Month: June 2018
Haberdashery and More
Haberdashery shopping can make your head go into overdrive – all those projects to plan !
I love that word, haberdashery, it is such an old word and there’s no other word that quite sums up all the bits and bats you need for sewing, ribbons, trims, laces, threads…
I was in London last weekend meeting up with my penfriend from Australia. We started writing through the Girl Guides when we were 12 years old, 40 years ago!!! There’s been times when it waned, but we kept in touch. Now I’m married to an Australian so we go over to Australia to see family every couple of years so we have met a couple of times over there. This year has been a bit different, she has been working in London for six months, so we’ve managed to meet up for three lovely weekends. It’s been great to have a bit more time to chat about this and that. Last weekend was the final meet up…
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Thinking in blue
I am having a play this week with my fabric stash. I have a beautiful selection of blues and I would love to make a new bedcover for a guest room. I have been hanging onto some of this for years, waiting for an idea to come to fruition. This is a start, it will be ongoing amongst all my other WIPS. I am not a proficient quilter but I am gaining knowledge and momentum (and also gaining the odd headache as I cut incorrectly or realise I prefer some fabrics to others!). I would love to see others current quilt projects this week. Anyone?
Bazaar – India brought to Kent
Last Friday I went to a wonderful sale of items from India. There were amazing goodies to admire and purchase, from fabrics, clothes, beads, handmade papers, purses, bags, ribbons, sari silks, mirrors for shisha, in fact think of many things to adorn yourself or your surroundings and they probably had it there. The sale was housed in a beautiful barn at a country pub in Kent, itself a fantastic building, let alone draped with Indian finery with the scents of incense burning. * ‘Bazaar’ is the creation of Joanna Hall, a Textile and Fashion Designer from Hildenborough in Kent who has been working alongside crafts people in India for more than 19 years.
She works mainly in Rajasthan with weavers, block printers, tailors, jewellers and women who do embroidery, beading and fringing. She manufactures her designs of clothing, jewellery and gifts through a web of trusted craftspeople she has befriended during this time. She also buys and collects from the items they have already designed and are making themselves. *
Lucky for us there was also an area in the garden where workshops were run and we could try out printing with wooden blocks. This ‘marquee’ was tented in wonderful fabrics and here’s a few pics to share. Sadly I was unable to get any pics of the barn itself but you can see more if you click onto the website. http://www.bazaarshop.co.uk/events
And then some of our results, by no means professional but what a fun crafting session. Of course, I popped back into the sale room and purchased a wooden printing block !
*Source: the Bazaar website, as shown above.
Decorating
It’s been a bit quiet on the crafting front. There have been lots of other things occupying my mind this past week or so. Choosing wallpaper is one of them. Along with the times I have wished I could name or design yarns and fabric I now add that I wish I was a better artist and could design and name wallpaper too!
Being creative includes looking at patterns and textures everywhere. I have almost got to the point of collecting so many paper samples I could join them all together and cover the wall ‘patchwork’ style! For any fellow Escape to a Chateau fans (tv show, Dick Strawbridge and Angel Adoree) remember the patchwork wallpaper?! To die for!
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/escape-to-the-chateau-diy
Scraps of Liberty Lawn
A friend’s birthday.
She is a sewist/knitter too.
It wasn’t easy to decide what to make for her. I filtered ideas, I poured over a few craft books, I searched through my wool and fabric stashes.
I wanted the gift to be useful rather than just decorative.
Look what I decided to make!
Liberty lawn fabric pieced together to make a beautiful needle case, then wrapped in a spare piece of lawn instead of gift wrap.
She liked it too! I love gifting a home crafted present to someone who understands the effort you put into making it, don’t you?
Pont L’Eveque, France
A small montage of images from a special place (to me) in Northern France, Pont L’Eveque, Normandy.
Hopefully you can see age and quaintness in these snaps. Sadly much of the town was damaged during the occupation of the Second World War so much has been rebuilt. I am not sure of the actual age of the original buildings but I know the first mention of Pont L’Eveque was in the 1100’s so it’s been there awhile! As for professional photos, I am definitely a snapper rather than a true photographer, please take this into consideration when reading my blog posts. The bike rack is just for fun!
We spent a morning here recently. I cannot show you the cafe where we sat and people watched whilst sipping our cafes au lait. Nor indeed are there photos of the colourful macarons purchased (then eaten!) or the Beaufort cheese sampled at the market. The famous Pont L’Eveque cheese of the same name is not actually to our taste but we have tried it. It’s supposed to be the oldest known cheese from this area of France. Did you know there are more than 400 cheeses made in France? !
Pont L’Eveque is now a thriving tourist area yet it still manages to feel serene and even on market day little is rushed. If only I could time travel.
More bunting and beach huts, a little bit of early summer
Lovely readers know I adore bunting and beach huts. Recently I blogged about both.
I had made some bunting to donate to a friend for a charity event. I used cotton fabric from my fabric stash which I’d been holding onto for something special. I loved it so much it was almost difficult to gift it! Therefore I made another length for myself.
We’ve just been away to France for a few days. We had glorious sunshine, mostly.
A little visit to a nearby town, Houlgate, reminded me of the inspiration for the beach hut in another recent blog post (on the right!)
Houlgate has this great line of beach huts, each year reconstructed on the promenade. I often wonder where they go for the winter. This year we were there when workmen were putting together the last few and lining them all up ready for their summer use. They are numbered, some are named and even though I have been visiting for more than ten years I have never counted how many there are. In this photo the last one is number 154 ! Some numbers are missing, some are in better condition than others, but they are all orange and white stripes.
As for crafting over the last few days… here’s a snippet of me one afternoon …
Knitting and sewing is high on the agenda at the moment but so is getting a little bronzed !
Where do you like to knit if you get the chance?
handmadehomemadeknitstitchdesign 