Telstar

It took me a long time to find the right name for my latest crochet blanket. It's a smaller and simpler version of my Starburst Blanket and I wanted another star-related name but nothing seemed right. Then my daughter commented that the pattern squares looked like tiles.

Tiles ... tiled ... tilded stars ... Telstar! I got there in the end. In this photo Telstar is lying across Starburst so you can see how much simpler the new pattern is.

I think it looks rather nice on the floor in front of my fireplace.

Those Rainbow Gnomes started out as a Christmas pattern in 2022 but they've been up there ever since because I love them so much.

Anyway, enough about crochet. Once I thought of that name all sorts of memories from my childhood in the 1960s came flooding back. It was a decade dominated by all things Space related, or so it seems to me in retrospect at least.

Launched in 1962,  Telstar was the first communications satellite in space. Reading about it, I was struck by the beauty of the thing.

But the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of Telstar is actually the hit single by the Tornadoes which got to number one in the same year. I defy anyone of my age not to get all nostalgic when they hear this.

I remember the excitement of the Apollo Missions of the '60s and '70s too, from the tragedy of Apollo1 1 through to the first moon landing in 1969 and the ill-fated Apollo 13. My brother was allowed to stay up for the moon landing (which happened in the middle of our night) but I wasn't. I later met lots of women my age who didn't see it while their brothers did. Just saying.

Closer to home, there were lots of Space themed children's television series, most of them pretty awful. I don't think I noticed the clunky sets in Lost in Space but Zachary Smith was a great character. But yes, we did think the puppets in Joe 90 and Thunderbirds were odd. 

Mum took my brother and I to see the film of Thunderbirds which was fun. For some reason the phrase "OK Alan", said in a stilted voice became something of a family saying afterwards. Here's the trailer for that film from 1966.

Then, of course, there was Dr Who which was first shown in 1963. My brother had a Dalek toy I remember but the thing I most liked about the series was the theme music.

Written by Ron Grainger and created by Delia Derbshire at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, this was the first electronic theme tune. We enjoyed Star Trek too and, as a teenager, I went to see the first (and at that time the only) Star Wars film in 1977. I quite liked it but didn't think it was anything special. Around the same time I saw Close Encounters of the Third Kind but the only thing I can remember from it is this five note theme composed by John Williams. This was the start of the musical communication between Earth and the alien spaceship.

I've already mentioned my brother's toy Dalek but there were lots of other space themed toys in the 1960s although we didn't have many of them. The only other one I can think of was the Johnny Astro set which involved trying to land a balloon on the moon - probably more fun than it sounds. Here's my brother playing with his set which I should think was a birthday present. It's a poor quality photo, taken from an old slide.

And while I'm sharing fun photos of my brother from 60 years ago, here he is dressed up as an astronaut and ready to go to a birthday party.

One of my favourite toys from that time is one that I'm sure lots of people will remember - the Space Hopper. I loved mine and treated it as one of my dolls. When my Mum prepared me a surprise doll's tea party on my seventh birthday, Hoppity was there with all the others. Here I am sitting on Hoppity in the garden with my best friend Heather.

When I was planning this blog post I thought I must to include all the chocolate bars from the 1960s with Space themed names which I have always assumed were part of the general trend ... only they weren't. Mars, Milky Way and Galaxy were all produced by the Mars company which took its name, not from the planet but from the family who set up and ran the firm. 

Milky Way bars were first made in 1923 and their name came from a popular malted milk drink and was nothing to do with the galaxy. I also discovered that the US and UK Milky Way bars are completely different. Ours has a light and airy texture while the US version is more like our Mars Bars.

Speaking of which ... the first Mars Bars were sold in the UK in 1932 and remain a combination of caramel and nougat. Whereas, in the US, the Mars Bar featured nuts and was replaced by the Snickers bar (still known to many of us here as the Marathon bar). It's all very confusing and nothing at all to do with Space.

And then there's Galaxy chocolate (one of my favourites) which was actually first sold in 1960 in England although I imagine the name was chosen to match the exisiting brands rather than for any other reason. When it was introduced in the US in the 1990s it was called Dove.

So, all those chocolate bars we enjoyed in the Space age had nothing to do with Space. Perhaps the coincidence of the names helped their sales though. They had good advertising slogans. Who can forget 'A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play' or 'Milky Way - the sweet you can eat between meals without ruining your appetite'?

My First Coat

 I've never had a grown up coat, one of those smart long ones. And now I have!

It's a nice relaxed fit so that I can wear big jumpers underneath it and, having taken my daughter's advice and gone for a 'petite' size - by which they mean 'short', the sleeves are the right length without having to roll them up.

I'd never have managed to buy it without Rose's help. I'd seen it in my newspaper and it was surprisingly cheap for Marks and Spencer but, as we no longer have a branch here, I couldn't check the colour or fit. Rose went into her Marks in Oxford, tried one on and took photos to send me. She then ordered it for me in the size we decided would fit. Ordering clothes (and especially returning them if they don't fit) is too complicated for my Covid brain so I don't often do it.

I'm really pleased with my new coat and, having worn charity shop jackets for decades, it feels very smart. However, it turns out that it's not actually my first proper coat.

Here I am in 1967 at the age of six with my brother Stephen. Note my alice band - remember those? - and Stephen's traditional plaster on his knee. Those were the days when boys wore shorts up until they were about ten or eleven. The photo was taken in Hamble-Le-Rice (isn't that a great name?) on one of our days out. Here I am wearing my coat again, this time somewhere you probably recognise. I'm glad to see that Stephen's knee is better.

Stonehenge

I seem to have had a bit of a run of buying things for around £70 lately. First there was the coat and then I invested in this wonderful Piano Lamp.

I haven't been able to play the piano for several years because of not being able to read the music. Then it dawned on me that I could ask the optician to prescribe me a pair of fixed vision glasses just for the piano. It took a couple of tries to get the distance right, what with not having a piano to hand in the consulting room, but we got there in the end. The frames are the same as my normal glasses so the piano ones live on the piano (and have an elastic band round one arm too) so that they don't get muddled.

The glasses have meant that I can read the music but I realised that I also needed stronger light, hence the new lamp. It's very bright and also adjustable with a dimmer switch. The picture above was taken in the evening when it was the only light on in the room. The black lamps are intended for modern black pianos but I think it goes well with my old 1920s upright.

Of course, my playing is very rusty so I'm starting with some simple studies by Burgmuller. I never had these as a child learning to play; my violin teacher told me about them. My only experience of studies were the Demnitz ones for Clarinet which weren't exactly exciting. The Burgmuller ones are proper tunes and lovely to play.

My other £70 purchase was this big pile of magazines.

I've been filling in the gaps in my collection of 'New Stitches' magazines for a long time, mostly buying individual copies as and when they come up. I was enquiring from a seller on ebay about combining a couple of small lots when she said that she had lots more to sell. She kindly sorted out all these magazines, 58 in all, to fill in quite a few of my gaps. They arrived in two heavy boxes and will keep me busy for quite a while. Doesn't that cat on the cover in the middle look like Tolly cat?

I particularly like these magazines because they have a range of projects and masterclasses covering lots of different needlecrafts rather than just cross stitch. I think I now have about 80 issues left to find (out of 261). I don't have any of the latest ones though, Issues 213 - 261 and I've never seen them for sale. I expect they'll turn up one day, all together.

Theme Tunes

I've had the notes for this post ready for about a fortnight but keep being too tired to write it. Let's see if I can manage it today ...

This is a trip down memory lane for me, specifically to television series shown in England in the 1960s and 1970s. Some of them may be familiar to you, depending on your age and where you grew up. The links I've included occasionally show clips or stills from the programmes and some of these are in colour. We didn't have a colour television until after I'd grown up so my memories are all in black and white.

It occurred to me a while ago that what I remember mostly about watching TV in my childhood is not particularly the content of the programmes but their theme tunes. So, that's what I'm going to talk about today.

One of the first tunes I remember (and can still sing today) is the song that introduced 'The Adventures of Robin Hood'. This was an ITV series shown here between 1955 and 1960. I was born in 1960 so the programmes that my brother and I watched in the mid 1960s must have been repeats. I have vague memories of swashbuckling forest based adventure but mostly what I liked was the theme tune.

Written by Carl Sigman and sung by Dick James, this jaunty song still makes me smile.

At around the same time we were also watching 'Robinson Crusoe'. This was originally a French series, later dubbed into other languages. The English version was shown on and off from the mid 1960s for many years. The theme tune I knew was written specially for the English version by the Franco London orchestra. 

I can't say that I noticed that this was dubbed, or in fact anything much about it but I did like the music.

The next one was also dubbed and, this time, I did notice. Perhaps it was because I was a few years older or maybe the dubbing wasn't done well. 'White Horses' was produced jointly by TV companies in Yugoslavia and Germany and was set on a stud farm for Lipizzaner horses. I wasn't remotely interested in horses and had no idea what was going on most of the time but oh, that song ...

'White Horses' was written by Michael Carr and Ben Nisbet for the English version of the programme in 1968 and was sung by the Irish singer Jackie Lee. It was released as a single and reached the top ten of the UK singles chart so it wasn't just me that liked this one.

These three programmes were all aimed at children but the ones with the themes I remember from the 1970s were for general audiences. 'Z Cars' was a police series set in a fictional northern town near Liverpool. It was shown here between 1962 and 1978 but I remember watching it with my family in the early 1970s.

The theme tune was very modern for its time and this was the first one I remember picking up by ear and playing on my recorder (I bet the rest of the family loved that). It was written by Fritz Spiegel and Bridget Fry and was inspired by the Liverpool folk song 'Johnny Todd'.

This was another one that got into the top ten of the charts. The theme has had an interesting after life as it has long been associated with Everton Football Club who are based in Liverpool. One of the actors from the programme, Leonard Williams, died in 1962. He was an Everton fan and had watched them play a few days before his death. The theme tune was played before their next match in tribute to him and it sort of stuck. This next video is from the first game played in the team's new stadium a few weeks ago. Wait for the siren which always heralds the start of the music,

I may not remember much of what happened in all these programmes but I can honestly say that I never even watched the next one. I find the opening credits and the music very nostalgic but when I watched a few episodes recently, they were completely new to me.

'A Family at War' was an ITV series that initially ran between 1970 and 1972. It tells the story of the fictional Ashton family in Liverpoool (again) during the Second World War, starting in 1938 and going right through to the end of the war.

The theme was played to a picture of a child’s sandcastle on a beach, topped with the Union Jack as the sea came in. This obviously symbolised Britain’s position, especially in the early years of the war when invasion was an ever present threat and the Battle of Britain raged. The music this time is classical, from the end of the first movement of Vaughan William's Sixth Symphony. 

The last theme I want to share with you today is from 'Crown Court' which was a courtroom drama series that was shown right through the 1970s and into the '80s. It was on in the early afternoon and I remember watching it when I came home for dinner from Grammar school. Each episode was only 25 minutes long and three episodes made up a 'case'.

It was like a play as all the action took place inside the court room. Interestingly, the jury was made up of members of the public within the Granada TV area whose names were taken from the Electoral roll (which is how jurors are chosen in the UK). This meant that the writers had to write two endings each week to allow for either verdict.

Unusually, this programme had two themes, one for the start of the programme and another for the end. The opening credits were accompanied by part of the fourth movement of Janacek's Sinfonietta and conjured up the majesty of the court.

The closing theme 'Distant Hills' was composed by Peter Reno and has a more wistful feel to it I think.

Does anybody else remember these themes or do you have your own favourites? 

New Things

Amongst all the monotony there have been a few new things here lately which I thought I'd show you. The first one isn't very exciting but extremely necessary.

My laptop Mabel (all my laptops are called Mabel) suddenly stopped working last month and, after  over a week at the repair shop, they came to the conclusion that it wasn't worth mending. Getting a new one was easy enough but it was hard work putting all my software and stuff back on it. It's all done now though so I'm able to get back to work. One good thing is that the new Mabel has a dark keyboard. I made the mistake of getting a silver one last time which meant I couldn't read the letters at all. My touch typing isn't bad but it is nice to be able to actually see what's written on the keys. Does anybody else have this problem?

Much more interesting was the arrival in January of my new recorder.

It's a Yamaha Bass and I bought it from Just Flutes, a woodwind specialist shop who for some reason sell it for a chunk less money than everywhere else. I first realised there were different sized recorders when a group visited my primary school with what were then called Descant, Treble, Tenor and Bass recorders. Now the two smaller sizes are generally called Soprano and Alto. I remember telling my Mum all about them when I got home and thinking maybe one day when my hands were bigger ...

My hands still aren't very big but I've had the first three of these sizes for some years now although I struggle with the reach on the tenor. I've been following Sarah Jeffery's Team Recorder for years (which I thoroughly recommend by the way) and she says that the reach on the bass is actually less than the tenor because it has keys for some of the holes. And she's right! Despite it being so big, I can reach all the notes much more easily on my new recorder and the sound is beautiful.

Mind you, working out how to play it without hurting my back took quite a bit of trial and error. I've ended up wearing the sling across my body rather than just round my neck and that, as well as constantly checking that I'm sitting up straight, seems to have done the trick.

The bass recorder, like the alto, is in F so you can play music written for the alto on it but I thought I'd challenge myself to use music written in the bass clef which is what is used in orchestras. It's harder to find but I ordered several books from Recorder Music Mail who have a very comprehensive catalogue.

As I've played the piano for over fifty years I thought reading bass music wouldn't be too much of a problem. Turns out I was wrong. I'm getting there though. At the moment I'm alternating between the bass and the alto every day so I do sometimes find myself playing the notes for the wrong recorder but it'll settle down eventually.

There's exciting news on the tenor recorder front too. Kunath have just brought out an amazing new recorder called the Sigo which is about the size of an alto recorder but sounds like a tenor. Isn't that exciting?. I am resisting the temptation but one day ... It's also very reasonably priced. If you'd like to know more, Sarah Jeffery did a great review of it on her channel - Sigo Recorder - and here's a little sample of what it can do.

Right. More new things. Isn't this the prettiest notebook ever? 

This notebook is the control centre for my 'make all the birthday cards I send in 2025' project (I know, catchy title) I had a lovely time going through all my saved patterns and kits, working out what to stitch for everyone on my list. I've ordered lots more threads which is always fun and I use my Sizzix machine to cut aperture cards as well as bobbins for all those new threads. 

I stitch most evenings and am really enjoying it. I've only got about three cards to go now and that's despite having well over twenty on my list - not to mention the two people who were inconsiderate enough to move house this year. I can't show you most of them as they haven't been given yet but here's my daughter's birthday card from February ...

... and those two new home cards ...

I did sneak in a bit of my normal cross stitch while waiting for a thread order so my Hogsmeade picture now has another building and a lamp post ready for Hedwig to sit on.

As well as cross stitch, I've used blackwork, ribbon embroidery and counted canvaswork for some of the cards which I've really enjoyed. The source for these patterns is often my collection of old 'New Stitches' magazines. This was unusual among stitching magazines in that it included lots of different techniques rather than just cross stitch. I'm gradually collecting old issues when I can find them and, just before Christmas, I bought a big pile from ebay.

One type of embroidery that I discovered through these magazines is Lagartera which is a lovely counted thread technique from Spain which can be used to make very nice geometric designs. And no, I can't show you the lagartera card I made yet. However, Mary Hickmott, the editor of 'New Stitches' published several booklets on different embroidery techniques (I have the hardanger ones which are very good) so I've been keeping an eye out for the one she wrote about lagartera. Then, a few weeks ago, I found not only the booklet but also a materials pack to go with it.

It includes all the fabric, threads and finishing bits and pieces to make everything in the book. I can't wait to make that bell pull later in the  year.

Now that I have a working laptop again I'm also trying to write up new patterns as there are a lot of finished things waiting to be published, not to mention an awful lot of half finished designs. Anyway, the next one will be this yellow garter stitch lace scarf, the first of far too many scarf patterns either in progress or waiting to be written up.

I'm also trying to tidy up my craft room after the avalanche of new Stylecraft Special colours which swamped my yarn storage system. I'm slowly getting it back under control. Theoretically, I know where all my craft things are now and this normally proves to be the case apart from ... when it doesn't.

For years I've been looking for a doll from the 1960s who reminds me of one my brother gave me one Christmas. Her name is Kelly and she came as an offer with Kelloggs cereal. One of the reasons I wanted her was that I have a booklet of knitting patterns for her clothes that Patons published specially for her and I though it would be nice to knit some of them. Anyway, I finally got lucky (ebay again) and, after re-stringing her arms and a bit of a tidy up, here she is.

She was only ever a cheaply made doll but I think she's rather nice and she came with her original clothes too which was a bonus. I bet you can guess what's coming next. I went to get the knitting booklet out and it wasn't there! Where have I put it? Who knows? So Kelly will have to wait a bit for her new clothes.

One more new thing which is not at all nice is that I've made a start on the next room in the house to be re-decorated and sorted out. This time I'm having to do it in two halves so, this morning, I made a start.

All I can say is that it looks worse in real life than in the picture. This was the damp corner and those dark patches are where the plaster crumbled as I took off the lining paper. So tomorrow I shall be up the ladder filling them all. That's if I can track the filler down. It will be better when I get on to the painting. At least you feel you're making progress then rather than going backwards.

2020 is Postponed

2020 started off so well. I made three New Year's Resolutions this year:

1. To practise my clarinet regularly. I had it repaired last year and am now re-learning how to play it after a gap of about thirty years.

2. To teach myself shorthand. No idea why, it's just something that I thought would be fun to do. Inspired by Long Live Pitman's Shorthand which is a treasure trove of information and advice, I assembled a few supplies ...

3. To fit work round the rest of my life rather than the other way round. This is something I've been working on for the last few years. I enjoy designing but that means that it's very easy to end up spending all your waking hours doing it. Especially when, if I don't publish a pattern for a few weeks, people start to ask if I'm all right. One day, I'm going to do a breakdown of the amount of hours it takes to design and publish a pattern. Just because something is quick and easy to knit doesn't mean it's quick to design. End of rant.

Anyway, for the first two weeks of January things were going quite smoothly. I was managing a short clarinet practice most days as well as keeping up with my longer violin practices. I hadn't actually started on the shorthand but, as you can see, I'd printed out the first lesson, all ready to go.

The work / life balance wasn't too bad either. I find that making time to actually leave the house and do something different occasionally makes the work go better too. I had a lovely trip to Bramble Patch, my local quilt shop. My rotary cutter has been slowly dying for ages. I replaced the blade before realising that something was out of alignment and it was high time to buy a new one. This one has a button lock which I like and it cuts through the fabric so easily.

The fabric and webbing is for a bag. I've been making my reversible tote bags for ages and thought it was about time I designed a new basic bag. The plan is to try making a roomy shoulder bag, this time lined with wadding. Not sure if it will be reversible or not as that may make it too complicated to do.

Anyway, this is all academic as that pile of fabric is still sitting on my work table, waiting to be unfolded. 

In the middle of January my eighty year old Stepfather had a fall and ended up in hospital for two weeks. He wasn't badly hurt and recovered well but was finally persuaded that he needed some help at home from regular carers. He has very bad arthritis in his knees, arms and hands so everyday tasks are difficult and take ages. While we were waiting for everything to be set up, we had a good sort out at his house, making it ready for him to come home.

Things went well for the first three weeks after hospital; I started off being there all day but, gradually, he was able to do more and we were getting into a routine which meant I could eat a hot meal at my house every day and do some work. I even got back to practising my violin and was thinking I might be nearly ready to start my lessons again.

Then he had another fall, this time putting his head through the glass back door. Carers were with him at the time so they called me and the ambulance and then we all waited an hour and a half for it to arrive. He had two deep cuts on his head which they glued back together in A & E before sending him home. 

Now you'd think that would have left him with a serious headache but no, he said it just felt a bit sore. They obviously made them tough in 1939. The fall knocked him for six in other ways though and we had a rough few weeks before he started to get better again. My son and I have been sharing the care - I do the days and he does evenings and nights. I think he's really tuned the corner now so that's a big relief.

So, if you've been wondering why I've been so quiet since January and haven't been publishing much, now you know. I have been doing bits of work as and when I can but it's very slow. I had nearly finished this reversible scarf in early January and finally managed to get it done and published.

Double Up Scarf

This is much more complicated than most of my patterns. I normally aim for simple designs that most people can have a go at but I was fascinated by Nancy Marchant's book Knitting Brioche and used one of the simpler stitch patterns to knit a double sided scarf. It took me about half the scarf before I finally got the hang of it and stopped making mistakes.

I then looked round for some portable knitting to work on in odd moments and unearthed my pile of triangles.

Looking back through my pattern notebooks (there are fifteen of them so far), I found that I'd started this project in February 2018 and had been working on it off and on ever since. Definitely time to get it done. Anyway, several weeks later I had all 150 little triangles done and was ready to assemble them. 

This would have normally taken me a day or so, taking photos as I went but, as I had to wait to be at my house in daylight (and where my big photography lights live), I could only photograph one stage per day - sometimes every few days. It was like building a kaleidoscope ...

And here is the finished thing ...

I've called it Seven Sisters after the traditional quilt pattern which was presumably named for The Pleiades. My finished hexagon is about 96 cm across at its widest, big enough to do duty as a table covering but you could easily use it as a blanket pattern. Either knit more stars or use thicker yarn to make it bigger.

The yarn I used is Schoppel-Wolle Edition 3, a DK weight yarn which comes in some beautiful, subtly shaded colourways. These are the two that I used ...

The star colour is shade 2296, English Garden and I used shade 2298 Wash Day for the background triangles. This yarn is one of my favourites ever; I shall definitely be using it again.

With such a geometric project the normal 'drape it here and there in a vaguely artistic way' approach to photography wasn't going to work. Instead, I had a lovely time folding the knitting into all sorts of shapes.

Much to my delight, I got home yesterday evening to find that this pattern had reached Number One on the ravlery 'hot right now' list. It was number seven first thing in the morning but I  don't have access to the internet at my Stepfather's house so I asked my friends on my ravelry group to keep an eye on the list for me. As normal, they rose to the challenge so a big thank-you to them all, especially Isolde. And thank-you to everyone who looked at the pattern page and thereby pushed it up the list. There was a bit of happy dancing going on here last night.

I'm now concentrating on two crochet designs - both heavily textured - and yesterday I started knitting a climate change scarf. This last one is going to be quite quick to do I think now that I've worked out all the maths behind it. Mind you, when I say I've worked it out, what I actually mean is that my son has patiently explained it to me several times and I've made notes. I've never been comfortable with negative decimal numbers so I have to keep checking them with him. So far I've knitted to the end of the nineteenth century - only 120 years to go. I'll take some photos to show you when I get time ...

New Books

I always enjoy a day out in Leamington Spa and I nearly always come back with new books. This is owing to two exciting shops: Presto Music, an independent, proper music shop and The Craft Works. This, as you can probably guess, is a craft only version of the discount chain The Works.

I did particularly well recently and thought you might like to see what I got. Music first, because I always go to the music shop first.

I got two new violin books. The duets are to give me something a bit more 'normal' to try as I've only played Bartok duets so far which, although fun, are something of a challenge. The new book has eight duets from eighteenth century - right up my street. I also got a new book of violin studies, 'More Technique Takes Off' (to follow on from 'Technique Takes Off' naturally). I only had one more study to work on in the first book so I thought I'd be on to this new one soon ... turns out they saved up lots of hard stuff and crammed it all in the last piece - trills, vibrato, tricky timing. I may be a while.

The piano book is Burgmuller's famous set of piano studies. I never did studies when I learnt the piano so didn't know about these until my violin teacher recommended them. They're lovely little pieces, easy to sight read but hard to play really well.

I also got a recorder book (well, we wouldn't want the recorders to feel left out, would we?). A Baroque Anthology for descant recorders which I plan to play on my tenor recorder. Baroque is best. One day, I'm going to make myself a badge with that on. Also, one with 'Music for a while shall all your cares beguile' (from a Purcell song, in case you wondered).

So, that's the new music books. Now for the craft books.

All three of them have lovely covers and, I don't care what anyone says, I do like a book to have a pretty cover. Let's have a closer look at them, one by one.

'Beautiful Stitches' by Susan Bates is full of simple, freestyle embroidery designs. Animals, flowers, gardens - there's something for everyone. I love old-fashioned country scenes, the sort of thing featured in my old Stitchcraft magazines so this was one of my favourites ...

I was rather taken with the seed packet designs too ...

I have a lot of nasturtiums in my garden but, at the moment, they're more leaf than flower.

I think they're pretending to be lily pads.

This one features several of my favourite things: gardens, tea (although that should be a cup and saucer, not a mug) and, of course, knitting.

DMC colours are given for all the designs in the book or you could just use whatever shades you have, a bit like colouring in with thread.

This next book is the one I'm most excited about.

Sew Flower Quilts & Gifts by Atsuko Matsuyama is just gorgeous. What is it about Japanese quilting books that makes them so stylish? The designs are always appealing and full of the most perfect details. It is possible to use Japanese quilting books even if you don't read Japanese as they normally include diagrams and measurements but this one is in English.

What shall I show you? How about this picnic lunch set and beautiful little bag? Just look at those flowers ... and the lace edging .. and the patchwork strap ...

There are four little seasonal wall hangings too; here are the ones for autumn and winter...

I love all the little details in this sewing kit ...

You can never have too many sewing kits, especially if they're as pretty as this one.

Most of the projects in the book are small but there is one big sampler quilt. 

I just love the fabrics this designer uses - lots of bright pastels, typical of the 1930s. This is one of those books where I could happily make every single project.

The last of the craft books is a bit different as it's all about making flowers out of fabric.

At first I thought the cover was the best part of Fabric Blooms by Megan Hunt but then I found her felt flowers.

Felt, bright colours, buttons? Some of my favourite things. How about this for a fantastic bouquet - the bridesmaids would be fighting each other to catch this one.

You could use these flowers as a starting point for your own designs; they'd make lovely decorations for cards too. 

Now I would never wear this sort of thing (because, frankly, I'd look ridiculous in it) but aren't these felt flowers beautiful?

I don't know when I'll find time to make something from one of these new craft books but who cares? In the meantime, I can enjoy browsing through them; craft books are some of the best comfort reads I know.