Hand made Christmas

When Number Two Daughter announced she would be making most of the presents she was giving this year she inspired me to get on with something I had been thinking about, but never quite getting around to, for a couple of years now - making quilts for the grandchildren

It all began when I found a fabulous stack of pirate themed fat quarters at a local store, perfect for a pirate ship quilt for The Little Senator

And one with cats for The (not so) Little Model

The littlest girl loves cuddly rabbits, so although this was a bit tongue in cheek...

I did include a pair of bunnies, pattern from the Little Cotton Rabbits collection

One of the girls has special needs, so for her a fiddle quilt

The other boy is always happy with his fingers around a pencil.

Lastly the big girl loves giraffes

2016 has been a stashdown year.  The shelves in my studio, carefully curated when JTH (a little fed up of every nook and cranny containing yarn and fabric) converted two thirds of our garage, were groaning and overflowing into five clip top plastic boxes. My aim, almost achieved was to get back to not needing those boxes. So making six lap quilts for the little ones in the family seemed a good idea, here they are, all done and ready for wrapping

I still did a bit of knitting and over the year, with the help of the Spreadsheet Of Doom on the Pre-process Yarnies group on Ravelry, I have either knitted, sold or given away over 15,000 metres more than bought, but more of that another time. Yet I still have so much on the needles, two pairs of socks, a shawl and a cardigan. I have looked longingly at posts on Facebook and Instagram at photos of holiday casting on but I'm remaining strong. I intend to complete WIPs first before beginning a new project.  I'm keeping strong... I am, truly ...

xx

C

New beginnings (from something very old)

I'm trying to avoid giving today's post a title like 'I'm back' or 'Sorry for the absence'  But I do acknowledge it's been a while since I last blogged.  The thing is I had so so much Christmas crafting to do that I just had to put the blog on the back burner (there will be pictures next week).  But I'm back now and with One Big New Years Resolution.  

I'm saying it here first, making a public announcement that 

this year is going to be the year of quilts and afghans. 

I have one half finished crochet blanket, and several knitted afghans and two quilts in the planning stage. The added benefit of these big projects is that 2016 should go down as a stash buster. 

But most important of all next year's plans is a wonderful restoration project for my daughter, Jen.

The quilt is a present from her Godmother.  It is probably more than 200 years old, made entirely by hand out of dressmaking scraps using the English paper piecing method.  Each scrap of fabric has been wrapped around a piece of paper cut to the right shape and the folded edges sewn together with tiny hemming stitches. While the quilt may have initially been handed down through generations of family members for most of the 20th century it has been passed on from one woman to another with the new recipient specially chosen as the right person to be it's new custodian. 

While Jen will treasure it and preserve it ready to pass on she does not want it to remain hidden away in a cupboard so as it is also in very poor condition (hardly surprising!) I have my work cut out

This red fabric is in particularly bad condition.  In some places it has nearly disintegrated all together

Rather alarmingly one tattered corner was held together with rusty safety pins

These!!!

But the workwomanship is wonderful and I do so want to do it justice when I fix it.

 It looks nearly as good on the reverse

What is my plan you may ask? Well, ultimately I want to stabilise it well enough so it can be displayed as a wall hanging (Jen has just such a wall over her staircase that has the advantage of no direct light from any of the windows in her house). I think I shall lay it over some thin un-dyed cotton and stitch it down with a fine needle and thread to support the old fabrics and the tatters, then I shall mount it on another fabric that will take all the weight of the hanging frame. But before that I am going to contact an expert in textile conservation. 

Wish me luck and lots of patience!

Finally, speaking as I was at the top of this post of long  time periods I have just noticed that today is my fifth blogging anniversary.  I have fixed my first post to the side bar here, as a featured post, in celebration. And while rummaging in a bag of miscellaneous projects found one of the little notebooks that were the subject of that first post

No sense in leaving this in a drawer either, I think I shall use it to record my 2016 projects

xx

c

Summer of quilting

Quite some while ago when I was listing the projects I had on the go I mentioned I was making a quilt for  a wedding present.  So today I have finally got around to the reveal

But first (patience!) the result of last week's giveaway - I used this random number generator, I know there are clever on line gizmos that I could use but as there are 8 people who commented on last week's post I decided to use what I had to hand this afternoon

(he is too little to know his numbers and he is better looking than a website).  The winner is Cathie who was the fifth person to comment.   This lovely skein of Madelinestosh, Tosh Merino Light in the  Thyme colour way is on its way to her.

So! Back to quilting...  I have a lot of books on quilting but when I went through all the designs it was obvious really, a double ring quilt for a wedding present.  I mentioned some while ago that I have known the bride since she was 6 and she became friends with one of my daughters.  I have watched her come through a couple of tricky times and grow into a lovely young woman with a beautiful family, I really wanted to make her something special to mark her marriage to a lovely man and celebrate her happiness.

My daughter helped me choose the fabric (I was very nervous about this as her home is beautiful, immaculately furnished in shades of cream and silver grey and she has very decided ideas on home decoration)

 I WAS slightly nervous introducing so much colour

some investment in tools (templates, a cutting mat and cutting wheel) was necessary

cutting out the individual shapes was almost the biggest job

a dry run - I was just dying to see what the colours looked like together

my favourite glass head pins placed at right angles to the line of stitching

ridiculously excited to see how the sections match perfectly where the rings intersect

measured on the top of my bed to see if big enough to begin the border

After machine quilting I love finishing off the edging hemming by hand

finished!

personalised

xx

c

the beautiful bride

Three Weeks!!!

And no blogging.  I'm so sorry about that but I have been working away in my studio on a very special project.  I can't actually blog The Big Reveal post yet.  I need one more photograph which (for reasons that will become clear in a couple of weeks when I can tell all) I can't take that photograph yet.  However if you follow me on Instagram (and if you don't you can by clicking the button on the right of this post) you may already have a pretty good idea.

a tiny part of the BIG Project

But I have not just been working single mindedly on The BIG Project, I've had a few new ideas and there might have been a little yarn buying and swapping.  I've been taking photographs as I go too so I thought I would share some new beginnings with you much in the way of my ten random things blog of a few weeks ago

1. I got to do a little spinning with my drop spindle

2. I had a light bulb moment about how to use up some stash, including hand spun, (while buying a little more...) I will make an Enchanted Mesa

3. I came upon a pattern for a sock that you begin knitting the top of the instep first, as a lace square on five dpns, then the toe, the sole, the heel...

sock #1 underway

4. There's been a mini yarn swap with my friend Kathleen of KnitLikeYouMeanIt and the lovely SSK knitting pattern books (SSK1 and SSK2). I am going to make the elegant long gloves from SSK2 called Heddy Lamar.  I sent Kathleen a skein of this

AND she sent me these to choose from...

I haven't chosen yet (you can just see the beautiful gloves on the left of the photograph)

Now, which to knit up and which to send back?

5. I am designing a new shawl, based on a very old pattern.  The pattern (and FO) will be on Ravelry soon

6. The waistcoat I made for the WW1 film has been worn and seen in stills for the first time

I made the one in the middle!

7. I am in discussions and swatching for another item for the WW1 film

we will incorporate this old stitch pattern int a large fringed shawl

8. I'm rushing to finish this for a KAL party at the lovely Purlescence HQ on Friday, eeeek!

Lush by TinCan Knits in Sweet Georgia superwash DK

9. And there's this, the little sweater to go with the cardigan, both by Susan Crawford.  I want to wear the set to a workshop with Susan in three weeks (aspirant teachers pet that I am).  So far I've frogged it twice, it was coming out far to large.   It serves me right for using a different yarn but this Angelus from The Natural Dye Studio is like butter - how could I resist?  I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will even out when blocked.

10. Finally my holiday prep.  As every knitter knows a new knitting project goes on the list with sun hat, sun cream and strappy top.  At the moment I'm thinking of this, my yarn choice is also from the natural dye studio

The pattern is Water Lilly in the spring edition of Pom Pom Quarterly

So many projects and so little time...

Xx

C