All-weather multiway literary playtent

A large project has been completed. Sound your trumpets for: the playtent. 

This lovely playtent (second row down) from Heather Ross' 'Weekend Sewing' inspired me, I talked more about this beautiful book in this post. Also, like most human beings, I love Shirley Hughes and there is the part in 'Alfie Goes Camping' where his mum throws a sheet over the washing-line to make a tent. 

But, this is England. What happens for the 300 days a year when it is too cold or wet? Well, there was this almost too-brilliant Etsy seamstress. And this more minimalist take on the table tent. I loved this concept: a little kitchen den for rainy days. But this would require us to have a table free of clutter and dried bits of cereal. And that would be an impossibility.

So. It had to be able to go around a table but not over a table. It also needed to go over a washing line, a clothes drier, and maybe even hammock-style between two trees. In short, it had to be multiway. 

Technical drawings began. I knew the key to unlocking the design conundrum lay in the extensive use of velcro. It usually does. I came up with two identical rectangles, each the size and shape of our kitchen tabletop edge and down to the floor. 


Each piece would have a window with curtains that would be able to close for privacy. By sewing velcro along the long and short sides of the rectangle the tent could be short sides or long sides together.

But, what about the curtains? This caused me no end of scratching my head. All fine when in table mode, but what about washing-line mode? I did not want awkwardly flapping curtains. The lightbulb moment came when I decided to make them sewn permanently down onto a thin strip of velcro, but with tie-backs for opening (above). That way they could be placed along the short or long side of the window, or removed all together.

Above shows the eyelets I added in the corners for pegging it down when in tent-mode. I realised too late that I should have reinforced the corners before putting the eyelets in.

This Elmer fabric was the ideal weight, a little canvassy and heavy. And crucially, it had Elmer on it. 

Gingham ribbon helped to trim the windows and make the tie-backs. The drunken advice of Emma, Jackie and Lucy during a sewing evening where no sewing at all got done helped with this bit.

And that was it really. A space - I hope - for playing, plotting, reading and dreaming. A room of their own. 

Shirley Hughes and Virginia Woolf: a most literary multiway playtent.

Late spring coverlet

My friend has just had a little baby boy, such a nice time of year for it: you just put a rug down and let the chaos reign. 


Just over a year ago I had a baby at this time of year too, and I found a coverlet very handy. Not a blanket or a quilt - it was too warm for those - but a coverlet. A sheet on one side and a quilt top on the other, so it was kind of a lined sheet. 

Now it is a little rug to sit on. I decided to make one for the new little boy and try out some fabric combinations I had had my eye on.

I cut the squares quite precisely for once and used the overlocker (love) to join them into strips, then the strips to each other. It was so quick and painless that I am not sure it earns the right to be called patchwork. Patchwork to me implies a level of endurance and suffering. 

I added some quilting knots, another first, in red embroidery floss. This kept top and bottom together. A bit of home made bias binding, a strip of some nice cotton lace and it all came together with amazing ease.

I hope he likes it, and that it fosters a love of gingham, Snoopy, geese, trees, apples, Miffy, polka dots and all life's good things.

Four bank holidays

A classic seaside holiday: sunshine, mermaids, buckets and spades, chips, ice cream, donkeys, sandcastles, steam trains, some wedding, and Punch and Judy. This second-generation Brit has never had such a British time. Strange and really nice.


Hope you had a lovely break too.

Running repairs

I finished this quilt about fourteen years ago. It was the first quilt I made using a machine, and the second one I had ever done. I made it up as I went along. This may have something to do with why it took three years. That and the fact that I went to university in the middle of making it.

I didn't use the highest standards. I did not know about things like binding, or binding makers, or really have any  proper understanding of how fabric frays. The quilt goes on our bed every winter and currently looks like this:

Fourteen years wear and tear. I know how it feels. 


Around ten years ago, in a moment of madness I took it to the launderette to be cleaned, not knowing how else to do it. It came back faded, which at the time I was very upset about, but now quite like. 

Once, I filled the bath with warm soapy water and walked on it with my bare feet, grape crusher style, this was a lot of fun but it took about a week to dry. 

Any suggestions of how to clean a patchwork quilt are greatly appreciated.

Last week with the first sign of sun in our little north facing garden I hung it over the washing line and did some repairs. 

Just me, the sun, the birds, the radio, the local stereo soundclash and some sewing. It was lovely. 

And it lasted exactly twenty-nine minutes. But each one was bliss.






PS Giveaway winners Ju, Elizabeth and Claire from clarabella kindly send me your adresses and I'll get cards in the post. And thanks to all who entered.