Blue and Green World

I must be mad but my friend gave me the leftover threads from her fox cushion and I had some spare canvas and a frame so I’m  starting the fox tapestry too!! Not sure how it will work out doing 2 at the same time but we’ll see….

Ok, here’s my latest project. A friend and I have decided to tackle this one together for mutual support!

I’m a big fan of the Arts and Crafts Movement and William Morris in particular. Beth Russell designed a series of tapestries based on William Morris designs and I love them all. I first saw them back in the early 90’s and fell for them and bought her book meaning to at least stitch the fox and hare cushions - but never got around to it.

Then I saw the fox cushion completed by a friend and I knew that I had to do them! It’s years and years since I did any stitching following a chart, let alone any tapestry so I am a little nervous. But here goes….

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my attitude to life and how I’m influenced by tv, the media and other things in life. I feel like I’m nowhere near as kind and compassionate as I used to be, and I don’t think it’s just getting older so much as life getting to me. Oh how to explain this clearly… I was talking with my mum and a friend a few weeks back and the friend was talking about how jelly babies were originally called ‘peace babies’, and then we were all saying how lovely it would be to reintroduce the name and how the world could do with more of that nowadays.

Then I was reading online about how ‘The Vicar of Dibley’ was the top Christmas tv show and I was reading comments from people decrying all the soaps, how bleak and depressing all the Christmas shows were, and how lovely it is to see anything positive and fun on tv. And then I watched ‘Challenge Anneka’ and saw all these giving people wanting to make a difference and crying with emotion at it all. And I think to myself, there are so many caring people out there who want to make a difference and give, and why is it that that is shown and represented so seldom? Or am I watching and reading the wrong things?

Anyway it’s made me think and maybe woken up the activist in me again, I used to be so passionate and idealistic once! Maybe instead of just whining I ought to do something about it. Hmmm…. still trying to sort this out in my head. Maybe I could find some groups or women’s or peace circles online. Wonder if I could use this site somehow…. Hmmm…

I was trying to work out when I started this quilt. It was the first ‘proper’ quilt I ever made and I started it at a quilting class. I’m thinking maybe 5 years ago or thereabouts? The idea was to make a sample quilt (all different squares with different patterns and techniques) and to make it 3 squares by 3 and have it as a wallhanging.

I, in my enthusiasm and naivety, decided that I didn’t want a wallhanging - I wanted to make a bed quilt. So I started this quilt and on and on it grew. It’s pretty big, about 260cm square. I was madly into purple at the time as you can probably tell! The fabric came from all over as I had a really hard time tracking down purple fabric as it really wasn’t available at that time, or not many different shades.

It got abandoned, partly I think because of the size which seemed overwhelming. Also I didn’t like how the plain squares were working out, they were just being quilted and I felt they looked too dark and plain next to the other squares. And then I had machine sewed  some of the squares and I felt they looked messy and hated them in the quilt. Plus I’d changed my room colour and didn’t know what to do with such a one colour quilt.

Anyway I was feeling bored and restless yesterday and decided to get it out and see if I could finish it. I think it’s time it got finished and it would be fab for the spare bed. Below is a picture of it as it is now (so difficult to photograph something so big). I’m currently quilting all the little squares on the border and planning out appliqued flowers for the plain squares, which will hopefully work ok. I’ll keep you all updated with how it goes! 

Well as if I haven’t enough things on the go…. but I got tempted! That terrible temptation that is known as Ebay!

I’ve always been fascinated by weaving. I’m really into colours and patterns and textures so I guess it would make sense for me to be interested in it. I’ve done bits and pieces of braiding but I’ve never really had a go at weaving. I’ve always been put off by the size of the looms and cost as well as what to do with anything I’d make. But I saw this guatemalan hand loom for sale on Ebay and fell for it.

Theoretically you tie one end to a belt around your waist and the other to a tree (or whatever - not sure what to attach it to indoors??) and use the sticks and hey presto. The loom came with a fair bit of thread and wools and has a length already woven but I haven’t figured it out yet. Not sure how to use the sticks to alternate the threads to weave (if that makes sense).

Does anyone have any tips or ideas on weaving? Or ideas on resources or good books? I’m thinking otherwise of maybe joining the  weaver’s, spinner’s and dyer’s guild and trying to get some information there. It would be great to get some information or tips one to one really.

Oh the things I do - lol!

I really love this time of year. I’ve always loved Christmas - the Santa and presents bit as well as the religious side. I also love the idea of Yule and the wheel of the year, and would love to be out there lighting a bonfire, welcoming the sun back, and all of that. And we’re so close too to the New Year which always seems like such a chance for a new start. Normally I would have been getting a wreath for the front door and planning out a tree and ornaments and decorations and getting all enthusiastic.

But this year I just feel so tired and rundown… I’m only just back home, after moving out for a month while I had central heating and a new kitchen fitted here, and still the workmen seem to be here every day…. I wish I could be grateful for all the work having been done but it’s been so stressful that everytime I walk into the kitchen all I want to do is to kick a cupboard!

So the last thing I feel like doing is starting buying Christmas trees and decorating the place and celebrating, and it seems so late now anyway. Am I turning into an old grump or scrooge? I have decorated some cookies for Christmas and I’m hoping to decorate a gingerbread house, maybe on Christmas Eve. But still, my idea of a blissful Christmas at the moment would be to be curled up in bed, snug and warm, with no workmen knocking at the door….

that a) I am a quilter and b) that I do finish some of them lol! I thought that it might be fun to post about some of my old quilts and how I feel about them now.

This is one of the first quilts that I made at a quilting class several years back. It’s an Anja Townrow design. The original was beautiful but very ‘realistic’. I loved the idea of instead making it in bright batiks and making a complete fantasy butterfly, which raised a few eyebrows and not a little disapproval at the class!

This leaf one was made just after the butterfly. I love trees and always feel happier around them, so I couldn’t resist this quilt. It’s also an Anja Townrow design and I did stick more closely to the original design with this one. I was playing around with the idea of colour. The leaf is definitely green, but it’s made up of all kinds of colours - blues and browns and pinks and more, and I loved seeing how it all came together.

I made this next quilt about 2 years ago. It was a ‘block of the month’ quilt ie each month you are sent a little kit with all the bits to make one square (butterfly) and at the end of the year you have it all. This one was a complete Godsend as at the time I was living in temporary housing with only some of my things. It was bliss to have something that I didn’t have to organise or buy bits for and that I could just sit and hand sew. It’s very heavily quilted as I spent hours and hours on it, sewing away all my anger, frustration and depression. I look at it now and feel a little more detached from it than my other quilts as it’s the least personal of my quilts in terms of design and colour, but I do love it, especially the texture with such heavy quilting.

And last but not least my spring flowers quilt. I was planning on doing a selection of these (seasons, celebrations and festivals etc) to go on a table in my main room. I’m not sure what to do with it now though as I have moved and the table is being used for other things… I also made a winter one but that seems to have gone AWOL since I moved. Anyway…. I made this one last Spring. I’m very proud of it as I designed it myself (with help and encouragement from my mum!). I really feel like I should design more myself but I am really not at all confident about my drawing skills (or complete lack of!) and it does take so much more time and energy.

for not having blogged for a while. Originally I was thinking of only blogging occasionally, so why do I feel bad that I haven’t blogged in a week??!

I am actually enjoying blogging more than I thought I would - especially getting comments (hint hint!) and am now becoming a bore trying to persuade everyone I know to start one, lol!

Chai tea….. YUM! A friend’s Canadian cousin introduced me to this one and I really do have to recommend it. I’m not the biggest fan of hot drinks but I do love spices. This is tea with cinnamon, cloves and ginger I think. Twinings do a lovely teabag version, scald the teabag as normal and add some sugar (a little even if you don’t normally as it helps bring the flavour out) and a drop of milk. Ahhh, perfection…..

I really love felted things and did do a class on wet felting a few years back. It was good fun and people made some fantastic things there including beautiful cushions and wallhangings. There is something wonderfully messy and satisfying about slopping wool around in hot soapy water…. but it’s also exhausting, so I never really got too far with it. Maybe one day…..

Then my sister introduced me to needlefelting, where you sculpt the wool and felt it with a hooked needle. This is my first attempt and I am so chuffed with her. She was a kit and I thoroughly recommend it. I did mean to do a felted girl for each season and have bought all the colours of wool and planned them. I just need to start and actually make them LOL!