Patchwork curtains in an Indian school

The school I used to work at in India used the prettiest patchwork curtains to separate classes. Three classes shared this room, separated by the curtains. The curtains were made by the mothers of the students who were taught to sew by the school.

Piles of goodies in Jaipur

In Jaipur we were treated to piles of gorgeous things that the shop owner pulled out to show us whilst we drank tea. The above are silk bed covers. The photo below is Indian patchwork made up from pieces of old clothes. 

A freshly made bed is heaven

It was a bazillion degrees Celsius in London today. Okay that's an exaggeration. Let's find out how hot it really was... I just googled "what was the temperature in London today?" to find out. Okay so I literally use Google to solve all my problems. Google just told me that today it hit 30 degrees Celsius. Dudes! That is HOT. No wonder I felt like I was melting.

It a fit of not wanting to broil to death in bed I decided it was time to ditch the winter duvet. Behold (above) my newly made up summer bed. Oh, there is nothing quite as wonderful as fresh clean sheets to climb under.

The beautious quilt you can see atop my sheet was made by my mother. She whupped up a whole batch of them. She is a quilting ninja. I love it so much.

I'm really looking forward to snuggling up tonight and being all cool under my summer sheets.

Bliss.

Patchwork Baubles

This is a really cute way to use up those pesky small scraps of fabric whilst making Christmas (or anytime!) decorations. I read about patchwork baubles on the Guardian website about a week before Christmas. Despite having a billion things to do I abandoned them all in favour of getting messy with some PVA glue.

One of the things I like most about this project is that it is really quick, easy and gives a nice effect. And it involves glue.

What you need:

• Some cheap baubles, shiny or mat
• PVA glue
• Scraps of fabric

Make sure the scraps are quite small. At first I used big pieces which created a rather lumpy, unwell looking bauble. Once I trimmed them it worked much better. 

Add the PVA glue to some water in a bowl and mix well. Dip the fabric pieces into the glue, squeeze out excess water and then place on the bauble. Repeat until the bauble is covered then hang to dry. 

Easy!