Craft rooms of the real world unite!

Today, I present, Ladles and Jellyspoons, the Perfect Craft Room. You know, the one you find in all those 'oh so Martha Stewart' craft magazines. The rooms with twenty thousand (approx) perfectly white IKEA storage units and Farrow-and-Ball painted furniture in which to store immaculately folded fabric. Yep, just like mine, as you can see here.

                (yep, the wall behind the shelf is ugly brown. and beige. More of which later)

Well, the equivalent for me is three old kitchen drawers, shoeboxes (I don't own that many shoes, that's my husband's habit, lol) and old quality street tins (stolen from recycling boxes up the road. Shhhhh). And maybe the odd basket and plastic IKEA box ("so cheap! let's buy 20 and get some tealights and a washing up brush too!"). I did try folding up bits of fabric (see bottom of picture) but as you can see it's not easy when the pup's around. Oh, and I lost the will to live halfway through folding the fabric...

Some handy hints for your craft room (if you have one, let alone a Martha version) are this. 1. Collect lots of dust. You know, for posterity.

This isn't through lack of use of the sewing machine - it's just that I never have time to put things away and therefore keep them dust-free. If I put things away I would never get things out again, and nothing would be done. Tip number 2 for your craft room: If you really want to find things, keep your 'thrifted antique' drawers open, missus!!! At all times!

(object identification - bendy ruler for pattern drafting, box of sewing machine feet, old tins with stuff in. With their lids on, I have no idea what's inside, sorry. Anyone who knows why my hair elastics are in there wins a prize. Of hair elastics.)

Seriously, how would I find anything otherwise? It's all very well having pretty bits of old sh!t in your craft room, but how on earth can I remember where all my bits are, so to speak? I don't think I'll ever be featuring in your Mollie Makes or your Marthahahaha, but I am happy with what I have. I wouldn't change my little mess for the world (well, that is, apart from the brown and beige which I'm going to have to turn purple at some point).

If you click on the pic, you can see a bigger version, for use along with this handy cut out and keep guide!
1. Scissors. Magic scissors. With a zig zag pinking edge. wooo.
2. Scissors my husband uses and shouldn't because they're ONLY FOR FABRIC!!!!!
3. Horrid beige coloured wall left over from previous occupants. 5 years ago. No, I don't like decorating.
4. Tin of sh!t - ie, all the stuff that covers my workspace as I go gets stuffed into the tin which is why the lid won't shut, which is a shame as the lid has a kitschy picture of roses on it and I'd like to see it more often
5. Ironing table. Covered in a luxury assortment of stuff that doesn't need to be ironed. Such as double sided tape.
6. The table itself is a treadle sewing machine. Seemed like a Good Idea at the time.
7.  More Scissors. Not magic ones. Ones that are stuck together through cutting double sided tape. Ah well.
8. Pincushion (note: it's not in a teacup) and threads ready for dyeing that day.
9. Inevitable Cath Kidston Mug. This one contains a brew which was freshly made - others have been known to be er, 'vintage'.
10. Festival of Quilts leaflet that came in the post. Nope, I'm not going.
11. Smaller Scissors.
12. Machine of Joy and Fun! Cost about £30 and it sews like a dream, and hasn't an ounce of plastic in it. (A real tip: Don't be afraid of vintage machines - they're way better than modern ones, don't go for a big brand, and don't pay more than about £50 for one!)
13. Old duvet cover used as tablecloth to cover a grotty freecycle table - turns out this is not a Good Thing because when I want to move the sewing machine all 6ft of duvet cover joins it for a ride
14. The wall was a darker shade of brown when we moved in. So this is an unfinished attempt to cover it up. Inspiring, no? The colour is this:

cost: about £3,00000000000 per tin from the internet and when you open it there are angel choirs singing. This shade is called 'Rock on Tommy'. Ahem. No, really, one day I'll be painting it B&Q purple. Because I can.
15. Anglepoise lamp. "The original" it says on the side! Which is why I've re-christened it the Angle-Flop lamp. Springs are a bit dodgy. Can't complain for £7 from a boot sale though...
16. Trixie. Every craft room needs one. She's available on request...

Bah to perfect craft rooms ;-) you'd be so scared to make a mess in them you'd never do anything! Let alone have a dog and her paws in there. If you're suffering from 'perfect craft room' syndrome, I can heartily recommend a dose of Trixie paws to make you re-think that shade of Farrow and Ball...;-) Let's rejoice in our messy craft rooms and start a backlash! A craftlash?!! xxx

Pottering about

I've been busy 'pottering' again. Well, I have to find something to do with the bits of pot I collect like an obsessive crazy lady find on my walks, other than my usual habit of leaving them in a pile in a saucer on the windowsill.

I may have bitten off (or merely nibbled) more than I can chew with my latest project though. I've chosen to cover the entire side of our bath in mosaic. I know. A squillion tiny bits of pique assiette to cut out and stick to the side of an enormous bath panel. Hmmm. What was I thinking?! It's left a fair bit of mess. Here's a bag of offcuts:

And here's the general mess of pots and bits of found china that goes into making the mosaic.

And here's the not-even-nearly-finished bath!

I ran out of tile adhesive part way through - possibly because of the amount I dropped on the floor before I could get it onto the piece of pot. As you can see it's not exactly the Sagrada Familia so I am sure I will finish it eventually (she said - wooo, wait what's that over there, some socks to knit? let me get on with that!). In the meantime, it just adds to the general eccentricity that pervades our house... something you may euphemistically describe as a 'conversation piece' eh?!

Wardrobe enhancement!

Fings wot I made earlier! I had a couple of winter weddings to go to earlier in the year and needed something nice to wear that wasn't my usual uniform of dog-walking jeans and jumper, so I took this bit of Philip Jacobs fabric...

and with some help from Simplicity 6776 I made this:

(yes, that is a patch of tester paint on the wall ;-) it's been there for 4 years now, almost to the day!)

Definitely my favourite dress, but it's useless for dog-walking and clambering over barbed wire when retrieving the dog! I spend most of my days in muddy non-glamour so it's nice to dress up occasionally, even if it is in Philip Jacobs quilting fabric! My next project is more 1970s:

I've been collecting  Gunne Sax patterns to turn into a kind of folksy-franken-maxi-dress (catchy!) using different elements of each pattern. Won't be using Kaffe or Philip (first name terms, man!!) for this one either since it needs about 6 metres of the stuff! forget that!! I've chosen a vintage-looking purple fabric and oodles of lace and red ribbon. I'll post some work in progress pics (featuring a new olympic sport, the 100 metre frill-gathering race) when I can find a tidy corner of my room. I am going to end up looking like a wench from a medieval battle re-enactment. Or 'folksy', 'boho', or simply 'Wendy Craig', depending on what your view of the frilly side of the 70s is...;-)

Quilting with dogs

Oh good grief, I'm terrible at keeping this blog up! I've not been well (again) lately for one thing. I've become the reluctant curator to a collection of revolting chronic chest infections, one snotty grotty mess after another - so I've been really enjoying that. This has made every task akin to walking through treacle so I've not had the energy to write much or dye much, although things are getting a bit better.

I managed to get some photos done of my latest creation - I finished this strippy quilt top a while ago but only just got around to a) getting the camera out b) getting some sunshine and c) being well enough to get out!

It's a 'can't be arsed' quilt. No measuring, no pins, no neat assembly, nothing. I don't think there's a straight line in this. I used to sit for hours, years ago, measuring and cutting out squares and making perfectly formed quilts to other people's directions, but I felt really restricted, and very bored. So I stopped. I like to think one day I'll write a book myself, "Can't be Arsed Quilting"! "Can't be arsed to quilt? I couldn't either! That's why I sat down and wrote this book rather than finish that quilt!"

The other book I'm going to have to write is entitled "Quilting With Dogs".

For instance, imagine plain white sashing around those strips. And now imagine your beautiful quilt, the brilliant white contrasting with the pretty rainbows and how cheering on a rainy day, too - whenthedogcomesrunninginfromthegardenandjumpsuponthebed-aaaaaghtrixienooooooo!
You get the picture. So I chose a purple floral number. Florals - great for hiding a multitude of muddy sins!

Phew, well all that uploading of photos (with steam-driven broadband) and fighting with blogger has left me exhausted, a bit like Trixie! More quilting-with-dogs adventures later :-)

woof. woof woof woof yap. woof.

Woof, arf. Wuf arf yappy yappy raaaaoooooowf. Yap. Yappy yap yap. (this goes on for a bit, usually in the back garden).
Loosely translated as:
My owner is a Very Bad Blogger. I've had so much to tell you about tennis balls, the dogs in the village, sticks, yaffles, chasing birds, eating yarn etc. and it's not like I can post here. Look at these paws! You can't expect 60 wpm typing, can you? anyway, I've had a word and my owner says she'll be blogging soon. She's had a lot on. Busy, apparently. Too busy to play ball with me sometimes! outrageous! Woof.

Making a note

After a summer without much sock knitting (too hot for socks!) I've finally got round to finishing some of the things I started before the temperature rose. I put an end to the monkeying around (I'm here all week, folks!) with these:

                                    (sorry about the blue-ish light, the sunlight isn't reaching my room today!)

and I managed to finish a pair of Green River socks which I started a while back. A bit of a complicated pattern for my little knitting brain to get its neurons round, but I seemed to get on okay. Until this happened.

I was sure I'd remember how many pattern repeats I'd done on the first sock. So confident, in fact, that I failed to keep a note. Well! Keeping a note is boringly efficient! I always lose the paper the note is written on, and then when I inevitably leave the near-finished pair of socks in a dusty corner for six months, they don't know how many repeats they have either.

So I have a pair of great socks for walking the dog. Hidden in wellies they'll be okay. Moral of this story: a rolling stone gathers nine stitches in a watched pot boiling. I think. I have it written on a piece of paper somewhere, hang on!

Blogging heck!

...it's been a while! I am still here though, honest! I've just been a bit quiet lately. Especially on the blogging side of things! You know how it is. Life gets in the way. As in, suddenly, Ken Loach gets hold of your scripts, re-writes them and decides that's your life for the next few months. And then, as if nothing had happened, hands the scripts back to the writers of Corrie, and it's all back to normal again. (at least, I'm hoping there won't be a fatal tram crash in Clutton). Agh! Anyway, I am back for now at least. She's back too:

And pretty much fully grown! Still officially a small (yappy type) dog though. A mere 5.5kilos of fluff and woof. She's 11 months old now - what's that in dog years? nearly 7?!

Well, since I've been quiet, I've still been doing stuff. I started a quilt.

This started life as an attempt to tidy up. Ages ago, thinking I might become a tidy person, I moved an old glass cabinet into my room and put fabric in it. "great" I thought, "now I can have my fabric permanently on display, and simply select the precise fat quarter as and when I need it!". About a week after that, the cupboard looked like it had vomited onto the floor. Oh yes, pretty Kaffe-Fassett coloured vom, but still looked like a pretty bad case of regurgitation. I don't have a picture to hand of that. Anyway. Rather than tidy the whole lot up, I grabbed a pizza-wheel cutter thingie and got cutting strips. And then sewed them into blocks, which are now sat on my floor. I think I'll leave them there for a few months until the dog makes her bed in them. Then I might think about re-ironing and sewing them together to make an actual quilt. Sound familiar, this process? hmmm.

Also, I've been getting out a lot. As usual.

Just bits and pieces from walking every day with Trixie. We've been exploring a lot around here lately, the weather has been fantastic for going further afield and getting to know new places.

We also went here. No, not Provence, but Somerset Lavender in Faulkland.

We went back in July, just before they 'harvest' the lavender, and it was beautiful! I did some embroidery of lavender fields when I got home as I was so inspired. I'll show you that later...if I can find it beneath the piles of STUFF round here.

I've been digging around in bottle dumps too, for bits of broken crockery. I found a great stash which I struggled to carry home in one bag...

No idea what I'll make from it all, but I'll find a use for most of it. Treasure! I particularly love this cup I found half-buried:

It's badly cracked inside so can't drink tea out of it - I think the crinoline lady is going to become part of a rather bonkers mosaic at some point. I just love finding pottery treasure buried in the soil! I know I'm not alone in my strange hobby either as people like Candace Bahouth go round doing similar things. Heck, it's free pretty stuff, I can't not come home with it! I have a couple of flat mirrors I bought from boot sales so when I get chance I shall be showing you my new mosaic efforts.

Thanks for your comments on the last post! Yes, the cardi is a Liesl - it's made from re-gurgitated Noro. I mean, Noro that was once another cardigan. I hated the cardigan too, so I spent a couple of days unravelling it (unravelling Noro "now! with added bits!" in it is not easy) and a few weeks knitting it into a Liesl, which I like but I'm still not sure it actually goes with any other clothes I own! I'm sure Trixie will find a use for it. The poshest dog blanket in the world, perhaps. So she can do this.

Ok, enough waffle and gratuitous dog pics, I'll post up some more STUFF soon!