The Creative Art of Embroidery

The Creative Art of Embroidery by Barbara Snook. With a title (and author's name) like that, how could I resist? Just look at the cover: 

It spoke to me on a wild, deep and primal level. You see, I was born in the mid-Seventies: I am programmed to be drawn to folkloric, wooly and slightly itchy-looking things. I have no choice.

I found myself with a long car journey and some quiet nights by the fire ahead of me, and felt the need for something other than crochet to occupy my hands. I was given this book a while ago, and Barbara Snook called me from the shelves.

This was the result:

I like it! Not sure what I'll do with it yet, maybe a dress or a blouse. Something suitably Seventies and rustic looking. Something you could wear whilst making quiche. 

Not sure what Barbara Snook would make of the back, isn't your back supposed to be as neat as your front? I had another go and made this on some old Heather Ross fabric:

This little fish has already gone onto bigger seas, I'll show you soon.

It was all a bit too slow for me. I've no doubt you can speed up with embroidery but I fear my eyesight would not allow it. Bit of a baby-faced assassin, embroidery. It definitely brought glasses a few years closer, didn't tapestry weavers go blind in the old days? Weren't many of them children? Suddenly this all feels a lot less wholesome...

Dusting down the shelves

The door creaks open...sorry about all the dust. If I find the kettle we could have a cup of tea. I brought milk. Probably best not look in that biscuit tin though.

It's been a while, much has happened. I have journeyed far and near through art education, teacher training, job applying and matters very real world, taxing and big. 

I am now a qualified teacher in charge of steering the nation's youth on the righteous path of art and photography.  A sobering thought.

Through all of this I did not stop making, this is one strong and primal urge. As if I didn't know. 

Projects have got a little smaller; they fit in with me rather than vice versa. Can I pick it up after a few weeks neglecting it? Does it fit in my bag? Can I do it during the hour and a half my daughter sleeps during my day off? If the answer to those questions is yes, then I'm in.

Stay tuned if you want to see some of the fruits of my labours.

Meanwhile, here's a photo of a poncho I made for a doll. She usually has a nice red dress on but a toy cat stole it. You know how cats can be.

I promise they won't all be like this. Pattern from the Ladybird of Crochet. 

kindle case

I am a compulsive reader and member of a book club. So I have participated in quite a few Kindle debates. I hear that they are great for reading whilst travelling/in a queue/on the beach/in a shed/breastfeeding/breastfeeding in a shed, but I am still not convinced. 

You see, I love books. I love paper, spines, smells, bookmarks,  cover artwork and all that good stuff.  

But I do understand the arguments of the people who love them. I am a fully paid up member of the digital world after all.

One of these people is my dear sister-in-law, who asked me to make a cover for her beloved Kindle. One that would also hold her charger and keep it all safe from the bottom of her handbag. I know how dangerous those places can be.

She liked the laptop case I made so we talked it through and this is what I came up with.


I made the cover using scraps leftover from this quilt and a piece of felt to strengthen it in the middle.

I made it up as I went along but the design was a cross between the laptop case and the book roll I made back in October.


In terms of process, I sewed the strips right side to the felt along one side, and then opened the flap so it was the right way round, like this:

And this:

A bit fiddly, but it worked well. I bound all the edges with shop-bought bias binding, and a lot of strategically placed velcro.

This case will be winging it's way to France where the Kindle lives so I sadly don't have a photo of it in action. But I hope they will all be very happy together. 

Me, I'm building more bookshelves.




Stop press! A communiqué from France containing photos of the Kindle case in use:

Merci Réjane!

Bucking the trend: Library opens

Like many families with young children, made-up stories are very much a feature of our lives, and a part of being a parent I find quite hard. Tell you a story from my head?  Do you realise it is 6.45am? Learn how to make tea and I'll tell you a story.

I usually defer to their dad, who finds the muse quicker than I do. Some of these stories and characters have become part of family life.

For my daughter, a highlight of the trip to the library is having a go at stamping the return date. And so, inspired by this rubber stamp I bought in Lille, we have been playing libraries.

I made a few little books for our library, and this lead naturally to making our own storybooks. Drawing the covers, writing the stories, it was lovely. And a very funny insight into the nearly four-year-old mind:

And so, the little books became a way of recording these stories, a snapshot of a time that will pass before I know it, and doubtless before I am ready.

I used some thin A4 card for the covers, I sliced them across the middle and folded in half. For the pages, I used some A5 coloured paper, though plain would do. 

Folded in half, I found the centre, and using thick thread (tacking or button thread) I sewed the whole together with one large stitch. I finished by tying a really strong knot and trimming off any overlapping edges.

We made little tickets for the inside cover - and for the all-important stamping - and they were finished.


I think she needs to work on sustaining the narrative arc, otherwise great. The Booker prize 2041 is in the bag.

rainy day women

We found a photo recently of my older daughter wearing a little yellow wooden toy watch bracelet. She loved it very much indeed, and then lost it. The photograph brought all the pain back. There was a lot of fruitless searching and some tears. I guess no one forgets their first watch.

At the same time, a book my mum recently gave me had a project to make a fabric watch. 

And so a visit to a friend's house on a rainy day with four little girls to entertain became a fantastic crafting session.

We made ours a little simpler than the one in the book, which, whilst lovely, was a process more for the grown ups. 

We measured little wrists, then chose a felt colour and a fabric scrap. Using pinking shears we cut a strip with a circle shape in the middle the same length as the wrist, to make the base of the strap. Then the fabric scrap was cut the same shape but slimmer so as to leave a little gap around the edge.

Then a quick go on the sewing machine to stitch the two together. The faces were cut from felt or another scrap and hand sewn on with a few stitches. On one of them I made the stitches into the digits.

Each girl decided what her favourite time of the day was (one o'clock and ten o'clock respectively) and this was drawn on with a permanent marker. I had some big ideas about moving hands using paper fasteners, but decided to keep it simple. And we had no paper fasteners.


Strangely, neither of them recognised the Withnail (or Marwood) quote about a stopped clock being right twice a day that had their mothers giggling. 

A press stud was sewn on by hand and, done!

We even had a bit of time, creative energy and felt left for some binca:

some bead sweets:

and some hairclips:

Lovely.

The best dressed nappy shelf in town.

No, this is not the first sign of madness. Really. When I first saw this:

I thought yes, yes, very pretty, but we have only three score years and ten, so I don't have time to crochet a trimming for a shelf.

Turns out I was wrong. Damn that beautiful Japanese styling.

I got a voucher from a dear friend for this lovely place for my birthday. So I bought some wool. And the wool seemed to ask me to make it into this. My new found Japanese skills made it all possible and really quite simple.


Unusually for me, I did not even change the colour combination, I was so smitten.

The cream and blue wool is made from milk fibre and it feels so soft, light and lovely. A real pleasure to hook with.

I blocked it out on a towel wrapped round a board for about three days. Enough time for quite a lot of comments of the questioning my sanity variety. But I don't care, I am used to those.


I used a lot of pins for the blocking and it worked a treat:

There are three other shelves in this room. I hope they are patient.

Very patient.