Blankets and Patchwork

I’ve been quite industrious since the last blog entry and have completed the first of the baby blankets using up some wool which I’ve had a while.  When I saw the wool on Doncaster Market I thought it looked quite pretty but when I started to knit a tension square it became apparent the colours didn’t blend very well.   The white turning to grey just looked dirty next to the yellow and the orange tint went into a washed out pink colour so this wool clearly wouldn’t be for anything I’d wear.  I came across the group who knit blankets for premature babies and distribute them to hospitals in a prima magazine and decided I would happily knit up the yukky wool for them.  Apparently, they are short of 24x24 inch blankets and as I had, in a rush of enthusiasm, bought 6 balls of the ghastly stuff there’s plenty for the blankets.  As I had some wool with contrasting colours I decided to use that in a stripe and it worked surprisingly well but I still wouldn’t wear it!

One of the suggested stitches for the blankets was moss stitch, not a stitch I’ve used very much so I thought I’d give it a try.  It takes a little longer to knit than stocking stitch but produces quite a sturdy fabric and a tweedy effect with the random wools I was using.  It is also quite a wide stitch, I only needed 109 stitches for the 24 inch width.

The patchwork has also been coming along and the top of the cover is now finished.

I realised I was running low on dark materials and so enjoyed a shopping trip to Doncaster to top up my supplies.  I was particularly pleased with one of the fabrics from Knit and Stitch.

While I was taking the photos I noticed the girls in their usual position, fast asleep on Kev’s chair. 

A Patchwork for Harvest

The large display board in our school hall is changed every term according to the seasons and religious events, and it's my job to come up with a relevant idea and get it up on the wall (usually with Pat's help, especially at the top of the board.)

This year I had the idea of using real packaging to make a patchwork of the foods we all eat. A message was sent out to parents for boxes, wrappers and packets, and, when these were slow to come in, I began prowling the staffroom at dinnertime, snatching away any wrapping before it could be binned. This resulted in a unexpectedly large collection of empty hula hoop packets and tea-bag boxes, giving an accurate picture of the staff diet! All the wrappers were sliced into 3x3 inch squares using the grid ruler and an old patchwork wheel, which made the job quite speedy, even though about 400 squares were required. I interspersed these with some words from the children, hopefully to send a message other than pure gluttony.

It took nearly two hours to pin all the squares in place, while dodging the flying bean bags of a reception class PE lesson. Towards the end, I realised I was just a few squares short - the school secretary was surprised to find bags of flour and sugar being photocopied as I rushed to make up the missing squares. Finally,  the HARVEST lettering was printed in Word, enlarged and then used as a template to cut from yellow card.

I was pleased with the colourful result, which was the background for our Harvest Festival in school.
Sadly, displays don't stay up for long, and this one was dismantled over half term to make way for a Remembrance Day display.

Autumn

As the weather turns cooler it seems appropriate to be working on a patchwork of autumn colours, a change from my usual blues and greens.

Firstly, some background about the project - I have a tray I use for storing needlework in progress and this slides onto the shelves in the wardrobe.

At the moment the tray is kept in a pillowcase but frequently the contents are disturbed when I’m putting the tray in or out of this temporary cover so my patchwork is intended to make a more secure cover with a lid.  The sides will be heavily quilted so hopefully the lid won’t be resting on the pieces on the tray – well that’s the plan anyway!

I have accumulated quite a stash of autumn coloured materials and had industriously encased the paper triangle templates ready for sewing but it seems I need to do a lot more judging by how few are left. 

I spotted a patchwork of diamonds on pinterest which I used for the basis of my design and am pleased with the contrasting colours on the patchwork which will form the lid.  

I am going to make a border around the pattern of squares to complete the lid.

So that’s the progress so far, working the project will outlast autumn but as I have some other ideas for needlework I hope it doesn’t take too long, that tray cover will be in demand.  

Bees and Bugs

This week, I’ve been out in the garden with my camera set to close-up, having a look at who’s out in the sunshine.

A leafcutter bee has moved into my new bug house and is busy making doors for the holes. A bit of research tells me this is a solitary bee who lays her eggs in crannies and crevices, making the walls of the nest with circles cut from leaves. She is visiting frequently, carrying quite large pieces of leaf, and spending some time in the holes, presumably arranging them to her satisfaction.

Working hard to get the leaf circles in place.

A very neat finish 

This little chap is a green shield bug, marching about in the crocosmia  In the second photo, you can see two bugs, one lazing about upside down. This picture was taken in the early morning, after some welcome overnight rain.

I’m not usually a fan of spiders, but this one was dangling with a certain grace, and was not too big to be scary.

Finally, the garden is full of butterflies this year, who unfortunately don’t stay long enough to have their photo taken, unless you patiently hang around near the lavender. I like the translucent look of this picture, taken in very strong sunlight.

Nan's dressing table jar

During my stay at Chester we had an arty session and Mum selected an interesting subject for me, a pale blue jar from Nan’s dressing table set.  The jar’s faceted sides created interesting reflections and I quickly put pencil to paper knowing I would be taking some time with this subject.  Mum started on her own subject, a wooden yacht with copper sails and the afternoon passed by very quickly.  A bit too quickly in fact because at 10 to 5 we realised tea might be a little late!  As we finished I remarked the little glass jar would make a good watercolour and so that’s what I’ve done.   I took some photo’s along the way so that if it turned out I could put it on Squirrel and Stitch, if it hadn’t turned out you wouldn’t be reading this!

The little jar was a joy to paint and the photo's show the development of the picture. 

The original pencil drawing which I used as a reference.

  

The pencil outline, I have found the best way to produce the outline without causing any damage to the watercolour paper is to draw it on a sketchpad and trace it.  At this stage I had also preserved some white areas with masking fluid using the very fine Cotman paintbrush I bought at Chester.  I protected it with a coating of soap and found the masking fluid rinsed off quite easily.

The base layer, a mix of phthalo blue and prussian blue which gave me a background for the reflections.

Working from one area to the next I drew in the reflections in pencil before lovingly applying the paint with some fine brushes.

The finished painting.

Christmas Robin

There’s nothing like the happy anticipation of opening a new craft kit with it’s colourful materials waiting to be created into the picture on the packet, the needlefelt robin kit Sarah bought me for Christmas was no exception.   The kit contained a polystyrene robin form, soft felting wools and two sharp, barbed felting needles.

The contents of the kit

The process of stabbing the wool into the polystyrene form was relatively simple and I started with the orange wool for the breast.  In no time the bird was sporting a rather dashing moustache.

The makings of a flourishing moustache

It was satisfying to see the wool working up into a felt cover over the polystyrene and I quite quickly gave the robin his red breast and cream underwear.

The red breast is complete and the cream wool has been blended over the top and down to his tail.

A layer of brown covered the robin’s face and went over his back to his tail.  I might have been a bit energetic in the tail region, I could feel the polystyrene disintegrating under it’s felt covering.  Black wool was used to create a beak which was a bit fiddly but the eyes were straight forward and so the robin was completed.

The completed robin, according to the pack instructions.

As there was a generous amount of wool in the pack I thought I’d have a go at making something else but I would need something to support the wool while I created the felt.  Boyes had some needle-felting equipment including a brush-like base but at £10.35 the Barnsley War Cry went up.  Luckily Boyes also has a household department and a scrubbing brush for £1 would be ideal.  So having saved on the base I went back to look at the wools and picked a pack of gorgeous reds.

The cheap scrubbing brush and a selection of red wool from Boyes.

Against the vibrant reds the little robin looked a bit dull so I brightened up his red breast.  I thought he needed something else on his back so looked through my bits and bobs and found a mixed bag of wools which contained a long strand of felting wool in variegated brown.  I hadn’t even realised this was felting wool so it was a lucky find.  Thin strands of the brown wool were applied over the beige areas giving the robin some extra colour.

Perched on Kev's hand to show off his new colours.

The pack didn’t contain anything for legs and feet but I couldn’t leave him without them.  I shaped a pipe cleaner into a pair of legs and shaped 2 smaller pieces into v shapes which I stuck on for toes.  By now I had got the bug and had been watching youtube videos so I had seen how the wool can be wound round the pipe-cleaners to cover them.  This was rather more fiddly than it appeared but eventually I had a leg and toes all covered in orange wool.  At that point Mr Berry piped up – he thought it would look better in yellow.  I didn’t have any yellow but that was the least of the poor robin’s problems; the covering of felt had made a giant foot which was pointing sideways. 

The robin with that big foot.

Luckily the foot wasn’t yet attached so I could try a different technique.  Firstly I snipped through the pipe-cleaner to separate the legs, I hadn’t decided how to attach them to the body so that wasn’t a problem.  To reduce the bulk I gave the pipe-cleaner leg a shave.

The shaved leg and big foot strike a pose.

Then using less felt and a dab of glue I covered the leg for a better result.

The scrubbing brush has many uses and here it enables the thin and thick legs to stand on their own foot.  The thin leg is in much better proportion to the robin.

I had by now studied some techniques on youtube and chose the method of adding some cream wool to the top of the leg – again a dab of glue helped here – so the cream wool could then be felted into the robins under-carriage.

Adding the cream wool to the leg so it could be attached to the robin.

The robin has ended up with a pair of chickens legs but I think he looks better for them and if he doesn’t mind perching against something he can stand up on his own. 

The completed robin - thanks Sar. 

A Patch of Winter

Small, quirky houses is a theme I love to return to. They make great repeating patterns, while differing slightly in shape, colour and design, and have the added fun of wondering who might live inside them. A little village of autumn houses has been hanging on my kitchen wall for a couple of years, sewn in appliqued felt onto a bit of abandoned patchwork, with buttons and beads to make the gardens. If you look closely enough, there are some tiny cat buttons frisking among the flowers.

The autumn patchwork with added cats.

Recently, I found yet another bit of abandoned patchwork and decided it was time for a seasonal update. Winter was on its way.

Part of the appeal of houses is that they are such simple shapes to cut out, - just rectangles and triangles which are easy to vary in size. I used cotton in pale blues and greys so they would stand out against the dark blue patchwork and sewed them on with running stitch close to the edge. A very fine embroidery needle prevented too much fraying.

Basic houses, ready to sew.

The fun part is customising all the houses. I raided my box of fancy scraps - lace, ribbon, net, velvet, satin, sparkles and silk-  and lovingly cut out tiny doors, windows and trimmings for the roof. Once again, the invisible thread earned its keep to hold them all in place. I couched silver thread around some of the doorways to add a bit of definition, and sewed bead knockers onto the doors. 

Adding trimmings to the houses

It was at this point that I wished I had put a snowy landscape behind the houses. Undoing all the sewing to add one in didn't seem like any fun at all, so I painstakingly sewed bits of sheer fabric between each house, trimming to fit as I went. After that, I added the triangle trees, which were made from felt or fleece. I embroidered the plain white felt with tree-ish patterns before cutting out the triangles, which made it much easier to embroider right up to the edge. To finish off, I couched on strands of loosely-spun white wool for the snowy ground, and sprinkled on iridescent snowflakes. The outer squares of the patchwork were turned over to make a border. 

So autumn has passed and winter now reigns on the kitchen wall. I was pleased with the mixture of different textures and patterns, and sticking strictly to the blue and white colour scheme has given a good wintry effect. Sadly, I didn't have any white cat buttons to play in the snow. I imagine they are inside their houses, curled up in front of the fire. 

The finished winter picture

Happy New Year

After a December dedicated to camel costumes and Christmas sparkle, it was a bit of a relief to sew something plain and simple. At work, our clunky old laptops have been replaced with new, sleek devices, which are thankfully lighter to carry and have batteries that work for more than 5 minutes. Mine clearly deserved a snazzy case to protect it on the daily hike to and from school. Off to the fabric drawer!

There are always leftovers from a quilt project, so I used up fabric squares cut for Jo's quilt, mixed in with some of the beautiful batiks that Deb and I bought in Birmingham. To save the long-winded job of measuring and cutting out templates, I reused paper triangles which have been lounging in an old ice cream tub for about ten years. Good job I'm a hoarder! On New Year's Eve, I set myself the challenge of getting all the bits sewn by midnight, and took a start photo to get myself going. 

Laid out and ready to sew (cup of tea on hand), New Year's Eve 2017

That proved a bit optimistic! After chatting with everyone on phone and skype, doing the last washing up of the year, and watching the neighbours' fireworks, I only had about half the pieces joined, but ploughed on to finish it on New Year's Day. A piece of bright blue fleece (leftover from a puppet project) doubled as wadding and lining, and I machine quilted along the seams, following the patterns - a zigzag on one side, and diamonds on the other. 

Machine quilting "in the ditch" follows the seam lines.

Binding wide enough to give a good lip and something to grip on proved hard to find - even Boyes let me down. In the end I folded a long piece of blue material (left over from a shoulder bag project) and machined it on. Now my device can be safely tucked away and the cover adds a splodge of brightness to these grey January days. It's amazing what you can do with leftovers.

Tucked up and ready to go to work.