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Fresh off the needles for a certain newly 21 year old – her request – ♡
Happy week-ending x
I get to dream up lots of fun projects for kids and adults alike as part of my job at MAC which in turn challenges me to keep things fresh, re-visit techniques long forgotten or delve in and learn new ones.
And as a part of my Mixed Media Textiles teaching, I played around with some potato printing which I hadn’t done for as long as I can remember.
It’s often the simple, childish things that are the most fun to do but can be brought to a new level as an adult.
One thing I’ve rediscovered is my love of drawing with threads – either by hand or free-machine stitching. It’s just another form of colouring in and mark-making.
And all of that play has got developed into a one-day course Print, Sew, Make on Dec 15th where you can use simple fabric printing methods and stitch and leave with a drawstring bag if you like.
This is the longest W>I>P I’ve ever had but finally my African Flower blanket is done (all but the edging).
Back in 2015 while we were mooching about on holiday, we passed a knitting shop selling off it’s closing down stock. Too good to pass up. I had already inherited a big bag of the dark and light grey Angora wool so chose a similar weight and fluff to match.
I got started pretty happily but then fell out of love with the colours and doing the shape. It’s sat gathering dust for quite a while…
But there’s nothing like the impending clear-up for family coming to stay at Christmas to galvanise a tidy up, sort out, throw away and get done mentality. And so after taking a deep breath and just getting it done…it’s done!
There is a big gap forming between what I’m doing each day and the speed I get here to show it!
I’ve been busy lately making fabric butterflies and moths for an upcoming MAC workshop.
I’m loving the variety of work that teaching Textiles opens up.
I have loads of photo reference from my trip here last year which has come in really handy.
I love it when you follow your heart’s inspiration only to find things come together at a later date.
I couldn’t have known back then how useful the trip to the Oxford Natural History Museum would be and I guess that’s why artist play dates are so important (explanation here)
And it’s interesting for me to see the marriage of painting and textiles coming about too on this project.
BTW did you see my new website header sneak in!
I have been having a lot of fun over the last few months teaching Mixed Media Textiles at MAC Birmingham. This is a fabric collage piece based on the lovely village of Marken in the Netherlands.
The students are full of talent and creativity and sometimes it’s easier to show someone how they could approach their work, rather than explain it.
So I have been using our Amsterdam trip as inspiration to re-aquaint myself with techniques and ways of working that I haven’t used recently while painting so as to make a sketchbook of samples.
And boy have I had fun! And learnt some things long forgotten such as I love print, love using embroidery stitch to draw with, like trans foiling, like dying but still hate weaving – too slow!
I’m so gutted we’ve voted to leave the EU – I think inclusivity is always a good choice to make.
This work is inspired by Amsterdam houses from when we visited in March – when we were still part of the EU 😦
Monday morning vibes – have a super sunny creative week.
This past week I’ve been doing a little screen printing project at home.
A little zippy bag for my soon-to-be aupairing girl.
And the time and the weather gave us a chance to get into the garden this long weekend and sort it out a bit- the upside of which is finding flowers once hidden.
And the opportunity to photograph socks freshly off the needles.
The Fairisle flower was finished first. You can find it here but I added the toe pattern which has made them a little pointy – elf socks!
And this wool I bought when Debbie Bliss came to our local knitting shop recently, bringing a discount day with her.
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I hope you’ve enjoyed your long holiday weekend too.
Hello! Today is the first day here that truly feels like Spring. It’s also the first day in a week that I feel well (stupid virus, nothing serious) and maybe it’s a combination of those two things that has prompted me to tidy out my iPhoto library today and come say hello with pictures.
It’s not that I haven’t been busy creating (apart from last week) but quite the opposite and once there’s too much to say I find it becomes harder to say anything.
In the last weeks the dresser got Spring cleaned – I found myself picking out yellow and pink china and it snowballed from there.
I was thrilled to get the opportunity to begin teaching one of the MAC’s adult evening Textile classes (insert whooping and cheering). This has taken me on a journey back in time and a re-birth in skills once learnt and used. I studied all kinds of Textile art for my degree before specialising in Print and it has been really invigorating prepping samples to show the students – here’s some batiking I did inspired by these gorgeous anemones.
I’m excited to see how teaching this class will develop my own work as these things always have a synergistic effect.
You know the saying “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” well this couldn’t be truer in the context of me teaching my daughter to crochet. First she knocked out her own gorgeous Granny Square blanket as her first project, then set about a huge Granny Square blanket as a friend’s birthday gift (here’s where I got jealous!) then for Mothers Day she made me this beautiful cushion cover for a pillow on our bed 😍
And the making = love message has been strong in our house of late as we celebrated a BIG birthday this weekend. We can’t believe our kids are 18 and 20 – where did the time go?
Lemon and Blueberry Buttermilk Cake with edible flowers for the girl who gave up chocolate for Lent.
And following the tradition to have a special item to commemorate a landmark birthday like 18, this little pumpkin asked me to knit her a cardi! Ahh…
It did nearly kill me as it’s the most complex thing I’ve done yet but that’s how you up your skills level isn’t it!
Here’s a little snap of my Spring inspired work table to leave you with. Hope the sun’s shining where you are.
Happy weekend everybody! I wanted to share something with you today in the hope that it might appeal to you crafty makers out there too.
I came to hear about Project Linus (Project Linus USA * Project Linus UK) through my dear friend who works as a doctor of critically and terminally ill children.
You remember Linus from the cartoon Snoopy? He’s the inspiration for the name as he was almost always seen with his blue security blanket.
Their vision is to:
“Provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets and Afghans, lovingly created by volunteer “blanketeers.”
In short to provide a blanket anywhere that a child might be in need of a big hug.
Blankets are collected locally and distributed to children in hospitals, shelters, social service agencies etc – read Duncan’s story here but have a tissue ready.
I have a stupid amount of fabric and yarn stashed away that I will never use up even if I crafted everyday for the rest of my life! And I already have enough blankets and quilts but still love to make them regardless of that. So this was the perfect project for me as I still got to indulge my love of crocheting and quilting, benefitted by slimming my stashes down and got to make something that’s much-needed by someone else.
I used Ikea fleece blankets to make my fabric quilts – it’s a simpler and cheaper way to back them and they are so snuggly.
And there is nothing I like better than seeing an unappealing tangle of yarn like this…
magically transformed into a beautiful and useful blanket (and it justified all my tv and film watching!)
In the UK Project Linus gave away 26,980 items in 2014, their best year yet – I’d love our crafting community to spread the word and maybe make a blanket and help 2015 be even better. And if making something seems too large an endeavour, they also need donations of fabric, money and time.
If you have been inspired to become a ‘blanketeer’ and you live in the UK you can find out where to donate your handmade blanket here or for the USA here.
