A Floral Coffee Cosy for Mollie Makes

The September issue of Mollie Makes magazine is out now, and it includes a project by yours truly...

 

On page 93 you'll find my step-by-step tutorial for making this pretty cafetiere cosy, stitched from felt and fabric and embellished with some simple embroidery:

If you're not a coffee fan, you could use the flower and leaf templates to decorate lots of other things. I know autumn is rolling in pretty darn quickly at the moment, but florals are a joy whatever the season!

Click here to see more of the crafty, creative goodness in issue 84 of Mollie Makes. It's in UK shops now and available online here. The digital edition is available from Google Play or Apple Newsstand.

October in Pictures: Terrific Tiles, Seasonal Stitching and Lovely Leaves

The clocks have gone back, the days are misty and the nights are drawing in... helloooooo November! I've got lots of crafty goodness planned for this month, but in the meantime let's look back at my Instagram photos from last month.

October started rather brilliantly as I spent the day on a photowalk with friends, exploring the southern end of the Northern Line and taking lots and lots and lots of photos. You can read more about the photowalk and the places we visited over on Kate's blog (I'm sure I'll get round to blogging about it eventually!)

Two of my favourite photos from the day involved tiles. Gorgeous black and green tiles in one of the Art Deco Northern Line stations we visited...

... and some equally fabulous tiles in a south London doorway.

It was so much fun walking round London in a little group looking for things to photograph - it's amazing the details you spot when you take the time to really look, and really interesting seeing how everyone's photos turned out.

Later that week I headed to the Knitting and Stitching show at Alexandra Palace, helping out on the Interlace stand for a couple of hours (aren't their bowls amazing?) then spending the rest of the afternoon checking out all the other stalls and soaking up some textile inspiration.

I also made use of my Network Railcard and my Art Pass and went to Brighton for the day. I'd been meaning to visit Brighton for about five years, and I'm really glad I finally did! I spent the morning walking along the beach and the pier, then went to the Royal Pavilion for lunch and a long look round (oohing over the fabulous decor and discovering the building's fascinating history).

With Halloween approaching, I shared photos of a couple of spooky projects: the felt vampire I designed for Felt-o-ween (which includes 40 scary-cute projects to make from felt)...

... and the cute bat ornaments I designed for the "celebrations" section of my first book, Super-Cute Felt.

I also shared photos of the kitsch stocking I designed for October's issue of Mollie Makes magazine (it's always such a pleasure having my work in this mag!). 

Dreaming of autumn leaves while I was stuck indoors working, I dug out a couple of my fave photos from last autumn - a splash of gold at Kew Gardens... 

 ... and the Thames looking kind of amazing during an autumn walk this time last year.

I also looked back at a few Nice Days Out here on my blog - visits to an art exhibition in Reading Prison, Kirkgate Market in Leeds and a walk through Bristol. Three very different places, all filled with interesting architectural details!

I simply had to Instagram these beautiful church floor tiles I spotted on my Bristol walk.

When I wasn't busy reminiscing about past travels, I was working behind the scenes on some new things.

I couldn't resist sharing a sneak peek of one of the patterns I'm working on. These auricula brooches are one of the design variations I'll be including in my Primroses & Auriculas pattern.

I've also been prepping for my November class at the Village Haberdashery in London (we'll be making these vintage-inspired felt Christmas onaments!)...

... and sharing lots of festive felt ornament tutorials here on my blog.

 

In my spare time my craftiness continues to revolve around the Christmas quilt I'm making for my sister.

I hit the halfway mark with the quilting (woohoo!) then did so much quilting that I got totally sick of it and had to take a break to stop myself going a bit bananas. I've got to get back to it soon though or I'll run out of time to have it finished in time for Christmas!

That wooden hoop is a massive 16 inches (about 40cm) wide - you use it to keep a section of the quilt flat as you stitch. I'm using red thread and hand stitching a grid of lines across the quilt, sewing one line either side of each seam.

Each line takes at least an hour and a half to stitch: I've got 30 lines sewn and 14 still to go! Then of course there's the binding, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Finally, we were lucky to get some sunshine at the end of the month and I got to enjoy all the autumn colour on my walks to the Post Office and my days off (hurrah!). Autumn sunshine and bright autumn leaves are a great combo.

Every year that yellow tree drops a whole carpet of yellow leaves and a few float over the road and onto these yellow lines. All that yellow makes me so happy!

I'll share another Instagram round-up next month :)

I'm lauralupinhoward on Instagram - click here to visit my page and follow me. You'll also find me on Facebook and Twitter.

A Kitsch Festive Stocking for Mollie Makes

I'm delighted to have a project in the current issue of Mollie Makes (issue 72).

Here's a peek at it on the first page...

 

... here's me on page 59 (it never gets less weird seeing your own face staring back at you from a magazine!)...

 

... and here's my stocking project in all it's kitsch, pom-pom-and-tassel-covered glory :)

I love crafting throughout the year, of course, but I think Christmas crafting is my favourite! There are so many nice festive projects in this month's issue of Mollie Makes, it's a joy to have my stocking published alongside them.

The new edition of Mollie Makes Christmas got a little mention, too (with my partridge and pear wreath on the cover, yay!).

Click here to see more of the crafty, creative goodness in issue 72 of Mollie Makes. It's in UK shops now and available online here. The digital edition is available from Zinio, Google Play or Apple Newsstand.

September in Pictures: Bargain Threads & a Gift-Wrapping Challenge

Time for a look back at my Instagram photos from September...

This month I scored the bargain of the year, getting a whole heap of embroidery thread at John Lewis for just 10p a skein (that's 90% off the normal price! crazy!). Sadly the offer has finished now, but I am not going to run out of embroidery thread any time soon.

Hilariously, a few days after buying all those threads I had to buy some more as I didn't have the exact colours I needed for an in-progress project. Typical!

Of course, I couldn't resist arranging all the threads in colour order so I could a) see what colours I'd bought b) store them in colour groups for easy-access and c) ooh over their loveliness. All together now: ooooooooh...

I've been busy behind the scenes working on new projects, but I also started a fun new personal project - setting myself the challenge to come up with 100 gift wrapping ideas. I'm sharing the ideas on Instagram as I go along, then blogging about them in batches. So far I've shared ten ideas - click here to read all about them.

I'm hoping to have some free afternoons to do some more gift-wrapping soon!

I also blogged about some of my crafty projects and beloved toys from my childhood, including the felt fashions I stitched for my Sylvanian Families. It's been so lovely rediscovering all this stuff and sharing it with you guys - and hearing all your stories about your own childhood treasures.

I squeezed a few Nice Days Out into September, though I haven't yet had time to blog about them (though I did finally blog about my visit to Seville Cathedral many months ago!).

I spent a busy day in Oxford exploring the Colleges and other interesting buildings during the annual Oxford Open Doors weekend. Balliol was particularly swoonworthy:

I also used my Art Pass to visit Eltham Palace (wonderful!)...

... and spent an afternoon at Tate Britain, enjoying the architecture and revisiting some of my favourite paintings.

I simply had to take a snap of the platform at Pimlico on my way home. This kind of urban patchwork makes me so happy - all those blocks of colour! It reminds me of a painting but I can't for the life of me think which one.

I also popped into The Village Haberdashery to deliver some samples for the classes I'll be teaching there this autumn - you can learn to make an autumn wreath, a weather-themed baby mobile or these vintage-inspired Christmas ornaments.

Annie from The Village Haberdashery also interviewed me for their shop blog, The Daily Stitch. We chatted about my crafty childhood, how I started my business, the early days of craft blogging and the realities of making stuff for a living.

In other September news...

... I am trying to send more Proper Post and bought some awesome stamps for sending my letters (the Agatha Christie ones include tiny writing and other clues to the mysteries! So cool).

... the Partridge & Pear Wreath I made last year was republished in Mollie Makes Christmas (it even made the cover, which is always fun!).

... I finally bought wadding and backing fabric for the Christmas quilt I'm sewing for my sister. I'm hand quilting it, so there's lots of hours of stitching still to do. No prizes for guessing how I'm spending my evenings at the moment!

... and I got new glasses! I'd had the same glasses for over five years, and the same style for over a decade so this new look took a while to get used to. Change is hard, guys. I love them now though, hurrah!

I'll share another Instagram round-up next month :)

I'm lauralupinhoward on Instagram - click here to visit my page and follow me. You'll also find me on Facebook and Twitter.