Doing the right thing

 I didn't anticipate taking three weeks to post an update on my 'Open Studio' day but I'm delighted to say it was a great success.

The night before I could not sleep and so I got up at 3.30am! After several huge mugs of tea I set to and by 6.15am everything was set up and ready - leaving me nearly 5 hours to wait until it all started!

As I said in my previous post I had no idea who would turn up. I'd invited friends and family only as I wasn't feeling brave enough to throw the doors open to the public just yet.

It turned out to be a really lovely day, with visits from lots of my neighbours, the in-laws and several very good friends. By 4pm it looked like this!

I'm still astounded at just how much went and also the number of orders it generated and so so grateful to everyone who came and supported me.

The past few weeks have been so busy with orders that I haven't had chance to add anything new to my Etsy shop as planned. I was getting myself a bit stressed about this until I reminded myself this is my business and it's up to me to decide what I do and when. So I've now let myself off the hook until after Christmas and have been able to crack on with some Christmas sewing.

A shirty quilt for Father-in-law, backed with a cuddly fleece blanket and hand-quilted because my baby machine hates quilting, which leads me neatly to the fact that shortly after my Open Studio I managed to sell my dear little car - now gone to a happy home, helping a young man get to his first job since graduating.

Although sad to see it go, it was totally impractical to keep it as Mr Moog commutes on his motorbike and I'm no longer doing miles and miles of work driving and was only using the family car to ferry dogs and teenagers about.

The very exciting result of selling my car is this:

Oh my word, she's gorgeous! Her name is Bessy and I know we're going to be very very happy together, especially as the very first thing she helped me finish was a quilt for Mother-in-law.

Machine quilted - because I can!!

In other news, I seem to have developed a liking for making fabric notebook covers just lately and yesterday whipped up five more, two of which are for my resident teenagers for Christmas.

There's been lots more sewing going on and there's a whole load more planned. I'm so amazed and happy with how things seem to be taking off and am busy making all sorts of plans for 2015. I have no regrets whatsoever for walking away from a job that was not right for me and I just know I'm doing what I should have done for years!

To round off, here's the only bit of Christmas knitting that is likely to get done around here this year. A pair of Little Alpaca Little Cotton Rabbits from Julie's brilliant pattern - made by special request for my cousin's daughter who fell in love with mine in the summer....she's 14 :)

If I don't manage to blog again before Christmas I'd like to wish you all a very happy and peaceful Christmas and thank you so very much for cheering me on over the past few months.

love

Moogs xxx

Open Studio!!

As usual time seems to fly by and I suddenly find it's ages between blog posts. However, right now that is a very good thing indeed as it means I've been far too busy with my new business!

My little brooches flew off the shelves in my Etsy shop and even led to some additional orders - thank you so much everyone who bought them, I really cannot tell you just how much I appreciate it :)

I've been sewing like mad, getting ready for this coming Sunday when I'm taking the plunge and hosting a Christmas Open Studio here at home...in my 'studio' (kitchen/dining room!). Amidst all that sewing I also made up another big order of floral wash-bags.

My dear little sewing machine has worked her socks off and performed miracles. I've told her she can have a bit of a break after this weekend but then forgot I have a quick quilt to make for Christmas!

So, here's a taster of my sewing for my Open Studio..

Loads of bags, purses, brooches and key-fobs.

An army of Dammit Dolls - made from my old Recycle for Hampshire work shirts - delicious irony ;), with some little Red Robin Christmas Scented Sachets, made with fabric I had printed up months ago by Spoonflower, from a little sketch of mine.

A trio of patchwork cushions made with gorgeous Janet Clare fabric.

A quartet of fabric covered notebooks.

Four tiny framed embroideries...from a grand total of 19 - and this doesn't include the three that sold within a few minutes of me posting them on Instagram :)

I think it's fair to say I'm enjoying getting my little business up and running! I don't think I've ever been happier and am so excited to see where it takes me.

Finally, to welcome my Open Studio visitors I decided I needed a new wreath for my front door. Made in the same way as my previous one, using carrier bags taped together (yes, really!), it cost me nothing but time - the cotton reels were a very happy freebie when I bought an old sewing machine years ago and they'd been waiting in the loft for just the right thing  -and the denim was from a very torn pair of Minx's jeans.

So, now I just have to scrub my home and tidy like mad, bake a mountain of mince pies and make a gallon of mulled wine and hide all the usual rubbish that clutters up the corners....and hope that someone comes!

Moogs xxx

Christmas Decorations Blog Hop November 2014

Well, it's pouring with rain, the teenagers are back at school after a lovely half term break, and the naughty Wobblydog (who celebrated her 1st Birthday yesterday) is busy with a stinky bone...after waking me at 3am, ripping up the offcut of carpet that sits underneath poor Merlin Moog's bed.

I'm on strong coffee and lots of sewing to get me through the day but first I have a slightly different blog post to do.

A few weeks ago I was invited to take part in a Christmas Decorations Blog Hop being run by Stitch Craft and Create. It's not something I usually do but I thought it would be fun to take part and encourage me in my endeavour to blog a bit more. The blog hop is taking place throughout November and all bloggers taking part have been asked to make a Christmas decoration from one of a number of Christmas craft ebooks offered by Stitch Craft and Create.

It wasn't easy to choose which ebook to go for as they were all very tempting but after some deliberation I chose this one as the cover photograph really drew me in:

This is a beautiful book, the photography is stunning and the images and text really evoke the kind of Christmas I would love to have. There are over 120 craft projects in the book, including papercrafts, knitting and crochet projects, edible gifts, gift-wrapping, some lovely food and drink recipes and even a section on making bird feeders to keep our wild feathered friends well fed at Christmas! The projects are all very accessible and most could easily be done by the whole family.

There's an emphasis on using natural found materials in many of the projects and it makes me want to head to the woods for twigs, cones and berries! The twig stars and hearts in the first chapter 'Preparing for Christmas' are something I really want to make and the dried orange and apple slices in the 'Scent of Christmas' chapter are going to have to be tried this week.

There are also some lovely knitted and crochet projects, in gorgeous natural and typically Scandinavian colours - the infinity scarf on page 47 and the cosy hat on page 49 are going to be cast on very soon too...and then there are all the fabulous sounding recipes I need to try, especially the White Mulled Wine and the Winter Warmer Hot Chocolate. I can see me dipping into this book many times in the run up to Christmas.

Even if you didn't make anything from the book, browsing through it would get you in the festive spirit in no time - you can almost smell the spruce and cinnamon! 

It took me some time to decide which decoration I wanted to make from the book. I was very tempted by the crocheted candle holders and the little heart decorations made from Dad's old socks (some rather gorgeous not at all old looking Scandinavian colourwork knitted socks!) but in the end I opted for a project out of the 'Cut and Glue' chapter - the Bird Garland.

It was a great quick make that, I think, captures the simple Scandinavian style so well - it was also an absolute pain to get a decent photo of! This is the best one:

This one definitely isn't!

Full details of the blog hop and the other bloggers taking part can be found here. If you fancy treating yourself to the book you can find it here in the Handmade Christmas Shop, where you can also find lots of craft materials, kits and gifts as well as ebooks and downloads. If you sign up to the Stitch Craft & Create newsletter you can also download a selection of free ebooks.

If you're a new customer you can click here and use the code SCC525 to get a £5 discount on your first order over £25.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what the other blog hop bloggers get up to this month - I think we're in for a treat!

Before I head off to start drying apple slices I just wanted to thank everyone who popped into my etsy shop this week - I cannot tell you how much I appreciate you purchasing some of those little brooches - I sold 11 on the first day!

Moogs xx

We're in business!

Thank you all so much for your kind messages of support after my last blog post, especially those of you who had gone through a similar experience. You truly helped and I love you for it :)

It's been a very busy few weeks here. 

I've been settling in to being at home and quite honestly I have loved every single minute of it. It feels so right to be at home sewing, designing, making and forming plans - lots of plans that are getting me to where I have wanted to be for so long.

Today has been a very useful day. While the teenagers carved their Hallowe'en pumpkins, with no motherly interference, I dusted off my Etsy shop and refilled it for the first time in several years!

I'm starting things off with a batch of little fabric brooches that I couldn't stop making last week!

 I still have a few to finish off and post in the shop, so it will be a gradual restock.

I'm planning to make lots more of the brooches as they are so much fun to make and my head is full of ideas for new designs.

After years of trying and failing, I finally seem to have got to grips with free-machine embroidery. Give me a pencil and a piece of paper to draw with and I flounder but I absolutely love sketching with the sewing machine.

I've completed an order for 30 scented Christmas sachets for Enchanted Plants, filled with dried cinnamon, cloves and star anise - they smell incredible and my whole house was smelling very festive for a few days.

To go with the Christmas sachets were 30 free-machine embroidered lavender bags, filled with wonderful dried lavender from a local lavender farm. 

There will be some of these and the Christmas ones going into the shop very soon. 

The tiny twirly-bird brooches gave rise to an overwhelming urge to upsize the birds, which were given the classy moniker of Fat-Arse Twirly-Tailed Colourful Birds by my dear friend and head cheerleader Trashy. A few of these are in the pipeline too.

I've got a list as long as my arm of all the things I want to make and am getting so much brilliant feedback and support from friends on Instagram, Facebook and in real life. It feels like I can really do this and I'm so excited to be going for it at last.

Please forgive me if I plug my makes and my shop on here for a while. I promise I'll still do the normal stuff too :)

I'll be back on Monday when I'm taking part in my first bloghop.

I hope you have a thoroughly spooky Hallowe'en, if that's the way you like it!

love Moogs xxx

All change

Well, it's been a funny few weeks here. I left my old job on 12th September and a week later started my new one.

I lasted four days.

It became apparent to me almost immediately that I was not going to be right for the job. It was not going to be the job I thought it was and so, after getting incredibly stressed out and having a bit of a meltdown, I told them I couldn't do it. That was the hardest thing to do.

I felt completely awful and like a total let down and a fraud. I tried so hard to convince myself to keep going and hope it would get better but my gut instinct said otherwise. I had to listen to my instincts as otherwise I was going to make myself ill.

And so it is that I am now without work and more scarily without a salary but somehow I feel more relaxed and happier than I have for years. Mr Moog has been incredible, a real tower of strength. He knows I haven't been coping for a while and saw how anxious I got with the new job. So, we've decided I'll take a bit of a break, get my ducks back in a row and then see what happens.

In my heart, I know that I want to work for myself and get my business going. I've been making steps in the right direction.

I've been making these little wash-bags for an order for Enchanted Plants and have an order for a big batch of lavender sachets. 

I've also put together some proposals for a series of workshops that I hope to start running after Christmas.

I have a list as long as my arm of projects to make, with a view to dusting off the shelves in my Etsy shop and maybe even opening up a Folksy store. My mind is buzzing with creative plans and ideas and it feels so good!

It feels like I've got me back again!

I've been enjoying spending time on Instagram and getting back in touch with the big wide craft world out there. Mr Moog was worried I'd be bored or lose my confidence being at home, just me and my Moogs but every day simply flies by and the interaction with friends via text and Instagram mean I'm never lonely.

So, for now I'm going to see how it goes, make a real effort to get my business going and give myself a chance to breath and get over the stresses of September.

This blog post has taken forever to write, especially as I know many of you already know about the work thing from Facebook and IG but I wanted to write it. It's part of the process of drawing a line under recent events and looking forward to a future full of possibility.

Hugs and huge thanks to all of you dear friends who've been so kind and supportive.

Onwards and upwards!

love Moogs xx

Some finishing up

It's been a busy busy few weeks here, making the most of the school holiday with a spot of camping and catching up with lots of friends and family. We've been having a very sociable time and it's been lovely.

I don't think we've had a single day this holiday without something going on and, although our home is looking a little neglected and I never seem to get anything straight, I'm making the very very most of these few weeks off work, especially as this will be my last long school holiday - more about that later!

In between our various holiday doings I've found time for some sewing. I seem to have discovered a new found love of hand sewing. It's been the perfect crafty something for those little moments when I have time to sit and do. There's been a bit of embroidery and some English paper pieced patchwork and plenty of handquilting.

Finished just the other day - my scrappy log cabin quilt.

The log cabin squares were made back in April using some long skinny strips of Amy Butler fabrics that I picked up ages ago from the Cottonpatch in Birmingham.

You can't see it in the photos but the quilting thread is some lovely variegated cotton in pinks and greens that picks up the colours in the blocks. My basting and quilting leave an awful lot to be desired but I love it anyway.

I actually love the back just as much as the front, especially that centre panel print that looks, to me, like patchwork blocks.

I finished it off with a pretty scrappy binding.

After finishing that one, I decided the time had come to quilt my Basic Gray Blush quilt - the top of which had been made for over a year! The little squares in this one are from a design by Basic Gray, a company I first discovered when I fell in love with their scrapbook papers many years ago.

When I found out they were bringing my favourite papers out as a limited edition quilting fabric I just had to have some. I've had these little squares for years and, as I can't get this fabric anymore, had to make up the border with all sorts of bits and pieces.

The cream and white border is from dozens of scrappy strips - again bought as scraps from the Cottonpatch.

I set about machine quilting this one but, after 14 long rows of quilting, I discovered my little sewing machine  had fallen out with the walking foot and it was puckering like a bugger so I swore a lot, unpicked every last bit of it and settled down to handquilt, this time using perle cotton - something new to me but I love it!

Here's the back, with puckers aplenty but it shows off the pattern (or lack of) of the handquilting. I was very strong-minded and dug through the stash for some fabrics to make into a scrappy binding - I teetered on the brink of a trip to the fabric shop but knew that could prove costly!

 I absolutely adore these fabrics. I could quite happily sew with these fabrics and nothing else for ever and ever. Shame they're no longer in print!

 I've had so much fun with these quilts and am about to put another quilt together ready for more handquilting. Then, it'll be onto making a Christmas present quilt for mother-in-law.

This quilting thing seems to have taken a bit of a hold!

As I mentioned at the start of this post, this will be my last long summer holiday off work. The reason why? I've handed in my notice and start a new job in the middle of September!

I'm having a complete change of direction, working two days as week as a Dementia Support Worker for Alzheimer's Society. It's less hours and less money but a permanent contract, so no more worrying every year about whether or not I'll have a job after March. I'm also really looking forward to the challenge of taking on a brand new role, with a really worthwhile organisation and although I'll have to work in the school holidays I will have three days each week to do my own thing and that is going to be soooo good!

More time for sewing, knitting, crochet, spinning, weaving,
housework...


Moogs xxx

Scrappy do


 Last Sunday, Mr Moog took the Minx out for the day on his motorbike. They went to a ride-in day at Beaulieu Motor Museum with hundreds of other bikers. Although I don't want to be an old worrypants, I must admit I never relax or feel at all able to settle to anything until they're home safe and sound again.

To distract me from myself, I decided to ignore housework and spent the day playing with my box of scrap fabrics. There was no plan and I had no idea when I set out what I was going to make. By the end of the day, I had a floor full of skinny trimmings and 48 little 4.5inch scrappy squares and it totally took my mind off things.

 

 I'm still not sure what they'll become, as I need to make more if I even want to make a lap quilt, but they do make me very happy.

 

There's been plenty more sewing over the past couple of weeks. I managed to finish my  English Paper Pieced apple cores and got them stitched together - through gritted teeth, I might add, thanks to me being a bit too generous with the basting glue. They were somewhat tough to stitch together but have ended up becoming a very sweet little scrappy cushion cover.

Another cushion received a makeover when I dug out some of the scrappy squares I made back in April, and combined them with some scraps of grey linen, from the Scrapstore. I'm so pleased with this one, which now sits on my favourite armchair.

Earlier this week, on my way home from work, I called into a local patchwork shop that I recently discovered, Jolly Stitcher, tucked away on an industrial park in Fareham. It's a lovely shop with a great selection of fabrics and yarn too.

 

I needed some thread and hadn't realised how hard it is to find a decent sized spool of 100% cotton thread on the high street these days. Hobbycraft had nothing bigger than 100m, and the same went for my little local sewing shop but Jolly Stitcher had a great selection. However, it must have had special magic magnetic properties as it attracted all manner of other things into the basket with it.

 

One of those things was a new rotary cutter. My old one was very old and I'd been unable to find a new blade for it and had started to struggle with accurate cutting. Well, the new one - an Olfa rotary cutter - is a complete revelation to me! I had no idea just how good a sharp rotary cutter could be and what a difference it makes to your cutting.

 

I spent Wednesday evening, once again playing with my scrap fabrics, cutting little 2.5" squares and then carefully piecing them together with my new 1/4" sewing foot. I'm surprised and delighted at what a difference these two new toys have made to my piecing.

By the end of Wednesday evening I had nine pretty little nine patch squares. By the end of Thursday evening they'd been joined together with some skinny charcoal grey sashing, with little strawberry print highlight squares and thus became...another new cushion cover!

 

This one is my absolute favourite and I still can't believe I did such neat and tidy piecing!

 

In other exciting patchworky news, I got my copy of Issue 1 of Quilt Now magazine this week - edited, of course, by the very brilliant Katy Monkey . Not only is it a beautiful magazine, with bucket loads of inspiring projects but it's also so exciting to see someone who I've known in blogland for several years, taking on such an incredible venture. It's been great to share her excitement on Instagram, where I've been lurking rather a lot lately.  

 

So, now we're onto today. After a busy day yesterday, hosting a little family bbq, and a bad night's sleep last night thanks to the heat, I opted to stay home and potter today, while Mr Moog took children and dogs to the beach.

 

I waded through a mountain of ironing, whilst listening to sewing podcasts, and once done I rewarded myself with a very quick bit of sewing, attaching flags to some tape to make 10m of bunting for my friend's upcoming 50th birthday bash. Of course, being bunting, it's a pain to photograph but here's a snippet.

To those of you who left lovely comments, and emailed me, after my last post about Minx's 'friend' problems, thank you so much! I'm very pleased to say things did settle down, almost as quickly as they erupted. Her friend, completely uncharacteristically, apologised and suggested they put the whole thing behind them.

 

Although Minx wanted to tell her to shove her stinky 'friendship' I talked her down off that little ledge and she went into school happily enough on the Monday, with a view that she may as well say yes and have a more peaceful last couple of weeks of term!

 

Here's her latest loom band creation - no signs of this little craft obsession abating just yet :)

Only three more days of work and school and then the summer holidays begin - bring it on!!

 

Moogs xx

 

p.s. Recipes!

linky link for my favourite falafel recipe - falafels (I added a pinch of cayenne pepper too).

 

Easy peasy tasty houmous:

1 400g can chick peas

3 tbsp tahini paste

3 tbsp lemon juice

1 crushed garlic clove

salt

 

chuck it all in the food processor and whizz until smooth - add more lemon juice if you want to. Yum!

 



Random Saturday

It's been a glorious sunny and warm week and I've been dying to get out in the garden and potter but our garden is still a weed-ridden tip, leftover from last year's building work, so I've been consoling myself with little views, like this one of my Narnia lamppost against a blue blue sky under which is my bird table, full of sparrows and baby starlings.

We have big garden revamp plans but Mr Moog has been having such busy, stressy weeks at work lately that he's done in by the weekend, and I've been extra good about not 'nagging' as the garden will still be there when we're ready.

I've been getting my flowery fix by pouring over gardening magazines and playing with flowery fabric. This week, I had a day off on Thursday and once I'd got the children off to school and walked the dogs, I had a very sudden and unexpected urge to stitch up a quilt top.

I've had this fabric for years - it's Chocolate Lollipop, Anna Maria Horner's first fabric range and I'm not even sure if it's still being made. I'd been saving all those fat quarters and quarter yard pieces for something and now its time had come.

It's my first attempt at half square triangles and I've since found out I should have trimmed them before piecing the whole thing but hey ho, it scratched the itch and I had a lovely day putting it all together. I'm now shopping for a very dark chocolate brown as it needs a border to make it a more useable size.

The leftovers are being put to good use with some English paper-piecing.

In fact, I do seem to have developed a bit of a thing for EPP patchwork just lately. I got an urge to do some apple core patchwork and spent far too much time on Pinterest looking for just the right template but nothing was quite right. Minx and I went shopping last Saturday at a local patchwork shop in the vain hope they might have a template, which they didn't.

So, I came home and had a play with a compass and a protactor but nope, still didn't quite get it. Then I Googled a bit more and all of a sudden I found the PERFECT tutorial on how to make your own template and actually laughed out loud when I followed the link - to my dear friend Thimbleanna's brilliant tute on making your own apple core template in any size you like!

I dug out a whole load of scraps of leftover fabric in reds, pinks and blues and so far, so good. They might be easier to piece had I been a little less generous with the basting glue but I'm getting there and these are destined for either a cushion front or a mini-quilt. That itch is nearly scratched.

This itch is ongoing and likely to be for some time.

 I seem to have decided to only do white hexies from now on, with the odd coloured hexie thrown in as and when the feeling takes me. This could be years in the making.

I seem to be amassing a nice little pile of summer holiday projects here....two and a half weeks left before we break up...not that I'm counting or anything...

In other news, the meat-free meals thing is going surprisingly well. Last Saturday we had aubergine lasagne and I was genuinely shocked that everyone loved it! My lot love a proper minced beef lasagne and this was a risk but it was obviously one worth taking. This was the least burnt looking photo of the dish in question - it wasn't photogenic but it was very very tasty.

Tonight's dinner was even more surprising. My lot don't share my love of blue cheese at all, not even a little bit but apparently gorgonzola risotto is the best dinner ever and a repeat performance has been requested!

I do plan on sharing some of these recipes but as most of them are from books or are slightly tweeked versions of online recipes I'm going to try to put them in PDFs to make it easier to print them off. That will take a little time as Mr Moog has upgraded various things on our PC and I seem to have lost my PDF making gizmo....amongst other things, like all my six years' worth of work folders and dozens of knitting/crochet/sewing files, ahem.

To round off a pretty random post, here's what my girl is up to right now - loom bands.

They're everywhere. I hoovered up several (dozen) today. She loves them and has made at least thirty bracelets so far. They're also helping her get through a pretty crappity and emotional weekend, all caused by one rather noxious little b**ch who claims to be her friend but has been anything but for the past couple of days, especially when cloaked behind the forcefield of Facebook personal messaging.

This child lives her life like it's an episode of Jeremy Kyle. Nuff said. She obviously doesn't realise that our girl can and does talk to her parents about things that worry her so we're onto her.

Teenage girls are horrible. I know because I once was one and I wasn't even keen on them then!

Moogs xxx