Here's #27 again- in colour this time. I hope you've had a lovely week! Mine has been a bit quieter than usual. We've had wild storms. Each morning when I step out the door, the road is covered in petals and leaves. It can't be easy being a plant in Wellington.
These things are on my optimistic weekend list:
Make some lemon blueberry pudding
Watch Moonrise Kingdom
Sew a new spring dress (have some fabric, need to find a pattern. Any suggestions?)
See you next week.
Threads, needles, scissors, linen, old embroidery books. These are some of the things I've been gathering today, in preparation for my classes at The Craft Sessions. For this particular class, I've written a little booklet for each student containing ideas, stitch diagrams and freehand embroidery encouragement.
Now I just need to get them copied and stapled together.
Today is the last day to register for TCS, if you're thinking about it. (To find out more, you can listen to a podcast all about it here.)
As well as all sorts of crafty delights, there will be yoga, pastries, gift bags, delicious food, and a sauna. Really. It would be so great to see you there.
I had lunch (and saw this amazing show) with my friend Karuna and her daughter Poppy over the weekend. K gave me a huge stash of her embroidery threads which have inspired me to try all sorts of different stitches. The threads are beautiful hand dyed yarns in jewellery-box colours: rich gold, blues and greens.
The really exciting thing about them is that they're coming with me to The Craft Sessions in Australia at the end of October. I'm teaching a few classes: two of them are free-form embroidery and I will be sharing these beautiful threads, different linens and visual inspiration I've been collecting for this very purpose.
There are few spots available at The Craft Sessions- it will be really quite a special thing. The registrations close on the 10th so you have a couple more days to join in.
I got these yellow flowers from this lovely local shop on the weekend. They're a bit like protea but smell strongly of manuka honey. No-one knows what they're called- do you? (Please leave a comment if so!) They're greatly cheering up the kitchen windowsill, making the dishes a nicer job to complete.
Their golden yellowness inspired a bit of fabric printing. I carved the drop shape from rubber, and used yellow ink to stamp it onto linen. I'm thinking of sewing the linen up into pillowcases. Partly because I've always wanted yellow bedding, and partly because I thought a blog post about them could be called 'raindrops keep falling on my bed', no wait… 'tears on my pillow…' Okay, I'll stop now.
Happy new week to you!
Today's pattern reflects the kind of week I've had. So it's half-finished, a day late and uncoloured. But I thought I would post it anyway- perhaps next week it will appear again in glorious watercolour.
It was inspired by catching a glimpse of a Christmas card design in a bookshop (Christmas- already?) that featured some elegant-looking mistletoe. I kept that form in my mind to make this mistletoe-ish pattern. I'd like to be able to make my own Christmas cards this year, so perhaps I will adapt this design to do so.
I found two very sweet animals online this week, while at work researching sciencey stuff:
I had lonely granny smith apples in the bottom of the fridge and some small, hungry mouths to feed (school holidays) so I made some apple turnovers. Apple pies are one thing, but individual pies are really quite another. I might never make a big pie again.
Any leftover pies should be freezable I think and I might stockpile a few batches for the lunchboxes next term too.
This is how I made them:
Pastry
80 grams butter
1 1/4 flour
1/2 cup cold milk
1 Tb vinegar
I use a food processor to make this pastry- whizz together the butter and flour until crumbly, then slowly pour in the milk to which you've previously added the vinegar (to curdle it.) Once it forms a ball, take it out and knead lightly on a floured board. Divide the mixture into 8 equal parts, and roll each into a thin circle. Place a generous spoonful of the mixture on one half of the circle, fold this over into a half-moon shape and use a fork to crimp the edges and prick the top. Bake on a floured tray at 200 C for about 15 mins.
Filling
4 large green apples
handful of sultanas or raisins
zest of 1 lemon
1 Tb brown sugar
tsp cinnamon or mixed spice
2 Tb plain flour
Peel the apples and chop into small pieces. Mix together with the other ingredients.
I made a stash of botanical-themed gift-tags, like the pine ones from last week, using some more old book pages sent by Dee. These were fun to make and greatly cheered a recent stormy afternoon.. It turns out I have many old botanical illustrations stashed away in drawers and cupboards, so I've been able to make quite a few of these. I'm sure they'll come in handy at Christmas time. (I also have a couple of sets in le shoppe– I did get a bit carried away with making them…)
And in other news… it's nearly October! How did that happen?
This pattern was inspired by a page in a 1970's craft book (one of those Golden Hands ones). There was a similar pattern on some wall tiles, probably a background to showcase a crocheted potholder or macrame owl. It stuck in my mind (more than the actual project did), in the way that those retro decors tend to. Especially that lovely mustardy yellow. I am fond of that yellow.
I used to have a lot of those old craft books, but I think I gave them away during one of our house moves. Boxes of old books are heavy! Hopefully someone else is getting inspired by leather jerkins and patchwork trousers as I write.
Hope you have a lovely weekend.
Do you know Lisa's blog The Red Thread?
It's very beautiful, and packed full of craft and design inspiration.
Lisa has kindly featured me in her Space to Create series. It's a piece with an interview and photos of my work and home.
You can read it here. Thanks, Lisa!
I found a packet of silver hair snaps in my sewing box, so it seemed like a good time to make some spring clips. I used scraps of wool felt to make pairs of violet or pansy hair clips- I'm not sure which they are. Some for K and some for the etsy shop.
Speaking of pansies of many colours: I found this recipe for flower shortbread– isn't it beautiful? If I ever find enough pansies in one place, I'll give it a go.
tiny happy 