In Appreciation of Buttons as a Gateway to Happy Feelings

It's very grey here, and very rainy, and everyone has a cold........so perfect conditions for the power of buttons to work their magic! Today I decided was the kind of day for the most trivial type of making, which is all so often the most satisfying kind don't you think?

You see I have been on a mission to make my MakeRoom a bit more 'Studio'ish! I have looked at many many lovely, colour coordinated, organised, beautifully storaged studios on different blogs, and frankly, mine is not a thing of beauty. I am lucky enough to have a bit of a 'room of ones own' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Room_of_One, but where as in life I am quite tidy, in craft I am a bit of a scruff. By the way isn't the original cover of Virginia Woolf's essay quite beautiful? It could be a lovely New England blue and white quilt couldn't it?

I digress, anyway as part of my MakeRoom MakeOver I bought some cheap and cheerful pin boards in Ikea and painted the frames a lovely Barn Red. Then I have assembled all the scraps of things I tear out and print off for inspiration, that previously have just formed a little dusty heap of curling edges. But when it got to the pinning on bit, I felt a lack of something. I googled 'fun drawing pins' but it seems they don't exist? After a dejected trawl through Rymans and the like I found to my joy thatI was not alone in my dissatisfaction of the humble drawing pin!

http://ruthieksews1.blogspot.com/2009/01/button-themed-drawing-pins.html

Now I know there are probably much better things I could be doing with my time, but in a time~related to~enjoyment type equationy way I think this is just about a perfect way to spend 20mins on a very rainy, coldy, Friday!

It's as simple as get some pins, glue on some colourful buttons ( not your fingers, it's a bit fiddly), feel happy...........Life can be very simple when you let it!

Home Comforts

Today has been full of delicious homey moments. The postman bought my Country Living fix, lots of gorgeous pictures of roaring log fires and Christmassy loveliness. On days like today where cold rain falls from dark skies, Home is such a lovely concept. Warmth, comfort, safety, lovely cooking smells, quilts = Home, to me. Home Making - it's a job that doesn't get enough credit. So with a big mug of tea, whilst my biscuits baked I have been enjoying some uninterrupted recipe browsing. I bought this lovely book at our local National Trust stately home gift shop at the weekend. It is full of really lovely traditional hearty fare, just the thing for cold dark dank November days!

I have also indulged in a little Xmas Craft Planning! My little pile of christmassy fabric is starting to call to me...........!

Fleeting Moments

Every now and then life freeze frames and seems to remind you to look around, remember this moment, stop racing ahead.

My little people are growing so fast. Back at the start of the autumn my boy Badger and the Big Little Miss requested a 'Snuggly TV Quilt' each. I finished Badgers first (partly because he has the greatest TV need being a boy?!).

Little Misses was designed and pieced, but had kind of dropped to the bottom of the queue. She had specifically requested butterflies, and it HAD to be pink, and it had to 'match with her fairy stuff'. After a little creative tussle we had settled on Charlie and Lola style butterflies (her design) and 1930's fabrics, pretty but not totally pink (my design).

On Friday I had a freeze frame moment as she decided what to wear to visit her cousins the next day. She announced that she had decided that pink was no longer her 'total favourite' but that she preferred 'kind of bluey green'. Now for anyone who has been through the pink phase you do long for it to be over. But now on the pronouncement I saw that Little Person phase slowly drifting away like fairy dust! She's getting grown up ( 6 years!) and if I don't finish the Butterfly Fairy Quilt soon it will be too late! I've spent the weekend quilting furiously, hope to get to binding maybe tomorrow. Oops, racing ahead again!

Made & Found

The Little Lady was most happy today on two accounts.

Mummy had finished making her Ultimate Pinky Bike Gloves, they were deemed most warm and cosy, and most importantly 'Pinkish'.

Secondly a little mouse in a box arrived through the post. Last week on our trip to The River a beloved small mouse was given to Baby Button as a distraction during the fraught purchasing of school shoes. Sadly Mousey was ditched overboard at some stage by Baby Button, unnoticed. There was much sadness.

Thanks to the lovely Anne at Made & Found http://www.made-and-found.co.uk/ a new mousey arrived today looking for a home. He was made most welcome. He went off to school this morning clutched tightly inside the new gloves. I hope he makes it home!

Warm Hands and Warm Hearts

After I've finished a 'big' project like my stripy blanket (Ok it's not that big but I still need to increase my Kph (knits per hour)), I decided a day of bits and pieces was in order.

Yesterday was a particularly Novemberish type of day here, unrelentingly grey with cold driving rain, boo. It was also Bikeability after school which meant a very cold, and dark, and late school run in the rain. Double boo. There were long faces and cold hands, and problems gripping the brakes on the bikes with slippy gloves on, on the slippery leafy pavements. 'Of course!' I immediately thought! It's a new use for the Ultimate Buggy Glove!http://makedoandmendquilts.blogspot.com/2009/10/ultimate-buggy-gloves.html

So last night I started knitting Little Lady sized buggy gloves, now renamed the Ultimate Buggy and Bike Gloves, of course! Super quick to knit so Warm Hands well on the way.

There was also some more birdy fun (OK, enough with the birds!) as the girls wanted birds for their rooms, here is Baby Buttons Warm Hearty bird garland. Little Ladies are awaiting stuffing when their new owner gets home from school! The hearts are made from 'Blankits',http://www.blankits.net/ little squares of recycled and re purposed wool blankets, dyed and felted. I bought a stack this year at the NEC Quilt Festival and they have been awaiting the perfect project. I'm thinking a Sue Spargo inspired pin cushion could be coming on?

And lastly, my final Warm Heart is a quilt that I made last summer when I was pregnant. I took the little gingerbread people pattern from Quilts!Quilts!!Quilts!!! by McClun and Knowles. They were lovely to hand piece and I loved them, but I was never happy with the centre of mine. In the real pattern they use 9 patch squares, but the contrast was too strong on mine and I felt it looked too busy so I didn't use it in favour of something simpler. Because I wanted it to be OK for a baby boy or a girl ( not knowing which flavour we were getting) I went with the blue to try and cancel out the fact it had all ended up a bit pink. But I was never happy with it, the blue is all a bit too cold and empty. So last night it got a warm hearts makeover with some scraps from the original quilt that we turned out of the bottom of the scraps bin. I know it's not much of a change, but I feel much happier with it now!

Anyway I have cold hands typing at the keyboard and a little Ultimate Bike Glove is waiting to be knitted so better get on.......!

Rainbows in the Rain, Robins & Roses

Today was a very dramatic kind of weather day, black glowering skies and torrents of rain, then 10 mins later the bluest of blue skies and blinding sunshine, and wonderful rainbows.

It's the kind of weather to look at through the window whilst knitting I decided.

I have been working on a rainbow stripy blanket for a few weeks now, it was this...........

But now after a concerted rainy knitting effort, it is at last this.................

And of course I now feel the need to have a knitted blanket to match each of my baby quilts(!) so here it is with it's partner, my all time favourite quilt I have ever made, it was the first time I busted out of following patterns and just did my own colourful thing.
I also finished my last little robins and decided they would look lovely hanging next to my red curtains, so here they are where they will now live on my landing windowsill looking out into the trees in my garden.

Lastly Roses, still blooming in the rain in November, and even having the decency to match the burnished autumn colours so nicely. I walk past this rose each morning on the way to school and it makes me happy.


Got to go, it's MakeClub night, much Makey fun to be had.............

My Little Birds Have Flown

My biggest-little birds have flown the nest back to school today. It's always mixed feelings, we do have such Makey fun in school holidays, but the productivity of MakeHQ has been rather compromised this half term by the new apprentice BabyButton learning to crawl. You see she has always been a very encouraging spectator of all things Makey, but now she wants to sit on the sewing machine presser foot, wrap herself up in wool and generally make merry mischief.

My two biggest went back to school today so Baby Button had a lovely big lunchtime sleep and i finally got to finish my alternative batch of little robins........here they are, I can't decide which ones I prefer?