Claire February 4th, 2010

Like many bloggers out there I have fallen in love with making quilts – I seem to be slightly obsessed with it at the minute, so obsessed in fact that I have several quilts planned out in my craft addled brain…  amongst many, many other things…. But I never got round to showing you this one – it’s been on our bed (and grateful for it’s lovely warmth and weight we are too since the weather is still so cold) since last year.

It uses the “Snippets” range of fabrics supplemented with some 30’s reproduction fabrics I added to ensure I had enough for the quilt I wanted to make.  I love the pretty florals and quirky dressing up dolls on this range:  shame it’s so hard to get hold of now.

It’s not really planned out very much, I started out with a “turnover” pack and a load of fat quarters. I have a pattern of the blocks made from the triangles arranged with the squares, but I actually like the fact that the pattern isn’t easy to see.  The pillowcase in the above picture I embroidered last year as part of my self imposed therapy time recovering from doing too many craft fairs…

I used a vintage wool blanket for the batting and a vintage candy stripe sheet for the backing.

I love this quilt – it’s far from perfect, but it’s my first proper quilt, and the sunny colours make me happy when I go to bed on an evening. Saying that I worked through a number of mistakes on this one, the main one being that the wool blanket was soooo heavy and having just a domestic machine (with a relatively average throat) was difficult to quilt well. Lovely idea, won’t be repeating that! I was reminded why I love my walking foot (which I bought years ago for making PVC clothes – don’t ask – long story!) although to be fair I remember this every time I use it!

The next quilt I made was for Vicky’s Christmas pressie, and I am halfway through the blocks for one made using “Happy Campers” fabric I bought at the knitting and stitching show last year.  Add that to the long list of other quilts I would like to make, and it looks like I will be busy and warm for a while longer!

Whilst I am here,  a quick question – do you think these pictures are any better than they normally are?  David’s dad gave us his old camera when we were over visiting Northern Ireland at New Year and I have been enjoying playing with it.  Can you see the difference?  I keep reading the instruction manual on my bus into work in the morning!  Hopefully with a nicer camera I will blog more often…….xoxo

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Claire November 30th, 2009

That should really be titled “where the hell has Claire been for ages part 1…”.  It’s been my intention to blog, many, many times, it’s just that it hasn’t happened.  That and I like to pepper my posts with pictures, and I haven’t really being taking many.  Problem that.   Lots has happened since the last time I posted – was made redundant from my old job (which by the time I left it came as a relief) and after 4 days unemployed, was interviewed and successful in getting another job, which I started almost 4 weeks ago now, and love and work with a great team (such a change from the old place!).   Done craft fairs and had a mixed experience of them – some good some really quite trying.  Made quite a few new skirts.  And WORKED!  Work, work, work!  I work full time  (37 hours) and I also teach 3 evenings a week (9 hours in total) each week as standard, as well as some weekends, so I am generally so tired I can’t think…  Anyway, that’s what I am up to – roll on Christmas!

One of the best things I got up to was last week was the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate.  The Textile Workshop, where I teach on an evening and only 5 minutes from our house ran a coach trip and most of the Stitched Up lot booked to go, and I am so glad I did as I had an exhausting but fabulous day out.  If you’re in the UK, make sure that next year you go if you haven’t been before.  The show was a great mixture of exhibitions and shopping, and since I had worked my butt off the couple of days before hand to get some pennies to spend, I was like a kid in a sweet shop with all the pretty things to buy!   Harrogate is so lovely although I spent all day inside the  exhibition centre, which  was built around the Victorian theatre which was so pretty  -  we escaped there to to get some peace and quiet from all the mad shopping that was going on.

There was some amazing work by a variety of textile artists from knitting and embroidery to quilting, although there were only a few parts we could photograph.  I loved this

- a boat entirely covered in knitting (there were pictures there of it sailing too) – love the attention to detail that they put in to it.

The stitching was a amazing – and such a diverse range of techniques and inspirations that it made me just want to go home and make something new.

I particularly loved the machine embroidery

- something I teach my students to do but very rarely choose to do for myself, but felt so inspired by the work there that I want to do more ( a great excuse to come home with a box of beautiful machine embroidery threads to supplement the ones I already have…) and I really loved the knitted everyday objects that were exhibited  – such beautiful knitting, and who could resist a knitted pair of knitting needles?

I spoiled myself  at the stalls, and spent what I thought was an obscene amount of money on not very much at all….  I came away though with some beautiful vintage craft magazines, embroidery transfers and a stunning 1930’s print for the bedroom, 2 lengths of fabric for (more) skirts, perle cotton that was beautifully hand dyed in muted tones, as well as dotty bias binding, the biggest ric rac I have ever seen,

as well as the quilt fabric I was hoping to find (Happy Camper – so cute!).  And lots of beautiful fat quarters and half meters, which I will show you soon as I start to calm down a little.  I felt quite guilty at spending so much money on really frivolous things for myself, but I worked hard to do it, so what the heck!

Better go, as it’s a long day tomorrow – day at work followed by my “Making things from vintage patterns” class – we’re making retro christmas decorations  – fab!  ‘ Later xoxo

Tags: exhibitions

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Claire August 16th, 2009

You may remember that our little craft group Stitched Up were approached by a local actress/ artist Hazel Ellerby to join in making squares for a patchwork that would be shown for the “One and Other” art project in Trafalgar Square.  Life for me has been a bit crazy recently, working my usual full time hours, as well as weekend classes at the Textile Workshop and my usual evening classes, so I didn’t know whether I would manage to get a patch of my own done in time.  I ended up rushing things a bit and managed to get this done in an evening, which wasn’t entirely what I had originally planned, but was happier with then I thought I would be, if that makes sense.

I wanted to use a something that remided me of who started me off on all this crafting business – my parents.  There’s some pictures in there I have already blogged about before here, and one of my parents I took when I was about 14 at Brimham Rocks that sits on my dressing table.  I love this picture – they both look so happy in it, and for once my dad isn’t fooling around in the picture (can’t think where I get that from at all….).  I also appliqued a part of a vintage tray cloth and some scraps of fabric and lace, and embellished it with different embroidery stitches, bordering it all with a ribbon.  I wrote some text that I pinned to the back of the piece and left it to be collected.

Hazel took to the plinth on Weds this week, and I was surprised to see the amount of squares she had collected up – the quilt was double sided and then she ended up having to make bunting from it all (which I love the idea of!) to display them.  I was excited to see some of the patches I had seen, texted Vicky when I saw hers, and then saw mine.  If you watch the video you will hear some of the really emotional stories behind people’s squares.  You can see a bit of my square at 17 minutes, and at about 21 minutes you can hear all of Vicky’s text and half of mine read out (Hazel’s mum was heckling her to speak up!).

What was a bit wierd, in a nice way, was when I was looking for images from somewhere I had been with my parents, to use as the background.  I ended up Googling “Sutton in Craven” – the village my mother lived in when she left home, and where my dad would visit her each week with a bunch of Chrysanths and a box of chocolates (how romantic!), and where we visited lots when I was little.  I found the village website, and was looking through the gallery of pictures when I saw a folder of “hostel girls” – the hostel was set up for the girls and women who weren’t originally from the village for them to live in whilst at work.  There were quite a few pictures that I recognised in there from my mother’s  photo album, and then there I found this.  It was such a nice shock – my mam is the one on the left at the back – pretty much in the centre of the photo, with her arm round who I seem to recall was her best mate (Jean?) who then moved to Australia, the girls in front I recognise but I don’t know who they are.  I ended up ordering some prints of the set, and am trying to contact the guy whose pictures they are.  My sister has all my mam’s pictures, and I wish that I had access to them as I would like to use some of them in my textiles.  My mam would have been about 19, and from the look of it was experimenting with setting her hair as it seems to be quite curly at the back!  I’d love to know what they were all giggling about as they seem to have been having a good time!

The technique that I used for my patch I will do a tutorial for soon, as it’s so easy and has such potential for stitching and working with, so watch this space.  Later today I am off to join my friend in Cromer – her parents have just moved there and so we’re camping in their garden – roll on beach walks and Cromer Crab for tea! xoxo

Tags: family, patchwork, sewing

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Claire July 29th, 2009

I seem to have found a new obsession recently – a strange one at that, but people who have been reading this blog for a while now probably won’t be surprised at all by that!

Being a magpie at heart I have always loved shiny things. When I was a goth (back in the day) my love of shiny things translated into several PVC skirts and bustiers for clubbing in – don’t ask! And yes, you do get sweaty! Now, I needed something to help with my “manky table” problem. When we were moving into this house we were really lucky to be gifted a pine dining room table and 4 chairs via Freecycle. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth we accepted and have giventhe table 18 months of hard use – David has a folding games table that sits on top so he and his mates can play with his tiny fighting men of an evening, I have sat and sewn and painted and cut things out on it. Occasionally we have been known to eat at it too. But it’s looking tired, and orange, and I don’t deal well with orange pine. Rather than paint it (I’d like cream, just like my pretty dresser) or stain it (David would like it dark brown, like the floorboards) I thought that an oilcloth cover and some slipcovers for the chairs would be enough to tart it up for the time being.

I’d seen an advert for UK mexican oilcloth sellers Viva La Frida in a sewing magazine and had a look on their website, and was instantly smitten. First of all I ordered 2 craft packs

- which you can see here, basically cos I didn’t know how big my table was (ordering at work on my lunch time!) and then a couple of days later I ordered this gorgeous turquoise rose print, which I adore.

Even David thinks it looks good (which I was a tad surprised at). The craft pack pieces are large enough to make tote bags and make up bags from, so I think I will make some of those up, and maybe some cushions for taking into the garden should we ever get any dry weather this summer in the UK. I am now wondering what else I can cover in these bright, crazy flowery fabrics. I have also started digging out the other bits of oilcloth I have stashed away, which is a surprising amount really. Though to be fair they’re not as nice as these ones…

As an aside, if you wonder what the best way to sew oilcloth is, get a walking foot for your machine – they’re great and don’t stick to the fabric. Saves hours of swearing and frustration!

I can feel a bit of a show and tell coming on with all my oilcloth projects! xoxo

Tags: fabric, home, oilcloth, sewing

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Claire July 20th, 2009

Those of you in the UK, and further afield for that matter, may have heard about the art project in Trafalger Square, on the Fourth plinth of Nelson’s Column. Our craft group Stitched Up have been approached by Hazel Ellerby, a local actress/ artist to help make a quilt t0 celebrate the women of the East Midlands. She’s asking for women to contribute a quilt square that passes on a message either about yourself, or what you would want to say to the world. The squares will be sewn into a qulit, exhibited following the plinth day (12th August) and then eventually taken apart to be sold for charity.

If you would like to take part, the quilt blocks need to be 12″ by 12″ making an eventual square of 10″, and they can be sent to Hazel at:

Hazel Ellerby, 17a Fisher lane Bingham Nottingham NG13 8BQ.

Don’t forget to pin a piece of paper to the back of your piece, with your name and a message to the world!

The rest of the quilt blocks that have been made so far are on the Stitched Up flickr pool page – have a look at the variety of lovely blocks people have made x

Tags: quilting

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Claire July 10th, 2009

To my lovely new home.  It’s so nice here (wish my own real home was as easy to tidy up and decorate!!!) and I do hope you like it.  It’s quite a strange thing to have had it in my head for ages and then to see it all on screen in front of you.  It was a kind of “Oh, Hello there!” moment when I saw it, especially as it seemed to have a life of it’s own…

Things are so busy at the moment – teaching workshops in the evening and tomorrow is the first of my summer school classes, as well as trying to get everything done for a craft fair next weekend.  And dealing with a severe garden obsession.  I decided one of the things I needed to do to help lose weight was to not cabbage in front of the TV sewing and eating chocolate, but instead spend a couple of hours in the garden of an evening, battling with snails and slugs and Japanese Knotweed, trying to make a lovely garden to enjoy.  More on that later.

Anyway, welcome, and hopfully you have enjoyed your stay xoxo

PS, if any of you need a recommendation for website design, Vicky and Jez are people that I would wholeheartedly recommend!

Tags: garden, pinky and boo, work

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Claire June 25th, 2009

One….

Two – my first ripe strawberries…

Three…

Well I think I found more than one, two, three yesterday afternoon. Was feeling a bit out of sorts with myself, annoyed at a certain staff member making bitchy nasty comments about me, to me and behind my back (don’t worry – I have started keeping a diary of them so I can take out a grievance on her – just biding my time, or as my parents would have said, given them enough rope to hang themselves with!) and just MEH! Anyway, after being whisked out of the office and given a lift home by Vicky and Jez I decided to sit out in the garden and sort myself out.
My garden is a source of both delight and frustration for me. Delight that I have a secluded and pretty large outdoor space, frustration that the snails and slugs seem to devour anything pretty I plant within hours, that the weeds triple overnight (they never seem to get eaten by the snails though…) and a huge mess of a pile of chipped slate tiles. Goodness knows who decided it would be a good idea, but over time this blob shape has had foxes having a good old root round and pulling up the membrane underneath, and it’s covered in weeds. Planning to get rid of the slate (if anyone in the Nottinghamshire area would like some please feel free to email me and collect it!) and spread what I can’t get rid of around some of the rest of the garden, and then get some turf so it goes back to being grass again.
For all the frustration though, doing a bit of digging, putting some alpines I bought in the rockery around the pond, putting some more (so far slug un- munched) sweet peas in, was just he tonic. That and finding the first ripe strawberries, and my first (odd shaped) tomato on my plants.I then pulled one of the patio chairs under my Laburnum and enjoyed the sunshine. So a garden, the company of 2 cute (and slightly deranged) kitties did me rightly x

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Claire June 19th, 2009

For the last couple of weeks I have been dipping a (rather hesitant at first) toe into bobbin lace making. Sue who is one of the Stitched Up regulars is an incredibly talented lace maker, and brought along a spare pillow and bobbins and encouraged us to have a play. Now, when Sue does something she does it with such confidence that you could be forgiven in thinking that it’s easy. She even makes bobbin lace look easy. Now to be fair the way Sue explained it it wasn’t as complicated as I thought it was, as you only work on 4 bobbins at a time (get me – instant expert eh?)
Here’s my first piece – a sample of the different stitches. I did find myself talking to the bobbins for the order they go in (although it’s not the only thing I talk to to keep in line!). Sue then scared me by getting me to try out a pattern. Now I love the leaf thing in the middle, and the use of a different coloured thread makes things easier to see, but the edge, well I still don’t feel that confident that I know what I am doing when Sue isn’t on hand to talk me through it!
What has been good is that I haven’t had this level of enjoyment for something new in ages, and it is good to remember that. One of the nicest things when I have been teaching is that people are enthusiastic about the things I have been showing them on the course that I take for granted as I have been doing them for ages, like embroidery or sewing on a machine. It’s that excited, clap your hands together feeling you get when you try something new that I haven’t had for ages.
And now for something completely different – Pinky and Boo will soon be moving to a new home. I have had the domain Pinky and Boo for ages (over 2 years I believe….) and nothing has ever really been done with it, but now Vicky is sticking all the stuff that needs to be on there, and making it work as well as look pretty – I spent a lovely afternoon with her last weekend looking at fonts for the logo and pretty colours for the site, as well as what will go on it – it will be a home for the blog as well as having an e shop and other bits and bobs on it. Vicky’s another one who makes things look easy… Anyway, more progress on that soon. Til then, here’s some gratuitous cute kitty shots xoxo

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Claire June 10th, 2009

Hello!

Long time no see as my Dad would have said…. Reasons for absence range from being locked out of my email address and therefore all other sites that use the same login and password to changing computers, work and general “meh” feeling that I think I moaned about earlier.

Anyhoo, I thought I would pass on details of the courses I am teaching over the summer. The courses are all based at the Textile Workshop in Sherwood (a couple of miles out of Nottingham City Centre with tons of parking, and surrounded by charity shops….) and are organised by South Nottingham College. The 2 day courses all cost £32 for the two days, with most materials already provided for you, although some of them may ask you to contribute a couple of pounds if you need extra. All courses run from 10 til 4, with a lunch break.

Day 1 we will be having a play with various techniques for transferring designs to fabric, including crayons, transfer dyes, pens, photocopies, as well as shoving random bits and bobs through an ink jet printer like printable cotton, Aida and Vilene. A fun day that is a bit like playing, and getting messy!
Day 2 we will spend making an item or items out of your creations from the day before, whether an embellished picture, bag, purse…. the limit is your imagination! If this course fills up I will be offering more dates as it’s a popular course and we can’t have more than 6 or 7 in a group.

If you want to take part and have pictures/ photos you want to print, please bring these along with you on CD or USB stick.

A chance to refashion some of your/ your childrens’/ your partners’ clothes into something new – we all have plain tops, skirts, cardi’s etc that are perfectly fine, but maybe you are a tad bored with. Learn techniques such as applique, embroidery (hand and machine) as well as basic alterations to help fit. If you are a bit scissor happy then this is a constructive way of having some credit- crunch fashion help!

2 days of making yourself a handbag (or handbags if you are a super fast sewer!) and co-ordinating zip purse from a variety of patterns. Patterns will be copied at full size a available for you to take away. Materials such as interfacing, lining, zips and fasteners will be available for use, as well as some fabric, although we would strongly suggest you bring along your own fabric for the outer (some of the donated fabric we have is a bit dated rather than vintage…) – 1 metre would be sufficient. The Textile Workshop also stocks Moda and Amy Butler fabrics so you could treat yourself to some yummy fabric whilst you are there!

A 2 day course to help familiarise yourself with the basic functions of your sewing machine, including setting your machine up, selecting threads, feet and needles as appropriate, different stitches for different uses, putting in a zip (they really aren’t scary!), making a button hole as well as having a play with free machine embroidery. At the end of the 2 days you will have made either a cushion or a purse as well as an embroidered corsage. If you have your own machine and would like to bring it with you so you can learn on it, please feel free.

Day 1 we will be covering a variety of hand embroidery stitches, as well as covering all you need to know to get started – if you have ever tried a stitch and not “got” it, then this course is ideal for you, as well as being an ideal start to those considering my 20 week course in and embroidery starting in September! All materials will be provided for you including threads, hoops, and a variety f materials to embroider onto.
Day 2 we will be covering the basics of free machine embroidery, including using different threads for different effects, and how to combine both hand and machine embroidery. If you have your own machine and would like to learn on this feel free to bring it along with you.

In september I will be teaching more courses, either 15 or 20 week accredited courses – more details about these in the summer!

If you like the sound of the courses and want to book on to any of them, please contact Karen Taylor (course co-ordinator) at the Textile workshop on 07809 158606, or at the shop on 0115 9603337 and she will be happy to help. If any of you do book on, please let me know so I can put a face to the name! x

• clothing , crafts , embroidery , nottingham , sewing and crafting , teaching
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Claire April 14th, 2009

Back again after a break that ended up being far longer than I imagined. No real reason, just a general “meh” feeling I haven’t been able to shake off, combined with IT issues (something to do with blog surfing and then getting the blue screen of death…. RAM burning itself out…. do I sound like I know what I am going on about? If I do, I don’t…..)
Anyway, just cos I haven’t been active online (barely been able to check my emails each week let alone daily, so I really had disappeared off the radar) it doesn’t mean that I have been idle. Think I need to have a bit of a show and tell really.
I also recently started teaching 3 craft classes – 20 week hand embroidery course, a 15 week hand and machine embroidery course and a 20 week mixed crafts course, so I am happily settling into them. Have dates for 5 weekend courses through the summer school, and 3 evening classes starting in September. Craft fairs may have to take a back seat this year, although I have booked to do 5 in West Bridgford, which were consistently good/ at the least OK last year and I have new ideas for the stall. It’s also the time of year again when I am being made redundant – this time it’s the end of May, so job hunting time again. I love working in the Voluntary sector but the funding situation is starting to be a bit boring now – after 12 years of working I have never had longer than a 2 year contract. That’s getting a bit much as this is the 6th time I have been invited to “you’re being made redundant and we have no guarantees as to whether we’ll get more money in to continue with the project/ course/ service….” discussions. Moan over. I’ll find something else, I always do.

My plan is to be on my own domain soon, with the blog and shop all accessible and pretty. That’d mean me getting my act together, but watch this space!

Anyway, the first of the “show and tell”s for you – this dresser is solid pine, but had gone a really manky orange colour, but I can’t complain as it was free from a friend who was relocating from Nottingham to Sheffield, and simply didn‘t have the room in his small and incredibly minimalist flat…. David had suggested that I paint it dark brown, as we have a lot of dark wood furniture. Poor lad was given an “are you taking crazy pills” kind of look. I wanted cream and robins egg blue. So that’s what I got. Couple of coats of satin later and I am really happy with the result, especially as I think the colour helps show off the little nick nacks I have displayed.

I always wanted a dresser with loads of chickens on it, so although this is a small dresser at least I have 2 of my hens (anyone remember Bread?) and my 50’s cock- tail tray for starters.

Not to burn myself out too soon I will go, and now we have some decent light take some more pics of the other things I have been beavering away at recently behind the scenes, and be back soon xoxo

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