Blimey I Didn't Realize it had been so long

Wow it seems like yesterday but it was actually like 3 weeks ago.  So what have I been doing?  Oh you know this and that.  Made dinner Christmas Day with the help of my darling daughter-in-law and it was great had a houseful and then New Year's Eve came and had just as great a time with great friends in a wonderful new Chinese Restaurant not far from where we live ... if you live near Bushey in Hertfordshire it is called The Imperial Chinese and it is on the A41 opposite the Hilton and the food is to die for.  We made the mistake of ordering set menus and there was much too much to eat.  Never mind we know for next time.


I have started making something and I have pictures - unheard of for me to show things that are not finished but there you go a new, and hopefully improved, me for 2011.


So I have started making a cushion I saw made on a Channel 4 (in the U.K.) program with my heroine in it - Kirsty Allsop.  Now Kirsty makes a few programs, mainly ones about buying the perfect house for people who are searching for them, but last year and this year she got to make THE MOST incredible hand-made things with experts who taught her.  Oh sometimes I wish I was her, okay let's be honest most times I wish I was her because she gets to do these incredible things.  Anyway this year one of the things she learned to do was make a handmade cushion and you can see how she does it right here.  Anyway my version of is isn't completely hand made because I got out my sewing machine after I had purchased the fabric for the backing and the Charm Pack that went with it.  I am too new at this to think I can choose fabrics randomly (all photos are clickable to make bigger IF YOU MUST).  Anyway this was the fabric I chose because I know that the person I am making this for likes autumnal colours (which I don't much):

The Charmpack is called Awesome (well any idiot (including me) can see

that from the darn package) and the backing came from

the same collection by Moda

Then I thought oh I want to put at least one heart on it too so

I went to trusty eBay and bought myself these Heart Stencils so now

I'm all set and ready to go.

Well I stitched the four pieces of the Charm pack that I had chosen together

with one of my cut out hearts.  Now I didn't exactly get it perfect when

stitching the four pieces together but figured oh that's okay I have

the heart to hide it.  Then I made the fatal mistake of thinking I could

stitch the heart on using my sewing machine and what a mess of it I made

so I had to start again

And being the darn perfectionist (I know this doesn't have to be

perfect but it does for me) it came our great and

now I am stitching the hearts on by hand and will show you

what I have made later on in the week.

So until then I will leave you with ...

Lots of Love Patricia xxx
American by birth and MOUTH