Meet my new machine! Janome QL

Ok-so it has been ages since I have posted anything new, my laptop charger blew up and so I have had to wait to use my hubby's laptop. Plus I have been so been so carried away with the making I forgot to blog it. So I have finally collected the pictures of what I have been up to and will now endeavour to post them all for you. First ever so exciting thing that happened was....school broke up and I got my VERY early birthday present ( I am like the Queen you see!) My mother in Law bought me a brand new sewing machine! My husband had done all the research ( and now knows lots about sewing machines :-) and decided this was the best machine for me, as it had plenty of decorative stitches and according the he reviews was very reliable, plus its great for quilting which I have been dabbling in since Christmas. I absolutely love it, and have been sewing ever since it arrived! It sews really smoothly unlike some other machines I tried that seemed to munch at the fabric rather than feed it through, and it has some really neat functions like a needle threader and an automatic thread cutter. It also has a function that moves the needle to the up or down position (depending on how you have set it) overtime you stop, which is really helpful when sewing something with corners, means you don't have to us the hand wheel to raise or lower the needle. Also inspired my Pinterest (love that site!) I made a pincushion to go on the machine to put needles in instead of just throwing them down on the side when I'm sewing. NEAT!

DCI-padded covered books

We had our hird Dream Create Inspire craft morning lat saturday and we had 12 people come! we were all making the padded notes books inspired by the Mollie Makes post a while back. They turned out really well and everyone was pleased with the results. pictures will follow shortly. Here is mine.....

Nellies new summer outfit!

Summer, should be around the corner and so I decided that Nellie would need some new clothes so that she can keep cool, and enjoy the sunshine! I used some shirt wheight denim for the shorts and a light wheight cotton for the top, these were made from off cuts from a secret project which I can't publish yet......watch this space!

How to make elderflower cordial

After getting in after a busy day at school yesterday and realising I had a very busy weekend ahead of me, I decided that there was no time like the present and I had better get on and make my elderflower cordial otherwise all the flowers may be gone by the weekend and the heavey rain we have been forcast. So out I went and collected the flowers and decided to blog it so that you can have a go too. It is so so easy and straightforward and so satisfying once it's done. A delicious drink for the summer, and extra bottles can be frozen and used at a later date.

These are the ingredients you will need. Three (yes three!) bags of sugar, 62g of citric acid, which you can get from either a chemist or behind the customer service counter in Wilkinsons!	First you need to collect the elderflower, try not to pick anything too close to the road as it can collect the fumes etc Cut the heads off so all the stalks that make the flower are still intact otherwise you end up with lots of bits. You will need one full carrier bag.
Put all the sugar and citric acid into a bucket-any will do so long as it is clean.	Add 6 pints of water and give it a good stir.
Nest, tip in all the flowers, don't worry about the bugs and bits, we will strain them out later.	Give it a good stir, and squash it all down.
Then cover it over and leave it for 24 hours to soak, stirring occcasionally. Try to scoop up all the suagr etc that may settle at the bottom.	After 24 hours, scoop out all the gunk into another container (or if  you have one, get another clean bucket) Don't get rid of the gunky flowers, they will be squeezed later.
Here is the gunky flowers, you can squeese these out into the container with the juice in and then chuck them away.	Right, this is my makeshift strainer, find one old tea towel, preferably one used to polish glass....that type. Put the tea towel into a seive and then rest the seive over the bucket. then using a jug you can scoop out the liquid and pour it through your makeshift strainer. You may need to remove a build up of flowers every now and then to keep it flowing.
Here some of the finished golden liquid!	Finally you can bottle it up.
TA DA!!! It usually makes around 3 1/2 litres. Have a go and let me know how you get on!

DCI-materials list

Next DCI is on the 14th of July 10am to 1pm
If you are new and want to come along (we love new faces!) you can find us on the map here or alternatively its Kingsgate Community Church, 2 Staplee way, PE1 4YT.

So we will be making:
Padded note book cover (with optional handle)

Materials list:You will need an A5 notebook with a spine of more than 1 cm
a patterned fabric for the cover (enough to generously wrap around the book)
Plain fabric for the inside (27cx37cm roughly (more not less)
Wadding (27cx37cm roughly (more not less)

Sewing machine if you have one (really don't worry if not we can share!)
Matching thread
Pencil/black marker
Fabric scissors
Tracing paper or greaseproof paper to make the paper patterns with

Really looking forward to it! Email me if you have any questions, or leave a post! (Ive not had anyone leave me a post yet...so please feel free!)

My Little mousey!



I just couldn't resist making one of the little mice from Mollie Makes. I downloaded the pattern, but it doesn't come with instructions so I have had to work out how to put it together and I have to say I am very pleased with the result! I was intrigued to see that they suggested that you back the fabric with a thin iron on interfacing, it made the fabric easier to work with, especially as I was hand stitching (which I love doing!). I'm sure more mice will be moving in soon.....





Cutting out the pattern pieces.





Carefully handwashing the fabrics for her dress...couldn't decide which fabric to use!



Finished mousey and little handmade pinifore



Finished mouse! We decided to name her nellie....due to her large ears. I will put a little tuck in them next time to stop them looking so huge!



Best magazine ever!

Oh my goodness! I so so so want this magazine!!! I was browsing in Hobby Craft (I could spend a day in there and not get bored...only bankrupt!) and found this magazine Mollie Makes , its only on it 15th issue or something, but its a cute little A5 issue, with yummy pictures and fantastic little projects. I would love a subscription to this for a birthday.....or Christmas.....You get free templates and patterns from here on their website which you can download from their website , unfortunately not with instructions so you do  need a little "where with all" to work out how to put some of them together unless you have the mag. I fully intend to make the little clothed mice! How cute are they???!!!! They are designed by Jenny Dixon and you can see her blog here