Our Haven

Do you remember me talking about creating our own haven? Well I've ransacked my storage, re-arranged, re-framed, re-purposed - you name it. Above is my old Armoire/cupboard. It was creamy, bluey-ish. Now its painted 'Railings' from Farrow & Ball, interior eggshell for the perfect level of low-sheen. We're very happy now.

Wait till you see the rest!

PS: How can you not love Ed when he loves a quilt with a substantial amount of pink in it and red floral cushions on his bed... seriously. He loves it.....

Thought for the week - re!

Now it's sunny, why not revamp an old piece of furniture, change frocks into cushions, turn wooden wine cases into herb planters. Anything you've got (or your family has)lying around, would be lovely to paint or plant up whilst enjoying the sunshine in the garden wouldn't it?

Avoids spending money the nasty sales in Oxford Circus too. It felt like I was at a rock concert this morning (I wasn't there for the sales!)

Make something lovely, go on......

Two more quilting classes at The Papered Parlour before we retire for summer...

Book here for either July 11th or August 8th.

It will be fun, fun, fun!

The dilemna of a bedside table....

When I go to bed, I usually travel with tea and maybe a book or two, a magazine or three, pen, pad....... get the picture? Well, on my mission to embrace our flat and make it our haven, well the bedside tables weren't right for me. I like symmetry in homes, because it's more restful and easier on the eye. We had two different tables, different heights, different sizes. And worst of all, mine allowed me to keep adding to the pile described above.

So in a bedroom with a vintage silk quilt, antique danish wardrobe, modern art, barkcloth cushions and black metal windows, I went for the above. Two lovely, blackened brass indian tables. Eds has a lamp and a tiny brass pig on it. I have a bit more...... a picture that is dear to me, my glass koru, two special boxes I've had for years, and the first vase I bought when I arrived back in London. It's currently sporting a rose Ed stole for me whilst walking Lily late at night.....

Happy is - not too much stuff, but just enough to feel secure when you go to sleep.

PS: For once I bought new... the tables are from here.

Free crafty fun at The Papered Parlour!

Come on down to The Papered Parlour on July 4th for a free (ahem, yes totally FREE) afternoon of crafty fun.

I'll be teaching American style patchwork, there will be Andy Warholesque screen printing, as well as doodling for the kids.

The Papered Parlour girls will be hosting all-American live music from finger-picking folkies playing Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie and other traditional tunes from across the Atlantic.

Plus there’ll be genuine red, white and blueberry cakes, hot apple pie and cold lemonade...

Best of all, it won’t cost you a dime!

Hope to see you there! It's only in Clapham - not far, and there's the common and many, many pubs for you to enjoy before and after!

(Click here to RSVP on facebook!)

Supper with friends

Friday night, football and a birthday supper for good friends. It tasted like summer - pasta with mint, young garlic, flageolet beans, asparagus, ricotta and pecorino cheese, and a big glass of Italian lager.

Eaten on laps in front of the telly - that's a lovely way to spend time with friends isn't it?

Thought for the week - what's your story?

 

If you have read this journal beyond the "oh look our sale, or - come to our class" entries, you might notice that I tend to think a lot about home and what it means. I had a feverish few days writing the back-story(read sales-pitch) for my Breakspears project, all based on the notion of home and what it is, what it means. There won't be any Maslow pyramids in this post, don't worry (but I do love him).

Anyhoo, the singular thought that I have come up with (does that sound like I only have one thought in my head?), is that..

Home is the on-going story of a person - where you have been, where you are now and where your life and dreams (if you're lucky enough to get those) will take you.

If you are 16, homeless and pregnant it's as relevant as being 35, married, with 2 children in a nice suburb in London.

The above picture is my older sister, me (being very much a middle child here) and my cousin Damon, outside the house I spent my first 16 years in. My mother fought to keep that roof over our head, my father was keen to take it away from us. She worked and worked and worked, but all I remember is trees and gardens, cats and our dog, my playhouse and pikelets after school.

So I guess this post is a bit of an ode to my mother. If she hadn't fought and worked, I wouldn't have what I have and think what I think.

What's your story?

Have a lovely weekend, do something nice.

Cooking for new friends

One of the best things about my stint at Anthropologie, was meeting some new friends. I met the lovely Jo and she came over for dinner last night. There are a great number of things that I am terrible at (best not reveal them yet....). However one thing I've always been good at is cooking, or as Ed calls it "the chaos in the kitchen, the feast on the table". It's how I like to look after people, make them feel welcome. We are known for food, talk and books - I think this is rather marvelous. 

So I made spaghetti with lemon, basil and parmesan sauce. I then got a little bold. I took a Nigel Slater brownie recipe.... and improved it...... can you imagine.... The above are indeed the best brownies I have ever eaten - do you want the recipe? send me an email or a comment and I'll send it over.

Jo was superb company and Ed and I thank her for our momentous hangovers........

What a lovely review!

Last weekend, I taught another contemporary quilting class. I love it more and more every time I teach it. I hope that my students feel great and inspired at the end of it, but the below review blew me away (and yes, it made Ed a bit teary eyed...  he's a writer, what can I say...)

Excerpt below, full the full review just click here as Becks wrote about The Papered Parlour also.
 

Thanks Becks - your quilt was very,very beautiful.
 

"Well. Within the first five minutes I kind of felt like a failure... Our teacher for the day was Cassandra Ellis, who was wonderful and inspiring and gave us a rousing speech at the start of the class about how special quilts are and how they should really mean something to the quilter and the recipient of the quilt. We'd all been asked to bring a special piece of fabric to work into the piece of patchwork we'd be making today. As we went around the room introducing ourselves, special pieces of material were pulled from bags: sarongs from special holidays, favourite curtains, something special for someone's daughter... I coughed and mumbled that I'd bought my fabric from Liberty the week before. #Fail. But in the end I was rather glad I did. Fabrics were provided for the class and people sewed some lovely things with them, but they weren't really my taste (all a little too pink!) and I was glad to have this selection to fall back on.

Still, I wanted a story behind my first quilt too. When I was at the V&A I picked up the Gentle Art of Quilt Making and loved the ideas in it of finding quilts themes in every day life (tiles on a wall, a Russian scarf, fields of tulips...) Then, with the fabrics scattered on the table in front of me, I saw it. Inspired by the pottery of Holland, I decided to make a Delft quilt. I love the blue and white colours of Dutch pottery, and, since I grew up there, it has the nice sentimental touch I was looking for. So, it took me a while, but I got there in the end, and started cutting.

 

As well as inspiring us by showing off her fabulous quilts and telling us great quilting stories, Cassandra was also a great practical teacher, showing everyone at their own pace how to cut fabric with a rotary blade, giving us several different quilt patterns to work from and showing us to to sew our squares together".

One for the weekend...

Bell tent - check!

Lunch and supplies at Bills enroute - check!

Lily ( hoorah for campsites that take dogs.... ) check!

New book candy - check!

Happiness weekend - check! East Sussex, here we come......

The other reason I love New Zealand

When one is my age and doesn't have their own children, you can feel, well a little bit of a fraud waxing lyrical about those smaller than a metre tall. However, these are my nieces (4 year old twins) and they are, how would you say it better, 'inside me'. I held their 4 pound bodies minutes after they were born and this time I got to lug around about 15kg.

See - family can be all over, all shapes, all configurations. Doesn't matter really does it?

Our sale is cracking along....

It's hurting a little to wrap up the quilts... but what delightful stories and places their new homes have....

All cushions come with their feather inner, or we can take them out for those that live on far shores. Just let us know and we can send you a wee refund for the inner.

We have some really beautiful new things coming in soon (not that these aren't beautiful but.....)

Shop here for loveliness!

Thought for the week - what home should be.

Josef Frank (oh how he hated the minimalist Bauhaus

movement) wrote the following..

"Home should be a warm, liveable place that is alive, a place to please the eye and soothe the senses in scale, curves, colour, variety, pattern and texture"

I'm preparing for our Breakspears project, and I think this thought out of many ideas, is one which we could all give some time to in our own homes. What do you think?

Lovely image courtesy of here 

Breakspears Haven

This is Breakspears.

This is my new project. Breakspears is home to 9 young homeless mothers and their new baby. It's run by the very good people at Centrepoint who help these young women to get on their feet, get on with their lives and get on with building a future for them and their child. It's a great house, but I want to turn it into a haven. Somewhere that proves good, solid and emotional design can improve the way you live and how you feel.

I've been waiting and waiting for a media partner to say yes to help me spread the word, but very good news means I don't have to wait any further.

I'll be launching a campaign to ask you for your help soon. Last year we built a library for Centrepoint, which we are very proud of. This year, we are hopefully going to help young homeless people feel good about where they live.

This is extraordinarily exciting.

In Chicago

The lovely Terry was the winner of my cushion, over at the very lovely Pia's place. What a fantastic email waiting for me this morning and I have to say, a very grand place for a little bit of us to rest..

Big news tomorrow ( well big to me anyhoo )

 

A little sale!

www.havenworkroom.bigcartel.com

New quilt designs are coming in, so out goes our stock quilts. If you're looking for something smaller we thought we'd also take off 30% off the stock cushions and lampshades.

Enjoy!

A few books for the weekend

Do you forsee lying in the grass/common/beach this weekend? I do, but only if the above comes with me. All my passions in a 2kg pile.

Arranging Things 

A little esoteric, so thankfully its little. Cerebral thoughts on why things look best placed a certain way. I thought it came natural - apparently it's all theory....

The London Gardener

I was a huge fan of Elspeth Thompson. Her death recently rendered my completely useless for a day or two. Her writing is delightful and I imagine she would have been a complete delight to be around. Any garden in London is treasured (you should see our balcony) and this is a great book to remind you where, what and why.

Cool camping

Because I'm in charge of finding somewhere for next weekend - one that also takes a dog...... O & F love camping - simple pleasures see.....

Sense of Colour

I just like looking at Shannon Frickes books. Australian styling is fantastic. My two favourite interiors mags are Vogue Living Australia and Inside Out. There are many others that I love, but not as much as these.

Chic Simple - Home

1993 this was published - could have been published last month. Went from NZ to London, to NZ to London....... reference material for upcoming changes to flat.... very exciting....You can still buy it. It really is marvellous.

Printing by Hand

I bought it some time ago and haven't looked through it properly. Will read before I start drinking.

Etc Etc

Ditto

Rose Bakery

Who's been? I stayed around the corner so we could go every day. Fantastic cookbook, planning new cakes for next weekend when O & F are up. New favourite bakers ( I'm sorry Nigel.. )

Dick Frizzell - The Painter

My mum bought this for my birthday. I'm lucky enough to own a Frizzell and I love it. So I shall read this whilst drinking wine thinking of my mum who gave me this most excellent present.

Nothing on marathon running then........

Have a lovely weekend - and for those that wanted the pattern, I look forward to piccies. You can email me any time for the pattern if you haven't already.

Would you like to make one of these?

This weekend is going to be the kind of weekend, where one lays in the grass under a tree, or sits in the garden with lemonade/gin/cake/sausage sandwich and listens to the dulcet tones of, maybe, Teddy Thompson...

What one needs is something to do with ones hands. A little crafty project, but something satisfying.

Well, fear not, I can solve your needs. For my quilting classes I have created a whole variety of patterns. Now the basis of my classes is intuitive patchwork, so I don't care if you get the seam allowance wrong, I don't care if you can't cut straight. I just care that you make something that you love. The lovely woman on the right of this picture had never sewn anything - and voila!

So if you're up for it, I have a free pattern and instructions for you to start your own cushion or quilt, or whatever you want. You wont need much fabric, in fact it would be far better if you just used your husbands old shirts, or your daughters dress she's grown out of, or whatever scraps you have.

Just email me at cassandra@cassandraellis.co.uk, and I will sent you a super lovely pdf with everything you need tomorrow.

If you have Sunday free, you can always come and join me at the Papered Parlour - I think they have one spot left.

I'm home

I'm home. Once the jet lag has subsided, we'll be back in business.

I do love (and miss) a black sand beach though....