ETSY SHOP IS OPEN

I love going to charity shops and flea markets. They are full of forgotten treasures waiting to be found. For a long time while walking around these shops and markets, I admired many abandoned cross stitch works and felt a bit of sadness about all the effort that had gone in them and how they were no longer wanted. Then one day I decided to do something about it and give them a new lease of life. This cushion above is made from a cross stitch picture rescued from a charity shop. I removed it from its frame, gave it a good wash and made it into a cushion cover. Quite lovely, in my opinion. This cushion cover and a few other things are now available from my Etsy shop.

BABY RATTLES

I just realised that I might have been admiring the subject to my previous post, the Daisy and Ulla plates, a bit too much. Take a look at these baby rattles I have made, flowers with smiley faces, just like the plates. Only now do I notice that I must have been influenced by the plates subconsciously when I started sewing these rattles.

Good friends of ours are having a baby and that made me start thinking about all the nice things you can make yourself as a gift. I made one of these rattles and just couldn't stop. Now I have quite a few of them. I love doing cross stitch. To me it feels like drawing, just a needle as your pen and a thread as your ink. These rattles have a face made with cross stitch and petals that need just a little piece of fabric with a nice pattern, something I have plenty in my cupboards. A good way, moreover, to use those little scratches of fabric that one ends up having from other sewing works and can't really bear to throw away. The handle is a wooden ring covered with solid coloured fabric and finished with an edge string. Inside it has a padding with a little pouch of gently playing jingles.

In a short while I shall be opening my own little shop at Etsy. Since I have more than enough of rattles now, I will have some on sale there as well.