A First

So here it is, at the age of 36, nearly 37, I have made my first ever quilt. Dah daaaaaaah!

I started it last Autumn but then making all the costumes for our medieval days sort of soaked up all the sewing mojo. I picked it up again when I visited Ffald Y Brenin and let the quiet rythmn of handsewing just float me away.

It is a baby quilt but the baby it was intended for is rather too big for it now. It really is only a crib/comfort blanket size.
Happily, a couple in church had their little daughter only a few days ago and this will do very well for a gift for her.

Roses for little Keziah Rose.

Grey Outside but Bright Within

A sure fire way to combat a mizzly January morning is to curl up in front of the fire and browse the web for inspiration. My wanderings took me to The Cotton Patch and the astonishingly pretty Springwood House. Quilting emporiums and chock full of gorgeousness. Springwood house in particular had me squeaking in excitement as they have squares of computer foil there in a banquet of shimmering glitzyness.

As I have said before, I love the homespun look - checks of spicy browns, cute stripes of sand and berry etc etc and I always think how right they would look in my tiny little miners cottage but somehow the magpie DNA almost always wins and I end up getting the bright and spangly because honestly, it is just what I like best of all. I am a design Jekyll and Hyde...only with glitter.

So I got these - two charm packs and a fat quarter. As Oscar once said: I can resist everything but temptation. I also bought a quilt book by Kaffe Fasset. If I never attempt even a coaster from this book it will still be worth the price for the photographs alone. What a world that man must inhabit. I wish I could see through his eyes for just ten minutes.

So how about you? What cheers you onwards through a cold January?

Of Reasons

So I sorted out all the tablet weaving kit. I plan on making a belt for Eden. The dress below is hers for when we go re-enacting. It is a lovely soft purple. I dyed it using acid dyes which have a tendency to be quite bright and though some natural dyes can be very bright indeed the purples that they (ie medieval folk) could get were not. So I took great care to keep the mix on the silvery side of lilac which is what you can get if you use elderberries. I missed the elderberry season this year and anyway I am not into natural dying, all the mordanting wool and all the fiddle (and potential errors) that natural dying involves. Acid dyes are far easier.

So I got all the kit out, even the pattern book! And then I realised that I really should get cracking with V's tunic rather than indulge myself with a demanding fiddly new rabbit trail. Eden can do very well with a length of plaited wool for now but V's tunic must be made before our next gig at Chepstow on the 6th. I need to get my dress sorted out too but I can borrow something if needs be. I want the rest of the family in their own kit first though.

This is part of the haul from the re-enactors fair up in Leamington Spa. Pure wool that is next to skin soft. I intended this for a dress for myself (and hoped to get one for Lily out of the remainder) keeping a lovely thick linen for V's tunic. But the training day that we went to two weeks ago made me realise that linen just won't be warm enough for a December day.
This wool is a cheery, holly berry red and it suits V very well. I have enough left over to make a dress for tiny Lily but I am going to have to send off for some more wool to make a dress for myself. I am fancying a burnt orange or a moss green if possible. It will look a bit daft if we have three members of the family in the same colour I think.

And I finally saw sense and started using the sewing machine. One dress, some braeis and two underdresses would be enough handsewing for anyone. If I want this finished anytime soon it is going to have to be machine work from now on. I finish visible seams - necklines and such- by hand and very relaxing it is too now that most of the donkey work is being done by the Bernina.

An honourable mention goes to this machine by the way - it is older than me. Bought in Tanganyika* for thirty shillings over forty years ago and it is still going strong**. The whirr of this machine is one of the sounds of my childhood. Mummy was always creating something with it. She has assured me that it will come to me when she can no longer use it. I am happy to have the occasional loan for now.

Maybe I'll get a pic of V wearing his new tunic tomorrow. This post has taken ages to write and I am off to bed now.

Nos da everyone.

* Tanganyika no longer exists as an independant nation. It has been amalgamated into Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania.
**Which is perhaps more than can be said of Tanganyika

Of Kids and Kidding About

Getting the kidlings ready for school this morning in my rather tea deprived state Rose squawked-
"Look at my foot!"
In so far as I could, I whirled round to face what awful thing had happened to my baby to see a grotesque bulge under her big toe.
"Good grief!" I shriek. "What the heck is that?"
"It's my wart" she says, completely straight faced.
I just about passed out in horror, when - in the nick of time - she withdrew a marble from her sock.
I think the word is pwned.

In other news, here is my latest bash at a cloak. In a former life it was an ancient Welsh wool blanket, slightly scratchy but still comforting and very very warm. I have dyed it from a distressing Calpol pink to its present shade of milk chocolate. It is a classic hobbit cloak. Cut on the cross, two quarter circles sewn into a half and it drapes very happily around my shoulders.

I am particularly pleased with the clasp which I purchased from a viking re-enactment store in Copenhagen. I love the WWW.
More pictures of sewing projects soon. I am on the last leg of the costume marathon now and I will be glad to get back to my spinning wheel. I miss it.

Busy

Okay, the camera has gone AWOL again and I have got fed up of waiting for it to turn up in order that I could show you the evidence of the latest welter of crafting activity. So you are just going to have to take my word for it...

Do you remember The Haul? Well shortly after that, another haul arrived - my fabric order for the medieval stuff - linen, more wool (woven this time) a few yards of silk/cotton blend and an experimental few yards of jute. This last is not for clothing I hasten to add but it will do very well for the floor of our tent.

So my latest bout of crafting has resulted so far in these:

• 4 bonnets - two felt, one calico but lined with felt, one crocheted. The last one is for the etsy shop, the other three are for the girls, it is probably going to be cold in Chepstow Castle for Yuletide celebrations

• 1 cape - double lined with fleece and brushed cotton for Eden

• 1 underdress - basic rectangles with side seams left open to the knee for Rose.
• A whole bobbin full of lace weight merino in purple
  
• A hank of lace weight silk dyed purple to ply with the merino
• Sheets of merino felt that have since been made into the bonnets
• A small band of weaving on a borrowed box loom just to get a feel for a loom again. I used mercerised cotton for the warp and the tail end of the shetland lace weight that I have had hanging around for the last year or two. I bought four hundred grams of shetland fleece and four hundred grams goes a heck of a long way when it is hand spun to filament thickness.
  

I also had a go at making some braeis for V. These are basically medieval boxer shorts. It was an utter disaster but it was well worth the giggle. Shall we just say that I have only ever sewn skirts or dresses for myself and the girls. Men's undies are a whole different ball game as it were...and well...they didn't fit and I'll leave it there!

I still have a huge amount to do sewing wise - hand sewing takes me an awful long time but using a machine doesn't really save me any time at all. The machine goes so quickly I have hardly any control over so I make mistakes quite frequently so I plod along taking three evenings to do what someone else would take half an hour to do with the machine. Ah well, I shall get there in the end and the although the journey is slow, it remains pleasant and rewarding.

Hopefully I will track down the camera very soon and I shall have a few pics up before long. I might also show you the latest handicrafting - a completely new direction for me - as soon as I have anything that is worth showing off.

Have a great week won't you

Sewing with Zac

Here I am trying to get something done. And Zac is doing his level best to get me to tickle his tummy. Place your bets ladies and gentlemen - who do you think won? The human or the feline?