Saturday 2 June 2012

Dorset Art Weeks

This is the latest fabric landscape to come out of my sewing room, and I think it may have been sold already! Someone is coming to see it next week I am hoping! I haven't had much sewing time lately, doing one or two extra shifts at work to cover sickness, and as the shifts are 12 and a half hours long it's quite tiring. Having been visiting some of the Dorset Arts Weeks exhibitions this week I am re-inspired to get on and make some more pictures.
D bought me this little ceramic chicken at one of the exhibitions at Charlton Horethorne up in North Dorset and also the lovely fused glass hanging below for my birthday which was last week. It was held in someones home and was a bit surreal as we had to go all round their house and garden including in the bedrooms to look at the art and sculptures. It felt as if we were intruding! The garden was beautiful and had numerous little things to look at in the borders like this man reclining! He wasn't for sale, but I think he's great!


Monday 21 May 2012



Well Saturday saw our CrafTea and Cakes summer fair take place. The sun shone and lots of people came and we managed to make £735 for our two chosen charity's. Two friends joined us, both called Janet and took on the tea and cakes side of things while Suzie and I concentrated on the sewing side of things. Another friend, Jean brought along some vintage tiered cake stands that she had made and Julia gave us a large double quilt which was 2nd hand but added well to our total. A huge thank you to everyone who helped us on the day with washing up, setting up, clearing away, making cakes, serving tea and cakes.




Thursday 26 April 2012

It's that time of year again....time for the CrafTeas and cakes event to raise more funds for the Good News School in Kolkata for street children and Romanian disadvantaged children. The weather is very wet at the moment but hopefully by May 19th it will be sunny and we will be able to be outdoors.
We are having a new kitchen fitted at the moment so I have plenty of time to do some last minute sewing for the day. It's a bit like camping in your own home while you have a kitchen fitted, everything is squeezed into the dining room and we can't get to anything! It will be worth it though!
I will soon put some pictures up of stuff being made for the sale, watch this space.

Sunday 18 March 2012

A bit weird, but I made my Mum a face flannel from merino wool, so it's lovely and soft and wrapped it around some nice soap. I also bought her a scabious plant from Hilliers nursery yesterday. I don't think I would make too many of these but it is very nice to touch!
Beautiful magnolia in full flower at Hilliers gardens yesterday.

Sunday 12 February 2012

Chickens and placemats

I seem to be on a bit of a placemat craze at the moment! I saw this one in a magazine in a shop the other day, I would have bought it but it was an American magazine so quite expensive. So I came home and made one from my memory of the picture. I rather like it, so will have my breakfast on it today!

The placemats I get asked to make for friends are nearly always animals or birds, and far and away the most popular are Chickens! Recently I have made 10 of them and have more interest in them!Here is some inspiration, look closely at this mossy log, there are so many more colours in it than you first see.





Friday 27 January 2012

Equipping our young people for practical life

I have been giving alot of thought recently about how well we equip our youngsters for adult life. I am the first to admit that in some areas I have failed to teach my children some of the practical skills needed to live a simple life.


I have tried to teach them not to be materialistic and I think for the most part they are not hankering after 'things' and none of them are in debt ( apart from the one who went to University, and he has a job so is paying it back).

When they were growing up I didn't involve them in any of the house cleaning routines which I now regret. It was easier and certainly quicker to do it myself, so that's what I did....but I did them no favours. Thankfully all three of them are now reasonable tidy in their own homes but we did go through a few very untidy years!

I make most food from scratch, including bread but I haven't passed on these skills....shame on me. However, my daughter is an excellent cake maker for our twice yearly sales.
I was taught to sew by my mother who is a skilled needlewoman, at the age of 78 she still makes most of her dresses and skirts, she makes amazing lace and can turn her hand to almost anything practical. My daughter has not been interested in sewing but has made the odd cross stitch picture which I treasure! One of my son's made his girlfriend a pair of pink tartan shorts for Christmas!!!!!( not sure if she treasures them but I'm sure she appreciates the effort involved!) Below is the shorts in progress! I love to grow seeds and plants, a few vegetables......when the children were little they had their own little bit of the garden which they grew easy stuff in, like Sunflowers and Marigolds and were inspired by my father-in-laws garden which was full of produce and stayed like that until he died aged 88.
If I had my time over again I would not only try to teach my children more practically but I would teach them to let go of perfectionism. Everything does not need to be perfect, do it as well as you can but we do not need to have

-a perfect home

-a perfect body

-a perfect wedding

-a perfect car

-a perfect luxury holiday

etc.....

The nicest wedding I ever saw was entirely homemade, dresses, cakes, food and wild flowers on the tables in big jugs, the best holidays we ever had were when the children were young and we couldn't afford anything except camping....I could go on but you get the picture!

Is it too late? Hopefully not, and seeing my children now I can see that they are doing some stuff anyway....maybe they just watched! If I ever have grandchildren I will teach them how to do things like cook and sew for fun. Men also have a part to play, let them help Dad to make something, mend something and learn how to use tools.

Although I have written this in the first person, I was not alone bringing up our children, my husband and their father is an engineer and has passed this talent on to one of our son's who is now an engineer for a very posh and upmarket British car company ! My daughter works in the caring profession looking after children and young people with special needs, not easy at all, and our other son is about to return to the Royal Marines having sustained an injury during training he is about to start again. The Royal Marines taught him to be very tidy and his ironing skills are phenomenal! He is very resourceful and if there was a war and I had to hide in the woods to survive I would want him with me as he can survive outdoors with nothing! Bit of a Bear Grylls type!

Well this wasn't meant to be a rant, just a musing about using the gifts we have been given by God and passing skills on down the generations, not relying on this throwaway society. I get teased about my breadmaking, I don't use a breadmaker just the old fashioned way BUT...there is never any left to throw away, so however much I get teased, I know they like it really!

Saturday 3 December 2011

Quilts with feet!

This is the latest quilt to be made, I absolutely love these fabrics and secretly wish I could keep it, but it's an order for someone so it's not for keeping!

If you look closely you will see that this quilt has feet....... they look remarkably like my husbands feet!

Various fabrics have been used, it's machine pieced but hand quilted and hand bound round the edges.

I think when I have completed all the current orders from the sale I shall make a similar quilt for us!