Easter Weekend and Handmade Monday

Hi all!
Here's hoping that all of you have had a lovely weekend, I myself spent some time on the coast in our family caravan, and lovely it was too, especially the fact that 6pm became wine o'clock on both Saturday and Sunday evening.  There is nothing better than sharing a glass of wine (or 2, or 3......) with friends and looking out over a moonlit sea.

So Relaxing

I can honestly say I didn't want to come home, but work commitments this week forced my hand so here I am back in the work room trying to get myself organised for the week, I've taken this tidying spree as an opportunity to take some pictures of my workroom so you can all have a nose at where I spend the majority of my time!!

Too many reels of thread??? 

Looking reasonably tidy!

Ok so this week brings me a massive list of to-do's!!

I often get requests from people to produce work for them that they have designed, like a sub-contractor, this week is the start of making up cushion covers for a lady from London, just a simple 60cm square with zip closure, sounds quite simple, and in reality is very simple indeed it's more the quantity, the order is for 200 cushion covers, yep, you read it correctly ............200 cushion covers

I plan on working to a strict production line operation on a 9-5 basis and then giving myself the evening to do the other bits and pieces on my list, It's a good friends birthday this week and we are planning a little shin-dig out the caravan for his birthday, for which I have been asked to make a "dart board" cake so that needs to be done towards the end of the week, I've made 2 cakes before and I actually start a cake decorating course on the 19th of this month (EXCITED!!) so this dart board may turn out somewhat comical, I shall make sure I document my efforts so I can post my final effort at the end of the week!

So for today and for the sake of Handmade Monday and showing you some little bits of what I've achieved this week here are 2 pictures of first attempts at ideas I've had for the VW show in August and just a general item to sell in my online shop......

Tattoo Cushion

This is a simple cushion with an old school "tattoo" design on, I used felt to do the design and a basic
zig-zag stitch to appliqué it on, as you can see the scroll is blank, I thought it would be a good idea to let the customer decide from some basic words, I.e Love, Forever etc. or I can stitch in requested words or names.  I have a few other ideas for alternative pictures which I will be stitching up in my spare time, I will post as and when I get them done!!

I thought I'd try my hand at wall plaques, so I had some fun with my dad's jigsaw last week and cut out a few beetle and camper van shapes to have a go at, if I'm honest I'm not 100% happy with this plaque but then it is a first attempt and maybe I was a bit crazy thinking I could cut out perfect car shapes etc with a jigsaw, although I did enjoy doing it, but then I always have fun when I'm trying something new, even when I'm not overly happy with the end result..........maybe I should leave the plaques to the pro's but it was one of the suggested things to make when I asked over at the Crafts Forum for ideas to take to the VW show.... I think I'll attempt a few more, as they say practise makes perfect!!

Right I think that's enough yabbering on from me this evening, I'm going to pop over to Handmade Monday and nose at what everyone else has been doing, and I suggest you do too!!

Until next time!
x