Embroidery

 The first crafting medium i tried many years ago, was Cross stitch.
 I love cross stitch, but i find it very time consuming, so after years of doing larger pieces, i now only sew Cross stitch samplers.

But i have found a new love for Embroidery,as the work comes together a lot quicker.
I have made many Embroidery pieces in the past, but looking back at them my stitches were very basic. Over the last few weeks, i have been trying out new stitches, and i am so excited about creating lots of new pieces.



 This was from 2011, when all i knew was 2 stitches, running stitch and french knots.











I have been working on rope stitch, Lazy daisy, wheel stitch, and feather stitch. Instagram has been a great source of knowledge, and there are some wonderful Emboidery art pieces to inspire the soul.
One of my favourite things to do while stitching, is to turn up the Music and stitch away.


 


This piece was inspired by Fleetwood Mac. The full lyric is "Listen to the wind blow, watch the sunrise."












 Sadly i do have a bit of a crap phone, and the the details are always lost when i take a pic.
 I still need some practise with some of the new stitches.
 I am really happy, because i think i have found the perfect crafting medium for me, and i have so many idea's, and sketches that i have drawn over the years. Funny thing is, i never knew that i was drawing at the time, were going to be designs for Embroidery pieces, but they will be perfect  for what i want to do it.

Not to forget the sewing machine

 Over the next few days i will be doing a stock take of fabrics, threads and cottons. So i can see what i can make from my stock levels. I will be ready for a Sewathon next week, as i will be working out timings and costs for the items i make.

In other news i applied for job, in a local sewing factory. Making the most amazing baby linen's.
I have every thing crossed for an interveiw, and lots of luck wouldn't go a miss 😇

Here's to an Awesome August.

Love Maisy Lee

Picnics and sunshine

A few weeks ago my niece Sienna came to stay over night. The next day before she went home, i thought we could have a picnic in the garden. I got my picnic blanket out, my best China coffee pot, with chocolate milk in it, teacups, sandwiches, and my birthday cake on a cute little cake plate.
Well you should of seen her face when i said she could be in charge of the pouring, i remember how excited i was when my Nan would let me pour from the teapot, i don't know why but being in charge
 of the teapot kinda make me smile deep inside.

 So i went about making her own little Picnic set for her birthday.
I also made a cutlery roll, which has a place setting of 5, for all her family to join in too.

I embroidered around part of the fabric design picking out a few flowers, the fabric was from a local Fabric shop, Abakhan fabrics. It has a few store in Northwest and they have a great selection of fabrics and craft supplies  https://www.abakhan.co.uk
 I've had the red and white gingham about 3 years, so i was happy to use it up.

All the things i am making at the moment are to hone in my skills, since i have not made any items for sale for around 5 years.
 This came together a lot quicker than i thought it would, i loved the finished picnic blanket it looked really pretty. Sadly i don't have the best camera phone so the photo quality isn't that good.

 I then got her this cute little tea cup and saucer set, and a Teapot.
This was bought in the local St. Anne's Hospice shop, and was £3.00 for the whole set, which was a perfect set of five.

I will definitely be making more of these, Sienna loved her picnic set and has the chance to use it a lot this year, which is really unusual for a British summer.
 I  also had a lovely morning with my son, scouring the charity shops trying to find the China set.


I'll be doing a lot more sewing from August,i have set myself a goal of  making myself a weekly planner for sewing, but i will also be planning a lot of my life, i need to focus in on were i need to be heading, so i'm hoping for an Awesome August.

Love Maisy Lee

I sew, there fore I am.

I have been away from my sewing Machine for at least three years. A lot has been happening in life, so i really didn't have the time to sew, and when i did, my projects would mainly go unfinished.

Sadly i have become quite ill again, and i have had to leave work for the time being. (hoping no longer than 12 months but still so unsure)
I'm trying to remain positive and take care of myself both mentally and physically,.
 While being ill is not what i want, it has given me the time to start sewing again.
What i had not realised is how important sewing is towards my whole personality, It really makes me feel relaxed, happy, and it gives me confidence. Sewing, kind of makes me fell whole again.

Confidence was not what i was expecting to get from sewing, but at the moment while my body is limiting me, it is nice to be able to start and finish a project. I am intending to find, and finish all those unfinished projects.

One of the things i intend to do is, to stop buying New clothes for the next 18 months. After working in high street retail for 6 years, and then in charirty shop retail for a year. I noticed how much clothing is passed on but in really good condition. So I intend to buy my clothes only in Charity shops, and teach myself how to alter clothing.
 I have always been a bit nervous about altering clothes, since i have always found it easier to sew from scratch.

I have found my first project which is a lovely denim/linen shirt dress from Wallis. I'm not sure if i will embroider a design on it, or if i will just be adding some Ric-Rac to the sleeves, hem and pockets. I'm obviously hoping that i find some awesome pieces of clothing.

This was taken quite a few years ago now, and I was obviously in a buying pink fabric frenzy stage, of my sewing life.
I hope to be able to to get back to my machine more and more over the next few moths, i intend to just build up my skills again and see were it takes  me.
I would love to be able to sew again as a job, sitting down and doing something i love, and to be able to get paid for it would just be an amazing career.


love and luck
Maisy Lee

A new hobby.

I have always loved the idea of revamping my furniture, but i was a little nervous about where to start.
So off I went to a local shop called honeysuckle home interiors and had a lovely chat with Sara the owner of the shop. She shared her knowledgeand love of painting furniture, and it made me more confident to give it a go. I love meeting people who are passionate about their work, and Sara certainly was, and she made me excited about about giving it a go. I bought some Autentico paint in Vanilla from her little shop, and started to paint.

I have done 3 pieces up to now, a bed side table which i did in Dec, a coffee table (which i have no photos of yet) and my most recent endeavour was to paint and paper a piece of furniture which was my tired old looking t.v unit. If only i had taken a before photo.
  There is a picture of the bedside table on Instagram, bedside table  sorry I have no idea if you can down load a pic from Instagram, but i can't seem to find that option lol. So i have had to link the picture, because i no longer have the phone the original pic was taken on.

                                           

I will say that this paint is amazing, if it can make my painting skills look good, then it has to be bloody amazing.
I am hunting charity shops, and markets for a chest of drawers to revamp next. I am in love with my new hobby, i am a little late on the whole recycle and revamp wagon, but i'm glad i finally got on it. The hubby on the other hand is a little nervous, since i am already asking for a house with a garden shed next time we move, so i can paint bigger pieces of furniture, painting in the kitchen is not ideal and I would love a huge space to revamp lots and lots of furniture.
The wallpaper was a Seconds roll from Laura Ashley which cost £6, i really didn't seem the point in using a full price roll since i was going to be cutting it up into pieces any way. But i never did find anything wrong with the paper so it was such a bargain, summer palace duck egg blue i love this paper and i am planning on buying it in Cerise to put away for when we move house next year.

I am still loving my sewing and I have so many ideas on that front, so many projects and so little time. I am also going to commit to 2 fairs this year, one in September and one in December. I am also planning on opening my folksy shop again in May, it seems silly to have an opening date but i think i will reopen on my birthday. 

I Hope every one is enjoying April, and hope fully the rain will stop soon, or maybe it has already stopped near you, andit can finalyy start to feel like Spring has sprung, and i can put my duffle coat away till next Winter.

Until next time
Love Maisy Lee.
x

Sneaks back into blog mode.

I have wanted to write an update on my blog for a while now. I keep getting lots of ideas through out the day of what i could write about, and then i am just to tired to sit at the computer and get on with it.
So my challenge from now on is too write my blog on my day off from work, or at least once a week.

Two weeks ago i became a Great Aunt, too a beautiful Set of Twins named Poppy and Olly.
They are the cutest little bundles of joy. I know i can't go home to see them at the moment so their little gift bundle has to be as cute and loved up as possible.
I love these little teddies from Laura Ashley, the photo doesn't do them justice really, so here is a link so can you see the cuteness in person. cute little teddy

They cost £12 each, and they are the softest little things, i may have to buy myself one, probably just to keep in the toy box i have for when the nieces and nephews come to stay, but i am finding i need one of those little softies in my life.
I added Poppy and Olly's name to the teddy tags with silver stickers i bought from Wilkinson's for £1. Such a bargain, i also personalised their cards this way too. But i had already put these in the envelope before i took a photo.
Our local Wilkinsons is starting to stock some lovely card making items, i hadn't even considered them for crafting items, so that is good news for me since it is only about 15 mins away from my home.

Speaking of photos, are you on Instagram? I am, and i love it. At the moment i am looking for more crafty people to follow, so if your on there maybe you could leave me a link and i will follow you. I love the fact you can just upload a photo and say nothing. As the saying goes "a picture is worth more than a thousand words"

Most of my photo's are of little corners of my home, like this little shelf above my sewing machine.
I haven't sewn much at all over the winter, but thats about to end since i just bought some lovely Pink gingham fabric, and some red gingham too. I'm thinking of making kitchen curtains with the pink and adding red gingham hearts along the bottom edge of the curtain. Those will have to wait until i finish a set of curtains and a cushion i am making for a friend. I think after my longer than expected lay off from sewing i am ready to get back at my machine and go sew go.

Until next time
Donna Marie  x x x

Witchy goings on.

 So i have been missing on my blog, because i got a little down about creating for sale, (and it not selling) and i really couldn't write my blog with out it getting a little to dark and a little too deep. So i went on a little break from crafting, sorted through my thoughts, and doubts, and well here i am again back to my chatty self.

I do love Halloween, i think it comes from my childhood of watching "The Addams family" and "The Munsters" oh and don't forget the Goth years in my teens, were i stayed in most Friday evenings watching re-runs of Hammer horror and old 50's horror B movies. (geek)

To me Lily and Herman has to be the perfect Halloween costume. Look how happy they look in Dreaded bliss. I'm not sure my hubby would go for this, but one year i will get these out fits, just to wear while going shopping down Tescos, after all there has been a right load of nutters in my local Tesco's lately, so why not join them?

This month my Girls Halloween Tote bag was featured in the Folksy Spooky Halloween gift guide.
I was so happy when i saw my bag while i browsing the spooky goodies. There are lots of lovely things in the guide, and i was really excited to see my little bag next to every one else's lovely makes.
http://folksy.com/themes/halloween


 I have a few Witchy makes in my folksy shop. Mainly because I love Halloween fabric more than any other fabric i buy and use.  It is either really bright, or quite dark, or the perfect combination of both, and it always has a fun element to it too. 

 This afternoon i received  some more Halloween fabric, i ordered from Fabric Inspirations. I did want to make an adult sized Tote bag with it originally, but since the bag i made last year  hasn't sold yet, i'm a bit nervous about making another tote bag and it not selling again. But i know it would be perfect as a bag. So i better get my thinking cap on, cushions, bags, or maybe a pinny? Who bloody knows because i don't know yet lol.

So I will try and not stay away from my blog for too long again, i am thinking of a give away. But not sure what yet, i was going to give away one of my Pink girly cushions, but not sure if that will limit who will join in. But i suppose we all have Nieces, daughters, friends children, or even our selves who would love a Pretty Pink cushion. thinking cap for the give away too.

Hope every one has an amazing October,
Love and spookiness

Donna x x

A bundle of Bags.

 I am finally getting around to taking photos of all the bags i made for the Craft Fair last month, here are 3 of them, there are still about 8 more to take photos of which i will get round too next week some time. 

 

I absolutely love this Bird trail fabric from Clarke and Clarke, which i bought from my local Dunelm Mill. I love going there when I'm in the need for a quick fabric fix. I love ordering from on line, but the wait kills me, 1-5 days seems like 1-5 months. So to be able to go into a shop and buy fabric and come away with the fabric loveliness that day is so exciting. (yes my name is Donna and I'm addicted to Fabric) the buttons are from a lovely little fabric shop in Totnes, sadly i can't remember the name, I'm really so bad with remembering the names of places.

 This Paris fabric was bought on Fabric rehab last year i think, it had been in fabric cupboard for over 6 months for sure. I bought it when it was only £2 a fat Quarter in the sale section on there, there are a few in there now which i have my eye on too, but my next fabric purchase has to be Xmas fabrics. So no more sale fabrics at the moment.
 I use to love buying fabric by the fat quarter, but while getting ready for the fair i realised this is very bad business. You really don't get many girls bags from a fat quarter one in fact, and it can only make one cushion front. So from now on i will only be buying fabrics in whole meters. Fat quarters will only be for personal use from now on.

I have a plan for next month, i am going to take the plunge and go to 2 shops and see if they will take my cushions and bunting. Could i ask for some advice please, should i just go in and chat casually? Or should i make an appointment? Thank you for any help.

I love September, it smells divine, September and October are my Fave months of the year.
the best thing about this time of year is seeing all the Halloween decorations in the shops, i had a good look around Folksy and made a Hand made Halloween Pin board over on Pinterest. I will be adding to the spookiness I'm sure.

Love and September sun shine

Donna x x