The Things They Left Behind

For Christmas my mother in law gave me this beautiful sewing box, which had belonged to one of my husband's grandmothers. I only ever knew Henry's maternal granny, Pam, a woman I deeply admired. She was of that greatest generation; a young wartime bride who engendered the know how and self sufficiency that defined the women of her era. She was an ambitious cook who routinely whipped up souffles, potted shrimp, and fish pies, an avid gardner who grew her own vegetables, and a prodigious knitter. After each of my boys was born, I'd get one of her lovely hand knit baby jumpers in the mail. When I first removed them from their packages, they always smelled of Embassy cigarettes, a fact I somehow found endearing. (For her great granddaughters she made exquisite hand smocked dresses.)

My own grandmothers were both crafters as well (though at the time they never called themselves this-making things was mostly born of the exigencies of life). My mother's mother (and her mother before her) was a quilter and also dabbled in embroidery. She never used a machine to sew or quilt, and as I grew up I understood machine quilts to be somehow inferior to hand stitched ones. I have two that my great grandmother made; they are among my most deeply valued possessions. After my grandmother died a year and a half ago, my sisters and I helped my mother sort through her things. I took with me a cast iron skillet, in which she made her cornbread, and some things from her sewing box, including some needles, wooden spooled threads and an embroidery hoop (pictured below). Before she died, my grandmother passed along a partly embroidered tablecloth that her mother had started working on. I accepted it reverentially, and promised that I would finish the job.

When I'm working alone in my studio, these women and others like them often come to mind. I reflect upon the fact that the make-do-and-mend mentality was for them a given rather than a chosen ethos. I marvel at the fact that they managed to make so much, even in the absence of the abundant time saving devices that free me up to, ostensibly, do more. And I also experience gratitude, for the things they left behind.

My maternal grandmother, Violet Mail, and my boys in 2011.

The Gifts of Christmas Past

Hello friends, and happy 2015! I hope the photos above help excuse my absence from this space these past two months. I wanted very much to make this my most handmade holiday season yet, and began working toward that end back in September. I didn't want to rush, or feel stressed about making gifts this year-I really wanted to enjoy the process and be mindful of the people I was making things for. Rarely a day went by between September and Christmas when I wasn't making something to give away, and by the time Christmas came, I had finished almost everything I set out to do.

I started out making jam from the bumper crop of wild blackberries we saw last season, and added some sage from the garden per the recipe in Alana Chernila's  book "Homemade Pantry". I also started in on my soap making then, as it needed several weeks to cure before giving away. The third photo above is soap from a batch of lavender and lemon zest coconut butter bars; the photo below that shows them beautifully wrapped by my five year old. Henry's honey was in good supply this year, too, and the kids' teachers each got a jar, along with a jar each of bath bombs (also of the lavender and lemon variety-one of my favorite scent combinations). I first learned how to make bath bombs from the Teach Soap website, but have since gained the confidence to make my own variations on those basic recipes.

The pink and blue bunting were gifts for my nieces, whom we spent Christmas with in America this year. I'd been saving a stash of Liberty fat quarters for a while now, and thought it was finally time to use them. The brown and cream scarf below that was a woven creation from my loom. It was intended for my sister til I remembered she has a thing about wool touching wool-and doesn't wear wool scarves or gloves, so that one is an unintended Christmas present to myself. I made my boys matching pajama bottoms, and printed "small" "medium" and "large" (using freezer paper stencils) onto plain white t-shirts. My large son didn't want to be photographed wearing his, but small and medium were okay with it. To make the bottoms, I used a free pattern from Oliver and S for boys' shorts, and just added the appropriate length to make them pj's. It worked like a dream.

Lastly, I ordered some magnets from Sticky 9, which prints your Instagram photos onto little magnetic squares. You can make a version of these yourself using printable magnetic sheets from an office supply store, but they're not all that cheap and I was happy with what I got from Sticky 9. I printed photos I had taken all around the farm throughout the seasons, and of my boys, to give to my family back in the States. I hope they think of us every time they open their refrigerators.

I made a few other items not pictured, including a canvas and denim log carrier for my husband, who is forever hauling in stacks of wood for the stove, and tweed zipper bags for him and all my boys, so they could carry their toiletries on the plane in something other than ziploc bags. I made similar silk zip bags for girlfriends, and for all of those I used different size variations of this tutorial from the Say Yes blog.

Hope you all had a relaxing and peaceful holiday season, and are ready to embrace this New Year, whatever it brings. I'm off to my studio now, to get back to work on a birthday present for my sister. It's long overdue!

A Trip to Filkins

Though I've known about it for a long time, I only just recently made a trip to the Cotswold Woolen Weavers  in Filkins, which is a tiny village about 25 minutes drive from me. CWW is a bit of an anomaly; it's a cluster of buildings comprised of retail shops, artist's workshops and a wool and weaving museum, with a nice little cafe thrown in for good measure. I visited CWW twice, and both times found it oddly empty, yet also unmistakably vibrant and alive. Wandering through the various rooms and buildings felt like I'd stumbled upon some well kept secret. In some of the buildings there were employees, but in many of the rooms I was on my own, occasionally crossing paths with other visitors. No one was ever overly solicitous or hawkish; I felt free to wander and explore everywhere, from the museum with its scattering of textile related bits (baskets of wooden loom bobbins, rams horns and raw, chocolate brown fleece, embroidery samplers and old fashioned looms,) to the rooms upstairs selling a huge selection of old timey games and quirky books. There were open shelves filled with leather bound, swatch filled books. I could peek inside of glassed in rooms that contained huge work tables with tweed swatches and industrial looms. Different bits of the store carried different things; in addition to all sorts of woolen and tweed clothing (jackets, waistcoats, skirts, socks-yawn), there were beautiful blankets, and an assortment of randomly curated, locally produced books and crafts (things made from pewter, things carved from wood, reproduction agricultural posters and spoons and buttons carved from sheep's horns). One shelf leading upstairs was lined with Pantone color chip coffee mugs, which is just the sort of unexpected non sequitur item you'll come across in between sections of the shops. At one end of the building there is a room selling large and very well priced end rolls of woven wool fabric. At another end of the complex of buildings is the sculpture workshop of the artist Simon Brittain, who also offers courses in stone carving and masonry.

CWW is a wonderful place, and really worth a visit if you find yourself in the Cotswolds and have even a marginal interest in wool or textiles. It was the riches from the wool trade that built many a church village in this part of the world. Take a trip to Filkins and soak up a touch of the history behind that period of English life. 

Handmade Baby Toys

My niece will be giving birth to her first child any day now. It seems like no time at all ago that my brother's phone call woke me up one morning to spread the good news of his own child's arrival, and now that girl is going to be a mom. Time has wings! With the due date quickly approaching, I recently set out to make her a blanket, and thought, "While I'm at it, maybe a soft toy, too." Then-how about some sweet little felt booties? Ooh, and a rattle! The baby needs one of those. And finally, a little tag edged blanket toy with some crinkly plastic inside, for some sensory thrills. Apart from the large blanket, which turned out to be a bit of white whale, and the bunny, which took a couple of hours to finish, these toys can be whipped up in fairly short order. Links to any patterns or tutorials I used are indicated in the captions below each of the photos that follow.

I've made many a bunny for babies, both for my own kids and for friends. The pattern and instructions for this bunny came from Martha Stewart. Her project calls for using men's suiting fabric, but I always use felted cashmere. 

I made this egg from a pattern in last year's easter issue of Making Magazine, which is published here in the UK. But patterns for stuffed sewn eggs abound online, so just google it. I hacked the instructions by placing four little bells inside a piece of muslin, which I sewed securely shut. Then I stuffed the bell pouch in between layers of egg stuffing, as in the middle of the egg as I could get. Because of the stuffing the bells make a shaky rather than tinkly sound.

These adorbs and easy to assemble felt booties are from the fab folks at The Purl Bee. This blog is hands down one of the best sewing and knitting sites I know of. And whenever I go back to New York, I always, always make a trip to Purl Soho to stock up on fabrics and notions, and take in the general air of handmade gorgeousness that permeates the entire space.

This little tag blanket/toy was something I whipped up on a whim. I sandwiched some bias tape and ribbon loops around the perimeter and in between two pieces of fabric (each about 6"x8", right sides facing), added a layer of crinkly plastic to the top, and sewed all the way around with a half inch seam allowance. I left a four inch opening for turning right side out, then ladder stitched the opening closed.

I'd started the blanket quite a while ago (not knowing who it'd be for), so had a beginning with some rectangles of felted cashmere for the top. Browsing through a recently purchased copy of a Merchant and Mills sewing book, I saw instructions for making a double sided blanked with mitred corners and went for that to finish it. Unfortunately, the instructions weren't so clear to me, and I made a mess of the whole thing. After a grumbling hour or so with a seam ripper, I started again. There are many online tutorials for this technique, but the one I found most useful in terms of visual instruction came from Simple Simon and Co. In the end my border was a little wonky, since I'd already cut the corners off in my first attempt at this. And because I used a bulkyish, pieced, top layer instead of a single piece of fabric, the blanket will probably be put to better use as a playmat.

If you have a favorite baby gift you either given or received, please feel free to share in the comments below.