A jewel of a find

Yesterday, whilst spending far too much time on Etsy as usual, I came across the most wonderful shop I have ever seen.
It is  the quiet home and sells knitting patterns for dolls
I fell instantly in love with shop and her designs - so much so that I felt the need to convo her and tell her.
She has a blog and I've listed it in my Bloglist below. Her entries are a joy to read

This is a picture of her latest knitting pattern, I love the soft and subtle colours of the variegated yarn and the pose of the doll with its thumb in its mouth.

I too have been busy with my knitting patterns.
I now have most of my Etsy hats also available as pdf patterns and intend to continue writing more patterns over the coming months.
It has been quite a challenge to discipline myself to transfer my well loved pencil scribblings to neat properly written pattern format, but worth it, for even though I know most of the patterns off by heart, it is good to have them secure on my laptop where I can recover them at any time.
Whilst typing them up I was also inventing loads more patterns in my head, so I can see I'll be busy for many months to come transferring what's in my imagination to knitted items and accompanying patterns.
Lets hope wehave a lovely warm summer  so that I can sit in the garden and work on them!

House and flowers quilt

Oh dear! I have been such a bad blogger lately.
I just don't know where the time goes. I think about blogging - just don't get round to actually doing it.

I have spent a large part of the past week thoroughly enjoying myself, making a quilt. Not an organic one (those will hopefully materialise soon). This quilt is for my youngest son and his girlfriend, who hope to buy their first house soon.
Just over a week ago, we took a trip to our local quilting shop to get some inspiration for their quilt. I just love  shopping for fabric (or anything come to think of it) when there are no set criteria - just walk in, have a browse and buy whatever jumps out at you.
Well what jumped out at us was a Moda Hunky Dory jelly roll strip, sitting all alone on a shelf. The colours are probably a little more "girly" than my son would appreciate on a bed quilt, but hey, I can add more blues to the outer edges.
I have only done the centre so far which has some pictoral sections - two houses, some flowers and this wonderful bird.

Appliqueing him, adding a button eye and some very long zig zag stitch legs was definitely  my favourite bit so far.

The flowers below the bird and again in the bottom left corner are not finished yet. The next stage is to add a lot of random strips to either side of the panel to make it more square, then there will be a frame and a blueish border - a nice theme for a first home quilt, I think. 

I'd better stop blogging and get back to quilting.

Putting an end to all those UFO's

Over the last week or so I have been putting together  a parcel for KidsCompany. This is an organisation based in London that offers practical, emotional and educational support to vulnerable inner-city children.

Their  services reach 14,000 children across London, including the most deprived and at risk whose parents are unable to care for them due to their own practical and emotional challenges. For many, the roles of adult and child are reversed.

These exceptionally vulnerable children not only negotiate significant challenges in their family homes, they also face immense threat within their neighbourhoods. Often they are exposed to relentless violence, some are forced into working as drug couriers or prostitutes, and many experience chronic abuse.

Kids Company provides a safe, caring, family environment where support is tailored to the needs of each individual. Their services and support empower children who have experienced enormous challenges to lead positive and fulfilling lives.

As I do not live particularly near to London, my support is limited to making some items of clothing for these children and teenagers. This is something I take great pleasure in doing, and love looking at the type of items in stores that I think the kids would like and then trying to create something similar out of the off-cuts and bolt ends that I can find in the bargain sections of fabric and yarn stores. The children always thank me with a beautiful hand made card and it is lovely to read the newsletters, giving me a small insight into the children's lives. For more information go to http://www.kidsco.org.uk/about-us

Out of three yards of blue cord I was able to make 6 pairs of pants ranging in size from 6 months to 3 years

and these earflap hats were made with all the single balls of yarn that I had over from other projects.

I am particularly pleased with the three rabbits in the top picture. I was just about to send off my parcel when I found a link on a friend's Facebook page : http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/facts-and-arguments/were-a-minimalist-family/article1881374/
Its all about minimalist living, and the "eco-friendly, don't buy it if you don't need it " crafter inside of me just had to take a peek!!
Well, I am now slowly on my way to minimalist living! I say slowly, because rarely used kitchen gadgets I can re-home without a problem, but all my crafting stash - now that's another matter! You just never know when you are going to need that 3" of lace or the book on macrame that you bought ** years ago! You never know when it might come back in fashion!
It did make me take a serious look at what I had, and I decided that the first job was to do something useful with all the UFO's (un-finished objects!) in the back of the cupboards. So these three rabbits evolved from several heads, limbs and half finished clothes that had been the practice bits for the rabbit pattern in my Etsy store. They may be made form odd body parts, but I think they turned out rather cute, don't you!

Grandma's Apron

The other day I was browsing through apron patterns on-line.

I particularly like this Stella apron from A Grand Revival designed  by Tanya and Linda Whelan

Then, quite by chance I received a round robin email from a friend with this narrative  about the wonderful uses that Grandma used to put her apron to, so I thought I would share it with you!

I don't think our kids know what an apron is.

The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath because she only had a few. It was also because it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and aprons used less material. But along with that it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.

It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids..

And when the weather was cold Grandma wrapped it around her arms.

Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.

Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.

From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables.

After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.

In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.

When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men folk knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.

 

It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that 'old-time apron' that served so many purposes.

Mmmmn, suddenly I think I'd better get working on that apron - its going to be so useful (not sure about the cleaning the ears bit though!!)

Many times during last summer I remember pausing for a moment, feeling the sun on my face, taking in the feel of the dew on my feet as I walked barefoot on the lawn in the morning, enjoying the moment as I sat knitting in the garden, watching the late afternoon shadows moving across the grass, or just relishing the fact that I could work with the patio doors open. I took in those moments, thinking, I must remember this and store it up to get me through those long dismal winter days, just as a squirrel stores acorns to get him through the lean winter months.
Well. today is one of those days when I need that store!
I woke in darkness to that bitterly cold rain-come-snow stuff that doesn't have the beauty of snow, but is just thoroughly miserable to look at. It hasn't really got light all day, and motivation has been thin on the ground.

I do have new plans for my Etsy store though, so I shouldn't be wasting these days. I have bought some more organic cotton and look forward to designing some lovely little dresses with it.

Organic fabric is INCREDIBLY difficult to get in this country, so I end up importing most of it from the US. This does make me feel rather bad about its carbon footprint. It is also often out of stock, so I can't reliably offer to make custom orders. I love making things with it though, so for now I shall just continue to make up whatever takes my fancy and hopefully sell it in the size that I have in stock. My dream is that one day soon enough people will demand organic that I will be able to source it locally!

I have also been playing with some new sewn items - I'm not giving too much away just yet. I'm a perfectionist and although my first designs were thought by most people around me to be just great, I have a few areas I want to perfect a little more work on, before I let you see them!!

Hopefully, it won't be too long before you see some brand new sections in Lovefibres store.

Happy New Year to you all