Ideal Christmas Show

Here's a few pictures from the show, I was demonstrating making Christmas gift bags. Lots of stalls with so many decorations, and even an ice skating rink in the centre! I went with my daughter, who has bought lots of cinnamon-scented goodies to make Christmas wreaths. There was even a beauty area where you could get your teeth whitened or eyebrows threaded!

I loved the white trees, I half expected Mr Tumnus to pop out!

Alfie modelling in a magazine!

What a lovely surprise today when I picked up my copy of Love Sewing and firstly they've featured my latest book, but also chose a picture that didn't end up in the book, of Alfie snuggling up to one of my cushions! He loves the camera, my daughter had her picture taken on the bed so he just had to join in. He can be fast asleep in another room but as soon as those lights come on he springs into action!

I write a monthly skills class for the magazine, and answer any readers questions that come along. You'll also find my projects in Simple Homemade Magazine each month, the Christmas bookazine should be available now with lots of gift and gift bag ideas!

Christmas gift bag tutorial

I've been making loads of these drawstring bags, video on You Tube, try padding with fusible fleece to carry delicate gifts. Two fat quarters will easily make a good sized bag so they're really quite affordable too! They can be recycled each year, and made from pretty fabrics they could be used for lingerie or nightdress bags, pop a stone in the base and stuff, and you have a door stop.  

Ric-rac roses

I thought this was a nice idea. rolling together two different colours of ric-rac to make a flower! A dot of glue on the ends holds them together... but I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them at the moment...

decorating the studio

This is some of the new set dressing I've been making for Create and Craft. The balloons are mount board covered in fabric, the letters were cut with my slice machine and sewn on, and I shadowed them with my spectrum noir pens. The montage below apart from 'and craft' I cut the letters by hand then stitched them on to white fabric, and added a few stitchy embellishments! They took all day to make but I enjoyed doing them, and I'm working on some more this week, a kite is my next project!

Toyota Oekaki Renaissance

This is the brand new Toyota Renaissance, I'll be launching it on Ideal World on the 4th November at 9pm. I's a bit of a 'love it or hate it' look, I happen to be in the 'love it' party! It's already won a design award in Japan. 

It does have a few unique features, thick thread capability, strong enough to sew through 12 layers of denim, but I think the best new feature is the stitch width control when free motion embroidering. Choose the speed on the control panel, then the foot pedal controls the width. It's very easy to pick up, my first attempt was the flowers on blue silk, below, and my husband asked if it was one of those designs pre-installed in the machine!

The basting stitch is another brilliant feature, particularly for quilters, you can tack a stitch as long as you like, then easily pull the thread out when you need to.

Apart from that, it's a computerised machine with 50 stitches! I think 'well done' Toyota!

This one is embroidered on to faux leather, I made it into a little make up bag...