Crocheting an Illustration

Surrounded by charts and bobbins and crochet hooks. This is a steep learning curve, but I think I'm nearing the top. Two things that help (a lot): bobbins, and knitPro.

Stuffed Ornament Tutorial

I've just added these chocolate ornaments to my shop, but if you feel like making your own, read on!

You'll need:
scraps of fabric
a pencil
stuffing
thread
and a sewing machine
a few pins (optional)
printing paraphernalia, embroidery equipment etc (all entirely optional)

Trace one circle and two semi-circles on fabric, using whatever's handy, circular, and appropriately sized to trace around. I use one of those plastic spools ribbon is sold on, so my circle is about 9cm diameter.
Extend the flat edges of the semi-circles about 1cm, for seam allowance.

Print, embroider, applique, or paint the circle, remembering that you'll lose a bit at the edges when it's sewn up.

Stitch the two pieces right sides together, leaving a gap in the middle of the seam big enough to stick stuffing through - about 4cm is comfortable.
Fold open and press the seam flat. (You can just use your fingernail or the back of a seam ripper if you don't feel like breaking out the iron.)
Place the two pieces wrong sides together, and pin if you need to. Set your machine for satin stitch: I set mine on zigzag, right near buttonhole, and reduce the pressure on the presser foot. Fiddle around a bit with your settings, and do a few tests to see what works with your fabric.
Stitch all the way around, just inside the edge of the circle. You might find it helps to draw a line just shy of the edge before you stitch - all depends on the presser foot you're using, and how easy it is to aim. Go slowly, gently turning the fabric. Stitch a little past your starting point, then go back and forth once or twice to secure.

Trim the excess fabric, taking care not to cut through the stitching.
Thread a needle with whatever you want to hang the ornament from, mark the mid-point of the top of the circle with your finger, and pull the thread through from inside to outside. Take a small stitch back inside, and knot the two ends of the thread together. Pull the loop out at the top so the knot catches inside.

Stuff, and sew up the seam using whipstitch or slipstitch. The edges will crinkle more or less depending on how firmly it's stuffed.

Hope that's all clear!

Gooseberry afternoon

Most days I feel like I'm thrashing about, looking for the right thing to do. There are so many things to do, and so many things that have to be done, but I'm skidding around, unable to settle on which is the most important. (Guess that's why deadlines exist, right?)

Today I stopped the giddiness, just for a bit. I went outside to draw the gooseberry plant. I've been wanting to do a linocut of it, already seeing the stalks with the little fruitcases running along the top of a card, already having an inkling of the kind of lines I'll cut. I've also been noticing that the fruits are dropping, the leaves are getting bigger (and being eaten by something), and that the time for drawing is slipping away.

I tried to remember what I'd been taught: that drawing isn't about producing a picture, it's about putting down information, enough information to carry back to the studio and work from. I noticed the thickness of the leaves, and the way the tops of the fruits snug up against the stems, the gorgeous swoop of the leaves. After a while I realised that the only thing I was hearing in my head was something like "uh-huh... uh-hm... hmm... oh... yup... ah..." Thinking, fiercely, without any words. And that for me is the trick of drawing, and it's reward.
So I haven't finished the ornaments I was making, or the tutorial I planned to post today. But I have started a new print!

The whole box?

Tiny seed packet envelopes, printed with yummy chocolates. Ideal for small gifts, or punch a hole in the corner and use them as gift tags.

Printed using my Dryden Handicrafts book press, seen here during it's inaugural print run:


Old phone books, by the way, have just the right amount of give for a good lino print. I used 2, sandwiching the block between them. They absorb any movement when the press comes down, so the paper doesn't shift.

Various chocolate assortments are now in my shop.

Oops!

I don't normally print large pieces of fabric; it's just too expensive if I make mistakes. And accidents do happen. Most often, printing blocks slip, like this one did.

Luckily this was right on the edge of the fabric, and although it won't do for the custom order I was printing up, it's still a very usable piece of heavy cotton-linen blend fabric. It's on sale in my shop, at a discount, along with some new Vintage Pattern Lady prints (one a bigger piece than I usually print).

Short and Stout

A little teapot I decorated for a friend.

Tatted earrings

The first tatted earrings I ever saw were ballet pink, huge, and somehow apologetic-looking, despite their size. I thought they were a really lame idea. But then I got sucked into the online tatting world, and discovered the most beautiful things: intricate, dramatic, and very, very pretty. And then I won this pair in Krystledawne's giveaway! I can't get enough of them; I want to wear them all the time.


There's a lot more loveliness in her Etsy shop, where she also sells handpainted specialty tatting thread - and I was lucky enough to get some of that too.


Tatting weekend, here I come!

Morning Cuppa Ritual

Thaya from Beatnik Bazaar tagged me to show my morning cuppa ritual: always, a double shot of foamy coffee in my Skinny laMinx mug, and at the moment, gooseberries from the garden. (Yes, dear neighbours, those aren't straggly neglected weeds in the front garden, they're my breakfast patch!)

I'm tagging Flower Press, Mrs Eliot Books, and Notions (who have all, incidentally, had really nice things to say about my new prints - thank you!) And.... Flower Press has some beautiful new fabric, Notions has gorgeous card/brooches to give away, and Mrs Eliot has some new tea towels coming soon, so go and have a look!

Emile picks a winner

I asked Emile to help me pick the winner of the chocolates. It took a few moments for him to understand what was required.

Then a lightening-fast draw!


And the winner is: Lawre!


Thank you all so much for the great comments, you were really helpful, and there were some splendid ideas! And Lawre, please email me so I can get your address, and I'll pop them in the post right away.

As a reward for his hard work, Emile got a carrot, his favourite snack, and just about the only thing he'll do tricks for.


Sit. Down. Roll over! Good boy!

Shopping

There's a new vintage shop down the road!

All kinds of lovely things, but the prints are the real draw for me.


Wendy's Vintage Store is at 128 Lower Main Road in Observatory* and it's open on Sundays!

*Cape Town. Sorry.

Giving away chocolate!

No, really, I am. To cut to the chase, scroll down to the bottom of this post.

I've been fiddling around with scraps of old linen and lace, improving, I think, on the last batch of ornaments.

I like them. And I don't. They're still not the neat symmetrical things I imagined, but they are puffy and pretty and frilly. And there are so many options. Lace or no lace? Coloured border or not? Printed background or plain? Different colour printed background or not?


So here's the deal: please tell me what you like or don't like about them, and I'll pick a commenter at random next Wednesday (the 18th) and send you the whole bunch.


(I realise it makes no sense to comment if you don't want ornaments, but you could always unpick them and sew patches over the holes in your jeans. Or something. They're really good scraps of linen!)

Another shop update

I've listed some linocut prints on paper in my shop.

I promise this is the last shop update post for a while, and thank you for being so patient! I'll do something different tomorrow - what about a sort of a giveaway? (I'll give something away, but you'll have to work a bit for it....)

Buttony things

I've packed the shelves of my shop with new fabric panels, pencil cases, and, to continue the theme of yesterday's button post (sort of), embroidered brooches.

I seem to be growing a button collection

Some pretty buttons for you to look at, while I finish off my tax stuff. I found them at the Zip and Trim shop in Salt River - they're R5 a bunch, a bunch being as much as you can manage to hold in both your hands.

Shop update in progress

I'm adding some of Friday's printing to my shop, as well as some Vintage Pattern Lady pieces - the solid silhouettes that I won't be printing again, since I'm cutting all the blocks into linework.

I've cued a bunch of bags and purses and panels so I can list them over the next few days, so do keep checking back!

Happy printing day!

Vintage Pattern Ladies, reworked to solve the ghostly printing problems I was having.

And in cream:

Dark Chocolate:

Dark Chocolate with doilies:


And a spur-of-the-moment print I'm inclined to call Doily Chains:


Listings of these in the shop will have to happen over the weekend, because I forgot to charge my camera in time, and daylight is fading. I'll also be listing a bunch of other Pattern Lady things: notebooks, zip purses, and bags.

But first, I have a very patient cup of tea to drink!

Dark Chocolate

After cutting out the embroidered bits from old doilies and tea cloths, I'm left with scraps of very beautiful linen and cotton that are too good to throw away. So now I'm thinking of ways to use them; these are my first attempts at ornaments for that tree at the end of the year. Very much making it up as I go along, unpicking, rethinking.... Who knew that sewing curves could be so tricky? Or that vintage lace could misbehave? I want to use the bits of lace so badly, though.

Real shoe drawings

Yesterday's new shoes are from Green Cross; most of my newest shoes are. Drawing them reminded me that a few years ago I did the line drawings for the shoe box labels. I thought it was the most amazing job; plain straightforward drawing, sort of like research drawing.

Have I shown you my new shoes?

Don't think I have.

Cushions

Oh, it's such a nice afternoon for a nap on the couch, in the sun. Especially when the couch is covered in cushions! I'm listing these in my shop right now.