The Turtle Moves

Hobbycraft and Creative Stitches

Hello!

Today my wonderful daughter and I had a Day Out to the SECC in Glasgow to the Hobbycraft and Creative Stitches show.

We managed to restrain ourselves and only buy a few (teensy weensy, quite cheap and really essential, honest) things to make and do, but the absolute knock-out star of the show was the exhibition of quilting.

There were award winning exhibits from the Quilters Guild competition, and lots of inspiring art quilts. The stunning centre-piece was provided by The Quilt Quine, who displayed a full size yurt covered in quilted panels and a quilted coracle with wonderful pillars around it. My photos were taken on my phone, so they're not of the best, but I hope you can get a flavour of the fabulousness.

Oh, how creative and talented some people are!

I hope you're inspired.

My First Quilting

Hello!

Now that the Christmas Lights Switch On celebrations have been and gone in our town  (The lights are on, the Christmas market went well, the tree looks lovely and most important of all - nobody left any complaints on Facebook or Twitter!!!!! I must be getting better at doing this - it's the third year I've been organising the whole shebang) I have at last had time to undertake the little project I was so merrily seduced by back in October when My Talented Daughter and I were in Perth.

There is a delightful craft and haberdashery shop called The Peacock and Tortoise in George Street in Perth, and for the Christmas season they have a gorgeous display of Christmas fabrics and printed panels. I was completely unable to pass by this Advent Calendar panel, and finally, over the last couple of days, I have found the time to cut out the little pockets and stitch them to the panel, put on a border of lovely starry material, sandwich it with some wadding and back it with dark green.

Here it is, with its loops all ready for a bit of baton so it can be hung up in the kitchen. I know I'm a couple of days late to start an advent calendar, but the grandchildren don't visit every day, so I think I might get away with priming the pockets relating to the days they will be here. What do you think? Is that expediency and worthy of a politician, or is it practical Gran making the best of things?

 

 

Beautiful Bargello

Hello!

It was my birthday yesterday - yes, I am one of those people who brings the sun back to the sky after the longest night. I would probably have been revered as a shaman - or burnt as a witch-  a couple of thousand years ago.

Anyway, I got lots of lovely presents, including one from someone who really is magic- my amazing daughter-in-law. Not only does she hold down a high-powered full time job (with a long commute and many business trips away) but she is also project-managing the total remodelling of the upstairs of their house (including doing a fair bit of the preparing and painting herself), she cooks and bakes wonderful food AND she found the time to stitch this gorgeous bargello tapestry for me and wrestle with a sewing machine for the first time in her life to turn it into a lovely cushion. Phew! She makes me feel inert. She really ought to be Prime Minister - we'd all shape up then, oh yes sirree. We'd be reducing, reusing and recycling with a will. We'd eat better because she would just tell the food industry to cease with the crap, please. And we'd all be told in no uncertain terms to take responsibility for our actions. She's truly wonder woman! And lovely with it.

I got lots of other fabby things, including a nifty hand-held electric felting needle! I'll let you know how that one goes when I've had time to sit down and play with it.

The grandchildren took us to see 'The Hobbit' which we all enjoyed thoroughly. It was spectacularly beautiful - New Zealand is definitely on the bucket list. It started a bit slowly, as it was reprising the beginning of the Lord of the Rings and making sure we 'got' that this tale was the one referred to there. They fairly beat us over the head with the wet end for about 15 minutes too long. It's much better to just refer quickly to stuff like that, then everyone who knows the connection (and you'd have to be living at the back of a cave not to) can feel pleased with themselves. After that, though, it got into its stride. It is much more 'true to the book' than films usually are because of the decision to make it into three films, so by the time you'd watched for three hours, you were about where you would be if you'd been reading the book. I have no problem with that, because the action was fast and furious, there were plenty of beautiful sets/scenery and there was a fair bit of slapstick stuff to enliven the mad battles through the goblin mountain. Gollum was extremely good and was voted 'the best bit' by most of us.

Then we had a meal in Frankie and Benny's - child heaven - and not too shabby for grandmothers either!

Colourful Quartet

Hello there. I realise it looks as if nothing much is happening round here, but that's because the craft project I've been spending most of my time on over the last couple of weeks is Top Secret. It's all connected with the competition that Number One Son has devised for this year's family get-together, a.k.a. Party in the Park 2. I mentioned Very Silly Games in the Park this time last year - well we are about to do something similar, but different, next weekend. I'll tell you all about it after the event!

Anyway, the other day I realised that I have a Fair coming up in three weeks or so, and I would like to have something other than many, many ruffled scarves (nice though they are) to sell on my stall. It's a sort of Vintage Fair, so I clicked along to the queen of vintage fabric Donna Flower to see what inspiration she could provide, and as luck would have it, it's Sale Time! These cute little printed cotton animal kits were half price, so I snapped them up. They are designed by Nanette Regan of areathriftyone. They only take minutes to cut out and stitch, so they can be sold at pocket-money prices for the kids who come trailing around with their mums to these things and are kind of excluded. That's also why I always have some of my enormous stash of beads threaded simply into elasticated bracelets that look pretty but don't cost a fortune - as well as our Very First Invention, the Turtle Beanbag.

As seen in previous craft fair pictures - a simple shape in green cotton,  filled with rice and decorated with fabric paint. They are surprisingly popular, and have been from the very first fair my gorgeous daughter and I did back in the 1980s at Pontardawe Folk Festival.

By the way, if I haven't made something completely from scratch, but is a kit simply sewn together by me, I do make it clear on the label! No plagiarism here, folks.

Lovely old stuff.

Hello! I went to a Vintage Fair in St Andrews on Sunday. Look at the lovely old stuff I found. There was a stall with old (1946) crochet and knitting magazines. Don't you just love the mad lampshade-type hat in the top left corner! I tell you, for 30p it was the cheapest laugh I had all day, but apart from that, the magazine is fascinating for the adverts and references to rationing and advice from the Ministry of Health to help 'Housewives make sure all the family gets their essential nutrition.' Reminder, if one were needed, of just how well off we are nowadays.

There was also a big box of assorted reels of cotton - a few of which were proper wooden reels with these scrumptious colours of thread - Parma Violet and Eau de Nil - even the names sound juicy. Also - do you see the little roses? They are a pair of hair grips made by a wonderful lady called Kate, of  LoveFromAlice. She sources these lovely little items made using old moulds and the original type of plastic (called lucite, I think) and then makes them into hair ornaments and brooches. I love the sort of faded-genteel colours.

I'm really happy that vintage has returned as a 'look', because as far as I'm concerned it never went away - particularly when it comes to furniture. My grandfather furnished his home from the Inverness Auction rooms, my parents furnished theirs from the Aberdeen Auction rooms, and a good few of my bits of furniture (those I haven't inherited from the aforementioned forebears) came from Swansea's equivalent. It may start out as just second-hand, but keep it and love it long enough and it turns into Vintage and eventually to Antique. (That sounds like something my lovely husband and I say to each other on a regular basis!)

Anyway, the cotton reels will join the contents of the gorgeous Victorian sewing box I was given a    

couple of Christmases ago. Most of the sewing stuff I have actually came from my Mum and my Gran, as they both passed their sewing boxes on to me, but it is great to have the excuse to  look out for sewing paraphernalia when browsing junk shops and vintage fairs. Or when wandering idly through Ebay, perhaps? No, no! Danger! It's far too easy to buy lots of lovely old things on that site. Put the mouse down and step away from the computer now.

 

Patterned Penguin

Hello there!

I made this charming chap today. Isn't he cute?

The pattern came from a lovely web-site, The Purl-Bee Penguin where they generously allow you to download pattern and instructions for free. And very clear, comprehensive instructions they are, too. I made this little fellow in about 2 hours this morning, and he's destined for my gorgeous grandson's collection of cuddlies, because the penguin seems to be the favoured creature du jour for him.

I was alerted to the web-site by my discerning and talented daughter who is always concerned that I should have enough to do in my retirement! No, actually  it's just that she wastes hours looking at lovely gorgeous things on-line when she should be writing her best-selling novel and when she finds something irresistible she shares it with us all.

So now I pass it on to you. Go on, make yourself a penguin or two! Perhaps you could go along with the interior decorating trend of having little bird decorations and make them in different colours. A row of technicolour penguins along the mantlepiece - you know you want to.

Dotty, just dotty.

Hello!

Last weekend we were looking after our two gorgeous grandchildren while their parents were down in Wales for a friend's wedding. Apart from it always being wonderful to have grandchildren to play with, last weekend was especially nice because it gave my talented and beautiful grand-daughter an opportunity to Make Something for her Mummy's Birthday. And gave me an opportunity to pass on another new skill. And justify my habit of buying bits of fabulous fabric.

We decided to make Mummy an apron, something every glamorous superwoman needs. So we looked through my stash of fabrics - quite a lot of which are from the wonderful  Donna Flower who runs a vintage fabric and haberdashery website. We found the perect one.

So out came my trusty  Husky sewing machine, and gorgeous granddaughter learned how to pin, tack and sew a straight seam down the sides and along the hem. (I knew there was a reason for getting a machine that could be set to a very slow speed) I  did the gathers, because there's no point getting too tedious with your first sewing project. Then she learned how to put on a waistband. Several new and very useful skills, and all resulting in this extremely pretty spotty dotty apron.

It was Mummy's birthday today. We did good, everyone! Mummy was thrilled to bits.

"Mummy" is of course my beautiful and talented daughter, to whom I have passed my habit of scooping up lovely bits of fabric and yarn. But I now have Proof Positive that it is a Good Habit to Cultivate. It brings Joy all round! Yay!

Retro Cuddlies

Hello folks,

While I was trawling E-Bay for soft toy patterns several months ago, I came across some kits from the late 70s. I couldn't leave these potential chaps languishing in the virtual auctionhouse so I made my very small (but successful) bids, and so they've been waiting in my workroom for me to bring them to life. This week, having finished with the mega craft-fair/Christmas lights/doing stuff for an ungrateful populace things which filled my time in November I thought I'd better clear the decks of this year's projects. So I made a Clothkits Giraffe and Pocket Doll and these splendid 1970's vintage Microkits of an Owl and a baby Hedgehog.

I have to say that sewing the back and front of the Owl together was the biggest leap of faith in the patternmaker's art that I have yet undertaken - it was very difficult to picture the final reverse 3-D effect. But it worked!

These chaps are not going to any craft fair stall - they're probably quite rare by now - and they've cheered me up after a week of feeling a bit wrong-footed. So hopefully my lovely grandchildren will tell me I've Done Good.      

Now to prepare for Christmas. My fabulous family are gathering here this year, so it's time to get out the decorations and put batteries in the singing Santas (splendid grandson can't have grown out of the fun of creating Noise in the Hall, surely?)

Have a lovely festive season y'all.

By the way, this blogging is being accompanied by the sound of the Incredible String Band - My Lovely Husband has brought a tranche of our beloved vinyl down from the attic to convert it to CD and i-player versions. If you haven't encountered this wonderful music and invention, can I suggest you check out three recordings: the eponymous first LP; the 5,000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion; and The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter. On Elektra Records if I remember rightly.

This is what we were doing in the Sixties - and I was there, and I can remember it. Peace, friends.

 

 

 

Quick! Get me a cuddley!

There's an easy sewing pattern from Simplicity (I've had it for a while, so I don't know if it's still available) with two-piece patterns for a dog, rabbit and bear. The original pattern pieces are HUGE - slightly bigger than A5 - so I took them down to our local "print/stationery" shop and got them reduced on the photocopier. The resulting animals are still larger than I would reckon the average baby would cope with as a "doodoo", or security blanket. They're about 15" high - so not pocket-sized. Anyway, the pattern is easy to make up and gives a good shaping on all the animals, so I think I will go down to the photocopy shop and get it reduced by half again. I made these guys out of cotton terry-towelling (the pink and white chaps) which was really easy to work with except for the sewing machine foot tending to pick up a terry loop and pull it along. This didn't matter too much because the generally loopy look of the whole fabric covers a multitude of sins. The bear is made from a 100% polyester "suede" fabric, which looks and feels fabulously soft and cuddly, but it does not accept a sewing needle very easily, so the embroidery for the nose and eyes was very difficult - hence the bear having more of a round  - "oh goodness that'll do" - type nose, rather than the traditional triangular satin-stitch effort on the other two. Still - they're nice and friendly and they've kept me away from bad-tempered knitting!

Little Stripey Mice

When I was getting a Bunting Kit for my lovely daughter last month from Clothkits, I picked up a kit for these little stripey mice. They were a good way to get back into the sewing habit, and will probably be easy enough to reproduce if I decide that every windowsill needs mice! In fact they were an excellent distraction from pesky knitting, miserable weather, a not-very-well husband and the big bloated post-Christmas indulgence feeling. Go find yourselves a bit of cheery material and make something frivolous! It was also an easy lead-in to making some soft toys - pictures to come in the next post.