A Little Pink Sampler

This is a little pink button sampler I made the other day, I was quite excited by it because I was using hand dyed silk, silks and cottons  This fabric and threads I had dyed myself using plant material.  The picture to the left shows the sampler before it was stretched for framing and you can see the little hearts clearly, they are silk and were dyed with blackberries from the hedgerow.  I have tried blackberries several times and not had much luck, giving a lack lustre colour.  Yet when I am making crumbles and pies they stain my tea towels a lovely colour! So I tried adding some sugar and I am pleased with the result.  Amazingly the sugar worked, I have no idea why but there you go.  A pound and a half of blackberries and about three heaped teaspoons of sugar on alum mordanted silk gave this result.  You need to reduce the blackberries for about an hour to get a good thick liqueur.  The warm greys on the the sampler were achieved with alkanet onto alum mordanted silk thread and cotton thread.  This was alkanet I had bought but was very happy with the result, its a lovely warm grey and I think it sits well with the blackberry pink.  I have just bought some undyed silk threads from Oliver Twists, a really great hand dyer, their stuff is beautiful and well worth the money.  I am going to have a go at some more colours and see how I go, I love the hues of the organic dyes they are so subtle and easy on the eye.   

 



Wandering Round Lovely Lancashire

Got the chance yesterday to go for a wander around Rivington, we have had the most glorious summer, just enough rain to keep most things green but long lingering warm summer days.  I don't get the opportunity to walk as often as I would like but do enjoy our countryside when I do.  I am always surprised at peoples perception of Lancashire, it seems to hark back to the dark days of mills and chimneys, and they were there but Lancashire is such a lovely rural place, you are never far away from countryside even in our biggest city, Preston.  Just drive for ten minutes and you can be on Longridge Fell or heading out towards Bowland.  This lovely picture, by Mark Sanderson, shows the Dove Cote or Pigeon Tower up on Rivington Pike.  I was wandering around this yesterday evening and you can just feel the change and that Autumn is on the way.  Some leaves are starting to change, the rowan berries are bright red, there is a nip in the air towards evening and as my Grandma would say, the nights are drawing in

A Button Sampler

I would like to share with you one of my samplers, this one is a button sampler using silk hearts and old buttons as a motif.  It is stitched on 28 count evenweave and uses a variety of silks and cottons, some hand dyed.  I use a variety of stiches including herringbone, montenegrin stitch and pulled thread.  The image to the left of this shows the sampler before it is stretched for mounting, the other images showing detail and the piece when it has been stretched and framed.

I love working these pieces and get a tremendous pleasure from finding new stitches to work into a new sampler.  I started when quite young learning free embroidery from my Grandma, an accomplished stitcher and then discovered cross stitch in my teens.  My move into counted thread work came during my City and Guilds and I have enjoyed exploring ever since.

 

Lavender, our old timer

This is Lavender, one of our old timers - she is 14 years old now and can still strut her stuff like a kitten.  She does something my daughter calls BatCat, where her ears go back, her eyes go wild and she charges around like a little elephant, hissing at her brother everytime she encounters him.  Becca has a new camera for university and was exploring it when Lavender had to be centre of attention sitting on Becca's untidy desk.  She has been a pleasure to have around for the last 14 years and I hope we get a good few more.

 

Earliest Portrait, A Stone Age Woman

I am still reading an enthralling book and came across this startling image, a portrait of a stone age woman carved 26,000 years ago from mammoth ivory. She is no bigger than your thumb.  She was found in that incredible site in Moravia at Dolni Vestonice in the 1920's. Apparently there is a reason that it is called a portrait, according to Jill Cook, the British Museum Curator,"The reason we say it is a portrait is because she has absolutely individual characteristics. She has one beautifully engraved eye: on the other, the lid comes over and there is just a slit. Perhaps she had a stroke or a palsy or was injured in some way... She has a dimple in her chin, this is an image of a real, living woman." 

 

Extraordinarily it would seem that all the characteristics that we think of as art was already in place 26,000 years ago.  Each of the pieces found would have taken many hours to carve using stone tools on the hard mammoth tusk and it make you think that maybe they had an artist class, people whose job it was to make art while others hunted game or gathered fruits.  At the site Jill Cooke states that there are pieces that are not of the same quality making her wonder if there were apprentices, practising to reach the standard of the master or mistriss.

Hannah

This is Hannah, she is one of my small girls, standing 12 inches tall and I have just taken the rather nerve racking step of putting her for sale, along with Edith and Nora, on Folksy.  I have listed a few pin cushions and needle cases just to see as well. I usually sell to customers directly and then they can see what they are getting, this is somewhat different but I am giving it a try. If you have a moment just have a look, I would love to know what people think!

 

The Venus of Willendorf

While reading around an essay on the Feminine Principle, I was drawn to an image of the Venus.  Several years ago we were lucky enough to be able to spend a long weekend in Vienna and there I took the opportunity to visit the Venus in the Natural History Museum.  For anyone not familiar with her she is now known to academia as the Woman of Willendorf, she is around 24,000 years old and stands about 4 inches tall.  To me she is a very potent image.  However, I digress, I am not by any stretch of imagination a slender vision of womanhood. Whilst standing in front of the exhibition case I was joined by two little boys of around 8 or 9 years of age in school blazers and short trousers.  They looked carefully at the statue and then turned their gaze on me, then they looked back at the Venus and began to giggle.  Any language barrier was immediately breached by these two little imps as seeing the look on their faces I began to laugh along.  It's a very warm and amusing memory. 

 

 

New Scissor Keeper

I have been working out a new pattern for a little scissor keeper and here it is.  It is styled to match the needlecase and pincushion that I aready make.  I think it makes a nice set and will make a lovely gift for a person who sews.

The whole set is made from remnants of fabric from several dolls, Edith, Hannah & Tilda.  To begin with some of the fabric was off cuts from curtains so I am pleased that even the tiddly bits of fabric can be used and not wasted.  All my buttons are second hand and come from recycled clothing and from family, my button box is brimming.

 

 

Nora

This is Nora, she is one of my tubby ladies, round, warm and lovely. She is wearing a

William Morris reproduction fabric dress and is holding a little bird. Her bird and her stripy legs are made from an old shirt and her underskirts and knickers are made from curtain remnants. She is 14 inches tall and is the third of my patterns that I like to make. She has a sweet wistful expression and is there to make everyone welcome. Like all my girls she can sit quietly or she has a brass ring to hang her on the wall.



 

 

Ice Age Doll

I really wanted to go and see the Ice Age Art Exhibition at the British Museum in London but sadly just couldn't arrange it so that everyone could come.  So as a consolation I bought the book of the exhibition and this doll caught my attention. 

‘This male figure is sculpted from mammoth ivory and was found with a burial in Brno in the Czech Republic. The grave was isolated from the big encampments in the area and contained the skeleton of a man who had died aged around 40 years old. The head and arms fitted onto the body on pegs so that they could be moved into different positions, as on a doll or puppet.’

Taken from the British Museum Website
This little figure is over 20,000 years old and I don't know that it is a doll or what its use was but it was very special to someone and must of had a truly unique significance. They have found egyptian cloth dolls and roman wooden dolls that acted a mannequins for wealthy ladies to try out their fashions and I have even heard of pottery dolls given to roman little girls but this little man was probably one of the first.  You cannot help wondering what was in the mind of the maker.

Libby

This is Libby, she is one of my little girls, only 12 inches tall.  She is wearing a snazzy fabric from the Victoria and Albert collection. I have been enjoying trying new hair colours, I think that the blue sits well with her outfit.  In this instance her clothes are all new fabric and they make a vibrant yet harmonious combination.  Sometimes no matter how big your stash is you just can't find an old fabric that works.  Her stripy heart and stipy legs are sourced from a site called  'Fairtradefabric.co.uk', a lovely shop that stocks only fair trade goods and has a wonderful variety of stripes, checks and plains, worth a look.

 

Agatha

This is Agatha, she is a tall girl around 16 inches. She is dressed in a lovely reproduction William Morris print and then a range of recycled and off cut fabrics. Giving her a gentle neutral appearance. She holds a spotted brown heart and has little leather shoes. I love her stripy legs, all my dolls seem to get stripy legs!

I am quite pleased with her, she has warm features and an interesting expression.

Pin cushions, hearts and needlecases

I have started making little gifts from the pieces left from the dolls.  These are really off cuts of my offcuts but they are making very pretty accessories.  I decided on needlecases, hanging hearts and pin cushions as they are tied in to the style of work that I do.  I am thinking also of making scissor keepers and lavender bags and I am working on designs for those.

 

Another Grand Day Out

We had another very good day, Thursday, 8th August at The International Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham.  It's a good day because I get to ferret out all my wonderful prints for the dolls.  Most of my plains and nearly all of my stripes come from recycled souces but I do feel that a good print brings the whole thing together.  There were plenty of great stall there this year including Petra Prins from Holland and the amazing Patchwork Corner from Herfortshire.  The visitors come from all quarters as well, you hear lots of conversations in different tongues and you know that this is a truly international gathering.  Again I would recommend this show to anyone interested in stitching, embroidery or quilting as the standard of quilts this year was out of this world.  The quilt I have shown here was stunning and won a prize in the competitions but sadly I didn't take the makers name but what colours.

 

Brunehilda, a story doll





This is Brunehilda, a story doll who was made for an exhibition at the end of my City and Guilds Part II in Stitched Textiles. She has characters in her apron from the children's book by Johanna Spyri, Heidi. She carries Goat Peter, Heidi and Clara in her apron and the two goats, Little Swan and Little Bear are at her waist.  The idea was that you could tell the story of Heidi using the little tomte and the goats stashed in her apron.  Brunehilda is a big girl, she measures over two feet and is quite the largest doll of this kind I have ever made.  I developed a style of my own and have tried differing way to explore their shape and character. I intend to make other story dolls using old story book favourites as my inspiration but Brunehilda is the first.

Grand Days Out

 We never have long holidays because we have two old timers at home.  Two ancient pussycats that don't like being left at home now for very long.  Mum comes in a morning and evening to cuddle and to feed but they still miss us when we are away.  So we have weekends and overnights.  This summer has been particularly good and we have seen some wonderful things.

One of our trips was two days down to Oxfordshire, particularly to see Art in Action at Waterperry Gardens in Wheatly near Oxford.  On the way down we called at Hidcote Gardens,

a beautiful National Trust Garden with several very nice tea rooms and truly lovely garden rooms and walks.  However our main reason for travelling down to Oxfordshire was to attend Art in Action.

It happens in the middle of July, this year 18th to the 21st of the month.  If you are in any way interested in art or crafts and want to see some of the best work around in many genres, including sculpture, painting, wildlife art, ceramics, textiles ,glass work and many others, then you should make the effort to go on down.  It was

absolutely wonderful , we all had a really good day.  The work on show was truly remarkable and showcased what great talent is around.  From a visitors point of view there was plenty of loos, lots of places to have a drink - a cup of tea something stronger. So much to see that you could have made it several days and this year, amazing weather.  We all said when we came to the end of the day that we felt like we had been baked in an oven the weather was so sunny.  A truly grand day out. 

One of my inspirations

This is one of the earliest pieces of ceramic ever found.  She is an early representation of a mature stone age women,  maybe she is a goddess or a fertility symbol or just a gentle reminder of a real woman left behind when hunting.  I think she is very lovely, she was found at Dolni Vestanice in Moravia in the Czech Republic.

She makes me wonder who made her, a stone age woman taking the time to form her in clay and bake her in the fire.  What were they thinking and what was she for, she must have been very special to someone or a community of people.

I have been aware of her for quite a long time and her form and her presence has made me confident to make my girls as I see fit. They are all bonny lasses as my grandma would have said.  I like them to be round and warm, my girls are all comfortable in themselves.  The women in my family are all bonny girls, big ladies that baked bread, made jam and sorted out everyones problems.  Confident, warm and loving.  The ceramic figure   shown here, has that kind of feel to her, big, bonny and beautiful.

Hello and welcome to my thoughts and ideas.

I am a doll maker and a stitcher.  I make my dolls to my own patterns and love to chose the fabrics that I use.

These fabrics are a combination of new cloth, usually a pattern and recyled cloth found from a variety of sources.  Each is washed, ironed and carefully picked apart so that I can get the most out of each garment.

These three little ladies are Libby,Tilda and Ida and are the smallest dolls I make at just eight inches tall.  They have matching knickers and underskirt and a little dress to finish off.  They each hold a heart.  All my girls are well fed and comfy to hold, each of them bringing a little Lancashire Whimsy to the world.