Patchwork, Poppies and Painting

OK so I have not been well and been pretty miserable with some rubbish weeks, which is an excuse but a valid one, and the other problem that I have is that I am trying to finish off the "wedding makes" blog post and although I am really proud of everything we made, the wedding seems like such a long time ago and so the enthusiasm just isn't quite there.

In the mean time, I am carrying on with other projects and the blog is missing out on them, so, I will leave the wedding post to simmer and in the mean time try and keep you updated.

A lot of work has been going into my patchwork kit that I got from a friend as a wedding gift. The top is finished. I have bought the wadding and found an old bed sheet in a charity shop to use as the backing and I am currently trying to line all three up without any creases so that I can quilt it. This is really not easy, in fact it is ridiculously difficult and I am panicking about the quilting so I think I will be getting some advice and reading some instructions before I attempt it. Here is the quilt so far:



My first patchwork


Outside of this I have been continuing with my C&G work. I have completed my basic two-piece dress:




Basic two-piece dress

 and, am looking forward to making it into my own style. I dug out some fabric today but it didn't look how I thought it did so I may be heading back to the fabric shop!

I have also been working on my bodice, shirt and one piece dress too so watch this space.

On a design front I found a few blogs today that showed people's sketchbooks from their C&G and it really inspired me to get going again. Here are a couple that really impressed me:
http://lizbenjeddi.blogspot.co.uk/
http://madebymelanie-cityandguilds.blogspot.co.uk/

I created my mood board the other day and it is full of poppies and polka dots. I started with Mr Jones' fantastic poppy picture:



Poppies in Norfolk


Then drew out a poppy onto some solufleece, attached it to some denim and embroidered over it:



Embroidered poppy

 I am really pleased with the results. Then the rain came so instead of going out I decided to do a bit of painting. I started with the end of a pencil (the rubber end) and moved onto some bubble wrap to produce these prints:




Using the end of a pencil




Printing using bubble wrap




Still bubble wrap but adding centres for the look of poppies

 Hopefully there will be more to follow shortly although I am off Norfolk for the weekend (which is where the poppy picture was taken!).

Love,

Mrs Jones

Wedding makes

As promised here are a few of the wedding makes.

Firstly, the table decorations.

I knew early on that I would like to have tea pots and teacups so I searched for ideas and ended up deciding on teacup candles and paper flowers in the tea pots. We had 8 tables and I wanted to put four or five cups on each table so about 40 candles to make and enough flowers to fill 8 teapots (too many to count!). We trawled the car boot in the area for a few weeks, constantly coming back with a boot full of china.


A small part of our collection

I made the flowers using tissue paper following a Martha Stewart tutorial Martha Stewart tutorial and inserted oasis into the teapot to help arrange them.


Close up of one of the bubble flowers

 

The candles were made by sticking pre-weighted wicks to the bottom of the cup using a glue dot, melting wax and dye in a glass bowl over a saucepan of water and pouring into the cups.


The candle factory!

Here is a photo of the finished product:

A filled teapot along with two teacup candles

Also on the table I wanted to create table numbers. I decided to use embroidery hoops and create the numbers by sewing buttons onto some plain fabric. I then decorated around the outside.

All that was then left for the tables were the favours and place names. We bought the card templates for the place names, added some tartan ribbon (because the wedding was in Scotland) and wrote the names on ourselves.

For the favours we chose Gingerbread men and woman. I decided that it would be fun to make these- this was a slightly crazy decision, on reflection, as they could not be made until the week of the wedding and, as I wanted to give a pair to each person, meant making about 200 of them. I spent a morning running a gingerbread factory and eating any that broke or looked a little too tanned!


Not all of the gingerbread people were perfect.

We put these into card display bags and Mr Jones carefully tied ribbon around each one so they looked spectacular.

The finished table

With flowers and candles

and the table numbers

Next post: the dress, cake, bouquets and anything else!

Love,

Mrs Jones
x

The beginning

Well, it has been quite a few months since we returned from travelling and for the majority of that time I have been promising myself that I will start a blog! So, finally, here it is...

I would have loved to have had this up and running before the wedding to show off everything that I was making but then it wouldn't have been a surprise for people so part of me is glad I have waited. I will of course be doing an entry shortly about the wedding bits and pieces, hopefully with some pictures and thank yous to people that I stole ideas from!

I feel I have rushed into the talking part without actually introducing myself. I am Mrs Jones, I have been Mrs Jones for just over two weeks now so I am still getting used to the title but I am loving it. I am 27 years old and live in Worcestershire in the UK. I am quite crafty, like a lot of crafters my activity has peaks and troughs but I am always on the look out for ideas. I especially enjoy sewing and am currently studying for my City and Guilds in pattern cutting. I have made clothes from a young age, mostly taught by my mum but I wanted to learn a few more skills that will make my clothes look a bit more professional.

I graduated from university in 2006, spent three years working in the investment industry before deciding to quit everything and go backpacking around-the-world with my boyfriend. The plan was to be away a year but we eventually came back two years later and by then he was my fiance. We spent a month staying with family before he got offered a job so we found a house to rent and relocated to Worcestershire. Since then i have been temping here and there and organising our wedding which took place on the 11th February 2012 followed by two weeks in Iceland.

I'm sure there will be more about all of this in the posts to come but I wanted everyone to have a general introduction to me and I look forward to building the blog up and finding some of yours.

Love,

Mrs Jones