pandora pocket

The craft

I've been busy worshipping at the church of craft...

 

Little red riding hood hand puppet, inspired by Mabs Tyler's Big Book of Soft Toys.

 

A stack of cushions; some for Merlin's room and some for Sam and Olivia.

 

Finally finished Merlin's first cashmere sweater, from Baby Knits for Beginners, by Debbie Bliss.

 

A couple of blankets made from a pashmina that I have never worn and a pattern adapted from Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross. One might be for Merlin.

 

Rounded off with a little peruse of the Liberty website where their new Art Collection fabrics are available to order online. I think I have earned a nap after which will no doubt follow more craft, maybe a swim and a cup of raspberry leaf tea.

Congratulations Donald on passing your exams.

Liberty

I knew it would be a good idea to meet Julie in Liberty. The plan was to hand over the newly stitched bedding set and cushion for Joseph over coffee and a bacon sandwich in the lovely tearoom there. I had neglected to mention that there was a sale on and within ten minutes of the doors opening one of us had a new pair of shoes and jacket and the other had a bundle of fabric wrestled from the old ladies frantically rummaging at the remnants table.

 

Julie even had time to point out a fantastic book that she thought I might need, which of course I did. Not only are the images in this book a fantastic inspiration but I have loved reading about the history of my favourite shop. Written by Anna Buruma who is the archivist at Liberty, Liberty & Co. in the Fifties and Sixties: A Taste for Design is definitely a new favourite.

 

I love this post by Nikalas Catlow about children's book illustrators; especially the envelopes by Satoshi Kitamura.

Weekend Sewing

 

Inchmark blogged about the new book by Heather Ross a little while ago and it immediately found it's way to the top of my Amazon wishlist. Bizarrely, as I bought it and sent it to Josie for her birthday present she was buying it and sending it to me for mine. Weekend Sewing is styled so beautifully with such lovely pictures and easy to follow instructions; there is the odd recipe thrown in for good measure which look simple and delicious; and the opening chapter about how to set up a compact sewing area in a small flat could have been written specifically for me as I lose my sewing room to Merlin (sadly I couldn't convince DD to let me install a big cupboard in the living room full of fabrics and notions).

Time for a transatlantic craft off? I'm thinking of starting with the patchwork trimmed baby blanket, followed closely by a pair of guest room slippers. Although this weekend's sewing (at the kitchen table) mainly involves blackout lining, some polka dot corduroy and a pair of brown 1970s Miffy curtains I bought a while ago on ebay and just found again.

Guinness for both of you

 

My mum has collected the most amazing stash of stuff over the years and every time I go home she has a new pile of things for me to look through and decide if I want, before she chucks them out. When I saw the 'You and Your Baby' magazine issued by the British Medical Association in 1971, I couldn't resist the simpering, smock clad, spider-leg-mascara-eyed lady on the front and shoved it straight in my handbag. 

In 1971, the British Medical Associaiton advised that if you were under 5 ft in height you should have your baby in a hospital; if you had the baby at home, the husband should sleep in another room for the first two weeks; you shouldn't drink a lot of alcohol - "at the most one or two sherries or two glasses of beer a day"; and when you first find out you are pregnant and go to see your doctor "you will almost certainly have a chest x-ray to make sure there is nothing wrong... A chest x-ray is prefectly harmless from the point of view of you and your baby. So please don't worry about it at all."

Amazing to read about maternity benefits in 1971 (£5 a week allowance and you still get 7 pints of free milk a week as you did then) and I love that Peter Rabbit is still going strong.

   

But my favourite had to be the advert on the back page...

 

Mabs Tyler

Having torn myself away from watching every single episode of Lost from the very beginning (too much time on my hands? me?), I have decided to make the entire collection of niece/nephew/godchildren birthday gifts for the year over the next couple of weeks. Beginning with a little puppetry from Mabs Tyler's Big Book of Soft Toys (I love my 1970s craft library).

     

Come back tomorrow when the glue has dried and I'll tell you how it went...

bookworm

 

this weekend I attended a bookbinding course, run by lucy schofield and hilary judd. sadly I missed day one thanks to good old british airways, but day two more than made up for it. excellent teachers and lovely girls, hilary and lucy provided us with new knowledge (of the concertina, japanese and 4th century coptic kind), inspiration, endless cups of tea and the best homemade date and walnut / lemon curd cakes I have ever tasted. I can't wait to get me a bodkin and a bone folder and get making. guess what everyone's getting for christmas this year?

and whilst on the subject of books, yet again julia rothman has practically forced me to buy another. the big fish by aoi huber-kono and available from corraini is a distinctly japanese children's book with amazing line drawn illustrations and a bizarre story about a mysterious boat that threatens a bunch of island folk's fishing routine until a big storm arrives to make the fantasy boat disappear and life return to normal. whilst washing up a large empty(?) fish. I like it a lot.

old vs new

 

the toughest thing about girly style wardrobe is the fact that it is all in japanese. when I bought this dressmaking book on one of my first trips to japan, I remember leafing through and thinking to myself 'cute dresses/looks pretty self explanatory/how hard can it be?' and then it sat on my bookshelf for a couple of years. when I recently added it to my pile of projects and finally opened the large pattern sheet in the back I nearly fell over. information overload. in japanese.

I love a logic problem and having navigated my way around the double-sided, multilineal, double-bed-sized sheet of nightmares, I traced pattern 'd' and cut it out of three linen tablecloths from the business class of a world favourite airline. it took less than an hour today to fathom out the instructions and make it:

 

 

I like it a lot and now I want to make everything in the book. but as I once advised a friend, it's important to finish the humongous pile of jobs that were once started in earnest before being unashamedly cast aside when something brighter and shinier came along. old versus new. It's like I'm dangling a (carrot) craft project in front of myself as a reward.

alternatively I could just treat myself to these wall hooks from salendro design, found through design sponge.

all the Bs

Books, Birthdays, Buddies, Blogs, Buffalo...

thank you mum, aj, phillis and josie for such a fabulous birthday book bonanza.

happy birthday sari.

and great news of our media buddies:

nuala, who is blogging about her amazing trip to meet president museveni in uganda..

josie - craft sensation - who was interviewed at home for buffalo TV and rocks!

birthdays part II

tomorrow we celebrate the birthdays of little jim and donald charles marsh with a traditional non-verbal ramble. for traditional, read: we've done this more than once.

aldbury has been selected for 2008, from the (again, traditional) time out book of country walks. I'm looking forward to a national trust fix - in waterproofs. the bbc weather report states: 'saturday's predominant weather is forecast to be heavy rain'. very good.

I will have gifts. for jim, a lovely tank top knitted by josie's fair hands (although it's more likely to fit elliott)...

and for donny, a book I made whilst passing time in denver about a chair tree (although it's more likely to be enthused over by george)...

julie morstad again

you may remember I am julie morstads number 2 fan (after sara o'leary who is her number 1 fan). I was therefore overjoyed to find a load of her new work at atelier gallery, including originals from sara and julie's book when you were small and - joy of joy - a whole series of alphabet watercolours. I love alphabets (as it would appear does camilla engman).

unfortunately for me - although fantastic for julie - the gallery is in the process of selling the entire collection of alphabet cards to one lucky person.

I have had to console myself with a copy of milk teeth (found through julia rothman) and the promise of where you came from and the hope that one day I will own an original piece of work by julie as well as every book she has ever illustrated.