One way or another I’ve always had ‘something on the go’ to keep me busy for most of my life. In the beginning, when I was young, children were taught by their mothers or grandmothers how to make things. Sewing was also on the curriculum in junior and secondary school back then, so if you had any sort of notion for trying out sewing, knitting, embroidery, or tapestry there was usually somebody around to show you how to do those crafts. It was approaching the end of the era when single girls sat doing crafting at home in the evenings, making items for their ‘bottom drawer’, it was still perceived as a desirable quality to be able to knit and sew with the view to making clothes for yourself, your family and soft furnishings and curtains for the home. Shop bought clothing was still expensive and unlike today, it was far cheaper to make anything than it was to buy it. Oh how times have changed, it now costs a fortune to buy wool to knit a decent sized sweater and fabric isn’t too cheap either.
I was lucky in that I had an expert knitter of a granny who taught me to knit and my Mum knew how to sew, at junior school we were required to make an a-line skirt with four panels in it and a zip by the time we finished our final year. We then had to endure three years at secondary school dressmaking, not my favourite subject but I could and did make my own clothes until I was in my early twenties. It was only when I went to college that I met other like-minded knitting souls, in a class of mainly girls, most of us were all knitting something and we drove the accountancy lecturer mad with our cries of “You can’t start the lecture yet, sir, we need to finish this row!”
Once I started work I would still knit or embroider in the evenings, my Mum always had serious doubts that I would complete that Aran sweater with a 102 row pattern repeat, but the stitches, patterns and the mathematics of it all fascinated me. I embroidered a fair few things, which Mum then duly claimed and went off to the picture framers to get framed. I was a late starter on tapestry, in my late twenties I saw a picture of a beautiful Ehrman cushion cover and I just had to buy it, fifteen years later, after many house moves and many years lying in a box, I got it out and finished off the three quarters that still needed to be done. After that I made another three tapestry cushions and then ceased production for a few years. The one pictured below I found in a charity shop, minus the wools, a quarter of it completed and grubby. I bought new wools, unpicked the old stitches, washed it and started on it, a few weeks later it was complete, I used some velvet from another project to turn it into a cushion. Upcycle, recycled and repurposed!
My next trick was to try out quilting whilst I was living in the USA in 1998. I saw an evening class for ‘beginners quilting’ advertised and signed up for it. I duly managed to follow the teacher’s instructions and constructed a mini quilt. I was at that point very surprised that I ended up with anything that resembled a quilt, I found it hard going matching up the seams and points, but I learned a lot. I didn’t make any other quilting projects until 2018, when I started off again I gave it large! I made a single quilt, followed by a double and then two singles. It involved a lot of wrestling with fabric on a domestic sewing machine but the end results were pretty good. I love the preciseness of quilting and the fact that it’s done in inches makes complete sense to me. Traditionally quilts were made of any fabric or cloth that had been previously used and then repurposed by making it into a quilt. A very early form of recycling!
2020 has been a productive year for me, I’ll blog more about what I did next later on……..
January 2021 has arrived, miserable, cold, dull and dark, bah! February is proving no better, so far. The thought of spring warms the heart and gets the creative juices flowing once again. A bit of colour with crafting cheers me up no end. So far this year I’ve completed two mid century chairs, one rug, I’m half way through another rug and another two chairs (Ercol) are under way.
Follow My Blog
Get new content delivered directly to your inbox.
FUNKED UP JUNK BY NADINE 