By Helen: Fabric fun

Fabric fun

11/13/2015

getting ready for Christmas…

Hello Lovelies! It is great to see soooo many of you here, looking at the little blog, you are all very welcome! As a reminder you can also find me on Facebook HERE and on Ravelry HERE. Do pop by!

We’ve had Halloween. We’ve had Bonfire Night. We can officially start thinking about Christmas, not that we haven’t sneakily been doing so already, over the next few weeks I have two craft fairs coming up. One is in my home. Yes in my home! My local area is having a Craft-y-Crawl, where makers open up their homes, showcase their makes and, hopefully, have a few sales. The second craft fair I am going to be at, with York Makers. This year York Makers are having two fairs: one on the 29^th November at Wiggington Recreation Hall, the other (the one I’ll be at) is on the 5^th December at Clements Hall, in my local area. I would love, love, love to have done more fairs this year, but work has got in the way. Here is a sneaky-peek at some of my makes that I will be taking along to the fairs…

Mini crochet wreaths…

Sparkly snowflakes…

Perfect stocking-fillers: bookmarks…

More stocking-fillers: brooches…

And hair blossoms...

It would be just lovely to see soon of you at one of these fairs: but don’t worry if you can’t make, I’ll keep you updated right here!

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13 Nov 2015 14:19:09 | Christmas, Crochet, Fabric fun, York

09/12/2015

super-sized fabric flowers….

I’ve wanted to share these fabric flowers with you for a while, I just somehow haven’t got round to it, until now. I was asked to make some fabric flowers for a wedding and the lovely bride set me the challenge of making them as large as I could possible make them! What a challenge! I was sooooo luck, not only to be asked to make these flowers for a very special day, but the bride happened to be an interior-designer and had access to the most amazing fabrics: I was, literally, a child in a sweet shop! The flowers are a scaled up version of these fabric flowers and the ones that I form part of one of my Workshops. Here is a small selection of the large flowers that I made…

I can’t wait to see the official photographs!

12 Sep 2015 10:13:52 | Fabric fun

08/19/2015

an ancestral gift: a truly inspirational exhibition (part one)…

I’ve had the morning off work, so I decided to visit The Quilt Museum in York. The Quilt Museum is one of my favourite museums in York. At the end of October the Museum will closes it’s doors for the last time, but before it does please make sure you pay it a visit. The exhibition that is one at the moment (running until 5^th September) is a real show stopper. The exhibition Ancestral Gifts is curated by Kaffe Fassett and conjunction with The Quilters’ Guild Collection. Kaffe Fassett has taken quilts from the historic collection and used them as inspiration for designing his own quilts, using his own genius use of colour. The quilts hang in pairs, so that you can see how they work together. The museum is a a wash with colour, a feast for the eyes and your allowed to take photographs!

My photographs are substitute for visiting but if you can’t make it to York in the next few weeks they will (hopefully) give you an idea of the quality of the exhibition. So, here are a few of the picis that I took and I’ll share some more with you next week…

19 Aug 2015 11:55:28 | A grand day out, Fabric fun, inspiration, York

06/29/2015

fabulous fabric flowers…

Last week(ish) I had the pleasure of running a fabulous fabric flowers workshop at The Silver Thimble. You might remember The Silver Thimble I have run workshops there before. They are always a great deal of fun, with some of the loveliest ladies, and I end up learning as much as they do! Very soon into the workshop, we had fabulous fabric flowers blooming all over, here’s a selection…

My next workshop, at The Silver Thimble, is on the 23^rd October and we will be making braids and buttons. Hope to see some of you there!

If you want to come along, you can find The Silver Thimble on Facebook HERE and I’m also on Facebook HERE!

29 Jun 2015 12:06:28 | Fabric fun, Other people's stuff

03/19/2015

more fabric flowers…

You know, or hopefully you do by now, how much I love flowers. I love all flowers; real, crocheted, fabric, any type of flower I just LOVE them. For a few years (oh gosh years) I have been teaching fabric flower workshops to the lovely ladies at The Silver Thimble. I will be running workshops there again this year, so I thought that I should look at making a new type of fabric flower. I don’t want the lovely ladies getting bored after-all! So, that is what I have been crafting for a few weeks now, a new type of fabric flower. Want to see how I have got along? Ok…

I’m really rather pleased with how they have turned out. I can’t wait to share how to make these at The Silver Thimble, if you want to come along the workshop is on Friday 19^th June 10:00 4:00 and costs £30.00, you can book on HERE.

I am also going to be taking the fabric flowers along to the York Makers Spring Fair on Saturday 9^th May at Clements Hall, York, as I think that they would be just lovely for an alternative wedding bouquet.

Really hope that you like them as much as I do! Let me know, I’d love to know what you think. You can comment here or find me on Facebook HERE.

19 Mar 2015 10:46:44 | Fabric fun

02/19/2015

ric-rac, rik-rak, rick-rack , roses…

For Valentine’s Day I made roses…

The roses are made from ric-rac (also known as rik-rak and rick-rack). I hope you know what I mean? It’s trimming that looks like this…

It comes in different widths, it really doesn’t matter what size you have to hand, you’ll just end up with slightly bigger, or slightly smaller roses! I thought I’d share with you how to make these ric-rac roses. Here goes. You’ll need your sewing machine, thread that blends into the ric-rac (although I am using one that shows up, so that you can see what I’m doing), scissors, pins,a ruler, glue (either fabric or hot glue-gun) and a peg!

Cut length of ric-rak, about 25-30cms long, then cut it in half. Twist the two lengths of ric-rak together…

The peg comes in really handy for securing one end! When you have twisted the lengths together, go to your sewing machine and make sure that you are using a straight stitch (average length will be fine) and set on the slowest speed: your fingers are going to be close to the needle! Carefully stitch down one side of the twisted ric-rak…

You might need a second peg to stop the other-end unravelling…

When you’ve finished stitching it should look something like…

Practice rolling the stitched ric-rak into a bud; do this a few times, so that when you start with the glue you don’t end up in a mess (like I did first time around). When you are ready, roll the stitched ric-rak into a bud, gluing as you go …

When you have finished gluing, you might need a pin to secure the end…

Leave the roses overnight so that the glue completely dries. When the glue is dry, gently fold out petals…

Decide what you are going to do with your lovely little rose. I glued this on to a ring…

Let me know what you decide to you with your ric-rak roses, remember that you can find me on Facebook HERE

Play about with different lengths of ric-rak and different widths, until you have blooms and blooms of roses.

Happy crafting!

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19 Feb 2015 11:42:27 | Fabric fun, How to..., Something new

08/14/2014

fabric flowers…

Every once in a while I like to try a new craft. I did promise Si, that I would focus, but temptation calls, especially when new the new craft involves fabric and flowers: two of my very favourite things. During my last visit to the Quilt Museum, in York, I saw a poster advertising a workshop to make fabric flower brooches and learn machine embroidery. Now I’ve want to learn machine embroidery ever-since Kirstie Allsopp declared it the crack cocaine of the craft world! I signed up, for the workshop, straight away. The workshop tutor was the very talented Diana Barrett: who through her brilliance led the class through everything we needed to know about sewing machines, setting the machines for machine embroidery and then making the fabric flower brooches. Here’s what we did…

Practising machine embroidery…

Getting more confident…

Even more confident: zig-zagging machine embroidery style…

Starting the brooch: stitching down layers of fabric…

Back looks more interesting than the front…

Flower petals begin to appear…

Front is beginning to look better…

Cut out petals…

The trickiest part of the day: making cord to go around the edges of the petals by stitching over embroidery thread…

Getting even trickier: sewing the cord to the edge of the petal: on a sewing machine, eeekkk…

Nearly there…

Ta-dah…

What a day! I was exhausted by the end of it. I’d learnt so much. Can’t wait to make more, my head is quite literally spinning with ideas.

Thank you Diana!

14 Aug 2014 12:23:40 | Fabric fun, inspiration, making

05/15/2014

fabric project: sneaky peak…

I’m very excited about a fabric project which I am working on at the moment. But I can’t really tell you too much about it. It needs approval. I know this makes it sound very serious and secretive: but really it’s not. I am hoping that this fabric project, will be what I use for my Christmas (yes Christmas: I know it is only May) workshop at The Silver Thimble. I’ve run workshops there before: oh I loved the smell of burning organza as the lovely ladies burnt their flowers during my last workshop! I haven’t shown The Silver Thimble this project yet, this is why I’m only giving you a sneaky peak today.

I love the fabric that is involved. I honestly think that if I ever get to choose the flag of my own country, it will look something like this…

There are fabric circles: large and small…

There are strips of fabric…

There’s top stitching: on the machine and by hand…

There’s riveting…

There’s handmade cord: made the old fashioned by…

And of course there are fabric flowers…

I promise, I will share this with you very soon. I’m very excited by the project: fingers-crossed The Silver Thimble will be to!

Happy crafting!

15 May 2014 10:30:43 | Christmas, Fabric fun, inspiration, making

04/25/2014

three years on…

Wow! I can hardly believe it, my little blog is three years old! Three years: that is 229 (yes two hundred and twenty-nine) posts. All I can say is thank you so much to sharing this journey of crafting highs and lows with me. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! I really do appreciate it. It was touch and go, as to whether I’d get to three years. For about five days Typepad has endured to cyber-nasties: taking down all their blogs. Sorry, if any of you called by over the last few days and got an error message. The lovely people at Typepad have been working very hard and fingers (and everything else) crossed – all is well! Back to happier things: I thought (in true blog style) I’d share with you my highlights from the last twelve months. Enjoy!

Crocheted blossom...

Crocheted rainbows…

Yarnbombing the Park...

Holidaying in Northumberland ...

Finally finishing my jumper...

Making my Christmas wreath: ready for my workshop…

Days out to enjoy the late Autumn colours…

Crocheting snowflakes...

Loving crochet books...

Snuggly crochet blankets...

Teaching workshops...

Combining crochet and embroidery...

And up-cycling...

What a year it has been. Again, thank you. I love, loVE, LOVE sharing this with you. Here’s to the next twelve months…

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25 Apr 2014 12:02:53 | celebrations, Christmas, Crochet, Fabric fun, Flower of the month, inspiration, making

03/06/2014

Spring fabric flowers…

Gosh, it’s been a busy few weeks. I can’t quite believe that it is already (nearly) half way through March: that means 2014 is (nearly) a quarter way through! I’ve been busy, busy, busy, crafting, lots of crochet but also lots of fabric flowers. Actually I made these a few weeks ago, as next week I'm running a class on making Spring flowers, so these were my samples to get people interested. The lovely Kath, from The Silver Thimble, which is where the class is, says that the class is almost full. I’m guessing that I’ll be busy with all the lovely ladies (and men?) that come along. Here’s what they are going to be making…

Remember if any of you lovelies would like to come along, let Kath know. Or let me know and I’ll let Kath know! If you can’t make it on the 14th I’m sure there will be other classes.

See you soon…

6 Mar 2014 14:53:03 | 1st post of the month, Fabric fun, making

By Helen

Crochet, Craft, Inspiration