Crafty As L

Recently, I attended a workshop to make a book cover, which was run by Helen Murchie, one of the ladies from my textile group.   It was a really fun workshop and I learned loads. To begin, we painted Bondaweb with water and then acrylic paints.   As we were on a time constraint, we dried the pieces from the underside with a hairdryer, which was a very messy process.   For future makes, I would paint them and leave to air dry – a perfect project for this hot weather! After placing the Bondaweb paint-side-down onto black acrylic felt, it was covered with baking paper and then melted onto the felt with a hot iron. Once cooled, the Bondaweb backing was carefully removed, revealing the paint pattern on the felt. The next step was great fun and involved scattering threads and sequins all over the painted felt.   This was then covered with organza, covered with the baking paper and heated with the iron on a medium heat, to melt the adhesive onto the organza, sandwic...

It was Mr L’s birthday last month and rather than just buy him “stuff”, I bought him some things to do too – with me, of course! We’ve already enjoyed the Soulful Soundbath , which was a deeply relaxing experience accompanied by classical harp and Tibetan bowls and we’ve got to wait until December to see Kevin Bridges stand-up show.   The third activity that I bought was a pottery workshop to make a Green Man at Misty Ceramics studio.   If you don’t know what that is, the Green Man is an ancient figure, usually a face peering out of or composed of leaves, which symbolises nature, rebirth, and the cycle of seasons. On arrival, Karen gave us a quick briefing and showed us some examples that she’d made, then we were off.   We started by rolling out the clay and cutting out a circular base.   The wooden sticks were to ensure the base was a uniform thickness. The next stage was the most challenging for me – making a realistic face.   Fortunately, Karen offered b...

My friend and I were going to visit Dougie, one of the veterans from Project 71, and he kindly lets us stay in his static caravan, which is in a glorious position mere metres from the coast just outside Cardiff.   We like to make his something as a thank you and this time we decided to make a cushion.   Each of us would make a side, not disclosing what we’d made until it was finished. Dougie sometimes stays with us when he comes back for events so I decided my side would reflect what he gets at our house, namely cats and music.      He used to have cats and enjoys playing with ours and he also likes to listen to me playing the organ.   I bought the Four Cats Quilt Block pattern from Etsy but each of the finished blocks were too big so I had to redraw them to get the block to be 15” finished size.   I added the seam allowance and cut out each template. The first step was to make the intertwined tails by starting with the small squares. Next, t...

A few years ago, my Mother-in-law mentioned that she’d really like a soft case for her glasses that also had a pocket for a pen, as invariably she was putting on her glasses to write something.   I made her a couple for Christmas that year but now they are a bit grubby.   It was her birthday a couple of weeks ago so I thought I’d make her some new ones. To start, I cut out all of the pieces.   This comprised: Outer fabric:     two pieces 18cm x 9cm and one 13cm x 9cm Lining fabric:    two pieces 18cm x 9 cm and one 15cm x 9cm Stabiliser:          two pieces 16cm x 7cm (I used Bosal single sided fusible) Using a 1cm seam allowance, I sewed the larger outer and lining fabrics together along one narrow end and then pressed open the seams.   The pocket was also sewn together but this time with the lining fabric upside down.   This seam was pressed towards the lining fabric then the lining...