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

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.

WOWbook7

It is very exciting to see one’s name in print and even more exciting to know that this blog has provided a spark of inspiration for a fellow blogger.

Amanda of ‘View From Our Hill’ contacted me about the balls I had covered with teabags. See my post here.

They had given her some ideas about how to revive some of her Temari Balls, follow the link to see her blog post about them. She told me about the article she was planning to write and asked if it was ok to mention my blog – of course I was delighted to say ‘YES’!

Amanda writes for WOWbooks and her spread appears in this latest edition. 

look a little closer

Eeek! Thank you Amanda – so thrilling! What a joy to receive this book in the post.

The book is beautifully produced. I wrote to the publishers to ask permission to post these photos and got such warm and generous replies. The book is satin-like to the touch and full of gorgeous photos, useful information and packed with ideas.

You can find previous editions on their website, and they can also be bought as PDFs.

I am really going to enjoy reading the articles and fancy having a go at the ‘Wax and Dammar’ – Dammar is a new word for me – a resin apparently. I have never done any encaustic work before and I am intrigued.

Let me know if you have worked with wax and dammar – I would love to hear any tips you might be able to pass on.

In a Vase on Monday on Scrap Happy Tuesday

It was my son-in-law’s birthday yesterday – Happy Birthday Mr. M!

You might remember he is the farmer who likes supporting my crazy crafty ways.

You can see him and my daughter in this post.

I had meant to post this yesterday, but the day did not go to plan, never mind it now doubles up as a multi-functional post, two memes in one.

In true Scrap Happy Style I made Mr M a card out of old used teabags and some of the old wire fencing he brought for me to play with.

Each element, a symbol of members of his family. The heart with gold kisses represents my daughter – her name means ‘beloved’. My two Granddaughters’ names are represented by the fern leaf print and the ‘pearl’ and my Grandson’s by the red beads.

In the Chive vase are a couple of Robin’s Pincushions found on a wild rose in my garden

Intriguing, I love the colours and texture – they have a touch of magic about them

and the wonderfully shiny hips reminding me of the school nature table, when each year in primary school we seemed to do something about hips and haws.

Joining Cathy for In a Vase on Monday.

Kate and her fellow scrappers for the monthly Scrap Happy Day

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,
Joanne, Jon, Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie, Bekki, Pauline,
Sue L, Sunny, Kjerstin, Vera, Del and Nanette

and Cee for Flower of the Day, with a link to her post with some graphics on the state of the fires and air quality on the West Coast of the US.

Scrap Happy Box

I made this piece of crazy patchwork in 2013 and although I have photographed it and have tote bags and cushions made from the ensuing fabric, I have never made anything with the fabric itself.

Another little fabric box seemed just the right project for it.

Still using canvas left over from my needlepoint days, I cut the sides 3″ by 2.5″ and the base a 3″ square

I lined the box with an old T-shirt, the hem at the top.

Here are all the layers, ready to be stitched together.

The base is T-shirt fabric on both sides.

After stitching the layers together with some runnig stitches across the pieces, I blanket stitched the edges

Then sewed the pieces all together to form the box

Using some 2ply crochet cotton left over from a dreamcatcher, and a 2.5mm hook, I did a chain stitch all round the top into the blanket stitches, to make a simple shell stitch edging.

Lots of Scrap Happiness to join in with Kate and her merry band of Scrappers on Scrap Happy Day, which is on the 15th of every month.

If you want to see how some scraps of rusty barbed wire can be used to create art, have a look at my previous post.

Pop across to see what others have been doing with their scraps:

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

Always inspiring!

Scrap Happy Edge

Scrap Happy in August: I finished the Scrappy Blanket that was started in February and I gave it a rather magnificently over-the-top edge.

I made up the pattern for the edge as I went along, using Helen Shrimpton’s Sunbursts from her Cosmic Cal pattern as a guide.

Some of you might wince at this. Lynn and Jane, I’m thinking of you. 😉 Look away now!

It felt very freeing not to worry whether the sunbursts were always on a corner or not.

It looked particularly at home on the bench made of recycled pallets

and next to the repurposed empty blue agricultural detergent container, which is now a waterbutt. The blanket has gone to live as a throw over an armchair in my daughter’s grey, white and sunshine yellow kitchen, so I made myself another smaller one!

and thought this bench perfect for the photo shoot.

The bench is in the children’s play park where much of my scrap happy crochet is done, I sit and crochet whilst the children play – what better way to spend a few happy hours of Granny hooking time.

All the yarn is either left over from projects, unravelled old projects or from my Mum’s vast stash, gathered when we cleared out her house. Nearly every strand holds a memory, adding to the joy of making each blanket – and there is lots more to go!

I tie each piece together with a reef knot and leave the ends on show for texture. If I feel I want a change of colour, I just cut the yarn and add in a colour I want.

These blankets are made with a mixture of yarns – cotton, acrylic, mixes and a small amount of 100% wool. They wash well in the machine at 30C.

Pop along over to Kate’s place and see links to lots of other inspiring Scrap Happy projects. Scrap Happy day is on the 15th of each month.

Scrap Happy March

Continuing with my Scrap-Happy-Stash-and-UFO-Busting-Blanket as mentioned in last month’s post.

This was a perfect travelling companion: this photo taken at Gatwick whilst we were waiting to board the plane for a 5.5hr flight to Hurghada, Egypt.

No scissors needed and the crochet hook passed through airport security no problem.

I had taken other, more demanding projects with me for the week, but this was there for any odd moment of waiting around, or sitting chatting with a glass of pre-dinner Rosé.

Progress at the end of a week’s holiday:

And now

It measures Width 1m 20cm at its narrowest point , and 90cm Long.

I intend to make it about 1m 75cm long and then add a one coloured edging – probably in the chunky pale turquoise yarn, as I have lots of that.

You might have spotted that one side has gone a bit wonky, and I seem to have changed to a 5.5mm crochet hook along the way, but the joy of this sort of blanket is that I don’t mind about that and will just keep going, but I will decrease some stitches on the left side.

(Edit: I realised it would always annoy me, so I unpicked it back to before it strted going wonky.)

I just love crocheting this and watching for the next colour to come along, each one reminding me of a former project.

Pop across to Kate’s blog to see all the other Happy Scrappers.

Scrap Happy February

I am having a serious sort out of all my yarny WIPs and UFOs.

In 2016 I made a blanket to send to Syria for refugees, inspired by Mrs Snail’s method of joining oddments of yarn with a knot and leaving the knots as texture in the work – with no ends to sew in!

My daughter, asked for another to throw over an armchair for her farmer husband to sit in when he came in during the day covered in all manner of mess and muck. In the box where all the UFOs are stored I found these

I can’t remember what they were for – maybe I was going to make cushion covers, anyway, I decided to unravel them and make another blanket for myself. I have been unravelling lots and lots of abandoned bits – it was such a relief to come to this decision.

The yarns are a mixture of cotton, wool, and acrylic. some is from my Mum’s stash, but mostly it is from old abandoned projects of mine. Plus oddments left over from finished projects.

All are tied together with reef knots (left over right, right over left).

What a haul ….

and there’s plenty more to come!

I’m using a 5mm hook and started with a few rows of chunky weight turquoise

I have been keeping my bits and pieces, left over from sewing in ends a bag in a drawer

but when we met in West Bay for our Sweet Pea Gathering, one of our group told us she is storing her ends in a glass jar and then posted a photo on FB – oh they did look pretty – so now ….

I’m sorting my ends into colour jars – it makes sewing in ends much more fun!

A friend I met on the Collage Workshop in November, says she uses ends like these when she makes paper out of fabric off cuts. I’m not sure what I will do with mine yet – but for now I’m enjoying them brightening up the windowsil.

Joining in with Kate and her happy band of scrappers in her regular Scrap Happy post.

Arch

My entry for our One-a-Week Photo Challenge

Golden Rock, Nevis, Caribbean

We were told that this was the best place to eat on Nevis – what a place.

Gorgeous gardens

fabulous cocktails

Lunch:

sumptuous burger with obligatory Rum Punch for my friend L

and a Conch Chowder for me, (with pink and orange napkins) Yumsk!

Then masses of arty stuff, which was right up my street

side tables made of plastic rubbish set in a solid foam  – now … could I do this with some of my beach finds I wonder???? Hmmmm … must find out more.

I want that green chair!

I want to make that lampshadeHad to go for a sit down – I was getting over excited!

An Antillean Bullfinch came to see if we had any crumbs to spare.

So romantic …….

Textile Wall Hanging

“Nothing Between Me and the Sea”

Just a few days into my stay in the treehouse, the old worn sofa was to be replaced.

The sofa had been draped in a throw to cover its age, so when the throw was removed I saw the fabric – Yikes! I could not let that wonderful vintage fabric be thrown in the skip! 

I asked if I could have the fabric – and as an aside said – “but this sofa is so comfortable is it really going to be thrown away!”

A bit cheeky of me – sometimes the recycler/environmentalist/hoarder in me just will not be silenced!

Elizabeth said I could have the fabric and I was as happy as a pig in straw for the next few days, tearing, cutting, washing, drying and sorting the sofa cover.

The design was intriguing – a strange mix of sea and land flora and fauna: butterflies, birds, coral, shells and all sorts of strange plants. I started to play ….

….. making small fabric collages, stitching each piece on a background with a simple running stitch. At home I would have used my machine, but there was something very soothing about sitting curled up on the new sofa looking out at the sunrise or sunset and slowly stitching.

The weather was beautiful and most days were sunny.  I was often on the beaches between sunrise and sunset, collecting shells and beach cleaning. The photo below was taken on Christmas Day

After bracing walks on the beaches or coast paths, what better than to go back to the cosiness of the treehouse for some gentle stitching.

The idea of a wall hanging was simmering away and I wanted to incorporate one of my own quotes

“whatever the question, creativity is the answer”

After the sofa-moving, Elizabeth and I had a lovely chat and I heard the story of how she and her husband had found this place to live, over 25 years ago. The story had an air of magic about it.  It became clear to me that this hanging was for Elizabeth and needed to be finished for Christmas Day.

Some twigs cut from the ash tree were perfect to hang the piece from,

with tassels of torn strips of fabric and shells from the beach sewn to the bottom edge.

Whilst Elizabeth was looking for a house all those years ago, she had a dream about a house with nothing between her and the sea and ……… well the rest is her story to tell, but there is nothing but fields between the treehouse and the sea and the phrase stuck in my mind, and it needed to be on that hanging.

Rather than start a new hanging I covered my words with another piece of fabric, so that Elizabeth could have both

On Christmas Day circumstances conspired to mean that Elizabeth and I came together for a cuppa in front of her fire, I gave her the hanging, we had such a lovely long and gentle chat sharing life stories, and a friendship was born. The stay in the treehouse took on an even more rich and magical quality.

And hurray! my comment about the sofa meant that Elizabeth realised that all it needed was a new cover and that it really was comfortable – now it sits happily in her house for all to enjoy.

 

Upcycling for a 6 year old

It is Big Bro’s sixth birthday. I struggle with presents. Ethical thinking makes it a bit of a difficult road to navigate with young boys who love plastic and flashing lights and all things Star Wars or Superman.

The Village hall was having a clear out and these metal document cases were about to go in the skip – aaaaaaaarghhhh!!!!! NO! not more land fill. Surely I could put them to good use.

So with a bit of a clean and some trusty Duck Tape, I decorated some folders

hung them in the box

and after a good clean, added a bit of decoration on the outside.

I added a pen I bought for Big Bro from the Turner Gallery in Margate (thus supporting the arts)

which is also a screwdriver, spirit level and ruler.

Now that should be fine for a 6 year old boy shouldn’t it?!

I’m keeping the other metal document case for Little Bro’s 4th birthday in a couple of month’s time, because, if it is a success, I am guessing he will want one as well.

Red

Red Henry: He has tales to tell and the scars to prove it.

I have had Henry with me for about 30 years, a lot has happened in those 3 decades. He finally needs to go into retirement and be replaced with a younger model. I just could not bring myself to take him to the dump – he holds memories – how ridiculous to have a sentimental attachment to a gadget, but he’s seen me through some tough times.

I asked Miss E (8) to think about what we could do with Henry, and she came up with the idea that he could be used to hold toys for Little Miss M (3), “because she would love to push them around” – and I do believe she would!

So after a bit a a clean he has taken up his new post as a toy carriage.

And if that doesn’t please Little Miss M as much as we think it will – he can be used as a moveable plant pot holder for the heavy blue ceramic pot holding a custard apple plant that I have grown from seed.

One of Henry’s Tales:

Cue wobbly camera effect as we go back to circa 1989……..The day was fraught with my 11 year old middle child (!) being very annoying. He was pretty cross with me for leaving his Dad, and I was pretty cross with him for being bolshie. We were all struggling to adjust to the new situation. We lived in a town at that time and were planning to go shopping, he was refusing to come with us. In the end he persuaded me to leave him at home – we only planned to be about 45 mins so rightly or wrongly (wrongly as it turned out!) I decided I could really do with a break from the arguments and took the other two with me.

The three of us were wandering peacefully along in the pedestrian shopping street when a bike came up beside us very fast and screeched to a halt! It was middle child looking terrified – he garbled, without drawing breath “I wanted to be helpful, so I thought I’d lay the fire but it caught alight and I tried to put it out but it made a mess so I vacuumed it up and now the vacuum cleaner’s on fire!!!”

“Ok,”I said, “we will all go home” (I could be very calm in a crisis in those days) and he took off on his bike. We hurried back to the car park and drove home.

When we arrived, I was relieved to see no flames licking the roof, only an ashen faced boy holding on tightly to his bike standing at the gate waiting for us.

Opening the door I was greeted by a hideous smell, a mixture of burnt plastic and human hair (a lot of hair seems to be vacuumed up in our house) have you ever burnt hair – it smells DISGUSTING.

But no smoke and no fire! Phew!

Luckily the smouldering pieces once inside Henry’s belly had seemingly run out of oxygen and although they had burnt through the dust bag and a made a small hole in the canvas dust bag cover, and some scorch marks on the inside, no further harm was done and Henry still worked perfectly well, and soldiered on reliably until just a few weeks ago.

On the plus side – middle child was quite subdued and beautifully behaved for the rest of the week, returning to his more natural good humour and playfulness.

~

cantankerous child

with charm and a certain look

he redeems himself

~

and a 3/5/3

cheeky boy

with a charming look

puts things right

~

Which do you like best?

These are definitely Haibun this week: story summed up with a haiku

And the new Henry seems to be settling in nicely

~

Joining in with Ronovan’s ever expanding band of Haiku Challengers. Prompt words: CHARM and LOOK

and

Bluedaisyz 52 week Photo Challenge: RED

Bluedaisyz Challenge is coming to an end. 😦

A few of us have enjoyed it so much we have been chatting behind the scenes and hopefully there will be some exciting developments to tell you about next week. 😀

I’m very excited!

The photo prompt for next week is:

MAGIC!

A Good Yarn

It is fun to join in with a Yarn Along to see what others are making. I have been joining in with Ginny, but I have felt a bit of a fraud as she asks us to share our latest yarny work and the book we are currently reading.

I don’t seem to read any more – I don’t know why, lack of concentration or something like that. However I do like to watch films and TV series on DVD

and this means I can keep knitting, sewing or doing crochet as I watch or listen.

One of my favourite DVDs is Marie Antoinette

I love its quirkiness and the colour palette – as it says “a love letter to cake”! I have watched it over and over again, pausing to wonder at the fabulous food concoctions and patterns on the clothes and furnishings – it is a veritable visual feast!

And my latest yarny project has been inspired by Mrs Snail, who in true Permaculture style is re-using and recycling odd bits of yarn by tying them together and making hats – I’m going to give it a go.

I’m so glad I did save all the off-cuts.

Please feel free to join me by leaving a link in the comments – I’d love to know what you are making and/or what films or other DVDs you have enjoyed.