Treats for the Domestic Goddess

It's time for another look round MISI for some fabulous handcrafted goodies. This time I thought I'd go with a kitchen theme (perhaps because I spent yesterday evening writing a post about Christmas Baking on our Christmas Matters blog). I think these are practically irresistible and would make fantastic gifts for the cooks/bakers in your house (me, me, me...).

First up are the gorgeous 50s style trays, chopping boards and mugs produced by Eskil Designs. These are at the top of my Christmas wishlist. You can read more about Eskil Designs and designer Emilia Ljungberg at the Print and Design blog. The lovely colours she uses in this design say frosty morning to me. Wouldn't it be nice to prepare your Christmas lunch on this lovely chopping board?

There are lots of lovely kitchenwares at Charlotte Macey's Textiles. This tea cosy is a favourite of mine. I like her use of natural materials and her embroidery is very stylish. The photography used in her shop is great too - I urge you to pop round and have a look at the aprons and tea towels, some with a fab beach hut design.

I love typography (must come from my days of working a newspaper archive..), and so would find it very hard to actually use this tea towel designed by Taylors Typographical Art Posters. The good news is that the designer has a similar version (with lots of lovely colours) on a poster. When I get my new kitchen...

And finally, something a bit different - I think this platter would make a wonderful cheese board. Bodrighy Wood also has some lovely honey dippers, bowls, goblets and pestle & mortars. And if things get a bit much for you with all that Christmas cooking - there's always the rolling pin...

Finally got a few new things into my Etsy shop

Gosh my Etsy shop was looking sad and dusty. The online equivalent of one of those sad shop windows with displays of kitchen roll and dead flies...! I've finally had a chance to list a few new things, so I hope you'll forgive a little promotional post.

Here are the new things:

A toddler (12-24 month) sunhat using gorgeous Michael Miller Zoology fabric.

A toddler (12-24 month) sunhat using funky Kaffe Fassett Fan Flowers fabric.

Some tawashi veg scrubbing / dishwashing cloths.

There's more to come, but that's enough advertising for today!

Actually that's not quite true because I also wanted to write about some brilliant yarn that I'm using for my granny square swap gifts. I am a huge fan of the yarns and the ethos of The Mirasol Project. I've used their Miski baby llama yarn before - it's gorgeously soft and fluffy and comes in a great range of colours. This time I've invested in some of their T'ika 100% cotton. Again, there are some great colours, and it is an absolute joy to crochet with. And great to feel that by buying the yarns I am supporting the textile heritage of Peru. You can read more about the Mirasol Project and their yarns on the project blog. It makes really interesting reading.

Vintage cushion covers become placemats

Originally uploaded by Craft Matters

I've finally got round to creating something just for us to use. I found some fabby cushion covers in one of my regular trawls round Oxfam just after Christmas and fell on them straight away. I have a particular fondness for bright orange, bold & bright prints. They have such a 70s feel - they really remind me of my childhood, especially our great caravan holidays - the 'van had a fab orange interior. These were right up my street, but absolutely rotten as cushion covers - with atrocious white frondy trim - yuk.

Originally uploaded by Craft Matters

I've been wondering what to do with them for some time now, and suddenly had an inspiration that they would make great placemats - and as I had 3 cushion covers, I had just enough fabric to make 6 mats - a full set! I also wanted to try a little bit of quilting, so this seemed like an ideal opportunity to have a go and to further emphasise the graphic print with a bit of extra stitching.

So I chopped up the covers (disposing of the unpleasant fringing I'm afraid), found some suitable backing fabric and sandwiched a layer of fusible fleece between the 2 layers, sewed round then started up with some quilting. Even more exciting than that - I used the embroidery foot on my machine to do it. So lots of new skills there.

I am delighted by the result! Unfortunately I've only done 1, but hopefully next week, after the bunnies are done, and the Tea Swap gift is posted off, I'll have a chance to finish the other five.