Is it just me?

Although there are a gazillion websites and blogs here in the UK that offer really good 'practical' and chatty support for all things crafty and stitchy, it seems to me that they still don't quite manage the community feel of our American & Australian cousins.  Perhaps that's why I keep finding myself unwittingly tagging sites from the US & Oz?

(Before anyone starts chipping in with the anti-American thing, I'd just like to say that I'm not too chirpy about ANY country's politics these days.  Luckily politics and sewing rarely share the same tags)

Is it just that these landmasses are so huge that the proportion of female and male stitchers and crafters who blog is so much bigger? I guess so.  

But there's something else - Along with a lack of guilt and an affirmed celebration of 'doing crafty stuff', there's a natural openness and willingness to 'share' that us Brits are pre-programmed to find cloying and - oh the irony - robotic.


They're not that short on sophistication and irony either ....

Take this FANTASTIC video entry from Amanda Fetters for a sewing-machine giveaway (Q: How would your life be better with a serger?) :

check out her great blog too .. http://littlecumulus.wordpress.com

 

Ultimately, this is the kind of thing that helps build online communities.

I'm delighted to be visiting ... oh, and have a nice day ..

a new pincushion

Moss Pincushion by Ottoman @ Etsy

Ah, that's better - I've moved all my content over from the old site - this feels much more comfy ...

Sunday Stash #1

The late night cupboard clear-out turned up this shaming display of all the fabric and trimmings I didn't even know
I had !! I'd last used these fabrics about 10 years ago for cushions from my brighton prints ...

I can't tell you how many little projects I haven't started because I 'didn't have' any neutral fabric to hand ... *ahem*  no, not a scrap, not even the 3 1/2 metres of light calico, or the 2 metres of heavy white cotton canvas, the heaps of stiffer calico & that beautiful piece of linen I bought in Amsterdam a gazillion years ago ...  also snipped the zip and remaining fabric from an old skirt I used for jam covers last year ...

... check out that yummy chenille rick rack.

My Creative Space #1

I feel quite shy - a bit like showing my greying bra in the communal changing room of the blogosphere ... but here goes!

My physical space is utterly limited to a tidy corner of my sitting room.  My mental creative space is a different kettle of fish entirely! - cluttered as it is with overlapping plans and somewhat confounded by my very rusty sewing skills. My heartfelt thanks go out to all you beautiful people who post tutorials!
 
Today I breakfasted on half triangles from squares  - I wish I had a toastrack to display them -  (this was for a bit of much-needed sewing machine practice & to do something later with the leftover pieced squares from my therapy quilt) then I snacked on this fab lunch bag (for my god-daughter's birthday?) and am now gathering ingredients for my main course: a nifty-thrifty use of leftovers - and my next proper project - this great munki blocky quilt at comfortstitching.

The last picture shows my first two slapdash attempts, just to see if I liked it.  I do I do! I love the combinations you can get from the blocks and I'm thinking of making it in paintboxy colourways  to compensate for my lack of munki fabrics.

Hope to see you again - in the meantime, pop round to kootoyoo's and wander round some truly inspirational creative spaces ...

YUM

mmmmmm ... just check out these beauties at Hawthorne Threads ...

If you hurry on over to Heather's blog at a la mode fabric and jump through a few delightful embroidery hoops, you could be the lucky winner of one of these truly fab machines ... imagine being able to cut an entire quilt's worth of pieces in an hour?  yup - it really is that good ....! 

Sew (geddit?) here I am, rekindling an old love/hate relationship  - I used to sew when I was much younger, but as a hobby it was something I tended to lose patience with.  Not much change there -  I still don't find it easy, but I do find it immensely satisfying, and considerably less messy than painting!

Hopefully this blog will serve to encourage and chart my improvement over time (yeah well, it's a nice thought).

use the links at the side to see specific projects