angharad

Five go off to camp

2013-05-30T21:59:00.000+01:00

Well, that's the plan, anyway. We've only gone and bought a tent! I've always wanted to take my little family camping - I had so many amazing family camping holidays as a child, touring through Europe with a small secondhand tent, and later in a plush eurocamp job. Nothing better than long days outdoors, cooking on a gas stove, playing cards by lamplight and sleeping under canvas. It has, however, taken me quite a while to bring the husband around to the idea. His only experience of camping hithertofore was a doomed tent-in-a-field week as a child with his own family, under the bossy direction of some die-hard no-mod-cons family friends. I get the impression that none of them ever spoke to each other again after that ill-fated 'holiday'.

After hours of research and interrogation of friends and family, we chose this family tent, the Vango Samara 600. It's enormous! We don't have the canopy, and I'm finding it hard to imagine how we could possibly need any extra space.

When the tent arrived, nothing was going to stop me from pitching it straight away in the garden. I shrugged aside the warning that it was a two-man job and pitched in. I was impossibly red in the face when I went to pick the elders up from school that afternoon, but it was worth it. Of course, there's always the danger that the husband will say that I might as well pitch it solo every time now that I've proved how easy it is.

I would really love to hear your family camping tips if you have any - top campsites, essential kit, anything and everything! It's amazing what an evangelical bunch campers are, I've really felt that everyone I've spoken to genuinely wants us to enjoy camping. I really can't wait.

Follow on

2013-05-30T13:29:00.003+01:00

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Late to the party, as ever, but google reader is disappearing, so I'm moving over to Bloglovin'. See you over there!

Frocks away

2013-04-29T21:10:00.000+01:00

Well, I was late to the party signing up to Kids' Clothes Week 2013, but I did manage to finish the puppet show tunic and to whip up a little sundress for my little sunbeam today. Though I haven't made the little gathered cuff shorts yet, I'm thrilled to bits with the tunic, a perfect opportunity to use those blue polka dot buttons I'd been holding on to for a while, and to put that blue floral print and seersucker gingham to use at long last.

I love the finish on this pattern - a curved yoke with topstitched darts, pouffy little sleeves with a button cuff, and the button back closure. The only place where I deviated from the pattern is in making the button plackets and hem - I omitted the hem facing altogether, preferring to finish the hem with some handmade bias in the seersucker gingham used for the yoke.

My mini miss is almost three, but being as I was pretending to be a pro stitcher, I actually measured her before cutting out the pattern, and realised she runs pretty true to a 2T, which is the size I made.

She's looking sideways in all the shots I took, not as a gazing-into-the-middle-distance catalogue pose, but because my mum is holding a packet of chocolate buttons just out of shot as a bribe. There was also another little distraction in the form of a little cousin who kept on appearing in the frame with a cheeky grin!

After a great many chocolate buttons my model was also persuaded to brave the chill and put on her new sundress. This is a really simple shirred dress, with narrow rouleau ties (though not as impossibly delicate as those Lauren made on the Great British Sewing Bee!). There are plenty of tutorials out there, but this one (found via The Thrifty Stitcher Blog, sewing consultant to the GBSB) is a good one, with guidelines for typical children's sizing included.

The fabric is a very cheap cotton print bought in a fabric shop in Reading, of which I have enough remaining to make a matching dress for my 9-year old. Nothing beats matchy-matchy sisters!

Pressing on

2013-04-28T20:36:00.002+01:00

I wonder how many of us have fired up our sewing machines with renewed enthusiasm for dressmaking after watching the Great British Sewing Bee. I'm still waiting on the blouse pattern I ordered for my floral cotton print (it doesn't resemble either of the ones I linked to below - I am nothing if not fickle!). Unable to get sewing for myself, I stumbled on the very timely Kids' Clothes Week sewalong, kitted myself out with the Oliver + S puppet show tunic pattern (thanks, Kate, for the heads up about this being available as a digital download now that it's out of print), and hacked into some pretty blue and white floral print and a seersucker gingham.

The puppet show tunic pattern is super-cute, with pretty little details such as a peter pan collar, puffy sleeves with a button cuff, and a contrast hem facing. I really like the finishing touches on the Oliver + S patterns, like the button placket and hem facing on the birthday party dress I made a good while ago for my eldest. This time the littlest is my victim (apparently puppet show tunics just won't cut it in the 9-year old style stakes!).


pressing the peter pan collar

If there's one thing I've taken away from the Great British Sewing Bee, it's that just as discretion is the better part of valour, so too is pressing the better part of sewing. Did you notice how Ann and Sandra, the two most experienced seamstresses, were constantly seen to be pressing seams, or sending a jet of steam at more delicate fabrics? If there's one thing I love about working with fabric, it's the notion of ease, the difference you can make by gently rolling a seam so that the facing sits on the inside, or working a bit of magic with a steam iron. The peter pan collar on the puppet show tunic is a case in point; a judicious bit of pressing, topstitching, then pressing again, and the collar sits perfectly. I shall be stitching peter pan collars on everything from now on.


topstitched darts


tacking the run and fell seam


run and fell seam

It's been a slow affair, but I'm really enjoying the process, little things like topstitching the darts, and sewing run and fell seams (not called for in the pattern but I'm trying to be a pro like Ann and Sandra!). I've pressed on with the tunic, and just have a tiny bit of handfinishing to do tomorrow, then I shall try to persuade my model to actually put it on!


puppet show tunic in progress

Feeling stitchy

2013-04-03T20:03:00.000+01:00

So who tuned into the Great British Sewing Bee last night? And what did you think? Curiously, it was my husband who had earmarked this for my viewing pleasure as I had no idea it was on. I'm interested to see how the series goes and will definitely be continuing to view, even though I'm reserving judgement on whether the slow-burn of dressmaking quite lends itself to the Great British Bake Off format. I'm also not quite sure who the programme is aimed at yet. The laundry bag 'tutorial' which was spliced in midway through the programme was a case-in-point. Although a drawstring bag is a great beginner's stitching project the speed with which the instructions were rattled off, with only partial views of assembly could have left even an experienced stitcher reeling! I did enjoy watching the contestants getting to grips with the two challenges though, and found myself itching to get out the scissors and snip into a nice swishy piece of tissue paper pattern. And I also found myself window-shopping the fabrics, patterns and haberdashery which were being put to use. The Sewing Directory have posted a great crib-sheet of where to buy the fabrics, tools and notions used on the Great British Sewing Bee programme, as well as a list of contestants' blogs and websites, plenty of good linkage to while away a few hours.

Meanwhile, I'm suddenly possessed by the urge to make an item of clothing again. I have a pretty navy blue floral print in my stash picked up in John Lewis which I want to use to make a top. Can anyone recommend some lovely top or blouse patterns for woven fabrics? I'd love to be able to find a failsafe pattern that I could knock up in a few different fabrics, with scope for neckline and sleeve variations. But I'm steering well clear of anything fitted until I've completed a few more pilates classes and become a more proficient dressmaker. Let's just say I need a little margin for error on both counts!

Source: oliverbonas.com via Helen on Pinterest

Source: whitestuff.com via Helen on Pinterest

I like the shape of these two tops, from my dressmaking inspiration board over on pinterest, the pleats and also the little capped sleeve on the second top, for a simple over-the-head shape with no darts or zips.

I'm also adding a few more books to my most-wanted over on my 'sewing books' page, and would love an opinion from anyone who has used any of them:

How to Use, Adapt and Design Sewing Patterns: From Shop-bought Patterns to Drafting Your Own: A Complete Guide to Fashion Sewing with Confidence by Lee Hollahan
Design-It-Yourself Clothes by Cal Patch
Sew U: The Built by Wendy Guide to Making Your Own Wardrobe by Wendy Mullin
The BurdaStyle Sewing Handbook by Nora Abousteit and Alison Kelly

I shall be blaming the BBC if I fail to make a wearable top at the end of all this!

Views from the kitchen table

2013-03-15T20:37:00.000Z

My sunny-day salad of feta, bacon, red onion, baby leaves and tomatoes, all the more satisfying as it used up lots of leftovers that were past their best.

The button-nosed one making fairy cakes.

A gangnam-style interlude from the elders, to enthusiastic handclapping by the littlest.

And that's the sort of week we've had here.

Could it be that Spring is in the air?

2013-03-03T23:29:00.002Z

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus!

St David's Day, the first of March, a sure sign that Spring is in the air! Seeing my little ones dress up in their Welsh costumes (which were once my Welsh costumes!) brings back vivid memories of running around in a sunny school yard swinging our Welsh hats by the ribbons as baskets and pretending that we were apple-pickers. Why apple-picking, I know not, but it was ever so.

It doesn't seem to have rained for ages. And I live in Wales, so that really is saying something. I never think that I'm too susceptible to being pulled down by the nights drawing in during the Autumn, but I am definitely feeling a surge of Spring energy as the days are getting longer. We seem to have packed in a host of lovely things over the last couple of weeks including a visit back to friends near our old home and a jaunt into London to see my sister and baby nephew, and the following weekend two of my best friends coming to stay for a whole two days of idle roaming, scrabble-playing and leisurely eating and drinking. And then there's the master plan of persuading all my friends and family to move to Monmouthshire, which seems to be finally paying off. Last week saw my brother, his girlfriend and my little nephew move into their new home here, and in just a few short weeks my parents will be moving to a new house a couple of miles down the road! I love it when a plan comes together.

I've even been stitching this weekend. My sister commissioned me to make some cushions for my baby nephew's bedroom a while back now and chose these gorgeous fabrics which I hadn't come across before.The fabric line is Critter Community by Suzy Ultman for Robert Kaufman, and these prints were purchased from Celtic Fusion fabrics.

I see that Fancy Moon has the gorgeous panel print, 'Frames' in both cool and hot, which I am strongly tempted to purchase for my fabric hoard! I've been putting off making some new cushions for our conservatory for a while now, but as these covers will be posted to my sister minus the pads, I shall have 4 naked cushion inners sitting around in the study-o, so there's no excuse for procrastinating any longer really. And I might even squeeze in an hour of sewing in the evening now that there's just a smidge of daylight left to stitch in after my husband gets back from work.

Gone quilting

2013-02-15T20:18:00.001Z

I've been a bit silent again. It's that time of year when I don't seem to manage to pack quite as much into the days, and I suddenly turn around and find that a whole three weeks have passed. But now it's half term, a welcome break after only 5 weeks back at school, particularly after the tortuousness of those long weeks of the Winter term. So I've been potching* about with my scrap vomit again, trying to make a decision on quilting those inner diamonds.

I've had Making Welsh Quilts : The Textile Tradition that Inspired the Amish? on perpetual renewal from the library for a while now, thinking it was out of print, but I've just stumbled upon it over at The Book Depository for a mere £5.68, so I'm adding it to my library guilt-free! It's a really wonderful book, with lots of historical background to the Welsh quilting tradition, as well as projects and quilting designs, which has really inspired me to want to branch out into some serious hand-quilting. I've also pencilled in another pilgrimage to Saint Fagans, the wonderful National Welsh Life museum near Cardiff, where you can see some beautiful examples of Amgueddfa Cymru's Welsh quilts collection in the flesh.

I'm very taken with the idea of all-over quilting patterns, without being constrained by the pattern of the actual piecing. This time around, however, I really was constrained, as the frequency with which you encounter bulky seams when hand quilting a scrap quilt like this really precludes any overambitious designs. I've already broken several needles stitching those diagonals! Instead, to pick out the big expanses of multicoloured blocks in between the diagonal lines of the dark grey solid, I've gone for a very simple circle, made by drawing around my largest dinner plate, divided into quarters by inner segments traced from the edge of the same plate.

With decisions finally made, I'm quilting on apace, four medallions down, several more to go. Still slowed down by the threading of the teeny-tiny eyes of those clover needles though. I really love Helen's suggestion in the comments to this post, that I resurrect the tradition of having my children ensure my needles are kept threaded. Can I sell that to them as a useful life-skill?

*South Walian dialect, meaning something like fiddling with/messing about with. Implies aimlessness. It is a word which suits me well.

Snow patrol

2013-01-23T21:11:00.000Z

My little team of arctic explorers, ready for anything.

Normal service has been interrupted this last week with heavy snowfall across South Wales and, naturally, we had to take full advantage of all the sledging and snowman-building opportunities this afforded ... in spite of the looming tax return deadline ... and a rather large work deadline for me.

Snow takes precedence.

We had great fun, drank vast quantities of hot chocolate, and dusted off the hot water bottles for extra cosiness at children's bedtimes. I'm more than a little disappointed that the children's school only had one snow day, but I must admit to having enjoyed trudging a mile through the snow with the elders, dragging the small one on a sledge - it certainly adds novelty to the school run!

Stitches 2012

2013-01-06T21:10:00.000Z

Just resurfacing after a lovely Christmas, although we did have an unexpected extra guest in the shape of a Winter virus which laid the small boy and me low for part of the holidays. We've been having a very relaxed holiday though, catching up with family and making plans to get together with friends in the New Year.

2012 has certainly been a stitchier year than 2011 on the evidence of my flickr photostream! We've now been in our Monmouthshire home for over a year, and although we're still chipping away at various jobs in the household organisation sphere, getting the big stuff done has given me a bit more of a window to busy myself in the study-o.

There have been purses and pencil cases galore, some more successful attempts at dressmaking than hithertofore, knits for the small folk, robots, bags, tea cosies and Christmas stockings.

My Christmas decorations tutorial featured over at Sew, Mama, Sew and the wallet pattern is finally up and available in the shop and on the blog.

Plans are afoot now for 2013. Top of the list is new stock for the shop, including Welsh tea cosies and cushions. I would also like to try a bit more dressmaking, with a stash of fabric awaiting my attention. I find it hard to believe that the 'new baby' is now two and a half years old, and probably becoming a less convincing excuse for my lack of productivity!

Wishing you all a happy 2013!

Winter woolies

2012-12-07T09:00:00.000Z

So I finished the paper dolls jumper for my daughter. Whilst I sat busily weaving in the ends one evening, my husband sat next to me companionably, marking this

... which is utter gobbledygook to me, but then again, he doesn't even know the difference between knit and purl, so I think we're even.

I have loved this knit from start to finish, even the endless rounds of stocking stitch (to the point where I'm prepared to countenance knitting an adult version, with even more endless rounds). The artesano alpaca yarn I used was so soft and fuzzy, it was a pleasure to knit with, and the pattern is a winner - those paper dolls are such a clear childhood reference without being at all twee.

The only part where I strayed from the pattern was in doing fewer rounds of corrugated rib at the neckline than suggested, as I didn't want a stand-up collar. Oh, and I did have to rip back (actually I had to cut back as the artesano did not like being frogged) the neckline first time round as it was so tight it was like watching a birthing video seeing my daughter try and pull it over her head.

Having rectified the neck and soaked and blocked the jumper, my daughter finally got to wear it, and what's more she's totally thrilled with it, which is always a nice thing. The full details are over on my ravelry page.

Next up on the needles are the fabulous Bunty mitts from BomBella. This pattern first appeared in The Knitter, but is now available over on ravelry and as a kit from Ella's etsy shop. More stylised motifs, in the shape, this time, of blooms atop leafy stems. My 9-year old daughter marched straight up to me and said, authoritatively 'that looks a bit like Orla Kiely', which was my thought exactly, such a lovely design inspired by vintage wallpapers. I'm knitting this in various Skein Queen sockweight yarns, gorgeous colours as always. This is another project I can't wait to finish. It's just a shame I'm not quite close enough any more to pop over for a knit night with Ella and the other Outcasts in Reading.

Advent

2012-12-02T23:30:00.000Z

Well it's advent Sunday today, and there are a few little bits of Christmas sneaking their way in around the house. Eldest is playing 'Good King Wenceslas on her violin, middle has joined her on his tenor horn, and their duet is nothing if not festive, loudly festive. Then there's the littlest of the tribe, who has been learning some new songs at playgroup - if you ask her what she's been singing, she'll get a serious look on her face and say : 'Christmas ... got stuck ... can't get out ... in chimbly'.

There is an advent candle burning merrily on the mantlepiece. We're still in the heady days of advent candle ownership, remembering to light the candle each day (day 2), but I know it won't be long before I'm guiltily trying to burn down three days' worth after forgetting to light it. We also have three traditional advent calendars on the mantel, gifted to my children each year by their grandfather, a vicar, as an advent tradition. None of this chocolate nonsense, they not only have a picture inside but also a biblical verse. Eldest has a lovely nativity scene in 3D, with glitter and everything. I'm playing along with Rachel of my life in knitwear's advent calendar reveal over on twitter. If you'd like to join in, just use the hashtag #traditionaladventcalendar.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas, you know.

Shiny apples

2012-12-01T17:32:00.000Z

Tarte tatin, without question the simplest, yet most impressive, dessert I have every made. Even easier than an apple crumble, but with a bit of added showmanship in the form of plate-flipping. How glad I was that I hadn't thrown away the packaging for my lovely glossy red Emile Henry tarte tatin dish, gifted to me by my brother and sister-in-law, when we had the whole family over for lunch a few weeks ago. For printed on the back was a recipe for said dessert courtesy of Monsieur Raymond Blanc himself. The most complex techniques required were melting butter and peeling apples. It was that easy. So I'm sharing, partly because it's nice to share, but also partly because I envisage making this dessert many more times, and if I write down the recipe here then it won't matter if I lose the packaging at a later date (very likely).

Ingredients (to fill a 30cm dish):
About 9 apples - (the recipe suggests Braeburn) peeled, cored and quartered
150g Caster sugar
80g Unsalted butter (cubed)
40g Unsalted butter (melted)
400g puff pastry (I used all-butter puff pastry, Raymond didn't say I needed to make my own, thank goodness!) rolled out into a disc large enough to lay over your dish and tuck in slightly around the sides.

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
Melt the cubed butter and caster sugar in an oven proof dish on the hob to make a caramel.*
Arrange the apple quarters with the outside edge down in the caramel, packing them in quite tightly, then once you've filled the whole of the dish, continue to fill in the middle part.
Press down the apples and brush with melted butter.
Bake in the oven for 30 mins.
Remove the dish from the oven, place the pastry disc on top and tuck it in around the edge of the apples.
Prick a few holes into the pastry so that the steam can escape.
Bake in the oven for 40-45 mins until the pastry is risen, golden and crisp.
Allow to cool for around an hour before calling all your family into the kitchen and doing the show-stopping flip of the dish onto a plate to serve your glossy apple tarte tatin.

It was genuinely quite exciting doing the reveal - to the point where my brother (iphoneographer) and sister (appointed food stylist and owner of the pair of hands holding the dish in this photo) were debating quite heatedly at one point where to place the tarte for best photographic effect. And the whole thing was speedily demolished by adults and children alike. Even my littlest who normally loathes apple tarts and crumbles due to the tartness of the cooked apples. An inch-thick smothering layer of caramel would doubtless persuade her to eat almost anything.

I'm a sucker for any apple-based dessert, and this knocks sports off my usual endeavours. I'm also a fan of recipes which require minimum effort and technical skill. Have you got any favourites to share?

*this is the only place where you let me down, Monsieur Blanc, as you didn't tell me whether to stir or not and I had vague memories of not stirring sugar when making a caramel lest it crystallise from Masterchef or Great British Bake Off or some such programme. I did, however, stir, as I am an impatient cook. and it seemed to work.

Knit night with a difference

2012-11-24T18:19:00.002Z

This Thursday saw me wending my way to London by train for a special knit night with fellow bloggers and knitters, Save the Children fundraisers and volunteers, Trisha Malcolm of Vogue Knitting, and none other than queen-of-the-yarn-world Debbie Bliss herself. We had been invited up for a knitterati event for Save the Children's new Christmas Jumper Day campaign, to make the world better with a sweater on Friday 14th December.

image copyright Magda Rakita/Save the Children

In spite of the wild weather outside over the past few days, there was a lovely cosy atmosphere inside Mary's Living and Giving Shop for Save the Children (do pop in for a visit if you're ever in the Primrose Hill area, it's an aladdin's cave of goodies!). We were each presented with a little Christmas gift bag, inside which was a selection of Christmassy yarns and a mystery pattern designed by Debbie Bliss, which turned out to be for a trio of cute Christmas sweater egg cosies, perfect for your breakfast on Christmas morning! I'm also picturing Christmas sweater bunting, tree decorations, and someone even suggested wine bottle cosies. Of course, all this would require me to knit in a substantially less mistake-ridden fashion. As is my knit night wont, I was so engrossed in chatting with the other lovely attendees that I spent as much time correcting mistakes as knitting on with the pattern! I managed just the back and front for this cute Santa jumper; I'm sure progress will be much faster (though much less fun!) without all the nattering and snacking!

I've been on a personal quest since Thursday to bookmark some of the amazing knitting patterns for Christmas jumpers out there, which you can find over on my Pinterest Christmas Knits board. Please do pop a link in the comments if you have any other gems to share with me!

Of course, the campaign doesn't require you to actually knit your own jumper, and I've seen plenty of beauties on the high street already this year! The hope is that come Friday 14th December, some 250,000 people, adults, children, celebrities, will pay £1 to wear a festive (or customised - think tinsel, baubles, pompoms!) jumper to work or school and support Save the Children's life-saving work.

image copyright Magda Rakita/Save the Children

There's lots more over on the Save the Children website, including some fantastic tacky or tasteful Christmas jumper e-cards, which you can customise with your own face for a truly personal Christmas greeting! You can download patterns for the three Christmas jumper designs, including the oh-so-cute shawl-collared reindeer sweater by Debbie that I have earmarked to knit for my two year old! The website is of course the place to go for a fundraiser pack, which will give you all the information you need to host your own Christmas Jumper Day fundraiser at your workplace or school.You can also follow the campaign over on twitter using the hashtag #xmasjumperday.

image copyright Magda Rakita/Save the Children

It was such a pleasure to meet Debbie, the Save the Children brigade and all the other bloggers and knitters who had been invited; I have now discovered some lovely new blogs to read:

Handmade Christmas stockings

2012-11-17T15:02:00.002Z

The Christmas stockings are finished and up in the shop.

Those reindeer rears I was stitching the other week are the reverse side of my Rudolph stockings, with the front side showing a reindeer profile, hand-finished with a super-shiny circle of red-nose sequins.

The Christmas tree design is made from three tiers of different green cotton fabrics, including one of my all-time favourite liberty tana lawn prints, all stitched in place with red zig zag stitching.

Both stockings have a cuff and toe made from a pretty vintage-feel fabric in cream and festive red or cream and moss green stripes with tiny flower posies. I'm so pleased I stocked up on this print when I had the chance, as I haven't seen it anywhere since, and it really does have a lovely Christmassy flavour!

Of course, just because the shop is stocked up with Christmas things doesn't mean that I'm remotely ready - I was frankly aghast when an acquaintance told me that he had his Christmas card-writing finished by the end of October. There's a distinctly more last-minute approach in the house of Angharad!

Paper dolls - knitting for my daughter

2012-11-12T21:32:00.001Z

I've been admiring Kate Davies's Paper Dolls pattern for a long while. In fact, I first planned to knit it on 11 November 2010 (Ravelry is brilliant for showing you precisely how long you have been procrastinating for!) then promptly spent so long trying to decide on yarn types and colours that it languished in my to-knit queue for just a few days short of two years. In the event, I didn't have to actually make any decisions at all, as I found I had some artesano alpaca 4ply in my stash that was the perfect gauge for the pattern. I love it when a plan comes together.

I cast on at the beginning of the month, and the jumper is coming on apace. I've loved every thing about it so far - the chunky i-cord cast on (new to me) and corrugated ribbing, the frothiness and softness of the alpaca yarn, the little floral motifs emerging from the mass of grey stocking stitch. The joy of knitting in the round is that I'm not really aware of counting rows, and it's very easy to just tack on a few more circuits when I probably would have long cast my straights aside.

Knitting continental-style with the contrast yarn in my left hand, and UK-style with the main yarn in my right has left me zipping around the colourwork. I'm vaguely picking up the floats when they get too long, but I'm hoping the fuzzy softness of the yarn will sort the rest out once it's blocked. I'm also following Kate's tip of turning the work inside out so that my floats run around the outside rather than the inside of the knitting, stopping them from pulling too tightly and distorting the pattern.

I'm reaching the fun bit now, as my sleeve caps are joined to the body and I've just got to the point where I have a row of dolls' feet in front of me, and I'm feeling a little bit disappointed that this project will soon be finished. With so much potential for customising the yoke pattern I might just have to knit one for all the family. I'm picturing pi symbols for the mathematician-husband; I cannot imagine anyone being disappointed with such a unique jumper.

On my work table this week ...

2012-11-04T21:00:00.001Z

... there have been reindeer rears

... sequin noses

... polka dot antlers

... and Christmas trees

Oh yes, I've been working on the Christmas stock(ings) which will be in the shop very soon.

And on my kitchen table ...

... one very relaxed black cat, taking the sun. She doesn't only go for quilts, you know.

Giveaway winner!

2012-11-03T21:02:00.003Z

Thanks for all the comments in my giveaway post. I will admit to a small twinge of disappointment that no-one told me what they'd had for dinner, mind you. I love to know what people had for dinner. A reassuring number of mishaps though; it sounds as though there are many of us out there relieved to be still possessed of all our fingers. Now if only the makers of the self-healing cutting mats could put their skills to work on self-healing digits we'd all be fine.

The random number generator picked Dawn of UK lass in US as the winner, who made me laugh out loud at the thought of stitching with a frozen broccoli floret taped to her finger. Do pop over to Dawn's blog to say hello if it's not already on your reading list - it's full of lovely stitching, plenty of humour and lots of brilliant tutorials (my favourite is for the fabric dolls' house).

Thanks to everyone else who entered. It's always lovely to read your comments and pop over to see some new blogs.

I'm having toast and marmalade for dinner, just so as you know, it's been a topsy-turvy kind of day!

Shelf-stacking

2012-10-27T15:15:00.000+01:00

I'm busily updating the shop this weekend with a new batch of purses and pencil cases in an array of cute Japanese fabrics. I think these would make a nice gift - with maybe some spending money or some lovely pens or pencils inside (I am a big fan of nice pens and pencils!). Clearing the way now to start work properly on some new *whispers* festive projects.

Don't forget you still have a few days left to enter my giveaway for one of these purses, pencil cases, or make up bags, just leave a comment on my last post.

Half a decade - giveaway anyone?

2012-10-16T22:51:00.003+01:00

This week marks my five-year blog anniversary. It was only when Tess posted about her own five year anniversary, and then Lina too, that I took stock and did a bit of mental maths (2012-2007= 5 years) and worked out that I'd clocked up half a decade without even noticing. Quite terrifying.

A lot has happened in that five years.

My gruesome twosome has become a threesome. My dinky four and almost-two year old are now a nine and almost-seven year old, with a little baby sister of two-and-a-bit trailing after them and ordering them around. There have been many chocolate smartie birthday cakes, interspersed with the odd over-ambitious effort.

We have moved - from Burnham, Slough (right on the Buckinghamshire/Berkshire border) to Chepstow in my native Wales. Still within a stone's throw of England though (well, not for me as I'm more of a stitcher than a thrower but I could put the husband on to it).

I have clocked up more than 200 sales over on Etsy.

I have made a lot of stuff.

I have bought a lot of fabric (as was abundantly clear when the day came to send our things into storage for the big move West ... a whole 3 tea-chests full of my things even after a ruthless clearout!).

I have had a couple of large blogging hiatuses (when morning sickness and new baby exhaustion meant I just couldn't summon up the energy). But I missed it. And blogging definitely makes me a saner person, probably because it feels like I'm actually accomplishing something as the weeks go whizzing by. And so I came back.

I have noticed more, and am really happy that I have a record of some of the little things that I might otherwise have forgotten. I mean, I can barely remember what happened last week, so the blog is a genuinely useful aide-memoire.

I've made some really really good friends.
Which really is the best reason for blogging.

And so I wondered if anyone who is (still) reading would be interested in winning one of my make up bags, coin purses or pencil cases. If so, please leave a comment below. I'd love to hear about your crafting mishaps after Annie's comment on my last post set me thinking about the injuries I've sustained over the years. To start the ball rolling, my own funniest mishap was an injury I sustained whilst at school when I fell off a chair and impaled myself on a knitting machine when putting boxes of fabric away on the top shelf of the textiles cupboard. I ended up with a row of 8 neat holes just under my knee and have a lovely big scar to show for it a full 20 years later. It doesn't have to be an injury, any kind of crafting gone wrong will do, and if you are a blessed soul who has never had any kind of crafting mishap, then you can just leave a comment telling me what you had for dinner if you like. I'll choose a winner at the end of the month with the good old random number selector.

Tools for hand-quilting

2012-10-10T12:22:00.000+01:00

scrap vomit in progress

My mission to hand quilt my scrap vomit quilt continues. I'm enjoying the slow burn of this project. Something to pick up when I have some spare time in the evening, or for a half hour after lunch on a weekend at home. I've had many a happy afternoon quilting in the sunshine, but now Autumn is upon us, it's even more tempting to sit and quilt of an evening. Sitting under a voluminous quilt is a really good way of not having to put the central heating on. My cat seems to agree with the sentiment and wherever scrap vomit and I go, she's sure to follow.

There's a cat in mi quiltin' what am I gonna do?*

This cat should win a prize for nonchalance, she has totally perfected the '...and?' look.

It's been a real learning curve for me taking on a quilt of this size as my only experience of quilting by hand has been on a baby quilt. Needless to say, working on a larger scale presents its own problems.

I've so far experimented with two kinds of needle. I tried the Clover Gold Eye quilting needles first, which were much tinier than I had imagined they would be, indeed, the eyes are almost too small to see, let alone thread! I followed a helpful tip in Last-minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts and threaded all fourteen needles onto the spool of thread at once, just pulling a new length of thread through one of the needles and cutting when I ran out of thread. This definitely lessened the pain of threading, getting it all over and done with in one go. Though very fine and very sharp, I did find I broke 3 needles in my first few quilting sessions. I think the key with the Clover needles is not letting the needle take too much of the stress, but manipulating the quilt as you rock the needle. I also bought some John James Pebble needles (after worrying about the snappability of the Clover needles) but, being thicker, I found them much harder to push through the fabric and much less flexible. The Gutermann hand quilting thread I've been using gives a nice stitch definition and it travels well through the fabric, especially after a few passes through my trusty paraffin wax, though it is hard to thread through those teeny tiny clover needles ... I wonder whether anyone has found a better pairing?

The other problem I have encountered on occasion is finding I can't physically grip the needle to pull it through the quilt when loaded up with a row of stitches. In extremis, I have found that grabbing an eraser from one of the children's pencil cases and pressing it into the needle with my right hand whilst pulling the needle through with my left works quite well, but it's hardly the most efficient technique. I had been on a quest to source some of those rubber thimbles used by bank tellers until Florence enlightened me as to the existence of something called a 'needle grabber', which I have duly ordered and look forward to putting to use.

Of course one of the hazards of quilting with 2.5" squares is that when you press all those tiny seams to one side you end up with a huge bulk of fabric to quilt through in places. This is the one place where my clover needles fail me, and I have to abandon the rocking motion and take slow stitches from front to back until I've negotiated the bulk. Is it anathema to quilters to press seams open? I'm thinking this could have saved me a lot of grief and snapped needles! Likewise, I haven't used a frame or hoop at all when quilting and wonder whether this is going to turn out to be a huge mistake later. My feeling was that I would struggle to have enough give in the fabric to rock the needle through so many layers if it was held taught in a hoop.

The one tool I really couldn't do without is my no-slip thimble, worn on the middle finger of my right hand. It has a recessed ridged top which is perfect for holding the end of the needle to push it through the fabric. However, the fingers of my left hand are definitely suffering from those evenings spent stitching. Even though I already have a hard layer of skin on the tips of my fingers from playing the violin, I've found that they're a mess of little grazes from the needle coming through the underside of the fabric. My first thought as an erstwhile harpist (well, I'm Welsh, it goes with the territory), was surgical spirit (which I think is known as 'rubbing alcohol' in the US). This was something used to harden your fingertips so that they didn't blister. I still have a bottle stashed in the medicine cupboard so I'm going to experiment to see if this affords any protection. I have also ordered some Thimble-its sticky patches; I'm hoping they'll still allow me to feel the needle underneath the fabric without shredding my finger tips to smithereens.

Do you have any favourite tools that you can't do without? Is there anything else I need to complete my hand-quilter's toolkit? I would love to hear your tips and advice to someone who is new to quilting by hand.

*I'm sad enough to think this is really funny, but the husband suggests I link here by way of explanation.

A bag for a little girl

2012-10-06T22:51:00.001+01:00

One of my projects for the the Summer holidays this year was to make a new bag for my eldest. There's a real gap in the market out there - what we wanted was neither a school bag or messenger bag, nor a purse or handbag, but a mid-sized bag, small enough not to be a burden but big enough to house the essentials.

The plan:

A bag. A bag with a gusset. And a divider. And a zipped inner pocket.

A bag with an adjustable across-the-body shoulder strap.

A bag small enough to carry around on a day out, big enough to hold a purse, medical bag and other little girl paraphernalia (today's contents include: a bag of humbugs, some small pebbles collected on the beach and a notebook and pencil for jottings).

It was just the excuse I needed to use these super-shiny nickel rectangle rings and slider* which I have had, unused, for the best part of four years (I am very skilled at long-term bag project planning). And the fabric was one I had chosen especially for the little girl who just happens to have a much-loved black cat from Battersea dogs and cats home, a pretty Japanese linen/cotton mix fabric from Fabrics Galore on etsy. I am a huge fan of these Japanese woven fabrics, which have quite a bit more natural structure to them than quilting cottons but come in the sweetest prints rather than being a straight 'utility' fabric.

* you can find similar ones over at u-handbag

I sketched the bag pattern around the medical bag, factoring in a gusset for extra storage capacity and a satchel shape. An elasticated pocket/divider was added, along with a little zipped compartment for precious things. The strap is long enough that my daughter can wear it across her body without the strap being at full length, but so that she could also shorten it to use it as a shoulder bag. I've carried it for her myself without feeling in the slightest bit ridiculous - I think this is one of the virtues of the Japanese fabric which is cute without being cutesy, if you see what I mean.

So far the bag has proved to be very versatile.

a bag for climbing the rigging

a bag for feeling regal atop a 128foot-high turret

a bag for going down a mine (trust me, it's there, just moving too swiftly for my phone to capture)

a bag for playing half-English, half-Welsh on a cross-country walk along Offa's dyke to view Tintern Abbey in all its glory back in Wales.

And the nicest thing for me is how genuinely pleased my girl was with her new bag. I'm glad they don't feel I'm palming them off with things handmade. Well, not yet, anyway!

Pick up sticks

2012-09-26T20:34:00.001+01:00

It's that time of year again. The cat has started baulking at the thought of going outside and is mainly to be found ensconced in the warm comfort of a quilt atop one of the children's beds. We'll know it's really cold when we start accidentally sitting on her at story time as she'll have made her way underneath the quilt. Indeed, we once found her sitting on the mattress having burrowed underneath pillow, fitted sheet and mattress protector. She's a right weirdo.

Though I'm resisting the call of the central heating for the time being, my thoughts always turn to cosy knits at this time of year. My list of favourites and knitting queue over on Ravelry are lengthening by the day. Do you ravel? I'm to be found over there as angharadknits if you'd like to befriend me.

So here's the (kn)hit list so far for this Autumn:

One little paper dolls jumper for my eldest in fairisle-friendly artesano alpaca.

One pair of veyla mitts (previously cast on in the aforementioned artesano which did not lend itself to the kind of stitch definition I had wanted for the gorgeous lace cuffs, whereas the 'bloom' is perfect for fairisle) in a stashed skein of Skein Queen's finest.

Three hat and mittens sets for the littlest and her two baby cousins from Zoe Mellor's Adorable Knits for Tiny Tots, a book which I wholeheartedly recommend for those who knit for small children. (The pirate jumper I knitted many moons ago for the boy came from this book).

Which to start first?? I'm not sure yet, but for the moment my knitting sticks are occupied anyway, knitting up teeny tiny bobble hats for smoothies. And no, I haven't succumbed to some kind of febrile delirium due to the plummeting temperatures; this is the Big Knit, the annual fundraiser of the people over at Innocent smoothies for Age UK.

There's not much time left as the hats need to be in by 1st of October, but even if you haven't time to knit, UK folk can still support the charity by buying an behatted smoothie during the three weeks beginning 21 November in Sainsbury's - for each smoothie sold, Innocent will donate 25p to Age UK.

Stash-enhancing discounts

2012-09-08T17:30:00.001+01:00

A quick post from me today, just to say, did you see? Saints and Pinners have a flash sale with a whopping 25% off sale in their shop this weekend.

And Simplicity patterns are all half price on the Simplicity New Look website.

Then an email just dropped into my inbox with 50% off Vogue and Simplicity patterns and 25% off zips over at Jaycotts. They also have discounts on some of their Janome sewing machines at the moment (don't tempt me!!I'm just going off to daydream about the Janome 5900QC for a bit).

Happy sunny weekend stash shopping! We're off to fire up the barbecue while the sun shines!

The holiday is over

2012-09-04T23:00:00.005+01:00

keep children under control --
advice for life, as for ramparts

It's always hard when the time comes, but yesterday saw husband, eldest and middlest go back to school, leaving just me and the smallest at home. We've had a lovely Summer with lots of travelling to see family and friends. Our latest stay was in North Wales with all of my family, where we visited my 94-year old grandmother. It was lovely to bring the five children my sister, brother and I now have between us together for a group photo with their great grandmother! We were very glad to be able to make it up there to see the family this year after all our plans last Summer were put on hold for the big house move.

room with a view

We stayed in a beautiful old manor house on the Llŷn peninsula that was once tenanted Percy Bysshe Shelley. The children, swept up in the romance of the place, put on a reading of excerpts from Shelley's works with their aunt which was frankly hilarious in its earnestness (all credit to Auntie Eleanor who trained up these future RADA hopefuls). I love that the place transformed them into children from an age gone by.

Being in North Wales, there was ample opportunity for castle-visiting and turret-climbing, which we made the most of at Caernarfon, Conwy and Harlech. I think this holiday holds the record for the most spiral staircases climbed.

the vertiginous heights of Caernarfon

views from Harlech and its before-the-days-of-health-and-safety knee-high rampart walls

The beautiful Italianate village of Portmeirion was another must-visit, whilst a visit to the Llechwedd slate caverns was top of the list for the two elder children (I sat that one out, ramparts being my speciality and mines the husband's - one phobia each, that's the rule).

It wasn't just the holidays away from home that made this Summer special, but also all the little bits in between. We played monopoly, baked cakes, and went on bike and tricycle rides (middlest finally had the stabilisers removed from his little bike, eldest mastered her brakes and littlest learnt to scuff her sandals on the ground whilst being wheeled along). They channelled all their olympic fervour into endless obstacle courses around garden chairs, hurdling over boxes and doing sit ups and such; there were innumerable medal ceremonies.

Littlest had her share of the fun too, with a new passion for patio water-painting discovered as well as advances in paper-based art made (we have progressed to an almost-joined circle with crazily-placed eyes on a good day). She has also learned that saying 'shtoopid girl' makes most adults laugh out loud (perils of an older brother and sister).

Back to the grind now. How many weeks until half term?