House or a Home?

Around Christmas time I posted a blog about quilts and how they have an emotional significance attached to when you make them.  The quilt I am working on is my divorce quilt.  A bit strange I know but, it will always be a quilt of freedom from a troubled man. 

Since Christmas my life has been on one long roller coaster ride and the quilt has not been finished as I feel that it needs to be completed once everything has been resolved.  I don’t expect a full resolution, but just to settle into a calmer state would be nice!

One of the major things that has happened has involved our formal martial home.  This was a house we choose in the lovely town of Tetbury and was perfect for our family.  I loved the house and the location immediately.  It fitted us like a glove.  The house was nothing special, but it was our home that we had picked as a family.

2 weeks ago the courts ordered that the house be repossessed by the mortgage company. Fortunately I had moved us out of there last March because I simply could not pay the mortgage.  My ex-husband moved in and lived there until January, when he then decided to abandon it.

It has been a long waiting game to have the house repossessed and now it has finally happened I feel a sense of lose again for all the hopes and dreams I had whilst married.  It is the final thing holding us together financially and closes the last chapter on our marriage.  So in my usual way of dealing with things I have turned to sewing to help cope with the changes.  Here is a lovely bag I made at the weekend with our old house on as last good bye:

As you can see it is a happy bag, that will remind of the happy times we had together in the house.

Don’t worry, once I have mastered maching embroidering no 15 I will be making a bright a colourful bag with a bungalow on for our new home!

Monday Mosaic

It has been a while since I put together a Monday Mosaic so I thought I would put one together on shapes this week.  As a patchwork and quilter, I love squares. There are so many designs you can get out of a simple square shape. So I have searched Etsy and found some lovely square themed items for the mosaic.  I hope you like them!

1 colorsbyliza

2 dawily

3 PiecesOfPine

4 HMCreativeSupplies

5 WickedlyGoodWares

6 metalmorphoz

7 StuckTogether

8 yLook

9 majkatree

I hope you enjoy my little peek at the squares on Etsy!

See you next week

Linen Hearts

In January I made a pencil case using linen and Amy Butlers’ lovely Cherry spotted fabric:

I sold 2 of these lovely pouches, one overseas and one to just down the road in Stroud. The customer from Stroud emailed to say she was so pleased with the pouch that she had decided to use it as clutch. 

Last week she got in touch again to order a custom made bag to match the clutch.  She had settled on my Victoria design and wanted the exterior in linen with the lovely spotty lining.

I finished the bag and sent it yesterday, so she should be getting a lovely parcel this morning – fingers crossed!

The heart ‘balloon’ matchs the one on the clutch and the lining is in matching spots with a zippered pocket:

I hope she likes her new custom bag.

Custom Order

On Sunday I had a lovely message on Etsy asking if could possibly make a birthday present for a little girl in London.  The message was from Australia! 

So I have made a lovely little bag and purse which I have then wrapped.  I have put a card in with a lovely message from her friends in Australia.

A pretty little bag and matching purse.  I have added a felt flower because the bag is for a 4 year old.

I picked some girlie wrapping paper for the little girl. 

I hope the birthday girl enjoys using her new bag and purse!

If you life outside the UK and would like a similar service please get in touch!

Chloe has gone all French General

A couple of weeks ago I was sporting my new Chloe bag in brown corduroy and red spots, when a friend said she really liked it and could she order a bag.  Finally yesterday, Jane and I managed to get together and we went through my stash of fabrics.  I think she thought I was joking when I said I had a fabric stash…..

Jane initally said she wanted spring colours: orange, yellow and green.  I have a lovely piece of fabric from Fabric Rehab that I thought would fit the bill.  We went through the stash and whilst Jane loved the fabric I had picked out for her, she fell in love with a totally different colour scheme! 

Having choosen her fabric and bag design Jane skipped out of the house very excitedly saying “No hurry Anna, but when do you think it will be made?”  No pressure there then!

I started work on her new bag today and I am really pleased with the results.  So pleased I had to share it with you ( I hope she doesn’t mind me showing the whole world her new bag!).

To start with I wanted to put some machine appliqued flowers onto the bag.  I used the lovely outer fabric and co-ordinated lining to do this:

I appliqued the flowers onto the bag and embroidered on the stems.

When Jane visited my work space she mentioned she love buttons and played around with my jar of buttons.  So I found some vintage buttons to finish off the flowers.

Vintage buttons finish off the flowers.

The next step is to put on the top panel and small handles:

The panel and then the small handles are sewn on.

The lining and pocket were then added.  The finally step is to attached the co-ordinated longer handle, which will have to wait until tomorrow.

A picture of the bag on my work chair.

I really love this bag and I hope Jane does too.  What do you think?

And the winner is…….

This is the giveaway prize for January 2010.

Thank you so much to all the people who entered my Beat the January Blues giveaway!

The winner choosen  by the random generator is:

http://blissbubbley.blogspot.com/

Everyone who entered will get a 10% discount off your next purchase in my Etsy or Misi shops.  Just remind me of your blog at the checkout and I will apply the discount then.

Funky Etsy Items

As part of a regular feature on my blog I am going to showcase items I love on Etsy from other sellers.

Each selection will have a theme.  This week is my favourite colour: Red

I don’t have a dog, but I love this collar!

You can get this one and other lovely collars from:

www.codyscreations.etsy.com

This headband is absolutely gorgeous!

There are loads of cute crochet items at:

www.sabahnur.etsy.com

This is my absolute favourite red bracelet! 

Loads of gorgeous jewellery at:

www.studioelenus.etsy.com

This hat is so funky!   Perfect for the weather in the UK at the moment!

Loads of lovely things at:

www.moaningminnie.etsy.com

You can almost touch the buttons in this picture.  The bracelet is so cute!

Lovely button work at:

www.poorrobin.etsy.com

 Just a few of the red things on Etsy I know, but these are my favourites!

I hope you like them too!