I think my quilt making is very much in the contemporary bracket! I don’t think I have the time, the patience, or probably worst, the inclination to produce a beautiful traditional quilt. I love the idea, but I don’t think I have the stomach to make one myself! It isn’t the size, because I would feel quite confident in that, it is the perfection, the precise nature of it, and as seen with the nuno felting, I don’t like to think I have failed!

So this week we start work on the quilting on the course I’m running, I have shown you one already and thanks for all the lovely comments on that, but I wanted to make at least another one, a practical item.

So here we go, small craft quilt number two!

I have gone for a very subtle and understated colour scheme, and pattern, as I wanted to try out doing more stitching.

Also to keep it quicker and easier for me, this time it is not bound, I simply turned it inside out. I really like this effect on this one, I think it looks understated, and practical.
So this is how the last one finished, I didn’t wash that one, as it is a wallhanging, and looks great as it is, but I wanted this to have that lovely ‘lived in’ feeling, and so into the wash it went.

It looks nice, and I’m confident it could be quite successfully in the kitchen as a pot-rest, or something similar. It is mainly a lovely thick linen, so I think it would stand up to the task well, what do you think?

I need to make some more pieces up a-la Blue Peter, to show the stages, I could use photos, but having actual pieces it is much easier to explain things, and to answer questions, also you can pick them up, have a fiddle and go from there.

Unfortunately I have not stocked up the shop recently : (
I have ten bags half made, and due to a disagreement over table fees (another story), I might only be doing the Handm@de fair in Oxford now, so I don’t really if I should sit on my stock, or flood the shop, hmmmmmmm.

More soon : )

about my little Creative Textile course : )

This was the third week of the course, and we have had 2 weeks of making felt, and this week we worked on embellishing the felt!

It has been really enjoyable, I have found it to be really interesting to be in the role of ‘teacher’, and trying to work out when I need to help, and when to step back, that part is really quite hard.
I think yesterday I stepped back more than previous weeks as I wanted everyone to explore their pieces and what they could do with the materials they had to work with, also they only had about an 70 minutes to work on their pieces, so they didn’t have that much time.

Next week we start on the craft/art quilts, so I’ve got to get on with getting all the fabric together and making another quilt myself, to work on techniques etc. I have made one so far, but the light isn’t great on this image!

What do you think?

Anyway hope you have a great weekend, and if you want to see what will be in the first issue of SewHip, have a look here, guess which is mine!

as I mentioned yesterday I tried to make some nuno felt, and the first piece was wrong, and I really knew that as soon as I had made it! Maybe it had something to do with the fact that there was only wool on one side, duh!

So I tried again, using the same wool tops, with a piece of silk chiffon gauze, and again, it didn’t pucker really or bubble : (

I think it maybe it is to do with the following;
1. wool is too thick
2. I didn’t felt it enough

these both prove one thing to me, I’m impatient, or maybe I could just say I didn’t not leave myself enough time to do it, I don’t know.

I will try again, as I want to make it work, now I’m leave with these odd pieces, any ideas?

well I am if you think that a soft thing that holds pins is a friend!

Well in my book, and today, yes, it is! Last week I showed off the tasty combination of tweed and suede, and there it is, in all its lovely tactile loveliness!

There are three of these, but the other two are not blue, one is a pink and the other is black, both are woven fabric, sort of tweedy like, and quite honestly they are totally lovely too!

They will go into the Etsy shop later today, I’ve also tried making some nuno felt today, but to be honest, I don’t think it has worked properly, or I did something wrong, but I’ll wait, let it dry and go from there. If it hasn’t worked I will try again tomorrow.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw this on Wee Wonderfuls, and I knew I had to have it, and now I do!

Now to add this to the stash, but I do actually have something in mind for this one, so I hope it be be appearing in a new bag soon!

Anything else, no, not yet : )

yep, more trees, I like trees, and I guess at this time of year I’m even more inspired by them,

there are three of these, orange, red/brown and green, and I’m adding some patterned pieces to them as well, I’m very pleased with them so far, they are certainly a progression of some of my previous designs.
It is hard, because I have wanted to do some old designs again, but when I look at them, they don’t sit quite right with what I’m doing now, so I guess these are new, but inspired by the past as well.

so I’m trying to actually do some bags now, shocking I know, also have my suede and tweed to work with, so when I have something on that I will show you a peep : )

This week at school has been good for William, not so hot for Edward, but hey, you can’t have everything!

Also course is going well, and some more photos next week showing off some of my ’students’ work! I’ve been really impressed by what they have all achieved, it is fantastic seeing how other people view what they are doing, how they create and compose it, it has been a real eye-opener : )

not as kinky as it might sound : )

lets do the list first! William is starting to write more lists, and I think this can only increase the closer we get to birthday and Christmas time! However he has worked on ideas for teatime in our house, and this is what he has come up with,

Don’t you just love it, he has discovered soup, which is a bit weird, I don’t think that fad will last long. I think the ‘buger’ and ‘meetballs’ will last a bit longer!

I have been doing the boring bits of my bag making, and trying to squeeze it in around all the other stuff, and in the process, and having to go and buy some new thread, I bought a little bit of leather, and tried it out with some of my lovely blue/brown tweed.

So what do you think?

I think it works really nicely together, when I have something actually made I will show you of course! I think I really need to get back into the swing of trying to update the blog more regularly, dunno.

I guess with September here, back to school, and mornings like this,

it really does feel like it!

The start of Autumn also means the busiest time of the year for me, hopefully! And it started last Thursday, when I started teaching my Creative Textiles course : )

It is a six week course, the first three weeks are based around felt making, and the second three weeks around making an art/craft quilt. I’m teaching two sessions, one in the morning, and an evening one. I was really quite worn out after the second session, now in hindsight I think that may have something to do with the heavy cold I have had all weekend, which has really knocked me out : (

So the first week was making a piece of felt, and so I demoed, and then everyone got to have a go, I have 15 ladies doing it over the two sessions. It was excellent, I was so worried that I would not explain it well enough, or they would be confused by the process, but everyone was fine, even though some were worried about the process!

The point I’m making about running this course is that it is fun, and that not everything has to be perfect, and to enjoy yourself is far more important : )

So next week we will be working on another piece of felt, and working in other fibres, and developing the skills they learnt in the first session, I will remember to take more photos during the next one!

John has been working on more printing ideas for me to use, and this is the latest one,

It is really lovely, and this time it is a repeating pattern, so we will be trying to make that work very soon!

Regarding updates to the shop, I’m going to try and add a couple of things per week, but I’m also having to produce more stock for the fairs I have coming up, so if you see something on here that doesn’t appear in the either of the shops, then please drop me a mail!

I would also like to say a big thank you to everyone who has commented of the cervical erosion post, I wrote it because I wanted people to know about what it is, and that you should always get something checked out even if you are scared : ) Even if only one person is helped by it, I will feel that I did the right thing. Thanks again.

In the past I have alluded to ‘woman’ problems I have had, but allude I will no more!

So if you are of a weak disposition, or don’t want to read about that ’sort’ of thing, when you actually came here to read about or see;
a. Gingerbread men recipe
b. look at pretty pictures
c. hear about my lovely children
if any of those are you, look away now!

So are you ready??

Lets go…

I will start at the beginning, when I was pregnant with William (7 years ago), I had Thrush for the first time, and was told it was hormonal, which it was to be honest, it was treated, and went away.

After having William I had the copper coil fitted, and since then I have suffered with Thrush, ranging from the slightly annoying, to unbelievably painful, so bad one time I could barely move. There is another thing as well, just about to get to that!

Now rushing to forward through time and to now, well 6 weeks ago actually.

You are meant to have your coil changed every 5 years, well last year came and went and I forgot, and I forgot to get my smear done as well, but I knew it had to be done, so I booked myself in, joy of joys!

While talking to the nurse doing the smear I said that I had had suffered from bleeding after intercourse (I thought I would use the technical term!) and she noted this down, and said I should mention this when I saw the doctor about the coil, so I wasn’t worried, I mean it had been happening for at least 18 months, and it couldn’t be that bad.

Saw the doctor, I explained about the bleeding, she had a look, said it looked inflamed, took a swab, and then said I would have to go up to the Hospital to be looked at by a Gynecologist, when she was saying all of this, it was very matter of fact, not great bedside manner!
She then when on the say that it could be that I had ‘damaged’ cells around my cervix, and no more explanation. When she said this, to me, it meant one thing, cancer, and I went home to worry and worry a bit more.
The next day I had more bleeding, rang the doctors, now really quite worried about all of this.
We have a certain doctor at our surgery who is lovely, she always puts me at ease, and I feel very confident with her, thankfully it was her I spoke to while in a blind panic!
She explained that the swab had come back showing an infection of Thrush, and that the whole bleeding thing, was not that unusual, and they are now told to send anyone suffering up to the hospital! Why didn’t the one the day before say this!!!

Now calm again!

Smear test come back, all clear, calmer again : )

Another letter arrives, saying that I have Antinomyces-like organisms showing up on the smear test, this is often seen in someone who has a coil fitted, symptoms of pain, discharge etc, hmmmmm, see a link here? So another thing!

Appointment letter for Gynecologist arrives yesterday, appointment today!

Off I go, a bit unsure, but ok.

I see the most lovely man, so nice, calm, didn’t talk to me like I was some twittering idiot, I then explain what is happening, he reads my notes, and he says that he believes I have Cervical Erosion.
This is a non-cancerous erosion of cells at the neck of your cervix can lead to bleeding between periods and after sex.
He goes on to tell me that this is not unusual in women who have had at least one child, and after having children the lining of the cervix can start to sort of grow out through the entrance of the cervix. It can also be caused by other things like the pill, and stuff.
But the reason why it happens isn’t really that important, you either have it, or not!
So he thinks I have this, when this exists the cells that should be in the cervix have sneaked out, they are more like the cells that line your mouth, quite delicate and easily damaged, so that is why they bleed after intercourse.
Also the cells produce more mucus to protect themselves, and because of the ph balance, do you see where I’m going with this!

So! To cut a long story short, he has a look with a camera, and I watch too, and he is right, I can see the cells and they are all inflamed, and all the extra mucus as well, I hope you aren’t eating while reading this!

So he takes a little bit to do a biopsy of, standard practice, and tells me that he will book me in to have my coil removed, and the erosion treated by cauterizing it! They do this using some local anesthetic, and then the normal skin around the entrance will grow back, and no more bleeding and yukky discharge!

Now you may be wondering why I have written this, put you off you tea, made you never want to read my blog again, but my point for doing this is this,

I would never have gone to the doctor to have talk about this, it was sort of by chance, just because I was there about a related matter.
If I hadn’t said anything, the bleeding would have continued, until I have got really worried about it, and become paranoid that I had cancer.
So what I’m saying is, don’t just worry about it, it could well be this, something I had never heard of, and to be honest, it has all been painless so far, and one less thing to worry about.

Once this has been done and the coil removed I also hope that I will finally be free of all the thrush stuff too.

So don’t just sit there and cross your legs, hope for the best, go see your doctor, remember to get your smear test done, it is better to do it now!

I’m sorry if I have rambled, and talked rubbish, but I wanted to share my experience, as I had no knowledge of this, I promise it will be back to business over the weekend, when I will waffle about the course I’m running instead!!

Thanks for listening : )

term has now really started, both boys are back at school, and William has had a great start to the term, lets hope it can last for at least a week!

But I will not bore you with more children related stories, I think it must get to be quite weary reading about it all the time, but at least it is positive today : ) And to be honest I feel quite positive about it all at the moment.

Right enough already!

Cushion covers, I have made three more!

the top and the bottom ones feature the last two pieces of the fabric we printed, and the middle one is great, I love it, it is so mad. But it does act as a partner to all of the covers I have made, which is the idea behind it!

So I have made all the covers, we are working on more ideas for prints, and so I hope to have some more stuff to show you next week.

But first, I have something else to do which is a bit scary!

From tomorrow, on a Thursday, for six weeks, I’m running a Creative Textiles course!!
I’m going to do teaching a morning and evening session for 90 minutes each session, and I will be teaching 15 lovely ladies how to make felt, and how to make an art/craft quilt!
I will try to write a bit more about it over the next few days, especially the second bit! I now have to sort out all my bits for tomorrow, wish me luck!!

I would like to say thank you to everyone who read and commented on my last post, especially you Hazeljoy, because you have the other side, the school side.

I know lots of people who work, or worked in the teaching profession, my sister works with a diverse range of special needs children, my mother in law worked at a secondary school with children mainly from a rough area of the town, and my dad used to work at a well known public school, so I have a very wide knowledge of what you can expect to receive, and also what can happen, and often does.

We will see what happens on Monday, I will try to keep an open mind, but I know that things will be harder before they improve.

Onto more enjoyable things!

I made the Etsy front page today!

Yay!

I have used some of that fantastic tweed, and the one dark version of the screen-printed grasses that we printed, I think it works really well : )

I’m now working with the last print of the grasses, and this one was the best print! So rather than being just a corner piece, it will be the main feature, so this will be a cushion cover sometime today.

So there should be a small update to the shop today, or tomorrow, see how small people are!