Ruby's Button Tin

Front Room Totterdown Art Trail 2008

Blue and white needlepoint cushions

A couple of cushions mainly sewn with blue and white yarn. The stripey cushion has added sparkle from a silver thread with the alluring name of Goldfingering. This one reminds me of old quilt patterns.

Needlepoint wall hanging

I thought I'd take some pictures of a needlepoint wall hanging I made. It's based on an illustration for the front cover of a poetry anthology, and is ridiculously large. I've no idea why I started making something so big, and it took ages - on and off - to finish. If I was starting all over again I'd fill the yellow spaces at the sides of the figure in with lots of flowers and foliage, but other than that I'm fairly happy with the design. Unfortunately it became dreadfully pulled out of shape the more I sewed, and I ought to block it to stretch it back into a rectangle. Yup, another thing to add to the list of 'things I ought to do'. Needlepoint's great for being really inventive with colour and design, and it's a shame a lot of people don't experiment more and throw away the pre-printed kits and carefully shaded charts.

Preparing for the art trail

I haven't posted anything for a while, which doesn't mean nothing's happening. I've been sewing and sewing, making things for the Totterdown Art Trail. I've got a stack of needlepoint squares waiting to be backed with fabric and made into cushions. Plus bags and bags of cakes ... The sitting room is awash with fabric, felt, quilts and all sorts of crafty bits and pieces. You could never have a minimalist house with a serious craft addiction. Unless you have acres of cupboard space, but then seeing what materials you have to hand often sparks off creativity, while putting things in cupboards can mean out of sight out of mind.

Anyone for cake?

Crafty books

There are some amazing craft books out there, and every so often I think it does a girl good to splurge on one or two. They're a good source of inspiration for new projects. Some books are worth the cover price for the luscious photographs alone. Founder of the blog Yarnstorm is Jane Brocket who's produced a wonderfully rich book full of cakes, socks, quilts, films and paintings. It's a real browsing kind of book, great for leafing through along with a cuppa and preferably a chocolate biscuit. 'The Gentle Art of Domesticity' celebrates womens work in the house - not cleaning or boring chores like that, but making good things to eat, pretty cushions to snuggle against, pineapple upside cakes and flouncy aprons. Escapist? Maybe. But no less enjoyable for that. If you're looking for a brilliant all round craft book that'll give you endless patterns and instructions, as well as introductions to the characters behind many of your favourite blogs, try 'The Crafter Culture Handbook' by Amy Spencer. It's a handsome book that's bursting with ideas. And my final recommendation ... 'The Crafter's Companion' by Anna Torborg is another volume featuring many well known names - Heidi Kenney of 'My Paper Crane' for example. A beautifully photographed book that you'll keep dipping into.

p.s. more needlepoint

Thought I'd include this cushion cover too. Thought I'd include this cushion cover too. It's waiting to be backed with fabric and stuffed with a cushion pad. The design is loosely based on a Gustav Klimt painting (hope I've spelt his name correctly). I've taken elements of a painting by him, and used the colours and shapes, added gold thread (the fabulously named Goldfingering) and I'm really pleased by how it's turned out. It was one of those things I made purely for myself without thinking whether anyone else would either like or 'get' it.

Needlepoint designs

Needlepoint is addictive but time consuming, so one day I'll get round to working these sample patterns up into finished cushion designs. Yup, one day ... that mythical one day when all outstanding projects are finished and there's no washing up to be done or dusting or laundry or anything else to distract me. Meanwhile, I'll pick these projects up, do a bit, put them down and start something else ... playing around with these geometric patterns is fun as you can try any colour combination. Sometimes the colours sing out, other times they fall flat. Finally, this cat design was based on a birthday card, just simple blocks of colour with an outline of a rather jaunty cat taking centre stage.

Doughnuts for tea

I'm making felty doughnuts at the moment, so they're taking up most of my sewing time. But in odd moments I'm doing some patchwork and thinking about taking part in this year's Totterdown Art Trail. I took part last year, and it's a weekend of artists and crafty people showing off their wares and getting feedback on their work from the masses of visitors the popular event generates. Still pondering on it ... These are some zingy orange flowers from the allotment, where the English summer combination of sunshine and frequent showers is causing the weeds to flourish and the Evil Slugs to take over the planet. Okay, I might be getting a bit over-fixated on the slugs. But the weeds are flourishing. I suppose though weeding is good for the waistline, all that bending and straightening up. If only I could do more gardening and less chocolate biscuit eating ...

Reading and sewing and staying out of the rain ...

It looks as though the Great British Summer is over with lots of sudden showers lately. Good weather for staying indoors and watching lots of lovely Olympic coverage. Plus catching up on my reading. I've just read the original Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde short story by Robert Louis Stevenson. It's fascinating to read the orginals of stories like this, Dracula and Frankenstein, and then see what film makers made of them, so often wildly different to the original narratives. I'm also reading Winifred Watson's 'Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day', a novel from 1938. It's a beatifully produced volume published by Persephone Books, and features charming black and white drawings of scenes from the book. Haven't got too far with it yet, but it's already wonderfully sweet and funny. On the sewing front I've been making doughnuts, felty ones of course. Two more things to show you: This funny little tea cup with a saucer and lid, found in a charity shop. Plus a quilt I made a while ago. It'd been stuffed under a pile of cushions and half finished projects. I didn't like it much when I made it, but it's growing on me.