A Tree is for Life...

I have been sewing a lot of fabric trees lately, a veritable forest. I started with this old oak to go with Sam's farm play mat...


Then I realised it was way too big for that so I made this smaller one out of some vintage fabric.


I sewed some autumnal ones too but I don't have any pictures yet of those young saplings quite yet and since I have the sew-opiary bug (see what I did there), there are some velvet and felt ones coming to a wood near you soon.
I searched the wonderful tinternet and couldn't find any free standing fabric trees anywhere so I am pleased that I am cornering that tiny little gap in the market. Perfect for gardenless tenants  rooms without a view or those craving a horticultural cuddle in the wee small hours, filled with natural fibres and hand sewn, well mostly. Now to populate my nature table with some hardy perennials. :-)

Rawr!

I can't take any credit for the design, I found a wonderful tutorial here, but I needed to practise my appliqué curves desperately so it seemed rude not to make Sam this monster t shirt complete with pocket for monster paraphernalia.
Grrrrr.

Diorama

I have had this urge to make dioramas for some time now, strange as it may seem, and I guess not being able to sew at the moment has forced me into trying out a different project. I became a little bit obsessed with searching for them on the world wide web and found some beautiful examples here, here and here.
This guy makes the tiniest dioramas in all sorts of cool repurposed stuff, I like that idea so here is my attempt, using one of my father's old cigar boxes.



The Owl and the Pussy Cat (just in case you were wondering!)


With 50 pence piece to illustrate scale.


Box all closed up.

Now I have caught the diorama bug I am eyeing up all sorts of empty vessels, and  it helps to have an outlet for my ongoing Edward Lear fixation too, The Jumblies would just be the perfect paper project and a great packing distraction.

Little Boy Blue

Sewing has not been featuring too highly this month, due to many reasons but mainly because a) my sewing machine was very poorly and b) we are moving house. Most of my beloved fabric stash is now housed in a box marked "Craft Tat", parked next to the three large boxes marked "Fancy Dress Tat".
However, I have been practising my appliqué skills, such as they are:

Here is The Noodle sporting his new dinosaur T shirt and his inability to keep still, hence the blurry photos..and here is a picture of his new monster knee patch which is also out of focus, nothing whatsoever to do with my dodgy camera action.*Ahem*




Wacky Races

The Noodle doesn't let me sew in the day time, he thinks it is anti-social and there is always the danger he will jump up and down on the treadle unexpectedly or jab his finger under the moving needle. Mostly he likes to press buttons and there are a lot of buttons to press on my sewing machine, irresistible. As extreme sewing is not really my bag I tend to sew under cover of night. This is usually fine if a) the kids are sleeping well and b) my social life is non existent but neither of these things have been true this week so I am feeling somewhat thwarted, thwarted and slightly hungover, this does not make for very neat stitching. Because I couldn't sew and because the rain is still raining and because I desperately wanted to make something, anything, I made the kids this...


The horse won, just in case you are of the betting persuasion ;-) .

Rain Rain Go Away

I have been trying to pull a million crafting activities out of the bag this week in an attempt to keep my stir-crazy son occupied during the torrential rain we have been experiencing. Not easy as he has the attention span of a duck. So far we have done clay modelling, most of which he ate, painting, stamping, marble-rolling-painting (which he loved and I love because the results are usually quite spectacular with very little effort) and collaging.
Early on in the week I discovered Shrinky-Dinks, a whole childhood too late (for me). Where have I been? And more importantly how much fun have I missed out on? I shrinky-dinked all afternoon with The Noodle, got so excited about showing Boo such fabulousness when she returned home but she was not the least bit impressed "I've already done that at School Mummy". Fine. I made her do it anyway. Watching the curling up of the plastic in the oven is endlessly fascinating.
Maybe I should get out more?
Anyway the rain shows no sign of abating and as arc building is next on the agenda I better put up these photos of our Shrink-plastic artefacts lickety-split.



Process Not Goal



Okay, I may have made it look like I have not been doing anything much towards the business in Junevember but I have been consolidating ideas, after all it's all in the process, or so I am told. Headbands are where I am at a the moment and the little Boo took some time out of her busy school schedule to model exhibit A. Variations on a theme to follow...

Milly and Molly and Mandy


This month I am mainly reading Milly Molly Mandy (to my five year old) to the backdrop of the cold relentless rain. One might think it was February but it is in fact a new month called Junevember, it is cold and miserable and not at all how Summer should be and I do not function well under such harsh climatical conditions.
My other main preoccupation is sewing The Noodle's play mat, rather like the Bayeux Tapestry it is taking me an age to complete and growing exponentially (therein lies my problem); however, I do feel that unless this mission is completed some time soon then Boo and The Noodle, the sewing empire that is to be, will not stand a pussy cats hope in hell.

Super


Here's how it starts.