Creative Surges!

 It's been a while since I've blogged! I've been 'creating plenty just a little 'blog-shy' - brace yourselves for some crafty makes!

My favourite one and one that I have been meaning to do for quite a while....

 I have a teenage son, he's grunty, saves up his washing for me, gives me last minute 'requests for cash' and flowers on Mother's Day....anyway, he's had his cute moments! 

Boys and patchwork are not your usual bedfellows and I've rediscovered patchwork since producing Country Crafts and found this to be a satisfying, rewarding and not too challenging project!

Old T-shirts! Remember when they were so tiny that they would fit on an ironing board? They wouldn't now!

I absolutely LOVED this one, our whole family are bonkers about music and I think I squeezed the Boy into this for many more years than I should have!

 *weeps* he bought this one from H&M in Norwich with his own money - the first item of clothing chosen and purchased all on his very own!

 This one was a gift from my beloved younger brother and his wife-to-be at their rather brilliant wedding!

 Noone could fail to see where this one came from but the story behind this one is lovely! The Boy is a water-baby and found the ground level fountains - he then spent A LONG TIME dancing, prancing, ducking and having a wonderful time - we have all this on film ready to roll out on his wedding day (of course!) but he ended up soaked to the skin, needing an emergency T-shirt and a lavender foot bath, he cut all his feet...

 ...and because you can never really believe just how quickly they grow I included the labels...

We are doing a series of workshops making these quilts - there is no machine sewing involved, it's a very relaxing, hand-sewn project so if you fancy joining us on Saturday afternoons from March 14th through to May 5th let us know! Drop by HH HQ or email for details....

 I've so enjoyed trying new things, the porcelain workshops at Rachel Dormer's studio do remain a firm favourite - I can't wait to go again - soon! I do so love these pinch bowls, both making and using...

 ...there has also been a renewed interest in breadmaking, spurred on by some of the more adventurous (competitive?) fellas on twitter I got out the yeast and turned out some fairly decent rolls - Jacqui is really good and makes her own bread all the time but I'm a little out of practise!

 Of course, along with all the crafting goes the music and the second-hand turntable I treated myself to for my 40th birthday (last year) has been a constant joy - going through records, yes.....

 ...real-life big vinyl plates of music has been fantastic, it just sounds better with crackles...! Next time I manage to get a blog-post together I will show you a very 'different' kind of use for a vinyl LP, that's 'long player' for all you youngsters!

 And finally, there's always one of those! A heart, it's been Valentine's Day so what could be more appropriate....? 

Makes a change from socks, they are strangely cuddly, squeezable and I can't stop making them! The most fun you can have with four needles!

I reall do hope that you have enjoyed seeing some of my creative efforts, Nic x

Sew n' Crow Christmas!

This week our Monday night group, fondly known as "sew n' crow" met at Sam's for a festive evening of fun and handmade present exchanging!

Some weeks ago, we all picked a name out of the Secret Santa hat.  Nic decreed that, of course, all presents should be handmade, and cost no more than £5, or should come from your craft stash!  Quite right too!

My gift was wrapped in brown paper and adorned with a luggage tag bearing a button snowman!

And......the recipient of my carefully woven basket gift was Lisa.  Lisa is a fabulous stitcher, as you'll see later on, so I must admit I was a little nervous.....but she seemed to like it!

Lisa in turn made for Jeannette, a lovely jar with pincushion top and stuffed to the brim with sewing goodies......

Jeannette made for Nic, and carefully wrapped her goodies in this gorgeous little wicker hamper - she knows Nic has a penchant for hampers!

Jeannette made these beautiful tweed fabric hearts strung with pretty flowery ribbon and adorned with tiny jewels. 

And filled the basket with handmade iced Christmas biscuits. 

I was the lucky recipient of Nic's gift, some beautiful ceramic heart tags made at a recent Rachel Dormor workshop, plus a really pretty pressed glass bowl and creamer from Nic's own glass collection.

Michelle received a lovely stash of handmade fork pom poms made by Sue - beautifully festive!

Michelle made for Amy and her gift was home made bath and massage oil scented with lavender and camomile and presented in a gorgeous vintage decanter, tied with ribbon and luggage tag.  Michelle even added some glitter to add some extra Christmas sparkle! Amy was clearly thriilled.

Amy's gift to Shiela was a beautiful Christmas Tree cross-stitch presented in an embroidery hoop - Shiela very quickly announced that she had the perfect spot to hang her lovely gift.

Pat's gift, made by Sam, was a beautiful, personalised mug hug - which, as you can see here, also nicely fits an ample glass of mulled wine!!!

Pat made Sue a super cosy, chocolate brown, chenille scarf.  It was on in a flash!

There were no prizes for guessing who made this stunning coffee and walnut cake!  Shiela is renowned for them in these parts - and Sam was the lucky recipient - though I did wonder whether lucky was the right word, since Sam very generously proceeded to share it with us all, leaving her with only half a cake!!!

I think we all enjoyed both the making and sharing of our gifts, in the knowledge that we had invested our time wisely, with love, and had made something which would be appreciated.

I can't finish this post, without showing you a few pictures of the very talented Lisa Museum's finished Santa washing line! She's been working on this at Sew n' Crow over recent weeks and here it is in all its glory - ta dah!

All handmade and handstitched.

How cute.

Sam's cat, Wellington, seemed pretty non-plussed by all of the activity and decided instead that Nic's ball of yarn made a great head rest and the perfect spot for a snooze, whilst we ooohed, aaarh'd, drank and ate!!!

Life doesn't get much better than this!

Jacquix

The Skip Sisters!

How lovely it was, whilst doing our book signing in Woodbridge on Sunday, to meet one of the founder members of the Skip Sisters, Edori Fertig.  Nic and I were absolutely thrilled that Edori purchased a copy of our book too!

Edori is on the left of this photo.  They look like they are having a great time - and we just love their ethos!  A group of like minded women, who met learning how to make felt and who shared a passion for finding old discarded pieces and creating something wonderful and new from them.

Here are just a few of the beautiful items they have created as part of their shared passion.

Edori's Royal Wedding cushion!

 What a fab pincushion!

Of course, tea time has to be catered for!

Beautiful work on display, at the Dulwich Art Fair in 2008

 The Skip Sisters have a pop up shop each Christmas ..where they sell all of their original work.

And this year is no exception.....even the poster advertising the event is fab!

If you are in London over the next couple of weeks, and get the chance, do go and say hello - I'm sure they'd be delighted to see you!
Isn't it just brilliant how a shared passion for craft can bring people together.  If ever proof were needed of the power of crafting, then surely the Skip Sisters must be it!

(All of the images in this post are reproduced with kind permission of Skip Sisters - Thank You)
Jacquix

Phew!

What a busy time we've had this weekend.....

Months ago we promised that we would enter a tree into the local Christmas tree festival, the theme being Village Life.  An opportunity to use all our lovely habby goodies that seemed too good to pass up!  We spent a lovely Friday afternoon carefully decorating our small, but perfectly formed, tree to bursting point with gorgeous haberdashery notions and embellishments - with the tag line,  "never knowlingly under-embellished" 

It was lovely to see everyone arriving, all with different interpretations on the village life theme, from "afternoon tea" with branches adorned with gorgeous vintage tea wares and fairy lights to the "demise of the post office" a rather sad, but poignant reminder of the loss of local services.

We made a dolly peg fairy for the top of our tree, as well as button garlands, angora pom poms, mini bunting and also these cute little replicas of our brown paper carrier bags!

And cute parcels tied with jute string.

Hot on the heels of the tree festival preparations came the Swedish Fayre at Creeting House on Saturday. 

The barn was adorned with boughs of the beautiful trees cut from within the grounds of Creeting House and though it was cold outside, and quite cold inside, we were kept warm with gluhwein, yummy saffron buns fresh from the oven, and hot dogs. 

Our budding young crafter Caitlin came along with a selection of her beautiful card creations as well as some rather fetching robins that will be popping up on the blog very soon, we hope!

It was a lovely sociable day. 

Then today, rather than my usual Sunday morning routine of eggs on toast served up alongside the Archers omnibus edition, we were out on the road again, this time to Woodbridge to do a book signing for our book, A Green Guide to Country Crafts, at Woodbridge books!  The book shop fronts onto the main thoroughfare where a street fair was in full swing, so, we set up outside the shop with our weaving and our knitting! It was a lovely, buzzy atmosphere and we had a really fun day and met some lovely people.

We're now both pretty pooped.  I don't know about Nic but after such a busy time I'm now enjoying a large G and T and am just about to take my weaving in to sit beside the lovely log fire that is luring me away from my computer! 

Hope you've had a great weekend!

Jacquix