A Right Royal Weekend & A Little Bit of Crafting

I have well and truly felt very very proud to be British this week with all the Diamond Jubilee celebrations going on around the country. Everywhere you look everyone seems to be participating and playing a part in the celebrations. Every day this week one of the local villages has been holding their own street parties and the children have all been presented with their own jubilee mugs as a momento of the occasion.

As I watched the Queen on the royal barge with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra playing I felt a small tear well up that we come from such a wonderful country and that only the British can do such a wonderful display of pageantry.

The local town looked stunning with every shop and street displaying its bunting.

Karen from the local pub painted her nails for the occasion, goodness only knows how she did this all by herself!

Here on the hill we have played our own small part with the decorations

Some I made to decorate the kitchen

These are actually always in my bathroom. The flags were found in the attic of my great aunt's house when we were clearing it out and I think they are from V.E. day and although they are very fragile and a little faded I think they are perfect!

My lovely friend Helen made this bunting to fly across her courtyard. She has made hundreds of double sided little flags in florals and stripes and these will look wonderful displayed for any occasion. As you can see from the picture it was a little dull on the day she put them up and definitely a little blustery!

I have also been doing a little Jubilee baking for our local party

and a little crocheting.

Well what outfit isn't just made complete with a little handmade brooch. Isn't it cute, I lovely the versatility of Rowan handknit cotton for these little projects.

This lovely little vintage brooch was a 50 pence bargain from my weekly visit to the local collectors market

I was given by one of the stallholders two vintage coronation medals to go in my memory cabinet

Here is a little red oil lamp I found to match the blue one I bought a few weeks ago, both are now sitting in my kitchen window.

And our real extravagance this weekend was an antique french clock that my husband and I (ohh that sounds rather regal ) saw and thought that it would be a good investment along with looking stunning here at The Castle.

Apart from my crochet Jubilee brooch and a little bit of bunting I have made this week the only other thing I have done is yet another tea cosy!

This week I took inspiration from my new Poppy Treffry book.

It has been lined and wadded to keep the pot warm, and although I don't think that Poppy Treffry has anything to worry about at the moment, this is quite a good attempt for my very first go at freestyle machine embroidery.

I must say that the bit I am most proud of is my name, I had one attempt on a scrap piece of fabric before launching into my lovely linen and hoping that I didn't go wrong and spoil the fabric, but here it is a real Ta-Dah, it looks great and just finishes it off to show that it is all my own work :)

Although I can see that I do need more practice on the machine, I did actually really love doing this project and in the words of Kirstie Allsopp machine embroidery is the cocaine of the crafting world!

Have a lovely time off work and enjoy your own Diamond Jubilee Celebrations!

Claire xx

New Crochet Projects

I have so much that I am wanting to do at the moment, I can't seem to fit it all in! My head seems to be buzzing with ideas and as I browse the internet and sites like Pinterest I just see more and more that makes me think ohhhhhhh I could do that, isn't it lovely!

Last Friday night my darling husband was taking me out to a posh do so I decided to wear my lovely red dress, which looks quite good so long as I wear the shaper pants underneath to keep all my wobbly bits under control and I also wore a slinky black pashmina. There was just something missing though I looked a little like I was wearing a block of red and a block of black so, whilst Oliver was getting ready I thought that I would crochet a little red rose to go on the pashmina to glam it up a little bit and it worked it was just what the outfit was missing.

And here I am wearing the said rose, I got the pattern from Lucys blog and it was such a simple thing to do and so so quick I made it in minutes. If you would like to have a go the link is here have a go it is really gorgeous, in fact so gorgeous that the rose is no longer mine it was begged off me by my mum!

Saturday bought lots of ohhhhhs and ahhhhs as I went to see Bibelot's new haberdashery department and it is so lovely lots of colour and beautiful bits to buy!

I purchased some Rico baby wool and some Rico Merino wool along with some bias binding, pompom edging, which I intend to edge my Cath Kidston cushion with when I eventually get around to daring to start it, and some beautiful pink flowery cotton duck material that I just couldn't resist.

As you can see I am trying to gather a few bits of fabric together so that when the mood strikes me to do something a bit crafty in the sewing department I have a bit of choice. I am still on a mission to learn how to competently use a sewing machine and if I am very good I am hoping that my husband will buy me a nice one. He is an absolute expert on a sewing machine and when we had our camper van he made all of the curtains and piped box cushions. He may be a solicitor now but many years ago he went to college to do a fashion design course :)

Disaster happened later on in the week my favourite white china teapot developed a worrying crack and started to leak after I made the mistake of putting it into the dishwasher on a steam program. I am so upset it was a lovely pourer no dribbles or leaks but it is now in my bin.

After attempts to get my mum and dad to let me have the Grimwades Chintz teapot sitting in their display cabinet failed miserably, apparently it is part of my inheritance and they are not planning letting go of it yet :( I had to resort to my horrible old teapot that has a nasty habit of dribbling everywhere. In desperation I thought that I would cheer myself up and crochet a new cosy to cover up the ugliness of the pot and here it is I am delighted with the results.

I made it from the Rico wool I had bought from Bibelot earlier in the week and some Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. I opted for a brown colour as I thought when the pot starts dribbling then it wouldn't be too noticeable.

I then thought that the cafetiere was now looking bit boring so out came the James Brett Kool Kotton and I whipped up a little cosy for that too.

Don't they just look lovely sat together on my table and just ready for this coming Saturday when I will be having friends and family over from France for afternoon tea.

 I have already started my next major project with the Debbie Bliss Andes wool I got in a sale  but first I had to make the hanks of wool into usable balls and what a flaming nightmare this has been! I don't think I will ever buy wool again that isn't already in a ball. I have never before had to do this and I got into such a mess!

My first thoughts were to lay it on the table to keep it flat and then wind it from there but as you can see from the pictures it just turned into one great big knot and this colour took me an age to unravel from this tangled mess.

Next I thought I would try and stretch it between my legs, which worked a little better but the wool is so silky that it just kept popping off

I then enlisted my middle son to help, which didn't last long before the words of "my arms are aching, do I have to do this" were ringing around the room

So in a last ditched attempt to do it on my own without bothering anyone else I placed a stool on the table and put it over the legs and this was a great success.

I won't let on yet until the next time that I blog as to what my latest project is, but I am very excited about it and as I couldn't find a pattern on the internet for it and as I can't read patterns in crochet books I have studies pictures of the article I am making and have made it up myself and have even done my very first tutorial!!!!!

Right I had better go and get on with my cake baking for Saturdays afternoon tea party.

So until next time.

Claire xx