now or you can buy a copy online from My Hobby Store, just follow this link.

   

Garden projects,

Hello!  Long time between posts again, I have been making and doing I promise, but just not been blogging about it.  To remedy this, here's a snippet from what I got up to during the summer.  We have a large back garden, but when we moved in, it was very overgrown and full of weeds.  Its been a gradual job but it has slowly been tackled and out of the previous wilderness, is sprouting a haven with decking, gravel and raised railway sleeper flower beds.  

 

In one corner, I had the idea (possibly courtesy of Pinterest) of making the gravel area into a boules pitch.  This has been a huge hit with adults and children alike, and as the area is 'L' shaped, there was a little space for something else...

 

Making use of a chunk of tree trunk, which I know will rot but can easily be replaced when it does, and some pebbles, a little game of tic, tac, toe (or noughts and crosses) insect style.  This has also been a hit (ps, I used acrylic paint on the pebbles, which had a coat of clear yacht varnish over the top, and the black is blackboard paint, as it was the only black I had in the house!)

My next garden project is going to be these...

Another Pinterst find, made from painted bricks believe it or not.  Am undecided as to what paint would be best though, any ideas?

Wire,

I have been playing with wire this week, something I've wanted to have a go at for a while but never got round to, wire for birds legs.

Love the way they look, but oh my goodness, harder to make than they should be!  Plus then you've got to get it to stand up without toppling over.

Cute though!

Offcuts!

I have been eyeing up leather offcuts on Ebay for a while, attempting to make an educated guess as to which would be the colours I was after (as in browns, grey, off white), and given I only need small pieces, took the plunge earlier this week...

...and here they are.  This bag is 100g in weight and was only cheap, less than £3, and the colours are just about perfect.  Now to see if the idea I have for them works!

Sewing Bee...

The Great British Sewing Bee has been a fantastic vehicle to encourage home sewers to pick up their needles and thread, and with Series 2 in full swing and Series 3 already recruiting, it was decided to give a sewing themed fundraising day a try at my son's primary school.

I am a member of the 'PTA', albeit on the periphery as I am often unable to volunteer due to logistical issues and other commitments, but I do stick my hand up if and when I can.  When the Sewing Bee idea was floated, we did initially want to go down the Softie route and make something from the book, but in the end it made sense to go with a simpler project, as when working with little ones, you really can end up spending the whole time just threading needles.  After a bit of googling, the often used idea of a finger puppet and an easter egg fitted the bill nicely, so I quickly knocked up my own version.   

The idea is to have different projects for different skill levels,

the chick being the easiest as we can just glue the eyes and beak on,

 followed by the rabbit, 

and then the easter egg for the parents to make which opens up at the back to house a bit of chocolate.

It's hard to gauge how well attended these things will be.  The last time I taught in school, I had a class of 31 year 9's, but they didn't have a choice, a captive audience!  We made ladybirds, from the pattern I put together for Whip Up, 

they finished them off the week after I was in but my daughter was allowed to take some photographs for me of some of the ladybirds.  They all did really well.

I will report back on the Sewing Bee, fingers crossed it is a Sewing Bee and not a Sewing Zzzzzzzz!