More head huggers and EYES exhibits

You cant really see in this picture above but the head hugger in front, has wiggledy edgings. I dont follow a pattern but it seems to have worked okay lol 

I enjoy making up these huggers, they are very therapeutic to sit and knit. I combine novelty yarns with double knit, mohairs or chunkies. I blend together whatever colours seem to 'go' and you get fun textures when they are finished.

I sat for a couple of hours manning our EYES exhibition last friday morning and here are afew other exhibits you might like to see.
Our current Chairman is Maggie Tomlinson and she made the lion jacket below.....isnt he great!

Sue Spafford made this lovely journal cover........it was beautifully stitched.

Ann Pye made this interesting piece below

This below is Nelson and his picnic.....made by Jackie Parker
He's fabulous........and about 2' from seat to top of head so must be about 3' when stood, with beautifully crocheted hexies ....

Recycled woollies and a disappointment

Another little something from a felted woolly jumper. A little vest for a 3-4 yr old.

And then the other beige/brown one is done .. abit fancier than Id anticipated mind you .. but I using the embellisher to form the wee tree.

I took a brief wander this morning to the sunday car boot, to buy in my reasonably priced fruit, veg and free range eggs. Luckily I was there between showers because the UK has gone from drought conditions to floods all over the option, in just afew weeks............go figure!

I was truly disappointed to see a stall of odds and sods, also selling those cheerfully colourful jumpers, that so many had lovingly knitted, being sold at a £1 each.

They tumbled out of a torn black bin bag, nothing more than unwanted old clothing. Yet I knew the wool and stitches had been a token of goodwill, knitted up by everso many women, in the hope the jumpers would reach children in the back of beyond.

I asked the guys where they'd got the jumpers from and was told that
" some woman had them knitted up, to send to Africa. But she got too many. "
They werent even selling them for fund raising for ANY charity.
I was so disappointed.
I just felt all that goodwill, had been side tracked and that if the guys sold any, theyd get to pocket the proceeds and it wouldnt help any less fortuneate than themselves.

Such a shame. But I guess we donate whatever, in the expectation that its used for the purpose we think its being donated towards.
To raise funds for cancer/cat welfare /African children etc. etc.

The fact is, we have no control over what happens to it, after we have made the donation.
Maybe we have no right to queery what happens to it?
Maybe needing justification of its use, demeans our donation?
I'm going too deep lol
hey ho...........thats life sadly.

East Yorkshire Embroiderers Exhibition in Hull

I forgot to get the names of the items listed below but am manning the exhibition, in Central Library next week, so will make sure I record the makers names then! Sorry ~
The only one I know for sure, are these first three by Jackie Ward Lomax.
Jackie is well known locally for having carved dead tree trunks into magnificent animals and birds.
She no longer feels able to carve safely atop ladders, so has turned her talented hands to design and stitching!
I just totally adore the quilt and the coat is warmly huggable!
It's called Lazy Dog.  FABulous!

mandella

~

So now the others I felt worth a mention and as I said, I will record names when I have the list to refer to!
Lovely nuno felting ~ by Alison Laird

 delightfully stitched petals ~ by Jill Hall

a beautifully beaded cushion centre ~

deliciously simple but a beautifully stitched little embroidery ~
by Susan Brett

A child sized cleaning box and using up felted woollies

Almost the longest day, half the years gone already.............
go on, tell me how many days there are till Christmas ........
 and I may scream!!
Just look at this below...

Isnt it great! The cleaning lady at work has made it up.......now you'd expect it to be just perfect for a child wouldnt you?

All these small sized items..

But ....

 its actually a celebration gift for the cleaning teams 'forewoman' who has been there for 25 years lol.........

I thought it was so lovely and it would be ideal to make up for a keen child cleaner to be I guess............if you have one!

I had a fancy to do something with the batch of felted down jumpers I have left over from making fingerless gloves. Then I stumbled on this little book in the charity shop... such delightful illustrations!

So ........ off on a tangent, from this below at cut out stage ..

to this..... 2/3 yr old size.

So then I cut another one out, 6-9 months size but altered the pattern abit..

Still thinking about how to stitch this one........but it will also be quite simple.

Woolly hexies, a pom pom pram cover and a DIY fabric binding maker!

I did a bit of stitching, tried machine zig zag but that didn't look right, so I pulled that out and stuck to hand stitching.
I think its going to be a cushion front....or a fabric folly ... maybe.

One of the cleaners at work brought a pram cover she had made in to show me, its an unusual method of making it, that I thought some of you may not have known about.

I had not seen the method before but suspect its an old pattern idea.

It reminds me of the little woollen dolls we used to make as kids.

It produces a kitch, fluffy cover but I have to admit,

it does look pretty, is nice and light but would be quite warm I would think.

The method is described in the pattern and the first thing you have to do is build a wooden frame!

The wooden frame Janice had to make used 2" x 2" wood and had 60+ nails in all round the edges. It had to be varnished too.
It would work in smaller sizes too and could probably make a nice little, if fiddly, teeny tiny, dolls house pram or dolls pram cover too.
Am I going to make one?
No.........but I recognise its a clever method!
Think Janice said you use alot of yarn, 5 or 600 grams and you have to keep the tension firm throughout the making.
( Janice suggests you use a peg to hold the tension in place, if you need a pee half way through the setting up lol....)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PATTERN-AVAILABLE-NOW-PRAM-BLANKETS-FRAMEWORK-/370578681038?pt=UK_Crafts_Knitting_Crochet_EH&hash=item564835ecce

http://thebutterflyloom.com/The-Butterfly-Loom-Products_c.html

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Butterfly-Loom/124936060884739

Also go over to
http://jeansmuse.blogspot.com and look at a very natty way to make fabric binding for yourself without buying an expensive binding maker.
All you'll need are the cheapest kind of craft knives which are dangerous to cut with but just perfect for forming binding!

Jennie Rayment, embellished hexies, a street urchin doll and ...

Okay so the pic is dark but then I was sat at the back of the hall, at todays club meet. Jennie Rayment gave a hilarious and informative talk about the path she took to becoming the ultimate nip and tuck textile artist.

http://www.jennierayment.com/

Can I just say she was clothed for most of her talk and the red thigh length boots she wears here, inspired by that fabulous film, Kinky Boots ( SUCH a fun film that, really and not what you imagine its about at all!)looked AMazing on her!

She travels world wide teaching and talking, so if you get chance to hear her or take her workshops........dont miss out.

Her talk will have you in tears of laughter at several points!

You will never have quite the same way of thinking about 'carry on' luggage, when next you fly.....

We have a very healthy sales table at club, the theory is that we all bring in and donate what we no longer need. Then the others amongst us, buy it and the money pays for the wide variety of tutors and talks we have each month.

I picked this up.....

it seemed a shame not to....!

Okay the street urchin doll is taking shape..for the work Topic Box..

Got to make him a jacket now, which will be alot harder than fashioning the clothing so far!

My local Scrapstore has this handsome beast in store, think it was used in a local parade.........and its been made out of 2" plastic tubing in hoops with scrap fabric and ribbons.

Not bad eh!

Not long ago I sold my Pfaff embellisher to a work colleague for her daughter to use in her textile student work........well I hadnt used it in ages, thought I, and I was planning to declutter, sell up and move.......so it seemed sensible.

Not a week later I fancied doing some embellishing lol duhh..

Then last week I watched a You Tube review about using the Simplicity Embellisher lol you KNOW whats coming dont you?

So I bought the 12 needle Simplicity lol

It came yesterday, so I gave it a thorough christening last night...grabbed a bag of felted wool off cuts and cut hexies from them.

I didnt particuarly colour cordinate and am not really sure what to do next to this piece of fabric.....Though will probably machine stitch edges together and may well applique by hand something on top...maybe...

I liked the Pfaff which had only 5 needles and it was a little larger than the Simplicity. But I do like this 10 needle machine, which of course makes faster work of what your thrashing hell out of.........

and has a nice square working surface/bed area for your hands to lay on and move the fabric about on.

Its cheaper than what I paid for the Pfaff several years ago too........bonus!

Interestingly I hadnt known that Pfaff had withdrawn their embellisher, I know some folks had foot pedal problems, though I never did.

And I only found out since its on the Winghams Wools website and they now sell the Janome embellisher instead of the Pfaff.