Christmas Scraps

Every project produces a pile of scraps, whether it's fabric snippings, lumps of wadding or half lengths of thread. Of course these all get saved, because they will certainly 'come in useful' for something else. My fabric scraps are kept together in a large basket, and one afternoon, on a whim, I sorted them all into separate colour bags. This means less scraps fly about when rummaging for a particular colour. However, it also means that any new scraps have to be sorted into their correct bag, and this doesn't always seem like an appealing job. Therefore a new basket has appeared, full of scraps waiting to be sorted. 

I've been using blue, green and white scraps to make small squares and rectangles, with the idea of eventually putting them together somehow to make something. I'm using my favourite technique of raw edge applique, sometimes sewn over the edges and sometimes secured with tiny stitches all over the fabric. I've done both on this star, using metallic thread which makes it sparkle in the light (but not on the photo, unfortuately.) The size is about 3 inches square. 

Much scrappier is this little cottage in the woods scene (a favourite subject!). The sky and background were taken straight from the scrap basket without any trimming, and the trees and house cut roughly into shape. This piece is about 2 inches by 3 inches. I like its haphazard look and loose threads.

At last, the long-suffering Bare Rabbit has a piece of clothing that seems to suit him. In addition to the sewing scraps, there have been knitting and crochet projects over the years, not to mention some impulse buys, and so I have a drawer full of half-finished balls of wool. In here I discovered a bag of very small scraps, which I've crocheted up into a thick lumpy jumper for him. He looks a lot more at home in this than in fancy bloomers or the dreaded spotted dungarees. The colour combination has turned out very well -I'd be happy to wear this jumper too. 

 I improvised the pattern for the jumper, but Bare Rabbit was made from the Luna Lapin pattern. The website is here - https://www.coolcrafting.co.uk/luna-lapin/

 

Gingerbread House

The last place to visit on the Fairy Tale Quilt is the Gingerbread House. I found the perfect  gingerbread coloured cotton for the walls, with a swirled chocolate roof. Some narrow rickrack turned into the icing, with sugary beads sewn on at the points. I thought the stripey bead looked like a mint, so that went on top. A large wooden bead made a chocolate button door handle, and I used tiny buttons in fudgy colours for the flowers and heart, all sewn on with the dreaded invisible thread. The candy canes gave me a bit of trouble. I tried to manufacture some free standing ones out of twisted thread coated with glue. They dried quite successfully, but attaching them was more of a problem. In the end I just embroidered them using a fly stitch, couched over with red thread.

The Gingerbread House features in the German tale of Hansel and Gretel, and far from being a cosy, welcoming place, it was meant to ensnare the children so the witch could fatten them up for eating, after their parents have abandoned them in the forest. I've added a trail of white beads on the quilt to show the trail of stones the children left to find their way home. 

Out of interest, I've looked in some of my fairy tale books to see how they described the Gingerbread Cottage. It seems the walls can be made of bread or buns as well as gingerbread, and the roof could be cake or marzipan. The windows are made of crystal sugar or barley sugar, and sometimes have nut-pastry frames, which sounds very tasty. You might also find brandy-snaps, raisins, lollipops and sweets to nibble on, and even candyfloss smoke coming out of the chimney. Who wouldn't want to go inside? Although it does seem a bit rude to march up to someone's house and start eating it, without asking first! 

Wikipedia mentions some interesting variations on the tale here, including a French version - La Cabane au Toit de Fromage, The Hut with the Roof of Cheese. I would find that house very tempting too.

When I've not been sewing this week, I've been relaxing with this jigsaw, which features a patchwork quilt designed by Kaffe Fassett. Quite a tricky one to do, in fact, involving peering at tiny pieces of the patterns and trying to match them up. Over the years I have found the work of Kaffe Fassett a huge inspiration, and own several of his books.

 The first one was Glorious Needlepoint, back in the eighties, and I still remember it being a revelation that you could put many shades of the same colour into a piece and get a beautiful result. I also have his Glorious Knitting book, much thumbed, and I made a pile of shawls on circular needles in wild colours following his patterns. The only adult jumper I've ever managed to knit was a blue and green sawtooth creation from this book. Sadly, it wasn't made to last, and I don't seem to have a photo of it in all its lumpy glory. 

This quilt was finished in 2008, and is my favourite of all the ones I've made. It was based on a design from Kaffe's Passionate Patchwork book, and is hand pieced and hand quilted. I can remember sitting on the carpet to quilt it, with one of our pet gerbils perched on my knee.

On a much simpler scale, here's a wonky little pencil pot, made from random stitching over scraps of toning fabric. Unlike the quilts, there was no planning in this at all. At first it was a bit of scrap to try something out on, then the stitching became denser and I liked the look and the feel of it, so I just carried on. By the time it was full, I like it too much to abandon it, so I sewed it onto a thick backing fabric and attached the bottom to a circular base. Little pots are always handy - I'll probably keep some playing cards in this one. I've included it here because it uses the same inspiration - lots of shades of the same colour, blended together. 

Kaffe Fassett's website is here

 

Castles

 

This week I have been adding the finishing touches to some of the grander residences on the Fairy Tale Quilt. The castle in the very centre is composed of glowing tawny fabrics, with some deep blue starry stuff to add a touch of magic. It has good strong doors with hooks and eyes for hinges and knockers, and the design of the fabric give the impression of many windows. Perhaps someone is looking out, waiting for the arrival of Cinderella for the Prince's Grand Ball.

At the top of the quilt, we find the Sultan's Palace, bedecked with jewels. It may be that the genie has just conjured it up, as a grand home for Aladdin. However,  I have just started reading a  translation of the Arabian Nights , so I am hoping to discover a host of strange and wonderful characters who could be lurking in here. There will certainly be enough subject matter for a whole new quilt. Hmm...

A bit less grand is the castle of Sleeping Beauty. The briars are beginning to creep up the walls, but they have a long way to go to cover the castle. Inside, the king, queen, princess and everybody else are all snoring away gently. I knew that wicked witch was up to something!

When it comes to designing buildings, this book has been a great inspiration over the years. It has photographs of every type of building you could want, from tiny cottages to towering cathedrals, ghostly ruins to grand country homes, and a smattering of bridges, churches, lakes and rose gardens. It's especially good for when I want to do some drawing - the wonky angles of the old buildings are very forgiving if you can't draw a straight line!

Dare you enter?

Last week we visited Grandma's comfy cottage with her washing on the line. But Grandma's neighbour

is a lot less welcoming. Here the Wicked Witch lives, in a cobwebby house with strange symbols on the door. Incy Wincy Spider has taken up residence on the roof, at least till the rain washes him down. The witch is out and about, wearing a enchanting gold swirled dress and casting spells with her magic wand. She's certainly up to no good.

Every Wicked Witch should have a black cat. This one has sneaked out of the house and popped next door to Grandma's cottage, where Little Red Riding Hood has foolishly left the basket outside. The cat doesn't look like he fancies the fruit cake, but there may be a jug of cream at the bottom of the basket. I'm sure Grandma is good-hearted enough to let him have a saucer full.

Someone else with a large appetite is Tiny Dragon, who lives in this cave. He has been catching fish in the river and had a bit of a feast. The little bat in the cave seems a bit worried that he might be next on the menu. Unfortunately, Tiny Dragon is not very houseproud; he has left his fishbones all over the floor, and his treasure is spilling out of the cave. 

Finally, we have the intrepid Mouse of Hickory Dickory Dock, perhaps out searching for cheese. He's on his way up the clock, but if we notice the time, he'll soon be on his way back down when the clock strikes one. Hopefully he won't run into the Witch's cat. 

There were lots of tiny bits to sew on this week, and I've spent a lot of time trying to get the invisible thread through the tiny hole of the beading needle, and, even worse, trying to undo the invisible knots. A little bit of witch's magic might have made it easier!

 

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