Bee Scarf

 

Another mad idea last week - to embroider a scarf with bees as a birthday gift for a family member who is a beekeeper. I had bought a rather lovely hand-woven scarf from the Handspinners and Weavers Guild with the intention of embroidering it with threatened Australian flora and fauna during the bushfire crisis, but when that crisis was overtaken by floods, my design seemed inappropriate. It occurred to me last week that I could turn this into a useful and appropriate gift by embroidering bees - another threatened species.

After playing around with a few designs I settled on a larger than life bee on each end of the scarf, using wool.

Some stems of green added context and I found a variegated grey/mauve/pink that worked well for wings. The wings don't show up strongly on the light woven background - but neither do bees' wings show up strongly against the sky!                              

I really enjoyed working these. It took a couple of days - the first one at the Tuesday Stitchers Group at the Guild. The two ends are similar, but not identical. I was interested in impact ahead of geometry.

It's a bit of a mad project for an Australian February birthday gift. Hopefully the recipient will get to travel to colder climes later this year.

The wrapping for the gift was a bag made from some fabric purchased from a limited run of cotton from Missy Rose. 

There's a lot of satisfaction in a project like this one - with a strong sense of purpose, a deadline and a recipient in mind. Note to self.

90th Birthday Bag

Today I finished a project I conceived a couple of weeks ago - a gift for a friend who is turning 90 tomorrow, and having a celebration lunch this coming Friday. She is comfortably off, with most things she needs, but has no family at all. She puts a lot of effort into making and keeping friends. I wanted to give her something special.

Serendipitously, Ink and Spindle sent out a notice of a sale of their discontinued or remnant stock and Shells i

n Brown Ochre caught my eye. I did some measurements and calculations and ordered enough for a tote bag. 

When it arrived, I cut out the pieces for the bag - two to make the front and back of the bag, each with 40 shells, and 40 nice blank spaces, two for the sides and a base. I then began embroidering stars (or, if you prefer, as I do, starfish).

I used the lovely Knox linen thread I bought a while ago from Studio Flax.                         

I tried out a couple of star stitches, but settled in the end for the one simply woven around six spokes. 

I laid the spokes out from the centre, then took my needle around from the centre, under each spoke, then over and on to the next one. It probably took me about 15 hours to work 90 stars.

On the bottom panel I worked my initials, my friend's initials and the year.

On Friday I raided my fabric stash for suitable lining and settled on a brown cotton with sprays of small flowers.  Today I spent several hours at the machine (and, yes, the iron!). I had to repair two stars that threatened to disappear into a seam, but anyone can count 90 stars on the bag. 

I am very satisfied with the result. I think L will like and use it. She doesn't read my blog - so I can post it in advance of the Birthday Celebration without spoiling the surprise! 

All ready to go.

Reversible Apron for Exhibition

Back in early December, I got out some seersucker I had bought when Niamh and Veronica were much younger, with a view to making smocked nightdresses. I wanted seersucker because it doesn't require ironing, and stripes because I could use them to guide my smocking, instead of pleating. Unfortunately, the girls were less than enthusiastic at the time, so I abandoned the idea, leaving me with rather a lot of fabric.  

I revisited the fabric after our December WES session on smocking, and came up with the idea of an apron, using the stripes for embroidery rather than smocking.

I dug out an apron that I bought as a pattern - Japanese style wrap-around with wide cross-over straps at the back ( It had been easier and cheaper to buy an apron online than a pattern in Adelaide!) and cut it out. I cut out two, with a view to lining it and making it reversible. I figured the seersucker was a bit thin for an apron. If it is protecting clothes it's better that spills don't simply go through to the clothes below.

My idea was to work the front section like a sampler, using white thread only, to get a counter-change effect. I began in the centre and got most of the way across before I needed to look up some more stitches, for which I used Enthoven.

I created a very deep V, all the way to where I planned to put a pocket.

Then, of course, I had to mirror that on the other side - and be able to work out the stitches I had used!

I changed threads a bit, beginning with cotton-a-broder, but moving quickly to perle 5 cotton, then to a cordonnet when the cotton ran out. It was quite a thread-hungry exercise!

Originally I intended to only embroider one side, but decided to embroider the second side in pink to get the counterchange contrast. I didn't have an exact match for the pink. Before I set out to buy a matching thread, I tried a variegated perle I had, and thought it would make an interesting contrast. To avoid contrast overload, I settled on a single stitch - long-armed cross-stitch. I also made the columns of stitches less steep for a broader, more solid effect.

I am fascinated by the way the look of the fabric changes when one colour is covered with thread.

I worked matching pockets, reversing the shape direction.

Today I put it together. Adding the pockets was straightforward - stripes help with alignment. It took a bit of manipulating to put the two sides together to enable reversing.  I finally left one end of each strap loose  and inserted them at the end.

They are not very glamorous photos. I had to keep trying it on to ensure I had the construction right.  I haven't yet ironed it (since the point of seersucker was to avoid ironing it seems contradictory - but I will iron it before entering it in the Exhibition).

I acknowledge it won't be the easiest thing to hang in an exhibition.

I also admit it isn't setting me on fire as a design, but it will be a useful apron. I have plenty of aprons myself, so all I need now is someone who needs/wants it!

10 Bag Days

After the success of my Christmas fabric bags, I remembered that I had also purchased 2 other tubs of fabric offcuts from the Guild trading table - one of green coloured fabric, and one of checks and tartans.

As the year drew to an end,  I   rolled my eyes and wondered if, on a bag roll, I could use the fabric up before 2023.  The attraction of one tub had been the pieces of gingham it contained. I enjoy embroidering gingham, so set those pieces aside - to maybe make gingham lace (chicken scratch) aprons, table cloths or, yes, bags. 

The remaining tartans, and the greens were of various sizes and shapes. I got to work with my scissors and cut all of them into bags - 125 of them. 

Madwoman.

Amongst the green collection was a  piece of patchwork (top left) just waiting to be turned into a bag. It also reminded me that I could turn any left-over strips of fabric into patchwork. The lower two photos are the result. The one on the right is quite large - around 40cmx60cm.

As the pieces were probably the remnants of quilting projects, a few were odd shapes.  Bags don't need to be standard.

Unlike the Christmas fabric, which was in significant lengths, these greens and tartans were smaller and more varied. Only a couple of the resulting bags are large. The majority are medium sized and there are probably around 25 that are quite small - jewellery size.

I worked them as a production line for one worker. I cut them all out into the most efficient sized bag . The next day I ironed them all - ironing in the seams and hems. It took several days to machine them into bags. I stitched about  15 bags in an hour to an hour and a  half. I worked them in batches of around that number.

Once I had about 50 bags, I spent an hour or so choosing drawstrings from my ribbon and cord stash. I was in danger of running out, but Katherine came to my rescue with her substantial ribbon stash, which is now severely depleted.

Before long I had a pile of bags waiting for stops to be put on the end of the cords, a pile waiting for the cords to be threaded and a pile waiting to be machined, giving me a choice of activity each day. 

This kept me busy for 10 days - with breaks for reading, shopping, washing, catching up with friends and family, or taking photos. 

I didn't quite make my 2022 finishing goal. I wasn't tempted to push the envelope. It's been a good holiday activity. I enjoy it - and the end was in sight. 

I put the final touches on today - and did a bit of reorganising to clear a big red storage tub, which now holds the 125 bags - quite a good supply. Except for the gingham. all the trading table fabric is used up. 

Now I need to resist the temptation to buy any further bargain fabric from the Guild's trading table. After all, I still have drawers of my own left-over fabrics, without buying someone else's! 

I enjoy making bags, I like recycling and family are very welcome to any bags I have in store.  

Now it's back to my knitting. Oh, and there's the gingham......

Back to being a bag lady

Late in October (I think!) I bought a bundle of Christmas fabric from the Embroiderers' Guild trading table. I wasn't sure what I'd do with it, but it was a bargain and bound to come in handy. Once I got it home and needing to find space to store it,  I was less sure. 

A week before Christmas, when I got to organise my Christmas presents, I realised I could do with a few more gift bags. For a couple of decades now I have been making fabric bags in lieu of paper wrapping. It gives me pleasure in the making and the bags are recycled numerous times.

I decided to use the Christmas fabric to make the bags I needed. That done, and my presents organised, I decided to use up all the Christmas fabric on bags. 

I figured if I didn't do it now the fabric would sit there for at least another year so I grabbed the scissors and cut the whole lot into bags. There was probably around 5 metres in various pieces, all crisp and new, so easily cut.

Most of my bags have been made with recycled fabric, sari scraps, kimono pieces, dressmaking left-overs, occasionally old clothing. I cut them as the piece dictates and zoom them up on my machine into drawstring bags in the easiest possible way, stitching on the inside. Having so much crisp new fabric presented opportunities - and challenges - for a more careful finish, something dressmaker and quilting friends had long suggested.

I took up the challenge and got out my iron - a rare occurrence in my bag making ventures.Where the piece was long, to be folded vertically, I turned under the sides and ironed them down, then folded over a hem at top and bottom.  After stitching down the two hems, I folded the piece to stitch the side seams on the outside giving a neat seam as well as a channel for the cord. 

I realise this is de rigueur for quilters. I am much more slapdash. This time, however, I ended up with a pile of cut and ironed fabric before I touched the machine. That worked a treat.

Next an evening, with my ribbon stash and bags spread all over the floor while I watched television (nothing more challenging than Midsomer Murders, Lewis or Vera), I found drawstrings for each bag. I nearly had enough ribbon, just 2 bags short, but they were large bags, requiring over 2 metres of ribbon per bag, so a trip to Spotlight was called for. I now have a future supply of ribbon.

My next session resulted in a bundle of 30 bags with ribbons, ready for the cords to be either tied together ( where double drawstrings were used) or have a stopper applied to the ends to stop the cords disappearing into the draw channel.

                                                                      

Now to raid my button and bead boxes for suitable ends. Once identified and allocated, these were attached in a final session in front of television.   

The bags were taken up quickly by family and used this Christmas. The Christmas fabric was very    popular. The bags will be recycled over several years.   I had fun, the fabric is put to good use, the Guild has benefitted and present wrapping was made easy and pleasant for busy people. 

    All wins for this bag lady.

A Mad Hatter touch to Christmas.

This year I tried my hand at the Shetland Wool Week Hat - The Bonnie Isle Hat by Linda Shearer. Each year, for Shetland Wool Week, there is a competition to design a knitted hat. The pattern for the winning entry is made available free, and woollen mills produce their own colourway for the design, which they offer as a kit. Photos of the many versions of the hat knitted around the world, are posted to the Shetland Wool Week site.

This is the first time I've tried it. I intended to use it with the left-over wool from several Marie Wallin projects but thought I'd try it first of all in 4ply cotton - of which I have rather a lot. 

The first one knitted so well I decided to keep going. The pattern came in 3 sizes (achieved by changing needle size, not the pattern). I knitted one of each and tried them on various family members. The middle size fitted everyone.

This was back in August. I got the idea to make enough for everyone at Christmas lunch. Last year I made reusable Christmas crackers. Rather than create more waste paper making hats for the crackers, I thought people could choose a knitted hat. They won't fit in the crackers - but people could choose.

I had the initial 3, and 10 different coloured 4ply cottons, most of them pale. I added in a cone of bright orange in a silk/cotton mix and began mixing and matching. I needed at least 8 for Christmas Day. 

I put it aside to knit a couple of vests, returning for  a marathon in early December.

Although the pattern had pompoms, I wasn't sure about them so I consulted Veronica, my fashion oracle, who thought no.  I agreed and proceeded, although others shook their heads and said 'pompoms'. 

However, on Christmas Eve I capitulated and decided to add pompoms. At this point, Veronica, in the Christmas vibe, also said yes. I got out my pompom maker and set to work. I've used it before, but not for a long time. 

I wasn't thrilled with my efforts, and reverted to a technologically cruder method. They still weren't plump, rounded pompoms, but the floppiness had a kind of charm (guests agreed). I think I need pompom practice!

In case there were pompom objectors I attached the pompoms on the inside with safety pins. No-one objected.

I finished the 9th on Christmas Eve, and the pompoms just after midnight. 

It turned out to be the right number, and, somewhat to my surprise, they were a hit.

Each one has five colours. I varied the pattern very slightly in a couple of places, but not by much.

A number of people wore theirs all afternoon - and I must say, they looked really good. It was a hot day, but cool inside. The cotton is comfortable to wear and shapes softly. 

I'm not promising to repeat the exercise every year, but it was a fun exercise for me, used up yarn, looked good, and gave pleasure. 

That's a happy result - and I wouldn't rule out repeating or extending it.

Successful family events don't just happen. Immense planning and effort by my daughter's family went into hosting the highly successful lunch. I'm glad I could contribute in a small way. 

If the Christmas hat fits, wear it!   

Much Joy at Christmas.