embroidered girl

embroidered girl, originally uploaded by glassmountain.

she's going to become a drawstring bag, perhaps for a nightdress or art materials.

At home busyness

Just as I was getting sick of February rainy days have led to increased productivity in our house

T is very into baking muffins of various flavours at the moment, A loves to decorate them and we all enjoy eating them
A little bit of embroidery heading for my folksy shop
and a little bit of A's sewing and embroidery which I absolutely love. She just puts everything together so easily, hardly seeming to think about it
T's interesting bit of driftwood and fleece sculpture on our, as yet, inbetween the seasons nature table
and finally a spot of painting. I could learn to love February after all.

What we're reading and overdue library books

I took a look at our reading list on the blog and noticed that we've actually given up on 'Mary Poppins'. Not because we don't like her, we love her quirky, strange little world, but because we had a very overdue library book to read (the name of which I cannot remember, but I'll add it later).

The truth is that this is not our only very overdue library book and as a result I am reading 'The House of Mr Biswas' by V S Naipaul not 'The Quiet Girl'. I've pushed myself to keep going with this book and have been rewarded, as I have really enjoyed reading it (I am only half way through). It is set in Trinidad and centres on a Hindu (Mr Biswas) and his desire for his own house which really seems to be a search for his place in life, a search that most of us can identify with. Naipaul is funny and exposes people's weaknesses but we never dislike them, the characters are, like us, just doing their best to get where they need to be. I totally recommend this book, even though I haven't finished it yet.

As for the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy by Philip Pullman, we are now at the end of the whole thing and it has been a wonderful journey, there are so many good reviews of these books that I can't really add to them except to say that if you want your children to think about life, the universe and everything for themselves these books encourage that without question, and the writing is beautiful too.

One day we will keep all our library books together and remember to take them all back at the right time but in the meantime we will have to consider our fines as helping the libraries to stay open!!

pictures,sewing, mistakes and a change

I think T has been around the house with a camera, it's rare that our yard looks lovely but the sun was out and the windows are condensated...

and he photographed my valentine's day chocolates (J got Astral Weeks Van Morrison, unusually romantic for us!)

I tried my patchwork idea with one of the girls and I'm not very keen, a bit too twee. I haven't photographed it as it's not entirely finished but they may end up on bags after all! I did a bit of sewing using some spring colours, pinks and greens. But I also reduced the prices on some of my purses at folksy and put free postage on everything (it feels less complicated). I want to clear away the winter stuff because I have a new character that I want to embroider...
I rather like her and I hope you do too. I like the idea of embroidering her and using fabrics for her dress and hat. I'm quite excited about starting the sewing and seeing how she'll turn out.

An apology

I have only just worked out the whole comments thing so I am especially sorry to sunnysidey who commented ages ago but I have replied now and I think I'm starting to get the hang of this blogging thing!

a row of girls

I need to do something with these, I found them at the bottom of my basket of unfinished things (a very large basket!) they have been hanging around with no real purpose but now I think I might try a little patchwork around the edges, mini quilts perhaps?

I love drawing and sewing figures but always feel at a bit of a loss once they're done. I do love things to have a practical use so they have a tendency to end up on bags but I think perhaps a change is due. I shall update on these as I work on them.

Sewing and more sewing

I did indeed make a phone holder using the same fabrics as the purse and I am really happy with the way it turned out

I especially like the foldover at the top, the fabric is 'wild thyme' from Fabric Rehab (an online shop I love) and I am totally obsessed with this blue and linen together at the moment, perhaps it's willing the spring on.
After this, I took out my Poppy Treffry book to do some easter sewing for T (who does like boiled eggs)
and made this...
a lovely egg cosy. The instructions were great and it turned out perfectly, I really love this book. I'm sure that once we have a set of these we will eat a lot more boiled eggs and our breakfast table will look a lot more sophisticated than it normally does. A is still trying to find a reason to have an egg cosy when you don't like eggs, cashew nuts is her latest idea although I'm not sure how that works. Any ideas on other uses for egg cosies are most welcome.

blue patchwork zip purse

A new zip purse

blue patchwork zip purse, originally uploaded by glassmountain.

I love this blue but the background to the photo leaves a bit to be desired! The patches are little bits of a blue flannel that I used for A's skirt last year. I'm thinking that maybe I need to make phone holders in this way rather than purses, I'm not sure yet.

trials and tribulations

Sewing clothes isn't something I do very often, the odd simple skirt and that's about it so this dress was a bit of an adventure.

I started this dress from a german pattern (translated into english) just before christmas, it started out easily and then, when it came to the back fastening, became so faffy that I forgot it until today.

It really is a lovely pattern but I made it in a very light cotton (a cheap one, as a trial run) so I couldn't really put a zip in the back and used press studs instead. But the main problem was that even though A is a skinny bean it was a little tight across the chest and shoulders, so next time I will add more seam allowance.
A is happy with it, as you can tell from the photo, and I think our next version will be a lot better. My mum has ordered the book by the same people, 'clothes children will love' so I think there will be a lot more clothes sewing going on.

February!

we are trying to make the most of February here, even though it's probably my least favourite month. There is time for sewing birthday presents, inspired by Japanese embroidery with felt

and some patchwork sewing with purples and reds, although I am starting to feel a little more springlike after today's sunshine
the board games are out daily now, especially quiddler, checkers and yahzee
on sunny days we get the bikes out and cycle to the marshes
or we visit the woods and act silly for a while

candley things

February always seems to be our most difficult month, it rains too much, it's too muddy, grey and generally icky but we're sick of being inside. It really should be getting lighter by now! So J suggested that perhaps that's why candlemass or imbolc occurs when it does, just when you're getting sick of winter there's a light festival. So he and A rediscovered a very old candlemaking kit with no instructions and went for it...

throw some wax and dye in a can and melt it...
put it in a yoghurt pot tie the wick to a paintbrush, let it set...
hey presto... candles
and a candley game for candlemass, pixies hiding behind trees from the light of the candle. All in all a very light filled 2nd of February.