Sweet Mary

Lots listed in my in my  felt   shop: lavender and rose geranium filled hearts. Handmade with rescued vintage embroidered linens and filled with my own homegrown sweetly scented mix. Click on the highlighted "felt" word to buy online or come along this Saturday to the Piece-Makers Market in Havelock North. Starts 9am next to Hawthornes coffee shop in the village.

When I am making a quilt it seems to go on for ages, in a flurry of activity I pick it up a few nights in a row then leave it somewhere for a few weeks. It can go on like that for months, then all of a sudden the last hand stitch is done and its time to trim and finish the edges and then two hours later its finished! I always wash and dry after making so I can get that vintage used look - the fabrics and stitches shrink a tiny bit and I get the crumpled look I like. This quilt is a floor quilt for newborn twin girls, they will fit on together easily and maybe it will be kept as a momento of those early days. Now back to finish my lavender Amour hearts ready for the market on September 3rd.

'And still she slept an azure-lidded sleep,  In blanched linen, smooth, and lavender'd.' Keats - The Eve of St.Agnes. Today I am making lavender filled AMOUR hearts for the upcoming Piece-Makers Market  to be held in Havelock North on Saturday, September 3rd. I will be there with my Sweet Mary banner and all manner of vintage and vintage style treasures. I have lots of lovely vintage buttons, many still on their original cards, bits and bobs of haberdashery, needle books, pin cushions and my always popular lavender hearts.

The Piece-Makers market (formerly Craft&Design) will be re-opening after the winter break on September 3rd. To whet your appetite, I will be posting enticing photos over the next few weeks of all my new stock, mainly vintage buttons and sewing accessories. There will also be more of the very popular button cards (featured post, top right) which make a delightful present for the sewist in your life. Click HERE to read all about the Piece-Makers market.

Lots of green stuff going on around here. New packets of seeds ready to germinate in the early spring, there are so many more I would like to choose but its where to put everything. I squeeze it all in where I can. My cabbages have been weird and wonderful shapes this year and under almost continual attack from pesky insects but the one pictured is such a lovely shape that I admire it on a daily basis. The seedlings I planted back in the autumn have all taken well, a bit slow over the winter except for the rocket which I have been harvesting every few days to have in lunchtime sandwiches. Back in April I prettied up the spare room, all encouraged by this beautiful piece of Marimekko fabric in greens and blues, making cushion covers and pillowcases to match and splashing out on a new roman blind. The room is on the cold side of the house so we will probably have to paint over the cool white on the walls but for the meantime its looking lovely. What is also looking l...

We had our last (for the season) market on Saturday and a jolly affair it was too, lots of sunshine,  happy shoppers and stallies. The Craft&Design market re-opens in the spring, the first one being on Saturday September 3rd. Click HERE for updates. Autumn is also the time at home to tidy up and hunker down. The jams and pickles have been made, the seedlings grown and settled into the vegetable borders and the garden re-arranged a wee bit. Every autumn I do a little moving about of plants after observing them over summer to see if they are thriving in their spot. Most do, some don't. Lots of mulch and hay is applied throughout the borders and then its nearly time to sit back and admire it. I'm now having a few weeks off to visit family, back in June.