Making Good Use

Retro Wrapping

One of the local charity shops had stacks of nice-quality vintage wrapping paper the other day, 10p per sheet.  Unfortunately for me, most of it had 'it's a girl,' 'it's a boy,' Happy 18th Birthday,' or 'Happy 21st Birthday' printed on - nice, if you can make use of it but no good for moi.  I came away with six sheets of typically 1970s-looking puppies and kittens wrapping paper.  Sweet, retro and always handy to have some spare wrapping paper in the house.

Quilted Table Runner and Coasters

Finally, the last post about handmade Christmas presents.  I made my sister a quilted patchwork table runner for her birthday and she asked for another one for Christmas.

It was pretty much the same as the one I made her before but with the added addition of some rather fabulous vintage rose-print fabric that I salvaged from a 1950s full-length apron.  Luckily, although the apron was quite marked in places, 95% of the fabric was in excellent condition.

The backing was cut from a very Cath Kidston-esque vintage rose-print tablecloth that I got at a jumble sale in Basildon during the summer.  Again, there were some unshiftable marks on it but with some judicious cutting out, I managed to find just enough undamaged material to make the backing.

The runner is quilted along the seams of each patchwork strip, and has a linen bias binding which was sewn on by hand (turns out sewing on bias binding is a rather gentle and therapeutic activity.)

I made four of these Scandinavian-style fabric coasters for her too.  I think it's BBC4 showing  the Swedish Wallander and The Killing (Forbrydelsen) that has fuelled both my sister's and my fascination with all things Nordic / Danish design at the moment.  The coasters were made from a vintage M&S pinny that I also found at the Basildon jumble.  The pinny was rather spattered with gloss paint but I managed to find just enough unmarked material to make the set of coasters.

 

And a Quilt for my Sister, too

As well as the quilt for my nephew, I also made a quilt for my sister for Christmas.  It was much easier to find suitable fabrics to make this quilt, in fact I was spoilt for choice - hence why there are a lot more patterns in this one than in my nephew's.

Again, ye olde gargantuan stash of (mainly) thrifted fabric came in very useful indeed and I cut out lots of 7.5 inch squares of fabric and stitched them all together to make the quilt top.  I found I had a nice piece of faux patchwork for the backing fabric (which I forgot to photograph!!) and I 'quilted' it by hand-tying white crochet cotton through the three layers at the corners of all the squares as well as sewing around all four edges with the sewing machine.

My sister does quite a bit of embroidery these days and has made a very cosy 'embroidery corner' for herself in their dining room.  I made the quilt with the idea that she'll use it as a lap quilt when the weather gets a bit chilly or as a decorative throw over the back of her 'embroidery' chair.

As part of my Christmas present, she gave me a beautiful embroidered pillowcase that she'd made.  The work is just exquisite - her embroidery is so neat that I thought at first she'd bought it.   What a fabulous handmade gift - thank you so much, S.

A Quilt for My Boy

My eight-year-old nephew is very fond of snuggling under a blanket on the settee so when he couldn't decide what he wanted for Christmas, I thought I'd make him a very simple personalised 'snuggling' quilt of his own.

I wasn't sure I'd be able to find enough pieces of suitably boyish fabric in my stash to make a whole quilt  and I didn't really want to buy any new fabric, but the bonus of having a sizeable (and very untidy) stash is that all sorts of fabrics come to light when you start digging through the pile.  There were a couple of lovely new quilting-weight cottons that I bought a few years ago and forgot about - one has a gnome pattern and the other has hens and chickens, part of an Ikea duvet cover (the rabbit), some 'raining cats and dogs' material that I got at a boot sale, and a large piece of plain denim.

The bits of gingham to spell out his name came from various small bits I had knocking around and the backing fabric was a beautiful piece of Cath Kidston fabric that Mum gave me a few years ago - luckily, it was just big enough for the quilt.  The only thing I had to buy was the quilt batting itself which was very reasonably priced on eBay. 

The construction was very simple - just sewing all the various components of the front together, sewing the back to the front around three sides and then putting the batting in between the front and back, sewing up the fourth side and quilting along the rows and all round the edges.  I'm sure it's not really how you should construct a quilt but it seemed to work, I was pleased with the way it turned out and my nephew was very happy with his quilt and immediately put it to good 'lounging' use.

Happy New Year

It's nearly a whole, brand-new, shiny new year.  I love waking up on January 1st, the thought of a blank new year to make a mark on is very alluring (plus, the festering season is then over- yay!!)  2011 had some rather serious and unpleasant low points, several of which are not my story to tell but have had a knock-on affect on me nonetheless. 

My personal bete-noir of 2011 was ye olde gall bladder problem.  I did seriously think I was dying the night it all flared up and I was home alone which made it doubly frightening.  (I felt so ill I would have phoned for an ambulance but my hair needed washing and I couldn't face being taken to hospital with a greasy barnet - God, that sounds really vain but it's true!!)  However, as P pointed out recently, it may have been a truly scary and painful 12 hours or so but out of that came a much healthier way of eating, significant weight loss and I have felt generally much much better in myself since I drastically cut down on my saturated fat intake.

My 'micro business' (I love that phrase) selling on eBay has done really well this year, thanks mainly to an excellent and extended car boot season and my being prepared to take a few risks with speculating to accumulate.  I managed to keep up my thrifting spreadsheet during the whole of 2011 so I'll be interested to work out how much I've spent, how much profit I've made and how much I've saved with things I bought second-hand for myself this year.  I think I'll start a new spreadsheet for 2012 too.

I feel really positive about 2012 and have a good feeling that many of the nagging and persistent problems that have dogged P and I this past year will finally be sorted.  We're considering some exciting plans and ideas that may or may not come to fruition but whatever happens I just feel it in my bones that 2012 will be a lot better than 2011.

Thank you so much to everyone who stops by, reads or comments on the blog - it's so nice to feel part of such a lovely community. I wish all of you the most wonderful 2012 and hope all your dreams come true this year.

I'll leave you with a link to Abba singing Happy New Year (check out the gorgeous corner sofa and floor lamp in the video - who says the 1970s were the decade that fashion forgot!)

A Few Handmade and Thrifted Pressies

For me, this Christmas was all about giving as many handmade and thrifted pressies as possible.  Mum received, among other things,

Two quilted placemats - as requested.  They're looking a bit washed-out in this photo but the colours are much stronger in reality.

Two fabric coasters, one side was made from an off-cut of vintage linen with an unused iron-on embroidery pattern on it, and the other side with the very last bits of some gorgeous Sanderson fabric I bought last summer at the Vintage and Handmade Textile Fair in Chipping Sodbury.

Lily got another pure wool blankie.  Part of a charity shop wool blanket (which I rather liked and would have used as is as a throw but it had a large cigarette burn in the middle!)   With a cat-shaped cut out on one corner made from an embroidered linen tablecloth found at a jumble sale in Basildon.  The tablecloth must have been beautiful in its day but had an awful lot of holes and tears in it so cutting it up was the only sensible option.

And on a thrifted note I found this beautiful handknitted patchwork blanket for Mum at the local 'Coffee and Jumble' a few weeks ago.  Somebody put in an awful lot of work on this blanket and the only thing wrong with it is that a few of the seams needed re-sewing.  It's gracing Mum's bed beautifully at the moment. 

Handmade-wise I also gave Mum four handknitted dishcloths (also requested) and an infinity scarf the same as this one.  There were some 'boughten' (nice bit of Bristol-ese there) presents too - mainly a new, easy-to-use, large-button, volume-adjustable mobile phone.

Homemade and Fat Free Festive Treats

My first low-fat Christmas has been slightly bothering me for a while now - I think it's been all the adverts on telly for bloomin' Christmas cheeses that have been particularly tormenting me (what I wouldn't give to get my chops around some white stilton with ginger is nobody's business!!) 

I knew I'd be fine with the Christmas dinner itself - though sans 'Pigs in Blankets' obv!! - as there's really no fat to speak of in roast chicken with a large selection of veggies, and cranberry and bread sauces on the side.  Even Christmas Pud tends to be pretty low fat but the thought of no brandy butter or clotted cream on top was making me feel ever-s0-slightly sorry for myself.  As it turned out, I thoroughly enjoyed my pud with low-fat custard on it.  To be especially kind, everyone else did without the brandy butter as they didn't want to torment me with it - I may have been tempted to have a sniff but I wouldn't have eaten it whatever.

To make up for my somewhat limited Christmas menu, my sister, who is becoming a seriously good baker / confectioner these days, gave me a couple of tres tasty and extremely thoughtful homemade Christmas foodie treats.

Very low fat Carrot Cake with a frosting made from extra light Philapdelphia.  Yup, it was as darned tasty as it looks.

And a huge jar full of homemade Peppermints - seriously, seriously moreish.  I have eaten a disgustingly large amount of these already but, after all, it is Christmas.

West Country Thrifting

I'm down in Bristol at the moment, to spend Christmas and New Year with my family.  Yesterday, Mum and I had to go and do some final Christmas food shopping and thought we might as well check out the local charity shops while we were at it.  It was just as well that we decided to walk just that leetle bit further down the road and check out the Salvation Army shop too as that was where I got all my finds from.

A rather lovely Figgio of Norway plate.  It was £3.00 but I thought it was too nice to leave behind, even at that price.

Two large 1970s floral sheets - £2.50 the pair.  I'm not sure whether these'll end up on eBay or whether I'll keep hold of them and use the material for something - I'm thinking the print would make a rather nice summer skirt next year.

A tweed scarf - 50p.  Lovely bit of material and a really nice colours too.

Vintage M&S gents silky dressing gown - at the rather odd price point of £2.80.  It's in lovely nick and will be one for eBay in the spring.

Mum also found a top for my sister in the Sally Army and a gorgeous red M&S dressing gown for herself in the BHF shop.  We were well loaded down with all our finds, and that was before we hit Sainsbury's for the food!! 

Super Quick Sweet Potato and Sweetcorn Soup

I first came across this recipe for Sweet Potato Soup and Corn Soup on the BBC Food website.  It's a really quick and simple recipe - though I don't quite know why the ingredients are given to serve one.  Aside from having to at least triple the ingredients (which works well with the 150g tins of sweetcorn I tend to use) this soup is so quick, easy and tasty to make.  It was just the thing for lunch ona really cold, wet and miserable Monday.  I made it extra thick today by only adding 500g of chicken stock and 150g of white wine.  I also omit the double cream which the original recipe uses.   Making it with fresh thyme is definitely the best but at this time of year the thyme in our garden is totally dead, dried thyme works pretty well too.

My take on the recipe is as follows:

1 tbsp olive oil

2 large sweet potatoes - peeled and cubed

150g tin of sweetcorn

1 or 2 cloves of garlic - crushed

2 sprigs of fresh thyme - or a teaspoon of dried

150ml of white wine

600ml chicken or vegetable stock

Heat the olive oil in a pan, gently saute the sweet potato and sweetcorn for 5 - 6 minutes, add the garlic and fresh thyme.  Add the wine and stock and cook until everything is tender.  Blitz with a hand blender and enjoy!  Quick to make, easy ingredients, and always super tasty.

Now, That Really Cheered Me Up

I got a lovely little parcel in the post yesterday - all the way from Australia (and it only took 5 days to get here, which is amazing in itself considering all the Christmas post that's around at the moment.)   The parcel was sent by Briget who won the Cup Cake Teacosy Giveaway I had on the blog a while ago. 

It was beautifully wrapped with gold tissue paper and a tartan ribbon but, unfortunately, I'd ripped into the wrapping before I even thought of taking a photo.  Inside was a really nice bookmark  - which is already being used and is a great improvement on the flyleaf from an old book that I had been using, a set of swap cards, a handmade button card and a koala bear teabag saucer - which did sterling use this morning as somewhere to balance my sticky marmalade coated knife whilst I decided if I wanted another slice or two of toast. 

But, best of all, was this really sweet little Russian doll keyring.  Absolutely ideal for me, especially as the other little wooden Russian doll keyring I had broke a few months ago.  Thank you so much for the parcel, Briget, it was a brilliant surprise and it really cheered up a miserable pre-Christmas Saturday.