Rant about agism

My mother in law sent a link to a Woman’s Hour segment, because she knows I’m interested in embroidery. Perhaps I’m just showing my age, but I do get a bit grumpy when people talk about a ‘new generation’ making embroidery exciting. IMHO, these people are just expressing their ignorance of embroidery and other arts and crafts in general. I’m not an expert on embroidery (just an enthusiast), but I know people of all ages are innovating, and also following well established paths. And they aren’t mutually exclusive groups.

It didn’t help my mood when Twisted Threads (who did the excellent quilt show this summer) sent out a picture of happy people at the Knitting and Stitching Show who all looked younger than me. It’s great to see them enjoying the event, but I can’t help thinking the image excludes a lot of older people who also had a great time there.

One of the great things about handicraft is that age doesn’t matter. I remember an embroidery kit I did as a child, a paint pony and stylized sun on light green canvas. Straight stitch and satin stitch in big, chunky threads; simple, effective. No idea where it is now, but I still enjoy the memory. And I fully intend to enjoy embroidery for the rest of my life. Maybe I’ll even get good at it!

But before I sound too negative, I do have to agree with what Ms Gardiner said on Woman’s Hour- I’m not interested in debates about art, I just want to embroider and enjoy other people’s work as well. As a guild member, I ought to be more concerned about promoting embroidery, but thinking like that makes my brain hurt. I don’t really want to argue a point; I want to play with string.

At the moment, that means wrapping plastic rings from drinks bottles.
The plan is to use them on a larger fabric piece for the embroidery
display this spring, pulling together lots of scrap fabrics, but all generally red.

Decisions, decisions

Time is flying away from me (for example, today's trousers were purchased in May, but I only finished hemming them yesterday). It was probably over a week ago that I finally decided what to do with the comic- publishing it though a service like Lulu, to get a high quality, full colour book. Obviously, that would be the end product, not the next stage. The next stage would be a really big commitment to drawing it properly, getting the lettering in, inking, etc. In a way, I’d love to be a comic book artist, so it would be fun to make a ‘polished’ comic. But, my drawing skills aren’t up to it at the moment. It would be quite a learning curve to go from where I am now to being able to consistently draw in a classic comic book style. Realistically, I’m not sure if I can focus myself that much. Also, I haven’t been drawing much at the moment, which doesn’t bode well for the amount of drawing the comic will take. It may be a resolution for next year, but I don’t want to set myself up to fail. Committing to finishing the comic would also mean I wouldn’t be able to concentrate my energy on crafting projects. That would make the bus my main crafting time (but I haven’t been doing that much crafting at home recently).

I’ve not reached a decision about participating in the Nanowrimo in November. I don’t honestly think I can write a novel’s worth of prose in a month, but I think it may be interesting to try. I have a lot of trouble with writing, but I have felt good about the short story and comic. So if I did write a novel (even a bad one), I’d feel terrific about it.

As far as crafting goes, my current activity is wrapping thread around rings from juice cartons. I’ve got some ideas about using them in a piece of embroidery for a display next year. Not sure if it will work, and I can’t remember the deadline for the completed piece, but it’s something to play with. Last week I wasn’t organized enough to get any crafting done. And now, I can't decide what tags to put with this post! Oh well, I'll try to think of some for next time.

Tribute to Nora Wrightson

I never knew Nora Wrightson, but I have the greatest respect for her as a craftsperson. She had been active in the Manchester branch of the Embroiderers Guild and had served as treasurer (this was well before I joined). But I know she must have been a great stitcher because of her legacy. Nora died recently, and her family have very nicely asked the branch to distribute her crafting supplies and books to people who will make use of them. I’ve benefited greatly from this by getting a copy of Constance Howard’s Book of Stitches. It’s even signed by Constance, who is a justly famous embroiderer. I can feel the inspiration bubbling up!

Prototype zippered rag-bag

I never did knit on the bus- I think I’m afraid to wave knitting needles around like that. Instead, I’ve been prototyping a variation on the rag-bag that I got from Tanglecraft. The idea is to sew a zipper to a lining fabric, then put the card frame inside that lining. The warp is stitched through the fabric of the zipper rather than laced over a comb, but the weaving pattern is the same: weave side one, flip, weave side two, flip and repeat.

It took about two weeks to make, and obviously requires some non-bus time to get the sewing done. Here’s the breakdown:

The Good:

• Smaller size frame is easier to handle without a shed stick. Most of the weaving was done using a hair clip to thread the weft through, then a darning need to fill in the top bits.


• Used some tiny (like under 3 inches long) bits of blue yarn I had scavenged at the 8th Day knitting club ages ago. I do like how these rag weavings can incorporate tiny bits of colour.

The Bad:

• The chenille yarn was nice to touch, but doesn’t slide through the warps well. It was tricky near the top, but impossible to use when ‘filling-in’ the bit at the bottom (Perhaps I hadn’t pushed the first rows of weaving down enough, but the warps at the bottom were naked where they went over the edge. I filled it in with the green yarn using a darning needle.)


• It was nearly impossible to get the card out of the bag when the weaving was finished. I had overestimated how far the zipper unzipped. Even after bending the card, I still caught and snapped the warp thread at the far end. It wasn’t hard to tie back together, but it could be a flaw in the whole process. Or maybe it’s just because I used a chunky zipper.


• After the problems with getting the card out, I zipped the bag shut and the head of the zipper came off the end! Luckily it aligned and went back on. The zipper also caught the lining fabric. Zippers are tricky.

The Ugly:

• The un-even edge to the warp threads where they are sewn into the zipper. I tried covering these with a line of un-even chain stitch, and it was an improvement. Future experiments need to be more precise in stitching the warp.


• I think, though I’m not certain, that I strung the warp wrong. Using the comb loom, the pattern of warping only works one way, so the sides match up. I think with sewing in the zipper as the top of the loom, I started or stopped on the wrong side. This may have made the side edges a bit looser than they ought to be. Again, future experiments with more precise warping should clarify how it would work best. (Meaning, I just need to pay more attention to what I’m doing. Mindfulness.)


• The ends of the zipper stick out at the top, and the weft doesn’t cover them. I added some stitching when it was off the frame, but it looks rough. Zippers are tricky.

That’s a lot of bad and ugly, but it was a good prototyping exercise. I know the idea works, it’s just a question of refining it.

Truth is, I don’t need a coin purse- I’m perfectly happy with the wallet I’ve had for the last 10 years. But I’m interested in trying to make a pencil case, or maybe a bag for an odd shaped object, like a ukulele. It’s a case of curiosity rather than necessity.

Also, to make my blog more usable, I’m going to try to tag entries now. Hopefully each entry tagged as a prototype will be followed up by a beta, then finally with a set of full instructions. It’s a plan.

Happy Blog-birthday to me!

Please, and yes, proud, that I have been keeping this blog for a year now. I’ve just read over what I’ve posted in the last year. I feel like I haven’t done much. Does that mean I set my sights too high? One of the reasons for the blog is to track my ‘working speed’, just so I can know what I can expect of myself. I really don’t want my hobbies to feel like hard work.

I’m disappointed in myself for not making the great gift for P, and I’m disappointed that I haven’t finished that quilt. (Though with the weather getting cold again, it may be nice to work on the quilt more.) I’m also a bit annoyed that I haven’t completed the clanger.

I’m really pleased by the wool-ball bears and Otis Redherring. The weaving (my current craft is another weaving) has been nice, and I’m fairly happy with the crochet. Though I feel like the writing and comic projects are only half-way there, I’m happy about the half that’s done.

There’s so many things to do, so much fun to be had; and I’m easily overwhelmed by it all, unable to decide what to do with myself. I think the blog will help with this, but it will be a long process.

Quilt show report

Just back from a lovely trip to Birmingham. The fantastic Festival of Quilts at the NEC drew me there, but also had a nice visit with relatives and checked out the Warehouse Café and ate at Jyoti's (fantastic Indian vegetarian restaurant and sweet centre- 1045 Stratford Road). We’d been to the Jyoti's before, at the old premises, and the food is just wonderful. I recommend the pani puri, and the bhajiya selection is both many and varied as well as extremely tasty.

The Warehouse Café was new to us- how have we overlooked it for 15 years? The raspberry vegan milkshake is perfect on a hot day, and I love the mis-matched table and chair theme they’ve got going. And the wholefoods shop next door was convenient for travel snacks.

But for the main attraction: Festival of Quilts 2009 was exhausting, in a very good way. I’m not much of a quilter, but the stuff on show was so impressive. A friend in the Embroiderers Guild had told me about last year’s show, and this one more than lived up to my expectation. I arrived early, around 10:30, and before noon I was already suffering from inspiration overload. My pictures don’t do justice to everything there.

Best thing at the show: Fair Trade Fabric Ltd stall! For years, I’ve been reluctant to buy non-fair trade fabric, but not been able to find fair trade fabrics for sale. It looks like things are changing for the better! The fabric is lovely to touch and I suspect it will be wonderful to work with. Now I need to find a project to make with it!

A confession: I was really bad and didn’t buy a catalog on the way in, and when I was leaving, my mind was too numb to remember to buy one then; so I’ve been unfortunately negligent in crediting the quilters whose work I photographed and put my flickr page, and I also can’t credit anyone on my blog. How embarrassing.

Quilting stuff to note:

• Loads of ideas for yo-yos or Suffolk puffs, as flowers, berries, sea urchins and as yo-yos


• Folding fabric, almost like origami, so a diagonal square stands out from the background square


• Fabric manipulated so it doesn’t lay flat: peaks, folds, puffs, wrinkles, tassels, ribbons, etc.


• Frayed edges- a stall was calling it ‘fake chenille’- a figurative quilt used it as a ploughed field, another had a frayed edge fringe


• The best of show group quilt wonderfully put together, lovely soft colours (which I see as modern- not part of my traditional quilting lingo). Beautiful. I overhead a criticism that it was a great quilt, but not original, and so of course started thinking of the role of originality in art. And it strikes me that any quilt made here today is art, as in it isn’t simply a functional item. If you’re cold in bed, you buy a £20 duvet and cover set. Quilts are items people just want to make.


• A book made of quilt squares- Flowers of Malaysia- I especially loved the bamboo, like the strip quilts, but representational and not static


• There are so many ways to represent animals on quilts. I loved the Animal-tastic quilt, and another quilt with a snail with bead eyes


• Morsbags were being made! They targeted the audience well, as I noticed several people with lovely quilted bags


• Plenty of products and even a demonstration area on printing/dyeing/colouring fabric. Maybe I can make some of my horded fabrics more exciting


• Embroidered patches integrated into larger quilts, as well as embroidery as an additional element in the quilting

The only bad point of the day is that I didn’t find any nylon embroidery ribbon. I did notice some silk embroidery ribbon, but I feel too sorry for the silk worms to buy that. Shall have to keep looking.

How does your garden grow?

The purple flower is finished and has acquired a safety pin. I’ve got a collection of pins that I never wear, and the flower is with them now. The woven centre worked well; the colour is great but my weaving is a bit uneven (not that I’m bothered). It may have been a bit much to add the three loops of beads at the centre.

The beading made me realize I’d been thinking wrong again, trying to separate the bus crafting from other things I do. The beading had to be done at home, where I could sit still with needle, thread and clear seed beads. I had been thinking that this would mean the flower wasn’t 100% bus craft. It took a while for me to work out that the point of crafting on the bus isn’t to make something entirely on the bus, but to get a bit of hands-on work done during my commute.

Next week, I’m going to try knitting on the bus. It’s school holiday time, so the bus isn’t as crowded as it usually is. Hopefully it will get my Clanger project going again! My planned weaving project will just have to wait a bit longer, conveniently giving me more time to get supplies together.

Actual gardening note: We ate green beans grown on our balcony yesterday! Good has triumphed over best.