Category: <span>Competitions</span>

Gosh what a lot’s happened in last couple of weeks! I’ve been away camping, or caravanning, as I should say now, for a few days as I do every year, with extended family and friends. Here are my two grandsons early one morning.

My two grandson enjoying breakfast at Granny’s Cafe!

This year I had a new (to me) little caravan which was very nice and cosy! We decided to change up from the Camplet because even that was too much for me to help put up now. My little lightweight Freedom caravan is only 450kg and means I can just roll up, park, stick the kettle on and I’m there! This year however there was a large kerfuffle with the awning which came with the caravan as I left the instructions at home ! With the help of some friendly campers, my poor husband and our friends finally got the awning up in the dark! Next morning I discovered a full set of instructions in the awning bag ………

i couldnt help help making a few little comforts for my new ‘van just before I went…

My indoor-outdoor bunting

I had some very pretty fabrics from the Abakhan secret sale and managed to knock up two new cushions and the bunting just before we went. The bunting was made using waterproof fabric so I could hang it inside or out! With 100 purple solar fairy lights and a ceramic table top solar light changing thing my little patch looked very pretty and welcoming! Can’t wait to go away again and OH and I had been planning a little trip in early September for our wedding anniversary but last week I got a call from the hospital as they had a cancellation … So I am going in this Thursday for my total knee replacement 😱 it has put an end to my summer plans with daughter and the grandchildren but at least after it’s done I won’t be worrying every time I hold my new granddaughter in case my knee gives way. It was awkward on holiday as I couldn’t really walk about with her or jog her up and down and somehow babies always seem to know when you sit down with them, even if you are still jiggling them about!

To finish off my exciting fortnight, once I got back home I discovered I had won a competition in a craft magazine and a box full of Sewline products was delivered! It’s full of fabric glue pens, air erasable fabric pens and similar. All very useful and wonderful to have. I will have plenty to keep me busy after my surgery and am planning to set up a little craft station downstairs during my recovery period.

My box of Sewline goodies!

So that’s a quick round up – not sure if I’ll be in hospital next Sunday so might not make it in time for Handmade Monday again, but hopefully I will manage a quick update at least. Hope everyone is enjoying the summer holidays, whatever you are doing!

Exciting!! Some time ago I was invited to take part in the Hillarys Craft Competition again! I took part last year too – you can read about my entry here.

First you have to select your fabric, I chose the Daisy Pistachio, It was quite hard to decide what to make as I really wanted to incorporate the reverse side into my design. I spent quite a while thinking about what would be useful at this time of year, ie summer! I really love taking lunch out into the countryside but one thing which always bothers me is having to eat lunch on dirty picnic tables and how to keep crisps from blowing away and fruit from rolling away on our typical British summer day and our ‘rustic’ ie wobbly countryside picnic tables!

My daisy fabricIt’s a very silky, tactile fabric and the reverse side is pretty cool too!

The reverse side of the Daisy Pistachio fabric choice

So here is my idea using some hessian I already had! I have made picnic mats for me and my husband and think I can get about 3 or 4 more out of the Daisy fabric, just need more hessian or any similar fabric

Finished Picnic Mat!

I cut two pieces of hessian to make fairly large sized placemats. The size is completely up to whatever you feel is right for you and your family.

I thought the reverse side would make a good pocket for the cutlery !

Pocket pinned and waiting to be sewed in position

To get round the food blowing/rolling away idea I made a fabric bowl from an idea from my Patchwork class teacher. It’s a very simple and quick way to make a pretty fabric container.

You put a large circular object on your fabric and draw round it. I used the lid of my sewing box!

Lid of my sewing box

Gathering the sides of the bowl up with tacking stitches

You can line the bowl and even use interfacing to stiffen the fabric but with this fabric there was no need to interface and I wanted the cool lining on show!

A quick round of large tacking stitches are sewn round the edge of the fabric and then drawn up (like you do with curtains) and it magically brings up the circle into a bowl shape!I To keep the shape and size I pinned the gathers and then cut a 4inch strip of the fabric to bind the top. As it is a curved edge to bind I cut the fabric at a 45 degree angle using my 6×12 inch ruler. If you are unsure about binding there are so many tutorials to google I haven’t gone into detail for this bit.

You do need to keep the gathers in place with pins or clips whilst you get the binding into position.

Wonder clips are great for keeping thick fabric in place instead of pins!

Place the two pieces of hessian right sides together with the cutlery pocket and bowl in the middle

Completing the mat is just like any other two sided mat or table runner – place right sides together and sew all round the edges and then turn right sides out through the little gap you remembered to leave on one side! I left about a 6 inch gap to ensure I could get the bowl through!

If you want to make a tie for keeping the mat neatly rolled up then make this from a 3 or 4 inch wide strip of fabric. Folding each side into the middle and then folding the whole thing in half lengthwise so that there are no raw edges on show. Sew it lengthwise and then fold it in half and insert it between the two pieces of hessian at the side of the bowl. The folded edge goes in the seam with the two lengths of the tie laying towards the middle of the mat.