I've been doing a bit of fabric printing using my own stamps over the past couple of days. I've made cushion covers, a tablecloth, wrapping paper and lavender sachets. I also printed a piece of cream silk with some yellow ink to make a simple dot pattern. I had an 'aha' moment when sharpening pencils…

– rainbows in the spare bedroom (window-crystals + layers of wool and flannel bedding) – last days of the cream orchids (the green denby teaset was an amazing second-hand shop find last week- my grandparents used to have the same set) – biscuits all ready for the kids' afternoon tea today (made using this favourite…

No, I'm not going to write about sewing buttonholes, because I don't enjoy those very much. Rather, I was remembering today about how sometimes, little sprays of flowers pinned to a shirt or dress are called 'buttonholes'. It seems quite old-fashioned and lovely. At the tropical wedding I went to last month, we all had…

I found the book Russian Textiles: Printed Cloth for the Bazaars of Central Asia at the library, and even though it's due back, I don't want to return it! I think I'll need to order my own copy. It's beautiful, and features lots of rich prints in vivid colours, as you can see in these…

A weekend trip to a wild south coast beach inspired a bit of white embroidery on some old blue linen- like the white tips of the waves out at sea. The stiches themselves were based on that kind of white, coral-like seaweed/lichen that I forgot to photograph. The kids clamboured over the rocks and found…

I found a handful of gingko leaves on the road outside our house last week. They were covered in road dust and marked from gravel and feet but I took them in anyway. I've not seen a gingko tree anywhere close by so maybe they were blown along from another part of town. In any…

I made some new coats for today's shop update– in various sizes. I had cut these out a while ago and they were just sitting on my desk, so I'm pleased to see them sewn up now. Of course I had to use my new wools found on the weekend- a grey houdstooth check and…

  I have a little knitting project on the go, (some slippers with pompoms on the toes) but I am a woefully slow knitter, and my 'storage place' for my knitting happens to be under the couch. Each time I go to retrieve my needles, there's something tangled or some missing stitches … you know…

The fabric sale- Fabricabrac– that I wrote about on Friday was really great- there were so many lovely fabric finds on offer. My class went okay too- thank you to everyone who came along! I must remember to speak more slowly though… I think I'd finished speaking after ten minutes but I still had half…

I made the tote bag above from some of my current favourite vintage fabrics. The botanical print was kindly sent by Cori in Portland, Oregon and the brown wool was from Rachelle. The handles are made from recycled leather in chocolate-brown. I made the bag as a sample for tonight's class I'm giving at Fabricabrac in…