Domesticali

My first ever quilt

Monica posted the other day and asked us to share our first quilts. Hers was typically accomplished, showcasing loads of different techniques and her characteristic ability to combine colours in a way that makes the whole so much more than the sum of the parts.

When I read the post, we were away from home, so I was thinking about what I thought was my first quilt - a red white and blue star pattern, but when I went to the cupboard to take it out and photograph it, I found another quilt entirely that I had forgotten about, that definitely pre dates the one I thought was my first.

This must be from around 1995, made as a way to practice using a sewing machine. It's a simple 9 patch and I think I made it because I wanted to incorporate the little whimsical farm print that now makes me cringe slightly.

It got heavily used once Mark came along as he was the pukiest baby ever and I moved about, draping any non-machine washable surface in his vicinity with some sort of quilt or mat. So there have been countless cycles through the washing machine and tumble drier, which have left some of the machine piecing stitches looking a little worse for wear. 

Usually so much washing and drying would have given it that heirloom feel, but the wadding I used is nasty polyester, so that was never going to happen. Forgive me, it was before nice cotton batting was freely availible and I didn't know any better.

The forgotten quilt. Reminding me that even when you really have no clue what you are doing, you can accomplish things with a little focus and detemination.

A fine line

The divide between a groove and a rut is a fine one, don't you think? Summer has been good. Great even. We've throttled back, enjoyed each other's company. Shifted the pace to slow and abandoned many notions of obligation and responsibility. But what was our groove, six weeks on, begins to look suspiciously like a rut.

Sitting outside the other evening, with a hint of chill in the air and a lengthening of the shadows foretelling the approach of Autumn, I felt a secret thrill. Time for a new season, for putting aside indolence and planning a few projects.

And what better way to kick start some creativity than a visit with Monica to the Festival of Quilts. She took lots of photos. I mainly soaked it in and brought away with me a sense of wonder in what we can achieve when we have a plan and work towards it, however insignificant the individual steps might seem.

And as a reminder to myself, I stitched up a little brooch from one of Janet Clare's line drawings with thread.  I like to think of him as my bird of good intentions.

See him striding forward purposefully? It's good to have a reminder of that feeling.

Fabric entomology

My resolution this year was to curb my magazine puchasing habit. And I have been really doing very well, until I read a review of Crafty Magazine and stumbled upon it in the newsagents.

See that title font - somehow reminiscent of Blueprint (still miss that magazine), add in red converse, and bandanas - breaking my resolution seemed a foregone conclusion.

But in my defence, I have at least used the purchase to kick start a little creativity. There was an article about making a cabinet of curiosities full of fabric insects. Now I have a soft spot for bugs on pins - I studied quaternary entomogy way back in the dim and distant past, when my brain cells were still firing - and spent many hours hunched over a microscope, teasing out bugs from soil samples and attempting to identify them.

The thought of fantastical fabric versions called to me.

So I raided the scrap box and got into moth mode.

My specimen cabinet is underway.

 

Scented clouds

One child back at school, one to go. The early start was painful, but it did at least give rise to a morning in which things could be accomplished, rather than one filled with ultra leisurely tea, toast and pyjama loafing. Lovely though those things are, there isn't much to show for it, come the end of the day.

And January is always the time for bold intentions - for setting goals, achieving things, discarding the superfluous (inches or clutter) - none of which really sits well with loafing. But it has been so comfortable, this period of nesting, that a transition project seemed called for. A gentle beginning.

Some clouds, filled with lavender. For scented linens, or restful sleep. Not that there should be an issue with nodding off this evening. The 6am start sees to that quite nicely, I find. See, every cloud has a silver lining.

A little stitching

My reading glasses are lost and have been for about a year, I think. It didn't seem like a great tragedy - I hated wearing them anyway. Mostly because I had to take off my normal glasses to do so and was thus rendered mole like if I needed to look at anything more than a foot away. I know this is why bi-focals were invented, but my optician said I was too young to go there (hey, I take my compliments where I find 'em). And most of the time, slightly fuzzy near sight isn't too much of an issue. I only got the glasses because at the time, I was working in very poor light and getting cracking headaches using a screen at an awkward distance away.

But finding them would definitely make cross stitch easier. Because in theory, sitting with one's hoop sounds like a meditative and relaxing activity. But in practice has involved much tutting, sighing, and strategic positioning of backlights.

Still, my version of The Guardian is done. Yes, there are two errors (which Hubby irritatingly spotted), but I'm counting on the fact that with no reading glasses to help me, I'll probably never notice them again. 

I am really taken with the idea of cross stitch in a single colour on interesting coloured Aida - this one is Misty Blue and I got it from Ray Stitch. I think I have the perfect spot for it, come the season...

Wise Owls

Friends of ours have welcomed a new baby into their family this week. I had a sneek peek of his/her nursery prior to the big arrival and there was a fab tree mural complete with mummy, daddy and baby owl. So I thought a matching banner (made from this tutorial at Moonstitches) might be in order.

The only thing was I had to wait to make it until the baby's name was revealed. And hooray for a short one - done and dusted in no time!

Getting cosy

If ever there was a week for hunkering down indoors, this is it - rain, rain rain. The guilt I felt flipping the central heating back on this morning, was somewhat mitigated by cooking an enomous vat of stew, with a view to warming up the menfolk on their return home. Then, feeling smugly domesticated, it was time for a spot of sewing.

Tomorrow is the 2nd Birthday of Rosie's Tea Room, home of my much beloved and sanity retaining Thursday morning Needles and Natter group. I'm so looking forward to heading down tomorrow morning as I've missed the last few weeks with it being school holidays. I wanted to take a little something for Liz, the lovely owner who is always so welcoming to us (even when we get so rowdy that the window cleaner sticks his head in the door to tell us he can hear the laughter from down the street).

So I made a little cosy (just keeping my fingers crossed that the dimensions of the cafetieres at Rosie's are roughly the same as mine back home).

Did you spy the careful selection of buttons there? Couldn't resist the opportunity to slip in a crafty pun.

 

Vanilla Stitching

Sewing is sometimes about the end product and sometimes about the process. Sitting with a little gentle stitching in hand allows for relaxation and conversation, whilst still retaining a sense of productivity.

And so it was that I gave in to temptation at The Shop at Number 57 recently and ordered a cross stitch kit. Because cross stitching is the ultimate in vanilla stitching. Repetitive following of instuctions. Sometimes decision making can be so over-rated.

And I like it so much in its hooped simplicity, that I have decided to mount it like that. Both to enjoy it as a finished object and as a subliminal reminder of the pleasures of keeping one's hands occupied. 

End of the school year

Somehow I always seem to forget how frenzied this time of year is. Sports days, music concerts, class assemblies, day trips - the last few weeks of the summer term always result in a jam packed diary and extreme exhaustion. Not least because one of my offspring is in the older half of the school and the other in the younger, which means I get to do all of the above TWICE! Roll on the holidays, I say!

But before we fling this year's books, artwork and associated scraps of paper we cannot part with into the dark recesses of a cupboard, we have a little bit of thanking to do. Which means a little sewing for me.

So now Johnny's teacher has a way of getting all her end-of-year papers to the car on the last day of term. He wrote her name, in his bestest handwriting, on the lines I had sewn on to the calico and I embroidered over them. It's a simple unlined tote, with french seams for neatness.

Now if only I could come up with a suitable (and extremely fast) idea for Mark's music teacher (who is male and is retiring), I'd be laughing. Please tell me you have a great idea up your sleeve. Please.

Tweedy throw

Sometimes, the planets align and produce the perfect moment to make something. I had been musing on a throw for our living room - something warm and subtle to snuggle under on the sofa. I've never really been a sofa-throw kind of person, but that room is chilly and I was fed up of returning duvets to the beds from whence they had been dragged.

I was fairly wedded to the idea of a quilt with large blocks of neutral-ish fabric, and then the stars aligned with an article in Marie Claire Idees and a sale on wintry fabrics at my local fabric shop.

And so my germ of an idea transformed itself into a throw. Some widths of wool suiting backed with thick black wool (so no need for additional batting), tied with embroidery floss and edged in bias tape. 

Difficult to get a decent photograph of something large, in situ, in the chilly grey light. I have newly found admiration for those gorgeous photos in the quilt books. We had to make do with the garden bench.

But the cat says it is very cosy indeed.

Well, when it's indoors anyway.

Tea towels

Inspired by Purl Bee and Monica, I finally got round to sewing some little trimmed tea-towels for teacher gifts this weekend. To go with our cinnamon biscuits. After all, who doesn't love a nice new tea towel?

My personal favourite in use was a gift last Christmas and it makes me smile.

But there is one very special one I own which will never, find itself on dish duty. I bought a beautiful Caren Garfen limited edition tea towel with hand embroidered label at Origin earlier this year and when life calms down a teeny bit I am going to frame it and put it on my wall. It is unique.

La Revolution

How, how has it taken me this long to figure out that I can sew name tapes onto socks with a sewing machine?

5 pairs of school socks, 2 pairs of white socks, 1 pair of rugby socks (2 socks per pair) multiply by 2 boys= 64 name tapes. That's a lot of saved effort.

Just don't factor in the 7 school years before I thought of it and sewed them all in by hand. It's never too late to figure out something new. 

Picnic season commences

Before Sports Day, I was warned by a veteran Mummy of the school that the break for a picnic at lunchtime was an event to rival Glyndebourne. No pressure there then. But it did spur me into finishing the picnic quilt that has been in progress since this time last summer. I justified not finishing it then, because the weather was so dismal that there was precious little opportunity to picnic. But this year? Well, really there was no excuse.

I had already made the top and basted the quilt sandwich and discovered that the batting I had chosen was an absoulte swine when it came to hand quilting. And that my diddy little machine was not going to cope with a 3m long picnic blanket. So I decided to go with a very minimal amount of hand quilting and quite a lot of hand tying with embroidery floss.

And then disaster really struck when with 36 hours left before p-day, I discovered that I have misplaced the quilting ruler. Which put paid to any fantasies of making my own bias binding. So horror of horrors, I used nasty shop bought poly-cotton binding, chosen without any of the fabric to colour match with. But d'you know what? It was the easiest binding I have ever put on. And after all, it is destined to be dragged all over the place all summer long, so it's crazy to get too precious over it.

Veteran Mummy was accurate in her Sports Day assessments though - some poeple even brought their own gazebos. I kid you not. Did my picnic blanket pass muster? Bless his cotton socks, Mark announced in a loud voice to all and sundry at lunchtime - 'My Mummy made this. Isn't it great?' . Which sort of forces people to say something nice about it.  He is available to rent for craft fairs and other opportunities for blatant  promotion, is utterly shameless and requires payment mainly in yummy food. 

 
Because yummy food should always come first on the list of picnic priorities. Though the up to the wire sewing frenzy did mean that our customary  favourite picnic snack had to be foregone in favour of dull old sandwiches. I promise to do better next time.

What do you like to stick in your hamper so you can feel like a domestic goddess?

Backstitch

As part of her new fabric and patterns online business - Backstitch - Alice recently asked me to review a sewing pattern for her. Which has been the perfect excuse to sit down and make something - hooray! She allowed me free rein of her patterns to select from - Amy Butler, Anna Maria Horner, Oliver + S - they're all there and more. But I decided I'd like to have a go at the Sew Liberated Schoolhouse Tunic. So Alice popped a pattern in the post to me.

Look, cute packaging - the epitome of understated chic.  I was all excited about getting stuck in. And slightly nervous about the responsibility of reviewing the pattern. But I began, and I finished too - you can see the my full review of the Schoolhouse Tunic on the Backstitch site.

Just don't get me started on the trauma of photographing it - I thought about showing you the out-takes, but I am too embarrassed. Clearly my photography brief to the hubby (Come, take a photo of me wearing this. Try to show it clearly and make me look good) is not up to scratch. Next time, he can wear the tunic and I'll take the photos.

Springtime stitchery

The Bank Holiday weekend seemed the perfect time for a little sewing - weather wet enough to keep me indoors, but spring-like enough to make me think my wardrobe was ready for seasonal additions.

I've had this Anna Maria Horner Garden Party fabric for an age. But I knew from when I first got my mitts on it, that it was destined to become a skirt.

The pattern is my 'go to' A line one - Amy Butler's Barcelona Skirts. It fits me well, sews up really fast and works great with quilting weight cotton. But really, it's all about the print isn't it?

A teeny kimono

My sewing machine just about died of fright when I moved it to action stations on the dining room table. It's been so long since I used it for anything remotely serious. In this case, a teeny weeny baby kimono for a friend's bump.

The gender of the bump is still a mystery - so hopefully the Alexander Henry animals are sufficiently gender neutral. I used the Lucy's Kimono pattern from Weekend Sewing, which turned out fine. But boy, that book has a lot of errors and dodgy directions. Luckily, the internet saved me as I googled everyone else's efforts first which saved me from disaster.

I'm sure it is exactly this sort of googling that the founders of My Sewing Circle had in mind, when they set up the stitcher's equivalent of Ravelry. Sure, it's in its early days, but I think it's going to be fab. Soozs tipped me off to it's existance. She also has a really thoughtful post about sewing garments today. Which I am going to read every time I feel disgruntled with my own efforts.

Soul food

Pleasure is not only derived from eating, shopping and friends, but I can't deny the importance of that triumvirate in the pursuit of happiness.

Lunch at Ottolenghi, afternoon tea at Fernandez and Wells. I'd highly recommend the clementine cake.

Shopping all over the place, but especially for me:

They made me buy it. But oh how I love it.

Almost as much as I love spending time with them.

Morning-time!

Today, I had to wake the boys up for school. This is a fairly rare event - usually they are up and pottering about by the time we need to have breakfast and get the day underway. Mark, I managed to rouse by opening the door of the airing cupboard. It's very creaky. Which gets me past the mental barrier that objects to ever waking a sleeping child. After years and years of starting the day at 5am with someone who didn't understand the art of sleeping any later, the idea of voluntarily rousing him is horrific.

When I woke Johnny, who has always been keener on sleep than his brother, he grumbled 'It can't be morning-time. I've only been asleep for 5 minutes'. Know just how you feel, son. Perhaps it's down to the soporific powers of the new duvet cover I finally got round to sewing.

The perfect use for the flat sheet that came with the fitted sheet and pillowcase I brought back from New York. Bedlinen is so much more inspired (not to mention cheap) on the other side of the pond. Some plain red sheeting and popper tape from Masons (a crafter's paradise right on my doorstep) and a couple of hours of sewing straight seams.

Shame it's taken me the best part of a year to get round to it. I am rather inspired now, though. Especially if it earns me a lie in. Must remember to put it to use on a morning when we don't have to get up.

green week: 3 Tunic

Something had been sitting on my shelf unused for way too long.

Despite having fallen in love with several of the dresses that have appeared in blogland from within its pages.  But taking the plunge into uncharted Japanese pattern waters has taken a while.  And I won't pretend it was all plain sailing. The pleats are not absolutely perfect. And I couldn't make the sleeves fit at all. Which necessitated a swift modification with some bias tape bound armholes.

But all in all, there's something about my tunic that makes me feel very happy indeed.

And that's not to be sniffed at.
 

Unintentional career moves

Quietly, in stolen moments, I have been beavering away at my next Alabama Stitch project. Having decided to have a go at the corset , I gamely hacked up a ginormous promotional t-shirt that’s been hanging around the bottom of my wardrobe for months. Snip snip, stitch stitch – all fun.

Until I tried it on that is. Now although corset is a suggestive moniker for an item of clothing, but I was a little taken aback when I saw the acreage of flesh on display. Quite frankly, I looked like I was auditioning to make a film - one of those films.

I showed hubby, who smiled broadly (in a not entirely innocent way). It was only as I looked closely in Flickr, wondering why the makers before me weren't displaying quite such an impressive amount of boobage, that I noticed my error. I'd reversed two of the front panels. Phew. Some unpicking required, but my modesty will remain intact.

Shockingly, this is not my first scrape with the 'arty film' industry. When I was 20, I moved to Edinburgh at quite short notice and was scrabbling around in a strange city looking for a place to rent. After answering an ad for a girl to share a flat, I  was shown around by a nice guy, who shared his very clean and bright flat with 2 other girls. He was  friendly enough when we chatted, telling me he ran his own business as a freelance cameraman.  The location was convenient and it seemed a good option to me, although the flat did have some odd quirks, like bedroom doors with louvers and glass panels.  I couldn't really understand why my friend Paul, who had come with me, was giving off such negative vibes. It was only when we were back safely on the pavement outside when Paul told me he had seen the landlord's business card - black, with the company name in neon pink 'Flesh and Fantasy'. I could have had a whole different career...

Love

 
A reverse applique rose on a vest for a new baby girl.

An evening of patient stitching and snip snipping may seem a little crazy for an item to be worn under other garments. But I had to do it. Because this book is truly an amazing inspiration.

It had me hooked from the moment I read about 'loving your thread'.  Now all I want to do is sew and sew and sew by hand. Because look at all these wonderful projects.

The simplicity of cloth, needle and thread. And patience.

i

have been up to things.

A belated present, for the bookshop. I just hope it fits.

 And I really enjoyed the hand sewing. Partly due to the inspiring words in the Alabama Stitch Book, which Santa brought me. I predict a spot of cotton jersey purchasing in the not too distant future.

And while I'm thinking of the bookshop and books, have you seen this? Incredible.

This Is Where We Live from 4th Estate on Vimeo.

Flappy Happies

The bats are breeding - here's part of the colony. A few of them are in my (very low key, so let's whisper) etsy shop.

But as my halloween gift to you, I thought you might like a little tutorial for making your own. My treat. Flappy Happies (as christened by Mark).

You'll need some nice thick wool felt. Then cut yourself a little cardboard template. It's basically a triangle with a U cut out of the apex to make ears. Mine is about 8 inches across and 4 inches high.

Trace round your template and draw in some guide lines for the wing markings, eye placement, mouth and fangs. I use a chalk pencil for this (you don't need precision).

Don't cut anything yet. Add the markings on a single layer of the felt - I used the sewing machine for the wings but stitched the buttons on by hand and added a backstitch mouth with red floss and white for the fangs. But please yourself

Now, fold your felt so you have a double layer and zig zag around the edge. Don't forget to leave a gap in the middle. My gap is large enough for 2 grown-up digits or the neck of a wine bottle.

Now using a nice sharp pair of scissors, trim close to the zig zag line. And lo, your flappy happy is born.

Trick or treat!

Resistance is futile

It called me. What was I to do? It's late, my resistance is low. I succumbed

New skirts have appeared over at Clothkits.

I am holding Monica and Katy wholly responsible. They made me press the button.

Sewing frenzy

Hot off the machine, one Amy Butler 'Anna Tunic'.

Contrast yoke inspired by my ever present stack of Boden catalogues (in particular, this top). It also has the cunning advantage of negating the need for any pattern matching (not my forte!).

Hard to photograph on the washing line, or on myself. So I roped in the closest body. I didn't trust him not to drop my camera, so he had to wear the tunic instead.


Not every 7 year old boy could pull it off, but I think he's rocking the look!

Now could someone please explain when my son got large enough for my clothes to (sort of) fit him?

Did you notice how rainy it's been the last day or so? There are a number of legitimate reasons for this:
1. It's a Bank Holiday Weekend
2. We decided to go camping. Because that guarantees excellent weather, right?

(Photo taken indoors before we left. There are no actual camping photos. That's how wet it was.)
3. The summer skirt that I've been ruminating over since last year is complete bar the hem.

(Photo also taken pre-deluge - although now I look closely, the clouds do appear to be gathering...).  Just be grateful it wasn't a sunhat on the sewing machine. Because the last time, that gave rise to one of the worst episodes of flooding in recent memory. Stay dry!

Little stamps

Sometimes it feels good to fall back on something familiar.

Particularly when you are nervous about trying something new. I'm casting about for inspiration to prepare for a workshop by Jessie Chorley. The plan is  to make a book based on a personal narrative, but suddenly I seem to be all out of stories. I do have a great deal of old shopping lists though. Do you suppose those might work?

Better keep planning I think.

Some folks seem to have the knack of making something special out of the everyday. Capturing a moment - check out Record the Day and you'll see what I mean. And how about the UK at Home project. Seven days, captured on film and made into a book which somehow captures the essence of home.

Bit of sewing

A little peek of a little sewing that's been happening round here.

Not much else to share though. My body is trying to put me into hibernation mode. Last night I went to bed at 7pm and didn't awaken until a pitter patter of small feet came to find me this morning.

So if you see a missing spark anywhere, do let me know. I seem to have misplaced mine.

Bit of sewing

Sunny weather (albeit freezing) always brings with it the possibility of turfing the boys out in the garden and doing a bit of sewing. In the hazy pre-Christmas past, Florence sent me a chalk pencil which I hadn't had a reason to test drive until now. It passed with flying colours - what a handy contraption.

Used it to outline the template for a  smocket, which I had been dying to sew ever since Alicia posted the pattern. Sometimes you just need to hang onto the thoughts swirling at the back of your head until the opportunity presents itself to try something.

We are officially on half-term this week. I'm looking forward to the break in routine. We have a birthday to celebrate, friends to see, opticians to visit, shoes to replace and adventures to be had. Hope your week is looking full of fun too.

Airing my laundry in public

When the sun came out this week, one of the things on the good light list to photograph was my Janet Bolton workshop piece.   I feel obliged to show it to you, because I struck an "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" deal with Emma, and so many of you had asked me to see it. But I am far from pleased with it - in fact, the more I look at it, the less I like it. Oh dear.

Things I do like
The tree
The pegs
The American Tan tights (put in especially for Raspberry who said they made her shudder).
The laundry isn't completely sewn down, so it's a bit 3D.

Things I don't like
I wish I had made the whole thing much smaller.
I got a bit seduced by Janet Bolton's muted palette, but the expanse of beige is depressing the hell out of me.
I think it needs some kind of quilting on the background, but I've tried a few different things and nothing looks right.

So if anyone has bright ideas for the problem of breaking up the beige background, let's have them!

But until then, I'm going to tuck this away on a high shelf and just enjoy the pleasant memories of a wonderful workshop and a brilliant and inspiring woman. And the glow that comes from keeping up my end of a bargain.