When quilts end up in the right home

Last year was a massive denim quilt year for me. I made quite a few; the fact is, I love making them. It's like a love/hate tussle whilst they're in production, and I think the endless sewing and cutting and sewing will never end. But then it does and I fall  a little bit in love with each one. And then they get sold or given away. I always wonder what they end up looking like in their new homes - if they're used, or folded up and put away only to be brought out on the coldest days.

So, as a thank you to the many kindly souls who donated their old denim to me last year, I did a prize draw to win one such quilt.



Santa's Little Helper was the official responsible for a fair draw:



And thus it came to pass that Alex was the winner:



And so the denim quilt was dispatched to Suffolk to be enjoyed by Alex and his family. But I realised that I hadn't taken any photos of the quilt, and given my somewhat Virgoan obsession with cataloging everything I make, I asked if he could take a few snapshots of it when he had a sec.

And here they are. But of course, Alex didn't take a few snapshots did he? Oh no. He got his photographer mate to take some didn't he? Oh yes. So for once, I can offer some actual proper profesh photos for your delectation and delight:


(Loving the blue tester patch on the wall, matches the quilt nicely, no?)









These are lovely photos indeed. But the best bit for me, are all the wrinkles and crinkles that show it is being used. I hear reports of it keeping poorly little boys nice and snuggly as they recouperate on the sofa, and helping knackered big boys recover from a hectic working week as they watch dvds with their beloveds. And there is nothing better than that in my book.

This quilt definitely found the right home.

(Images by James McDonald)

"I like flowers and that"

So said Richard from work when he asked me to make him a quickie laptop sleeve. "I like that stuff where you put lots of material together in bits". Flowery patchwork do you mean, luv? About as far removed from my idea of fun as you can get. However, I figured if I mixed in a few bits of graphical print too then all was not lost. The fabric selection ended up as so:



We have a bit of Liberty print (6th from top, grey triangles) some Paul Smith cotton shirting (red and white stripe, grey and white stripe), some bits and pieces picked up from Ray Stitch from their sale section and some black needlecord.

It has been a while since I've done any patchwork and it was tricksy getting back amongst it. I found it incredibly difficult to sew straight lines - I mean, they were sort of roughly in the right place but were going slightly downhill at one end. It made me realise that my freeform denim quilts are very forgiving because wonkiness is part and parcel of their charm. I've really got to crack on and practice my technique.

Anyhoo, after many false starts and a bunch of practice pieces that drove me insane, I finally got something that I was OK with. Not perfectly happy with, but bearable. And it took me 3 whole weeks to get round to finishing it. So I ended up with a flowery side and then something a little more sensible and corporate.





I love this little bit of sass on the corporate side:



And Richard is very happy with it, and his favourite side? The one with 'flowers and that'.

Spring clean!

I've decided to get rid of my stock from 2011 in order to allow for new creative energy to enter my life! And possibly to allow for some space under my desk ;-)

Thus I have a number of 2nd generation Kindle sleeves and iPad sleeves (that fit both 1 and 2) that are looking for a new home, for FREE!

If you'd like one, then just email me your address (you can access my email from the right hand column labelled "Get in touch" on this page) and I will send you a random one in the post. Hurry, cos once they're gone, they're gone. Or whatever the adverts say.

The sleeves are made from natural materials where possible, using recycled fabrics and many of them are pure silk. There are more manly ones as well feminine ones.

Some sample silky numbers:


Go on, you know you want one.

Time for a spot of reflection

At about this time last year I did a recap of everything I'd made in 2010. It involved listing out everything I'd made with some nice thumbnails from my Flickr stream. I do think it's quite important to reflect on what has gone before in order to decide where to head in the year to come.

But I don't think I could list everything I made in 2011; I've not kept count as I have done a mental amount of making. So instead I'm thinking about what I've learnt.

I'm proud that I took a massive leap into the unknown by deciding to try and sell some of my makes; I was so terrified at my first stall I had to pretend to myself I was selling for someone else in order to get over my very British embarrassment. I made a tiny weeny bit of money, yes, but more importantly I've had positive feedback about my work and met some excellent people - fellow crafters, interesting customers. Worth its weight in gold that is.

Cally Fest:


Burnham Market Craft Fair:


Old Spitalfields Market:



(Attempting a "less is more" approach for my second stall at old Spitalfields Market. Alas, more is always more whenever I'm involved)

I've managed to get a lot better at different aspects of my craft: I'm all over zips now, feel much more confident with quilting larger size quilts due to my magnificent walking foot, can draft a pattern for simple objects with some zest, and have experimented with lots of different fabric types.

I have been incredibly lucky to get access to some wonderfully eclectic collections of fabric. Both my Mum and step Mum have helped to swell my stash with donations from their own attics as well as from their friends. I have run out of storage! Fortunately The HusWife and I came across a chest that someone had left at the side of the road the other day and we (he) managed to manhandle it home. But that's for another post.

I'm very much looking forward to another year of sewing. I'm going to do some playing around methinks. Try some techniques out, do some samples and try to find my textile voice. All I know is that learning the craft of sewing makes me very happy; a wonderfully hands on release after a day job spent at a computer. A great balance.

Happy New Year everyone :-)

Good lord woman. What have you been up to?

Alas, things have been quiet in blog land for me. Work work has been mentalist in the run up to Christmas - sort of having to fit 2 weeks into 1 to get everything sorted, so defo running on empty.

However, found some time for a spot of crafting. For our Christmas party at work I got Matthew as my Secret Santa gift recipient. Now Matthew has spent the last month at the office playing LMFAO "I'm sexy and I know it" full screen on his computer, full blast, at least 3 times a day. Sometimes on loop.

So I made him his own outfit:



This is Matthew (on the left):



This is what the dude from LMFAO looks like in his outfit:



Yeah. You do the maths.

Capolana cloth...

...is hanging on my line, drying in the winter sun. Actual capolana cloth from actual Mozambique. I am very excited about this.



My Aunt Pru (known henceforth as VAP - Venerable Aunt Prudence) is currently spending a year in Mozambique with VSO, having been given a sabbatical from Amnesty International. She is doing a spot of excellent blogging about her experiences there; I find it a fascinating read, not just because it's by VAP, but because it has real insight and describes a place and culture that is about as far removed from the rich hustle of London.

She wrote a brill piece back in July about Capolana cloth and me being me put in a cheeky request for some samples to play with back here in Londres. And VAP being VAP, she purchased some bits, dispatched them with a friend who was traveling back to the UK, organised for my cousin Omar to go and pick them up, and then got Omar to pop round to deliver them with a cheeky smile. Now that's what I call service!



I'm loving the colours and patterns; they are certainly brightening up a dull London winter. It seems a shame to chop them up as they work so well as large pieces, which of course is how they're designed; I'm going to hold onto them for a while and decide what to make with them after we've got to know each other a little better.

Thanks VAP, my dear. You totally rock. xxx

Designers Makers at Old Spitalfileds Market

Gosh, well, what can I say? A slow old day at Old Spitalfields I tell yee. Having never done a 'normal' market before I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. All raring to go, and having not slept the night before due to excitement/anxiety, my trusty slave labour for the day (Mrs Becci Augur, highlighted goddess, gossip merchant and all round good egg) picked me up early and we hotfooted it down there. It was bleedin' freezin', but we set to with great gusto.



Our stall always looks a little, er, over-egged compared to some of the clean-lined modernist splendour achieved on stalls nearby. I would like to think of it as welcoming and vibrant. Perhaps it just looks a tad rubbish. Hey ho.



We met some lovely neighbours, and wiled away the hours catching up on gossip and making the odd sale here and there. I sort of managed to give quite a lot of stock away, in an effort get some good karma flowing around. Eventually, I got a bit grumpy and wanted to leave early but Becci made me stay, and by the packing up time of 5pm, we'd made enough sales to cover the cost of the stall, parking, lunch and a baby sitter for that evening. Not a resounding triumph, but better than nothing. So either my products are wrong, or wrongly priced, or it's the wrong location for me. I have one more go there before Christmas, 17 December, when I'm hoping that people will be panic buying pressies and thus will rid me of my stock. I'm going to drop my (already low) prices, as I have an overwhelming desire to clear the decks before the start of the next year of sewing.

Looking at all my products this weekend made me realise I need to have a good hard think about what direction I want to go in. And I cannot consider any direction while I have boxes of stock sitting under my desk reminding me that they are not sold. So, if you're in the market for a kindle or ipad sleeve, a cute coin purses or indeed a man quilt then give me a shout. I'm open to offers ;-)

In the meantime here are some of the cuties I showed this weekend:

Even urban warriors need tote bags

Don't they? How else are they going to transport their essential warrior items as they warrior their way through town?



Thought it might be an idea to test some alternative fabric approaches on all my products at my upcoming stall for Designers/Makers at Old Spitalfields Market. Seeing as it's quite the funky hipster spot and all. The HusWife reckons men don't use tote bags. He clearly hasn't been to Hoxton recently, where the skinny-jean wearing, assymetric hairstyle types spend all day long carrying tote bags.

I've only made a few, just to see if they sell, like. If they don't, I'll owe The HusWife a million pounds. Let's hear it for the urban warrior tote bag!

Rummaging in my silky stash ;-)

Finally got my hands on a new kindle (hurrah! for kindly cousin Imran) and so the pattern is perfected! And a rummage through a hitherto un-rummaged through bag produced the loveliest bits of silk; samples from a shop long forgotten - embroidered flowers, and weird quilted silk and every sort of silk in between. So now I have some lovely lux kindle sleeves ready for action!

Maths headache

Do all those technology companies not realise how much pain and anguish they put me through when they release a new product? Well do they? No, I think not. So, Kindle has released its new eReader, which is smaller (but not thinner) than the last, and so I need to give myself maths brain ache to come up with a new pattern. Because my attempts to persuade everyone I know to buy one so I can use it to make a new sleeve prototype have failed thus far - so I'm relying on the dimensions given on the site, my old pattern for the larger size version and my trusty calculator.

Might pop into John Lewis tomorrow and see if I can subtley have a go at popping a Kindle into a prototype...

Has time speeded up or something?

Or maybe I just got a bit side tracked. I have 2 stalls coming up at Old Spitalfields Market. It's all very exciting; one of my favourite markets in London as it's full of vintage stuff, chi-chi bits and pieces, oddities and curiosities and has such a great vibe. And I've only just really clocked how much I need to do. There has been waaay too much "sitting on the sofa watching rubbish" action recently, so time to rev up the old Bernina.

I got a place through Designers Makers, a lovely organisation that helps freelance craft folk peddle their wares, meet the public and get ahead. The Designers Makers market runs every third Saturday of the month, and I have 19 November and 17 December booked.

Best get a wiggle on then. And then you can come and visit my stall and fill me in on what I've been missing on telly ;-)

The Knitting and Stitching Show

See how behind I am? It feels like I went to this most awesome of shows about a million years ago, and yet I'm only just getting round to writing about it.

Of course, it wasn't that long ago at all; I went on a girl date to Alexandra Palace with Mrs Becci Augur, stitchin' queen and goddess of all things groovy. She gently eased me through the day as I was suffering a little from an overhang due to green cocktails the night before (see my previous post).

First up, I have to say it was massively inspiring. I discovered new textile artists that have such an architectural quality to their work I am constantly googling them to discover more - I want to be just like them when I grow up. And I made one of my all-time favourite purchases ever.

Where to start? OK ok, I'm starting with the purchase :-) LOOK AT THIS BEAUTY:



This, my friends, is a Chinese Miao pleated apron skirt. And I'm totally in love with it. I saw it at the beginning of our way around the show and had a great chat with Sally Chang, the stall holder, about all her wares. She sells indigio based fabrics and items from Southern China and Thailand and is just the most lovely woman.

Becci and I wandered off and starting looking at all the other stalls but after about 20 mins I had a sudden rush to the head and knew I had to go back to Sally and make that skirt my own. I am going to get it framed because there is no way I can wear it and retain its pleated glory. (However, I suspect it is going to cost a small fortume to frame, so shall start saving up pronto.)



How gorgeous? It is hand-dyed, includes lovely batiq elements and small squares of bright red and maroon that have been hand-sewn on to create those lovely flashes of colour.



And the thing about Sally, not only did she sell me the skirt, she followed up with a lovely letter and print out about my skirt, the traditions behind it, where it was made and so on, which in my book, is the most fabulous customer service. Brilliant.

Then I discovered Chunghie Lee. Wowzers. Becci and I had a difference of opinion on this one as I just totally fell in love with all her work. Photos weren't allowed but I sneaked a few because I was beside myself with desire, and typically, karma (and my slightly DT hands due to overhang) delivered completely blurry photos. Not a single one in focus. So here are some examples from around the internets:

Images from:
http://www.handsofkorea.com/about.html
http://www.larkcrafts.com/

I love the architectural quality and delicate nature of the structures. The use of a single colour is so powerful and allows the construction of the piece to be as important as anything else. Totally jaw dropping. I shall be having a think about how I can bring some small element of this into my work.

Double denim

Recently, and for some inexplicable reason, we have been indulging in a spot of fancy dress at the office. Every so often someone will declare, "This week is Happy Cowboys versus Fame!" and thus it comes to pass. (Evidence of my cowboy outfit below. I know. Sorry.)



One such call was for 'Double Denim' to celebrate/despair when our dear and esteemed colleague Eliot decided to leave us for a sabbatical. "Double denim. Hmmm." I thought to myself. And naturellement, I came upon the idea to make a denim tie.

I found a simple and most excellent pattern over at The Purl Bee and set to it. Of course, their ties are shown in lovely Liberty print and are all sensible and fabulous, whereas I needed to patchwork together a whole heap of denim first so that I could cut the pattern pieces on the cross.

And after all that patchworking, hand sewing this puppy together required fingers of steel and well-girded loins. But I got there in the end; and with a nice bit of jaunty red and white stripey cotton shirting for the lining I think it has worked out rather well.









And we attempted a photo to prove double denimness, but alas, the glory of the green cocktail was so all consuming that we completely forgot to show my bottom half, which was thoroughly clad in blue denim. You'll just have to take my word for it.

A bit of a before and after

Wowzers, it has been a long time since I've been at the old blog. Sorry for that - life got a bit busy all of a sudden and I got a bit down about the old sewing. Not for any particular reason, but just needed a bit of time away to rest and recuperate I think.

In the meantime, I have been trying to sort out our little flat and have given it the mother of all spring cleans. I'd like to think I'm early rather than late! One job that has been glaring at me for months was to finally get round to transforming an old chair we found on the street. Essentially it's in good nick, but was covered in paint and clearly ready for the bin men to take away.



The HusWife kindly brought it back home as we needed a chair for the communal desk in the lounge and it seemed to fit the bill. There it has languished unloved for many months. Now it's not really my sort of chair - a bit fussy and oh, that awful orangey varnished wood. But free is free, right? Finally got round to sanding, painting and sanding and painting and now we have a lovely new chair.



We think it looks like it's wearing knee socks. The HusWife now thinks of it as a dead pervy chair. He really should get out more.



We also had an old cushion hanging around that was disgusting, so I recovered it using some lovely linen effect material Mum gave me ages ago. A little Japanese cotton for the envelope binding on the back and voila. The whole project cost nothing as we already had the paint and material. Aces.





I used to do quite a lot of Frankenstein chair experiments in another life, but got all swayed with the sewing machine. Finishing this project made me want to dig out some of the bits and pieces I made before. For what it's worth, here they are. Please forgive the highly dubious styling and bad focus: