For years I’ve been tearing out recipes from magazines and just stuffing them in a plastic folder.

Some of the recipes have become firm favourites, which I make over and over again.

But even they are just pulled out and stuffed back in the folder getting tattier and grubbier each time.

So, I’ve been thinking about making my own personal cookbook and not getting anywhere and then Ali spent a wonderful looking day making this, with her and that was it.

Inspiration at last!

One trip to the charity bookshop and £4 later I have a vintage, yellowing copy of ‘The Modern Encyclopedia’ (which is so modern it doesn’t have a listing for computer).

Now the beauty of using an encylopedia for my recipes is that it is already alphabetical and there are a lot of pages for each letter and some of the ingredients have even been illustrated.

I sat up way too late last night cutting and sticking (the photos are from old ‘Toast’ catalogues) and managed to make 3 recipes.

The plan is to include only the recipes that everyone here loves and which I have made so many times I barely need to read the method (I can never remember the ingredients).

And I also have grand plans to teach my boys how to make every recipe in it too.

I have this idea that the food we really love to eat, and the recipes we make over and over again will over time become the essence of our family life. Of the boys childhood even.

Don’t you find that the taste and smell of something wonderful can really flood you with memories?

Sadly, most people I know (not all, but the overwhelming majority) just don’t appreciate handmade, or thrifted presents. 

Why is that? Why do I know so many of them?

And why is my own son like that?

Anyway, I have long since given up wasting my time making them anything. It’s mass produced, shop bought all the way for them. 

But, happily, my friend Sarah isn’t like that. So, I made this for her daughter Isabella’s first birthday.

To state the blindingly obvious: it’s a paper chain (made from fabric) for above her bed.

Great fun, unique and ridiculously easy to make. It also cost next to nothing.

But, the evening I spent making it and every piece of fabric and every single stitch was only for Isabella and Sarah.

What’s not to get?

As you know, deciding on a colour scheme for a project can be tricky.

At college we were taught to design a colourway like this:

First, make or find an image that captures the mood and feeling you want to convey and pull out every colour, tone and shade you can find within it.

They actually used to make us mix little glass pots of paint to the exact shades, which was great fun but sadly, extremely time consuming too.

Now that I don’t have a black clad tutor breathing down my neck, I just use scraps of yarn, thread, buttons or paint shade cards.

And, if you want to check that you have a balance of dark, light and medium tones you just need to make a black and white photocopy of it.

Simple and fun!

I’ve just found myself signing up to make this. Beautiful isn’t it? 

I’ll definitely be making a little colourboard before I start making this crazy quilt. And maybe, a moodboard as well to get some ideas for the central block (as I agree with Anita about the original.)

Anita writes very clear, detailed tutorials so I know the only problem I’m going to have making this quilt is my inability to be accurate and keeping up with the deadlines!

Go and take a look if you can- I bet you’ll want to make one for your bed too!

Now, the sun is shining and I need to go summer shoe and toe nail polish shopping!

P.S. I’ve just put 3 new quilt patterns in my shop.

As it was actually a sunny and warm Bank Holiday Monday here today (a rarity) we thought we’d better show our faces at our long neglected allotment.

We needn’t have worried about how it was getting along without us though.

Everything was in the best of health… 

Three happy, grubby hours later some order was restored and our favourite herb planted in abundance.

If I leave a pot of coriander on the kitchen table Joe can often be found tucking in to leaf after fragrant leaf.

Though he refuses to eat it in an actual meal.

Obviously.

I decided late last night to design a little knitting freebie for any of you who may be interested!

The Hugo pattern below can be easily printed out.

And, (as I have only just learnt useful computer stuff like this) here is what you need to do: hold your mouse over the chart, click the right hand mouse button, a menu comes up on the screen and then you just select ‘print’.

The chart is 35 stitches wide by 35 rows. It has been drawn on knitters’ graph paper, because knit stitches are wide and short, not square.

I was wondering about drawing a cross stitch version too on ordinary graph paper. Anyone interested?

I’m not sure what I am going to knit him in yet, but I have been thinking about traditional Fair isle patterns a lot recently. I think he’d be fun on a fairisle patterned ground… tricky, but fun.

I won’t be knitting his black spots or nose in though- I’d swiss darn them in later.

Hope you like him! 

And don’t forget to show me what you make.

If I continue working at my current snails’ pace, I’ll be able to show you mine in a year or so…

I’ve begun clearing out the dining room (where I have been sewing for 5 years) in preparation for moving into my new studio.

Although, I can’t actually move in because we haven’t bought any furniture for it.

And if I move all the old, tatty and mismatched hand-me-downs that I have been using in there, I’ll be stuck with them forever. Thus missing my one and only chance to have a beautiful space (with furniture and storage I actually like) to call my own.

So, I am being patient. Well, sometimes…

Anyway, whilst clearing out I found this moodboard which I haven’t shown you before.

All of my bird pieces have been inspired in someway by this. Or at least designed and made whilst looking at it. (This, this, this, and this).

Making a moodboard was always the starting point for a project at art school or for a commission, as they help to clarify your ideas, set the ‘tone’ of the work and establish a colour scheme.

I must admit to having got out of the habit of making them.

But, never again- I have enjoyed looking at this one far too much for that.

… is the bathroom and we love how it turned out!

We are very lucky to live in a 4 bedroom Edwardian house.

But, we could only afford to buy it because it was a complete wreck.

We have had to re-do the electrics and the heating, there was no insulation in the loft, the garage and porch were asbestos… I could go on, but you get the general idea!

And now after 6 long years of saving, renovating and living in an often dangerous mess with two small boys our patience is really beginning to fail us.

So, this week whilst my house is yet again over run with painters, plasterers and carpenters and their associated noise and mess I have been drawing comfort from the only room that is exactly how we want it to be.

I can not even imagine how wonderful it will be to have every room looking so nice.

We can not wait.

I worked out today that there are 15 weeks before my big show.

That’s okay I thought, I can still get it all done… but then I factored in nursery hours and school holidays etc and counted how many actual childfree mornings I had left between here and then.

48 or 144 hours to be precise.

And then I picked Joe up from school and found out that his teacher is going on strike on Thursday.

Thus effortlessly reducing my 144 childfree hours to 140…

Ho, hum. The joys of being a full time mother.

Despite the schools holidays and the decorating I have managed to start this.

What can I say? After this, a dog blanket seemed the logical next step for me.

I watched a little bit of this years’ Crufts and was pleased to find a list of all the ‘best in show’ winners’ kennel names on the internet.

Some of those names are just amazing.

The dogs on my blanket are all pedigree breeds and where possible have been named after an actual Crufts winner.

I am embroidering them in a variegated sock yarn.

Which is proving to be such a good idea as it is masses cheaper than using a tapestry or embroidery thread and is working just as well for me.

However, I’m not entirely convinced about this design yet, I think it is lacking a little something.

I have been spending a lot of time wondering what though.

Any thoughts or ideas you may have will be gratefully received. You could save me a lot of time…

1. Joe is on school holiday and demanding lots of my attention. 

Fair enough. 

2. We are decorating the hall, stairs and landing.

Messy, time consuming and expensive.

But very exciting! We’ve only been waiting 6 years…

3. This is where I work.

On my desk (a theme in blogland at the moment) - or, rather, what isn’t on my desk?

I always work like this. This is what my creative process looks like.

And yes, the mess can be frustrating. But it also inspires me.

My desk is only tidy when the ideas have dried up.

So, you are looking at a dress, a skirt, an apron, a submarine quilt (for Henry) and a ‘coastal’ wallhanging.

All just waiting patiently for me to have some time to myself.

I wonder when that will be?

A year or so ago Joe started asking for a Nintendo DSLite. All his friends had one apparently.

In fact, he said, he was the only boy in the entire world who didn’t have one.

So, we told him (largely because we didn’t want him to have one) that if he wanted one he would have to save up until he could buy one for himself. 

And the determined wee wart has done exactly that.

He has saved every single penny that has come his way for over a year. And now he is the worlds’ proudest Nintendo DS owner. 

And we are astonished by his will power, stubborness and determination. Joe, you are a 6 year old force to be reckoned with and we are so very proud of you.

And you make a sweet snowman!

Now I mustn’t forget to mention that the winner of the teacosy is…. (via a random number thingy) number 3- Lucykatecrafts! Congratulations!

Thanks to all who commented and I love that so many of you de-lurked.

I have enjoyed finding so many lovely new blogs and now spend even longer everyday looking at what everyone else is doing instead of actually doing anything myself!