Willow Weaving – Reindeer and Xmas Stall Trial

Annette and I have been signing up for Willow Weaving courses at the WI in Leyland for 2 years.  We finally got accepted as they have been massively over-subscribed.  The subject matter was not really our design of choice but off we went with open minds, armed with secateurs and gloves.

12 ladies assembling the bodies, which were 3 rings attached together by longer strands with cable ties and string.

Body with head taking shape

Adding the legs, lots of comments of a Jurassic nature at this stage.

Finally we snip out the cable ties and string as the weaving keeps it together.

Annette with her reindeer

Me with my finished article.

Outdoors with added nose bobble

Close up.

The course was run by Joevanka Gregory of Creative with Nature which is located in Todmorden.  She has a workshop and runs courses.  Google creativewithnature for further info.

So, what to do with a Willow Reindeer when you don’t have a garden!!!

Answer – Use him as a feature for your upcoming xmas stall.

With hanging xmas decorations and battery operated LED lights.

With bears aboard!

Bears sat on a pot stand I bought in a charity shop for £3.

Stockings, bunting, pin cushions and needle cases. 

Also featuring Ruth’s hand crocheted Gillet which she is selling as it turned out to be the wrong size for her once complete (size 16-18) if anyone is interested £40, it’s super cosy.

Whole stall mocked up prior to xmas fair stall at West Bradford Village Hall on Sunday the 20th November – open 10 til 4pm.

Christmas 2016 – Various

I am having a stall at West Bradford Village Hall Christmas Craft Fair on Sunday the 20th November 2016 (open 10-4pm).

I am hoping to sell some bears and I have also been making small things to sell for small amounts of money.  Hope they go down well.

Christmas Stockings

Large Felt stocking (50cm) with candy stripe cotton lining and felt tree decorations with baubles

Medium felt stockings (20cm) with linings and felt lettering and snowman decoration.

Medium cotton stockings with gingerbread man patterned fabric.

12 small stocking tree decorations with various hearts decorations.

2 Elf Boot tree felt decorations

6 holly and berry felt tree decorations

Close of of Holly Decoration, I really like these.

Dog Bandanas made from gingerbread man patterned fabric, with candy stripe reverse fabric.

Christmas Bunting with spotty reverse.

Pin cushions and needle cases.  Two sets of each of the above.

Pin cushions are surrounded by ‘Keep Calm and Craft On’ ribbon and feature sewing design buttons in the centre.

 

Small cotton draw string gift bags.  Ideal for gifting bears.

Bears 14 – Machine Sewn and Hand Finished

Both bears were made of faux fur.  It has a long pile and was therefore best for larger bears.  They are about 40cms tall and took a substantial amount of stuffing.

As the bears were so much larger than the hand sewn ones I make during the summer I decided to sew them by machine.  It is very tricky and I had to jam the fur under the sewing machine foot to start each seam.  Once it was going it was fine.  There are many curves on a bear and my machining skills improved, along with my slow corner sewing skills.  The Foot paws were the hardest part.  The ears and face are hand sewn as usual.  My friend said it was like when Bob Dylan went electric, me making bears on a machine!

They both have safety joints and safety eyes. 

I was very pleased with the outcome and will be interested to see how they are received.

They are still not suitable for small children, but better than the small ones.

Bears 13 – Summer 2016

These are the bears I made during our summer sail to France.

The three large bears at the back are faux fur, bought again in Brighton, I suspect the end of the bolt of fabric I bought last year.  The blue bows are child friendly and red one is less so. 

The bows on the others bare no significance, as they are all unsuitable for small children.

I had ordered three shades of Mohair fabric prior to departure, Cinnamon, Ice Grey and Cream.

The Cinnamon and Ice Grey had a longer pile and worked best on the medium sized bears (second row).

The cream worked well on small bears as the pile was very short (front row).

I tried a tiny bear with the cream fabric (centre front), he was very hard to make and has a startled look.

They are still taking me at least 6-8 hours to make. 

Bags 6 – Anne’s and Small Boat Bag

The spotty bag was made for a friends birthday.  It is similar to previous bags I have made but I just wanted to show the bag finished as it is such lovely fabric.  Bit more substantial as it was for a present.  I lined it with foam backed curtain lining, or bag lining, as I call it, and added a small spotty pocket inside.

I was especially proud of this stitching to secure the handles.  It can all go so wrong right at the end.

The denim bag was made on board this year as I did not have a small handbag to take out at night.  Mick’s trouser legs were used this time.  I did make a large one, but have mislaid the photos so will have to retake them.

The main body is the bottom of a leg from a pair of jeans.

The lining was very pretty strawberry fabric that I have had for ages.  I bought the beige webbing for the handle on a market stall and sewed red ribbon down the centre of the webbing to make it a bit less drab.

I then made 11 Suffolk Puffs and added various buttons in the centres of the puffs as they were being sewn to the bag.  A Suffolk Puff is a circle of fabric, edged by a running stitch and then drawn together into the middle and secured.

The bag came in really useful during the summer and is now the resident small boat bag.

See sailing blog for details of life afloat www.fleurofpendle.blogspot.co.uk

Knitting 2 – My First Jumper

Having completed the socks I had my knitting mojo and thought it was time to tackle a full sized item.

I chose this James C Brett pattern from ‘Pendle Stitches’ as they also had the wool available in the same colour.

Woodlander, Double Knitting in shade L11.

80% Acrylic and 20% Wool, 3.5 and 4mm needles.

As it was my first item I wanted it to be washable and hard wearing so deliberately chose a mostly Acrylic yarn.  I did not want to ruin it on its first wash.

It took approximately 3 months to make.  I liked knitting it as it was easy to pick up and put down, once I got an angle on the pattern.  I also had to wind on the second sleeve ball to make them match.

I wrote down every line of the pattern which had 12 rows of knitting within a 34 row pattern.

I did have to pull back a few rows as I found it hard to read the pattern around the knitted rows.

I have to thank Annette, Liz and Lisa and Liz at Pendle Stitches for their help and patience.

For non-knitters, the internet has video clips on every element of knitting if you get stuck.

I used flexible circular needles for the whole project and was able to knit the neck in one piece, joining the front, back and sleeves in the process.  Then stitched it up with a running ladder stitch.  Its like wrestling an octopus at the end stitching it up.

Bit chunkier looking than pattern picture but I am chuffed to little mint-balls with it.

Patchwork Cushions

My name is Ann-Marie and I am a fabric addict.

Over the last few years, each time I went into a fabric shop I picked up Nautical Fat Quarters, without necessarily thinking how they would fit together, but they were too nice to leave behind.

With the thought that if they had the same theme, they may go together, I decided to cut them all up into 10cm squares and then spent several hours trying to make something of them.

The criteria was that none of the same squares should touch each other and only diagonal connections were permitted.

Ta Dah!  Phew.

 

I then pieced them together with a 1cm seam allowance as they need to be quite robust.

Sadly I did not take pictures of the rear of the cushions.  They were backed with bag/curtain lining, which has a thin foam backing and holds its shape.  I also added zips to the back using the letter box method of slitting the fabric and folding it inwards to then add the zip on the inside.

Lastly I piped the edges with dark blue bias binding and they look great. 

The eagle eyed amongst you will notice that they are slightly different as I was 4 dark blue squares short.  Hey-ho.

Beadwork Card

Having never tried any beadwork and having admired it for many years, I bought a beadwork card kit at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate.

There was a graph like pattern to follow which showed all the appropriate colours.  After much counting I started in the middle of the Ada fabric supplied.  It is simply a matter of passing the needle to the front of the work hooking on a bead and then securing it by passing the needle through to the back.

The rose design is subtle and the colours are gentle. 

I really enjoyed this process and the result was very pretty.

Bags 5 – Birthday Bags

Annette’s Tote

I wanted to make a useful bag that was hard wearing.  I managed to find a piece of furnishing fabric which was of the appropriate colours.

The size of the pattern determined the size of the bag.  I managed to match the pattern at the bottom when I squared off the corners..

I then made a bag lining and added an inside pocket

Next I joined the lining to the outer, turning both in and top sewing around the top twice.

Due to the material being quite thick the straps turned out well and I attached them to the outside, top sewing a cross design.

The bag at this point seemed quite large, so to enable it to be folded and used in a smaller mode I added bag magnets to the inner folds.

The finished item looked good. Annette kindly said it was great for taking things like hairdryers and bulkier items on holiday etc.

It will also fold away quite well as I inserted a covered cardboard base inside too.

Auntie Dorothy’s Tote

This is a slightly small version of Sally’s bag made previously shown in Bags 4.

I added a pocket and a covered insert.

The final bag looks in proportion and should be very useful for all the plastic bags we have to carry these days.