Bunnies are for life, not just for Easter!

Last two bunnies, 

Both looking for a loving new home. x

Thank you giveaway.

GIVEAWAY TIME!

 Hello all. At last it's giveaway time. YAY! It's my way of saying thank you for taking time to read my little blog and especially for leaving all of your lovely comments. Don't underestimate the power of a kind word, I don't share my 'down' times on my blog as this is my happy place. This is the only little corner I have any control over and I like to keep it as rose-tinted as possible but recently small parts of my life have been unfairly 'overcast', so to tippety-tap into blogland and have such lovely feedback from you all has been a real tonic. I appreciate the time you take out of your busy day to say a few kind words that make my days so special. Yep, you make me smile, you make me chuckle but most of all you make me feel that my craft and artwork has value. Thank you. 

So I've made something especially for this giveaway.

One of my most popular 'makes' but this one is a little different.

I hope you like her as much as my normal embroidered bunnies. She's made from the most gorgeous Sanderson fabric. I discovered a small piece folded up in the bottom of a basket and quickly snaffled it up as if it was a Faberge egg at a car boot sale.

All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning this pretty bunny is to leave a comment at the bottom of this post. Simple, just let me know you'd like to re-home this bunny. There are no hoops to jump through.

II

Best be sharpish if you fancy your very own Easter Bunny!

I'm not telling you how long you have ;)

Once again thank you all.

love  Fi x

Hens-a-Helping.

Hello once again from beautiful Yorkshire. I love this view. When I see this view I relax as it means our journey is almost over and our little village is only a couple of 'bends' away.

 Today I wanted share a bit of Springtime sunshine with you and see who'd been helping out in the garden. Yes today the stars of the show have to be our hens!

They're very conscientious and hard working, helping to turn over the soil in the veg beds.

 They think nothing of giving the shed the once over to make sure all is in order.

Whilst all the time putting others needs before their own. This is Cluck who has very kindly put her dust bathing in damp mud on hold to spend some quality time with Wonderful Man and make sure he's not over doing it in the garden.

 Here she is having a little cuddle. It's a good job he doesn't mind a bit of muck! Grubby, muddy hen.

Times up! That's enough. Must get back to work! Now just for that tricky dismount...

 Whoops! lol.

 As for me...well I was busy too. More pretty bunnies taking shape.

These two are now somewhere deep in the USA.

.

I haven't forgotten my little giveaway. I still haven't decided what it will be yet. Easter is fast approaching though so that just might make up my mind for me.

till next time

love fi x

Hi all, there's been much bustling about in the attic this past week.

 I've had orders for vintage linen bunnies.

I made these two from some beautifully embroidered linen

 There are some very delicate stitches.

 And some very pretty colours.

 With co-ordinated buttons.

 And gorgeous floral Liberty fabric ears.

It's a little bit sad they won't be staying together, but I know they'll both be loved very much in their new homes. Now they're finished I shall turn my attention to mulling over a little giveaway. 

Till next time and results of my 'mulling'.

love Fi x

Bunnies ready for rehoming!

I've done it!

4 pretty, vintage, linen bunnies all finished and now sitting pretty.
A backstage shot of them waiting for their photo shoot, lol.
Oh the glamour of it all!

Yesterday I finished embroidering tails...

and bunny faces. (Ouch! It looks painful doesn't it?)

I stitched on buttons...

and ears.

This has to be the fiddliest part of all as I stitch from one ear to the other, through 13 layers of fabric, wadding and a button for each ear!

(Gosh! I wish I hadn't worked that out, I've still got 2 more bunnies to make!)

But it's all worth it in the end.

They look so cute sitting next to my laptop as I type this...aaaah.

love Fi x

Body parts and chocolate crumbs.

Ssssh!

Hello...it's 11.15pm and I'm sat in bed blogging and trying to eat a bar of chocolate without getting any chocolate crumbs on my white sheets. Failed already with the chocolate crumbs and I'm only on my second square! Don't tell anyone. Wonderful Man is downstairs watching telly. I've also got a can of Barrs Shandy but I'm going to save that until tomorrow. I know how to live it up don't I! lol.

I have a dear friend who swears that the best way to eat an M&S Colin the Caterpillar chocolate birthday cake is to eat it alone in bed with a pot of tea. When questioned about the crumb problem she said it was no problem at all as she eats it at her husbands side and then moves over to her own! Smart girl, I like her style!

Back to blogging.

I've been very busy making bunny body parts over the last few days. Here they all are up in the attic awaiting arms, ears, faces and bobbity tails.

At the same time I've been making a Christening cake that I was commissioned to do earlier in the year.
(see, I can multitask with the best of em!)

There's a lot of stuffing goes into a cake.

My bunnies have been travelling around the house with me in this little basket. During the day I sew up in the attic, doing all the machine sewing so that I can sit downstairs on an evening doing any hand stitching that needs to be done.

And I must say, there is a fair old amount of hand stitching on these bunnies, not to mention stuffing. I'm not a fan of stuffing. I think I'm rather impatient when it comes to stuffing even though I know the best results come from teasing out tiny amounts at a time and carefully poking down little bits until each little body part is nice and firm.

Back downstairs again, we're a little bit further on here. See, two completed bunnies and my cake just needs the wording embroidering on the top and little bit of fancy around it. Yep, my little fingers have been very busy over the last few days.

On the other hand some members of the family have been taking things easy.

Spreading themselves out and taking up far more space than is polite.

And then to cap it all, when politely asked to budge up a bit...

Take offence!

love Fi x

Well I've started this year with real gusto my friends! (Lets hope I can keep it up, lol)

I'll apologise now for the speed with which I whizz you through this post but my little sewing machine has been so busy over the first 20 days of 2011 that I'm afraid we'll get behind with each other.

So without further ado lets get this post on the road...

Do you remember this beautiful piece of embroidery? I found it dirty and crumpled in a box that I bought from a charity shop labelled 'Granny Pilleys embroidery' well over a year ago.

Gorgeous isn't it?

At the moment there is a lack of comfy sofa cushions in the MarmaladeRose household due to me having a tizzy fit just before Christmas and chucking out our old worn and threadbare cushion covers. I did of course being the thrifty madam that I am, cut off the zippers and pass on the worn almost pancake flat inner pads to Sneaky Dog for her bed. (and very pleased she was with them too) So there has been a dearth of cushions on Wonderful Mans sofa which hasn't gone unnoticed I can tell you.

Being the good wifey that I am, I thriftily (I think we'll be seeing a lot of that word this year) rummage around in the numerous boxes stashed in the loft for said piece of fabric, I gave it a wash and hey presto it looked shipshape and shiny!(and smelt much better too!)

I did tremble a bit before I cut into the fabric. It's such a fine piece of embroidery that I did wonder whether or not I should put it in a picture frame and hang it on the wall. But then I reasoned with myself that textiles are meant to be touched, lets face it how many of us can walk through a department store without fingering a garment or two as we glide past.

Any how, I'm sure Granny Pilley would rather it was adorning one of Dunnelms finest feather cushion pads on Wonderful Mans sofa rather than scrunched up in the corner of a cardboard box never to see the light of day.

And this is the back, little green, velvet button loops finish it off.
I even managed to find 3 buttons in my stash with a wavy design on them to match the fabric.
(Apologies for the very poor light, but it's been crap here, it's like living in a hobbit hole!)

Next is a quilted patchwork cushion with a vintage vibe. This one is NOT on Wonderful Mans sofa but sitting prettily in my Folksy shop waiting for someone with infinite good taste and a space on their bed/chair for a some embroidered and patched scrummyness.

No attention has been spared here. The back fastens with 2 embroidered covered buttons and coloured lace button loops. I'm on a roll now girls.

I've also made 3 bunnies for my Folksy shop, this unusual soft green one has already hopped off to pastures new though. (Just as well really as I was very temped to keep her for myself, tut, tut!)

Another Springtime bag has been carefully completed, actually there have been 2, but the pretty pink one I made was snaffled up by a friend before I could even photograph it! This one started out as a tray cloth, but life had been hard on her and she had some pretty grotty tea stains on her bottom. OO er! Notice the hobbity lack of light again!

Talking of tea, (Good link eh? My posts aren't just thrown together you know.)
Talking of tea...

I've been making padded removable liners for these vintage embroidered tea cosies.

Put the kettle on Polly!

(Yes I know they are budgies but I couldn't think of anything for a budgie!)

Now this one IS mine!
(Note to self; Must start using a teapot.)

Phew! I think we're up to date now. Well actually we're not because I know I have something else up in the attic that's finished but it is awaiting some daylight to be photographed.

Anyway... Lastly, this is my work basket today.
Can you spy those little embellished hearts?

Yep! I know. I'm a big tease...

till next time

love fi x