Artisan Apron

Ta-dah! I've finished my artisan apron!  I bought the pattern from Janet Clare a little while ago and purchased my material, but it then took me some time to decide upon the decoration.

I took my inspiration from this ribbon and lace, which I stitched onto the pockets.

My apron was always going to have cats on! :) I embroidered this cat in charcoal grey, using split stitch.  Her eye is highlighted in the duck egg blue to match the ribbon.

 Next I designed these flowers

 and added some seed beads.

 I also love butterflies and stitched two, using the outline from my Tim Holtz dies.

 Along the hem I have stitched these words to describe my creative journey:-

Imagine :: Explore :: Create :: Believe :: Dream :: Love

 Next I needed something at the top of the apron.  I surfed the Net for mini doilie patterns to crochet and then I tea-stained them before stitching them to the apron.

 Finally I crocheted a posy of roses to pin to one apron shoulder.

I really loved stitching this artisan apron and have enough material for another one! :)

Halloween

Our Halloween celebrations are rather low key now that our children have grown up.  I still carve a couple of our homegrown pumpkins.  I was a bit rushed this year and designed my own owl and copied a kitty idea from online.

I was rushed because our village held its firework display on the 31st October this year and we always go to watch this amazing display.

During the day I was finishing off my Dottie Angel tunic as part of Curious Handmade's Wardrobe Challenge.

It's all about the pockets ... right?!

I wanted to use this cat material for the pockets and chose the main fabric to match it colourwise.  I asked my son if I was too old for cats on my pockets and his reply was that it was okay because I'm a crazy cat lady! :)