Two Angels - angels & petals AND crafty angel

Time for tea.....

And a little bit of sympathy too. Followers of the blog will have met my dogs Floss & Rosie, as we rambled around the lanes and on here too! So it is with great sadness that I tell you, that following a stroke this week, Floss was put to sleep.

Lewie put on a brave face as he said goodbye to a lovely dog who has been in our lives for 13 years. A stray, found on the motorway, Floss was loyal, loving and a complete tart! She will be missed by all of us.

 

So, if we're in need of tea, we'd better make some lovely tea cosies to keep our comforting brew nice & hot. Armed with dyed blanket fabric, merino tops in a host of lovely shades and a sprinkling of insipration we set out to make some.

Now, which colours to choose?

Decision made, it was time to make a start.

Coming along nicely.

Soon the designs started to appear.


Front AND back

Add some wadding and a pretty lining and there you have it. Most certainly time to put the kettle on.

Okay, okay, a coffee for Sue please. There's always one!!

A few things to share

Above are a couple of cushions from the workshops held yesterday, to make Kirsty Allsop inspired hare cushions. You may remember she visited Cowslip Workshops near Launceston ( which is one of our favourite places too) to spend a day with Jo Colwill, who showed her how to do hand applique and make her cushion, in the TV series a year or two ago. Most of our cushions are yet to be finished, but I promise to post the final pictures soon.

 

As the days are getting more autumnal we've decided to hold a few simple workshops on Wednesday mornings, to lift our spirits a little!

Amongst those planned are rolled roses made from felt, for hair slides or brooches & beautiful corsages, which would look great on a winter coat or bag. (pictured above).

Looking a little further ahead, towards Halloween, we'll be making a paper garland, on a Wednesday and a felt bunting style garland on a Saturday..............

Also in October there is a chance to make an owl cushion similar to this one...

If you'd like any more information about our workshops, please call into the shop or email me at

angelsandpetals@btinternet.com

Finally I'd just like to show you a lap blanket made in some of the lovely colours of the new Rico yarns Nature range. This blanket cost just £15 to make which surely has to get the crochet for Christmas cogs moving!

Its all that MATters

Ok, so today we embarked on a little weaving. Using a hula hoop as a frame and a pile of cast off tee shirts, we set to work making mats.

Spokes in place, its time to start weaving.

And weaving...

Looking good.

Then it was time to start cutting and tying to secure.

Working all the way around.#
Some were finished in the time allowed.

Others required more colour co-ordination or to be made larger,  so went home to be finished off.

 

I've never had such a Pants weekend!

You see it's been a full weekend of cutting, zig-zagging, gusset aligning and elastic pulling.

All in the name of knicker making.

We started with these kits, which contained the fabric, pattern and elastic.

The cutting out begins.

Zig-Zag stitching all the way around.

Attaching the elastic.

I did it!!'. First pair made.

Then began the Superman style modelling...........

Enough of that I think!

and that!

They really were super cute & fun to make.

Kits available in the shop if you fancy having a go.

Asking for trouble ...............

Perhaps surprisingly at our Knit & Natter we mostly crochet. Hatherleigh seems to house a clutch of those who shun the twin needle craft for the relative safety of a hook and one stitch. I have to say I am amongst them. Crochet I find relaxing and therapeutic, knitting makes me tense and irritable. (The girls prefers it when I crochet!).

 So, you see, out little band of crocheter are collectively known as the Hatherleigh Hookers.

So it was decided that we should tell the world, or at least the rest of Hatherleigh, how we feel.

We did this by screen printing our own bags.

As shown here by proud hooker Terri.

We made them in a range of colours and even thought about those proud hookers elsewhere and made a bag for them too.

There are a couple left for sale in the shop, so if you are into the hooky craft why not pop in and buy one so you too can tell the world how you feel about having mastered the versatile art of crochet??

Did you see any signs of summer this weekend?

No!, I bet you didn't. What a dreadful weekend it was. When I scheduled our workshop - Butterfly garland, back in February I had visions of a beautiful sunny spring day, ready to take us gently in May. Not a chance!

Anyway, that didn't stop us making a highly attractive 'rabble' of butterflies that any Tropical World would die for!

Alcohol inks out, pads loaded and the process began.

Soon the butterflies were emerging,

and we began assembling them,

Before stringing them together to make the garland.

A little hint of summer to hang in your home. Lovely.

Fabric & cord

That was all we needed on Saturday to make some really pretty & functional bowls.

We started by cutting long strips of fabric about 1" wide and wrapping them around piping cord.

Then it was time to make a little coil to start the whole thing off

Adding more fabric strips as we went along

Then it was time to tip the flat 'mat' up and keep sewing.................

And as if by magic the bowl begins to take shape

and then Tah dah! a finished bowl just crying out to be filled with lemons, ready for your G&T!

Not all the bowls were finished by the end of the day, but the ladies didn't have far to go.....

Aren't they all going to be great?

This morning I had a play with some coloured string and whilst it was extremely time consuming it works pretty well.

Wreaths day two

As promised some more photos of the fabulous Easter wreaths.

Hedge row inspired wreaths.

This pretty wreath is very spring-like.

Reminiscent of a garden in full bloom.

and as we had a spare place I got to make one too. Yah!

Easter Wreaths day one

 On a beautiful March day we gathered our fabric and sat down to make some really pretty wreaths for Easter.

Not every one was taking it seriously!

Jen was determined to have her wreath up all year round, so chose colours to match her home. Quite rightly so after all the effort that went into it.

After a few hours of happy cutting & stabbing it was time to see what everyone had made.

Delicate, fresh spring colours.

More vibrant shades, which made me think of summer too.

Hedge row wreath, with its primroses & violets.

I love that they all turned out so differently.

We have another workshop today, so look out for more gorgeous wreaths tomorrow.

Paper Bag Brag Book

Today we dipped into the making of a Brag Book. These are put together using american style lunch bags and make fantastic mini scrap books, recipes books or a place to keep your secrets, wishes & dreams.

 

A really pretty book in shades of blue.

Pretty books, adorned with butterflies, and filled with lots of pockets.

This book was destined for a small boy. The perfect place to keep his ephemera and 'special things'.

This recipes book would make a fantastic present, filled with lots of yummy ideas.