Guest Post: Making a diary cover by Thread Fairy

Thread Fairy has kindly written the following guest post for me. She's just started blogging but I recommend popping by - I predict some glorious goodies will be featured on her blog soon.

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Every year I make a cover for my academic diary.

Two fabrics have been sewn together and you can see where I have started to quilt. The pink (cerise red) fabric is screen printed with a selection of bird ‘sayings’. The yellow (acid lemon) has a screen printed green square (turquoise) and then a ‘lino’ printed bird. 

The cut ‘lino’.

Fabric is now all quilted and I have folded back the flaps to hold the book.

 
The lining is placed over the cover and will be stitched along the top and bottom.

Front of diary.

Back of diary.

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Thanks Thread Fairy!

xx

The great big stitched postcard swap

I joined the do what you love great big stitched postcard swap. The theme was 'Discover'. Above is the postcard I sent my swap partner in the U.S.A. You can't see it too well in this photo but I stitched around the M25 circular and sewed on beads for each place name within London. I made the map in a similar way to my mixed media book cover. But with more pastels.

This is what she sent me:

Very cute and lots of fun.

The Festival of Quilts 2012 Birmingham

Last week I went to the festival of quilts in Birmingham's NEC. It was great fun and there were many many inspiring quilts there. Here are a few of my favourites:

Review and Giveaway: Egg Cozies

This book has loads of quirky patterns and ideas for knitting your own egg cozy.

I like this apple one - it's cute. There are patterns for making a variety of cozies from chicks to a basket of violets.

I haven't actually had a go making any of these. That's partly because my knitting is not great and I can't follow knitting instructions, and I can only do one type of stitch. Having flicked through this book I'd say you need to be able to follow knitting instructions and do multiple stitches - it's not for beginners. 

It is cute though and I have one to give away to one of you lucky lot. All you need to do to enter is leave a comment telling me what else you could use an egg cozy for. I like runny eggs so have no need for something to keep my eggs warm but I'm intrigued what other uses could exist.

So leave a comment and I'll pick my favourite. My choice is final.

**Edit: Forgot to say that this giveaway ends on Friday 24th August at 11pm.

TLC Bird Swap

So I started my own swap a few months back in the TLC Coffeehouse. It was a bird swap. That was it. Nice and simple.

Above is what I sent to my swap partner. It's a pigeon portrait! I got the outline pattern from the very kind Lismer Photography who had offered the silhouette on their blog. Thank you kind sharer.

I was a little late sending this off. I hope my swap partner likes it and wasn't too put out at the delay. 

I love Vaccinations

I love vaccinations! They're awesome.

A country of mystery (and felt)

This is both a very exciting and stressful time for me. I'm really excited and yet nervous. There is a very real possibility that in September I'll be moving countries again. Yay!

The catch is that we don't yet know where we'll be going. The three likeliest countries are India, Brazil or Uganda. Right now I'm really rooting for Uganda. The decision is not really ours - it's in the hands of work (not mine). This has been going on for months and months and months and still we're no closer to knowing where we'll be going. The unknowing is beginning to make me feel a little crazy. I'm preparing as best I can by putting my excess stuff up for sale on e-bay, getting vaccinated and so on.

Oh and by making these felt map outlines of the three contenders. Tee hee.

Which country will win? Which do you think we'll end up going to?

(Note: All three maps are available in my Etsy shop. I also take custom orders for any other country)

A heavy jar of love

In amongst my swapping frenzy I signed up to Booty-full Things' Jar of Love Swap.

This was a really fun swap. We were to select a jar, decorate it and then fill it with whatever we wanted to give our swap partner. I was matched with the lovely Rae from Felt By Rae.

First I selected my jar:

I decorated it:

I crocheted a cover for the jar, embroidered a felt flower and then glued it to the lid. Muha.

Then I stuffed the jar with goodies, made a card and sent it off. 

There was a competition for how many things you stuffed into the jar. I did count but I failed to write down the number. Oopsie. Oh well, won't be entering THAT competition then.

I hope Rae liked all the things. Decorating jars is fun! Luckily I have a whole cupboard full of them.

A new love: Washi Tape

I've been reading a lot recently on the blogosphere about washi tape. This is a Japanese masking tape that comes in amazing colours and patterns. It's usually made of natural fibres like bamboo, bark, rice and hemp. Although I lived in Japan for a year I don't remember seeing any of this tape. Maybe it's new? Or perhaps I just wasn't paying the proper attention.

I think I first properly became aware of washi tape on Kimono Reincarnate's blog and Clairabellemakes. Clairabelles makes in particular has a really interesting tutorial on making your own version of this tape.

I decided it was high time I buy some of my own to play with. I Googled around and finally settled on washitapes.co.uk. They seemed to have decent prices with tape starting at £2.00 a roll, they sell some Japanese brands and they post from the U.K. For me that was a big must as I may not have time in my current abode to wait for international shipping to arrive.

I have to say I was more than pleased. The tape arrived very promptly. And it's so pretty.

Of course then I had to think of something to do with my new tape. I have a collection of small pots for my beads so decided to try decorating them with this tape:

I think that works very nicely. I'm sure there'll be more posts on this topic as I play with my new tape. What next I wonder? What projects have you found for your washi tape?