Little Jenny Wren: October 2011

Happy Together

For my sister in law Lisa and her husband Rick,

who married today in sunny Newcastle.

Hope you are always Happy Together.

A Crafty Life

Have you always made things, with your hands?

I have and I don't just mean the funny little pieces of fabric that I cobbled together to make doll clothes or the very holey pieces of knitting that I them managed to stitch into a dolly jumper when I was a tot.

That was where it started but as I entered my teen years I was unstoppable.

We had sewing classes at school and I loved learning everything they had to teach me but I also taught myself how to crochet and to do tatting and macrame.

When I was around 14 I took some of my macrame owl wallhangings into a craft store and sold them to the shop.

The wallhangings were small and done in very fine soft cotton string so they were quite nice.

I learned how to draft a circle skirt one summer and made myself and my mum and sister lots of pretty summer skirts.

I got hold of an old grey blanket and cut out a freeform coat that I then stitched together by hand using blanket stitch and blue wool and crocheted woollen ties instead of using buttons.

I made a vest using the same loop stitch that I now use for my dolls hair.

I made a vast piece of work using broomstick crochet just for the joy of making it.

I knitted lots and lots of diamonds in a rainbow of colours and then crocheted them all together to make a poncho.

I knitted slippers.

I made little leather purses that were hand stitched and embossed.

I made a blue hessian shoulder bag and laboriously pulled threads and replaced them with various coloured threads to make a striped bag.

I made a huge floor cushion out of gingham, that I decorated with a big applique heart and then collected everyone's old socks and tights and undies to chop up to make the filling for it.

I collected the scraps of fabric that mum had kept from all our home sewn dresses, cut out 2" squares and made a large patchwork cushion.

By the time I was 16 I was sewing and knitting all my own clothes, some from patterns and some made up including a particularly pretty cherry red cheesecloth dress which I loved.

I made felt toys and knitted toys. I made the soft furnishings for my bedroom when my sister and I redid the bedroom in our late teens.

I knitted a big thick sleeveless jumper and made up all the textured stitches for the front, that was fun.

Made my own bikini, embroidered pretty flowers on bright coloured fabric to make placemats.

So much exuberance and limitless confidence in my teen years for making whatever I dreamed up.

There was a lot of joyful crafting in the 70s.

And I have to say I have never lost that joy in creating.

It has always been my bliss.

At this stage in my life I create mostly through my dolls, in my 30s it was making children's clothes and knitting, knitting, knitting, in my 20s it was trying out lots of different fabrics especially expensive woollens and silks that I hadn't been able to buy when I lived in Tasmania and trying to make my wardrobe of clothes into a story of me plus I tried designing my own picture knit jumpers and fairisle jumpers

What about you, have you always created things, maybe not with needles threads and yarn but maybe you were in love with cooking as a teenager, or writing stories or poems , or painting, or drawing cartoon figures?

Do you still do those creative things that made you happy now that you are a grown up?

all pictures for this post are from my small collection of 70s craft books which I have been collecting over the past couple of years.

Niche at Christmas

We are just over 3 weeks away from the Niche Christmas market.

So much to do, so much to do.

The Niche market supports St Giles which is a very important part of the Launceston community and now the state community as well.

St Giles was founded in the late 1930s in response to the Polio epidemic and has been caring for children with disabilities and their families ever since. In more recent years it has also taken on the task of assisted adults living with disabilities.

I worked at St Giles as a physiotherapist for two years before Kate was born and I am happy to do all I can to support such an important part of our community.

Some of the 60 artisan and designers who will be at Niche in November are:

Adore U, All About Hazlenuts, Apooki,

Behind the door, Bikkuri Design, Blackeyed Suzie,

Carrie Bags, Classwood, Clever Zebra Designs,

Cupcake Fairy, Elf Dreams, Fabulicious Felt Job,

Four Seasons Herbs, Greentree, Gypsy Two,

Hideyo, High Tea Vintage, Honey Tasmania,

Imogen Handbags, Indeco, Isabel Audrey,

Isis, Jasmine Rose, Joanna Gair Fine Paper,

JuJu Jazz, Leaves and Stems, Little Jenny Wren Dolls,

LJ Creations, Loopee Design, Luscious Lil Cupcakes,

Lyn's Maille, Marley & Lockyer, Natural Infusion,

Nara Design, Noox, No More Dog Ears,

O-ni Design, Otekah, Pili Pala Pieces,

Rocky Gardens, Ruby Victoria, Smallprint,

Snowflake, Soewn Earth, Studiooats,

Sundays Child, Susan McQueen, That Vintage,

What Katie Did Next, Yondover Dairy

I don't have links to all the makers, some have blogs, some have Facebook pages.

Here is a link to the Niche Facebook page and here is a link to their blog which needs a little updating but I am sure you can appreciate they are very busy right now.

If you are going to be around Launceston at Niche time I would love to see you there.

Now back to work.

Ralphs Falls

Yesterday we drove through the hills and dales and mountains and valleys of north east Tasmania

to walk through the forest

to get to a lookout to see Australia's tallest waterfall

and as a bonus we got to look out on the beautiful rural valley below.

New blog post over in the Playroom

It's Friday and I am...

forever grateful for a great husband who always puts family first

Front garden, Thursday morning at 8.30am

Waved good bye to everyone this morning after a small snowball fight, or should I say guelder rose fight.

Turned around and realised how beautiful everything looked bathed in the sunlight with just the faintest sniff of summer mixed with the heady scent of high spring.

So here is a little taste of my morning garden

complete with Badger who is the dearest little friend and keeps himself looking so smart in his velvety tuxedo and the perfect granny chic flower,

the old lady Iris

with the wicker chair and crocheted blanket, camellias in the background.

Pincushion

My lovely pincushion arrived the other day.

My swap partner, Natalie, made such a pretty pincushion for me.

Such a beautiful vintage button, just like the red ones that used to be on one of my Mum's skirts when I was a little girl.

It was my favourite of all Mum's skirts.

And you can see the cute little fabric covered pin heads on the pins.

Such a clever idea.

Thanks to Shannon for organising the swap and Natalie, I forgot to put a little note in with your pincushion. So sorry.

poppies

You have to love these poppies.

They self sow themselves all over my garden but they are never a nuisance.

This plant is in the pot near the outside couch where I sit in the sun any chance I get.

The time it takes for the flowers buds to mature from their heads down position, necks bent double to protect them from their foes seems an eternity.

They slowly slowly straighten over a period of a week until just the flower bud still in its protective layer is bent down then the green shell is cast off and the flower begins to unfurl.

The petals are wrinkled and crimped from being bound so tightly and they never lose that unpressed look.

They face the morning sun and drink in the goodness and then barely a day later the petals start to fall.

Of course the plant goes on, the flower is just small part of the cycle.

The little seed box now has to mature and dry until it becomes a little pepper pot ready to sprinkle the tiny black seeds and give me more little plants to enjoy next year.

and what about that colour...glorious!