tiny happy

I bought these beautiful earrings from a local designer, Jess, who runs Aida Maeby. I'd been admiring her work for ages and was so thrilled to nab a pair of these, which are made from hand-painted ceramic discs with a little touch of gold metal. They jingle a little when worn, too, which is an added benefit. Thank you Jess!

If you're interested in ethical clothing production and thoughtful making, you'll enjoy the Aida Maeby journal too. This post especially is gorgeous and acknowledges all the women who contribute to Jess' business. I have my eye on an Olafur dress (that back detail!) so that may be my next purchase.

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I've been getting up a little earlier than usual lately due to wanting to fit more work into my day. That's always easier to do before it gets properly wintry and cold, so I doubt this virtuous habit will last long. The main perk (other than a quiet coffee) is the view from the window… the second picture above was this morning's perspective. I love the way it changes every minute, getting more and more golden until you hardly remember it has been dark.

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Last week I mentioned making some preserves… but really it's just been chutney. I made a big batch of it and hopefully it should last through the winter. We really like eating cheese and crackers at my place. And this is the perfect thing to spread under the cheese. 

Into a large pot or preserving pan put: 2 kgs chopped fruit of any kind (I used apples), 500 grams chopped onions, 1 clove chopped garlic, 1 cup raisins, 3-4 cups brown sugar, 2 tsp salt, cracked pepper, 1 tsp mixed spice, 1 finely chopped chilli pepper, and 4 cups malt vinegar. Mix well then cook gently for 2-3 hours or until chutney is thick and almost like jam. Pour into sterilised jars.

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This week I've been loving listening to the latest Laura Marling album Semper Femina, especially this song: Wild Fire.

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Hello! I hope you've had a good week.

The big news around here is that Keira turns 13 today… 13! It feels a bit strange… mostly good, of course. It's lovely watching her grow older and adventure out into the world more and more with each passing year. But I found myself going through her baby things and photos last night and feeling amazed that her childhood was drawing to a close already. It really is true, that thing about parenting being made up of long days and short years. 

One of the things I found was this little green hand-knitted hat that she wore as a toddler. It was made by Cosette , a good blog-friend at the time and I think we did a swap and I made her a bag of some kind.

The funny thing about this blog is that I've been writing it nearly forever, and so I was able to find a post where K's wearing it, aged three or so. 

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I'm still enjoying patching my fabric scraps together… this week I made some knitting project bags, small pouches and a mat all from leftover fabrics. Actually I think I might use them all up soon. Never thought I would reach that point.

And then on the weekend, I found a few glorious hours to work on my hand-stitched hexagon quilt, and listen to an audiobook (I chose I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.) That combo is something I would recommend to anyone! Particularly those who enjoy some quiet making and listening time.

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Other things I've been enjoying this week:

The beautiful flower farm at Foxs Lane

Doing a small bit of preserving in the form of chutney (more on this next week)

Listening to the new album by Slowdive (their first in 22 years!)

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Hello lovely readers! I hope you've had a good week. 

Tom and I attended a beautiful wedding on the weekend and I managed to snap a quick picture of the inside of the marquee where the reception was held. The ceiling was draped in fabric bunting, which was made from strips of fabric torn and tied to lengths of rope. The fabrics were a mix of prints and textures, in pale green, blue, pink and cream and the overall effect was really beautiful.

The other photos in this post are not from the wedding, but just things found on my travels, including an amazing succulent garden growing vertically in downtown Wellington. I love this idea and wonder if it might work at our place? Succulents seem to do well in our wild weather.

I've also had some op-shop luck, including finding a copy of The Goldfinch, which is one of those books I've been meaning to read for ages, and some cotton men's shirts that I bought and offered to Tom for his collection, but they didn't fit so I'm happily re-purposing for my hexagon quilt! I really like using old things and I think the slightly-worn fabrics look great together.

Using a piece of silk bought from The Fabric Store I sewed a new top (a bit like this one) for these end-of-summer days. I found the silk a bit tricky to work with, because the threads pull easily, so French seams and a hand-stitched neckline was in order. But it's lovely and light to wear and I can see lots more of these tops in my future. I ended up drafting the pattern myself, but it's similar to the vintage one I used a while back (Style #3896 from 1983) and the Lou Box Top pattern that is available for purchase online (I made one of those here.

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In other, non-crafting news, I've been enjoying the Netflix series Babylon Berlin which is beautifully produced and interesting historically (if rather dark at times) and just finished The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides which I recommend, especially if you like reading about love triangles and liberal arts graduates.

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It feels like the days are turning ever so slightly – the afternoon light is more golden than it was last week and the mornings are cooler. 

Perhaps inspired by that, I've started a new project to use up all the fabric scraps I can find. I have one of those big plastic storage containers crammed with off-cuts, old pillowcases and clothes destined for their next life and when I was sorting through it the other day I felt inspired to make a big quilt with it all.

I thought it would be nice to try the English paper piecing technique, as I do like a bit of slow hand stitching, and because the hexagon formation is beautiful. What I didn't realise is how addictive it would be! I keep thinking 'just one more hexagon,' and stay up too late obsessively stitching.

Another good thing about the EPP method is its portability. I made myself a big zipped pouch to hold all the templates, tools and the quilt-in-progress and it's good to keep it all together in one place like that. I've popped a few of these big zipped cases in my online shop, too.

Incidentally, zipping it up and placing it in another room is also how I manage to get other work done! Do you ever get that obsessive feeling about your projects?

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Another thing I've been loving lately is the latest album by Marlon Williams album, Make Way for Love. Especially this song, Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore, which is a duet with Aldous Harding. 

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I think I write about tansy this time every year – we have a plant growing beside the washing line and it's something nice to contemplate when hanging out the laundry in the morning. I also try to embroider a portrait of the flowers every summer, and you can see this year's effort in the first photo above. I never seem to tire of those feathery leaves and buds like flat yellow buttons.

In other summer plant news, I recently found some quilted cotton printed with poppies and cornflowers (an unused placemat, I believe) and made a few pouches and bags from it for my online shop… there's something about that print I really love. I suppose it's the big and beautiful poppies.

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Thanks to Teresa, who this week featured me on her blog The Broken Pie. The post is an interview we did a while back about food, where I admit I am a recipe-follower and somewhat boring ('is there enough bread and fruit for the kids to take for their school lunch?') type of food-person, which may not be what Teresa had in mind when she asked me to be part of her 'Creatives in the Kitchen' series!

In the photo above you can see a lemon loaf made from a recipe in my friend Nicola's book The Homegrown Kitchen which remains a favourite around here. 

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In book news, I've just finished the novel that follows on from Life After Life that I wrote about here. I loved Kate Atkinson's A God in Ruins even more – it was one of those reading experiences where you feel bereft at the end. One warning though – if you haven't read it and would like to, don't read the Wikipedia page about it until you've finished, because it has spoilers. 

As I've had a few embroidery projects to complete, I've listened to the audiobook for Caitlin Moran's How to Build a Girl and Mindy Kaling's Why Not Me which are very different and similar at the same time and I loved them both.

Have you read anything good lately?

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I knitted some colourful rainbow-striped socks over the new year – much of the work was done while camping, in fact. Even though I don't usually choose bright colours for the things I make, I really enjoyed making these, especially the way the stripes look a bit like they've been coloured in with a crayon. The yarn is Zwerger Garn Opal self-striping, colour #9377 and I think these will be very cheering in the grey of winter.

Last week in a secondhand shop I found a stack of old magazines called The Web, which was the quarterly textile crafts journal of the NZ Spinning, Weaving and Woolcrafts Society (now Creative Fibre, I think).

The issues I found ranged from 1981 until 1993 but it appears the Society was established in 1969. I don't know how many issues of The Web were produced, but I've so enjoyed reading these issues, and they give a real insight into the crafting community before a different type of 'web' changed it forever.

Each issue includes weaving, knitting and macrame patterns from readers. These are for toys and shawls as well as practical items such as horse blankets and garments for amputees. There are also recipes for natural dyeing, instructions for building wooden looms and winders, poems about making things and community news.

One of the best things is the 'letters to the editor' section which is rather lively and occasionally quite harsh. One letter implores society members to remember to 'always do their best work' in case tourists see sloppy handwork and judge us to be a nation of mediocre crafters. 

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There was one small article I thought quite beautiful, here it is (slightly abridged):

Spinning Hands, by Joy Garard.

I wonder if someone showed me my hands detached from my body, whether I would recognise them as mine, and yet they have been busy in front of my eyes all my life.

Such a confused thing the brain is, but then I just sit here all day now since I have come to Resthaven. The only thing I have in here that is private to me are my thoughts, and sometimes I speak them aloud by mistake. I don't mean to, but some days no-one talks to you at all. Oh the nurses say loudly, "Here's your dinner, luv," but they do not really want to talk to you. They are very kind though.

I wish I could talk about the future, but I do not expect to have a very interesting one – I haven't made any plans!

How I wish my days were still busy like they used to be. The children young and needing attention, friends popping in for a chat or a day at the beach. I was filled with life and enthusiasm for cooking, gardening, holidays, making love, eating, going out, staying out late. 

Now I just doze and think, and hope someone comes to visit me. They do now and again.

"Hello, Mum" said my daughter's voice. "Just brought your spinning wheel and some carded wool around to see if youfeel like spinning some wool for me so I can knit Joshua and Jacob each a jersey."

"Put the wheel right here so I can start on it while we chat." My hands reach eagerly for the lovely, soft carded wool. Oh bliss, a job to do!

Yes, these hands are mine and they still know how to spin and I would know them anywhere.

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Hello! Somehow it's now February, and so the year really has properly begun. In this post I wanted to show you a few things completed recently, and one just begun. 

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+ + I found a patchwork panel piece in a secondhand shop, and had to rescue it. It's been beautifully stitched by hand in pink and green cotton in a complicated star design. I sewed it into a cushion cover for maximum display purposes. When I posted it on Insta the same day, a kind person posted a comment with a link to Hmong reverse applique designs. Really good to have some clue as to its provenance, although I'm still not sure how such a carefully-sewn piece ended up in a box in a Kilbirnie op shop.

* * I made myself this grey linen dress to wear over the hot days of summer (of which there have been quite a few this year). I drafted the pattern myself (I think it could still use a few tweaks though) and used milled linen fabric from The Fabric Store. The best part about the dress is its roomy side pockets – i can't imagine making clothes without them now!

= = Wrapping orders and birthday presents recently has been more fun because i made a giant stack of small cards with pressed flowers (and clear seal on top.) Pressed flowers forever!

^ ^ In the last photo you can see some beautiful yarn I bought from my friend Nikki's shop, Dark Harbour. This was a Christmas present to myself and I finally case a new pair of socks on with it this weekend. The colourway is called 'Rare and Exotic Beast.' Perfect!

Hello from a balmy summer's evening in Wellington. It's unseasonably warm here these days, and not at all windy, which means we can have all the doors and windows open and listen to the cicadas at full volume.

Today's post features a project I finished last year. I made a bag for my Mum and it wasn't really a Christmas present but I gave it to her over the holidays. She asked for a similar bag to the one I recently made my sister (you can read about that here) and the pattern I used was the 'zip pocket tote' from this great book by Anna Graham. 

The pattern calls for the use of some industrial-strength interfacing and the finished bag is quite sturdy and large with lots of pockets and two zips. I used some grey cotton/linen blend fabric for the exterior, paired with a vintage cotton print from my friend Helen. Mum likes it and the last time i saw her she was toting her current hand-applique project inside.

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Also over the holidays I fell in love with a cookbook – it's called Little Library Cookbook by Kate Young. The book features beautiful photos and writing about the author's favourite books and the food within. There's a recipe for the pizza from Elena Ferrante's Neopolitan novels, Pippi Longstocking's Swedish pancakes, and Paddington Bear's marmalade, to name just a few. 

I've found myself making many of the recipes in the book, including two you can see above: mint juleps (truthfully, Tom made these – so refreshing after a long hot day!) from The Great Gatsby, and Vanilla Layer Cake as described in Anne of Green Gables (with our seasonal addition of borage flowers from the garden.)

Kate Young has a website/blog with lots of recipes like those in the book, and also a column in The Guardian.

I don't mind telling you I even made crumpets from scratch, inspired by Daphne du Maurier's novel Rebecca and they were delicious and definitely worth the effort. 

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I recently had fun piecing together the leftover bits of fabric from other projects (the corners cut out from project bags, mostly) and making some free-form patchwork pieces. At the end of last year, I must have been on a grey-peach-green colour vibe! 

I didn't have enough scraps for a whole quilt, so instead used the patchwork to make some handy little pouches and project bags for my etsy shop. I love being able to make things from salvaged pieces… nothing is wasted. Now I'm saving up squares for my next afternoon of patch-sewing… this time it seems to be lots of blues and neutral fabrics.

In other news, Tom and I have been watching the second season of The Crown (along with nearly everyone else I've spoken to lately) which I'm really enjoying. Beautiful set design and lots of interesting history to read up on as you go.

I've just finished Kate Atkinson's Life After Life (highly recommended!) and am now reading Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates which is extraordinary and changing the way I think about things. 

Are you reading or watching anything special at the moment? 

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The flowers at the top of this post are alstroemeria (Peruvian lilies) growing in my Mum's garden while we were visiting this summer. Their peachy-pink petals growing against the white stucco wall needed to be captured.

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Happy new year! 

We've just returned home after our annual trip to visit family and friends, eat berries, swim in the sea, sleep in tents and get sunburned. It feels like we really had a proper break from normal life and are grateful for it. I hope you've had a good summer too, or winter, as the case may be.

Above are some 'summer postcards' – just a few snaps in time captured when I remembered to get my camera out. 

Most of the time I was too busy talking, cooking, eating, drinking – not a bad way to spend three weeks! I also managed to get a bit of knitting done and a few books read which is a mark of the best holiday, don't you think? Especially loved Autumn by Ali Smith and My Father's Island which is about a NZ literary editor, written by his son.

We also tried lots of new salads. In fact, it feels like this is our summer of moghrabieh (pearl couscous) salads and I'm looking forward to trying to recreate some of the beautiful dishes we tried when visiting family. This one looks great and Ottolenghi recipes are on my -must-make list for summer dinners.

+ + + + + I hope 2018 has started well for you. See you back here soon. + + + + +