Jane's homemade Christmas

The New Year has begun. Welcome 2011
I have wanted to post a blog for a week now, but I had to wait until I had delivered my last homemade Christmas present.
Christmas for me began at the end of Friday 17th Dec. The day I finished work for the Holidays.
The last day at work was a fun one. ( which after a very stressful term was lovely) A silk screen workshop for some of my work colleagues. We hope now to have a regular print club evening.

                 

                    screen printing

    

That night the snow came down. My garden was deep in sparkling snow when I woke up the next day.

where has my garden gone ?

.

Over the next few days the temperature dropped to -10.  It really was a magical start to Christmas.

Churchtown

St Peter's Churchtown where my Rimmer ancestors are buried

Botanic gardens lodge house

not real

real

The birds took at lot of feeding in the bad weather

The good thing about the snow is that it slowed me down and enticed me, with stay at home days.There was nothing to do but light a cosy fire, hang up the stockings Knit, sew and bake things.

Stockings were made last Christmas from some lovely heavy wool fabric, the little deers came from Paperchase.

Having made this 1930's tea cosy for my mum, Alison who was in China saw my Facebook post and liked it, so as she was comming home for Christmas I made her a smaller version .

mug cosy

the back of the stitches

The next make was another mug cosy for her brother Callum. Knitted in Fisherman's rib.

complete with pom poms

This is a really interesting stitch, much thicker on the back than the front, Used to keep out the cold at sea, perfect to also keep you tea warm !
They both had bags of homemade Spekulatius too.

A Cafetiere cosy was part of a present for their mum and dad. I made 3 of these .

Made from some lovely vintage linen, embroidered with lazy daisies.

lined with cheery roses

Jane's homemade Christmas

 Their homemade present was completed with Summer fruit and Rose petal Jam and Chocolate Biscotti and a large tub of very un- homemade Italian coffee.

The Cafetiere cosy I made for myself was a little different, I used a felted cardigan that had seen better days.
Felting you old woolly jumpers is easy. Just throw them in a hot wash and they felt beautifully. You then can use the fabric to make lovely things from.

Betz White has written a number of really good books full of projects using old felted woollies.

lazy daisy embroidery

I lined mine with fabric that I have had for ages, but suited this project so well. The embroidery completed the project using colours from the lining, and blanket stitches in brown wool. It now sits happily in my kitchen.

lazy dasies and blanket stitch

reverse side fabric

Ironing board cover with appliqued hearts

My next project were two things for my daughter Claire. I started with this ironing board cover followed with a matching peg bag.I also made my Mum one of these peg bags and one for me too!

A good excuse to use my horded ribbon and braid collection

matching peg bag

cute kittens

This idea for my daughter Laura who has just started sewing herself. Taken from this brilliant book:

I wanted to fill it with goodies to make it special. I have a huge collection of old sewing ephemera, from thread to thimbles. The fabric is from Fancy moon, a reproduction of a 1950's fabric and lined with Merino wool felt in a pretty purple colour.

vintage buttons,pins and stitch unpicker

Full of things I have collected over the years . I hope that when she uses her present it makes her smile.

pocket for a vintage tape measure and threads

finished with a vintage velvet button

The last gift was not given until a few days ago

It was a present for a good friend, I hoped that she would love it .........She did!
So another year begins, who knows what will be?
My resolutions ?           wait and see....................

making things

I like to keep myself happy through making things. Each week I make sure that if a can possibly squeeze it in, that I create something, it may be baking, drawing, sewing, knitting.
This week has been very stressful. I had to complete a 3 day First aid course, which was great while it wasn't real. Now I have passed and will have to deal with First aid calls at work which is a little scary!!
This course included a written test and 2 practical exams. It has been a week of exams for me.
I have been ill for a few days but also had to sit an online exam on Friday.
Working in F.E is not too good at the moment, the future is very uncertain, job cuts, funding cuts, increased class sizes. On Dec 8th Parliament will vote to maybe change the future in a radical way. We may loose Art education completely! More on this in the future if it happens.
To balance all this, I have been busy feeding my creative needs and making myself happy.

found on German EBAY.Old Spekulatius board

The best thing that happened was that I received through the post my own Spekulatius board ! waiting for this to arrive  I was like a child waiting for Christmas.

Having seen the ones from my last post, I was determined to have one. I looked online in the states but were very expensive. Just by chance I was on ebay and typed it in .Up came one in England, at the bottom of the page is a link to all the international sites, I figured OK ? it's German so they might have some..there were lots.
I can't believe that only 3 weeks ago I went to Aldi and bought an obscure packet of biscuits.  Last night I made my own original Spekulatius gingerbread biscuits with this ancient piece of wood. You never know where life i going to take you do you ?

 My baked Spekualtius made with gingerbread recipe

This not my only ebay purchase, I do have a bit of a problem at the moment!
Ebay is also good for finding vintage knitting and sewing patterns.

I visited the Harrogate knitting and stitching show recently. I try to go each year.
http://www.twistedthread.com .This year I went with clear idea of what I wanted rather than behaving like a 7 year old in a toy shop.

student knitting prize winner

student knitting prize winner

embroidery work by Val Jackson

want them all !!

textile workshops

There is a great range of student stitched and knitted textile work,workshops and of course too much to buy..
I did buy, but was very controlled (honestly) .A few weeks ago I was given a web site to buy fabrics http://www.fancymoon.co.uk.

I bought some beautiful fabric to make this .The fabric is a vintage print reproduced by an American company.

The pattern for the bag came from this book.

 The Robin was my idea !

another repro fabric I just had to have.

just add it to the stash

seduced by fabric

So my purchases from Fancy moon are for a project I plan to start in the new year. They have the best selection of fabrics i have seen in a while.

Back to my Ebay problem.... The knitting pattern at the top of the page was bought about 10 days ago. When I went to Harrogate, another thing on my list of purchases was to be wool to knit this 1930's tea cosy .I have also in the last 2 weeks bought another 3 tea cosy patterns, (you see I do have a worrying problem.). I like the idea of knitting the basket texture,I thought it would look better if it was brown and not cream as in the pattern.

I am very happy with the final result. It will be a present for my Mum for Christmas. I think I may set up an ETSY shop in the new year.If you would like to order your own you will then be able to. I really enjoyed making this and it only took a few days.
Next on the list is this one.......

 I already have the wool, so this week, I will make this for another lucky family member?? for a Christmas gift. I am thinking of making it with a festive theme, so I can indulge in my bird obsession, I will add a Robin version of one of these to the top.

Today was the day I decided to make my Christmas cards.
I have been struggling with designing them for weeks. I have tried a few things but nothing was working.

On saturday night I remembered that last Christmas I had made these printing blocks. So this morning I dug out the box that contains all my printing blocks and inks.

I have a few lovely old printing letters bought in London in the 80's when Fleet street went digital and you could pick these up at Flea markets. I got these from some guy with stuff laid out on a blanket in Brick lane, before it became a trendy place to be.We also have a lovely big tray of these at work.

some other home made blocks 

I also found these, bought from Muji last year and never really used. they are really lovely to use and have the finest of detail.

I began by using an ink pad on my Reindeer block ,then adding various layers of snowflakes.

these ink blocks can be used on fabric too

I decided to just add part of the large Reindeer as i wanted him to have some movement.

Finished card complete with a Rudolph nose

OK enough already !! I am babbling again. I now have a few hours of my weekend left to write these cards, complete the rest of the paperwork I need for work tomorrow ,oh and I have to watch X Factor too.