Crafty As L

My good friend, Lorie, and I had a day out at the Knitting and Stitching Show at the Ally Pally last Thursday.  I had gone with the intention of not buying a load more fabric and yarn, since I already have stacks of both, but to look for something different.  I bought a couple of embroidery sets which I really liked, even though embroidery isn’t usually my thing, and a couple of metres of a fabric with a dandelion print - you’ll probably have realised by now how fond I am of dandelion silhouettes so I couldn’t leave without it! My main purchase was a block printing kit for printing designs onto fabric.  It was purchased from Block Craft who had a well-designed stall with demonstrations of the technique, lots of examples of the paint colours, stamps, stamped tea towels, bags, clothing and wrapping paper and all that sold it to me. Whilst I realise this is not different as such since it’s very similar to card stamping, I’ve never really done anything with fabric so I was ...

My crafty friend, Lorie, and I like to go and have a bash at new crafts now and again and this time Lorie found a willow weaving course so we could weave our own chicken. Well why wouldn't you? The course was run at Farnham Maltings by Judith Needham, who teaches basket making and willow weaving in Surrey and Hampshire.  She was a very knowledgeable and encouraging teacher with a structured but relaxed teaching style.  Most of the time she just left us to get on with it, which both Lorie and I appreciated. Judith had models on display for inspiration; pecking chickens and a cockerel.  You could also choose a design or other animal if chickens weren't your bag.  We chose cockerels! After a brief explanation on the types on willow we could use, we were presented with our metal hoops (to become chicken legs later) and a big wooden block to support our creation. We started off by making a rugby ball type shape as the building block for the bod...