Scrap Happy: Flask Cosies

This could have been a ‘Silly Saturday’ post!

As part of my birthday celebrations (in November), I treated myself and a couple of friends to a day in a hut on the island at Sculpture by the Lakes.

We took a picnic. I took a couple of flasks for hot drinks. To keep them warmer for longer I used my nifty Flask Cosies.

They are made from the sleeves of an old (charity shop) jumper that I felted by mistake in the washing machine. I was chopping the jumper up to see how I could use the slightly felted knitted fabric and once the sleeves were cut off it was obvious to me what to use them for!

The Hut was very cosy, with a wood burner and lovely bright cushions,I also took a couple of my Scrap Happy blankets. To wrap round our knees if necessary. We had a wonderful time, with a wander round the sculpture park and nice gentle chat and a bit of crochet.

I would love to do it again in another season.

Joining Kate for Scrap Happy Day

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In a Vase on Monday: Candle Holders

My daughter asked me if I had any candle holders I no longer needed, to go in a line, down the centre of a dining table.

Hmmm???? I thought for a moment and went looking in cupboards.

Ah ha!

One little candle stick, and behind it, a collection of little glass bulb jars, found in charity shops over the years. The ones at the back are for hyacinths.

I have tried growing bulbs in the small ones with no success, but collected them anyway. I think they were made for crocuses. What do you think?

Would they make acceptable candle holders?

Then I wondered if they would also make cute little vases for an IAVOM post

I also tried them with sea glass, in white vinegar, which I like a lot!

After giving the bulb jars to my daughter (she is very happy with them), I put the fennel, rosemary, viburnum and hellebore from my garden into a nightlight holder for my own Vase on Monday.

Joining Cathy and her happy band of gardeners for In a Vase on Monday.

Scrap Happy Baubles

I guess most people, seeing a old bit of steel cable, rusting in a hedge, would have walked by without a second thought but ….

to me it was treasure and full of potential.

Then I saw Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas and knew what needed to happen next.

Scrunch up some newspaper into a ball and wrap wire around it. Kirstie uses florist’s wire, which I suspect is a lot thinner than my find.I cut the wire with the red handled pliers and then turned the ends into little hooks with the other pliers, hooking each new piece on and pulling the wire as tightly as I could.

Then the fun bit!Burn the newspaper. It takes longer than I thought it would to get the scrunched up paper to completely burn away. I put mine in the woodburner, but Kirstie used a barbeque.

I know these baubles would not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I think they are seriously cool. Especially the shadows they create.And with a few found feathersand a bit of festive blingit is edging dangerously close to looking a bit Christmassy around here.

I am joining in with Kate and her band of Happy Scrappers:

Kate, Gun, Sue, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, 
Jill, Jan, Moira, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Jule, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera,
Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Carol,
Preeti, Debbierose, Nóilin and Viv

An inspiring monthly meme which supports using up our scraps of any variety.

Silly Saturday: Playing with Shadows

New hat – Ta Dah!!

Taken in the early morning at West Dean College.

Joining in with Cee’s Challenge: Shadows and Reflections

Scrap Happy Wrapping

The blanket I gave to my neice as a wedding present needed a large cardboard box for wrapping.

I did not want to buy masses of wrapping paper, especially when I have a massive stash of fabric. I have an old dress of my Mum’s, (my niece’s Granny) so I cut off the skirt and wrapped the box in that.

Furoshiki style.

TheYou Tube clip below shows two pieces of fabric sewn together – I didn’t do that, I just used the one piece – the whole of the skirt. As it was see-through material there was not an obvious right and wrong side.

I then tucked in some fabric flowers that I had left over from making my Frida Kahlo headband

I loved the way it turned out.

Scrap Happy Bookcover

Some progress has been made on the book cover started last month.

It has fabric from old clothes and curtains, some from the 1970s.

The white lacy daisy is from a dress I had when I was 17, the stars are from holey old jeans that Miss E (14) has grown out of. I love them sitting close to each other in this piece.

This project is a lot of fun.

The inspiration comes from “The Magpie’s Nest”

a course by Aimee Irel Bishop

I have started another, which I have made in a different way.

This time, instead of cutting slits in the base fabric, I have laid strips on top of a piece of fabric to act as the ‘warp’. I tacked then down along the top edge and started weaving.

There is more to do.

Joining Kate and her happy band of Scrap Happy contributors.

Scrap Happy January

Sewing in ends of pieces of knitting and crochet is not my favourite occupation, but there is something pleasing about the colour mixes in the little piles of off-cuts. I don’t throw them away.

In The Stitchbook Collective, one of the members, Sally-Ann has shown us this ingenius way of forming scraps of yarn into beads. Separate the yarn into little piles and then roll them in your hand a bit – I dampened them a little to get these into spherical shapes but I’m not sure that is necessary

Then take a thread of any sort – it could be embroidery thread, but I used plain cotton.and wrap round the bead, sewing through the centre time and time again from different angles. That’s it!some of the members of the Stitchbook Collective make them very smooth and tight and then embroider on the surface.

At the moment I am very happy with my fluffy scrappy looking beads.

Sally-Ann has made a video of how she makes her beads.

Joining in with Kate and her band of happy scrappers for Scrap Happy January.

 

Scrap Happy: Wooden Ladder

I saw an old wooden ladder lying at the back of my daughter’s woodshed.

They said I could have it as we, in the UK, are no longer able to use wooden ladders for their intended purpose – health and safety.

So …..

It is now above my woodburner as a drying rack for clothes in the Winter and a place to dry herbs and flowers and hang crochet mandalas in the Summer.

This is it in its raw state, before I treated it for woodworm and waxed and oiled it. The brackets are not the ones I wanted – I had to grab Dave, the local handiman, between jobs when he could put it up for me, so these were the only brackets I could get locally on that day.

He told me that you can treat woodworm with White Spirit, so I took the ladder down again and painted on lashings of the stuff – the ladder soaked up the White Spirit like a sponge and I gave it 3 generous treatments. Later on I found a small can of woodworm treament at the back of a cupboard and treated it with that as well.

I knew the wood would need feeding but when I tried wax and oil on the bit of ladder that had been cut off, the wood went very dark. So I Lime Waxed it first.

You brush the wood, going with the grain, with a wire brush, then rub in the Lime Wax with wire wool. After Liming it I gave the whole ladder and the rusty bits two coats of the Finishing Oil.

(Those are Marmoleum floor samples under the oil – as far as I can tell Marmoleum is one of the most environmentally friendly flooring material one can get here in UK – let me know if you know otherwise. I am going to go for the Turquoise one on top for most of the ground floor in my house – I am so fed up with carpets!)

Ta Dah!

I am thrilled with it – it actually makes the room feel taller and larger.

The wonderful rusty spring on the left is a present from a friend who knows my love of rusty old items. Her son now farms the farm where my Dad grew up, and she found it there and knew I would love it even more because of the connection. What a kind thought – Lucky me!! It is GORGEOUS – so big and heavy.

The woodburner is all ready to go: to heat water, cook delicious stews and dry clothes. Making that space as multi-functional as possible in true Permaculture style!

I haven’t lit a fire yet as it has been so mild here, but I am sure it won’t be too long.

I am joining Kate for her monthly Scrap Happy gathering – pop on over and see how others have been using up their scraps.

The Stitchbook – Ta Dah!

I signed up for this project in May 2019

150 of us joined Helen Birmingham’s STITCHBOOK COLLECTIVE and the journey began.

Who knew when we got our first box of goodies in September 2019 how important this project was going to be for keeping us busy, creative and connected.

Each month for 12 months we recieved a kit through our letter box, and even though we had paid for it, many of us felt like it was a present arriving through the ether to cheer us up – happy post!

We chatted via our Facebook group, encouraging and inspiring one another

We were initially working towards exhibiting the books at the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show. This was cancelled, but we kept on stitching – the cancellation gave some of us the much needed time to finish the project.

I get very excited at the beginning of a project. I loved the feeling as inspiration flooded in with each new box – but then I go off at a tangent and make a multitude of my own experiments and lose focus.

I am so good at NOT finishing things – anyone else out there like me?

I wonder if I ever would have pushed myself to complete it if it hadn’t been for Helen’s flexibility and gentle encouragement to get me over the finish line.

The covers done and the book bound together with bead spacers – it sat there – it did not feel finished – bizarrely, it did not feel mine.

It was a huge effort for me to focus on the covers, make them to Helen’s specific instructions and get the book exhibition-ready. The front cover has tabs on it so that it can be displayed for exhibition. The effort to get the covers made took away some of the joy, so it had to sit in a corner for a while.

Seeing other finished books online and a few text messages with Cathy (thank you Cathy!) gave me the kick of enthusiasm I needed – out came the beads, the stamps and the paint brush

and here it is – Exhibition-ready!

AND £3,344.00 has been raised by Helen and the purchasers of her kits for the mental health charity, MIND. 

Feel good project all round.

You can see other posts about this book by typing Stitchbook into the SEARCH box and here is a video of the finished book.

A HUGE thank you to Helen Birmingham for this project and to the other members of THE STITCHBOOK COLLECTIVE community.

Scrap Happy Baubles

I follow a Facebook Group called Stitch Meditations and one of the Moderators, Anne Marie Desauliniers, posted a picture of one of her embroidered orbs on Instagram which set me off on a mini obsession. I have two big bags of plastic garden playballs, so I used them as the base,

covering them with fabric scraps and then using yarn made of Silk waste from the manufacture of saris, from Yarn Yarn  to hang them up with.

This tied in with another recent obsession with re-using teabags

 

I sewed a strip of 4 together and then wrapped it round the ball,  sewing ends together. Then did the same with another strip. All the edges were then sewn down.

 

 

 

 

Some have gone to my grandchildren for them to paint and decorate (mainly because they find it so funny that Granny sits sewing teabags together)

and the rest are sitting in a bowl waiting for more inspiration to strike

Joining in with Kate and her happy band of  Scrappers.

Kate, Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan,
Moira, Sandra (me), Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire,
Jean, Jon, Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie, Bekki,
Sue L, Sunny, Kjerstin, Vera, Nanette and Ann

In a Vase on Monday: Happy Birthday

It was my daughter’s birthday last week and I picked some asters and cotoneaster to pop in a jar for her.

The bees are going crazy for those asters but the birds are not eating the cotoneaster berries yet. There is a Mrs Blackbird tucking into some pyracantha berries just outside my kitchen window – so they must ripen earlier.

I used an old doodle book of the children’s to make the birthday card

The book had been filled and discarded so I took out the centre to reuse the neon pink cover

I could easily reuse the holes for sewing in a new centre.

With a bit of neon yellow embroidery thread. My daughter loves a bit of neon!

I came across something called ‘block writing’ on Instagram, so I had to have a go.

When my daughter was born, I was reading a beautiful book about Native American practices: Voices of Our Ancestors. by Dhyani Ywahoo.

A was born at 3.45am and when I got back to the ward, the light of dawn was beginning to glow in the sky. I looked out of the window, feeling so happy and relieved and grateful to have a healthy baby girl, and I saw one bright star, which I now realise must have been Venus.  I gave A a Native American name ‘Bright Morning Star’- a secret name – just between her and me.

For her birthday I gave her a rooted fig tree cutting that I bought in the market – hope it grows well and tucked a note in the card for her to go towards her lunchtime meal at The Station Kitchen, West Bay.

I am definitely going to try and take some cuttings from my fig tree next year.

My daughter lives just across the field from me, so I walked up quite early to give her the card.

This was the scene over the village as I walked back – autumn mist in the distance.

Joining in with Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for In a Vase on Monday.

In a Vase on Monday

Self-seeded Calendula and aster with ripe and ripening pears.

It is a challenge to catch the pears at the the right time to pick them before the wasps get to them. A good crop this year.

Joining Cathy and her joyful meme: In a Vase on Monday

I am completely replanting the bed behind the espalier pear trees. Everything has been taken out because the ground elder and marestail had taken over.

Looking from North to South

I dug it over, took everything out, and dug it over once a week for 4 weeks in the hope of getting every bit of weed root out. I saved all the bulbs and have replanted them in a completely random fashion and planted new and old irises

Looking from South to North

A rogue sunflower which grew in the pot I had the tiny fuschia (Jollies Nantes)  in.

I have also scattered seed from Nigella, calendula, cerinthe, aquilegia, foxglove and purple loosestrife.

It will be fun to see how this looks in Spring.

The daughter of a friend of mine is just starting her garden and liked my scattergun way of creating a border, so I have collected seed for her to try it out.

I found this You Tube clip

 

made some little seed packets out of a Gudren Sjoden catalogue

I loved making these, I like the way they are in the shape of little flower pots.

Joining in with Cee’s Flower of the Day

 

Scrap Happy: Weaving

It is the last month of The Stitchbook Collective and this month’s box of goodies is all about weaving.

Helen has sent us a kit to create a loom on cardboard but, you must know by now, it’s all about rust for me! So what better than some old rusty sheep wire to create my own little loom.

and as if by magic

it fits perfectly on the Stitchbook page.

It needs a backing to cushion the spikes of the rusty barbed wire.

As I was doing the weaving with yarn, I wondered whether it would work with just bits of metal woven through linen thread. I have to admit, I am thrilled with this one.

I am not quite sure how to mount it, but I am just enjoying it as is for now.

When Little Miss M (8) saw my weaving she asked if she could have a go, so I made two more looms for our afternoon by the lake.

We collected reeds and other bits and pieces, and she sat on her paddle board to weave

and together we made our diptych entitled ‘An afternoon by the lake’

I am planning to mount them in a box frame when they have fully dried.

Joining Kate and her merry band of scrappers for Scrap Happy Day

Kate, Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan,
Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean,
Joanne, Jon, Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie, Bekki, Pauline,
Sue L, Sunny, Kjerstin and Vera

 

Twinchies

 

I have long wanted to make a collaborative piece of textile art and there are a few members of the Stitchbook Collective who are also keen to join in.

Between us we have lots of ideas, so it is going to be a fun challenge to decide where we go with it. Early days.

Somebody mentioned Inchies and I went to Pinterest to see what they were talking about. Cute! But I thought a one inch square is too tiny – hence Twinchies– also to be found on Pinterest.

To get us going I have been doing some experiments

A 10 inch square of calico, allows for 16 twinchies. I am making them appproximately 2.5 inches square to allow for creative eventualities.

I laid some scraps of fabric on the calico, pinned them and ran some machine stitching through, with the stitches at the longest setting

Then measuring about 2.5 inches, I cut them into strips

and then squares

As you can see – not accurately measured or cut! I know that will drive some people mad, but I like the randomness of it. Others might like to trim them to an exact square.

They will all get jumbled up in any final arrangement

The idea is to send these little fabric collages out to a few people for them to decorate as they wish. When done they will all be reunited and mounted as a piece of textile art.

I don’t know if anyone else will want to join in with this particular method, I am interested to see how my fellow stitchers react to my rather drunken twinchies.

A little bit of recycled sari ribbon will be sent with each one, to be used or not.

What do you think? Could you cope with randomly sized ‘squares’ to work on?

Have you ever made an Inchie or a Twinchie?

EDIT: This project is just for our Stitchbook Collective splinter group which is called Stitched Together (a closed group). I’m excited about Crafty Creek’s comment below, so if there are more of my blog followers out there who would like to join in with another wonky twinchie project let me know in the comments and we can see where we go with it.

A Bedspread Reborn

Back in February 2015 I made a bedspread for Little Miss M

She loved it but sadly it got too close to something hot and looked like this

I could not bring myself to throw it away so I folded it up and put it in a bag and forgot about it …. until now. In my new bid to sort out WIPs and UFOs etc I washed it in the machine, dried it and chopped out the damaged bits.

The rest, I have unpicked and rolled into balls. It is making its way into another scrappy blanket. Inspired by Mrs Snail, I just tie the ends together with a reef knot and leave them showing.

Little Miss M now has this blanket

You can see more photos of this Mandala Blanket on my Throws Page.

The pattern is Mandala Madness, by Helen Shrimpton, a free pattern.

~

Joining Kate and other Happy Scrappers for Scrap Happy Day, the 15th of every month.

Kate , Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Nanette, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Debbierose, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan,
Moira, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean,
Joanne, Jon, Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie, Bekki, Pauline, Sue L,
Sunny and Kjerstin

 

Textile Tuesday: July

We are edging towards the end of The Stitchbook Collective year, in August we will receive our last kit. Was there ever a better timed project! There are 150 of us in the Collective and it has been a wonderful creative community to be part of over the last few months.

Our June box was all about Laid Work and Couching, including how to couch lettering.

Of course I had to include a bit of rust dyed fabric – Rust Dyeing has been my favourite process of the whole course – I love the magic, alchemy and serendipity of it.

The Laid Work was a real challenge for me

I like to be messy and abstract and fairly free with my stitching

but Bayeux stitch is not any of those things – keeping within the lines is what is required, (and as I am writing this, I am already creating a design in my head of a messy, borderless piece, but still using some of the Bayeux stitch technique…. ooo .. but no … I have to finish writing this post first – ‘inspiration’, a blessing or the opposite?! sometimes both)

I searched online for an Art Deco pineapple design (you might already know how much I like pineapples, here is just one post about them, but there are loads more and if you want to see them, just type Pineapple into the Search Box top right) and created the above from a wallpaper pattern.

After all that control, my inner rebel needed to get messy again so time to experiment with some eco-dyeing

An old calico curtain pickled with mould spots has found it’s time to shine. Soaked in soya milk, and then wrapped round a rusty nail, encasing leaves soaked in rusty water.

In they all go to be steamed

I like the look of the bundles as much as I like the dyed fabric. There is something intriguing about the mystery they hold. (Argghhh! another idea …. project of bundles as the art work themselves, on a theme, so wrapping pertinent pieces of memorabilia in a bundle and then working on the outside to hint at what it holds ……. noooo … get back to writing this post!)

To speed up the process of drying, I sat them on a wheat-filled heat pad that is heated in the microwave

But even that wasn’t quick enough for me, so I later put them under the grill on a very low heat.

I also tried printing the leaves onto paper

I was a bit disappointed with the results at first, but there are definitely marks to work with …. I wonder where inspiration will take me.

Although there is a tinge of sadness that The Stitchbook Collective is coming to a close, there is also celebration as our books are going to be exhibited at the Kniiting and Stitching Show in Harrogate in November.

Even better news! Anyone who would like to be part of the next Stitchbook Collective can be. Helen is running another one next year – I can highly recommend it! Suitable for beginners and experienced stitchers alike. You can subscribe for a whole year or buy the individual kits.

Must go, I have messy Bayeux stitch to figure out and a few bundles to make.

~~~~

If you would like to share any textile related posts in July, just pop a link in the comments below, current or archive, anything textile related,  are all welcome.

 

Dragon Balaclava

My Grandson, Little Bro, became 8 yesterday. He had asked me to make him a dragon mask some months ago and was so sure that is what he would be getting. I heard him telling his Mum and he was so excited!  At first I had no idea how to begin to make a dragon but he seemed so confident in my abilites that I felt I must take up the challenge.

I found this pattern on Ravelry: Dracoclava

I can’t say I can recommend it. It is a genius design with absolutely terrible written instructions for the pattern. If it were not for the notes of other intrepid knitters who had paved the way, I would have given up. The notes that helped me the most were these by a member of Ravelry from Chicago.

The pattern asks for Aran weight yarn. I didn’t have any in dragon colours so I used two threads of Stylecraft Special DK and an 4mm needle.

The colours: Claret for the main part, Burgundy for the i-cord and a scrap of Tomato to sew round the nostrils.

The neck part is made in the round in the pattern, but if I were to make it again (eek! I really don’t think I could face it!), I would make the front and back as two pieces.

I don’t enjoy knitting in the round, all that fiddling around with the loop of the wire in between, I would rather sew some seams.

However I did discover The Magic Loop, which helped a lot.

Another useful new skill I learned was to make an attached i-cord. There are several You Tube clips for this, this clip has a few other tips and tricks in it.

I did not make holes for the horns, but marked where they were to go.

The i-cord for the brow is an 8 stitch icord, and I stuffed this with crocheted chain of 3 chunky yarn threads together with a 6.5mm hook. I attached a big safety pin to one end and threaded it through.

The ears are knitted separately and will form part of the side of the head.

Following the notes of other knitters, I made the bridge of the nose just 5 sts wide.

The pattern suggests that you knit the bridge of the nose together with the brow when doing the i-cord. By this time the pattern was giving me headaches enough, so to keep it simple I left them separate so that I could sew together later.

Luckily I have a polystyrene head the I can pin things to. This helped enormously in getting the placements right.

at this stage I had a FaceTime meeting with Little Bro to ask if he would like the ears sewn flat to the head/neck as in the pattern, or with the bottom curling out. I wish I could share with you his face beaming with awe and joy. It made all the days of trial, error and headaches worth while!

He wanted the ears flying free at the bottom and so that is how I have made them. I always like the children to have some say in the design, but with lockdown in progress it has been a bit trickier.

I did not get it to him for his birthday but at least he was able to see it complete and he absolutely LOVES it.

 

Joining in with Ginny’s Yarn Along.

 

Textile Tuesday: Kunin Felt

The Stitchbook Collective, organised by Helen Birmingham of Untangled Threads couldn’t have happened at a better time. Each month a box of delights pops through my letterbox and new little textile project is born, full of learning, peaceful stitching and an opportuity to share it with the others in the Collective.

If you are looking for a small slow stitching project, I can highly recommend Helen’s kits, which come with full tutorials and all the materials needed to produce a piece of textile art.

May’s box of goodies was all about Kunin Felt and playing around with candles and heating the felt to form flowers or other shapes that took your fancy.

I was a bit stumped to start with and could not work out a design I wanted to create, so I turned to Pinterest and found this post which inspired my design.

I laid out some pieces of shiny cord included in the kit an added my own Sari waste cord which I got from YarnYarn, and couched them onto the black backing felt.

and gradually built up the design.

A fun month with bright colours and playing with fire, fabulous!

Have you been playing with textiles this month, or maybe you have some archive posts about textiles you would like to share. Just pop a link in the comments, I would love to see them.

Textile Tuesday happens on the first Tuesday of each month.

Textile Tuesday: Tyvek

Is anyone else losing track of the days, weeks, months?!

Here just one week late is Textile Tuesday

In The Stitchbook Collective we have been having fun with Tyvek.

Each month we get a pack of goodies to experiment with

It is always a wonderfully exciting moment to open the parcel to see what is inside

Colours I would not usually choose to work with, all carefully chosen and lovingly put together. The kits are still available if you go to the Untangled Threads website, and a pound from the sale of each kit goes to the mental health charity, Mind. So far Helen has raised and donated £2,489.50.

Tyvek is a synthetic fabric that reacts to heat

Creating great bobbly textures

This one was painted with a tester pot of Dulux emulsion before hitting it with the heat gun

Here is the piece of fabric collage I will put on a page in my stitchbook

Now onto the next parcel to open, which is all about felt.

Have you been working with textiles or found any interesting textiles or textile art recently? If so it would be fun to see what has caught your eye in the world of textiles. Just leave a link in the Comments.

 

Textile Tuesday: Chindi

This is one of my samples to go on April’s page of the Stitchbook I am making, as I follow Helen Birmingham’s wonderful guidelines.

This month’s kit is a particular delight.

And includes a small piece of Chindi rug

Pulling out the fabric pieces and ironing them is like finding treasure

all those disparate patterns, all harmonising together

The serendipity of finding the patterns within the rug intrigued me so much I bought another by mail order

and found these patterns inside

Very different but no less exciting. I am going to have fun stitching on these.

I am loving this 12 month course, each month offers new techniques and ideas. Each kit is still available in Helen’s shop.

Do you have any textile adventures to share with us this month?

Please leave a link in the comments to your Textile posts – current posts or archive are all welcome.