The Great Apron Swap 2010

 

The brainchild of New Zealand based crafter Sarah 'Red' Gingham, The Great Apron Swap 2010 was inspired by this book which shows you how to sew lovely aprons (I discovered it in the Borders closing down sale as so was pleased to see it getting some recognition.)
A few months ago she challenged bloggers from all over the world to make an apron and swap it with someone else. In total 81 ladies took part (she doesn't mention the men so I'm guessing there were no male entrants!)


The partner I was allocated was Jenny author of crafty blog Oh Joh and who lives in Australia. 


I was super excited when the parcel arrived, it's so fun knowing you've got a new item to own that's all yours: 

After ripping open the envelope I was greeted by a lovely note on a cute Russian Doll postcard and then came the apron.....

Wow, it's so pink, so me!! The motifs are based on an aboriginal design,  the ties are adjustable so it can be worn by anyone. All in all it's fantastic quality and absolutely gorgeous. I am going to wear it for years to come : )

I'm not sure what she thinks of mine yet, something went wrong in the making. It's a Bollywood Apron made of sari offcuts and trims but it shrunk in the sewing process and became child size - luckily she has girls who will hopefully appreciate it!!


Such a brilliant idea, I especially love how the response was international.
Thanks Sarah for a superb blogger project, loved being part of it! 

Look what the postman delivered!

Yipeeee! For the first time in ages the postman delivered some interesting post !

Exciting post No 1:

Yesterday I received this box from Dylon.

Inside was a stripy tee and box of Colour Catcher:

It's a product that stops your colours running in the wash. Whenever I've lived in shared houses people always seem to do 'light' or 'dark' washes and as the letter I got with the box states, what do you do when you have a spotty dress or stripy top that's both light and dark???? Hmmm...........Well apparently you buy this product which works wonders by trapping loose dyes so that your clothes don't get ruined. Thank you Colour Catcher team for sending me the gift but I won't be using it (though I may wear the free t-shirt!)

You see I think washing lights and darks separatley is a myth, I have never done a separate wash for lights and darks, I bung them altogether and touch wood have never had any problems. Maybe I am just lucky, but with my colourful wardrobe, I should know about washing colourful clothes and I can honestly say, it's fine to mix!

I've never had problems washing my colourful clothes!

Exciting post No 2:

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to take part in an Art Exchange by Jo Cheung- it's a bit like a chain letter where you put your name and address on an email that gets sent around and within a few days you should receive 36 free pieces of artwork. Well, I received just one but it was lovely nonetheless (although it would have been extremely fun to have got more!)

Here it is:

First of all it just seemed liked lots of pretty business cards - these were for my artist Kate Lynch who liked to make cards and things from recycled materials. But then I realised it was actually an amazing stitched decoration, here's what the label said:

Recycled Decorations

Made from a variety of recycled papers and beads - ideal for brightening up any space . Hang, drape or pin up anywhere!

It's very pretty and consists of punched out shapes which have been sewn together but still retains a dangle factor. It is like a strand from a beaded curtain but much more delicate, a whole room of them would look rather spectacular. Kate also has a blog so I can keep track of my new artist friend! Art Exchange was great concept and I would happily do it again as it's a great way to get quirky handmade things for free, or in my case just thing!

Now, where to hang it??

Easy peasy fabric printing

Why can't adults have 1/2 term, holidays? It makes so much sense to stop working every few weeks and rejuvenate. Last week was 1/2 term for many of the UK's school children. I remember my 1/2 term hols very clearly I would be bored for 4 days and then on the 5th day I would think of a huge to do list, most of it crafty and be sad I'd left it so late.

Here's a super easy project I tried out last week at a children's half term workshop, perfect for doing at home on a rainy day (and oh my, how it is raining at the minute!):

You will need:

• Cotton fabric (in this case an apron)
• Funky foam/neoprene
• Card (from a cereal box)
• PVA
• Paper
• Fabric paints

To make:

1. Create a template of the shape you want to print and cut it out of paper.

2. Draw around the paper shape on neoprene, cut out and glue to card.

3. Lay newspaper under your cotton to protect surface. Apply paint all over the neoprene shape careful not to get any on the card. Cover the whole foam otherwise you may get gaps.

4. Press it into position on the fabric, lift up and reveal your first print. Carry on printing until your composition is finished. You will need to apply fresh paint to the foam for each print you do.

5, Follow the instructions on the paint, when dry you normally iron the motifs to fix them so your fabric can be washed.

What a super easy method! Cheap, quick and easy...give it a go! Remember you can mix colours, print on top of shapes and go all out as wild as you wish!

Edwardian Bling

On Saturday, The Geffrye Museum held a Love Day that included some Valentines Crafting. I was asked to run a workshop for teenagers inspired by this beautiful Edwardian picture frame. It is absolutely stunning, the photo doesn't do it justice. It's totally sparkly and seems to be resin coated with gorgeous pearly shells and gold dust. I highly recommend visiting the museum to see it in person.

I came up with this concept to make your own version - participants made 'heart shaped' versions to keep with the Valentines theme but I stuck to having my own leaf frame just because I'm so in love with the original.

To make one, you will need:

• Stiff Card
• Black poster paint
• PVA glue
• Thick gold and pearly glitter (looks more like shreds rather than ordinary glitter)
• Mirror card

1. Draw the shape of frame you want to make on the card and cut it out. You will need to use a combination of a craft knife, scissors and possibly tearing by hand to get through thick card.

2. Then cut a rectangle of card so you have two pieces of card in total.
On this smaller piece draw a window in the centre, either a square or oval like mine, large enough to fit your photo in and cut the centre piece out.

3. Draw an edge around the main frame and along the edge of the centre frame and paint these black.

4. Time to get messy. Work on the two pieces separately, coat them in thick glue and then pour on the glitter - get a full coverage by pressing the glitter into place with your fingers.

5. Cut out some shapes from mirror cards and stick these on randomly.

6. Finish with some more detail in black paint.

Voila, your own antique Edwardian frame, perfect gift for a Valentines gift, maybe for someone in your family. My frame has a very old family photo in it!

Community crafting

It's strange to think that when blogs were invented they were about writing and now the emphasis is on how visual they are. For this reason I've not been able to blog for sometime and don't know when I can blog again as I don't have a camera! It's really frustrating as over the last couple of weeks I've been involved in lots of inspiring crafty projects and of course have been making plenty of my own crafty things.

Luckily I'm able to do this entry as someone else is letting me use their photos.

So these images are all taken from a workshop I ran for Northwood Community Arts Group last Saturday. Three artists including myself did a short presentation about our practice and then had two sessions to work with participants.

It was an over 50's group. To date I've only worked with women (apart from when I've taught children) so it was a really nice surprise to see such a high turn out of male crafters who all got stuck into sewing felt brooches.

For some of them like this gentleman above, sewing skills came flooding back to them as soon as they had the needle and thread in hand - you can just about see the lovely sparkly blue flower sequins he used to create a brooch for himself.

This man was younger than 50 and made a floral brooch as a valentines present. Another participant made one to take to his wife's grave.

I felt really proud to be able to get these men sewing again, even though some of them found it quite tough because they had eye sight trouble and less nimble fingers. There were no complaints, just quiet and creative working. I wish all my students were like this!

Crafty Elders

This week I started teaching two new classes, both for adults. On Wednesday mornings I am running sessions at The Geffrye Museum for the over 50s Asians Women's group - they are all amazing crafters already, in fact they could be teaching me rather than vice versa! One of the ladies has just become a grandma and she brought in an ultra sweet cardigan and booties that she had knitted, her best friend also knitted the same as a gift for the new arrival......and the most amazing part was that they didn't use patterns but the sizes are perfect. I can only dream that one day, my knitting will be just as good.

The course I am running is connected to the brilliant 'Eco Homes' exhibition currently on at the museum. If you think you've seen in all when it comes to recycling, you haven't! It's a really inspiring collection of recycled objects and information. There is a great section where they have jars of materials and I was amazed to discover the uses that coconut shells and fish scales have! Check it out if you don't believe me, the exhibition is free to get into.

My second class with a younger women's group on Thursday mornings and this week we did some hand embroidery. The night before I crammed lots of stitches - it was a bit like revision, I had mainly forgotten them so had a quick recap of the usual suspects. Luckily for me, most the participants have better memories than me and as soon as their fabric was in a hoop they were of! Results to be shown here soon if I can get my camera to work : (

If you're an older person (i.e. over 50) or know someone who is who fancies getting crafty on Saturday, tell them to come along this Saturday 30th January to a fabulous craft day being held in Northwood, (i've never been there but it's on the London Underground Met Line!), that's my brooches on the right. All info on flier, should be a terrific day : )