Tutorial: sweet kitchen towels...

It's easy to fall out of love with your home when you have grown so accustomed to it that you cannot see beyond what is already there. Kind of like not seeing the forest for the trees. Does that make sense? It becomes so commonplace that you miss seeing the little things  - for me, that includes dust.

In this year of gentle domesticity I intend to 'open my eyes' and honestly explore each room of this house; in fact any house  we may eventually call home. 

I don't think I'm much of a details kind of gal because when we've gone house-hunting for a new rental in the past it's Mr E who can describe the colours of walls, patterns on embossed tin ceilings, or the chipped paint along the architraves - whilst I on the other hand can tell you how I felt  in the house, the atmosphere of the environment, how pretty the garden is or is not, and whether or not it had a white picket fence (I look hopefully for one as soon as we round the corner into the street but so far have not been rewarded).

This year I'm going to turn down my emotional response, just a little,  and turn up my visual appreciation. I'm going to truly look at each room, every nook and cranny, and make notes about what I like, what I don't, and what I can do to care for it and make it welcoming again - not just welcoming to visitors, but welcome to me.

So at the moment I'm taking notes and making plans for projects I can put my hands to which will bring this home to life. As we only have a very small income now that Mr E is unemployed I need to be super resourceful and make use of what I already have on hand, or choose very wisely and frugally what needs to be purchased.

The past few days I've been looking over our little kitchen, and I realise we own way too many plastic storage containers, dessert bowls and coffee mugs for just the two of us, and my tea towel drawer is rather ugly.

These are easy things to attend to as I can overhaul the cupboards and donate the excess, plus I had a few sets of new tea towels stored away that I bought on sale last year which can replace the drawer full of old ones.

But then there's the 'crafters touch' which comes into play, right? 

One night after dinner I made these three trimmed tea towels with scraps of fabric and ric rac from my stash...

They only took about 15 minutes each, and as I toddled off to bed that night I decided I'd make some more and share the simple tutorial with you. 

You'll need new tea towels.

The ones I have are nice and sturdy and don't tend to shrink after washing, but if you intend using waffle-weave towels or woven fabric towels it would be best if you wash them first as they do  shrink. 

You'll also need some scraps of fabric about 1-2 inches wider than your tea towels, and some ric rac braid...

Begin by trimming away the hemmed edge from one narrow end of your tea towel...

Cut a piece of contrast  fabric that is at least 5 inches high, by the width of the tea towel + 2 inches.

If the fabric has a repeat pattern or fussy cut section you'd like to display on your towel trim then you can cut the fabric 6 or 7 inches high, but don't go more than that if possible...

Turn the towel over so that the wrong side is facing up. 

Lay the right side of the feature fabric down onto the wrong side of the towel, raw edges together...

Sew the two pieces together along the raw edge with a 1/4 inch seam.

Fold in the sides of the fabric to make a hem which sits flush with the side of the tea towel and press it with your iron...

Press the seam between the towel and fabric open...

Fold down a 1/2" hem along the remaining raw edge of the fabric and press with your iron...

Fold the fabric section up onto the towel, press the bottom seam line flat, and pin the fabric trim in place...

Cut a piece of ric rac braid the same width as the tea towel, trimming the ends so that they are on the 'down' side of the curve...

Place the ric rac just under the hem of the fabric trim, and pin to the tea towel...

 Machine sew just inside the edge of the fabric...

Sew the sides of the fabric trim to the tea towel just inside the outside edge...

 All done!

 FUSSY CUT TRIMS:

 Now if you want to use a fussy cut piece of fabric to decorate your kitchen towels here's a simple way to make sure the fabric is facing in the right direction after it's attached to the towel.

Lay the wrong side of the towel in front of you.

Lay the right side of the fabric along the top of the towel edge so that the direction of the print is exactly as you want it to look on the finished tea towel...

Fold the fabric down onto the towel, pin, and continue on using the same steps as the tutorial.

These towels are not just lovely for livening up your kitchen, but make wonderful gifts too!

They are so quick, simple, and inexpensive - perfect for housewarmings, fetes, a kitchen tea, swaps, or simply as gifts of love for no special reason at all.

Bake a batch of scones or muffins, wrap in a newly trimmed kitchen towel, and drop by a friend's house to bless her with afternoon tea and the crafty work of your hands. 

We can tend to over think gift giving can't we?

Yet I would blessed to my toes if someone gave me one of these!

 I'm loving how A Year of Gentle Domesticity has begun.

My notebook is filling with simple, sweet, or useful ideas to share with you as the months roll by.
Hope you enjoy them.

Do you think you'll be making some pretty trimmed tea towels soon?

hugs

A quick gift to make...

There are many different ways to show love.

I show love by giving gifts, but my husband shows his love by 'acts of service' - like washing the dishes, folding the clothes, vacuuming my car or taking me out for a meal. Now because he's doesn't like to receive gifts I had to adjust my natural inclination when we got married and learned over time that cooking his favourite meals and balancing our finances were two things that made his heart sing for me. 

On the flip side he has had to learn that sometimes I need him to give me an actual gift - so bags of spearmint leaves or dark chocolates with peppermint cream regularly appear on my work desk, makin' my own heart smile.

Reading the book "The 5 Love Languages" back in 2001 helped me to identify the love language my family members spoke, simply by studying how they 'gave' love. You see, we show our love the way we'd like to receive it, and that can be a bit of a problem if your love-recipient isn't aware of your love language or you don't know theirs. By discerning what a person's love language is, we can begin to show them love in a way they naturally respond to, and hopefully they will learn what makes us tick too. Pretty interesting, huh?

Here's a simple little idea I got from Amy at Nana Company recently - button cards! I have a good collection of vintage, old, handmade, and new buttons, so I spent one quiet hour yesterday making four sweet gifts that can be given at any time. 

You can print up Amy's button card template here. There are six on her template, but I only used four.

Blossom's old scrapbooking supplies came in handy, plus I already had ribbon and some cute buttons...

I cut the cardstock a bit larger than the little button cards I'd printed up...

...and used double sides tape to stick them together. Isn't this vintage girl card too cute for words!?

Blossom had a small star punch so I made a hole for a short length of ribbon to tie through...

 

Choosing the buttons for each card was fun!

 Some cream Perle #12 thread to sew the buttons in place...

I'd be thrilled to receive a gift like this, and I'm pretty sure a few friends would too...

These are a fabulous idea for reducing your button stash, and so easy to pop in an envelope and surprise someone you care about.

 It's these quick little ideas that help enormously when those 'what can I give her?' moments arise. 

Would you be happy with small gifts like this?

Over the past months I've been sent a few precious gifts from dear hearts that reached out to me in love.

Blessed.

Sparkly earrings from Illene, encouraging books from Michele, and this cute pencil from Melody...

I think kindness and care makes a heart burst.

It did mine...

Hugs

Blush and Bashful...

Did you ever see the 1989 movie 'Steel Magnolias'?

I tell you, every time I watch it I have a box of tissues handy because if I'm not laughing till I almost pee myself, I'm balling my sad ol' eyes out! It's in my top 10 favourite movies of all time and might just be due for another viewing this weekend (after I restock the Kleenex supply) because Blossom is coming for a visit tomorrow and it's one of her faves too. Better make a note to buy some chocolate too - comfort food, you understand?

Anyhow.

The reason I mention Steel Magnolias is because the bride-to-be in the movie (a very young Julia Roberts) declares her bridesmaids will be wearing 'blush' and 'bashful' - not the pink her mother ( a still gorgeous Sally Field) insists it really is - and I was reminded of this when a parcel arrived in yesterday's mail. Inside the standard yellow express plastic I discovered an armful of  beautifully pink blush and bashful from a dear dear friend...

Sweet Melody had sent me a precious parcel of the prettiest pink presents, and with so much love to cheer me that I thought my heart would burst...

Following her instructions I am opening them one a day.

Yesterday's gift was this precious pen and ink drawing by Michelle Palmer, framed on fabric and displayed on a tiny wooden easel....

The Scripture on the drawing was exactly the word of encouragement I needed right now; a 'word in season'.

It's now rested on the shelf in my sewing room where I can see it every day and be reminded of the joy that comes from having gentle and generous Melody as my friend, and the deep gratitude of knowing God's plan for my life will not be moved...

Today's gift was a bag of vintage buttons, and oh how I love vintage buttons.

You bless me, Mel. xx

hugs

A diagnosis and fourth time lucky?

Two things that were top of the 'maybe this is what's wrong?' list were a Bakers Cyst and Compartment Syndrome. Both have serious aspects and so I decided not to worry about them but hand it over to Father and look for more joy in the days between tests and diagnosis. And as always, God is more than good.  I've been in good spirits, gave myself the nickname Stork because I'm spending a lot of time on one leg, and allowed my amazing husband to do the things I cannot - which made him especially happy. Blessed.

So today the diagnosis came in: acute tendon damage in the lower right leg.

I begin physiotherapy on Tuesday, will be a long time recovering as the damage is rather bad, and imagine a huge amount of hand stitching is in my future. 

Mr E, in his wisdom, has decided that when the lease on this two storey house expires next January that we shall move to a single level abode as all these stairs may continue to aggravate the problem. 

Thanks for your prayers...I felt them. I felt such calm and joy this past week. Blessed. 

So with lots of rest between gentle movement I will admit that I've started and unpicked my new cross stitch design three times already.

I began the fourth version yesterday...

It's been partially stitched in Cottage Garden threads, Anchor threads, and DMC threads before I began unpicking, and now, for the forth and final version (and hopefully the one I love and will publish) the thread that is gracing my linen is Valdani...

This may be the winner. It's beautiful...

So I shan't unpick this one.

It shall be finished. Promise...

Thank you for all your wonderful comments left on yesterday's post about the quilt I've made for a soon-to-be-born granddaughter!

Then hearing about your own gift-giving made my day and inspired my heart.

It also encouraged me to show you some gifts I purchased recently for myself, two of my daughters, and a 13yo granddaughter.

I found this sweet little Etsy shop through Pinterest that sells unique handmade silver jewellery, and as all three girls have just celebrated birthdays within about eight weeks of each other it was a gift I wanted us all to share in...

The seller is Susan and she makes the jewellery herself in her home studio. Isn't it beautiful?

I have another two daughters that may be in need of a mummy gift soon, so I'm off to shop...

Have a weekend that makes others smile!

my love and hugs to you all,

Loving the late autumn days...

If you don't live in a tropical climate you can't really imagine what it's like to have 'high summer' for around 7 to 8 months of the year.

But then again, I have no idea what living with snow or ice is like.

Where I live we're just three weeks away from winter, and finally, it feels like an autumn change has arrived. We've had a few false starts, but it's really here now!

And with a true autumn change comes the desire to bake comfort foods.

On Sunday night we had a good old-fashioned lamb shoulder roast and as it was pretty large and there's only three of us at home these days I used the leftover roast lamb to make a Shepherd's Pie last night...

It was sooooooo good....really, really good.

I'm giving myself the "Wonderful Wife" medal today because there was only one serve left over and I warmed it up at lunchtime today for Mr E to enjoy. Served with lashings of Worcestershire sauce he was a very happy husband indeed and smiled at me a lot between mouthfuls.

I sat opposite with my apple, mandarin, and wedge of cheese - and polished my shiny medal lovingly. 

Think I need to buy more lamb...

 

It's lovely here in the late afternoon, hidden away in my office where all the fabric has taken up residence. I stood before the fabric shelves for a good hour this afternoon pondering colour choices for new Rosedaisy projects before deciding on two sets of two fabrics...

They were traced and prepared before I knew it.

Do you find fabric choice to be a hard decision with a new project?

Later in May I'll have a full set of ten Rosedaisy designs to offer you, so to spur me on and get them all stitched and finished within the next two weeks I decided to buy myself a gift to make 'just for fun' as my reward...

I've been a Tilda fan from way back, and making one of her dolls has been on my 'want to do' list for years.

As I'd never seen what comes inside her doll kits before I couldn't wait to open the box when it arrived today!

Fabrics, notions, hair, and everything else that's needed apart from doll stuffing - there is even a stick to use when filling the limbs.

But what I was most impressed with was this...

Not just written instructions, but this large fold out poster of step by step illustrations!

As a gal who learns visually, this inclusion excited me the most. Now I am really going to get cracking to finish my own work so I can play with Tilda.

I'll share something else. The reason I've never purchased a Tilda doll kit before was because I just couldn't afford it - in Australia these kits usually cost around $70-$75.

After recently purchasing a Flower Sugar fabric bundle for a commissioned Homespun project later this year from Eve's Fabric Direct.com.au shop I was having a bit of a browse around her stock for future reference...and there was this Tilda Doll Kit for $29. 

So you get why I popped it straight in my shopping basket right?! 

To say I'm over the moon about my 'gift-to-self' is an understatement. It was definitely worth the five year wait.

So let me ask you today, what gift have you bought for yourself that you had to wait a while to get? Was it worth it in the end?

Just so you know, Eve has sold out of the kits. I'm thanking God for blessing me. x 

hugs