Well, that was a longer break than was intended, I haven't blogged since July.  I will be back in the new year with lots of new things and finally get those PDF patterns I've been working on published.  In the meantime, there have been big goings on in this household, one of which is the portrait my husband has been working on, which has been finally unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery this week.  We have had to keep this news quiet for sooooo long, it's nice to see it on the wall.  You may (or may not!) recognise who it is of... Merry Christmas ..read more

I always find myself conflicted at this time of year when it comes to the phenomena of gifts for teachers.  Gone are the days when an apple would suffice, and while I am very grateful for the work teachers do educating our offspring, the part I prefer to avoid is the competitive gift giving that can go on. My son has arrived on the last day of term with a perfectly respectable bunch of flowers only to see another child walking in with what looked like the whole of the Chelsea Flower Show.  I don't always make gifts but this year I did, which were small and discreet. After deciding ..read more

I am aware I've slipped on the blogging front lately, by way of a reprieve, check out the cover of Issue 4 of Homemade with Love! It's out in the shops from July 12th, and available online here ..read more

It's been busy lately, to a point where I almost forgot about my own blog!  In a nutshell, I am the new Web Editor for a UK published sewing magazine called 'Homemade with Love'.  I'm excited by the role for a number of reasons, A lot has been happening over the last few years within the area of craft and sewing magazines in this country after a bit of a drought.  When I first arrived on the design scene, it was (oh, how I dislike admitting to this date), 1994!  I had finished my degree in 1992 and spent a bit of time plugging the gaps in my knowledge and experience by a ..read more

My post today is all about Pinterest.  If you haven't already discovered Pinterest, why not?!!  Pinterest has been around since about 2010, and although it is accessible worldwide, the reason behind this push for the UK is there are some developments (new language and location settings) which will just make it more user friendly for the UK audience.  There are 300 bloggers taking part, and a big thank you to Antonia of Tidy Away Today for introducing my Pinterest post today. Before Pinterest began, for a long while I had been after a kind of online pinboard for images.  ..read more

Following on from my previous post around this subject, this time I'm going to show you what I do with my ends of embroidery thread while I'm sewing a Softie.  When I'm sewing, I often have a few different colours on the go, which rather then tying off, I'll thread through to the back in case I need that colour again. But obviously, these thread are not going to be where I want them to be, when I come to use them again.  So how do I get from one place to another?  I simply use the needle to literally, snake the thread around the inside of the Softie. Begin by waggling the t ..read more

I am taking part in a scheme called 'Pin-it-Forward' later this month to celebrate the official UK launch of Pinterest, (yes, I know here in the UK we can already use Pinterest, all will be explained in my official post on the 23rd), and as I was deciding which of my boards I was going to post about, realised I have over 1,600 images pinned.  It would be an interesting exercise to see how many of those images I actually refer to and made use of. Only a few weeks ago, I came across this on Pinterest, someone I follow had pinned it so it featured in my feed, I followed the link to it's ori ..read more

I am in a new book which is coming out soon, trying not to give too much away, the projects involve a bit of this, and a little bit if that.  The book is out in June ..read more

A while ago I made two short films which are uploaded to You Tube, one of those films, the free motion embroidery one has had over 160,000 views.  I keep meaning to make another, this time showing how I stuff a softie.  The reasoning for this is that I am quite brutal when it comes to getting that stuffing in, there's lots of banging and bashing it on a table top involved to shape it, and poking with a stick, which is what brings me to the point of this post, tricks of the trade #1... STICKS   I find that all artists and designers always have certain tools they love, and I do ..read more

Here in the UK, everyone in the crafting world is currently going Great British Sewing Bee crazy (for what it's worth, I am Team Lauren), although I suspect the rather easy on the eye Patrick Judge may have a little something to do with it's popularity! Anyway, in celebration of all the sewing machines which will no doubt now be being purchased, here is my contribution to get people sewing.  In the Sewing Bee, they are making clothes.  In my humble opinion, sewing clothes can be quite complicated, so if you are new to the craft, here's a simple little project to try which encompasse ..read more