Introduction
Welcome to my blog!
I love Crafting - all kinds and I've tried all sorts through my life. I love working with my hands and making things. I once used to dream my whole house would be made from things I'd made but it didn't happen and I doubt it will now but I am going to keep trying.
My favourite craft is cross stitch but it's something I've not had a lot of time for since I had children, three of them. There is nothing like making things with toddlers and teaching them how to use their hands to make things. I was never one of those protective mothers who stopped my children using a sharp knife to peel vegetables or an axe to chop wood. They still think you fix electrical equipment by hitting it with a hammer when nothing else works (and believe me, it sometimes does work, especially if it's a battery operated doorbell!).
It's expensive buying crafting stuff for children so I made things like playdoh. I even got so good at it I ended up making it for other parents and for all the toddler groups we went to. I found a big black tray - possibly something a builder used, cleaned it up and we used it for the playdoh and when they got fed up with that I filled it with shaving foam or water or sand, gave them things out of the kitchen and let them make mess. We used disused printer paper from a dot matrix printer that was being thrown out to draw, colour and paint on and even to make some origami animals when they were older.
One of my boys carried on to do fine art and got very good at it and is now at university studying interior design making lots of models of his plans. I suspect he may decide to go into architecture in the end and I'm so proud of him.
My youngest, my daughter, started with French Knitting and looming and then started knitting and even learnt to crochet before me. She too loves to draw and is fascinated by mandala patterns and other symmetrical designs. Her path seems to be more into engineering but she's still finding her path.
So now they are older I've gone back to what I love doing. Four years ago I posted in our local facebook Community group, somewhat tongue in cheek, asking if anyone wanted to help knit bees for the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust. Quite a few people joined me and we sent off a few hundred bees. Once completed they asked me to carry on the group making other things so I did some research and we started making items for hospitals ( premature baby items, bags for various needs in different wards twiddlemuffs, busy blankets, bereavement gowns for babies and cribs, puppets for the therapists to help children). Then we started focusing on our own community and made some little waist coats for teddies for children in the women's refuge and little comfort toys. Then we contacted nursing homes and provided lap blankets for all the residents and twiddlemuffs for those with dementia. We've been working with funeral directors supplying items for babies who die too soon and have been so blessed with hundreds of donations of wedding and bridesmaids dresses to help us with this. Last year we made 50 separate deliveries to 40 organisations supplying well over 7000 separate items which, for a group of about 40 active volunteers, is a mammoth task. I feel so blessed to be able to do this to bless people in this way.
This Christmas I finally looked at the huge stash of cross stitch and card making items in my craft room and decided to do something about it so I made my Christmas cards this year and loved the creative process making them so this year I will be making all the birthday, anniversary, sympathy and other cards that are needed and may even make some to sell.
I've also got the cross stitches out and am in the process of sorting them. There are so many in various states of "in progress" including my daughter's birth sampler. She's nearly 15 and her brothers' were done years ago so I think I owe it to her to finish that one off! I've found loads more besides as well as a couple of tapestries I started decades ago. So, this is the year when I start to clear this stash (and the wool stash and the enormous amount of books I really want to read)
I'd love you all to be part of the adventure. I'll keep you updated with progress and let you know what I've enjoyed and learnt. I'll share reviews of the books I've read and hopefully you will read some of them too and let me know what you think about them.
But for now, this is the cross stitch I'm working on. Any idea what it might be? When I've done some more I'll add another photo.
I'm also reading Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale". I've not watched the film and haven't got very far through it yet. Has anyone read it? What did you think?
Anyway, back to stitching now.....
I love Crafting - all kinds and I've tried all sorts through my life. I love working with my hands and making things. I once used to dream my whole house would be made from things I'd made but it didn't happen and I doubt it will now but I am going to keep trying.
My favourite craft is cross stitch but it's something I've not had a lot of time for since I had children, three of them. There is nothing like making things with toddlers and teaching them how to use their hands to make things. I was never one of those protective mothers who stopped my children using a sharp knife to peel vegetables or an axe to chop wood. They still think you fix electrical equipment by hitting it with a hammer when nothing else works (and believe me, it sometimes does work, especially if it's a battery operated doorbell!).
It's expensive buying crafting stuff for children so I made things like playdoh. I even got so good at it I ended up making it for other parents and for all the toddler groups we went to. I found a big black tray - possibly something a builder used, cleaned it up and we used it for the playdoh and when they got fed up with that I filled it with shaving foam or water or sand, gave them things out of the kitchen and let them make mess. We used disused printer paper from a dot matrix printer that was being thrown out to draw, colour and paint on and even to make some origami animals when they were older.
One of my boys carried on to do fine art and got very good at it and is now at university studying interior design making lots of models of his plans. I suspect he may decide to go into architecture in the end and I'm so proud of him.
My youngest, my daughter, started with French Knitting and looming and then started knitting and even learnt to crochet before me. She too loves to draw and is fascinated by mandala patterns and other symmetrical designs. Her path seems to be more into engineering but she's still finding her path.
So now they are older I've gone back to what I love doing. Four years ago I posted in our local facebook Community group, somewhat tongue in cheek, asking if anyone wanted to help knit bees for the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust. Quite a few people joined me and we sent off a few hundred bees. Once completed they asked me to carry on the group making other things so I did some research and we started making items for hospitals ( premature baby items, bags for various needs in different wards twiddlemuffs, busy blankets, bereavement gowns for babies and cribs, puppets for the therapists to help children). Then we started focusing on our own community and made some little waist coats for teddies for children in the women's refuge and little comfort toys. Then we contacted nursing homes and provided lap blankets for all the residents and twiddlemuffs for those with dementia. We've been working with funeral directors supplying items for babies who die too soon and have been so blessed with hundreds of donations of wedding and bridesmaids dresses to help us with this. Last year we made 50 separate deliveries to 40 organisations supplying well over 7000 separate items which, for a group of about 40 active volunteers, is a mammoth task. I feel so blessed to be able to do this to bless people in this way.
This Christmas I finally looked at the huge stash of cross stitch and card making items in my craft room and decided to do something about it so I made my Christmas cards this year and loved the creative process making them so this year I will be making all the birthday, anniversary, sympathy and other cards that are needed and may even make some to sell.
I've also got the cross stitches out and am in the process of sorting them. There are so many in various states of "in progress" including my daughter's birth sampler. She's nearly 15 and her brothers' were done years ago so I think I owe it to her to finish that one off! I've found loads more besides as well as a couple of tapestries I started decades ago. So, this is the year when I start to clear this stash (and the wool stash and the enormous amount of books I really want to read)
I'd love you all to be part of the adventure. I'll keep you updated with progress and let you know what I've enjoyed and learnt. I'll share reviews of the books I've read and hopefully you will read some of them too and let me know what you think about them.
But for now, this is the cross stitch I'm working on. Any idea what it might be? When I've done some more I'll add another photo.
I'm also reading Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale". I've not watched the film and haven't got very far through it yet. Has anyone read it? What did you think?
Anyway, back to stitching now.....
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