~Helmsley visit~

We had a lovely day trip on Friday to Helmsley, North Yorkshire on what was the warmest day of the year so far!  Helmsley is a traditional and quaint market town on the River Rye, and has the ruins of a 12th century castle which is open to visit with an English Heritage visitor centre. Here are a few photos of the day...



 ...it was market day and this statue in the centre of market square is apparently of Lord Feversham.   Great selection of stalls - fruit and veg, collectables, haberdashery etc...
Daffodils still in bloom...

 

 

Plenty of independent food, craft and antique shops...

 

as well as a few charity shops.  The Oxfam was particularly well-stocked and well-priced.  This 2m x 1.5m piece of Sanderson vintage roses fabric was £1.99

 



And of course the castle and the English Heritage visitor centre.

 - you may also notice I'm a bit obsessed with period doors and doorways...

 

On my travels I usually come across a little café I would like to run, and this one was no exception...

 

We sat outside CottonHouse, in Barker's Yard for an Earl Grey and a Mocha.

This sunny courtyard of shops were converted from the stables.  As well as being a coffee shop, they also have this lovely haberdashery

 and sell locally handmade crafts...crochet, cards, appliqued t-shirts, bunnies...

excuse my reflection in the window!

www.cottonhousehelmsley.co.uk

 

A lovely day out in a beautiful part of Yorkshire. Enough to do and see to warrant a weekend break.

Have a good weekend x 

 

 

~My Sewing Room~

I'm always intrigued to have a peek at other's sewing rooms. Do you want to have a look at mine?  I only ask as I've had a tidy up!  I've done a bit of painting this weekend - painting the walls and ceiling white and I also bought 2 sample pots of Farrow and Ball Estate Emulsion in Calamine and Nancy's Blushes...

These sample pots are £3.95, and are a good way to experiment and paint furniture on a budget. Nancy's Blushes must be a new colour as it wasn't on my 2012 colour chart (which I look at for recreation!) I know lots of you love Annie Sloan paint, but I still like F&B and always get good results. Here are the pinks...

I painted the legs of my sewing table in Calamine and my Ikea storage drawers in Nancy's Blushes,
both had 2 coats then a coat of Colron Finishing wax...

So here is my sewing room now...this is the finished storage chest with my button tins and jars.  The vintage medicine tins have my darning needles in.

Tidy ribbon in a basket...velvet ribbon is my favourite trimming.

To the side of my trusty Janome sewing machine is my Cath Kidston pincushion toadstool which Laura bought me years ago.  The round pin tin was my Nana B's and the rose needle book was my Nana F's.

The crochet bunting was made by a friend. The pine shelves and table are Ikea from years ago - the table legs in Calamine look lovely now.  The piano stool is next for the pink treatment...

The spotty bags under the table are filled with fabric scraps I can't bear to throw away!

A pile of folded  fabric...

And some more fabric I've bought to make some new clothes.  I also found this Merchant & Mills pattern for a Madison Dress - totally forgot I had it; so that will be on my 'to do' list.  

This cute 'I love sewing' rack by Sass and Belle was a present from a friend and holds vintage Sylko wooden reels...and a random evening bag  :)

And from a different angle...

How long will I keep it tidy?

~Finished Play Quilt~

I thought I would share a few photos of my finished quilt with you.  I have made a few quilts before, mostly thrown together and not very planned.  I actually thought about this one! It's designed to be a play quilt, that can be thrown on the floor anywhere and will withstand regular machine washing.  It's also the right size to be a cot quilt or would be a lovely cover for little-people naps on the sofa.  It is for my brother's new baby due in July.  I did my research on the t'interweb regarding measurements and methods.  The finished quilt measures 31 inches (79cm) by 35 inches (89cm).

I wanted the fabrics to be suitable for boys or girls, and I like a random selection of fabrics. All the fabric was prewashed to minimise shrinkage and colour-run (I usually miss that stage out due to impatience!)  The back is a scarlet polycotton...

...which was cut 4cm bigger all round than the quilt front, enabling the excess to be pressed and folding over to form the binding.  I machine-sewed the binding and it's ok, quite neat and the mitred
corners are mitred-ish...

I had all the materials, apart from the backing polycotton, the light wadding and the red and blue retro floral fabric which repeats regularly (see left top and right bottom below).  This was from Sunday Nest haberdashery upstairs at Me and Mrs Fisher in York. Some of the fabrics are repurposed (the star fabric was once Laura's pyjamas)  vintage (below left)  and other scraps of fabric were given to me.

I found lots of useful advice here:   http://www.diaryofaquilter.com/p/tutorials.html

Hope you like it!