Stitchoodling or Dooditching

Cornelia Paczka-Wagner, Woman Embroidering

I have lately taken very much to stitching. I can’t profess any great skill so far, any major (or even minor) projects completed or any preference for one style over another but I am really just enjoying the process of admiring and being inspired by the vast array of beautiful work by others available to see online and trying my hand at various bits and pieces—the stitching equivalent of doodling, I think.

Yesterday I had a great find at the op-shop—several pieces of old linen with pre-printed patterns to embroider. Sort of like colouring-in for grown-ups! These will be nice pieces to play with. I have tried a few tiny pieces of freehand stitching and I think I still have need of lines and structure while I get my stitches a bit neater!

A corner of one of my found goodies ~

Simple Pretty, Pretty Simple

I was very pleased with how this turned out. I bought a rubber stamp at a craft shop on the weekend for $3 and completely on a whim decided to stamp it onto some calico 'pudding cloth'. I really like how it looks! I'm going to stamp a large piece of cloth now (this was my sample!) and wrap some edible goodies I bought from Ikea for my parents in it. I think I might have a go at making my own stamps over the break. Does anyone else make their own rubber stamps?

Double Cream

I am in love with all things cream and white at the moment. And perhaps a little bit of brown, as is the case with these lovely owls in Peter Slater's A Field Guide to Australian Birds.


Beautiful Japanese craft books...


The beginnings of some embroidery...

Some more soothingly simple knitting with the Alafoss Lopi wool...


And a little brooch I stitched.

Comfy

Thank you so much for your great suggestions for making a more handmade Christmas. I also found this terrific list on Facebook put together by Pip Lincolne - http://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/notes/justb/edible-christmas-gifts-to-make/228936923840028 I am not a great fan of Christmas for various reasons so I am thinking (and hoping!) that approaching it in this way - with a little bit of crafty goodness - might just be enough to perk it right up for me!

Does anyone read the English Woman's Weekly? My grandmother read it religiously and even had a copy put aside for her every week at the local newsagency. I used to love looking at all the amazing cakes and spectacularly complicated but beautiful jumpers when I was a child and a lot of my early reading was of The Robin Family serial (it's about a family of robins, surprisingly). Lately I seem to be finding vintage copies of it around the place and I've quite fallen in love with it.

From comfort reading to comfort viewing, I watched The Royal last night for the first time. I had dismissed it previously as nothing more than Heartbeat set in a hospital but it is really quite good (and Wendy Craig is the matron, Butterflies fans!). Very nice, satisfying telly and that, sometimes, is just what one needs.



What's been comforting for you this week?

Norse Beading

Is there anything better than getting a lovely little parcel of goodies in the post? My bead order arrived form the wonderful online shop Over the Rainbow today - http://www.polymerclay.com.au/ - and so I can now have a go at making some Norse-style beaded necklaces. I know what I'll be doing this weekend! There are lots of lovely inspirational sources for Norse jewellery online, like this picture from www.treheima.blogspot.com

Thanks Grandma

My grandma was a prolific knitter and when I was about eight, she knitted me a patchwork blanket. I had forgotten this until fairly recently. I had had it folded up in the bedroom and really didn't pay it much attention. For no reason in particular, about a week ago I suddenly looked at it and thought "I'll give you a wash!" It came up fairly well, although there are a few moth holes in it thanks to my inattention. These can be easily fixed, though. I love it! It's so simple really - it's all in plain stitch and would have been a doddle for my grandma who knitted some amazingly complicated garments - but to snuggle under it while watching tv is just lovely and takes me straight back to snuggling under it at eight, in my bedroom at home.

Do you have anything like this, made by a family member for you in childhood?

Crafting - the Good, the Bad and the...

I had a lovely day on Saturday craft shopping with a friend. We started off at a shop specialising in Japanese material, then onto a shop which sells nothing but buttons and then, finally, to a craft fair. I came home with bags of goodies which I emptied out onto the living room floor and gloated over much like I used to many years ago upon returning from the Show with chocolate-filled showbags (In Australia we have 'Royal Agricultural Shows'. They are pretty much the same as a fair in other countries, whereby farm animals are brought to the City for urban folk to look at, you go on rides, you eat junk food and you buy showbags.)

So, I display before you some of the loot of my haul. Gorgeous 'fat quarters' of Japanese material and also some vintage-style material that I bought at the craft fair; lovely little 'things' (for want of a more technical term) to make jewellery with and some art deco-style buttons and two little hearts which I have since made with the material for my parents' wedding anniversary on Thursday (40 years!)

Then, of course, there is a gorgeous project I just had to share with you. I found a Jackie annual from 1979 while thrifting yesterday and this just leapt out at me. The egg-and-bacon hat and matching bag. Just let me know if you'd like to make them, and I'll send you the pattern...