Make Do And Mend

 Many months ago, when planning this year's commissions with the lovely magazine editors i work with, i realised that the red white and blue colour way (one of my absolute favourites) was going to be BiG this year, what with the jubilee and the olympics too.....and i  also found that there were lots of lovely products on an old blighty shabby chic theme to be bought in the crafts shops.....crafty heaven :-) .....so, this is my project for this month's crafts beautiful, in the shops now.........i've been looking forward to showing it on my blog and to actually hanging the hanger up in my studio .............

 .........and to using the make do and mend notebook for recording sewing tips, plans and ideas, snippets, pictures, sketches and cuttings all on a stitchy fabric-y theme......i used portobello road embellishments from papermania and haberdashery rubber stamps by tim holz on this book cover....you can read all about it in the magazine and find lots of other crafty inspiration on the crafts beautiful website here........

.........the letters in this picture are real old letters that we were sorting out last weekend...they belonged to my late mother in law, and were sent to her when her son ( my mr p) was born...they are such lovely letters from her sisters in law and other family and friends, and tell such a story of a past time and a different world...very moving too.....

 ..........little collage, showing the cover of cb with my project peeking out (even after all these years it's still nice to see my designs appear, especially on a cover) the magazine has a lovely (free) vintage rubber stamp and lots of papers too which i will be putting to good use......the first bluebells picked this spring (from our garden, not the bluebell woods we walked in on sunday)..........the bluebells have only just begun to open here, so the carpeting effect hasn't happened yet...maybe next weekend, if the sun shines a bit more.......

....................red white and blue pincushion and vintage birdie tin filled with red white and blue buttons all ready for sewing onto lots more projects..........

 .........and my new crochet blanket which i mentioned in my last post is also fitting in with this year's theme....i've begun making a granny stripe jubilee blanket........i love it already, and it will be perfect for seaside picnics (even matching the red and white spotty picnic cool bag)......if i hurry up it might be ready to take to the jubilee party too........i think my love of this colour way really stems from the nautical things i grew up with........living in a sailing resort, surrounded by boats and flags and lots of objects painted in these colours.........

 ..........we love living on the coast and i love being near the sea.....i can see it from our house, and walk down to it in a few minutes......i used to take it for granted when i was young, until i lived inland for a few years and missed it so much...........

.......some granny squares have quickly been hooked up too, while watching a film at the weekend.....these are for a jubilee cushion to go with the blanket for perfect picnics this summer......so that's my making and doing for this week...and i have even done a little bit of mending too....i sewed up a hole in a jumper and the hem on a skirt :-0
Thank you for dropping by to my little bit of blogland, it's so lovely to see you.........wishing you a wonderful week and i hope the sun shines for you...........back soon xxxxxxxx