Hearts and Flowers

I haven't written anything on here since January for which I apologise.

Heartfelt and particularly, The Medlar House Mice have been taking up all my time.
Did I tell you I have resurrected my old mice which I made over 15 years ago? Well I have given them a twist and I now think they are a bit more 21st century.

They have been on Facebook for a while but I have now started a blog for them.
http://medlarhousemice.blogspot.co.uk/

If you click the link and scroll down you can see all about them and how they came to be the way they are....no clues.

Why have I suddenly started this?

Well, I got a bit fed up ( as you know ) with paper. I do love it but there is no point labouring over something which others can make by machine at the touch of a button. Handmade? No but nevertheless...anyone can do it. So I no longer want to make flowers or bags or boxes. These machines, Silhouette Cameos for one, will even make you a dolls house like I make so there is no point in me playing with those either except for my own fun.

So I started Heartfelt - all about felt shapes made entirely by hand and embroidered and made with Vintage lace, ribbons and sequins and beads.

One thing's led to another and I've been drawn back to the three D soft sculptures I used to make years ago.
You can read about them http://pastmastery.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/2-pounds-for-your-thoughts.html
here.

I had no idea if people were going to like the or not. SO I made a few and took them to a couple of shows.
They LOVED them.
So I shall be making some more. No two will be the same. They are OOAK...one of a kind. Even if I replicate a theme it will be different as the items used will not be the same.
For example...I made this little white mouse...

You all thought that in Alice in Wonderland..there was a White Rabbit..well no...it was a mouse ;)

I made him with some tiny playing cards which I got in a cracker at Christmas. I shall make another as he sold immediately he was put out on the stand. He won't be the same though...he will be white but not like this one...so there we are OOAK.

I hope you will follow the mice in their antics.I shall write a blog about most of them as I make them, on Medlar House Tails.
And pictures will appear on Gather Ye Rosebuds too.

Many of them wear hats filled with flowers and some of them hold or are embroidered with flowers.
I think that counts don't you?

A Very Special Gift.

Mother's Day will come round before we know it.

Here in the UK it's on the 10th of March.

I had an idea for a boot as a gift for Mothering Sunday.

Building on my success with stitching card to felt, I added a very pretty image of a Flower seller to my cut out felt shape. I printed a Vintage image onto linen weave card and cut close enough to the edge to be able to stich it onto the backing felt.

I'm now waiting for the last order of tiny silk 4mm ribbon to completely finish her, as I want to add some tiny flowers to her tray and her hair.

Apart from that she is done.

She was stitched to pink half wool, half acrylic felt as I thought this might keep the shape better than  all wool felt, once paper was added to it.

Then it was a matter of adding the Edwardian lace panel to the top to form the cuff of the boot. I cut a small heart in white felt and covered that too, in the dark ecru lace and this was added to the toe of the boot and padded. Before all this my signature diaper pattern was stitched in back stitch to the boot surface in a lovely hand dyed variegated thread, tones of blue through green to pink and lavender. At every join there is a lovely modern 'mucky green' star sequin with an old pearl seed bead in the centre.

The word Mother was then embroidered by hand on the toe in soft pink.

I cut out lots of green leaves and embroidered the veins with a soft but dark green thread. These form the basis for the flower arrangements, all three, on the surface of the boot.

Hand made felt flowers in white, cream, pink and peach are clustered in bunches to which are added silk ones in a silver threaded pink and a plain cream. Both of these have the edges pulled to fray them

 I cut pieces of the Edwardian lace and curled it into flowers and added a pearl bead in soft shades of green to the middles. Very effective. It just ties in the lace theme a bit further.
Then the tiny silk ribbon, of which I took delivery last week, was made into minute flower clusters and sewn at the base of the flowers.


Then dozens of tiny bead and sequins were dotted here and there. All round the edge of the boot and over the surface.There are bugle beads( long ones ) in real Mother of Pearl which were once on a jumper I picked up at a jumble sale in the 70's. The blue sequins, however are very special. And I only have a few.

Those who follow this blog will know that my friend Vivienne, who died on her 40th birthday when I was only in my twenties, left me her life's collection of lace, trims beads, sequins and wotnots in her will. I am now using a lot of these treasures. I haven't really had the projects or time before now, to do so and besides, the Vintage movement has given me the spur hasn't it?

She catalogued every little piece - where she bought it, how much she paid for it and what exactly it was ( she was a bit of an expert on haberdashery.) This was in the days when no one wanted these things. She frequented jumble sales, auctions houses, flea markets and what we used to call second hand shops. There were no charity shops in those days. People cleared houses and either threw these beautiful things away or they went for a song, to someone like my friend Vivienne, who knew their true worth.

So these little blue sequins ( I also have green and silver ) are early pieces...who really knows how old? Vivienne catalogued them as mica sequins 19th century. Now Mica is a naturally formed organic rock which shales easily and it was often used as glass in early dolls houses, as water on early embroideries, such as Stumpwork caskets and on beautiful evening dresses of the Victorian/ Edwardian era. I'm sure she thought these had once adorned such a dress.

Now they are adorning my creation.

I'm sure some well thought of Mother would love to receive this as a gift on Mother's Day.

And thank you Vivienne, for your gift too. A very special gift.

Coming Round Again.

We all know that there has been a resurgence in the arts of the Vintage era... from the late 1800's to the 30's and beyond with Retro to the 80's.
I've tried my hand at something which my Mother made when she was a lass of 6!It all comes round again.

There was, for quite a while, a fashion for ladies in crinolines in flower gardens, on tea cloths, chair backs, table cloths and the such. Patterns for these appear in those lovely old magazines you can pick up for a song in antique and curio shops. You also find the real thing in the form of second hand tea cloths and the like in Vintage shops and at fairs. Most of the stitchery is fairly easy...lazy daisy stitch seems to prevail and there is a plethora of Hollyhocks, Delphiniums and Lupins.

This is part of the pattern my Mum had. It comes from a magazine called the Home Journal from 1934 - May the 12th to be precise.

I took this and made it into a design for a Flower Garden Hearfelt heart.

The basic design is there though I did add a little cottage once I had begun to stitch. I thought it needed it.

The lady was made in pink and buff felt in several pieces which were then all cobbled together with a slip stitch. Beads were added to the flowers on her dress and to the underskirt. Then the whole thing was padded lightly. Her bonnet is padded too.

Real silk ribbon hangs free as her bonnet strings blow in the breeze. The flowers are embroidered and beads are added to make them stand out. The gravel path on which the lady stands are tiny seed beads and French knots. The white felt heart was embroidered by hand with a back stitch in green, in a diaper pattern ( fast becoming a signature of my felt work I think ) and at the crossings tiny sequins with a sparkly bead were added to each.
The cottage was cut out of several coloured felts and all were pieced together with slip stitch and were embroidered over to give a three D appearance. Needless to say, that too was padded and beads added to provide us with roses round the door and a border of little flowers in front.

Lastly a little bird was created. I decided that he had to be a male Linnet as they are very Victorian birds and they were often kept in cages at this time as the male of the species sings so beautifully.

He is flying over head with a small flower in his beak. I like my birds free ( as you can tell from the side bar ;)  )
He was made from several pieces of buff and grey felt and his feather were stitched in long stitch, in the appropriate colours of embroidery threads.
Then he too was padded ready to be added to the background, the first heart shape when the whole things has been surrounded with a frill of lace.

Once the lace had been gathered onto the edge of the white heart, a slightly bigger one of pink felt was stitched to the back and the pre- made felt flowers stitched to the edge.
I had made these flowers, with bead centres, and set them aside for the last phase. I cut them out on the Bigshot and layered them in pinks and white to echo the colour of the bird and the lady's crinoline.
The little bird was attached and the stem of the flower embroidered. All that had to happen now was the white background, which stiffens the whole thing, had to be stitched on and the ribbon hanger attached.

So, a 2013 take on a 1930's take on a Victorian flower garden.

How everything comes round if you wait long enough.

Round and Round in Circles

I have been sorting the study.
Not an easy task.
But I have achieved some sort of order after the Christmas chaos.

I've also found a huge amount of 'stuff' which I had forgotten all about. With sighs of " Oh that's where you went " and exclamations of " Ooohh I remember that," I have been on a journey of discovery through bits and pieces. <3

It's very good for the imagination, excellent inspiration but it doesn't get the kitchen cupboards cleaned out does it....which was also my intention this week.

I've also come to a decision.
I think that paper is rather passé. Ideas just seems to go round and round in circles. No...perhaps not the way I work paper on BoxCleva, which is, I have to say rather unique, but boxes and bags I think, as a topic have had their day. So I am going to sell off a lot of my paper working things and concentrate on the flowers I make here and on the work I am developing on Heartfelt, my latest idea and that which I was promising you on my last post. At the moment it's only available on Facebook but we'll see....

When I began my paper journey, there were few boxes or bags about. Now they are everywhere. Thanks to the television and to all those magazines and not least, to these machines which cut everything at the touch of a button. Now, I can't compete with those. I do most of my stuff by hand. I like to do most of it by hand. The only thing I might use to help me is a BigShot machine and some dies and of course, some punches.

SO the Tapestry Stamps stay, so do most of the punches and many of the flower dies. I have already sold off most of my other dies. Other things will go as time allows.

The other thing I have been doing of course is making silk flowers and those will stay on here, on Gather Ye Rosebuds.....along with the projects they decorate.
Experimentation has been going on in this field too, over the Christmas break and shortly after. ( Remember for me, Christmas lasts twelve days!). I've been playing with felt and trying to make different shapes of three dimensional flowers with it. The same techniques which are used for paper can be adapted for felt, I've found. Let's go round and round in circles here too.

The circular rose, which I taught you all to make on BoxCleva can be made in felt. Go here for he tutorial. Wars of the Roses
If you crimp the edge with a pair of deckle scissors or pinking shears, you get a frilly rose.

If you snip into the cut circle every so often, you get a flatter flower with distinct petals.

If you cut scallops, the result is more like a tulip.
This is a scallop cutter which will do it for you should you like to buy it.I have to say it's not an easy shape to achieve by hand but it can be done with pinking shears and small sharp scissors.

Go here to buy.
Oyster Stamps.co.uk

 

If you cut the circle with a pair of pinking shears and then every second point snip into the piece  at an angle, you will get a very pretty little lotus type flower.

I'll pass on more of my experimentation to you later on.


Now for those cupboards....I can hear them calling to me.........

 

Just We Three

No, not We Three Kings, but Stephen, Delphi and myself.

We are all ready for Christmas. Well, as ready as we can be,

We have yet to take delivery of Delphi's main present ordered online but are assured that Father Christmas will deliver it on Monday. Monday is D Day. Duckday. How I'm going to get it into her sock without her seeing, smelling or hearing it...is a moot point but I shall cross that bridge when Duck is eventually delivered. We can only hope that Delphi will be out working with Daddy, on that day.

The tree is up and trimmed and there is a mountain of presents underneath to be divvied up come the day. The mantel piece is decorated to within an inch of its life. The garden is festooned with tasteful twinkly lights.The hallway has been transformed with birds, holly, ivy and mistletoe and glistening heart shaped wreaths.

And of course the stockings are tied to the hall bannisters.
Ah yes, the stockings.

It all started with Delphi's own Woof Woof one.

I felt left out. I've never had a stocking. Well, not one I can stuff with chocolate and earrings and perfume. SO, as you know I made one for myself.

Then Stephen, not to be left out, we decided, Delphi and I, needed one too. His had to be rather different.

So there we are..we three.....all lined up and waiting. Delphi's is already full to bursting point with goodies and bless'er, she knows that things are in there, she stops on the stairs to sniff but she never attempts to ravish said stocking. She's a good girl and is waiting for the right time.

She has heard the song, with the line "...so be good for goodness sake..." over and over and over and over, ad nauseam, wherever we go and she has taken it to heart.

Yes. We are very pleased with our efforts.

But what do we do now?
Aha! Never fear.

I woke in the middle of the night with

an idea. 

I had to write it down just in case I failed to remember it come getting up time.
SO, with this in mind I shall fiddle and play and see what I come up with. It's all the fault of those stockings...this idea,
And I have no notion of where it will take me. To Happy Days I hope.

I shall have a blog holiday now for the Festive Season but will be back in the New Year with said idea fully formed. < ahem >.

Hope to see you on the other side.

HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR all you GYR'ers.

Crafty Thinking.

I have been a 'crafter' for 50 years or more....long before the word crafter was invented. Back then we were creative people who simply made things which other people preferred ( if they could ), to buy.

I have been a professional crafter since my early twenties. This meant that what I made was sold to the public in such quantity, that it paid the mortgage. Many of the companies which were founded when I was young are still going. They were founded long before many of the present proponents of the crafting revolution were born! Many fell by the wayside after a good run at it. Nowadays, I don't consider myself a professional, as I have retired and I just play at it. But I still consider myself ( if you will forgive the unashamed plug ), professional in the execution of what I do.

There has been such an explosion of 'crafting' lately. The television and magazines are full of it. Everyone, we are told, can do it. Hmmmm can they?
Everyone CAN MAKE SOMETHING. Not everyone can be an artisan. Certainly, not everyone should sell to the public.

I only sell at craft fairs at Christmas, nowadays. The rest of the year frankly, is not worth bothering with. Years ago I could sell what I made all year round. I tailored my production to the season, as a good craftsman should. Sadly, however, I have watched, over the last 30 years, the British craft industry, dwindle to a pale imitation of its former self.

So, not only has the word 'craft' it seems, changed its meaning but the world of British craft has changed beyond all recognition.

Back then, there were a great many small companies producing original, beautifully handmade goods with the sweat of their brow and blood of their thimbleless fingers ( or those of their outworkers.) The public demanded no less.
If the item was not well made, fit for the purpose and original - it did not survive their scrutiny. They did not buy it. The company would have gone bust. So the British craft industry thrived.

Then, the world began to open up - people started to travel more. They went to the Far East on their hols. They realised that they could get things made there much more cheaply. They brought things back with them ( as folk have done ever since the ark pitched up on Mt. Ararat! ). Companies which began to have things made abroad, turned up at fairs. The death knell sounded for those makers who spent their days hunched over a table, pouring their soul into their hand made items. The Trade shows I attended began to be filled more and more with foreign goods. It was hard to compete. It was impossible to compete. Gradually, public taste was changed, they became more fixed on price and less on quality and originality.
It was rather a chicken and egg situation. Do you offer the public what you think it should have, do you if you like, educate the public or do you follow trends and go with the flow regardless? It's a tough one if your inclination is to stick to your old fashioned values and remain a 'craftsman', an artisan.

Many of the goods coming in from abroad were tatty and badly made. They used inferior materials and were produced in less than ideal situations. Still, because they were encouraged by magazines, the T.V. and advertising, the public bought into this idea. The General P became much much less discriminating as a result. That lack of discrimination is still here with us today. Only much worse because, with the explosion in the U.K. of those producing hand made goods, we now have a whole strata of poorly made, unoriginal run of the mill British items. Sad.

I shall probably lose friends with the publication of this blog post. Especially if I air my views on Facebook, which I think is rife with this sort of thing. There are many super hand made items on Facebook - don't misunderstand me. But there are equally, a great many poorly made, badly thought out, trite ( If I see one more hessian heart tied up with string I'll scream!), overdone, unoriginal items out there. And not cheap either.

No apologies to http://www.etsy.com/listing/101801470/50-off-shabby-chic-stuffed-hessian

Nearly every fair I go to, there is someone, who has been 'crafting' for a mere few months, producing an idea that has been done to death, that wasn't their idea in the first place. The magazines make me smile. " Here is a craftsperson  who is making  THIS.... oh how lovely! They have been doing it a WHOLE YEAR..and now they are established. " Piffle. Nine times out of ten there is very little skill in what they do, it's not original as I say and, having made a study of how long these people trade...they are here today gone tomorrow. I could give you a list of advertisers in the back of these magazines who were plugged to within an inch of their life on the web but who, now are NOT FOUND items when you Google! The saddest thing is, these people are clogging up the works and diluting the pool.

So let's hear it for the truly CRAFTED item. One that has and will stand the test of time. That is not so simple and banal that it can be copied by anyone with a needle. One that has been thought up and is produced by someone with some SKILL and DEVOTION to what they do. These people are out there. Please Joe Public - patronise them and not those ideas that are pathetically brainless in their idea and execution.

I have watched the 'craft market' decline with foreign imported goods. I have watched its resurgence - its regeneration with the bring back 'knitting and crochet' revolution ( yawn ) - all very well but do think of something original and different please and make sure you are good at it before you foist it on the public- and I have watched the type of goods on offer slide into a mire of unoriginal thought and poor craftsmanship. I'm upset by it. I'm also irritated by it.

Let us make an analogy. Let's take the craft market ( already under threat because of the prevailing climate of jitteryness about the economy,) and liken it to a sponge cake. You can cut slices of that cake - it is after all only so big a cake, thickly or thinly. If you slice that cake thickly you are more likely to get a whole piece. If you try to slice it thinly, it will fall to pieces. See what I'm getting at?

We have a situation where there are too many 'crafters'...the cake is slicing too thinly and we are all the poorer for it.

When you go out to look for handmade goods, please keep in your head the fact that the word 'craft' in its dictionary definition means and I quote from the Oxford English.....
" Skill in doing or making something, as in the arts; proficiency.To make or construct (something) in a manner suggesting great care or ingenuity. An occupation or trade requiring manual dexterity or skilled artistry."
And with this in mind, look at your purchase with a clear idea of what you are buying. Don't be influenced by the herd. Think for yourself.

Felt Pretty

I am sitting at my computer at 1. 50 in the morning. It's not something I would normally be doing, you comprehend. But for quite a bit of pain in the bits and pieces, I would be snoring my head off along with my husband and dog.

It's not conducive to sleep. Neither is their snoring..but I digress.

In my post Thrifty Thinking I showed you the few small decorative boxes I had made for friends for Christmas, to contain bath bombs and the like. One good friend will be getting something a little bigger and more unusual.

Take one ready made Christmas stocking from Hobbycraft. Cost - about £2.50. You couldn't buy the felt for this.
Onto this rule diagonal lines and then make inch squares. Sew with a chain or running stitch. I used gold foil thread but plain is fine.
Using some dark green felt cut a circle which is about as big as a tea plate. If you like you can scallop the edges to make it more tree-like. Offer this up to your stocking and draw a line around it where you think it should go.

At the junction of each square sew a sequin...colour optional, but leave the squares inside the tree blank. No point in adding sequins here.
Cut out, in paler green felt about 25 small leaves - some facing one way, others the opposite way. Onto these sew with fairly large stitches, some veins, with dark green embroidery thread. Sew these to the green tree shape, positioning them carefully, some over the edges. If you are clever you can do this job in one process.

Leave a largish gap in the middle of your tree. Between the leaves sew with large stitches and with green embroidery thread, pine needles, here and there. Then add some red sequins to look like holly berries.

Cut out, in cream felt a bird shape which will fit into the middle of your tree. Cut his beak ( 2 ) and his wings ( it's up to you how many layers there are - I have four ) and his tail in a separate colour. I used brown. I also used a different brown for his face and the darker version for his crest for the top of his head. Sew with embroidery thread, the feathers of his tail and wings. Make up the two parts of the beak in yellow felt and stuff lightly. Close up the beak and embroider the central line. Cut another piece of cream felt for the back of the bird and lightly slip stitch around him leaving the bottom open so you can lightly stuff him....Hmmm stuffed partridge....)...not too fat now.
Close him up.  Add the beak as you stitch around him. Stitch on a black bead for an eye. If you like you can embellish him a little with red thread. Sew all the pieces of the wings together and add the tail.

Cut in yellow felt, eight pear shapes ( two each pear ) so you have a pair per pear < sorry >.
Slip stitch these and lightly stuff them.Close them up and then with brown thread make a semi circle and an inverted V shape at the bottom of each to indicate the indentation in the bottom of the pear.

Now sew all these to your tree shape, but leave some parts of the bird ( eg. his tail ) and the pears free of the backing.

Before you stitch the tree to the sock, add sequins and beads here and there for a bit of sparkle.

In brown felt, cut out a tree trunk - three branches at the top is sufficient. Sew this to the bottom of the tree. ( Make sure you leave a space for this when you sew on the leaves and pears. ) Pad this very lightly and slip stitch the bottom.

Cut out a banner in cream making it bend a little. You will also need two wavy ends, ( you can find patterns online ). Stitch the running thread and then the words and sew this over your tree trunk.

Add a wavy edge to the top of the stocking ( cut out a paper pattern for this - you'll find it easier to measure, ) and add sequins where ever you like.

Finally make a bigger pear with two padded leaves and add this to the hanger which is sticking out of the top of your stocking.

This stocking is based on one which is a kit from Bucilla ( I am informed no longer available - that is why I made my own ) which was HORRENDOUSLY expensive here in the U.K.

I made this one for about £5.

And about 24 hours of work, over a week.

Tremendous fun and pretty result.
Do you think she'll like it?
I think she would like it even more if I put a nice little something in it don't you?

Happy stitching!