old friends and upcycling...

what to do when your trusty sewing machine isn't very well, for the first time in 20 years and you have  to take it to the machine doctor...

and then a 'Making in The Studio' workshop is happening and we are a machine down as someone's machine has come without a foot...

it's time to call on Singer and Jones...sounds like a double act or a firm of solicitors...but no, they are my old friends...

this is Mrs Singer...such a wonderful machine...smooth and well-oiled...daughter mine loves the smell of her!! 

 
and here is Miss Jones...a hand worked beauty with a lovely action and a tiny spindle-like spool hidden in her depths...both are gilded ladies fit for a fancy drawing room or front parlour...

sewing using a hand machine is soo soothing...clink and chink as the handle goes round and the needle smoothly moves up and down...

Victoria arrived equipped for anything...and brought a friend...a lovely Mollie Makes doll which she had made...and a fab pincushion...

Sandra did a show and tell ...a beautiful crocheted rug she had made and  gave me a gorgeous gift of a crocheted bowl, to which I added a lovely button and filled with threads...isn't it a gem?

I do soo love it when people bring things they have made to show...or send photos of items finished after they they go home...

Sandra's busy here sewing on to the front the pretty leaves which she had embroidered with beadwork...

  
Helen came with her cute little basket of goodies...

Sandie got to use Mrs Singer and enjoyed herself no end...and did hand sewing and then got on to making a corsage...looking good! She had made her pretty beaded bracelet by the way...so many talented makers here today!

and after a day of hard work and fun and concentration and sewing and cutting...and tea and cake...4 beautiful bags appeared...Sandie's has a bit to go to be finished as she made hers slightly differently but here is Helen's with pretty suffolk puff decorations...

and a later photo...thanks Helen...love the covered button...

and Sandra's gorgeous soft green bag with beautiful embroidered beaded leaves...

and Victoria's messenger bag...with fab flower in just the right fabrics after much debate in the studio...

Ladies I salute you! You have all made gorgeous handmade handbags...hard to tell that when you arrived these beauties were all old wool jumpers!

I soo love doing workshops and meeting wonderful creative folk who take a making idea and run with it! You are all an inspiration!

it's a funny thing...

this link between what I see and what I feel and how that directs what I want to make and what kind of fabrics I will use or what kind of textile work will result...as this month of September slips slowly into autumn and I want to spend more time indoors in the evenings...happy to stop work and head back to the house for a cosy night in...warm in the kitchen with smells of cooking and daughter mine doing homework at the big kitchen table and husband of patience making custard... yes its custard time again folks! 

We slip easily from one way of doing to another...habits we have made over the years...memories of autumns gone with chutneys,jams and fruit crumbles made...hedgerows laden with fruit to pick...brambling in sunshine with my grandmother...and colour colour colour...the strange mix of fruitfulness and abundance and crumbling decay...before the sombre stark winter greys and browns emerge once more...

so making with tweed and wool once more fits the season

...and since my new friend Sharon the photographer came round to photograph my work and her creativity started me off on playing even more with my camera...not really what I was supposed to be doing...but it's such fun playing...and who knows where it will take me?

and so to this month's autumnal and inspiring Mollie Makes...couldn't resist a little addition...yes those are real leaves...

lovely crocheted leaves and cosy blanket...

and a tantalising taste of Jane Brocket's new book The Gentle Art of Stitching...mm I have a birthday coming up soon...may have to drop a hint to husband of patience...

and as always a delightful free gift..so useful...a tiny pair of snippy scissors...thanks MM!!

here's to a great weekend to all my readers...see you on Sunday at the lovely vintage and craft fair Vintage on The Bay at Arnside if you're there...xx

celebrate...handmade

whether it's willow baskets or cupcakes...or bags or dresses...there's a whole lot of making going on round here...today it's the turn of husband of patience to be in the limelight...he's often to be found behind the scenes...but here his making takes centre stage...

since doing a weekend workshop he has just loved setting to and making a basket...which is a whole process... first soak the willow...the right amount and size...it all has to be planned a week ahead...to be carefully cut and then woven in precise mathematical patterns... here is one he made earlier...a special chair for sitting in to willow weave ...or just drink tea...home grown...so no air miles at all...and very much SLOW and patient making...I love the colour and shape...

and now he has the proper tools in a lovely wooden holder he made in his tool shed...he can be found outside in all weathers making handmade woven willow creations...some a trifle wobbly but some just amazingly strong and beautiful and round and woven with love and passion...

 

it starts with a base...and magically several hours of weaving and Radio 4 later... a two tone basket appears...of great interest to Emilia chicken...checking it for quality control?

how pleasing to grow and harvest something with which you then create a useful and beautiful object...here's another in use by daughter mine...plotting some creativity and craftyness in a corner of the studio...

here's my favourite inspirational Mollie Makes...with a fab free gift...cleverly on a handmade theme...and of course wonderful craft ideas inside to make or just drool over...

so let's celebrate handmade... and all craft and art and writing and sewing and gardening and...whatever you love to do! xx