Our cat, in the middle of our street

Here's our cat, Honey. Not the full shilling, I'm afraid. He invaded my photo shoot this morning because he is a terrible attention seeker.

Mama's got a Brand New Bag

Back on the bags again after time off writing a book and lots of teaching... I fancied a bit of sewing, so thought I'd get back into the swing again by transforming my favourite flea market pinny into a bag. 


Here it is, hanging on the back of our front gates. It's a beautiful piece of fabric, with delightful folk art illustrations in lovely soft colours.

As well as my usual Vintage Town label, I've attached the original label from the back of the pinny. I've done a bit of research into the company, Hawkins of Preston, and it seems they produced cotton homewares at their mill in Preston from the 19th century onwards. One of their sales methods was to send mobile shops around rural areas. You can see a great sales brochure on flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/rpsmithbarney/5559904062

Not quite sure where I'm going with this...

...but thought I'd post it anyway. It's the front of a new cafetiere cosy, but I've just run out of thread so had to stop. I do love machine embroidery, just not very good at it yet! Anyway, its a cold old afternoon, and I've got two biscuits and a cup of tea, so I ain't complaining. Am currently listening to Ray Conniff's version of Volare on Spotify - fab!

stitching frenzy

Here are some of new cafetiere cosies, inspired my recent forays into the secret life of the sewing machine. Mush more fun than sewing carefully around neat borders!

Well, hello there

It's been a damn long time since I posted anything new, but here I am, back in full attack, with a picture of the jacket of my new book (to aid easy identification, should you stray into the crafts section of a bookshop or website anytime soon...)

The book is a helpful guide to exploiting the obscure functions contained in most sewing machines that we (and I mean me, here) never get around to using.

Something smelly...

Thought you might like to see our spotty pots in action! 

They're very simple to make, just stick some paper dots onto a terracotta plant pot, then add two coats of matt emulsion paint in a  nice colour.

Leave to dry, then peel off the dots. Seal with two coats of acrylic-based, clear varnish. Pop in some lovely herbs, and voila!