Make a rough-and-ready autumn leaf wreath

This is simply some twigs with reddish leaves, picked up while out foraging for wood for the stove.

How to make a leaf wreath
Start with a long twig, bend into a rough circle, then weave in another twig. Try to get the leaves appearing evenly around the ring. Tie twigs together as necessary. Hang on door.
As you can see, mine is very rough-and-ready indeed.
In the past, I've made autumn wreaths with different foliage types but I think the single-species version looks good, too.

Martha Stewart on QVC!

Let's get one thing straight: I don't watch shopping channels, but I saw the name and thought: 'is she actually on it?' And she actually is: demonstrating her fancy hole punches accompanied by her glamorous (male) assistant. For all I know, she's on QVC all the time - but blimey, that's pushing the product a bit hard, isn't it?
I think Martha (or her team) has some good craft ideas (see Martha's craft channel here), but her approach is a little all-encompassing. I get the feeling she can't have a wee in the night without crocheting up a toilet roll cosy and stencilling the cistern en passant.
In 1995 I made my first trip to New York and I saw a book in Barnes & Noble spoofing Martha Stewart called something like Tarmac Your Own Drive with Martha Stewart. I've just done a quick search and I can't find it. However, I did find Martha Stuart's Better than you at Entertaining, with a walking-on-water Martha lookylikey on the cover, which I may be adding to my Christmas list...

Stylish sewing box: too much to ask?

I desperately want a new sewing box. Where I currently keep my thread, needles, pins, tape measure and scissors (plus a small slate cat called Gwynedd - no I don't know what she's doing in there either) is a black and pink spotted cardboard box. And it just doesn't work. The unspooling threads are tied together in a multicoloured spaghetti knot, the needles keep escaping from their case to stab my exploring fingers, and the mass somehow expands every time I take the lid off.
Most of the sewing boxes I've seen are, frankly, naff in the extreme. I don't want a padded design that looks like a commode, patterned with Scotty dogs, shaped like a cupcake, emblazoned with 'make do and mend' or faux-vintage floral prints. Anyone have any suggestions?

I wish I was on the Arctic tern's migratory route...

..no, I haven't diversified into a wildlife blog. The Arctic terns above are on show at The Lighthouse in Glasgow from Oct 5-28. Apart from looking cute, they were knitted to reflect on the plight of the migratory birds affected by our environmental meddlings and climate change.
The exhibition is part of Luminate Scotland, which is Scotland's creative ageing festival, celebrating creativity as we age. And let's face it, we're all ageing - wish this was a nationwide initiative.

Ooh, I'm inspired

Embroidery is in fashion - it's official. As if we needed telling ;-)
But Inge Jacobsen's work makes the point in a different way. She has stitched through the glossy covers of fashion magazines including Vogue.
She describes this as 'intervening', saying: 'My practice is about intervening into found images through embroidery, cutting, and collaging. The images I use are mostly from women’s fashion magazines, pornographic images, and newspapers.
'My main concern as an artist is how one responds to the mass of imagery in the world. I am particularly interested in exploring the different contexts in which photography can be used. I like to stray from the conventional perceptions of what photography can and can’t be.
'With the over saturation of images, my practice seeks to intervene in this overwhelming consumption from the mass produced and alter it to create something unique.'
I absolutely adore this idea of taking something 'out there' and mass-produced and altering it, or upcycling it, to make something new and individual.

See Inge Jacobsen's website here

Allez les bleus!

Olympic fever has hit the MI! household: tonight we're off to see the women's basketball semi-final at the North Greenwich Arena. We're not massive basketball fans; in fact, neither of us has seen a game live before. But these are the only tickets we could get via the slightly-less-than-impressive Olympics tickets website.
As it's France v USA, we're obviously supporting our near neighbours. I don't have a French flag to hand so I've created a little tricouleur necklace.
Take one torque neck ring, cut lengths of blue, white and red ribbon. Fold over torque and stitch in place. I think it looks so good I may be doing it again with different colours...

Made for me...

There's a little flare of happiness that comes from seeing items that you use every day being handmade. And here are two that were handmade for me by friends. Here's my crocheted iPhone cover, made for me by Janey, who knits and crochets (and clog-dances) like a goddess.

And down below is my Kindle cover, made for me by Kirsten, who's a mistress of precision and dispenser of sound advice. I turned it inside out - but the stitching is so neat you'd hardly notice...