Two vintage book style needlecases

Normal day to day design work has taken priority of late and I have a couple of interesting logo designs on the boil which I will reveal when they have been decided on and finalised.

In the meantime here are a couple of crafty things recently completed.
I do quite like making sewing needlecases and I've indulged in having some of my own books from when I was a toddler in the late 60's, printed onto fabric and stitched into a book style.

The first was a favourite fairy alphabet book. On the front cover the little fairy with the orange skirt at the left is Fairy Tinkerbell and as a long time believer in fairies, I used to have a fairy Tinkerbell who visited me as my tooth fairy.

Here are some inside shots.

The next needlecase is a kitten fairy tale book.

Here are the inside pages.

New fabric and cake

Last week on a wet day (see pic!) I visited the new John Lewis shop in York for the first time and there were some lovely things inside. 

Some unusual things, some expensive things but generally a pleasant enough place for a potter on a wet day.
Love the old new telephones.

Not a huge craft / haberdashery department but some very nice furnishing fabric and expensive wool.
I bought these end of roll remnants in lovely quality linen.

Other material I stumbled across this week in good old local bargain shop W. Boyes, these festive (better not use the C word yet) Scandi style linen fabrics.

My other main activity this week was a family gathering to celebrate my nana's 104th birthday which I think makes her the oldest person in the care home. I have a picture of the lovely cake and I think a good time was had by all of the residents in the home who were awake when we had the food and entertainment. A lot of them sadly were sleeping or away with the fairies.

Rendezvous with The Waterboys - York Barbican

Went to see one of my favourite bands last week (6th), The Waterboys who returned to York.
The support guy, Freddie Stevenson was pretty good.

Was very excited to enjoy another couple of hours with The Waterboys although I have to say the sound quality on the night was a little over loud to the level of sounding muffled and blurry. I know it's not me just getting old because I've seen them at this venue before and couldn't fault the sound but this time something was different, either the way the roadies were mixing it or the amplifier was cranked up too high. Shame as the guys seemed to be having a ball and giving it their all as usual.
Don't get me wrong though I thoroughly enjoyed it.

They had a new guy on keyboards, Brother Paul from Nashville, he was quite a dude in his white 1970's flared suit and purple velvet cap.

Some pics

Some recent creations and vintage books

It seems I finally got the cooler weather I wanted which has made it a bit easier for working again. I have to say though that it is noticeable the nights drawing in, I'm sure it's dark half an hour earlier than mid July, lets leave the grim thoughts right there!

I ordered myself some of the mini cards from Moo which lead to some little handmade business card holders to house them. All are in the style of string tie envelopes.

We have a bright pink floral felt one

Green Harris Tweed

This one is some handloomed fabric from Skye Batiks

On the subject of fabric I have my ditsy floral butterfly fabric samples back from print and they are now listed in the Spoonflower marketplace. I need to order myself some for making things.

Did a couple of designs in Regency style, chintzy stripes.

Also popped a new colour of camping fabric into the mix as it seems to be selling quite well following the caravan cushion tutorial in Mollie Makes.

Something else I have recently completed was this embellished linen shirt.
This was inspired by a wonderful blouse my friend the textile artist Corinne Young had made. The last time I saw Corinne she was wearing an amazing creation made from upcycled vintage table cloths, it really did look lovely. I'm not very good at dressmaking so wouldn't even attempt a blouse, my quickie version was to take an old shirt and embellish the bits of tablecloth on to. This linen shirt worked well as most of my tablecloths were linen.

I quite like it but I have had the comment it looks a bit country and western, hey ho, brings out my inner Dolly Parton!!

This brings me round to some lovely old vintage childrens books of mine which I picked up last time I was at my parents. A bit fusty and musty now and with a few scribbles on the pages but there are some fond memories when I look at the illustrations.

One last vintage item, my mum dug this out for me, it was my very first craft apron as a child. Some friends brought it back from Wales for me. I might give it a new life and turn it into something.

Time to go and as this picture says.......