During the holidays, my children have been going to bed much later than normal - what fun for them! What a nightmare for me! I cannot relax in the evening until they have gone upstairs because no sooner do I do something "for me" than someone needs something, hits someone or asks a question to which I know they already have the answer. Consequently, I needed projects that could be broken up into small pieces so that if I was disturbed it wouldn't interrupt my flow. Into the breach stepped a cushion I have been working on for......well, lets just say the magazine the pattern was in is dated November 2011 and I think I started it almost immediately. But, Rome wasn't built in a day and I am thrilled with the result.

Ta da! Typically, I picked a much brighter red, green and blue than the pattern suggested (theirs was more muted, autumnal colours) but I'm really pleased with the result. The back is made of 2 halves and I picked co-ordinated buttons to finish it off.

Because it is made in several small stages, I also made myself a Quilters Trug .

You may remember that I made two of these before and that I found them quite tricky. Well, because I made every possible mistake on those two I found this one quick and easy, and would now make another if anyone wanted one (I had previously said that after getting around to making my own I would NEVER make another one). Just proves that practise makes (nearly) perfect after all.

And for BFF's birthday, I made her a hanging heart decoration:

Because of the rain last weekend, I didn't feel too guilty about staying in and working on a new project. I had noticed at the beginning of the summer that a friend was using a carrier bag to hold her pegs so I thought that called for a homemade gift. I had found a few "patterns" for peg bags and tried to get the appropriate hangers but nothing seemed straightforward, not least of all the fact that to buy hangers was going to be quite expensive.  I managed to acquire some (hundred's!) of hangers by asking friends on facebook if they had any baby size ones. I then set to work combining two of the patterns I had found to end up with the sort of bag that I wanted to make. I even made a practise one first with some old curtain lining in case it didn't work! Which it didn't, so I had to do some tweaking. But the end result is not bad:

I would like to point out that I did iron the fabric before I started working on the bag, but my ironing skills are obviously about as good as my measuring ones.

My friend was delighted with it when I gave it to her on Monday, wrinkles* and all.

Where does the time go? It's time for Handmade Monday again!
Have a great week,
Love Natalie

*I am of course referring to wrinkles on the pegbag, not on my friend......