lovefibres

Jaden Boots

2012-01-23T11:45:00.001Z

A short while ago, a lovely lady called Debbie (rughookergirl) bought my Jaden boots pattern, and after asking a couple of questions about the pattern, sent me a picture of the first finished boot.

I love talking to my customers, and getting feedback from them, so I was delighted to receive the picture. This interaction is one of the most rewarding things for crafters of the internet age. Some years ago I used to take a regular stand at the NEC Hobbycrafts shows, which are held twice yearly in Birmingham, UK. Customers would talk a little whilst visiting the stand, and tell me what they had made, but ultimately they were pressed for time, wanting to see the rest of the show. Apart from a few rare occasions, I only heard about their creations, rather than seeing them.

It is lovely to see other people's interpretation of a pattern, so you can imagine how thrilled I was when a few hours later when Debbie sent me two more photos. She had decided to crochet a trim around the cuff, in the same boucle yarn as she used for the sole edging!

Doesn't it look wonderful! The boot is totally transformed into a snowboot - I simply adore this version, and the natural wood buttons set it off wonderfully.

I spend my life with half baked ideas for patterns floating around in my head, and have for some time been thinking about a pieced "Ugg" style boot. I have been wary of mixing crochet with knitting, thinking the crochet would put off those who only knit, but I'm now going to launch right in and design that "Ugg" style boot - and its going to have a crochet trim!!

Thank you so much for your pictures Debbie..... and please keep them coming, folks!!

Folded Paper Posy

2012-01-06T12:34:00.001Z

Its time to take the festive decorations down, and the house can look stark at first, so i've made a folded paper posy to fill the void, and will share the instructions with you here:

Cut 72 squares of paper. Mine were 3" square and were made from scrapbook paper. You can make them any size, but I wouldn't go any smaller unless you were using a more flexible paper.
You could use pages from an old book, vellum or cartridge paper.
(Having now tried for 2 whole days to get the individual stage by stage pictures of the tutorial to go where I want them to, I've given up and made a block of pics in Photoshop - how I can use Photoshop just fine, but tear my hair out with frustration with Blogger, I'll never know!)

1. Fold the squares in half

2. Fold the two outside corners to meet at the centre one.

3. Flatten the two outside triangles into kite shapes - this is a standar "tea bag folding" shape

4. Fold down the sections that protude
5. Fold each kite shape in half
6. Put glue on the outer edge of the folded square
7. Fold into a cone shape and hold with a paper clip until the glue is dry.
8. Glue shapes together in pairs.
9. When glue is dry glue 3 pairs together to form a flower.

Finally glue 6 flowers together to make a semi circular dome, holding them all in place with paper clips until the glue is dry - make two of these. Glue the two together, placing a loop of ribbon in between them so you have something to hang it by.

Hope you like it - mine is certainly cheering up the empty space left by the Christmas decorations!

Baby Mittens Knitting Pattern

2011-12-08T20:18:00.049Z

This is my pattern for baby mittens. They are knit on two needles and seamed. They are not knit in the round.

They are designed to go with my double knit weight hat patterns which are for sale on Etsy, Folksy and Ravelry

The first two sizes (0-6 months and 6-12 months) are thumbless mittens. The third size (1 – 2 years) has thumbs.
Instructions for the larger thumbless size are in brackets ( )

Materials needed:
25 g double knit /light worsted/8 ply yarn. (11wpi) for one pair of thumbless mittens
35g double knit /light worsted/8 ply yarn. (11wpi) for one pair of mittens with thumbs
Pair of 3.25mm (US size 3) knitting needles
Pair of 4mm (US size 6) knitting needles (main needles)

Tension
22sts and 30 rows to 10x10cm (4x4”) square in stocking (stockinette) stitch on 4mm
(US Size 6) needles
Please take a little time to knit a tension square. If your square is too small, try knitting again using a bigger pair of needles. If your square is too big, try knitting again on smaller sized needles.

Abbreviations
K= Knit
K2tog = knit two stitches together
m1 = make one stitch – pick up the loop between the last and the next stitch and work into the back of this loop
P= Purl
tbl= through back loops
st(s) = stitch (es)
stocking st (stockinette)= 1 row knit, 1 row purl (knit row is the front of the work)

Instructions for thumbless mittens (0-6 months and 6-12 months) (make 2)
Using 3.25mm (US size 3) needles, cast on 30 [30] sts
1^st Row: K2, [P2, K2] to end
2^nd Row: P2, [K2, P2] to end
These two rows form the 2x2 rib pattern for the cuff. Repeat these two rows 10 times
Repeat the first row once more
Next row: Rib to end, decreasing 1 st evenly across row for 1^st size and increasing 1^st evenly across row for 2^nd size 29( 31)sts

Change to 4mm (US Size 6) needles and starting with a knit row work in stocking stitch for 16 (20) rows.
Shape top
Next Row: K2tog tbl, K10 [11], K2tog, K1, K2tog tbl, K10 [11], K2tog                         25 (27)sts
Next Row: Purl
Next Row: K2tog tbl, K8 [9], K2tog, K1, K2tog tbl, K8 [9], K2tog                                 21 (23)sts
Next Row: Purl
Next Row: K2tog tbl, K6 [7], K2tog, K1, K2tog tbl, K6 [7], K2tog                                 17 (19)sts
Next Row: Purl
Cast off

Sew up top and side seam. Fold back cuff.

Instructions for Mittens with Thumb – Size 1 – 2 years

Right Mitten
**Using 3.25mm (US size 3) needles, cast on 30 sts.
1^st Row: K2, [P2, K2] to end
2^nd Row: P2, [K2, P2] to end
These two rows form the 2x2 rib pattern for the cuff. Repeat these two rows 11 times (24 rows in total)

Change to 4mm needles (US Size 6) and starting with a knit row, work 2 rows stocking st.**

Shape thumb
Next Row: Knit 16, m1, K1, m1, knit 13                                                                          (32 sts)
Next Row: Purl
Next Row: Knit 16, m1, K3, m1, knit13                                                                           (34sts)
Next Row: Purl
Next Row: Knit 16, m1, k5, m1, Knit 13                                                                          (36sts)
Next Row: Purl
Next Row: Knit 16, m1, k7, m1, knit 13                                                                           (38 sts)
Next Row: Purl
Thumb
Next Row: K25, turn
Next Row: P9, turn
Working just on these 9 sts, work 6 rows in stocking st
Next Row: K2tog 4 times, K1                                                                                            (5sts)
Cut yarn, draw up through remaining sts and secure.

With RS facing, rejoin yarn to the base of the thumb. Pick up and knit 2 sts (one either side of the base of the thumb), knit to end. (31sts)

Starting with a purl row, work 9 rows stocking st.

Shape top
Next Row: K1, K2tog tbl, K10, K2tog, K1, K2tog tbl, K10, K2tog, K1                          (27sts)
Next Row: Purl
Next Row: K1, K2tog tbl, K8, K2tog, K1, K2tog tbl, K8, K2tog, K1                             (23sts)
Next Row: Purl
Next Row: K1, K2tog tbl, K6, K2tog, K1, K2tog tbl, K6, K2tog, K1                             (19sts)
Next Row: Purl
Cast off

Left Mitten
Work as for right mitten from ** to **
Shape thumb
Next Row: Knit 13, m1, K1, m1, knit 16                                                                           (32 sts)
Next Row: Purl
Next Row: Knit 13, m1, K3, m1, knit 16                                                                           (34sts)
Next Row: Purl
Next Row: Knit 13, m1, k5, m1, Knit 16                                                                           (36sts)
Next Row: Purl
Next Row: Knit 13, m1, k7, m1, knit 16                                                                            (38 sts)
Next Row: Purl
Thumb
Next Row: K22, turn
Next Row: P9, turn
Working just on these 9 sts, work 6 rows in stocking st
Next Row: K2tog 4 times, K1                                                                                           (5sts)
Cut yarn, draw through remaining sts and secure.
With RS facing, rejoin yarn to the base of the thumb. Pick up and knit 2 sts (one either side of the base of the thumb, knit to end.                                                                                               (31sts)
Starting with a purl row, work 9 rows stocking st.
Shape top
Next Row: K1, K2tog tbl, K10, K2tog, K1, K2tog tbl, K10, K2tog, K1                          (27sts)
Next Row: Purl
Next Row: K1, K2tog tbl, K8, K2tog, K1, K2tog tbl, K8, K2tog, K1                              (23sts)
Next Row: Purl
Next Row: K1, K2tog tbl, K6, K2tog, K1, K2tog tbl, K6, K2tog, K1                              (19sts)
Next Row: Purl
Cast off

Join top and side seams. Turn back cuffs.

This Crazy Climate of Ours

2011-12-06T13:02:00.000Z

Last May I didn't have any fruits on my strawberry plants at all. It took till the end of June for the ones I did have to ripen, and they were far and few between. It is now December, and although we have had a very mild autumn, we now have our fair share of morning frosts and snow is forecast for later in the week, and what have I got in the garden........strawberries!! Maybe, just maybe, as they are so close to the wall, these will survive the cold weather, and I'll have home grown strawberries for Christmas Day!
I am feeling much more positive this week. Some very kind customers have taken the time to send me photos of the wonderful hats they have knit using my patterns, and I'm feeling creative once again.

I have been making a quilt with a jelly roll that I bought at the Festival of Quilts at the NEC way back in August. Its a simple nine-patch, but it won't be an all-over design, just an off centre panel. I have some hand-quilting in mind for the plain sections on either side.
Of course my brain wasn't fully engaged whilst I was going round the quilt show, so I didn't buy any co-ordinating fabric and I really want a matching binding, and this fabric is now hard to get!
But the lovely ladies at http://www.sewluxfabric.com/ came up trumps and I was able to purchase the last yard and half that they had of this:

Its probably a good job it will take a few days to arrive...... if I hadn't run out of fabric I would carry on quilting and no-one in this family would get any Christmas presents!!

Confidence is Oh so fragile

2011-11-30T15:36:00.000Z

Its quite terrifying to find that we are so vulnerable,and our confidence can be knocked so easily.(I say we, I may be on my own in this!)
I had until very recently been quite proud of the fact that I have raised well over £1000 for Leukaemia and Lymphona Research, mainly through pattern sales on Etsy, and more recently through Folksy and Ravelry. It had given me a reason to continue the design process, the structuring of a project that I love so much. But a few days ago someone contacted me to say that although they like one of my patterns, they thought it was wrong of me to charge for it, as it was a basic pattern and there was a free version available.
Since then my confidence, not just in my designing, but in everything has been dashed. Nothing that I make or do seems worthy anymore.
I have always tried not to look at what else is out there, but just to design whatever pops into my head. There is so much available on the internet that if you spend time looking at other people's work you would never come up with an idea that you felt was original.
But the big question is - should we charge for patterns? For some people it is their livelihood,(as it was mine, at one time) and any author of a pattern book will include projects for beginners - people still buy them.
I had been looking at it from the other perspective - I saw it as a way of raising money for my charity, a way in which people received something in return for their donation. I do need to point out here that not all the money from sales goes to the charity. I have to take out the selling fees, the cost of materials and any other expenses incurred.
But now I am questioning everything I do - and I mean everything
My confidence and my happiness has taken a serious knock. I am not sure I can put any more patterns up for sale. The joy has all gone. My raison d.etre was always fragile - now it's in pieces.

If you have any comments, either from the designers perspective or the buyers point of view, I would be like to hear them. I might not like what you say, but I can't feel any worse than I do at the moment

Feeling Festive

2011-11-21T12:55:00.000Z

As the days have got shorter my knitting needles seem to have been working faster. I spent several weeks working on some Christmas designs, and as soon as those were finished I launched straight into designing a family of penguins. I'm sure those penguins were in my head because I was still in Christmas mode! When I'm designing baby hats, I'm totally methodical and mathematical, but toys and ornaments just seem to "grow" on my needles, but being the perfectionist that I am, I usually want to change something... the shape of a head, the length of a leg.... after all, if its worth doing, its worth doing well, so now as I sit back and take stock before I launch into my next project, I'm looking down at a "graveyard" of legs and bodies that didn't quite make it to the finished item!! Poor things! What's worse for them is that I know I won't even give them a decent burial. I can use all that stuffing over again, so one day pretty soon "operation de-stuff" will take place and all those odd arms and legs will be cut open and the stuffing saved for another animal or doll. Waste not, want not as they say.

As for my next project....Mmmmn, I'm going to keep you guessing on that one!

Erin - A New Pattern

2011-10-07T08:04:00.000+01:00

I was really pleased to add a new pattern to my Etsy and Ravelry stores last nice. It's called Erin. It's funny that the name for it came to me half way through designing it, and I just knew that was what I was going to call it - no ifs or buts - that was it.
I really like this design as it ticks all the boxes. Its quick and easy to knit, so suitable for a relative beginner knitter, but with enough pattern and shaping to keep the knitter interested and happy.
It is also extremely versatile.
The thick strings came about because someone asked me to design one as a photoprop - photos of sleeping babies wearing only a slightly oversized hat with the bulky strings hanging down across their body, are very popular at the moment.
Its very easy to knit the string narrower though, and if the hat is slightly too big, the string will draw it in a little if its tied to one side of the chin.
If you want a really vintage girly look, then omit the string altogether, the eyelet pattern will then show up beautifully and you can sew on pretty ribbons.

If you are not into the feminine look, or want the hat to be gender neutral, omit the two rows of eyelet pattern and add plaited strings at either end.

You could also knit the flower in a variety of colours and sew them to hair clips. Knit the bonnet in a neutral colour and you can then clip on whichever flower suits baby's outfit that day. What a wonderfully versatile hat!!

We're Having a Heat Wave

2011-09-30T12:18:00.000+01:00

......... a wonderful heat wave. The shadows are long and the daylight relatively short, but this sunshine is just fantastic.
I know the British always talk about the weather, but then part of its charm is that it constantly surprises us!
We have had a topsy turvy summer - heat wave in spring, pathetic summer and now another heatwave.
Suddenly the garden clear up ready for winter has stopped, the cover is back off the garden furniture and I'm enjoying every minute of it.
The great thing about designing knitting is that you can do it outside!
As the rsi in my hands is getting worse, I have to concentrate on designing patterns rather than finished items, and I'm loving it!
My head is bursting with so many ideas, I have so many hastily written scribbles in my notebook, that the challenge will be deciphering it when I come back to knit it up and test out the pattern, but for the time being
I'm going to sit on that garden chair, needles and notebook in hand and enjoy the sunshine.
I hope you get to enjoy it too!

7 dresses

2011-09-05T17:05:00.000+01:00

Finally, these seven dresses have been parcelled up and posted off to KidsCompany.

Each summer I make dresses for deprived girls at Kids Company who might otherwise have to spend their summer school break in their usual T shirts and jeans. But this year, as well as some random size dresses that were sent off earlier, I agreed to make dresses for specific children. They gave me the sizes and the favourite colours of seven very needy girls, and these are the dresses I made for them. Unfortunately, I finished them just a couple of days too late to get them to them before broke up from school for the summer, so I've had to wait until now to send them off.

It looks as though summer is well and truly finished here (if it ever really got going!), but I'm sure they will enjoy wearing them with a T shirt and leggings, and they will appreciate receiving something that was made especially for them.

This one is my favourite - I think its the petite size and the bright colours that I particularly like. I was very pleased with the white edging stitch that I put on each ruffle with the overlocker.
I couldn't help thinking though, as I put a gift label on each dress, and parcelled them up, that 7 dresses is just a drop in the ocean ......so.... I'd better that sewing machine out, and make some more!

Festival of Quilts

2011-08-12T21:01:00.002+01:00

It was 9:50 am and I was already in the queue waiting for the doors to open to the quilt show at the NEC, Birmingham. I stood listening to the quiet hum of excitement as everybody made conversation with those around them. People had travelled from far and wide. I had a couple from Spain to my right, a whole group of ladies who had flown over together from Ireland on my left, and I could hear German being spoken not far behind me. There was a good mix of veteran show-goers and newbies alike, the veterans all singing the show's praises and telling the novice attendees what to expect.

At last the doors opened and we made our way in. It was 2 years since I last went to the show, but thankfully the layout was much the same and I could head to the stands that I most wanted to see.

Nik from The Cotton Patch in Birmingham had designed a kit for a quilt that I wanted to have a close look at, as I had only seen it on their blog. The real thing was just as nice as I had hoped it would be ( I just love the Dan Bennett fabrics) so I grabbed a kit before they ran out, along with some extra yardage of some of the included fabrics so that I could make mine a bit bigger. This will be just right for my newly acquired guest bedroom!

My other favourite purchase was a Moda Pure Jelly Roll. I intend to make a new quilt for my own bed with this. I always find Moda fabrics appealing, and its nice to get away from the citrus colours that have been around a lot this year.

Walking round the gallery of quilts soothed my soul after the frenzy of the shopping area, and here are a few of my favourites

I forgot to write the name down, but I think this was called Ol' Blue Eyes, and I admire anyone who can do this with fabric!

Echinacea purpurea - one of my favourite plants in a quilt - how wonderful!

Spoonfed Love - there seemed to be far fewer mixed media quilts at the show this year, which is a pity because they are firm favourites of mine.

And finally Little Nannie's Quilt - quilting in its most natural and lovely form - oddments of fabric, all as far as I could tell, hand pieced and handquilted - simply beautiful!

Keeping positive

2011-08-11T00:10:00.000+01:00

I had promised myself that I wouldn't cry, but inevitably I did shed a few tears as I stood in the cool early morning sunshine in the airport car park, hugging my son and his wife goodbye as they left for their home in Canada.
It has been a wonderful summer, full of good times with family; a trip for me to Toronto to stay with them, returning home to help my youngest move into his first home, and culminating with the Toronto crew coming here and a whole family trip to a wonderful gite in Brittany.
A summer full of laughter, fun and reunions. But yesterday's early morning sunshine felt quite autumnal. It reminded me of the first days of a new school year, of settling into new timetables and routines, of all the good intentions that come with a new term.
It is the start of a new phase in my life too. I no longer need to squeeze my crafty creations into a hectic family lifestyle. I have three whole rooms I can use for storage and as studios or workspace. So I too will have new routines and good intentions. My fabrics and yarns will be stored neatly and well organised (who am I kidding??) and I will have the time to experiment with new ideas and techniques, and maybe work my way through some of the ever growing pile of unfinished projects.
But first I have a treat in store for myself - tomorrow I am going to The Festival of Quilts at the NEC, Birmingham, and I can hardly wait. There are so many quilts to see, in so many styles, and so many shops with fabrics and goodies to drool over - I'm not sure one day will be enough !
It has

Say Hi to Archie

2011-04-15T14:31:00.000+01:00

Archie is the newest addition to the Taylor household!
After two years of wishing I had cute pictures of babies modelling my creations on Etsy, I've finally found a doll with a not-too-scary face to wear my baby hats, and hopefully help me sell more, and so raise more funds for Leukaemia and Lymphona Research.
I had previously tried getting my niece to model for me, but she wasn't having any of it. The average time a hat would stay on her head was, I would guess, 2 seconds at best - whereas Archie, well he sleeps through the whole photo shoot.
He has already earned his keep, with 3 sales coming in over night, so "thank you" Archie - keep up the good work!
To see Archie at his photogenic best go to http://www.etsy.com/listing/72089314/organic-cotton-baby-top-knot-beanie-in

A jewel of a find

2011-03-17T20:45:00.003Z

Yesterday, whilst spending far too much time on Etsy as usual, I came across the most wonderful shop I have ever seen.
It is the quiet home and sells knitting patterns for dolls
I fell instantly in love with shop and her designs - so much so that I felt the need to convo her and tell her.
She has a blog and I've listed it in my Bloglist below. Her entries are a joy to read

This is a picture of her latest knitting pattern, I love the soft and subtle colours of the variegated yarn and the pose of the doll with its thumb in its mouth.

I too have been busy with my knitting patterns.
I now have most of my Etsy hats also available as pdf patterns and intend to continue writing more patterns over the coming months.
It has been quite a challenge to discipline myself to transfer my well loved pencil scribblings to neat properly written pattern format, but worth it, for even though I know most of the patterns off by heart, it is good to have them secure on my laptop where I can recover them at any time.
Whilst typing them up I was also inventing loads more patterns in my head, so I can see I'll be busy for many months to come transferring what's in my imagination to knitted items and accompanying patterns.
Lets hope wehave a lovely warm summer so that I can sit in the garden and work on them!

House and flowers quilt

2011-02-28T16:48:00.000Z

Oh dear! I have been such a bad blogger lately.
I just don't know where the time goes. I think about blogging - just don't get round to actually doing it.

I have spent a large part of the past week thoroughly enjoying myself, making a quilt. Not an organic one (those will hopefully materialise soon). This quilt is for my youngest son and his girlfriend, who hope to buy their first house soon.
Just over a week ago, we took a trip to our local quilting shop to get some inspiration for their quilt. I just love shopping for fabric (or anything come to think of it) when there are no set criteria - just walk in, have a browse and buy whatever jumps out at you.
Well what jumped out at us was a Moda Hunky Dory jelly roll strip, sitting all alone on a shelf. The colours are probably a little more "girly" than my son would appreciate on a bed quilt, but hey, I can add more blues to the outer edges.
I have only done the centre so far which has some pictoral sections - two houses, some flowers and this wonderful bird.

Appliqueing him, adding a button eye and some very long zig zag stitch legs was definitely my favourite bit so far.

The flowers below the bird and again in the bottom left corner are not finished yet. The next stage is to add a lot of random strips to either side of the panel to make it more square, then there will be a frame and a blueish border - a nice theme for a first home quilt, I think.

I'd better stop blogging and get back to quilting.

Putting an end to all those UFO's

2011-02-01T16:54:00.000Z

Over the last week or so I have been putting together a parcel for KidsCompany. This is an organisation based in London that offers practical, emotional and educational support to vulnerable inner-city children.

Their services reach 14,000 children across London, including the most deprived and at risk whose parents are unable to care for them due to their own practical and emotional challenges. For many, the roles of adult and child are reversed.

These exceptionally vulnerable children not only negotiate significant challenges in their family homes, they also face immense threat within their neighbourhoods. Often they are exposed to relentless violence, some are forced into working as drug couriers or prostitutes, and many experience chronic abuse.

Kids Company provides a safe, caring, family environment where support is tailored to the needs of each individual. Their services and support empower children who have experienced enormous challenges to lead positive and fulfilling lives.

As I do not live particularly near to London, my support is limited to making some items of clothing for these children and teenagers. This is something I take great pleasure in doing, and love looking at the type of items in stores that I think the kids would like and then trying to create something similar out of the off-cuts and bolt ends that I can find in the bargain sections of fabric and yarn stores. The children always thank me with a beautiful hand made card and it is lovely to read the newsletters, giving me a small insight into the children's lives. For more information go to http://www.kidsco.org.uk/about-us

Out of three yards of blue cord I was able to make 6 pairs of pants ranging in size from 6 months to 3 years

and these earflap hats were made with all the single balls of yarn that I had over from other projects.

I am particularly pleased with the three rabbits in the top picture. I was just about to send off my parcel when I found a link on a friend's Facebook page : http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/facts-and-arguments/were-a-minimalist-family/article1881374/
Its all about minimalist living, and the "eco-friendly, don't buy it if you don't need it " crafter inside of me just had to take a peek!!
Well, I am now slowly on my way to minimalist living! I say slowly, because rarely used kitchen gadgets I can re-home without a problem, but all my crafting stash - now that's another matter! You just never know when you are going to need that 3" of lace or the book on macrame that you bought ** years ago! You never know when it might come back in fashion!
It did make me take a serious look at what I had, and I decided that the first job was to do something useful with all the UFO's (un-finished objects!) in the back of the cupboards. So these three rabbits evolved from several heads, limbs and half finished clothes that had been the practice bits for the rabbit pattern in my Etsy store. They may be made form odd body parts, but I think they turned out rather cute, don't you!

Grandma's Apron

2011-01-13T15:41:00.000Z

The other day I was browsing through apron patterns on-line.

I particularly like this Stella apron from A Grand Revival designed by Tanya and Linda Whelan

Then, quite by chance I received a round robin email from a friend with this narrative about the wonderful uses that Grandma used to put her apron to, so I thought I would share it with you!

I don't think our kids know what an apron is.

The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath because she only had a few. It was also because it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and aprons used less material. But along with that it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.

It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids..

And when the weather was cold Grandma wrapped it around her arms.

Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.

Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.

From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables.

After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.

In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.

When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men folk knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.

It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that 'old-time apron' that served so many purposes.

Mmmmn, suddenly I think I'd better get working on that apron - its going to be so useful (not sure about the cleaning the ears bit though!!)

2011-01-07T17:07:00.000Z

Many times during last summer I remember pausing for a moment, feeling the sun on my face, taking in the feel of the dew on my feet as I walked barefoot on the lawn in the morning, enjoying the moment as I sat knitting in the garden, watching the late afternoon shadows moving across the grass, or just relishing the fact that I could work with the patio doors open. I took in those moments, thinking, I must remember this and store it up to get me through those long dismal winter days, just as a squirrel stores acorns to get him through the lean winter months.
Well. today is one of those days when I need that store!
I woke in darkness to that bitterly cold rain-come-snow stuff that doesn't have the beauty of snow, but is just thoroughly miserable to look at. It hasn't really got light all day, and motivation has been thin on the ground.

I do have new plans for my Etsy store though, so I shouldn't be wasting these days. I have bought some more organic cotton and look forward to designing some lovely little dresses with it.

Organic fabric is INCREDIBLY difficult to get in this country, so I end up importing most of it from the US. This does make me feel rather bad about its carbon footprint. It is also often out of stock, so I can't reliably offer to make custom orders. I love making things with it though, so for now I shall just continue to make up whatever takes my fancy and hopefully sell it in the size that I have in stock. My dream is that one day soon enough people will demand organic that I will be able to source it locally!

I have also been playing with some new sewn items - I'm not giving too much away just yet. I'm a perfectionist and although my first designs were thought by most people around me to be just great, I have a few areas I want to ~~perfect a little more~~ work on, before I let you see them!!

Hopefully, it won't be too long before you see some brand new sections in Lovefibres store.

Happy New Year to you all

Reduce, reuse, recycle

2010-12-06T16:37:00.000Z

As the last day for shipping parcels overseas approaches I find I can turn my mind to things other than Etsy and can start to prepare for my own Christmas celebrations.

I am determined to have as eco friendly a Christmas as possible this year, and I am not going to go and buy lots of glitzy wrapping paper that isn't even accepted in the recycling bins.

So this is my take on environmentally friendly wrapping paper.

First get your self some 100% recycled ordinary brown paper - the sort that is used for wrapping parcels that you want to send through the post. If you are a thrifty kind of soul you probably already have a stash lurking away in the back of a cupboard.

I chose to iron mine first as is was rather creased, but you could equally well embrace the creases by wetting it slightly, crumpling it gently into a ball and then opening out(again, very gently) and leaving to dry. This paper has incredible wet strength and the final result from your "wet crumpling" will be a texture rather like old leather.

Next you simply take a festive rubber stamp (I chose a Merry Christmas word stamp) and simply stamp all over you paper using an air drying ink pad. Cut a co-ordinating tag from a scrap of card and tie the parcel up with some yarn, ribbon or whatever you have to hand. The flower I had in my ex-demo stash, but if I didn't have that I would have just used a paper punch to create some, or perhaps if I had time, knitted some - it really doesn't matter. To my mind the colour co-ordination of the stamping, tag and embellishment makes this gift wrapping just as stylish as the mass produced items that you buy in the shops, and it is earth friendly, hand crafted and unique too.

Great Book Offer

2010-11-26T17:20:00.002Z

If you are a crafter there is a great offer at Magmaker at the moment. You can buy my book "Paper Punching" by Julie Taylor (me), along with "Stamping" by Lindsay Mason and "Decoupage" by Amanda Fowler all for a total of £9.95 including p&p.
There are some great projects to suit all ability levels in each of these books.

The punches I've used are available in most countries, not just the UK. There are step by step photos for all the projects, which include punching and colouring metal shim, punching Pelmet Vilene to make jewellery, 3 D manipulation of punched shapes, and masking shapes, to name just a few.
Follow this link to see the great offer:
http://www.magmaker.co.uk/books/3BookOffer/
The p&p is for UK only, but I'm sure if you email them they would be able to ship to other countries

Crazy by nature

2010-11-24T13:11:00.000Z

Its a crazy world we live in!
All through the summer I was lucky enough to have home grown fruit in the garden which I would pick a little of every morning to add to my breakfast. But come the autumn when I expected my raspberries to be in abundance there were none!
Now, its the end of November, we are having a cold snap in good old central England, and guess what - my raspberries are in full fruit!

The problem is - it takes a lot of willpower to walk down the garden and pick the fruit when its really cold. This morning I made the effort however. The temperature was in the minuses, there was a hard frost on the ground, but I did get my bowful of fruit - even though they were frozen solid and I had to pick them still attached to their stalks. They did taste good though!

What's news on Etsy, I hear you ask. Well, I played around at the weekend with a new design of baby shoe. I'm very pleased with the result, so you shouls see them appearing in the shop quite soon - they are nice and chunky, so I think they compliment the aviator hats better than the crossover style. But, that's my opinion, it will be interesting to see what you, the customers, think.

Cables, cables, cables

2010-11-17T12:41:00.000Z

Its been a really busy week in Etsyland, and its all been the same thing - my cabled aviators.
I had meant to make these last winter, but I held off for some reason, but I got a few done for this season and they really are proving very popular.
They are good fun to make too. I would get very bored making the same thing over and over, but you are constantly counting the rows, checking when the next cable row is coming up, and before you know it the little hat is finished.
It is pouring of rain here today, it has never properly got light! That said, I think its the sort of day for curling up on the sofa with my knitting needles and making another one of these. I am so close to the £750.00 mark in my money raising quest for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research. A few more sales of these and I think I may reach it, so do I feel guilty about spending the afternoon knitting - definitely not!!

New hat designs

2010-11-10T12:31:00.001Z

I love finding time to knit some new designs and I'm really pleased with this one that I shall be listing on Etsy in a few days time. I've used a technique called Fair Isle to create the pattern which has a total of three colours, but never more than two colours in the same row.
It is named after a tiny island in the north of Scotland called Fair Isle, which is part of the Shetland Islands. There was a strong tradition of knitting on these remote islands, where people worked mainly on the land or as fishermen and warm sweaters were essential to everyday living.
Fair Isle patterns are believed to have gained a wider popularity when King Edward VIII wore sleeveless sweaters (or tank tops as they were known).
It is funny to think that, just as the celebrities of today have an influence on what many people choose to wear, the same thing was happening, almost 100 years ago!!
I have lots of lovely colour combination ideas, so make sure you check out the shop to see what is available in the next few days

Thinking outside the box

2010-11-02T17:41:00.000Z

These are the little boxes that I now use to gift wrap all my first size knitted items. The idea came to me when I was desperately trying to find a way to store my fabric so that I knew where everything was. I was feeling frustrated about the amount of room that my ex-demonstration card and paper was still taking up in my workroom. There is far too much of it, and it is far too good to just give away, but it was taking up prime space that was needed to house fabric. So the LoveFibres gift box was born.

Hopefully, I've found the perfect solution. I get to gradually use up a lot of my old card and paper, and so free up more storage space, and my customers get a free gift box and card. You can request a box for larger sizes too, and if the gift is for Christmas - just let me know. I've plenty of Christmas themed card to use up too!

Old habits and new machinery

2010-10-25T21:12:00.000+01:00

I can remember learning to sew as a young child. First the embroidered felt coasters, then clothes for my dolls and then clothes for myself. I remember helping my mum by blind stitch hemming the clothes she made for us whilst I was still too young to be trusted with a sewing machine. I took dressmaking classes at school and still remember the teacher telling us that the iron was as important a tool as the sewing machine. We had to tack (baste) all our seams by hand before machine sewing them and we weren't allowed to do gathers on the machine. They too had to be done by hand, and the stitches had to be really tiny and even. The teacher pulled them out if they weren't!

Some of these methods have obviously stayed with me for life as I still work with the iron permanently on and I do prefer to hand baste, even though it does take a lot longer to do.

I love the rhythm of hand sewing. I stitch away, listening to the radio or just quietly sew, dreaming away of all the new projects I'l make next.

That said, I love my machinery too! I have a Bernina sewing machine that was most definitely a luxury buy and three years on I'm still finding new things that it can do! I also have an overlocker (serger) to give seams a professional finish and which enables me to sew stretch fabrics beautifully.

I am lucky enough to have the space to set them up side by side so that I can switch from one to the other as I sew. My laptop sits by my side and I can watch for emails, listen to music and feel totally connected to the world whilst at the same time being in my own little stitching reverie!

Back on Track

2010-10-20T23:42:00.001+01:00

Hi, I'm back blogging again.
I have been absent for quite a few months! Sadly, my Dad was ill and then passed away, and between looking after him and then sorting out everything I just didn't get the time to blog, but I'm back now and I'm really looking forward to telling you all my ideas for my ever expanding Etsy shop.
I'm using organic fabric now, as well as organic yarn, and I'm really enjoying sewing again.
I was sorting out all my dad's stuff and I came across the sewing basket that my Mum had when I was a kid. I opened it up, and the chilhood memories came flooding back. There were patterns I remembered sewing when I was about 10! The same little plastic knitting needles I learned on, the half finished dolls clothes and zips unpicked from worn out clothing. (yes, I've kept them! My mum was a brilliant recycler, she would be proud of me!). There were tins of pins and spools of thread and I was hooked once more.
So began a spending spree in the fabric shops. I made some summer dresses for the children of KidsCo (I'll tell you more about them in another post) and the idea of adding organic clothing to Lovefibres was born.

I just love those little knot embellishments on the pockets.
I'll be back soon to show you what I've made next - I promise!

Loving Hands

2010-04-11T20:49:00.001+01:00

If you live in the UK and like to knit, crochet or sew and want to make something for charity , then Loving Hands is the charity you need to look at ( http://www.lovinghands.org.uk/ ). They support a whole variety of charities around the world and Lou their wonderful leader does an amazing job of making sure each and every item you make gets to the right place where it is needed. There are three monthly challenges which you can make items for if you wish, or you can just make the items that are always needed. Basically you can make what you want, when you want and know that it will be sent to a good home.
They are based in Scotland but have satelite support groups in other parts of the UK too. If you are unsure about anything, there is a forum where you can ask questions and you will be guaranteed a warm and friendly welcome.

A Bit of a Makeover

2010-04-11T20:23:00.000+01:00

Mmmmmn, its been a while since my last post hasn't it!
I have spent a good many days working on the garden in the last couple of weeks, but that isn't really an excuse for not blogging. We do have a house full (3 sons and one future daughter in law in residence and two more girlfriends here a lot of the time - yes, we often have to cook for seven!!), but that isn't the reason either - that is a bonus! Believe me , they are so much fun!

The trouble is I like to spend so much of my free time either making stuff for Etsy, or making for other charities that I'm finding it hard to find the inclination to blog about general crafting.
I have a feeling there are going to be a lot more posts about stitching and knitting than there are about papercrafting (so what's new I hear you say!)

If you think you can, then you can!

2010-03-09T20:06:00.000Z

I think it was Henry Ford who said "Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you are usually right" Well, I've hovered between the two over the last few days, but positive thinking must have won out in the end because I did manage to achieve what I set out to do ( but not without a little stamping of feet, swearing and tearing out of hair in the process!)

Ever since I was a child I've always made up my own knitting patterns. The pattern I buy is never quite the idea that I had in my head so I've always adapted them to suit me better. These two rabbits grew in just this way and I put them into my Etsy shop late last summer. I thought it would be a good idea to sell the pattern, as I can't keep up with demand for the finished rabbits, but its been a real test of my determination. To start with, I knew exactly what all those hastily written scribbles that meandered over my jotter meant, but I couldn't excpect anyone else to - they needed it all written out in proper "knitting pattern language". So I've sat for what seems like days on end with patterns in front of me, scrutinising them to see how they were written, whether you use capital letters at the start of lines, whether you put full stops after abbreviations - all the things I've looked at a thousand times, but never really looked at properly. There were plenty of times when I walked away saying " I just can't do this!" Instructions for papercrafting projects just seemed so easy compared to this.

Next I had to sit and knit what I had written, without looking at my much loved scribbles, just to make absolutely sure someone else would be able to understand it, and that the rabbits turned out right. When I eventually put the pattern up for sale last night, it was with a mixture of relief that I had actually finished at last and trepidation that it might not make sense to someone else.
You can imagine how happy I was this morning to find that someone had bought the pattern, and then nigh on overjoyed when they emailed me back to say they were very pleased with it.

You know what - the task wasn't so hard after all!!!
Suddenly there are a thousand and one ideas for patterns all vying for prime postion in my head right now. Can I do another one? Sure can!

Craft, Hobby & Stitch Show

2010-02-22T23:42:00.001Z

I spent the day the Craft, Hobby and Stitch Trade Show at the NEC, which is always one of the highlights of the year. Maybe its because I went on the Monday and not the Sunday, but it did seem a quieter show than usual. This was actually an advantage as I was able to spend plenty of time stopping to chat as I met old friends and also meant that I could get close to the demos.
Here is Tim Holz demoing a resist technique with embossing powder and Distress Inks...

and this is his floral wreath made from grunge paper.

I also watched Suze Weinberg demonstrating Melt Pot art - nothing particularly new, but it did make me promise myself to have another play with this technique later in the week.

I went back to the Personal Impressions stand 3 times in the hope of seeing my friend Lindsay, but each time she wasn't there!! Where were you Lindsay??

My other favourites from the show were all textile related. Viridian was definitely the best yarn stand -

http://www.viridianyarn.com/ . They produce wonderful sock yarns and have some great designers on board. My hands hurt too much if I use the finer yarns these days, but I still like to admire them.

There were plenty of Ooohs and Aaahs on the The Button Company stand. As well as selling buttons, they are distributing for The Cinnamon Patch. This is a french company producing wonderful kits that are a unique mixture of patchwork and embroidery and combine felt with cotton fabric. They were right up my street! http://www.thecinnamonpatch.com/

So its been a fantastic day, full of eye candy, and a wonderful antidote to the grey, biting cold outdoors. My head is swimming with ideas - now all I need is the time to put them into practice!

Where DID January go?

2010-01-29T16:56:00.000Z

I can't believe how fast the time has gone, and how bad I've been at blogging this month. So what have I been doing that has kept me otherwise occupied, you might ask.....well very little it seems!

At the start of the month I revelled in the snow - the breathtaking beauty of it all, the way normal activities just ground to a halt and the way everyone was talking about it. I went for long walks in it, I spent ages clearing it off my car every day and I just looked at it. If it was beautiful during the day it was mind bogglingly incredible at night.

I had a large order for knitted baby shoes, so that kept me out of mischief for a while, and then a few days ago the same person asked if I could come up with a baby beanie with a flower embellishment. This was just the push that I needed. Having spent the month tootling along, basically enjoying myself I was up for a new challenge. Although I have knitted all my life, I have never really mastered crochet properly. i have a blitz every now and again,trying to improve my skill, but always revert back to knitting. I managed the daisy fine, but then I tried to do a crocheted leaf. Uh oh! I spent all one afternoon trying to do a crochet leaf! I was never ever happy enough with my efforts, so in the end I knitted them. I'm really pleased with the outcome, even though I'm not going to enjoy sewing them up - all those ends to sew in !

I've also been doing some more bookbinding, and perfecting a new technique, but I'm going to leave that for a February blog!

Walking on water

2010-01-03T22:12:00.001Z

I thought I would share these pictures of one of our cats that we took a couple of days after Christmas. The snow had just dissappeared from the lawn, but the pond was only just beginning to thaw. It has one very large, free floating sheet of ice across it. This is Saffie, gingerly testing it out to see if it would take her weight. As you can see, water did immediately flood over the top of the ice, but I'm happy to say she made it safely to the other side.

Christmas was a very hectic as we has a total of 9 people in our house but was thoroughly enjoyable. I have managed to do some crafting since though. These are two pictures of a hard backed journal I have made using an exposed binding style called Long Stitch, Link Stitch. It is one of my favourites at the moment.

The dream wording is stamped and then inked to co-ordinate with the cover papers. I made the book cloth for the spine specifically for this journal. I cut the cloth a little wider than I needed, but backed just the
correct width with Bondaweb. This meant I could fray the edges before I ironed on the backing paper

I'm pleased with the effect, so I think it will be popping up on a few more of my jounals soon.

Finally, I thought I'd just share one of my crafting Christmas presents with you

- "Taking Flight" by Kelly Rae Roberts.

It is as it says on the cover a mixture of techniques an inspiration. Its a book to dip into many many times, each time finding something new, and above all its a book to pick up when you are feeling negative or frustrated with your craft work, because I can assure you it will change all the "I can't"s into "I can"s. I thoroughly recommend it.

Sssh! Don't tell

2009-12-15T21:16:00.003Z

I have been hiding away in my workroom for the last few days making a couple of Christmas presents. I'm taking a big risk here - I have to hope that the people they are meant for don't decide to look at my blog until after Christmas!
This first journal is made mostly from re-purposed fabrics and the nice thing is that the person who receives this one actually gets their own item back in a new form! She was just about to put a favourite old dress in the charity bag when I stepped in and requested it. It had an under skirt with a gathered trim along the edge and a small floral print cotton top layer. I have managed to incorporate both pieces into the front of the journal, added some extra lace trim and finished the edges off with a decorative machine stitch.
I set an eyelet into the tab so that I could loop a suede leather cord through to use as a wrap around tie to keep the journal closed.

The second gift journal is made in the same way as the one I showed you in the long stitch tutorial. Its even got the same decoration on the front, but in a different colour.
Yes.. I know..."No imagination!" I can hear you saying, but Hey guys it is Christmas, and just like the rest of you, I'm pushed for time and right out of ideas!

I think this might be the last post before Christmas, so I'll take this opportunity to wish you all a very merry time and hope that you get all the crafting goodies that you are wishing for!!

Eureka moment

2009-12-08T09:21:00.000Z

Ever since I was a child I have always hand made many of my Christmas gifts. One of the more memorable ones was a "granny square" crocheted poncho for my little sister. It would probably be wonderfully retro now. I remember staying up half the night to finish it and even then I think I had to give it to her with threads hanging and sew in all the ends later.

Last year I was frantically devising excuses to lock myself away in my bedroom and frantically knit a cow shaped cushion for my son - that was after completing a quilted knitting needle case for his girlfriend and a few other projects. I always naively think that 2 weeks is ample time to make the creations that I have dreamed up as being "the perfect gift" for a particular person.

You wouldn't believe the "still to make" list that is in my head at the moment!

Besides these gifts I also volunteered to make a couple of pairs of baby shoes for new family members of my sons' girlfriends. They had to be posted abroad and I wanted them to retain their shape. ( I was also thinking I might put them on Etsy as well).

I spent far far too long looking for suitable boxes to buy that didn't end up costing more than the baby shoes themselves - nowhere did the right size. I realised that I had to make the boxes. Now I quite like making boxes, but my lids are never a perfect fit for the base (this is the perfectionist in me talking). Most people say they are fine -but I always end up with at least half a dozen boxes because I think I'll just have one more go at making a better fit, and then another and then...... yeah, you get the picture!

Frustrated, I looked across at an scrapbook style explosion box I had made at least four years ago, still sitting on the coffee table......

......and that was my Eureka moment! It was a box, the lid size was not crucial as the sides will always spread to fit the lid. A pair of baby shoes was likely to fit in the bottom and the parents could fill it with photos and keep the shoes in it once the baby had outgrown them.

So this is what I made. I shortened the sides of the traditional scrapbook style box so that the shoes didn't look lost in the bottom and I co-ordinated the papers to match the shoes.

Now all I've got to do is get on with the rest of the handmade gifts!!

A quick card idea

2009-11-25T14:23:00.000Z

If, like me, you are just beginning to realise how close its getting to card sending time and how few cards you already have made, then you might need this idea for a quick, but effective Christmas card.
I saw the idea used as a bobby pin, and decided it would also make a good card.
The tree focal point is made entirely of ribbon - you need about half a metre. Cut two 8cm lengths, two 7cm lengths, two 6cm lengths and a different colour piece for the trunk. Fold each piece in half and glue the ends together. Glue your ribbon "trunk" in position and the glue the two longest loops at right angles to each other at the top of the trunk. Continue upwards using shorter loops each time. Finish off with a star or similar at the top of the tree - a button is my favourite. Easy peasy and super quick!!

Of course you don't just have to use ribbon. Strips of torn fabric, crepe paper, felt, off-cuts from mixed media paper-cloth - they will all work fine. You could machine stitch them in place through the centre if you prefer that to gluing. I did one using sheer ribbon and an acetate card front. I attached the ribbons with brads, but it didn't photograph very well, so I haven't included it.

This one uses scraps of patterned paper. The loops would get flattened if sent through the regular post, but it is OK if you are delivering by hand.

Let me know if you think up any good variations.

I can't believe I'm knitting fair isle again!

2009-11-17T12:56:00.000Z

What was I thinking of?! I swore years ago that i'd never do anything in fair isle again. All that twisting of the colours around each other to prevent loops, all that trying not to get them too tight, so there is not enough give, all that unwinding of the yarns as they get wrapped so tightly together (possibly with your fingers entwined in them) and then horror of horrors - all those ends to sew in!!So what possessed me to start again? Maybe it was the cuteness of a little baby shoe. Maybe, like childbirth you are genetically programmed to forget the downside of something as time passes. Whatever it was, there is just one problem - having remembered all the things I don't like about it, how will I ever make myself knit the second shoe??!!

A Day of Indulgence

2009-11-09T10:41:00.001Z

You know when you get an idea in your head and you just want to sit down and play with it, but the higher priority jobs always win out. Well a few weeks ago I treated myself to a book which had a long stitch binding in that I hadn't tried before and I've been itching to have a play with it ever since, but by the time I got through the day's jobs it was always about 4pm and somehow didn't seem worth starting. So yesterday I indulged myself. I let everyone fend for themselves and I played from daybreak until dusk and beyond.

The book I had bought is called The Bookbinding Handbook by Sue Doggett published by Search PressI really didn't need another book on bookbinding, but the pictures looked very clear to follow. The Keith Smith books are like the bibles of bookbinding but you really do have to have your head in gear to follow the diagrams. This book is for my "brain-retired" days.
I cut my paper and folded my signatures.

and pressed them under my trusty press .(Yes, its a brick covered in paper, really)

Next I made the cover out of felt and had great fun embroidering it. I machine sewed a cream felt lining to it.
Did the maths and pricked the sewing holes. I did wonder whether, being felt the holes would just close up again - they did to a certain extent, but if I held it up to the light I could still see them. I then started one of my favourite bits - the sewn binding itself. There is something very comforting about the repetition and the sound of the thread as it works its way through the pages, bringing all the separate pieces together.
The last picture was taken in artificial light. I had "played" all day! Overall, I'm pleased with the way it turned out.I like the fact that I now have a long stitch binding that doesn't have beads or knots on the spine, so its a good choice for a masculine cover, but I didn't like having to go through all but the end signatures twice.
I did enjoy myself though!

The power of the internet

2009-10-28T17:10:00.000Z

So sorry I haven't posted for a while.

As most of you know, I make and sell things on Etsy to raise money for Leukaemia Research. At the moment I'm knitting furiously as my little baby hats, particularly the ones with ear flaps are selling like hot cakes - mostly to the US and Canada, but I think that's because Etsy is much better known over there.

I've also sent little hats to China and Australia recently and the ladies in my local post office always have a chat and ask me about them. They are the same ladies that knew Dave when he used to take in the parcels from our online craft shop sales, so they are always ready with a kind word or two.

I'm always amazed though when people find, and like my shop, so imagine my surprise when a lady in Canada emailed me to say she had featured my shop on her blog! She is going to do an interview with me and do a second post so I'd better keep my needles clicking over the next few evenings incase there are even more sales.

Ironically, her blog is called Organized Mum (http://www.organizedmum.blogspot.com/), so I'd better try and be an organized mum so that I can keep my shop well stocked.

I am hoping to make some journals to add to the shop in time for Christmas, but I like knitting - I find the repetition very calming. Its as good as yoga and meditation, so if I don't post for a while I'm either so busy with orders or asleep in the chair!!

Talking Threads - new TV series

2009-10-12T15:06:00.001+01:00

I was so pleased to find out yesterday that there is to be a new TV series starting this week on textile arts.
It is called Talking Threads and the first one will be on Sky channel 171 this Wednesday at 7pm. If you don't have Sky you can view here http://www.countrychannel.tv/.
Apparently there are to be interviews and workshops with various british textile artists including Jill Kennedy, Angie Hughes and Kim Thittichai.
This is such great news. My Sky box is set ready to record, so now I'm really looking forward to Wednesday evening!

Cats sleep anywhere (even on my new quilt!)

2009-10-06T16:31:00.001+01:00

A few weeks ago I bought a kit for a quilt at the Festival of Quilts, NEC, Birmingham. I don't usually by kits but I knew I would never get round to making one like this unless I had it all to hand, so I splashed out. It is made from brushed cotton and the seams are left raw, snipped at regular intervals and then the whole thing is washed and tumble dried so that the raw edges fluff up and becone a feature of the quilt. As the evenings have become progressively cooler my kids were urging me to complete it as they wanted to huddle under it whilst watching TV, so I set to and did just that. Until that point I had been working on it sporadically. (hence the reason for the paper pieces with numbers on - I needed to remember what went where!).

As I pieced together the strips I laid them on the floor and as always at least one of my cats came to check up on what I was doing. This is Saffie - she thought she was going to get first dibs on this quilt. I'm sure she was sitting on pins!

I finished the quilt and laid it over the back of the sofa, and feeling very pleased with myself went to get my camera........by the time I came back, our other cat Ruby had claimed it as hers - sorry kids - you just weren't quick enough to get that quilt - its going to be a chilly winter for you!

I made it to the Treasury

2009-09-06T12:17:00.000+01:00

Just a really quick post to let you know that a little felt embroidered bird brooch in my Etsy shop made it to the Treasury.

This is the link : http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=80327

This particular Treasury page is items from Etsians who donate some or all of their profits to a charitable cause, which is great, because even if it doesn't generate more sales for me, I'm sure it will for someone, so a charity somewhere will be getting extra help.

The Treasury list is only there till Tuesday evening, so be sure to take a peek

Sea Fever

2009-08-27T11:11:00.002+01:00

As I shall be away on a residential retreat with my textiles group for most of next week I decided to write this post now.

We are given a challenge each time we go, which we try and complete ready for the next time.

Last time we were given the poem Sea Fever by John Masefield and these two photos of the sea. We can use any media we wish.

I initially wanted to experiment with different types of image transfer and make a book cover, but time was not on my side so I picked up some glittery foam letters from my local Hobbycraft store (sorry, I forgot to take pictures of them in their "raw" state) .and altered them.

I made a piece of fabric paper using the Beryl Taylor technique. I embedded tissue paper, dyed scrim, netting, organza, some eyelash yarn and glittery fibres along with printed extracts of the poem. I then heat embossed over the wording to create a resist before applying colour. For the sky and sea I mainly used dyes and the rocks were Lumiere acrylics - particularly the halocolours.

I then traced the letters onto the back of the the fabric paper and cut them out. I then bonded the paper onto Pelmet Vilene, although with hindsight I think this was unnecessary.

I free machine stitched in a linear pattern across the sky and the sea with a variegated thread and used a circular motion for the rocks.

A mixture of buttons, small beads and sequins were hand stitched to the rocks and the sea spray was just some glued down fibres and glitter.

I then glued the pieces to the foam letters and painted them. It will be very interesting to see how everyone else interprets the challenge,I'll let you know at the end of next week!

Paper Punching Book

2009-08-24T11:41:00.000+01:00

Ooh! Look what the postman brought this morning!

Although I'd seen loads (and I mean LOADS) of edits via email, I hadn't seen a hard copy of my book until it arrived in the post this morning. I just love the quality. Magmaker have done a really good job on these, and for £4.95 I think they are a real bargain (but then maybe I'm a teensy bit biased?).

I was lucky enough to see all four titles and everyone has done a great job. I know just how hard everyone worked on their own title and how many hours we spent sweltering in a tiny photography studio during the only heatwave we've had this summer, but suddenly now it all seems worth it.

I guess if I've got my copy they are generally available in most craft stores, but if you are having difficulty finding it you can buy direct from Magmaker at http://www.magmaker.co.uk/books.cfm

Since finishing the editing I've been giving myself a few relaxing weeks - knitting and sewing in the sun ( well I couldn't be too picky about how much sun there was - if it wasn't raining it was good enough for me) but I guess its time to get back to some proper work now. My relaxation finished on a high note with a visit to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham on Thursday. I spent a fortune of course but came back with loads of inspiration and ideas for new stitchy and mixed media projects, so its back to the "too many ideas, too little time" scenario - but I'm not complaining - its all just such good fun!

Hexagon Quilts

2009-08-14T11:07:00.000+01:00

I've just taken a wonderful trip down memory lane as I read Posy Gets Cosy's last post about hexagon quilting. If you are, like me, somewhat older than a "spring chicken", do take a look. If you crafted as a child, the chances are you had a go at this.
We always had one of these types of quilts on the go during the summer holidays. As it was hand sewn in small pieces it was the perfect activity to do whilst sitting on the lawn in the sun. We cut the hexagons from old magazines and used all the dressmaking scraps to make the quilt. I remember there was a half finished one in my Mum's wardrobe for years. I guess it must have been thrown out when she was no longer able to sew - what a shame. Seeing her post has given me some great ideas though - the sun is shining - so guess where I'll be this afternoon!

New era, new book

2009-08-01T10:41:00.001+01:00

I enter a new era of my life today - my children's friends start getting married.
That makes me feel sooooooo old!! It only seems two minutes ago that they were phoning each other to check on school homework and arranging parental lifts to places, etc. Now we are guests at the wedding. Where does all the time go?
So, yesterday afternoon was the usual last minute panic to make the wedding card. Fortunately, oh so fortunately for me, the girl in question likes plain and simple styles, and I knew the colour theme of the wedding so I was able to make it really quickly. I did want to make sure there was a little stitching on it, but then stitching is like yoga to me. It allowed me to slow down and get into the right frame of mind for a relaxing weekend. I just about had enough time to take a quick pic for you - so here it is.
The cardstock is DCWV Luxury stack. It is pearlised and metallic, so that saved me loads of time. Normally I would have enjoyed spending time creating my own background, but I have been busy on other things, and at last I can share with you what that is!
I have been busy over the last few weeks editing the book I have written for Magmaker, the same company that produced the Making Cards for Children Special that I co-wrote with Laura. They are producing a series of four books. They go to print very soon, and you will be able to buy them via Magmaker (see the link on the right hand side) and in most good craft stores. My book is on paper punching, Lindsay Mason has done one on rubber stamping, her sister Heather Fenn-Edwards has written about beading, and Amanda Fowler's is on decoupage.
So with the editing in hand and the wedding card made, I am now going to totally ignore the awful weather we are having and enjoy myself reminiscing about "How tall they've grown" and "Do you remember when....."at what I guess is just the start of the "children's friends' weddings" season. I guess I just have to stop feeling old and embrace it!

On my organic soapbox

2009-07-30T10:07:00.000+01:00

This morning started so well.

I woke too early, as usual, and did a few rows of knitting in bed until such time as I could justifiably risk waking the rest of the household - knitting with organic cotton, of course.

I went down to enjoy my usual breakfast of organic Weetabix, topped with organic dried fruits and nuts and on most days a few organically grown raspberries from my garden. I took the newspaper from the letter box and there and then - mid mouthful - my nice day stopped. The front page article purported that there is no nutritional benefit from organic foods!

I was, I am, incensed. The article admits the report is only one of several and another one contradicting this evidence is soon likely to follow, and it admits that good quality data to back up any study is hard to come by, but haven't they all totally missed the point. It's not what is in the organic fruit, dairy produce, cotton etc that we buy it for, it's what's left out!

Personally I don't want to eat food with chemicals in it and I extend that reasoning to my crafting.

I have written about the effects of chemicals on the production of crafting materials on my website http://www.julietaylor.com/

The website, I'm afraid is no longer updated as it is so much quicker to show you what I'm working on in this blog, but the article will stay there for the foreseeable future.

However, if you just want a short taster, the reason I was knitting with organic cotton this morning is this:

"Cotton production is one of the world’s most chemically intensive agricultural processes. It covers just 2.5% of the earth’s agricultural land but uses approximately 22.5% of the world’s insecticides and 10% of the world’s pesticides. Its production damages wildlife, contributes to climate change and contaminates water supplies.
20,000 people die each year from pesticide poisoning, many in cotton production. Another 3 million suffer side-effects from the pesticide residues including cancer, birth defects, respiratory problems, infertility and sterility. A single teaspoon of Aldicarb, the second most used pesticide in cotton production, on the skin can kill an adult. Two thirds of cotton is grown in developing countries where the people are least able to get medical to treat the side effects."

So please, next time you are buying yarn, consider buying organic.

Stick Binding Tutorial

2009-07-24T17:41:00.001+01:00

Right, I've bored you all senseless with family life ramblings over the last few weeks, so its time to get back to business and post about the things this blog was meant to be about.

This is a tutorial on how to make a little notebook using the stick binding method. It is a good introduction to bookbinding if you have never had a go before.

The "stick" can be any straight item that you can cut notches into. I have used a colouring pencil as I think it is kind of quirky to use something that is associated with a notebook - a bit like feeding chicks with hard boiled egg! You could also use a kebab stick, a chopstick, a garden cane or a fairly straight stick. A wooden spoon would be fun to use if you were making a recipe book.

You will need:

Paper for the pages

Decorative thin card for the cover,

Wooden stick (pencil)

Craft knife

Thread and needle

Ribbon

Bradawl or pricking tool

Eyelet (optional)
Sewing cradle (optional)

1. Cut the pages for you book, lay them in a stack and fold in half. This is a single signature book, which means all the pages are folded together in one go. To get them to lie flat it is a good idea to press them overnight under a brick or pile of books.

2. Take your pencil and trim to the same height as your pages. Mark and then cut evenly spaced notches along the length of your pencil. They don't need to go all the way round, just sufficiently far to hold the thread in place.

It was at this stage that I decided I wanted my pencil to match the book and ribbon I had chosen so I gave it two coats of acrylic paint, and a final coat of acrylic wax to make it smooth to touch, but you can equally well leave your stick in its natural state.

3. Lay the pencil in the centre of the book and mark the where the notches are along the centre fold. 4. Cut the cover for your book and fold it in half. Mine was a couple of millimetres deeper than the pages and half a centimetre wider so that I would be able to attach my ribbon to the back with an eyelet.

5.Make sure your pages are evenly stacked, place the cover on the outside and open the book to the centre.Make holes at the marked points through all the pages and cover with your bradawl . This job is so much easier if you have a sewing cradle. I will post a tutorial at a later date on how to make one. I'm not sure whether you can see from these two pictures or not - the first picture shows the first hole being made, the second shows the five completed holes.

6. Cut a length of thread. I would normally use strong linen thread, but as I wanted it to be decorative and this particular book is for immediate and short term use, not an heirloom, I used pink embroidery cotton. A piece four times the height of your book should do.
Thread your needle and take the thread through the bottom hole from the inside of the book to the outside. Leave a tail long enough to tie a few knots later.

7. Pass the thread round the base of the pencil, making sure it sits securely in the bottom notch, and back through the same hole to the inside of the book.

8. Take the thread out through the next hole, round the pencil and back in through the same hole again. Continue in this way until you have completed the last hole.

9. Put the thread tight, checking that it is held in each of the notches and tie several knots around the last stitch. Cut the excess thread away and tie the tail at the bottom in the same way. If you are worried that your knots may come undone, put the tiniest dab of PVA glue on each knot and allow to dry well before you close the book.

10. Place a length of ribbon around the book and attach to the back cover with an eyelet. As it is a single signature book it is prone to gaping open, so the ribbon will help keep it in good condition.

11. Now for the fun part - decorate your book and enjoy using it!

The Travelling Quilt

2009-07-21T20:14:00.001+01:00

This is the quilt that Laura has been making that I promised to show you.

The quilt set off with them on their travels on Sunday. They will spend three months touring Europe in their prize possession, the red camper van, otherwise known as Bertie.

There were times when we thought she would be busily sewing her round way Europe instead of sight seeing as it just didn't look possible to finish it in time,but finished it is and it is fantastic!

A traditional quilter would hold up their hands in horror, the seams aren't turned under, they are all top stitched in different stitches, there is a whole variety of fabrics from wincyette to jersey to cotton. But it is a memories quilt, which will hold both stories of their past and all the tales from the travels. It will wrinkle when it is washed, and parts will fray, but that is all part of the charm. Some of the sections are made from old T shirts that neither would part with as they were long term favourites, old pyjama bottoms, old quilt covers and scraps from other projects. There are hand made embellishments such as felt flowers and birds and little appliqued people. It truly is a work of art.

I believe they are in the vicinity of Paris at the moment, trying to pack as much sight seeing as they can into a few days before the pace slows down to savour the flavour of true rural France, then Spain and Italy and so much more. They have their hand made journals to entrust all the memories to, of course, but I suspect the quilt will be the item that is pulled out many years from now, to remind them of the adventures they had in Bertie the van, discovering Europe

Cuttlebug ideas

2009-07-13T16:26:00.000+01:00

I have posted these pictures for everyone at Solihull Craft club.
I am giving a demonstration of the Cuttlebug there tonight, so these are some reminders for you of the cards and the techniques that you will see.

I've used Core'dinations cardstock for this one and rubbed over
the embossed areas with an emery board so that the lighter
colour core shows through.
The snowflake is one of the "cut and emboss" sets.

This is a small section of a Christmas village embossing folder.the embossed houses are highlighted with Sakura glitter pens and the "noel" is cut from scraps of mountboard, painted and glittered to make my "chipboard" letters

You can cut a lot more than just card on the Cuttlebug, including metal shim, vellum and a whole range of fabrics. I made a needlecase and then cut felt flowers and letters to decorate the front.

I use Pelmet Vilene quite a lot in my mixed media work and it's beginning to creep more frequently into my cardmaking too. This little heart was cut from Vilene on the Cuttlebug. I then painted it with Lumiere paints in pearlescent emerald and halo pink-gold, and embroidered it. I could make these little embellishments all day long!

I demonstrated this technique on the Crafts Beautiful stand at the Hobbycrafts show, NEC, Birmingham last November, so you may recognise the samples from there.
I have applied an inkpad to the indented inside of the embossing folder (sometimes called the negative or the female side of the folder). I then place the card or paper into the folder in the normal way and run it through the Cuttlebug. The ink only adheres to the background once it is embossed, as hopefully, none went down into the hollows when I was applying it to the folder. You get different looks depending on the type of inkpad and card that you use. Just remeber not to use a Staz On. all the rest wash off the folders fine. The card on the left had a fluid chalk inkpad onto pearlescent card. The card on the right had an embossing pad onto cream mat cardstock. Once I had embossed the card in the Cuttlebug I then sprinkled it with gold embossing powder and heat embossed it.

This final pic shows embossing on ordinary kitchen foil. I take a piece of foil and fold it in half to give it extra strength. I then colour it with alcohol inks or two or three colours of Staz On.

This one is a mixture of Eggplant and Cranberry alcohol inks, with just one tiny drop of blender. Give it a second or two to dry. (Voice of experience speaking here - yes I've had to use blender to get the alcohol ink off the inside of my embossing folder before now!) Place it in the embossing folder - this was the hearts one.
Run it through the Cuttlebug, trim the edges and matt and layer. Simple and effective!
The two smaller hearts are Sizzix Originals dies, embossed with border embossing folders and highlighted with glitter pens.

Phew! This has been a long post, but hopefully it helps you remember what you saw, and is of interest to other people who may be reading, as well.

All good campervans should have one

2009-07-12T16:43:00.001+01:00

In a week's time my youngest son Mike and his girlfriend Laura (the same Laura that works on the artwork for the Making Cards Specials with me) are going travelling in a campervan round Europe for a few months. They have been planning the trip for a very long time and as departure day draws nearer the list of jobs still to do become more urgent. Mike has been making storage boxes that fit the available space to best advantage and Laura has been sewing away on a very special quilt. I'll have pictures of that later - its soooo nearly finished, but not quite!

Trying to fit everything you need for a long period of travelling in one van has proven to be quite an art. Everything needs a home, including the pegs, so Laura cut some felt letters to label the drawstring bag

But this isn't just any old peg bag, its the campervan pegbag, so they decided to embroider a little picture on the back.

They BOTH wanted to do the sewing on this bit - even to the point where they were fighting because they both wanted to embroider the wheels !

I think its so cute!

Hot and Sunny Lake District

2009-07-06T23:09:00.001+01:00

I have just spent a fantastic week in the Lake District.

We always have one family holiday a year - me, my sons and their girlfriends and for the last four years we have always had rain, no matter where we went, so this year we were delighted to have a heatwave.

We had such a fantastic view from the cottage that I just want to put it in my pocket and bring it home with me.

I have some lovely photos and some great ideas for some mixed media and stitching projects to use them in, but that will have to wait for a while as I have a few Etsy orders to fulfil first. I'm really pleased with how Etsy is going. It is a very rewarding way to raise money for Leukaemia Research

Sneak preview

2009-06-26T15:01:00.000+01:00

Thought I'd share a sneak preview of something I've been working on for Etsy over the last few days.

I'm not giving too much away, other than to say it's made to my own pattern and each one will be unique - (I'm not allowing myself any re-listings of this one) and its totally organic!

This has turned out to be a whole family venture. Everyone has an opinion on how the finished item should look and they've all encouraged me to make yet another version every time we thought that something needed tweaking. Laura has put herself in charge of naming them, so don't blame me if they are somewhat outlandish!

Its been a really fun adventure making these - just the antidote that I needed to all the tedious proof reading I had to do last week

It will be another week or so before I'm ready to list the first few, but I'll let you know the very moment that they go on sale

Cards with honeycomb paper pop-outs

2009-06-19T12:53:00.000+01:00

Just a quick post to let you know that I have a set of three cards featured in Making Cards July issue which was published yesterday.

They all have honeycomb paper pop-outs in the centre. This is the type of paper that "older" readers will remember as the stuff that Christmas decorations were made from and the younger of you will have seen used in shop windows displays at Valentines and Easter, creating 3D hearts and Easter eggs etc.

It's fun stuff to use.

Several years ago when I had an online store and used to have a stand at the NEC Hobbycraft exhibitions in Birmingham, I would sell loads of the stuff. My lads used to come to the shows to help out and they enthralled many customers by giving a demonstration of how to use the honeycomb paper. The customers were as impressed by the fact that a teenage lad was demonstrating the product as they were by the paper itself.

When I made these cards recently to send to Magmaker, my youngest son was happily recalling the items he used to make whilst helping on the stand and laughing about his twice yearly stints as a papercraft demonstrator.

Finding long lost treasure

2009-06-14T21:51:00.001+01:00

I have Yo-Yo kids. They live with me a while, then go away either to uni or to work elsewhere, then they move back home again.

The trouble is, when they move out, my crafting stash migrates into the cupboards in their bedrooms, so when my eldest son said he and his girlfriend would like to move back home in a couple of weeks time, one of my first thoughts was "where do I put all the craft stuff ?"

So, I'm having to de-stash a bit, and generally re-organise, and its amazing what I've found.

Thanks to the re-organisation, this little book which I made over a year ago, has seen the light of day again. I was doing a lot of experimenting with silk fusion at the time and I wanted to see if I could make an entire book (pages as well as covers) out of silk. I wanted to be able to write on the pages, so the thin silk paper that I usually make, which is translucent in places, would not do.

The pages are slightly thicker than I would have liked them to be, but it made it easy to create the
signatures, and I love the natural speckled effect.

The silk for the covers had gilding flakes embedded and was spray dyed. I then hand embroidered the spiral pattern before trimming it down to make the covers. The book mark consists of several lengths of glittery silk strands attached to the inside of the spine with a bead attached to one to weight it.

So re-organisation is good! Who knows what other treasures I may un earth in the next couple of weeks.

Father's Day wallet card

2009-06-08T10:47:00.001+01:00

Well, this weekend I have been both very disorganised and well prepared at the same time.

Sunday was Mike, my youngest's birthday and his girlfriend Laura's. Yes, they are both the same age and have the same birthday, so we have a double celebration. Laura is the artist behind Magmaker's Cards for Children Special edition and a new title which we can't yet reveal. She is also an extremely talented jewellery designer/maker.

Somehow, I was just so busy with life in general - we had just moved Mike back from uni, so the house was, and still is in turmoil, that I just didn't have time to make them cards!

However, I redeemed myself yesterday afternoon, by making my Dad's Father's day card well in advance.
It's a design I've made many times before in one format or another, but I've decided its still worth sharing the instructions with you. It doesn't just have to be for Father's Day - just make it suit whatever purpose you need it for.

If you cut carefully, you can get all the pieces out of one 30x30cm piece of card. (12"x12")

You need to cut the following pieces:

30x10.5cm

29x9.5cm

14x6cm (cut x2)

14x4cm (cut x2)

8x2.5cm

Take the largest piece (the outer wallet) and round the corners. I machine stitiched all around the edges to imitate a bought leather wallet, But if you "don't do needles" this is entirely optional. Score and fold in the middle.

Take the next size down piece and score and fold in the middle. Attach the 14x6cm pieces to either side of the fold line,leaving the tops open, and the bases level. Line them up with the outside edges of the folded piece, not the fold line.

Attach the 14x4 pieces in the same way. level with the base.

Round the corners of one end of the 8x2.5cm strip, and machine stitch around. Fold in half and glue the straight edged section to the inside back of the outer wallet. Glue the pocketed section to the inside of the outer wallet. Hold the wallet in closed position as you do this or it will buckle as you try to close it. I just attached it at the two sides, not along the top or base.

To make the closure I stitched a small plastic pop fastener (the type you would use for dressmaking) to two small circles of brown card and glue them in place.

You could use Velcro circles or the magnetic dots that you get for scrapbooking, instead.

I'm not the greatest fan of peel-off stickers, but I remember my dad having leather wallets and briefcases with his initials embossed in gold across the corner, so for once I felt they were the most suitable item for adding the "Dad" to the front.

Now comes the part where you personalise the inside. Print out your own "treat tokens", or small photos of the family. Design your own sports club membership or video rental cards and pop them into the pockets. Just dream up and print out any type of items to represent the interests of that person. Have fun!

Calendar Girls 10 years on

2009-06-05T09:09:00.000+01:00

I wonder if anyone else saw the documentary on UK TV about the amazing story of the Calendar Girls last night?

It is the story of the journey of a group of ladies who all rally round their friend who has lost her husband to leukaemia. They make a calendar - a nude calendar (with all the crucial bits well hidden!). They are all middle aged members of the WI and get a lot of stick for their so called "disreputable" activities. The calendar went on to make more money for Leukaemia Research than most of us could ever dream of raising. A film was made of their story - which I fully recommend, having seen it several times over, a stage show has now been made and they have launched a second nude calendar. These ladies are in their 60s and one is over 70!

The doc set me off crying of course, but it reminded me of why I too am trying to raise money for Leukaemia Research. Every little flower embellishment, baby beanie or handmade book I sit and make, helps in its own small way to provide money for the research for treatments for this life changing illness. My Etsy shop is my version of the calendar !

New colourway embroidered flowers

2009-06-04T09:54:00.000+01:00

Hi,

I've just added some new colourways to the embroidered flowers i've got on Etsy. I just love making these little flowers. Its adding the embroidery that I find so relaxing. I finish them off nicely on the back so if you want to add them to a hairband, or use them as a key or bag charm, they still look when the reverse side is showing. They are proving to be one of my most popular Etsy items, which is great as it means i'm generating a steady income to my Leukaemia Research Fund charity page on JustGiving.

Here is a picture of the new flowers and I'll add some piccies of items made with them soon. (Promise!!)

If you want to see the other colour options, just go www.lovefibres.etsy.com

All tied up in knots

2009-06-01T17:20:00.000+01:00

Having had a nice break over the weekend, I was back to my crafting today and I made a couple of cards using mizuhiki embellishments.

Misuhiki is an ancient Japanese art form that uses special cord made from rice paper. The paper is covered with thin strands of silk or mylar. Originally the mizuhiki knots were used to tie up the hair of the samurai,but nowadays they are used to decorate gift wrapping, cards and jewellery.

I have bought special misuhiki cords to make these cards, but I have seen them made successfully with embroidery threads and cords - which are a lot cheaper!

The book I used to learn to make the knots is called "Knots To You" by C.A. Cota. Its a great little book with lots of easy to follow pics.

I think I might try adding one to a brooch next.

Stranger from Paradise

2009-05-31T08:27:00.000+01:00

Talking to my neighbour yesterday, I discovered that I went away for one day only to miss the most exciting occurrence for weeks. A peacock was strolling down the road right outside my house!

Fearing that it may cause an accident, he ushered it into the front garden where apparently it stayed quite happily for half an hour or so. He called both the RSPCA and the police, but neither knew what to do - not having had an enquiry of this sort before. Eventually the peacock decided it was time to move on and ducked through the hedge before he could be stopped. He continued on down the middle of the road.........so keep your peeps open.....who knows where he may be by now!

Thankfully he was able to get me this pic whilst it was still in the garden. Nice one Tony!

Photo shoots are hot!!

2009-05-30T08:43:00.001+01:00

We are having a mini heat wave in England - a rare event, so I was a little dissappointed yesterday to have to shut all the windows, leave my garden, where I love to spend sunny days and travel to St. Ives near Cambridge to do the photo shoot for my next Magmaker project. I set off early with the car filled to the brim with boxes and totes and every conceivable prop that I might need.
I hadn't done one of these before. I usually just post everything to them and it all magically gets done, but this time they wanted hands and tools in the shots. I don't know what I expected - probably, considering the weather, I had hoped it would be a spacious air conditioned room with a water dispenser close by. Not quite! It was a tiny room in a warehouse! And boy was it hot! And that's before I was sitting next to lights. The previous author's shoots had taken much longer than expected and this was Friday and Brett the cameraman didn't want to spend a sunny weekend working so we went at the fastest pace we knew how. Fortunately I was really organised and had every stage of the projects mocked up, labelled and ready to go, but after a few hours, even my quite obsessive organisational skills seemed to dissappear. Labels seemed to come unstuck in the heat, things got lost under piles of stuff I hadn't pack away properly and we sank into utter chaos.
Brett walked off to get something occasionally and came back with bright quips like " its a fantastic day out there" - just what I needed! Heaven knows how, but we actually managed to finish about 5.45pm. he was able to go home to a BBQ and I could start off on the long journey home, tired and grubby but relieved that we had managed to finish in the one day. I don't think I have ever worked so fast, under such hot conditions, without moaning (too much!!) before.
It was great to get home, let some air into the house and walk around my garden, admiring the plants and veggies and grateful that they had withstood the heat of the day. I couldn't face unpacking the car and restoring order to all the chaos. The one thing I have learned is that photo shoots are HOT!!!

It's been a long day

2009-05-23T20:55:00.000+01:00

Most people are enjoying a sunny holiday weekend. I am shut in my study working on a new project for Magmaker. I must keep working - we have to photograph it all on Thursday. I must keep working.....I must keep working......I must keep working. At least I can look at the sunshine. Trouble is I'm looking at the veggie seedlings that want planting out, the tomatoes that need putting in Gro bags and the lawn that need mowing too. I am going to really enjoy being back in the garden as soon as all this work is finished - but for now - it's back to it!!