February - Sewing

January helped me decide that knitting is not for me. I want something creative that is going to capture my attention. I loved sewing to make some Christmas presents at the end of last year and with a sale agreed for our house, meaning hopefully no more viewings to tidy for, I feel like February is the month to get the sewing machine out and make a few things that I have been thinking about for a while. 

First up, some hair scrunchies. I had so many hair scrunchies as a 10/11 year old and looking back at photos I can't really believe they have come back into fashion.  Although this new iteration is a bit more stylish and people don't seem to be wearing three at a time - 90's fashion was very interesting! I have a roll of elastic and various pieces of fabric that I love so I'm going to make a few and see how they turn out. My hair is constantly getting knotted and little fingers love to pull at it so hopefully they will be well used.  I am also going to make some new cushions for our living room with some beautiful material that was meant to be curtains but I got my measurements wrong! I don't have a photo of it because it is currently in the loft but I promise it is beautiful. 

I'm really excited for this month so hopefully I will have some nice things to share at the end of February. 

January Recap

My goal for January was to start knitting a patchwork blanket. I was successful, in that I have knitted a number of squares of different coloured wool and feel more confident with each square I knit. There was a lot of learning along the way! The second square I finished was surprising larger than the first one, despite there definitely being the same number of lines at the beginning - I have no idea what happened...

At the beginning I tried knitting at all times of the day, we have had various periods of having to isolate this month and a lot more time at home like everyone at the moment so I thought I would find lots of time to get those squares made. But I was wrong. Pointy sticks and balls of wool that can be unravelled are like cat-nip to little boys - shocking right. So every time I tried to knit in their presence I would quickly have an audience who wanted to ask questions and 'help'. It was cute at first and then I ended up unravelling a square after my needle had been pulled out of a row of stitches and I decided it had to be an evening activity once they were in bed. 

I can't say that I've fallen in love with knitting. I am always drawn to it because it seems to be something you can do while watching tv, listening to a podcast or generally relaxing but that probably only works once you're an experienced knitter. I have very little quiet time, 2 and 4 years olds are wonderful but quiet and relaxing they are not. So when I actually get the chance to sit down and relax I just want to do that and not have to concentrate too hard. On the other hand I don't find knitting so exciting that I want to focus my entire attention on it, so while I'm glad to have tried it and I want to finish the blanket, I can't see this being a new hobby. But that's fine, this year is to find out what things I enjoy and which are worthwhile hobbies and which are not. Lesson learned! I do however have to finish this patchwork blanket or my husband's scepticism of my knitting will be justified. I'm happy to have learned knitting is definitely not for me but I will not have him be proven right, ha!

One down, 11 to go. 

January - Knitting

It took me a little while to decide what I should do in January. At the end of last year, I was pretty sure I wanted to do some sewing and I was thinking about making some accessories like hairbands or bags which I could give to friends for birthdays. My sewing machine had finally been dragged down from the loft in December so that I could make two stockings, one for my youngest son and one for my 5 month old nephew. I enjoyed sewing again so much, despite the mistakes I repeatedly made. I went on to make a crinkle sensory toy for my little nephew as well. I have lots of odds and ends of material and ribbons and copying a trick that my mother-in-law taught me I used the plastic material from a cereal box to make the crinkly inside. It works a treat!

I had rekindled my sewing bug and it seemed like a good month to keep that momentum going. However....! We put our house on the market at the start of January and have started to get a steady flow of viewings. Keeping our house at a general level of tidiness is always a difficult task but keeping it clean and tidy enough for strangers to come around and judge us on it, is another level entirely! Once we started the daily tidying before viewings, which involved me and my husband become very flustered and then trying to pen the boys into the living room to watch TV and "not touch anything!!",  I realised that having bits of material and threads everywhere would not be a good addition to the house. 

So my January creative task will be knitting. My plan is to start knitting squares which will be turned into a patchwork blanket. I don't expect to finish this in the month but hope to make a good start. My husband tried not to roll his eyes when I told him I was going to knit. I have tried knitting many times, and many times I have made a scarf big enough for an average size mouse and then got bored. My goal each time was to make a scarf, I'm not really why because I have plenty of scarves. I think that the issue was always that knitting a scarf, when you knit at the speed I do, takes a long time. I am hoping that because each square won't take too long, I will start to see some process quite quickly and this will spur me on. I don't mind a project taking a long time but I need some milestones along the way and for some reason breaking the length of a scarf down into the woodland creatures it could keep warm, doesn't really work for me. Let's hope this does!

Creative Goals

Happy New Year! It has been almost 5 years since I last wrote on this blog and a lot has changed in that time. I am now a mum to two little boys with bags of energy. My days spent travelling, cooking and sewing in France in 2015 feel a long time ago. 

I haven't had much time over the last few years to be creative but in 2018 on maternity leave with my youngest son I started a year long creative writing course by author Emylia Hall and the joy of writing and being creative and doing something just for myself because I enjoy it, came flooding back. Those fortnightly sessions were the highlight of my maternity leave (other than the cuddles with my gorgeous son, obviously!) and even when they stopped prematurely thanks to covid, I tried to find time to write whenever I could. The brief time to myself, being able to write and make some sort of sense of my thoughts in a very strange year, was very important especially when I was furloughed and nursery closed. It reminded me that I love experimenting, putting things together and trying to create something beautiful, whether that is with material, paint or words. Often they don't work and the finished articles are never perfect but the process makes me happy. 

I have been following Elise Joy on her blog and Instagram for a long time now and have found her willingness to try new crafts and learn as she goes really inspirational. Her book Big Dreams, Daily Joys was one of the many books I read on my kindle this year while trying to get my youngest boy to sleep (still a work in progress!), and the big thing I took from it was set a goal, break it down into smaller tasks and then start. Don't overcomplicate it.  

Next year feels like a fresh start but as we're all aware the pandemic isn't over and things won't be back to normal for some time. I think I need something to focus on that I can do at home, which is about the here and now, not dreaming about meeting family and friends or going on holiday. Something practical where I can see I am creating something tangible. Like Elise, I love goals. I like to have something to aim for and I enjoy seeing the fruits of my labour. 

So in 2021, I am going to do a different creative 'thing' each month. These will not always be new to me but they will all be different to each other. I have a list of things I would like to try but these might change as the year goes on. They will range from sewing to painting to writing. I am hoping that after a year of 12 different creative pursuits I will have a better idea of what I enjoy the most and I will have had fun and most importantly kept myself from frantically scrolling news updates. 

I plan to write at least a monthly update of what I've been up to and what finished product I have managed to create. Here's to a more creative and joyful 2021!

Baby blanket - Ho Ho Ho and on We Sew

Welcome to Ho Ho Ho and on We Sew in March! Fiona at Celtic Thistle Stitches hosts a monthly link party to help people get prepared for Christmas and there are always some great ideas and inspiration to be found. If like me you often end up a week before Christmas with a long list of handmade gifts that have not come to fruition, then fear no more. Starting to plan in March might seem odd but how smug will you feel come December! 

I am very excited about my make for this month as it is a first for me in more ways than one. It's a quilt and it's for a baby! I am getting to the age where my friends are settling down and this year one of my oldest friends who I have known since I was 9 is having a baby. This will be the first time that one of my close group of friends from school is pregnant and so I finally have the excuse to make cute baby things!

I had some beautiful rabbit print material (I have a lot of rabbit material!) and I decided that I would like to try to make a patchwork quilt. My mother-in-law is an expert quilt maker and has made all sorts of elaborate quilt patterns, but I decided to play it safe. I used just two materials to create a patchwork design and then did a basic vertical line to secure the materials and to add texture.

Firstly I cut 20cm squares of the constrasting materials and pinned and sewed them together.

I then measured and cut a rectangle of wadding material and backing material the same size as my completed patchwork and pinned these three materials together.

I sewed vertical lines down the length of the quilt at regular intervals to secure and add texture.

For the bias binding I found a turquoise fleece material which is so soft and makes a lovely edge for a baby blanket.

And here is the finished quilt. I think it will work well for a boy or a girl so I have all bases covered for Christmas!

This month for the Ho Ho Ho giveaway we have these beautiful sewing-themed charms from Nicole de Bruin which will be spilt between two winners.

To be in with a chance of winning just link up your Christmas and Holiday makes below. Two lucky winners will be randomly drawn when the link party closes at midnight on March 31st.

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks to these generous sponsors who make the monthly giveaways possible.

  

 

 

Decorating with a French style

We came back to England before Christmas for the holidays and brought all our things with us. Our 6 months out in France were probably the best we have ever had and we were sad to say goodbye! But 2016 is about moving to Bristol, finding jobs and getting settled and it will hopefully be a very exciting year. 2015 will take some beating though!

When we were living in France my husband and I did various alterations and decorations to my in-laws house. We did a lot of painting, ripping up of carpet, laying new flooring and adding skirting boards. It was a lot of fun and we definitely improved our DIY skills. One of the things I most enjoyed decorating was an electricity board cover, (exciting right!) After some work had been done to the house the electricity box had been contained in a new plain wood box on the wall and after we had painted the walls it looked a bit bare.

My mother-in-law liked the idea of it having a newspaper background and we had plenty of newspapers in the house for making fires in the winter. We found some vintage style postcards from a Champagne producer in a drawer in the house and thought they would be perfect displayed on it. There were only a few but after searching for vintage french posters on Amazon I found some beautiful ones that fitted in.

I used all purpose wallpaper paste to glue the newspaper in place, it was like a huge papier mâché

and then once dried the posters and postcards were glued on top. It took a quite few days to do and I kept coming back to it with another pile of newspaper cuttings to glued on and being surprised at how little they covered! While not the quickest way to decorate a plain box or wardrobe that you might have, I think it definitely adds a lovely vintage French feel to the room.

Handmade Kindle Cover

This year I am excited to be part of Ho Ho Ho and on We Sew hosted by Fiona at Celtic Thistle Stitches. A monthly link party to keep you motivated to make those crafty gifts for Christmas that can very often get lost in the December rush. By making an item a month, come December you can sit back and relax, well that's the idea! I am hosting the March link party and have got my thinking cap on for that one! In the meantime I have been inspired by Fiona to start planning early this year as some presents I intended to make in 2015 have been rolled over to 2016.

This month I have made a Kindle cover for my father-in-law, he is an avid reader and his current cover is getting a bit old so by December he will be in need of a new one. This will work for any e-reader or ipad and could be scaled down for a smart phone. I used a book-print material for this one but I made my brother-in-law one for last Christmas which had stags on which seems to fit the Christmassy theme better!


























You will need:

Pellon -  (3 x width of kindle + 2") x (height of kindle + 2")
Outside material - 2 x size above
Bias-binding - 1½ inch wide strips
Button


Step 1 
Place the outsides right-side together and sew along the top long edge.

Step 2
Turn right side out and place pellon inbetween the fabric. Pin in place around edges and sew along the open edges.

Step 3
Using kindle to measure, fold right side over to form a pocket and pin and then sew in place along bottom edge.

Step 4
Sew buttonhole on outer flap.

Step 5
Pin and then sew bias-binding to cover the bottom and inside edges. Start with the inside edge of the pocket -the first time I did this the wrong way round and it meant I couldn't cover the edges with the other bias-binding, it took a long time to unpick!

Step 6
Sew on the button and you have a handmade kindle cover ready for Christmas!

 
Make sure you check out Fiona's page at Celtic Thistle Stitches for more links to Christmas and Holiday makes. One down, eleven to go!