A rainbow of inspiration for you....

1. Sneaky peak of my latest crochet creation :), 2. Pinned, 3. Small Patchwork Coin Purse, 4. Untitled, 5. Crochet flowers, 6. New Buttons I love, 7. Colourful cushions, 8. Pillow Swap - A little bird detail, 9. more pincushions

Looking at the above mosaic I think it's kinda obvious that I'm more often than not drawn to items with lots of colour which is probably why I like scrappy quilts more than anything although it's also a great excuse to play with lots of different fabrics ! :-)

This past week I have been inspired by the following items appearing in my reader:

•  Designer pins by Patty Young @ Modkid boutique. She also has some pretty ribbon collections in her shop. Just saying...
•  Laura Gunn's sneakity peek of her next fabric collection here.
•  A new to me blog called 'nanaCompany'. Always inspiring with cute projects and pretty fabrics. (pretty fabrics get me every time!)
• I'm very tempted to join up with Carina's Christmas stitches class since I was reminded by Susan that it's only 3 months till Christmas!! but not sure whether I have the time.
• Also tempted to join this quilt along. One block a month sounds like my kind of pace:-)

So what's been inspiring you recently ??  



Spring blossoms and blooms...

Spring is really in full swing here and we have been watching this blossom tree just 2 doors along from us quite quickly come into bloom over this past week. Just when I thought it had finished coming out the next day it would look even more beautiful.

It is quite a large tree but I have no idea what sort of tree it is but a good one to play under for the neighbourhood kids when in the heat of summer it provides some welcome shade.

As you can see I took a few photos of it on Saturday which was a nice warm spring day, perfect for being outside in the garden.

These 'Clivia' flowers dotted around our backyard garden are providing a lovely splash of warm colour everywhere.

A delicate blue Japanese iris just coming into flower. These plants love the shade so last year I transplanted a whole bunch of these underneath the tall redwood trees at the back of our property.

Pink and red Azalea's flowering underneath our loaded Lemon tree.

A Magnolia bloom

One of our Magnolia trees with a very similar coloured Rhododendron in the background.

These tiny camera shy flowers were given to us from my late father-in-law and I think they are a native little orchid. Whatever they are I like them for their sweet size and colour.

What's flowering in your garden this season?

Introducing Carina!!

It is my great pleasure today to be featuring the multi-talented Carina here on my blog. I first came across Carina's blog when I participated in the Flowerpress Brooch swap way back in May.  Carina is originally from Denmark but is now based in the UK where she creates the most beautiful embroidery designs, vibrant and fun fabric designs on Spoonflower, and produces colourful crochet. She has also designed for DMC USA and blogs about her crafting life on Carina's Craft blog. There you will find lots of colourful inspiration, tutorials for embroidery stitches, crochet and more, plus some free patterns to get you started on embroidery. On top of all this creativity she also runs online creative blogger classes one of which I completed back in July. Carina has been blogging for about 8 years so has a wealth of experience to pass on to bloggers who are just starting out or feel like they need some extra help in making their blog more appealing to their readers. Read more about this class here! I thoroughly enjoyed it and can't recommended it enough!

Carina also creates and sells embroidery E-books and embroidery patterns in her shop Polka and Bloom!!

1. Spring Birds - new pattern, 2. Summer Garden pattern, 3. Sketchy stitches, 4. Sweet Posy - embroidery pattern, 5. Some stitcheries, 6. Christmas Stitches class - shisha ornament, 7. Satin bubbles brooch, 8. Orange stitchy brooch, 9. Stitchy brooch experiment
You can see more of Carina's latest embroidery designs here on the Polka and Bloom blog.

Some of Carina's vibrant Spoonflower designs...

1. My fabrics on Spoonflower, 2. Happy Flowers fabric, 3. Happy Triangles fabric, 4. Dots and Daisies collection
You can see more of her fabric designs on Spoonflower here.

Carina's designs for DMC in the USA

1. Pearl Cotton Display tea towels, 2. Winter Sunrise, 3. Blue Leaf Appliqué, 4. Doodle Heart

Some of Carina's colourful crochet projects....

1. Stack of happy crochet, 2. Another..., 3. Granny A Day blanket, 4. Crochet stack, 5. Crochet flowers, 6. Jars with crochet cosies, 7. Crochet bunting, 8. Granny A Day 1-20, 9. Folded

To get to know Carina a little better I asked her a few questions........
 
When did you start blogging and why? 
- I started blogging in 2003, completely on a whim. A few pals were doing it and I thought I'd give it a go too. Of course, blogging was very different back then - there was a lot of work involved just to make your blog look prettier etc. My first blog was mainly a personal journal and not really focused on anything. I started Carina's Craftblog in the spring of 2006 after I got into crafting.

How long have you been embroidering and who taught you or how were you taught?
- My farmor (paternal grandmother) taught me to do cross stitch when I was little, but there was a big gap between that and taking up embroidery in late 2005. So I am mostly self-taught, using books and the internet.

I can see your Danish influence in your embroidery designs, what keeps you inspired?
- I'm really, really inspired by colour. And texture and pattern. A tiny snippet of pattern can spark a new design. When I go actively looking for inspiration I tend to gravitate towards things like Ancient Roman frescos or Mexican and other folk art. Strangely, I don't often go searching for Danish inspiration as such.. maybe because it doesn't feel exotic enough..! ;-)

I love the name of your shop "Polka and Bloom". Can you tell us how you came up with this name?
- Thank you! :-) Well, way before Polka & Bloom actually existed, I made a couple of postcard designs, one was called 'Polka' because the background had polkadots, and the other one had flowers on it and I called it 'Bloom'. I just liked the two words together so I decided that if I were to set up shop at some point, I'd call it 'Polka & Bloom'. :-)

Do you have a designated workspace for your designing/crafting. 
- Unfortunately no. I'd love to have a space where I could make a mess and just close the door at the end of the day. For now, most of my crafting takes place sitting on the sofa, usually with a good film or documentary to keep me company.

Are there any other crafts that you like to dabble in?
- Uh yes! I'll have a go at pretty much anything that doesn't involve heavy machinery (and that's mainly because of the lack of space..!) ;-) When time permits, I'll do some crochet and sewing. Plus I draw and paint as well. Stamp carving, porcelain painting, fabric design, at one point I owned a Print Gocco but had to let it go because I just didn't use it enough.. etc etc...

Do you have any favourite embroidery tips you'd like to share with us?
- Patience is probably my best tip. When you start embroidering your stitches will be uneven, the French knot you did to perfection yesterday refuses to be replicated today. Don't worry about it, just keep on doing it. Oh and get some nice materials to work with; it really does make a difference to use threads from a good brand and not a six quid multi-pack.

What path led you to do the work you do today?
- Ugh, that's a good question but I'm not sure I have an answer that will make it seem obvious and easy that this is the path I would be on... But I've always been interested in creative things, like painting and drawing, but never really did much crafting. Until I moved to the UK. I  stumbled upon craft blogs plus I had some time to spare because initially I didn't have a job here. So I got into embroidery and the rest is history as they say.

Can you share with us any future ambitions/goals/projects you are working towards?
- I want to keep working on things that make me happy, and hopefully others too. In less lofty terms I want to make more embroidery books, 'proper' ones and ebooks. Plus more patterns and  teaching classes. I'd also love to devote some time to designing a proper fabric line.

When you're not crafting/designing/blogging what do you like to do?
- I might be reading a book or magazine, taking pictures or watching a film. Although.. even when I'm not doing any crafting/designing/blogging it's always kinda there anyway. Maybe I get inspiration for a design or a blog post; and the pictures I take often end up on my blog. If I'm watching telly I'm usually working on an embroidery or a crochet project. You can also crochet granny squares during the commercials before a film at the cinema - just sayin'! ;-)
If I'm really not doing anything, I'm probably wasting time on the internet!  

 I hope you enjoyed meeting Carina and take the time to look around her blog and shop. 

I would love to make these features a regular series here on The Sewing Attic so if you'd like to be featured or know of a blogger that you'd like featured let me know either in the comments or send me an email.

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!!   
                                                                     
                                        

Just flown in....

New additions to my stash arrived yesterday with my husband who is finally home from the US. Knowing that he'll bring back fabric for me always sweetens the deal when he goes away for a few weeks. This time he bought me a lovely fat quarter bundle of Kaffe Fassett prints and some more of Heather Bailey's 'Nicey Jane prints which are always welcome in my stash.

Here's a better photo of those bright and bold Kaffe Fassett FQ's. Looking forward to playing with these babies!

And this is what's happening in my attic this week. Yes it's taken me a while to get started on quilting this quilt but I've finally settled on a quilting plan. I found some pretty variegated thread to do some machine quilting  then I will do a little hand quilting as well having tracked down some Perle cotton in nearly all the right shades. I have 3 more quilts to quilt after this one and I'm determined to get them all done and dusted sooner rather than later. There I've said it publicly so now I have to!

Playing favourites...

Over the weekend I read a post on Mary's blog Molly Flanders   about her favourite all time fabrics. You know the ones that you hate to do without but know that one day they will go out of stock. Well I thought I would never be able to choose just one or two favourite fabrics because I have many and I keep adding to my list of favourites when new fabrics arrive in my stash. But then I remembered this strawberry print that I absolutely adore! I bought this print 'years' ago to make up into a twirly skirt for my now 14 year old daughter who I think was about 4 years at the time. So it's certainly no designer print that's for sure but I love it all the same. You can see I only have a scrap of it left now and also that the original skirt underneath is a little faded but it was a well worn skirt by both my girls and I can't bare to throw it away or pass it on to another family.

I have though used the scraps well by adding them to various blocks in Caitlin's quilt like this applique heart....

.....and these scrappy hearts......

and little bits in these scrappy flying geese. So even when I do run out I will still have some to remember, along with that faded twirly skirt.

So do you have a favourite fabric that you never tire of?? Please do share then go on over to Susan's blog Patchwork and Play and link up so we can all see your favourites!

Vintage embroidery

This vase of pretty spring flowers is making me happy today not only because I love having fresh and fragrant flowers in vases around my home but also because it is sitting upon a piece of recently re-discovered vintage embroidered linen. 

I have quite a collection of various pieces which I'd forgotten about. All have been completed by either my Grandmother, her sisters or my Great-Grandmother. We are not completely sure who has done which piece but I'm sure looking at the amount of work they put into each design they would be pleased to know that they are being once again, used, admired and looked after. 

I love the style of writing on these particular pieces and also the pretty stitches used...french knots and stem stitch?

This matching pair have what look like embroidered hollyhocks and a pretty crochet edging.

A variety of stitches have been used to create this pretty floral design.


I love the pastel lazy daisy flowers on this one......



......but this one is definitely my favourite. I love the very fine and delicate embroidery on it and it makes me inspired to do something similar myself.
I am just a novice at embroidery though but you have to have something to aspire too right?
Yesterday I read on Carina's blog ( who is a complete expert embroiderer!) about a contest happening over at "feeling stitchy". You have to design a book cover for a favourite book or any book for that matter using hand embroidery or freehand machine embroidery. Sounds like a fun challenge and I'm very tempted. Gone on over and check out the details  if you're keen too!
Have a happy weekend!!

My Blossom Bag...

I finished this bag today just in time to link up with Sara of Sew Sweetness for the "Amy Butler Sew along". We had to make a project using any Amy Butler pattern and I chose this 'Blossom bag' which is a free pattern available on Sew Mama Sew's blog. I think this bag is going to be the perfect spring accessory, not that it feels much like spring today...severe wind gusts making our house sway and nasty cold showers..Brrrrrrr

Inside this very roomy bag are two dividing pockets one with a handy zip making this bag very practical with a place for everything. Sara at Sew Sweetness has also made a nice version of this bag with some beautiful Echino fabrics and has also given a good review of this pattern. There is quite a few steps to making this bag but like all Amy's bags she has very good instructions.
I used 3 Amy Butler prints from her 'Daisy Chain' range plus a coordinating stripe by Jennifer Paganelli.

I particularly like the detailed way the handles are attached which gives it more of a professional look. I used the same stripe as the inside pockets for these details to make them stand out a bit.


There are two handle sizes. I chose the shoulder bag size because sometimes you need free hands when you go shopping :-) I think this bag just might be my new favourite.
Click on over to Sara's blog to see some more beautiful Amy Butler pattern creations or check out the Flickr page here.