{i see london, i see france...}

Happy mail. Special delivery. A good post day. Whatever you call it when something that is neither bill nor junk mail shows up in the postbox, this is it. From the moment I caught sight of all those red stamps on the outside of the envelope, I knew it was going to be good.

Inside the envelope was a map. Not just any map. My first map. 

It's a beautiful map of Lyon, France, and the surrounding area, from the 1960s. Ooh la la indeed. It was sent to me by a generous reader, Sophie, (merci!) who had no use for it as the map didn't quite stretch to include her hometown.

One of my favourite details is the town of St. Etienne. Though Justin has already firmly vetoed the name, I've always loved 'Etienne' for a little boy. (He's more into naming boys after ferocious animals -- Bear, Wolf, Komodo Dragon). Ah, well, now I can enjoy it on a map. Whatever I end up making, you can be sure that this section will be used.

Notice that the roads are all marked in red? Perfect! Clearly, it's quite a bumpy, twisty mountainous area, and I'm imaging many of these roads running along crests of the Alps. Who fancies a bit of skiing? (And a nice hot pain au chocolat afterwards...)

So now, (well, once we're home again) perhaps some of our map projects can start to take shape. Although I'm finding that it's much easier to think about cutting the maps up when you don't actually have any... in person, this one really does look quite nice whole!

{beside the seaside}

You might remember getting a few close-up glimpses of patchwork a few weeks ago? The mini quilt was made as a housewarming present for my parents, who recently moved back to England after nine years in China. As I was able to deliver it to them earlier this week, I can now show you the whole thing, without spoiling the surprise!

Their new home is just a short drive from Southwold, a little seaside town with rows of brightly-coloured beach houses along the shore -- and that was the inspiration for this quilt. Three little linen beach houses sit along the striped promenade, looking out to sea.

The sea, as I might have mentioned, is a patchwork of squares cut from the vintage linen tea towels that Justin's grandma gave me, mixed with other cotton prints (including one that became Tilly's second homemade dress!) After a little mix-up with the pinning, my carefully-planned order of squares ended up totally random -- but luckily the bird still ended up above the boat, and the boat above the fish, so there was some semblance of logic. 

At present, it serves as more of a mini runner or mat, but I sewed up two loops in one of the fabrics, so that it can hang at some point -- possibly from a nice piece of driftwood found on the beach!

I was also able to give Alice the giant knitted blanket I made back in March, which will accompany her to university this autumn. Ever the fashionista, she found she could wind it around her neck as the world's chunkiest scarf. It's lovely to know that it'll be keeping her warm, at home or on the town!

{it's a date}

At last, the lovely old linen calendar tea towels are taking shape... as strings of bunting. 

I'm thinking that it'd be fun to hang them up for celebrations throughout the year, from New Year's Day,

to Valentine's Day,

to April Fool's Day,

to the 4th of July,

and, a touch of orange for Halloween!

Yes, almost every date is covered! It almost makes me want to find something -- National Fish Finger Day, Cadbury's Appreciation Day -- to celebrate every day of the year.

{ikea hack: forty-nine cent tea towel bags}

How excited would you be if I told you that you can make a drawstring bag from a 49 cent tea towel? 

Well, double it! Yes, hold onto your Swedish meatballs, because I'm about to show you how to make not one but two bags from a TEKLA tea towel. 

Materials: (makes two)

1 TEKLA tea towel

2 lengths of string, twine or ribbon, each 20" long

Natural-coloured thread

P.S. If you can't get to an IKEA, or your cupboards are overrun with tea towels already, this pattern will work for most towels -- the finished size will just vary based on the proportions.

First, fold your tea towel in half lengthwise, so that the red stripe runs along the unfolded edge. Pin along both long edges, and across the tea towel on both sides of the middle.

Cut across the middle, in between the two lines of pins. This separates the tea towel into two, one for each bag.

You should now have two rectangles, each pinned on three sides. The unpinned edges will be the tops.
(The rest of the instructions are given for one bag -- simply repeat to make the second!)

Sew along all three pinned edges, leaving a 2" gap at the top edge of one of the long sides. This will allow you to add a drawstring top. Backstitch at the beginning and end.

Now, to add the drawstring. Take a length of string (approximately 20") and place it along the top edge of your bag.

Fold over the top edge and pin it, trapping the string in place. With the TEKLA towel, there is a seam along the top of the tea towel, so it looks neatest to fold over the seam -- no more, no less. With other tea towels, fold over 3/4" of fabric.

Continue pinning all the way around, until you reach the edge where you left a 2" gap. This will be where your string pokes out and allows you to open and shut the bag. Sew along the folded-over edge, backstitching at the beginning and end.

Trim the bottom corners, cutting them diagonally.

Turn the bag inside out, and fill!

We love to use ours for storing sets of Tilly's toys, for holding wool for my latest knitting project, for keeping fruit and snacks safe when we go out, for storing supplies from pompoms to rubber stamps, and for keeping fresh veggies in the fridge. Yes, drawstring bags are taking over our house!

And, after getting so much practice with the TEKLA towels, I had a go with one of the vintage linen beauties. This large tea towel, with a map of Bermuda, seemed perfect to accompany Justin on his next business trip to keep worn clothes in, and, perhaps, to let him dream of more relaxing places!

(Rather than cutting it in half, I simply folded it widthwise and then followed the instruction above, to make a larger bag.)

As always, if you give this a try, please stop back and let us know how it went!

{mason jar lamps}

I teased you, months ago, with the promise of more from the vintage boxes that Justin's grandma gave me last December. You saw the linen tea towels, and the quilt scraps which became a giant patchwork basket. Now, after a bit of rummaging through a cupboard, I've got another little something to show you.

Three beautiful old mason jars that have been wired up, through the lids, to work as lamps.

Even more exciting, perhaps, than the jars themselves are the scraps and notions that were screwed inside. More quilt scraps, sections of lace and trim, old buttons, a wooden doo-dah -- all things, I imagine, that were cut off or left over from somebody's sewing, back when nothing was too small to save.



Only one of the three actually lights up a bulb when plugged in, but I'm hopeful that a combination of Justin, Lowe's and a few hours with a pair of pliers might fix the others. Meanwhile, I'll be getting to work on a lampshade worthy of these special jars -- watch this space!

Linen Calendars

Okay, I admit, I didn't quite give you the whole story when I said that Justin's Grandma gave me a box of quilt scraps. The truth is, she really gave me about six boxes, each loaded with new and exciting things. I thought showing you all of them at once might be a bit of vintage-treasure overload, so instead you'll get them one at a time, just like I did. 

In box number two, rolled up neatly like so many scrolls of ancient wisdom, was half-a-century's worth of linen calendars. The oldest, I think, is from 1960, and though a few years were missing, most are here, still beautifully colourful, on gorgeous heavy linen.

My favourite of them all is this folky mustard-coloured calendar below, from 1980. The figures seem like they could have popped right out of a Hans Christian Anderson story!

Now, I can't promise that these calendars will be reincarnated quite as quickly as the patchwork scraps, but they are here, waiting for inspiration to strike, ready to cast off their old dates and take on the new year!