I’m not normally a viewer of shopping channels but, I was off sick today and channel surfing and happened to spot one of the shopping channels was featuring a sewing machine. The make was Brother and it not only automatically threaded itself, but also had no pedal - you could set it going and go put the kettle on (if you’re doing straight lines), and I sat watching just thinking isn’t that cheating? I’m not quite sure why I felt like that or how much automation would be ok!? I’m not sure I’d feel the same if it was a machine to clean the kitchen floor(!) I guess it’s because I love the traditional feeling that I associate with sewing and producing my own skirt/bag..

A post over on Uhandbag alerted me to this great day in celebration of blogs. The directions are here, but basically all you have to do is find 5 new blogs you’re interested in, let them know you’re recommending them and post links to them and the blogday website.. sounds easy so far!!

Now for the difficult bit, in no particular order…

1. Pink chalk studio I discovered this site earlier in the week - there are some lovely tutorials and these fab mice which are just adorable!!

2. Faffing about The name of this blog attracted me in itself, but there’s also some great work on the Take a stitch Tuesday challenge and some lovely ATCs - I’m looking forward to making some of these myself, when my arm’s back to full strength.

3. LAM’s blog A fellow student in the sumptuous surfaces class, I only discovered this blog towards the end of the class and in particular I just loved the seashore piece - definitely worth checking out!!

4. My half of the brain Tutorials galore!! I stumbled upon this blog earlier in the week and there are lots of links to free tutorial for various sewing projects - a great source of inspiration!

5. twelve22 The photographs on this site are just incredible! There’s a lot of yummy food, so don’t browse on an empty stomach!

There you have it 5 blogs I discovered this week (slightly bending the rules there!) I think the final instruction was to add the BlogDay tag and wish you all a Happy BlogDay!

Suzi xx

Cake I had such hopes of being sophisticated when writing this blog - but quite frankly who doesn’t like cake! There’s a lovely cake shop round the corner from D’s office, a friend and I once skipped dinner and went straight onto cake from there.. that was a good tea!!

Chinese embroidery I should really have put books under B - I love books and am never without one in my handbag. Last year some good friends bought me Chinese Embroidery Traditional techniques by Josiane Bertin-Guest which is a beautiful book which covers the history of Chinese embroidery as well as giving some great projects and inspiration!

Curly I was discussing my list of C’s with D on the train this morning and his first suggestion was curly! I have very curly ginger hair, only controllable (on a good day) with John Frieda’s Frizzease products!!

Well hello and welcome!

After nearly a year of following the progress of other people’s sewing and crafting through their blogs, I finally have my own! My fabulous fiancee set it up to cheer me up after I hurt my arm. For the time being I’m unable to sew, but I’m seeing a specialist on Monday and will hopefully be back to full speed soon, until then I’ll be posting projects started before my injury and links to other posts I’ve enjoyed…