A Good Read

As I've mentioned before on this blog - I LOVE books, they are essential to my life and have been since I first looked at a picture book as a child. I love opening a new book, finding a special old book, or re reading a book I read years ago with a whole new life perspective. If you are a book lover you'll know just what I mean!

My reading has been enhanced since xmas by the Kindle I received from my thoughtful Mr P as a surprise gift. Now I can take a weighty tome on the train with me, carry it round the city all day, read it while waiting for a meeting to start and be engrossed in it on the train home....and yet it's as light as a feather! And I can download in moments old titles I've been longing to read, often for free!!

 Last week I made my Kindle a little cover. I chose two Trefle fabrics from Superbuzzy here. Two prints that each have a little bit of text in the design - I do love a few words mixed with motifs both in stitched samplers and in printed fabric designs.

The button is a vintage one from an old button tin someone kindly gave me...I liked the pearly flower one too.

And here it is, tucked up snugly, ready to be transported on my next trip and ready to transport me to loads of other book-y worlds at the press of a button! Of course I'm still buying new books too - I so love the feel of actual books, their covers and whole look - but at certain times an e reader gives you a good read and I can always enjoy one of those!

Just a word about my own latest book, Simple Sewn Gifts. People both in blogland and in 'real life' have mentioned they can't find a copy to buy, so I made some enquiries at the publishers and discovered that as the book has been selling well they are currently having to reprint it.... the good news is that it will be available in late March again so not long to wait and you can still order it now. And to those who have already bought my book a big enormous thank you!!

Before I go I must say another thank you -  a bit belatedly, to the lovely Emma at Sylvie's Garden, who gave me the Stylish Blogger Award recently. I have been lucky enough to receive this award once before, but that doesn't mean it's any less appreciated! Thank you so much, Emma - and do pop over and see her lovely blog if you haven't already.

Have a lovely day everyone, and I hope it contains things you enjoy whether it's books, flowers, sunshine and fresh air, cupcakes or chocolate, I hope there is some of whatever makes you happy in your day! xxx

Sew Retro

It was lovely to take a little time this weekend, to have a pot of tea and a browse through a pile of retro sewing books. A while ago a family friend who knew about my sewing love kindly gave me her mother's collection of Golden Hands crafts books from the 1970's, that she no longer needed.

I was transported back to my schooldays, remembering these hugely popular 'part magazines' filled with trendy knitting, crochet, embroidery, dressmaking and all kinds of other craftyness. Some of the photographs are wonderful, in particular the close ups of embroidery and knitting, so clear and colourful which I don't think had been done like that before. Although some of the text is dated, and some of the fashion shots gave me laugh-out-loud moments, there are lots of wonderful things in these magazines and they will be a great resource. I'll post some pictures from inside them soon.

Yesterday we had a power cut here - an electric cable had broken in the road and it took 'the men' hours and hours to find and fix the fault. So Mr P and I spent a restful evening by candlelight and firelight. No knitting or sewing for me though...sigh. The power came on again at 4.15 am!

I hope your week has started well! And I hope to be back here tomorrow and a bit more regularly this week too. x

The Town of Books

Hello! It's nice to be back. These pictures are of Hay-on-Wye - the town of books - where we went for a few days this week. Such a pretty place, and it really is chock full of bookshops! We spent part of each day browsing among the books and found just a few we had to bring home with us.

Some of the time we spent visiting little cafes and shops, buying apples from a local orchard and walking by the beautiful River Wye. It was perfect weather so sunny wanderings through the valley beneath blue skies and watching the sparkling water flowing fast between the flowery river banks was especially lovely. (The famous nature diarist Francis Kilvert lived nearby and wrote his beautiful observations of the countryside about the Wye Valley scenery.)

And did I find time to do something crafty too? Of course! I began knitting my Autumn Blackberry Cardigan, shown here against the Hydrangea Quilt which came with us on this trip. The holiday home had a deck overlooking the river, so a bit of knitting went on there while Mr P read the paper...and I did a bit more knitting in the evenings too.

I'm really looking forward to catching up with your blogs now. I hope you have a lovely weekend! x

Simple Sewn Gifts

Simple Sewn Gifts, my new book, has just been published and this is an exciting time for me. I love books, always have, and still find it amazing that I actually write them too - such a big wish come true! The bunny picture above was one I snapped when working on this book. The doll's bed was from Ikea and I gave it several coats of white paint and then added a little red painted folk heart.

The book has 25 gift projects that are fast and easy to sew, so that you can then spend time being creative, playing with embellishments and personalising your gifts. I've included cross stitch, embroidery, applique, patchwork, paper crafts, buttons and all kinds of yummy little decorative extras which I love to embellish with.

The book has step illustrations for each project which I drew as I created the designs. I loved doing these, it was great to sharpen a pencil and get drawing again, then dig out my lovely rotring pen and mix up some washy watercolour - I sometimes forget how much I love working on illustrations as well as sewing.

The tote bag shown here uses simple patchwork and I made buttons from linen with a cross stitch motif to echo the strip of cross stitch on the bag. The buttons are so easy to do, and you could use the idea in lots of ways by varying the motif and colours.

I had to include some seaside images , of course! There are some beach huts in this book, and there is some seaside bunting as you can see...

Thank you for looking at these glimpses of my new book, I hope you've enjoyed it! If you'd like to buy it, it's in all good bookshops now, on Amazon, or you can click on the book on my sidebar and get it direct from rucrafts.

Now I'm going to make a cup of tea, and start sewing something else! Have a happy weekend!

Nature Study

When I was snipping little bits of colourful plants from the garden today to brighten up the house, I suddenly remembered the nature table at primary school and how I loved it! Do you remember having a nature table at school too?

Ours was filled with flowers, autumn leaves, pebbles, sea shells, feathers, seed pods, seed heads, bits of birds' egg shells and sometimes excitingly, a bird's nest or a mermaid's purse from the seashore. The teacher would write neat little labels so we knew what the various things were, and it would gradually evolve over the seasons.

When I trained as a textile designer, a lot of time was spent studying and drawing plants to use in designs for fabrics, wallpapers and other surface patterns. I began to collect old books with engravings and illustrations of plants and flowers as they were a great resource for designing. This old book, for teachers to use, was found in a Manchester jumble sale years ago.

Glancing through it just now I was surprised to notice that besides having the scientific information I expected, on the next page were poems that related to the botanical specimens too! I don't remember ever being taught bits of poetry in science lessons. I would have liked it, though if we had been.

So now I'll just say:

And I hope you have wonderful weekend! x

Fourth of July

The fourth of July has been and gone for another year, it seems to come round faster and faster. The birthday weekend was lovely, the sun shone after all, the cake was delicious and the flowers were blooming. Now the celebrations are over it's time to get on with some work and a lot more crafting. This week I'm putting the finishing touches to projects for two crafts magazines, making a new toy, sewing a flower quilt and doing a bit of knitting - and also reading a book which is fascinating me - Hancox A House and a Family by Charlotte Moore.