Another one under the belt

For the longest time I have wanted to learn how to knit. I even did a knitting lesson a year or so ago, it was nice, I knitted and I purled for a couple of hours and dropped a ton of stitches and then came home and felt disabled without a teacher, and work and lack of transport (I still cannot drive) made attending more knitting classes prohibitive, and I never knitted again.

My mother can knit, occasionally she knits half of something, she gets bored fast. When Amber was growing in my belly she started knitting her a pants and cardigan outfit, some 18 months later she finally completed the newborn sized outfit and so it did not fit toddler sized Amber, instead, newborn Hazel wore it for about 3 days, before her legs grew a billion inches (how do babie's do that?) and it didn't fit her either.
So all my life, I have had this marvellous untapped knitting resource in my own mother, but there are plenty of reasons I did not tap it.

For a start, my mother is just not a great teacher. When I was pregnant with Bluebelle and living in rural France I decided I needed to learn to drive. I came back to the UK to do an intensive course, supplemented by lessons from the parents (this was somewhat embarassing given that I was 30 year old woman and not a teen) in the evenings. My dad was great, kinda freaked out but calm all the same, my mother made it about 500 yards down the road with me driving, before yanking at the steering wheel and pulling on the handbreak, all the while screaming that I clearly had a death wish, I actually got out of the car and made her drive me home.

My mother has one way of doing things, her way. There is no other way, and much like she yanked the steering wheel as my learner driver self pootled down the lane at 10mph, anything I have asked her to help me with has resulted in the same "You suck, let me take over" approach and hence, I stopped asking for help. I have spent years wishing I knew how to use a sewing machine, knit, make clothes or curtains and tons of other stuff, but could not face my own mothers infuriating mode of teaching.

She does the same thing with my kids, and I often see them bawl with frustration as she manhandles their art materials and starts doing their homework for them, I smile and remember the pain in the ass that is her teaching methodology, it tickles me to see them feeling the same as I did, it validates the feelings I had as a child, as well as proving my mother is clearly bat shit crazy.
Honestly, I am painting my mother in a poor light, she is a brilliant, loving and generous woman, she just cannot bare to stand by and watch you do something wrong, she has to dive in and take control, hence, a patient teacher she is not.

Anyhoo, when Hazel expressed an interest in knitting, I thought about sending her over to Nan's, felt bad about the potential fury this would likely cause, then sent her anyway.
Hazel came home a ball of rage, but she could knit. Then she discovered a knitting club at school, and started knitting like a girl posessed. There were some crazy Nan teaching moments, like the time she unravelled about 12 inches of Hazel's knitting, despite her hysterical screams, to fix a hole right at the beginning (that was actually kinda bad but not unheard of behaviour, I told you, bat shit crazy!), but Hazel perservered.

And so it came to be, that this thirty something mama of 4, who desperately wanted to knit, learned not from her own mama, but from her daughter, and oh, how wonderful that is! Get your kids to suffer on your behalf, thats some fine parenting on my part, I am sure you will agree.
There are now balls of yarn all over the house and the constant clickety click of needles making, MAKING. Christmas making, no less. Well, scarves, I am not following patterns yet, but boy I am I excited by the possibilities (socks!!!).



There will be many a scarf filling many a christmas stocking this year. Oh Yes.
Also, did you know, that the village I lived in over in France, was the village of the SHEEP, every kind of sheep on my doorstep, with women hand spinning wool and knitting beautiful things, and oh, to be back there.... so many things I took for granted. I am learning not to do that.

Certainly, I am not taking Hazel for granted, as knitting teachers go, she totally rocks. And my mother... I am learning that a patient student is a pretty good pacifier for an impatient teacher, I might even ask her how to crochet, after a stiff drink, maybe.

Art, Science and the bit in between

Lately my work time doodling has taken on a splodgy organic direction, I am fascinated with the idea of putting things under the microscope and seeing how they look, and translating those visuals somehow into stitch. Of course I don't have a microscope (I need one), but I draw cells, all colours, organic forms, free flowing, I still don't know what it means.

Then today, I found this....





Not cells, but watermarks....



Ghostly when out of focus...



A veil of cells, of sorts...



On a window...



On a Train.... mother natures paint brush.

I took so many photos, until someone asked me what stop we were at, and I realised, I was supposed to get off the train several stops ago.
But I think it was worth it, I can't stop looking at these photos. So many possibilities. Sometimes the most unexpected things inspire the most, and I am wondering how to translate this on to fabric, in stitch, or, with water? colour? coloured water?

If Moths Could Read....

Lots of variations of this being stitched up for lavender sachets, for the women in my life plagued by moths (but not by kids - given the content of the message).

Happy Weekending to you :)

Sew on the Go - Hexie Tutorial

I am starting a revolution - at least I am trying!
I spend a lot of time commuting, lots of trains and tubes, the occasional bus, my work takes me all over London. One day's worth of meetings can result in anything up to 3-4 hours train or tube time, that's an awful lot of idle time. I am not good at being idle.

So I started to drag along some sewing, at first I tried embroidery, but changing thread colour and the need for precision proved a bit tricky for bumpy train rides, also you need to carry quite a lot of floss, unless you work in one colour. So instead, I got me some paper hexagons and started making a quilt.

This is the perfect craft for commuting, you can piece by hand with relative ease and it is so portable. I take along a needle, thread, scissors, the paper pieces, the fabric squares, and that's pretty much it, it tucks neatly into my bag and I can whip it out as soon as my butt hits he train seat.

I worked out that between tube stops I can sew one side of a hexagon (to another) so a full days worth of meetings in London can yield at least one double ring Hexagon flower, I need 40 of these, so far I have 11, all completed on the commute in the last few weeks.

I get a lot of strange looks from other travellers, and occasionally someone breaks the London rule (don't talk to fellow commuters) and asks me what I am doing. I think I have converted at least 3 people to my Sew on the Go idea, who knows?
It seems like such a great use of otherwise idle time. I have seen one person knitting, but never anyone sewing. Am I alone? Does anyone else Sew on the Go?
The craft industry is the fastest growing industry in the UK, with millions, yes MILLIONS, of women turning their attentions to creating for fun, especially quilting. Surely I am not alone in my crafty commuting endevours?

Will you join me?

Here is how I make the hexies...

 

First you need to get some paper pieces, you can cut these from scrap paper yourself. I couldn't face trying to precisely cut hundreds of paper hexies, so I bought mine on ebay, you can also buy them here.

You will need to cut fabric squares approx 1" larger than your paper pieces. I am working with 2" hexies and my fabric squares are 3", the fabric need not be cut precisely (only the paper pieces). I do not cut mine into hexagons, I just go right ahead and fold them around my template. This will mean bulkier seams, and I am not sure yet how this will impact the quilting part (being as I haven't got that far), but a whole lot of people seem to be doing it this way, so I am following suit.

Armed with your paper hexies and fabric squares, grab a needle and thread, and fold and baste the fabric to the paper pieces, like so....



Finger pressing thn gently around the edges of your hexagons is super easy, I fold a side then baste before folding the next side and continuing to baste.







Once you have basted them, they will look like this...





Once you have a pile of these, you can start stitching them together. You can stitch them randomly to make a charm quilt, or you can use a pattern like the (free) one I am using here.
To attach them to one another, hold them right sides together and whip stitch them at the edges, the stitches need to be small and close together, so as not to catch the paper (this part is easier than you think), but not necessarily super neat.







Think about what colour thread you use, as sometimes you can see the little stitches to the front (only a little).
It will look like this on the back...



Once you have stitched the hexies together, you can unpick the basting stitches and re-use the paper pieces if you need to, the tiny needle holes don't damage them a whole lot, my paper pieces are on their fourth round and still doing fine, though they will eventually be too tatty to use again.



Prepare to be super addicted, and if you decide to Sew on the Go, don't forget to post your photos to the Flickr Group I set up, you can post any crafty commuting endevours in this group, including knitting! I might get some Sew on the Go stickers printed up with which to adorn myself during said crafty commutes, so if you see a suited blonde woman, madly stitching and clad head to toe in stickers with this logo, then do say hello :)



If there is anything I have missed, or you have any questions or perhaps some nuggets of golden wisdom to add, please do leave a comment :)

Sweet Treats

I am trying to be a litle more organised with Christmas this year, I have bought most all of the childrens presents, and will be adding a few handmades (by me) and a few from Etsy.

Here are some of my favourite Etsy finds...



1.Monda Loves
2.Soho Mode
3.Vaivanat
4.Wild Things Dresses
5.Slightly Triangle
6.Peaqo
7.Baby Cricket
8.Lily Moon
9.Little Miss Loolies
10.Verkligheten
11.Worthy Goods
12.Adatine

I am especially loving the fox bandits, I want a whole gang of these!

I will be back soon with a hexie tutorial, yay :)

The Magical Hexie Tree

No apples on the tree this year, just late blooming hexie flowers...









and it's time to pick some autumn hexie berries too...



Ahh sweet colour. The fabric is Jennifer Paganellis Honey Child, I am completely in love with these prints.



The box travels with me, sew on the go, the perfect craft for the regular train and tube journeys into the big smoke.
Do you commute regularly? Then English Paper piecing is the perfect past time for you! I might do a wee tutorial here soon, if anyone is interested?

Happy weekending to you :)

Scrapplique

What to do with little fabric pieces? I mean the really little pieces, less than 1", I keep them all, I can't help it. Those little scraps of colourful joy, scraps from the childrens projects, old bedding, scraps of family, scraps of life.
I looked for projects online, but there isn't alot you can do with very tiny scraps, so I stitched them down, on slightly bigger scraps.



It became quite addictive, a simple kantha stitch, rainbow arteries connecting cloth to cloth, to create new colour and new cloth. I have a pile of these "new" cloths, and I will keep adding to the pile, and maybe one day I will connect those too, and have one big cloth, who knows? There is no plan, the only plan is to keep stitching. I call it scrapplique, it seems fitting, raw edges, no fancy pants precision, just cloth on cloth.

















Some of them are gifts, yet to be gifted.

The base cloths are all hand dyed with tea and tumeric, and mostly cut from my old linen maternity pants. I guess those pants were pretty big, I seem to have an awful lot of that cloth.

Scraptacular

Finally, after many months of cutting and piecing, cutting and piecing....



I have a quilt top!





I am super nervous about quilting and binding it (this being my first quilt and all).
Note to self....



You can find the pattern (yes there is a pattern - as higgledy piggledy as it is) HERE.

Every little scrap counts

Things to do on an Autumn day

Head Outside....



Find an oak tree....



Collect some acorn cups, yes, just the cups!



Roll some felt balls...



and pop them in the cups!
We have these hanging all over the house, and boy do kids like to make felt balls.
If you have a minute, collect some sticks too, any sticks will do, and voila, no plastic bobbins required.






To Make Felt Acorns, you will need:

100g of roving wool (any colours)
Acorn Cups
PVA glue
Soap
Water
Lots of little hands

1/ Pull the wool apart and gather a small amount, roll it gently between your palms until it forms a loose ball.
2/ Dip the ball in warm water and gently squeeze off the excess, then add a tiny bit of soap to the palm of your hand, and roll, and roll and roll. Gently at first, you will see the soapy felt ball coming together nicely, as it gets firmer you can apply a little more pressure to your rolling.
3/ Set the balls aside to dry. Once dry, paint a little PVA glue to one end and push into the acorn cup, leave to dry.
4/ Dangle them hither and thither from every hook and cranny, make a sweet garland or attach little paper labels to make perfectly prettyfull name settings (we like this one best - a perfect Sunday Dinner special).

To Make the bobbins, take one stick, some floss, and wind.... easy peasy.

Reconnecting

Oh my! It has been a while... is anyone still here?

I have been tentatively thinking about returning to my wee blog for a while, for despite the lack of blog posts the crafting has continued, and life too, as it does. So I have much to share over the coming weeks.
I got a little bogged down with projects and swaps before. I have decided I am a terrible swapper and will not be partaking in anymore swaps, my life is simply too topsy turvey to be committing to such endevours, as I invariably end up flaking out and letting someone down.

Also, I realised that though I have been "making" for sometime, so few of the things I have made stay with me. So I am focussing right now on finishing up a swap I am very late with and completing a couple of gifts that will be flying to their new homes soon.
Moving forward, I am working on much slower projects, projects with no deadline (for the most part), so I can enjoy the process of making, no rush, just taking my time. I feel quite relieved now that I have made this decision and slowed down. Life is full of deadlines, I think that creating should be seperate from that, at least for now.

Anyways, my blog looks a little different and for this I must thank the very lovely Clare Owen who kindly designed my new banner and buttons, aren't they sweet? I am delighted with the result of her handiwork, what a talented bunny she is! You can see more of her work here and she sells her lovely artwork HERE.

I haven't picked up my camera since my last blog post, so the summer was missed, via the lens at least. I am marvelling at the fresh burst of colour that Autumn has brought, nature is clever that way, just as the weather turns and the chill in the air forces us to pull on extra layers, nature turns with a brilliant show of warm hues, cosy oranges and deep reds, crisp leaves turned brown, dancing in the wind, the last dance, before winter.

I am enjoying Autumn this year, normally I grieve for Spring and Summer, this time I am embracing it. I am liking leaves right now, alot.



I feel better and more alive, the rest was good, it's good to be back.