Craft Catch-Up

We haven't been doing any writing about craft on the blog for... about a year?!? Seems unlikely, but there we are! So, here is a very quick catch-up of some of the things we've been doing. There were quite a few more, but we didn't take photos of everything....

Hanging for friends' wedding (made on Tilly with some hand stitching)

T and H's 10 year anniversary was last September (!) so this was their celebration quilt.

 

Scarf for H's Christmas present (modelled by J).

The leftover wool which was made into socks for T's Christmas (no photo).

 

Decoupaged tea-light holders for Christmas presents.

Sock monkey for Little M's birthday.

Two different latch-hook kits (here's one) - an autumnal tree and a puppy.

Leaving presents for staff I had lived and worked with for 8 months or so - painted and then fired at a local-to-there pottery shop. (PS. Yes, those are shoes. And yes, she does like shoes.)

A gardening book for cousin B's birthday.

 

 

Decoupaged tray for J's birthday - a new in tray.

And that's all we took pictures of! Fairly sure that there must have been a lot more bits and bobs throughout the year (plus lots of cards etc) but this is everything we have evidence of.

What crafts have all you readers been up to?

Knitting and Stitching Show 2014

Following a few years of indecisiveness, E and A were finally brave enough to visit the knitting and stitching show! It was held in Olympia this year and the huge venue was jam packed!

We saw...

Quilts...

Beautiful fabric...

Buttons...

More quilts...

Blue fabric, specially for A...

More quilts (I love this one)...

Ribbons...

More buttons...

And lots more besides!

The booking system wasn't great, so we didn't get to the workshop we'd originally intended, but we did one workshop at a stall, and one that we managed to book on the day. So, after our first peruse around the place, we settled at a stand to do some decoupage. (Side note: not entirely sure what decoupage has to do with knitting or stitching, but never mind.) A chose a star to decorate and E worked on a coaster. It's surprisingly easy - A decided that this was her type of craft - fast, inexact and using lots of glue! (Actually, she was instructed to use less! But A's conviction is that PVA sticks the world together, and that hasn't changed.) want to see?

Our second workshop was very different. Sarah is part of a movement called craftivism and we spent a quiet hour stitching mini protest banners. A noticed that the slow process of stitching letters made the meaning of the words really sunk in a different way. More on this later, and the movement of craftivism, later. 

And, of course they did some shopping! 

Good haul, eh? Most of the things here have destinations in mind, so watch this space for more crafty activities...

This is also our one blog-aversary today! Our little blog is one year old today! Wow. So, as a celebration of our birthday, if you are reading this please, please leave a comment so we can say hello. I hope people have seen a little of our CCC life.

Xx

The beautiful blanket raffle

Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed to this fund raising event for Studio Upstairs. Today the beautiful blanket left Coombe Cottages for our village Community Associations annual Michaelmas Fair. It is well travelled. Not only did the individual squares come together from many individuals in different places in their lives, but the blanket itself has been on tour to be with Ellle and to a friendly gathering in Lyme.

Lots of people pledged money before the fair, for which we are very grateful indeed. Prior to the event we already had many donations pledged but overall we sold £489.70  worth of tickets (some odd money collection error here as the tickets were 50p each or £2 a strip)  -  a minimum of 1275 individual tickets! Wow! Thanks must go to friends from Somerset who joined me at the fair and to all those who helped E sell tickets at Bethlem. 

The draw itself was done as the fair came to an end beside the willow ' dome ' which adjoins the Michaelmas field on the edge of the railway walk in Winscombe. The woodcraft group A E and T were involved in for so many years planted the living willow structure there in 2000 and A prunes it annually to keep it as a house like structure for the children of the village and particularly the neighbouring playgroup. One of the children playing around the dome was asked to be our independent verifier. He chose a green ticket from our old blue basket and it was unwrapped to reveal 117 and K's name and phone number. As K actually did the crocheting together of all the squares it did seem very appropriate. So now Beautiful Blanket is off down the motorway again to Wellington and its final home. It feels very good to think of it being appreciated and understood as well as having raised so much money.

So E is going to talk to Studio Upstairs and work out what the money should be dedicated too and we will report again. Meanwhile here is the unfolding of the raffle...

The raffle's home at the fair was in the Art Shed next to the photography exhibition and some great paintings.

The tickets looked rather wonderful all massed together...

The jewel colours of the blanket looked so beautiful against the grass that we decided to do the draw against a green backdrop with the help of a very kind and totally independent adjudicator (ie. a bemused random child!).

And the winning ticket was .... ( The suspense was huge..) 

Once home the kittens decided - in the night - to do the raffle themselves so first thing on Sunday this is what I discovered! They have been very discerning as I am findIng tickets they have carried (proudly as 'prey') to other rooms of the house. My cleaning isn't great so I guess I will be reminded of the raffle for some time with tickets under and in various pieces of furniture. 

Preparing for the Michaelmas Fair

Our village has a traditional fair to celebrate Michaelmas at the beginning of September. It's a conglumeration of exhibitions and competitions to honour the season of fruitfulness and harvesting,  an opportunity to raise money for our community centre and the usual eclectic collection of minor children's entertainment, dancing dogs, and local brass bands. For some reason I have run the photography exhibition for the last 10 years which has over 500 entries which have to be pinned on boards on their classes, judged and rearranged with all the award cards displayed in the right place by 1.45 and the opening of the festivities. This means getting together a band of volunteers to meet me at 7am and accept photos, number them carefully with the exhibitors individual code, and allocate them to the appropriate board for the 25 classes. It's a long hard day as we have to then do the same at the other end of the fair!

I also have to set the classes and some of you may have noticed that I do tend to do everything in the colour blue so it's no surprise that last year one of the classes was indeed the colour 'blue'!

Despite the hard work and the marathon of the day its always a really happy occasion and I do get round the giant vegetables, jars of jam, elaborate cakes,  crocheted hats, wonderful calligraphy and exotic flower arrangements and see which of my friends and acquaintances have won this year. We have also exhibited ourselves over the 16ish years of living here, but have never won the elusive family trophy! We have had other major successes. In the past it has been giant pumpkins and  children's art work, and this moved on to cheese scones, shortbread and craftwork.

For the last 2 years E has won the Thomas Trophy for Creative Arts for her knitting, pottery, collage, card making and paper creations. Her knitting in particular has been outstanding.

Sadly this year the trophy will move on as she has not been able to do any craft work since last Summer. I have polished the beautiful cup in the sunshine of the garden, and returned it to the butchers (the rather bizarre collecting place for the trophies to be handed in to in readiness for the next fair). Here it is 'growing'  in our garden. I have real hopes that it might return to her again in the future...

So the preparations this year are primarily my making posters and class headings, finding the right sticky tape that doesn't mark the back of the photos, and reviewing with the other volunteers our tried and tested system. We await the influx of eager exhibitors clutching tickets and pictures at 7am on the 14th! !

The Tale of the Amazing Blanket

Once upon a time, E had an idea. For J's 50th Birthday (2012), she contacted friends and family to all knit bunting! Sounds like a mad idea - but it worked really well. They had a weekend long party and it finished with a magnificent caleigh where the bunting was hung:

(here it is laid out on the floor being put together)

This had been such a fun project to do that in the summer E wanted to do another joint craft project. But what to do... The idea came at once! E had always wanted to knit a blanket herself, but had never quite been able to commit to the sheer volume of knitting. But if you have 10 or 20 knitters all doing squares...? Well, that's quite a different matter.

E cast the request far and wide, and the squares came in thick and fast...

The squares could be any colour and any stitch, the only requirement was they be 5x5 inches. It was amazing to see the variety of wools and colours and patterns - what creativity all these people had! Before too long though, E had too many squares and she had to tell people to stop! Now, with two large bags full of squares, the blanket was ready to be formed.

One Saturday back in the autumn, A and E discussed blanket designs. They thought for a long while and then started experimenting with colour combinations and patterns. Here was their idea in the end:

Sadly, there were too many squares to use all of them - this is already a double bed size blanket we're talking about! But the other squares will be put to good use in time, don't worry. (E and A have ideas about joining them together to make cat blankets, but that may be a different story.)

Originally, E was going to learn to crotchet. But, plans changed and she asked the magnificent K to do the honours of fitting the blanket together. K worked industriously over the Winter and early Spring months and, pretty quickly, the blanket was finished. Some of the squares weren't quite 5x5 inches, so there was a lot of stretching and ingenious manipulating to be done. But she worked wonders. And what a sight to behold.

(beautiful blanket on the beach at Lyme)

This story is not quite finished yet. The blanket is being raffled to raise money for Studio Upstairs - a brilliant charity that provides a space for people with mental and emotional health difficulties to come together as a working community and express themselves and their talents. There are two studios - the original one in Bristol, and now one in London as well. They allow people access to materials and exhibition space as well, offering the potential for real careers in the arts world.

So... the blanket will be finding a new home soon. E secretly wishes she could keep it, but she hopes that whoever it goes to will love it as much as she does and everyone does who has contributed. It may not be a work of art, but it does represent a community - a community of people brought together through knitting. May the spirit of the blanket live on!