do you have a pattern that you come back to time and time again, because it’s just so great? i have a few, and the ‘library bag’ pattern by leanne of leanne’s house is one of them. i’ve made it for friends, i’ve made it for aunties - and most recently, i made it for one of my teachers:

we’re having a quiet day at home today. exams are over (hurrah!!!), it’s a lovely wintery day, and later this afternoon we are going to take this little beastie to the groomer:

i wonder how she will look once she’s all de-scruffed…

i am working on a big quilting project, and i am really excited about it!

i am using up all my scraps (well, technically, i’m making a scrap pile with much smaller pieces in it!)

when i am finished, there will be 900 of those little squares, all pieced together into the scrappiest quilt in the whole wide world. i’m planning on posting a tutorial when it’s done, so stand by!

xoxo

twice a year, when i am in the depths of intense study mode (exams in one week! eeek!) i get this song in my head a LOT:

i think it would be lover-lee to sit down on the couch and have a gilmore girls marathon with my friends, i think it would lover-lee to spend more than five minutes at a time time reading the book i am really enjoying at the moment, i think it would be lover-lee to organise my messy fabric stash into lovely neat little piles. the list goes on!

but more than anything i think it would lover-lee to go to bed and just sleeeeeep. pictures of deliciously beautiful beds are making me literally ache with longing at the moment - like this one from adorevintage’s flickr photostream:

i think i could happily curl up in that little nook and snooze for a week! as long as someone brought me breakfast in bed…

maybe i can get away with a few more minutes in my own cosy bed before i hit the books again…

who doesn’t love vintage pinup girls? those images of slightly wicked or suggestive glamour are so evocative of another time - i wont say better or more ‘innocent’, because that’s obviously rubbish, but there’s something about that aesthetic that i kind of love…

my friend pieces has been playing around with that aesthetic lately, and she’s done a fantastic photoshoot that draws on it:

how cute is that?!
you can see a whole set HERE. i think you’ll agree that it’s adorable.

xxx

one of my friends had a birthday this week. she’s a crafty chick, who likes apples and red. for christmas i used the minny muu “wee apples” fabric…

…to make her a little bag, and as i had a bit left i thought i would use it to make her a brooch for her birthday.

i was inspired by this tutorial by allison of cluck, cluck, sew, and it was super easy. want to see? here it is:

*
*thanks to pieces for taking this photo for me, since i forgot to do it myself before wrapping it up and giving it away!

i particularly like the way the edges of the fabric are left ‘raw’ so that they will fray a little with use and get a shabby look.

so, next time you have some fabric that is just right for a certain friend and you’re not sure how to use it, i can highly recommend that tutorial as an easy and fun solution!

love,
essie xxx

i’m weighed down with exam preparation right now. that’s not to say that i’m not loving what i’m studying, but the weight of expectation, pressure and anticipation is definitely there. so to remind myself of how i’ll feel when this is all over, i’m just going to look at this picture every now and then:

i took it when we were in paris last year, and it makes me happy.
oh, to be a white balloon, floating in the breeze over the siene…

i hope you’re less stressed than i am right now!
essie xxx

right now i’m working on a quilt that a friend commissioned.
it’s great, because i’m getting the opportunity to play around with pretty fabrics that i would not ordinarily have reached for in the shop…

it’s a coin stack pattern that i’m pretty much working out for myself - i’ll let you know how it goes!

it seems i’ve been a little quiet on the blogging front in the last couple of weeks. there’s been a good reason for that - i was off ‘getting weddinged’ to my honey of five years! it was such an amazingly special day, and i got to feel like a princess in my green silk dress:

after all that fun i have promptly become violently ill with what started as tonsillitis and has morphed into a chest infection (ew!), so i am sitting on the couch, under my favourite quilt, spluttering away like… well, something that splutters.

i’m working on a couple of projects that i hope to show you soon!
essie x

do you remember making cut-out snowflakes, and strings of paper peolple all holding hands? maybe you had one of those gorgeous paper dolls which you could dress with paper clothes by folding the tabs over it’s body? my mum has always had one (a little nurse with rosy cheeks) i remember being allowed to play with her sometimes when i was little, and it was always a very special treat!

this photo has brought all that back:

photo by rebecca thuss

it makes me want to have a paper party, with garlands of paper flowers, a competition to see who can make the best paper hat, and all kinds of other paper-related crafts and games… what fun!

i have been working very hard on university assignments for the last few weeks, to the detriment of my creative output. i literally haven’t sat down at my sewing machine for over a fortnight - this is not good!

at least i have a little black kitty who likes to keep me company as i work…