Feeling proper cream crackered now

Last fair of the summer finally done and dusted! I was lucky enough to get a spot at the Burnham Market Craft Fair, a lovely place in Norfolk. Full of lovely people too it turns out. It was all exceptionally well organised and the weather was glorious all day with just some overcast threat of rain towards the end.



The Magnificent Mum (just spotted rearranging quilts in the background) had done a great job of whipping up her crowd of friends into a crafting frenzy about the day, and they all popped down, said hello, and bought something.

And Big Sis (with the lovely red accents to the right) did a fine job of being The Helper Of Excellence and Most Fine Wrapper Of Products.

The hot product of the day was Kindle sleeves - oh and small purses, but a new addition of evening bags also did rather well, only the wintry colours left by the end. Note to self: put more summery colours in products for summer fairs!





Scored a couple of commissions and had some very interesting chats about boro cloth (more on that to come) and Gee's Bend and recycling fabric and so on. Brill. Here are some of the quilts Mum and I had readied for the stall - there was a lot of interest in them, but no sales, so perhaps not the right product for a fair.





So, thrilled to have done it but glad it's over! Looking forward to getting my online shop sorted in the next few weeks and then getting on with some art sewing. Not sure what direction I'm going to go in, but it's definitely time for experimentation again rather than product making. Excited doesn't go anywhere near expressing how I feel about the coming months :-)

Crisis averted.

So, the boys are away and I woke at 6:30 this morning and thought I may as well get up and get cracking on the old sewing. Big plans to make a bunch of evening bags today you see. Anyhoo, after 2 hours of red hot machine action, suddenly it all went wrong. Massive thread jam that continued despite cleaning the innards = massive frustration and thought, "Mmmm haven't oiled it in a while." Couldn't find the machine oil could I? No. Hadn't put it anywhere sensible had I? No. Considered googling the problem (not the location of my oil, obv) but then picked up the phone to The Magnificent Mum.

She had the solution. Of course she did. I didn't realise that there was a secret button inside the bobbin area that lifted the entire top section of the machine off. I was presented with 1.5 years worth of fabric fluff and dust. Yuck. Then she suggested a squirt of WD40 "...as it's reasonably pure, darling..." and after some running of the machine with no thread all was good as new.

Note to self: Take better care of your tools Simmons. Oh, and send Mum flowers just for being brilliant.

A bit of time out with the fellas.

Have mostly been holidaying with my dudes in Devon for the last week. In the rain, mostly. But hell, it matters not as we had a lovely time. Hurrah for holidays in the rain!



There was the odd cloud parting moment, and I (along with the rest of Devon) naturally bared all as quickly as possible. And now I have comedy sunburn stripes down the left hand side of both legs and a zorro mark across the middle of my tummy. I will never learn.



Look how mental the beach got?! Loving the stripey colours of summer though - blue, red, yellow. Might use it as inspiration for my next denim quilt ;-)

In other news, a massive amount of making about to take place as the boys are leaving for the west country for 3 days, and I am to be left home alone. I'll miss them LOADS as we've been in each others pockets for 10 days but I'm also reaaally looking forward to time spent crafting. And not tidying up my craft. And eating girl food. And maybe having a sneaky lie in too.

My distraction is finished!

Last week I could do nothing but sew bits of denim together despite there being quite a few more pressing things on my to do list. I've got it out of my system now though and here is the glory and splendour that is my third denim quilt:





I really don't mean to sound boasty and ego driven when I say that, but I just love how this one has turned out. I'm really enjoying how the scraps of fabric work together with the denim and the lovely Japanese cotton for the binding helps to soften the look of something that is quite functional. (Incidentally, might I suggest that hand sewing binding in the park, in the middle of a heatwave is not to be recommended. I've ended up with most ridiculous comedy suntan across my legs and arms!)





So, this one has turned out completely different to the two that preceeded it and I've no doubt the next one will be different again. I really like this freeform way of making quilts, using the mighty Gee's Bend quilts as a starting principle; using up what you've got, every scrap (pockets and all), and piecing as you go along.

Anyhow, here are the other two quilts that started this obsession:





And here are lovely things to look at over at Our Creative Spaces.

Wait. No. Surely not. Some actual planning?

Yuh actually, some. Nearly finished the denim quilt and already thinking about what to do next. The product making for my next stall has gone pretty well thus far and I'm feeling a little ahead of the game so thought I'd work on another quilt. Have got quite a few left overs from the man quilt, and some additional tweedy bits so I think man quilt No.2 is in the offing. I want to try something different with this one though, so instead of my usual bull-in-a-china-shop action I'm going to have a little think. First idea: big chunky pieces of tweedy fabric, then strips of less chunky bits using some of the fine linens and cashmeres...





The bottom line of this swatch card is mostly to be disregarded because it is evil silk velvet and we all know how I feel about sewing it.

Oh and 150cm x 150cm is my new best friend. A manageable size to handle through my ancient Bernina, it means less swearing, a bit more control and enough snuggly coverage on chilly evenings. Perfect-o.

Scraps of this, that and the other

My ability to go off track is becoming more and more predictable. Hence, faced with a to-do list as long as my arm I decided this is the moment to start on another quilt. So here it is. Stayed up until the wee small hours sewing these bits together. Went for a completely random approach in the cutting and piecing department. I love the feel of soft, old denim and all the wear out patches and what not. And using an entire leg of denim with the pocket still attached made me chuckle.



Not entirely sure about the third row from the top with the mix of different fabrics, but I was on a mission to use up a bunch of fabric samples I've had about the place for the longest time. What I do like is the red, white and blue - it makes me think of seasides for some reason :-)

Sould I get rid of that third row do you think?



Pop over to Our Creative Spaces for creative goodness and lovely things.

A bit wierded out by some inspiration

I popped into the White Cube today on Hoxton Square as I had some rare downtime at work and thought it best to go and look at something rather than do random internettings. See some actual art for once. Breathe some fresh air. Get out. And given that the gallery is literally round the corner I had no excuse.

 (Image from thisislondon.co.uk) Dinos & Jake Chapman are currently showing, so in I wandered, managing to completely bypass the "this is what the show is all about" piece of paper that was left at the entrance. I've never seen any of their work before and to be honest the show felt somewhat disjointed to me and a bit random. Turns out they have both been working in separate studios and this is an amalgamation of their work; some is shown in Hoxton Square, some shown in Mason's Yard - I definitely got that sense without knowing it. I found it all a bit wierd and disquieting - the small children with strange animal parts morphed onto their faces, and religious statues with parts of their facial skin pulled back to reveal the muscles and bloody mess underneath or bloody animal tentacles emerging from mouths. Looking at the pieces very closely, they really are beautifully executed and the skill of their art sort of overtook my feelings of discomfort. The aim with this art I suppose is to inspire a reaction and that certainly happened for me.

And it made me reflect somewhat on my craft. By playing it a bit safer with what I make in order to appeal to more people am I actually denying my natural impulses? I always wanted to aim for a bit of an edge, to make stuff that is a bit marmite, not just for the sake of it, but because it's what interests me and gets my juices flowing. I think I'm running the risk of losing that. So all in all, this spur of the moment 30 mins of feeling a bit uncomfortable enjoying someone elses art has had quite an impact. I shall be pondering what to do about it. Hmm...