Grandma's Washing Line

If Cinderella is looking out of her pumpkin-carriage window, she will have a great view of Grandma's enormous lacy bloomers on the washing line. These are surely large enough for the Big Bad Wolf to squeeze into, should he come calling, but Grandma must have very skinny legs, judging by her spotted socks. She is clearly a keen needlewoman and her cheerful patchwork quilt is out on the line too. 

At last, the frog has a crown. I had initially thought of this as a frog prince, but a better story is included  in 'The Starlight Princess' book mentioned last week. Here the frog is actually a clever princess with magical powers. In her frog shape, she marries the youngest of three princes and manages to outwit the lazy wives of the elder brothers. In this version of the story, she turns back into a princess and the pair dance away into the night, who knows where? A great ending for a story!

Like all fairy tales, there are many version of this, some of them not nearly so happy. There's some information about the story here .

Meanwhile, at the doorway to the Sultan's palace, someone has been rubbing the magic lamp. The genie is very flashy with his magic, bursting out in a flurry of stars. He's ready to grant the three wishes, but he's got a knowing smile on his face. What could possibly go wrong?

 

Horses and Carriages

One of the most fun parts of making the Fairy Tale Quilt has been adding all the tiny details, with whatever comes to hand. This week, the two lumpy horses on the quilt, with physiques that  look like they could barely stand up, let alone pull a carriage, have finally acquired manes, legs and tails, while their carriages have got some wheels, to make the job of hauling around princesses a bit easier. 

Cinderella has a roomy pumpkin to travel to the ball in, with little net curtains at the window and sturdy wooden buttons for wheels, which hopefully won't joggle her around too much. 

Cinderella's pumpkin carriage trundles off to the ball

Meanwhile, the princess from Puss in Boots is taking a ride in this fancy carriage, pulled along by a rare leopard patterned horse with a steely glint in its eye. I had fun decorating the carriage with ribbons and sequins, and glossy buttons for the wheels. The Ugly Duckling, looking rather cute, is splashing about in his pond as she goes by.

The royal carriage, about to be waylaid by Puss in Boots.

Like everyone else, princesses get hungry, so I've added a handy baker's shop for them to call in at. There are five currant buns in the window, round and fat with sugar on top, made from tiny chunky buttons with a white bead sewn through the holes.

Hopefully no-one has noticed the Gingerbread Man making his escape down to the river. I wonder how far he will get. 

Off goes the Gingerbread Man

There are some feisty princesses in this book, illustrated with beautiful embroideries by Belinda Downes. My favourite is the African princess whose husband hatches out of an egg. They live happily ever after, of course, but she keeps the pieces of eggshell, just in case he needs to go back from where he came. 

 

Little Trolls

Behind the recent parade of witches, ghosts and other beasties, the Fairy Tale Quilt has been progressing slowly in the background. It has its own share of monsters, though in my magical world, they are all quite amiable and unlikely to eat you, even if you do trip-trap over their bridges. The troll finally has his face back on, and sports a good head of woolly hair and plaited beard. It looks like he's doing a bit of a dance, maybe because the goats are all far away on the other side of the quilt. 

There's also a dragon on the quilt, looking a bit pensive. He's modelled after a favourite family toy, complete with pom-pom eye, although nowadays the real Tiny Dragon is looking a lot more raggedy than this. The brown shape at the bottom of the picture is his cave. Perhaps I will sew him a bit of gold and other treasures inside it, to please his dragonish tendencies. 

By the look of his stomach, Tiny Dragon has certainly just eaten something!

I enjoyed sewing the curly leaf stems onto the beanstalk, once I had finally decided which thread to use. It's a green perle thread, which matched the ric-rac stalk, and I have couched it on, rather than try to stitch with it. 

Trolls are common in Scandinavian folklore and there are some beautifully drawn ones in this 

a collection of magical tales illustrated by John Bauer, a Swedish artist. Like the one on the book's cover, these trolls dress themselves in furs and trinkets, and look out of the pictures with curious eyes.  

It doesn't hurt to have a small troll pottering about the house. This one was bought from a shop in Norway, picked out of a huge tub filled with his identical siblings. I wonder if he was pleased to be chosen? At any rate, he has made himself at home on my shelf, and is quite fun to draw, when I'm in the mood for a bit of sketching.

Tiny Troll and Happy Apple

Getting Ghostly

 

October is my favourite month of the year, and this week there has been some great autumn weather for walking: sometimes chill and crisp, sometimes mysterious and misty, sometimes a breezy swirl of leaves. I collected a handful of newly-fallen leaves from the old track where I walk most days, and used them to print on a piece of bright yellow cotton. A box of ancient fabric paints was unearthed, which were revived with a bit of water and vigorous stirring.  I used a sponge to dab around the leaves, with just enough on the veins to make a mark. The print has come out warm and energetic, and I was quite pleased with the result, despite the patchiness. I think I will add some stitching to it eventually. It will serve as a reminder of a favourite walk.

A lot of mess was made in the production of this humble sample.

As Hallowe'en approaches, I thought Lumpy Witch needed a pet, and decided on a frog to match her green skin. I have a lot of wool for needle-felting after an online purchase a few years ago, when I failed to look at the quantities. This little chap didn't make much of a dent in the stash - perhaps I should make a whole pond of them. He's about 5cm high, all wool except for his black bead eyes. He's sitting in a witch's cauldron, also wool, and not looking very happy about it, although he could just jump away!

Somehow, frogs seem much easier to make in 3D.

Finally, another train journey this week requires a bit of sewing. To complement the parade of witches, I've set up a troupe of ghosts to wander under a misty moon. At the moment, the fabric is lightly sewed on with tiny stitches, which I will continue adding to, until the piece has a nice texture. The ghostly material is a bit of offcut from a wedding dress, and the blues are remnants from my old, indescribable garment and a scrap of chiffon. I like the way the ghosts are just drifting along - there is something about things in line which immediately makes you wonder what the story is. 

On a ghost walk

There's an unusual ghost in this book by Berlie Doherty, illustrated by Jane Ray. Jinnie Ghost floats through children's bedrooms, bringing dreams, passing through, saying nothing - a ghost you could almost welcome into your home. Jane Ray is one of my favourite artists. Her book illustrations are always beautiful and evocative, and full of tiny details. They combine, in this book, with lovely poetic language. 

There's lots more of Jane Ray's art on her website, janeray.com

The beautiful art of Jane Ray

Lumpy Witch

 

After last week's parade of witches, I was in the mood for a bit more Hallowe'en sewing. It's a great time of the year to be creative - lovely colours, fantastic characters and endless rain, so there's no choice but to stay inside making things. 

I thought it would be fun to make a decorated witch's cloak, and decided I would kit Bare Rabbit out with the full ensemble. I swathed the poor thing in sombre material and stuck in the pins to style a long dress. Bare Rabbit stared back in disdain - there was no way this gentle creature could ever be witchified. Chastened, I returned him to his shelf, and pondered the problem. 

I would have to make a new witch. 

Lumpy Witch, smiling through adversity

Small and simple is best, so I used a 'cookie cutter' pattern, about 6 inches from head to toe. This is very easy to sew - just pin the paper on the two sides of fabric and sew round the outside. Then cut out the shape leaving a seam allowance and clipping the curves. 

Onward to the stuffing. The witch's arms and legs were a bit fiddly, and as she gradually filled up, I noticed how lumpy she was turning out, necessitating some firm pummelling. She also had a very thick neck, which was reined in with a tightly wound thread. This left her with some wrinkles, but she's a witch, after all. I wasn't entirely satisfied, but the felt obliged to give the poor lumpy body at least a chance. 

I sewed her a little bodice, and a patchwork skirt from bits in the tiny scrap bag, and edged them with wool.  Her hat was a triangle decorated with scattered cross stitch (foolishly, after it had been sewn into shape). She has the standard face of black bead eyes and a fly stitch mouth, with the last of my tiny green pompoms for a nose. Fluffy purple wool made her some suitably uncontrollable hair. 

The cloak

Finally the cloak, which had been the original point of this exercise. I used a rectangle of old, dark blue sheet, with swathes of fraying chiffon attached by scattered stitches in variegated threads. I lined and edge-stitched it, then added a running stitch in perle thread to make a tie. 

All in all, I was rather pleased with this character, who is probably stuck with the name 'Lumpy Witch', even though, like most of us, she looks a lot better with her clothes on. 

There's a great witch in Tom Gauld's children's book 'The Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess'. She's kind and clever, and, like Lumpy Witch, green.  I'm a huge fan of Tom Gauld's cartoons, and this book is charming and whimsical, and has a heart-warming story (and it even mentions a magic pudding!). I especially love the pictures of the inventor's workshop and the witch's room, stuffed full of wonderful objects.

Here's the link to the book on Tom Gauld's website, which also includes downloadable colouring pages.  Who could resist?

Buttons, Beads and Bobbin

I have been on my travels this week, with a lovely few days on Deb's new boat, including a bit of foraging in the market, the antique hall and the art shop. I couldn't resist the glass beads - I was very pleased to find the round black ones, because they are perfect for eyes, which means I can get on with adding the faces to the Fairy Tale quilt. I also got a bag of small shell buttons, which have a lovely sheen. It's hard not to see faces in two-hole buttons, and because these are natural and imperfect, there are some interesting expressions among them.  Then we treated ourselves to some stones from the market. The black piece is apparently from Whitby, and contains a mass of tiny fossils. The other is, I think, striped calcite palm stone, and I bought it for its beautiful lines and colours. 

An artistic selection of my new purchases. Now I will have to sort them all back into their little bags.

To our great joy, there was a sale of DMC embroidery thread in the art shop, so we treated ourselves to four skeins each. I'm looking forward to using the new variegated thread - but I'm not sure on what! I also got a present from Deb, a vintage loom spool which will eventually be used to make a scroll. All the cotton has to be wound from it first.

Lovely colours, and a lot of cotton to use up

Travelling by train is a good time to get a bit of sewing done, if it isn't too crowded, but I've learnt from experience that some sorts of sewing work better than others. Joining inch-sized paper hexagons was too fiddly, and it's hard to evenly hand quilt when the train is jolting around. So for this journey I prepared a bit of easy stitching in honour of Hallowe'en. These ten little witches are marching along in their hats and cloaks, looking quite determined. They are about 4cm high, including their hats, and are cut from the bits in the tiny scrap bag. They are attached with minute seed stitches in a single strand of thread, and their hair and arms are six strands, couched on, although, in retrospect, I wished I'd used wool for their hair. The background is adorned with cross stitch, to give it a bit of texture. The advantage of seed stitching is that it doesn't really matter where the stitches go, and its nice to feel all the floppy bits of loose fabric merge into a single piece. 

Witches on the move - I wonder where they are going?

Finally, I thought I would show some of the books in my collection that have given me inspiration over the years. This one is Fairy Tale Quilts and Embroidery by Gale Harker, first published in 1992. Inside, there's lots of advice on planning, sources, materials and techniques, and full colour pictures of some beautiful works by a range of artists. My favourite is the quilt shown on the front cover, especially as the princess is peeping out from her own patchwork quilt. The designer of this quilt clearly didn't have my problem with drawing frogs!

Big Bloomers

Bare Rabbit has some bloomers! 

I was nearly defeated by the first leg of pintucks, which took a long session of folding, pinning, undoing, re-pinning and several cups of tea. The wobbly result is evident! However, after a good night's sleep, the second leg seemed much easier, and I flew through sewing on the gathered trim and up the seams. 

However, it quickly became obvious that the bloomers were going to be huge on Bare Rabbit's skinny legs, not at all how they looked in the book. I debated taking in the side seams for a better fit, but decided not to bother. For one thing, the whole bloomers thing seems a bit below Bare Rabbit's quiet dignity, and the exercise was to improve my sewing skills, which I certainly have done.

I'm not sure why some of the clothes seem to have come out too big. At any rate, I feel I've learned enough for now from this book, and I'm going to have a look for another machine project, because I have enjoyed the process very much. 

The Fairy Tale Quilt is progressing too. All the main pieces are attached, and it's time to add a bit of personality. I'm using tiny beads for eyes, noses and hooves, and had to hunt through the drawer of 'things used once a decade' to find the beading needles. There were two left in a pack of four  (I wonder where the other two are lurking) and both were bent, but, luckily, skinny enough for the tiniest, fiddliest beads. 

Faces can be a bit unpredictable. The slightest crooked stitch or misplaced bead can cause these lovable characters to turn into brooding evil masterminds. Puss in Boots, however, looks like a kindly soul; a bit ironic, because he was a cunning trickster in the story.

Puss in Questionable Boots

Meanwhile, Daddy Bear has the glazed look of a father who was dragged out of bed too early on a Sunday morning and forced to go for a walk before he's even had his porridge. (You can see it cooling in the cottage window.) He too has a pleasant smile, though. A little fly stitch works wonders for the mood.

A hungry bear and his bowl of porridge.

Interestingly, the story of the three bears is included in my German book of Fairy Tales, but in this version, the rotten thief is not a golden haired girl, but a little old lady who utters bad words when things are not to her liking. I much prefer this version, although there is the worrying possibility that she is arrested and thrown into an asylum at the end. Hopefully, I have misunderstood the German.

Finally, here are a couple of Billy Goats Gruff, with their trip-trapping legs flying, although they are nowhere near the bridge. You can imagine those little beaded hooves would make enough noise to try the patience of any troll. I have a soft spot for trolls, and don't like to think of them being bad tempered. Perhaps he'd just had a hard day. 

Clueless-looking goats. They should muffle their hooves.