Vintage Cabinet

Hello friends! It's nice to be back, it's been a while... I've been busy, busy with lots of DIYing at the house - such as this lovely cabinet below :) I've always dreamed of having one and now I am the official owner of a 1960s kitchenette yayy! I spyed it at the auction last month with mum, and after a looong and expensive bidding battle we got it!! Though it's taken quite a while to get it looking in this shape, which involved lots and lots of sanding and painting. Not to mention new hinges and door rollers (thanks Robin!) and plenty of scrubbing and cleaning. My instagram pals may remember what it looked like originally. 

It was painted a drab beige'y colour when I got it, though after stripping it back we found it was a really bright yellow so I got a good match for the original colour to bring it back to it's former glory :) it also matches the inside paper lining so well! It features a pull down drawer with red formica top designed for pastry making, and tilting glass panel to display where the food should be stored. It's now proudly displayed in my kitchen where my other green cabinet used to stand. This one is now been moved into the dining room, where I like it even more, the open shelving suits the room much better and it fits perfectly next to the double doors, ahhh don't you just love it when a plan comes together ;)

I'll hopefully be back in the week with some crafty updates! I've been neglecting my sewing machine of late. Jessie, xo

Farmers Wife: 07/04

I have four new farmers wife quilt blocks to show you this week! I've been a little behind recently, but got cracking away on them over the weekend. I really enjoy making these, choosing fabrics is of course my favourite part :) though this can end up taking more time than actually making the blocks!? I'm using mainly 1930s reproduction prints, as I want to achieve a nostalgic look. Below is #30 End of Day, #111 Wrench and #37 Flower Pot, #75 Rosebud.

I have 9 in total now, although I have made 3 more but they have been rejected! I may think differently once I start laying them all out together, but it's not a total loss I will have to turn them into mug rugs or something? :) Jessie, xo

Drawstring Tote

I got some time over the weekend to make this cute little drawstring bag. Using the famous pattern by Jeni; you can find the tutorial to make one yourself over here. I made it to help motivate me to complete my cross-stitch project as it's the perfect size to house my floss :) I've been hoarding the lovely floral fabric for donkeys years, it's an old japanese print I bought from Cotton Blue etsy shop (sorry I don't know who it's by? but I just love it!) The lining is part of the Red Letter Day collection by Lizzy House. It came together nicely, and it's a great project for an afternoon. Though I did get Robin to help me sort the handles out, I couldn't quite get that part!? He does have his uses hehe!

Still not finished my cross-stitch wall hanging! The yellow tray part of the design took me ages!! so I kind of got a little bored of it for a while but since that's done finally, I've got back into it more :) looking forward to getting it up on the wall! What have you all been working on?? xo

The Finished Granny Square Quilt!

I am SO excited to finally share my finished granny square quilt with you, it's been in the making for a long time! I actually completed it a couple weeks ago but only got round to photographing it today :) the weather has been awful recently so unfortunately I haven't got the best photo's to show you, but you get the idea ...

I peiced the back with a pink stripe by Sevenberry and a blue floral print by Moda's 30s PlayTime collection. I hand-stitched the binding on, and machine quilted some simple straight lines to bring out the granny sqaures :) I'm really pleased with how it turned out, and I can't wait to get it washed so it has that lovely crinkly look. Thank you all so much for your encouraging comments along the way, I don't think I could have finished it without all your kind comments! :D Right, now on to the next one!

Jessie, xo

Quilted Tea Cosy Tutorial

As I promised last week, I'm back today to share with you all my step by step tea cozy tutorial. The following measurements fit my standard four person teapot. I hope you can follow my instructions easily :) if you have any questions at all, please let me know.

1. Firstly cut the following:

X2 12" x 9" exterior fabric

X2 12" x 9" interior fabric

X2 12" x 9" batting

2. Lay your interior, batting and exterior on top of each other forming a 'sandwhich' as shown above. You need your interior and exterior prints facing outwards. Pin in place.

3. Starting from the centre of this 'sandwhich' begin sewing 1" diagonal line. Repeat this until you have quilted all of it. Repeat step 2 and 3 for the other side.

4. I used a template to cut out my teapot shape, but more easily you can draw around a large dinner plate for the cirular shape at the top. Cut out. 

5. Not pictured (as I got a little ahead of myself!) cut out a peice of coordinating fabric for the loop measuring 3.5" x 2.5". Press in half, then fold over the edges to the centre where your crease is, fold again and sew. 

6. Lay your two teapot pieces right sides together, with your hanging loop folded in half (so it's poking through the exterior). Sew 1/4" all the way around the circular top.  

7. Cut a peice of coordinating fabric for your binding measuring 27" x 2.5". Press in half width-ways.

8. Sew your binding on, and you are done!

I hope you enjoy this! Please send me a picture if you decide to make one, I'd love to see your variations :) See ya' soon! Jessie, xo

The Dutch Pinwheel Conundrum

Hello! Firstly, thank you all for your lovely lovely comments on my GS quilt, you are all too kind :) the weather here has been awful the last few days so it certainly brightened up my day reading all the messages! I had quite a creative weekend and got a whole day to play in the sewing room :D one of my projects I worked on was this Dutch Pinwheel block. I had intended it to be a pillow cover to coordinate with my other patchwork pillow, but unfortunately I can't count miss-calculated so it came out too small, dohh! So I'm now in a quandry ... what do you suppose I could do with it? Any suggestions would be great!

Although as I'm writing this post and looking at the pictures again, I'm thinking a quilt, eek!?  another one!? See ya' Friday guys! xo