Posts Tagged ‘craft’

Ma Calling – Chiffon Scarves

Sunday, September 26th, 2010


Hello,

I give up. I have been trying to buy Chiffon scarves online and only found one outlet. I know it is difficult to get them near me. I am not sure if they still sell them in Cardiff Market. That is a long way to go, but needs must. Will have to keep on looking they are there I know. There are lots of search results but not for the product I want.

I wanted them to add on a background for my Lamppost pieces. I had one but now I need another two.
My mother used to wear them in the old days. She used to put one over her hat to keep it on when it was a windy day. I can remember hairdressers using them to keep your curlers in when you had a perm. Oh grief! What an image that has dredged up. Me in curlers!!

There are lots of uses for a chiffon scarf. You can layer them and produce colour changes, trap pieces of threads and materials underneath and embroidery on top to produce interesting surfaces. You can also melt and burn them to produce crunchy textures. I wanted a few black ones to layer to create a shadowy effect for my lamppost. I am sure there are lots more effects one can create too.

When I started using them in my embroidery projects you could pick them up very reasonably in charity shops but it has been a long time since I have seen them about.

I think I will phone Ghee she might have some in her stash of stuff.

For Chiffon scarves.

Love,
Ma

Ma Calling – When Crafting Goes Bad…

Sunday, September 12th, 2010



Having a rest now after a few stressful sewing moments.

Had a lovely time last night. Great seeing everyone again.  Boo was very complimentary about Extinct Design website, she said it was very user friendly.

There were some lovely pieces of work brought in to Sewing Group. Isn’t it amazing how imaginative people can be? Some new members joined and a few more to join over the next few months.

I had some help with my new project and it was suggested I make a series of three panels taking the colours from light blue / grey to a deeper blue colour. So I thought I will do that. (Keeping with my Lamppost theme of course.)

I set about sorting out my work after lunch and did some designing and colour ways. I photocopied the design full size and coloured it in and sorted out areas to embroider.

(I was quite smug because I had just the right size frames to mount the three panels on and I had three of them too. I bought them from The Works a while ago and knew one day they would come in handy. They are normally sold to paint on.)

Perfect.

I sat back to look at the three drawings of the panels, then disaster struck!! One of the panel boards slid down behind the radiator. Now I know I shouldn’t have propped them up on the radiator, but there you go, I did.

….

Well I have been about an hour (with a tea break) trying to get the rascal back out.

First I tried sliding it. That did not work because of the wall brackets on the radiator.

Then I thought I would poke it back up from the floor with a stick (ya know the old Knitting needle trick!) However, knitting needles don’t bend.

Tried a plastic tube I was keeping to use for a bag handle …too bendy.

Tried my feather duster. No hope!

Looking around my craft room for inspiration and I thought I can do this. If early Man could move stones from Wales to Salisbury Plain I can get this board from behind the radiator! I need this board!

Then it came to me…. string!

I found a piece fortunately the right size. (no time to muse on the how long is a piece of string that I need to do this jokes)  Using my brain now I thought, if I could get it to attach to the board in some way I could drag it back up. So I pinned a safety pin to one end and tried to tie the string to the radiator grill at the top (after all I did not want that to drop down there as well).  That did not work- pin not bendy!

So I lassoed the string around my workroom table leg (I have seen this on Cowboy films) and lowered it down.

I lowered the other end down and attached a peg to the board and threaded and tied the string to it. Pulled.

Oh no! Guess What? The  space was too narrow for peg and the board.

It is always the simplest things that work best. I tied the sting around the board!!! And yes came up behind the radiator, no problem.

Glad to have got all that off my chest. All I wanted to do was sew.

It is right though simple things do work out best in the end.

Lesson learnt.

I have been looking for some books on Tatting on Amazon a little disappointed at what I have seen but will look again more carefully. I am sure there is something I have missed.

Gina has got some nice ones on her site.

Have to go now.

Love,
Ma

Sew Column : Smock Rocks!

Monday, July 5th, 2010








A Crafty Giveaway…

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

Craft Giveaway

Those friendly peeps over at Toronto Craft Alert have got themselves a great goodies to giveaway!

We all have unfinished projects lying around – be it a pair of pants that need hemming, a quilt that needs binding, or even a vase that need glazing.  And most of us are familiar with that pang of guilt we feel when we catch a glimpse of these abandoned projects tucked away, gathering dust.

Still riding the high of our recent website relaunch (months and months in the making!) Toronto Craft Alert presents The Crafty Slacker’s Get ‘Er Done Giveaway - a contest that gives you the incentive you need to get ‘er done!  By sharing your unfinished projects you’ll be entered to win a care package bursting with goodness from Toronto-based craft stores and talented local designers (valued at close to $700! ).  Finishing your abandoned projects will earn you even more entries and of course the satisfaction that comes with completion.

Anyone can enter – you don’t need to live in Toronto.

To see the goodies for yourself and get on it click -  gimme the giveaway