Crafting for a Cause

I spent almost all of my working life employed either in the public or the charitable sector.  When I trained as a life coach I found out why: my driving value is "making a difference".  Since I had to give up work in 2013, due to my MS, I've been able to indulge my love of creating things.  Many of my projects have appeared in this blog, some more successful than others!  In November I decided that I was going to crack the mystery of crochet, and I did.  This new craft skill led me to join some crochet groups on Facebook, where I found lots of inspiration and support.  One of the projects that captured my imagination was making 12" granny squares to be turned into blankets for homeless people.  Then my Facebook friend Ellen posted about the terrible plight of Syrian refugees, and I found a group that can use crocheted items for premature and stillborn babies.  I had to join in!  Then the penny dropped - I'm happiest when I'm crafting for a cause, or making gifts for friends and family.  I've always loved finding the best possible gifts to suit the important people in my life, and better than that is being able to make them something unique.

If you are interested in helping some good causes, and you are on Facebook, here are some links:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1746428925581753/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/needlesandhooksangelandpreemies/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/caresquares/

https://www.facebook.com/HookedonHooking?ref=ts&fref=ts

Happy New Year

It's the first day of 2015, and I can't believe that it has been a whole two months since I last posted anything here.  So what has happened in those two months?  

I've learned new creative textile techniques at college, and patchwork and quilting skills at my Tuesday afternoon class.  I've also managed to master basic crochet thanks to the Crochetopedia book, which gave me a way of holding the yarn that actually worked for me.  For those of you who struggle with crochet because you can't hold the yarn in the traditional way, as I couldn't, try wrapping it 3 times around the index finger of your non-dominant hand - simple and effective.

We've had a lovely family Christmas, and caught up with various friends.  The down side of all this busyness is the dreaded fatigue, which struck on Boxing Day.  I rallied for a few hours on the 27th, only to end up back to bed until the 30th, when I managed to be up for dinner (cooked by my wonderful hubby) with our good friends Joanne and Andy, and have been back in bed since.   The highlight of the week was a phone call last night from my oldest and dearest friend who now lives in sunny Florida.  Rebecca, I miss you like crazy.

I'm on my second coffee as I type, praying for the caffeine to lift the weight from my head.  I can only type this because I have an iPad which is easy to use in bed!

So I'm signing off again, and hoping that another day of bed rest will enable me to shift this horrible fatigue.  I wish everyone a healthy, happy, and prosperous 2015.

Much and more...

Who can tell me which fantasy saga I've been listening to on Audible from the title to my post?  If you know, comment below.

There's been so much going on since I last posted way back in September. I'm back in college for the City & Guilds Level 2 in Creative Textile Techniques, and it's already half way through the first term.  I've been putting together my portfolio of samples for the Line module, and I've just got to write my conclusion and evaluation.  I chose to use Zentangle patters as my design inspiration.  The possibilities for developing designs from Zentangle are endless.  The only restriction is having enought time to create everything I have the ideas for.  It doesn't help that I also signed up to do a level 1 NCFE in Patchwork and Quilting.  Although the class is only two and a half hours there's lots of samples to complete.  The way adult education is funded makes it virtually impossible to run leisure courses, as the cost to students would be prohibitive.  As a result the classes have to have a qualification, which means completing portfolios.  All I really want to do is go along and sew a quilt, but that doesn't fit the regime.  At least I'm learning lots of new skills.

My shed is really making it much easier to complete all my coursework, and I can do some of the hand sewing when I'm sitting with my feet up.

Continuous bias binding

Have you ever wondered how to cut your own bias binding?  Since taking up patchwork I knew it was something I needed to learn for binding my quilts, but I was really worried about where to start.  As usual, when faced with a problem like this, YouTube often has the answer.  I found a great 2-part video tutorial that teaches you how to create yards of bias binding by starting with a square of fabric.  Needless to say I had to give it a try, and it worked - I am the proud owner of 3 lengths of bias binding made entirely by me.  The tutorial was made by a woman called Marian Drain and her YouTube channel is called CuddleTime Quilts.  If you've ever wanted to make bias binding but were too scared to try in case you got it wrong then this technique is for you.  As you can test the instructions on a fairly small square there's no risk of wasting valuable fabric - try it out on a 12.5" square of something you don't mind risking.  I used some hand dyed cotton that hadn't come out as I'd hoped, but that would make ideal binding if my experiment worked, but that wouldn't be a big deal if I messed up.  It worked a treat, and the next step is to test it out to make piping.

Equipped to quilt

My black cotton sheeting fabric has arrived, and I've decided that it is the best option for backing the wedding quilt.  I've just spent the last 10 minutes clearing the dining room table, with hubby's help, so that I can start creating the quilt sandwiches. I will need to watch Candy Glendenning's video tutorial again, and probably several times, before I start using her quilt-as-you-go technique.  We were lucky enough to have a fantastic sale of wonderful quilting cotton on Saturday at a nearby village hall, by Doughty's fabrics, hosted by the local Quilter's Guild. I've decided to join the Quilter's Guild, as well as the Embroiderer's Guild, as everyone was so friendly.  I'm also hoping the patchwork class is going to run at the adult learning centre in Morpeth, as I would like to learn new skills, and have the opportunity to finish the Japanese squares quilt with some supervision and guidance.

Craftsy is a great way to learn new skills, and I particularly like a class called Improvisational Piecing, Modern Design with Jacquie Gering.  My head is full of design ideas after watching that set of video tutorials.  I think I probably have enough fabric to make at least 2 more quilts, using a mix of commercial designs and my own hand dyed cotton.

I also have a good set of quilter's rulers for cutting fabric, and squaring up blocks.  Accurate cutting is very important for patchwork, particularly if following a specific pattern.  Crazy patchwork allows for cutting strips at angles, but the blocks still need to be cut into appropriate sizes, and the seam allowance edges need nice straight lines for stitching along.

There will be photos to follow, when more of the quilt has been constructed.

September already!

I can't believe that it's September already.  There's been so much happening that time just flies, including a few days of feeling grotty to slow me down.  

As I wrote in my last post I now have a lovely Brinkley loom to work on, and I have quite a few ideas for things I want to weave.  

I've also been getting on with the patchwork quilt wedding gift for my cousin.  It is now taking shape nicely.  I've sewn all the blocks into columns, and I'm adding a border to make it a bit bigger.  I'm also contemplating adding some strips between the columns to make it wider.  This is how it's shaping up at the moment:

I spread it out on my bed to give me an idea of how it looks, as I don't have the luxury of a quilt wall.  I'm trying to work out how to make a DIY quilt wall for designing with completed blocks.  It would certainly make getting  the blocks into the best arrangement much easier.  I'm also working on a quilt design with Japanese print fabrics from a workshop I did at The Quilter's Cupboard in Langley Moor, County Durham, last weekend.  It's quite complex for a beginner like me, with prairie points forming a border around a frame!  In order to get some help I've put my name down for an NCFE level one patchwork class at the local adult learning centre - fingers crossed that the class has enough students to go ahead.  If not, the tutor for the workshop is available at the shop for assistance every Wednesday.  I don't have pictures of my progress on that one, but I did manage to complete two rows.

I'm now waiting for the fusible batting (wadding) to arrive.  I want to try a "quilt as you go" technique by a quilter called Candy Glendening.  The tutorial can be found via her blog - http://www.candiedfabrics.com - and I need to decide on the backing before I can start quilting it.  I'm torn between a plain black backing and an improvisational pieced crazy quilt backing.  Craftsy have a great class called "Improvisational Piecing, Modern Design" with a tutor called Jacquie Gering.  I watched the whole thing in one sitting, and got lots of ideas from it.

College will be starting in a couple of weeks, so I'm excited about what new skills I'll learn there.  September also includes my 50th birthday, so I'm looking forward to a great month.

Hand Weaving on a Brinkley Loom

This week I was able to set up my new Brinkley loom, and weave my first solo piece.  I have blogged about this loom before, when I did a weaving workshop with Eve Studd at Cornhill Crafts.  I fell in love with the loom then, and now I have my own.

The beauty of this loom lies in its simplicity.  It consists of a beech wood frame, and a special finned heddle that also acts as the beater.  It is warped by placing a broom handle through 2 holes in the frame, balancing it across two chair backs, tying on the warp thread, and rotating the frame until you have the desired number of warp threads.  The special heddle is then placed into the frame, between the top and bottom threads.  Each top thread has a place in the fins on the heddle, and you rotate the heddle towards yourself to change the shed.  The weft can be almost any material you want, including yarn, unspun wool fleece, and even twigs.

 

I used double knitting yarn in the warp, and chunky weight knitting yarn in the weft.  This piece is just over 5 foot long.  I plaited the cut ends of the warp threads to finish it off.  I'm keeping this one for myself, as a scarf.  I'm planning lots more pieces to use up my yarn stash, give as gifts, and incorporate into my C&G level 2 course work.