Quiet in the cottage

Good evening from a very quiet Emerald Cottage dear readers and friends :)

I've been cosying up inside this week, summer and holidays seem a distant memory now that Autumn has officially started, and temperatures have dropped accordingly.

My nest is feeling very empty - I have one child off on a residential school trip for the week, and one husband off to the US on business. The remaining Little People keep asking "When is Daddy back from holidays ?". Hmmm. I know there are presentations to be given and customers to schmooze but there also usually are in-flight movies to be watched, beer to be drunk and food cooked for you. That's a holiday in my book :)

Back here in Blighty I've nearly finished Sofia's baby blanket .... if you remember this is a gift for my neighbour's totally gorgeous little baby girl, Sofia. The rippling rippled along at quite a speed. I'm already planning another for a friend's baby, but really I need to finish Sofia's blanket first. It needs pesky ends dealing with - yes I know I could have done them as I went along but I do like a picture at the end with all those tails! Maybe it's just me ....? - and I need to decide on the border. I'm thinking a 3 row border of dc or perhaps htr, just not sure of colours. What do you think ?

Since I cannot possibly just have one project on the go at once I started a granny-square cushion yesterday. These two colours - pomegranatey-red and silvery-green are two of my favourite colours, and I think they work quite well together. The third round will be a darker green, I was going to use cream arran for the final round but I'm not 100% happy with it so as usual I'm dithering about the last leg as it were.

And, since 2 crochet projects on the go is nowhere near enough, I also have this pathetic little morsel to show for myself ....

.... but I'm hoping it will turn out veeeeeery sweet, I'm going for the "aaaaaaaaw!" factor. You will have to keep visiting to see what it turns into.

I can't remember if I mentioned before that I'm making up some little "Sewing-kit-in-a-jar" thingies to sell. My prototype worked quite well, the fabric is b-o-r-i-n-g but I didn't want to waste the good stuff!

I'm loving these, I would love to be given one, they are just so cute :) I think I may have seen them floating around on Pinterest, but if I owe someone specific some credit for the idea please do tell me :)

I've spent most of today in and out of my craft room chopping up fabric and cardboard for pin-cushion tops for the jars. Lots of fun! Here are a few of the fabrics I'm using. Which is your favourite ? I'm torn between the cream and red flowers in the middle, or the green and white polka dot. Or then again the lime green leaf print is pretty too. I just like them all :)

Each little jar will contain a pin-cushion-too, pins and needles, coordinating threads and trim, needle-threader, thimble, tape-measure and a selection of buttons. Oh and scissors. I bought some really cute little scissors but they were so rubbish it wasn't even funny. The handles bent and they wouldn't even cut anything. Useless. So the replacements that I've gone with are bigger, but they fold-up, and they do actually cut stuff! Amazing!

I'm making some wee needle-cases to match the pin-cushion-top fabric. It's like being back at school, I'm sure I made my Mum one of these at some stage. Probably with gingham since that's all we ever seemed to use at school.

Don't you love the little wooden bobbins - sooooo cute :). Currently they are sporting some funky stripey twine. I tried hand-winding thread onto the wooden bobbins - what a mess. I might see if I can use my sewing-machine bobbin-winder to do it instead, the wooden bobbins are way nicer than the mini spools I've used, they are on black plastic reels and, whilst practical, are not that pretty.

I have another project in mind for these little bobbins too, can't wait to share it with you, you'll have to come back after the weekend for that I think, I've promised the girls that they can help, and there may be paint involved, so it could get messy ....

Til next time,

Jillxxxxx