Fibreworks and the Festival

Last Saturday I had a trip out to Chipping Norton for their Fibre Festival.

This was a new event organised by the Fibreworks shop in town and held in the town hall.

We arrived early in the morning and already the hall was buzzing, there were lots of stalls, varying from wool to other creative crafts.  Lots of demonstrations running through the day, all of which are offered as classes at Fibreworks.

The stalls were mostly run by the tutors of the courses and they were all lovely and welcoming, eager to talk and to explain their craft.

There was patchwork and quilting, which I'd love to do, sewing children's clothes, kanzashi flowers, flower arranging, millinery and fabric printing.

All the stalls were beautifully laid out, it wasn't too crowded and I wanted to sign up to all the courses offered by Fibreworks!

The demonstration on when my mum and I arrived was rag-rugging so we were eagerly watching as we were signed up to do this on the following Tuesday! It really got us excited and gave us a chance to think about what materials/colours/shapes we'd like to produce!
The venue was a lovely space, I'd never been before but it was just the right size, it even had room for some tea tables and they have fabulous large portraits on the walls, very grand!
I really hope it is the first of many, it was easy to get to, easy to park and there are plenty of places to go after for a bite to eat or shop! We had a good mooch around all the charity shops, which were full of lovely things - pity I couldn't afford the £85 for the Poole pottery set I spied in one! 

I did manage to get an early birthday present from my mum at the fair though, a, lovely Liberty and bead bracelet, I'm afraid I've mislaid the makers card, do let me know if you can help credit this.

So after a very hectic weekend, which included mine and my daughters birthdays and a party, on Tuesday we were ready for our turn at rag-rugging! Even though I was shattered, I was definitely ready for some 'me' time!

We arrived at the Fibreworks shop at 10am and were warmly greeted and sent upstairs to the craft room.

There were 5 of us on the course and our tutor Claire quickly talked about the history of rag-rugs, about how they used to be made from fabric scraps, worn out clothes and how they would be rotated through the house, a new one made for best at Christmas for the parlour, and then each rooms rug would be demoted down the hierarchy of rooms, to the lowly back door rug which when worn out would be composted!

I love this make do and mend philosophy!

Then we got stuck in (with tea and biscuits) to having a go with some scraps, the technique is very simple, with the latch hook you go through the hessian from front to back, then bring the hook out a few strands away, then push the hook shaft all the way through through both holes (this opens the latch), then you place your rag piece on the hook end and as you pull through both holes, the latch closes and holds onto the rag.

I found the process very calming and methodical without having to be too worried about neatness or perfection, the charm is the handmade-ness, it doesn't have to be perfect!

So then we had a think about what we wanted to produce and we were able to get a piece of hessian cut to our liking and think about a layout or design. I had taken some t-shirts with me but the shop does have a stash for you to use as well. Claire recommended using old t-shirts/tights/ socks as the jersey doesn't fray and usually rolls up into nice coils, if using cottons its best to cut up with pinking shears and that gives a more shaggy look.

Mine is hopefully going to be mainly blues and greens in blocks/squares/triangles, I'm not sure how long it will take to complete though!

Before we knew it, it was 1pm and we were done for the day, I think the timescale was spot on, enough to get started without being too long. We all headed home with plenty of fabric, our piece of hessian and our free latch hook, which was great value I felt for the course fee.

I definitely think we'll be back for more courses!
If you want to have a go, they have two more rag-rug courses coming up:
Tuesday 17 September, 10am - 1pm
Wednesday 6th November  10am - 1pm
http://www.thefibreworks.co.uk/classes.html

Plastic Bunting

Last week provided an end to the 'heatwave' and brought a very welcome (for me!) rainy day!

I was actually looking forward to this as I had a project ready & waiting, the lovely Original Stitch had mentioned on her twitter feed about a recycling project to do with the kids: http://originalstitch.blogspot.com/2010/06/eco-tip-1-party-bunting-and-wood.html

The original tutorial was from Amelia's Magazine, which is very instructive.

 Basically you need to cut up some plastic bags, sandwich them between greaseproof paper and iron to create a thicker plastic material.

It's a case of trial and error, I've found that some of the ink's tend to get sticky and stick to the paper, so it's best to sandwich them with clearer plastic bags over the top.

The cheap supermarket bags need to be layered as they tend to get holes in if they're too thin.

It's best if you have nice carrier bags!

I got too hot doing the ironing but would have liked to spent longer making better collages with the prints or putting sequins/threads in the layers!

Iron lightly on each side and then leave for about 10 seconds, with some bags you'll hear the plastic crackling as it cools down and then it's easier to peel the paper away.

Once the grown-up job was done (and you could of course do it in advance if you're one of those organised mummy's!) it was time for the production line!

Cue music to work too, lots of drawing round a triangle template and then lots of scissor cutting out action! 

My girls loved this as we used 'grown-up' scissors as their kiddy ones weren't really up to the job.

Next job was to put holes in the top corners, my hole-punch didn't like it so instead we went all Blue Peter and used kebab sticks with blue-tack under the flags.

After hunting out the garden twine from the shed (in the pouring rain) both my youngest and me set about threading them up.  The Eldest had got bored by now and was back to her usual 'nose in a book' position!  I thought this would be too tedious for the 5 yo but she loved it and did great, by the time we'd finished the sun had come out so we were able to hang it out to see the fruits of our labours.

It's not the most prettiest or well designed but as a lovely project that we all did together I'm more than happy with it.  It also really cheers up the ugly wooden fence!

Post Christmas

After the rush to get things ready it always seems to flash past doesn't it the big day!!

With last minute crafting and doing a proper roast since we've had kids, it seems to have been a lot of effort for a short period!!

So I tried really hard this year to make the girls something which inevitably led to a last minute panic!! But I really enjoyed it and was very proud to see their faces when the saw....

the finished knitted mouses and the fleecy floor cushions. It made the 2am Christmas Eve morning finish all worthwhile!!

Mary Christmouse was from Knit Today, issue 39, Nov 2009, pattern by Val Pierce, which as a novice knitter I found very easy, there's a lot of sewing together though and I still haven't got the hang of charming faces! The info is also on my Ravelry page, (HoldMyHand).

The floor cushions were a late brain-wave, I had an old king size duvet which I was going to Freecycle but then as a couldn't afford bean-bags for the girls I wondered if I could cut it into squares as large floor cushions! So I measured out a generous size and doing some calculations made the 60cm squares which made 16 squares, eight per cushion.

I then sewed a square inner cover for them out of an old sheet and the used the three metres of very bright fleece that's been waiting for a project to make simple pillow-case type opening covers. I added some flaps of fleece and different ribbon to identify them at the top corners. The best thing is they cost nothing!! And more importantly the girls love them and have been lounging on the all Christmas!! I hope they'll end up in the room under the cabin bed where I hope to finish creating a reading/listening chill-out area for them!! The curtain to go around the opening of the bed is the next project, when I can find a large piece of appropriate fabric (I'm thinking of Ikea)!!

Me and the kids didn't really do a huge amount of Christmas crafting this year, I've really noticed the difference from last year when I was only working two days a week (what bliss!!), it's been a bit sad having to rush to fit everything in, we didn't even visit santa, although both the girls have seen him via school/nursery.

We did get to decorate pine cones for our card display

I found a pack of ribbon with small pegs at Clinton Cards for only £1.99 which although it wasn't as nice as the Cath kidston washing line version I fancied, the cheaper then £5 price tag won me over!!

I can also now reveal the present my Mum got for me from the Vintage & Handmade Fairback in November....

Meet Bea, from the lovely Vintage Magpie, isn't she lovely, a much loved addition to our family.

I was also lucky enough to receive...

a lovely Lindt Matroyshka dolly, hyacinths planted by the girls and a tea set with a lovely Cath mug!

I'm still waiting for my knitting counter I was promised by the other half!!

I'm getting withdrawal symptoms from knitting now too, I'm itching to get started on a sleeveless cardie which is my next project, again details on Ravelry.

I'm also looking at the benefits of changing to a different provider for blogging as the lack of features on Blogger is slowing me down, especially the add image function which as a fairly important one, is infuriatingly rubbish! Any comments/info would be very welcome.

I hope all blog readers had a lovely crafty Christmas and here's to making 2010 New Year's crafting resolutions/to do lists!