Last weekend I did a one-day workshop on machine applique at the most amazing fabric shop - Grandmother's Garden in Gordonton. It is a beginners' class - which was just right for me. I wanted to learn the "official" way to do applique and this is exactly what the workshop delivered. It turns out that you need a few props to help (see below), but the biggest thing you need is a good relationship with your sewing machine. * pattern - mirrored! yes those maths classes were useful after all, * fabric scraps * machine with an applique foot and thin needle * starch spray * steam & seam * (may need baking paper if your backing fabric is not sheer enough to see the pattern) * pencil & sewing supplies We did blocks from the Elegant Garden quilt by Edyta Sitar. I did Block 13. The biggest challenge for me was getting to know my machine and its rotations. This is really important because you want the blanket stich to be right on the edge of the fabric. I used black sewing thread for a slightly different contrast look. My block ended up as a little pillow. Love a bit of machine applique but it is not for those in a rush! |
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I discovered that unlike knitting, crochet is much kinder on my hands - hooray! But not knowing much about crochet, I attempted to teach myself from online videos.....(turns out a lot of these happen to be US based videos, a small little fact that had escaped my attention).
My mother-in-law & sister-in-law bought me a book of crochet toy patterns: "Crocheted Wild Animals: A Collection of Cuddly Creatures to Make from Scratch" by Vanessa Mooncie. I enthusiastically dug right in to make the elephant on the cover! Fast forward a few weeks.....and let's just say that Mr Elephant was not turning out much like the picture....he was more like an elongated eggplant of sorts. I would post pictures if only I had not unraveled the beast in a huge rush of fury! I am ashamed to say that it was only after my husband's insightful comment (he knows nothing-whatsoever about crochet) that I realised that DC (UK-lingo) was in fact SC (US-lingo)! [....of course amigurami is always SC oops!!, should have known that....] So here is Mr Elephant take #2! Our daughter really likes him and I am very happy (to be fair she is not a harsh critic so it motivates me to make stuff for her). As a linguist, you would have thought that I may have realised just how important language is - go figure :) Below is a little monkey I made for her some time ago, before Mr Elephant came to be - from a very helpful online pattern! I am ever so grateful for the patience and willingness of people to spend their time teaching complete strangers how to make stuff like this. It makes me wonder about my own teaching practice .... This is my first quilt. I made this for my very first quilting class taught by the wonderful Ngaire Brooks and I finished it just after our daughter was born, in the middle of last year. I am still learning how to hand-quilt with a hoop (the "proper" way), but thankfully, it can be a bit addictive which helps. One problem I have is that I keep breaking the needles. We did not know whether we were having a boy or a girl so this is my attempt at a unisex quilt. It is much used and loved, and I am impressed with how well it has withstood the test of machine-washing. I made this quilt a few months later. This is my own as-I-go design. It is not a cot quilt, but about twice the size and perfectly square - it makes a good picnic blanket (not that I would use it outdoors really). I really like the bright colours. I machine-quilted it (a very simple stich-in-the-ditch quilting pattern).
I decided to start this blog mainly to document my learning experiences in a different area than my job or my parenting - both of which are constant sources of learning for me. While I take these latter areas rather seriously (ok, not always but at least some of the time), crafting is something I do for fun and a laugh so it makes a nice change. I love to make stuff with my own hands and despite not always having enough time to do so, I feel that when I do get a chance to do this, it helps me to get some head-space too!
The second reason I decided to start this blog is because we recently lost a dear object. We lost a blanket of my daughter's - the first one I ever made for her (while I was pregnant with her). It was a lovely aqua colour, merino knitted blanket - a well used & well loved item. It was not perfect and certainly an experienced knitter could immediately spot flaws, but it was big (which means it took me a while to make) and in my mind, the blanket still carried that newborn smell of "hers". After losing it, it dawned on me that all this time, this blanket escaped the light of the camera and I have nothing to remember it by! So I do hope that this blog will help me to remember the things I made and will make in future, as well as lessons I learned along the way! So here we go..... |