Candle Banners for Advent

The mock-up to show the vicar

My friend, Fiona, and I have been thinking about banners for St James Church since last year. She is an excellent seamstress and my role in the partnership is design. We decided that we would attempt banners that wrap around the fat stone pillars, rather than trying to make flat wall banners. In November I suddenly came up with the idea we needed, a group of people-sized candles. I drew up the pattern and made a mock-up in photoshop. We needed to sell the Vicar on the idea before we started so I sent him the photo in an email. He approved, so we started. 

Full size drawing

We sorted through the fabrics available and pulled out the richest colours: some Linton tweeds, furnishing fabrics and a purple sari. I drew the image full size (70 inches square) and made templates for the candles and the flames. All we had was two Tuesday afternoons to work together. To prepare, Fiona made the candles (10 for each of the two banners) at her place and I assembled the flames and haloes at home.

Fiona sewing the candles together

On our first Tuesday work session we connected all the candles together and attempted to assemble the background layers of organza that were going to hold the flames and haloes together and show the colour of the pillar through. Disaster. The organza was very beautiful but completely unmanagable. Tired out and out of time, we bundled the lot together and I took it all home. I spread everything out in the loft bedroom and left it there for a couple of days. We emailed back and forth our theories for how to proceed. A few days later I sat down with Photoshop to figure out what to do next. We were going to need to use a sturdy fabric as a background. So what colour? I tried various things and decided that a cool medium blue would be perfect. Hmm, there was no blue in our stash and we had decided not to spend much on this first project. 

Anna adjusting position

While still at the computer I checked my emails. My neighbour, Bob, wrote, "Got two very large 90*90 Blue lined curtains Excellent condition, any good to you? Either as curtains or just material, fully lined." The blue curtains turned out to be the perfect colour and size! 

Monday I stayed up late tacking the background together so that on Tuesday we could finish. Anna was visiting me on Thursday and could  help me hang them in place. They fit perfectly (we had measured very carefully). They were ready for the first Sunday of Advent and church folk were pleased with them. Whew! It was fun but Fiona and I have decided that a bit more than two weeks would be a better plan for the next set.

Louisa's sewing space

I've been putting off taking pictures in the sewing room "until it is tidy".  That hasn't worked very well -- weeks have gone by and "tidy" never happens!  So I pushed aside some of the clutter and took the picture anyway.

My favourite place to be is in my sewing room.  Usually I'm doing something with my machine.  Of course, in the daytime, the blind is open and I can look out at the yard, but the picture happened after dark, so this is what you get to see.

This is the corner where I spend as much time as possible.  

My trusty sewing machine is more than 25 years old and it has seen many miles of thread go by!  The machine sits on the cabinet left behind by my previous machine.  The cabinet fits neither the machine nor me very well, and I'm planning to replace it with an Ikea table that will give a little more room for my knees and will accommodate the knee lift lever of the machine better.   The set of plastic drawers beside the machine (one set of many in the room!) contains scraps of quilting fabrics.  The top drawer is full of what I call "pieces too small to use" -- I've made several quilt tops from that drawer, and it never gets empty!

The chair came from the library when we replaced all the cloth-covered chairs with vinyl ones.  I love it because it swivels and goes up and down!  The brown bookshelf beside the machine is one that Brian bought back in his university days.  He and a friend bought a truckload of them at an auction and sold them to students and people setting up in apartments.  This is one of a few that he kept -- it has been painted many times.  I think it was coloured aqua in its most recent previous life.

You can just see the edge of the curtain that covers the closet where most of my fabric is kept.  There were wooden doors on this closet, but they really got in the way, so they came down and the curtain went up.  The elephant fabric was a gift from Sandy purchased on a trip to India.

When I looked more closely at the pictures I took I realized how involved my family is with my sewing life!  Richard made the wooden thread racks (one is mine, the other he made for Mum).   My little bunny, Rosie, peeks out from between the spool racks -- she was made during our first retreat at Keswick.  Thanks, Anna!

 On the thread holder beside the machine you can just see a nearly empty spool of burgundy thread.  This was from Lesley this summer -- I've had a great deal of pleasure using the spools I brought home from the box of thread she shared with us!  The red tomato pincushion is a memento from a dear quilting friend who passed a way a couple of years ago.  It replaces a similar one that was Mum's -- you can read about the demise of that one here.

The pincushion sits in a little dish that Ian made in elementary school.  Nearby is the baking powder tin in which I keep little tools -- that came from my mother-in-law's kitchen. My butterfly mug (gift from Kathy) sits on the log cabin coaster made when we were on Pender Island.  And the little thread catcher tub thing-y was from our "Remember Pender" challenge.

Kathy's sewing corner

My sewing corner is not too tidy, but I know where everything is, and it is cozy to work in. It's in the basement, right under the only window, which gets the afternoon sun. The white/blue/green boxes on the brown shelf each contain a different colourway of fibres (wool, embroidery silk, trimmings, ribbon, feathers, etc.) The beads, buttons, and hardware are in the cupboard below.

In the other corner of the room (to the left of the picture) are two shelves with larger plastic bins containing fabric, also according to colour. I also have odd boxes labelled leather, batting, felt, lining, denim, fleece, and African fabrics.

My overflowing mending box is hidden under the table. Whenever I feel like sewing but don't have the patience for something fiddly, I pull out a mending item and go to it. It is very satisfying to finish something once in a while that takes very little brain power. (Louisa remembers a very young Mary being told by her mother to "go put her top (or skirt?) on the mending pile." Mary apparently let out a wail, "Then I'll never see it again!!")

I have had a couple ideas for the button swop, but need to pin one down and dive in. The contributions work so well together, and could be used for so many things!

Where I Sit

Here are the two places I usually sit to work on my crafts at opposite ends of my long livingroom/diningroom. The work table usually has at least two different projects in progress and the bulletin board loaded with ideas and reference. Right now there is a section with tiny scraps of fabric from the button swap up there to get my creativity going.

The corner of the couch has a good angle on the tv and the wood stove, and a decent lamp beside me for hand work.This photo also shows my loom set up where I have been sitting occasionally to work on a set of table mats requested by Anna.

Lesley planning Button swop

I have all of my lovely fabrics, buttons, beads etc in my sewing room. I will work in here when I am making my project and maybe sometimes take the work down to the conservatory for some extra daylight especially if I am hand sewing. I have more or less decide what I'm going to make and how all of the contributions will come together.

For some reason I was unable put both words and a picture on my post.
So here goes, hopefully it will work if I do them seperately!
The theme of insects opened up so many possibilities, but I had suggested it in the first place because I saw a magazine article about someone who had embroidered a book cover inspired by insects. I copied a few and thought the moth looked the best, after that I very quickly decided a rucksack was the way to go.
I always use a small rucksack when I am travelling and I like to have a pocket for valuables against my back,  on the inside. Your zip was perfect for this Louisa. I used Ruths elastic and tape to create a frame for the edges of both the rucksack and the outside pocket. Kathy, your purple wool made delightful little ladybirds and I used my red heart ribbon both as a zip pull and as inside pocket edging. I have since lined the inside to protect the back of the embroidery from getting snagged, for this I recycled  a butterfly print scarf to compliment the theme.
Hopefully I will post more pics of the inside if Joe pops round and can help, this is the first time I have done a post on my own! and not really sure what I'm doing!!!
`

insect swop project

Insect Swap - Ruth

Like Louisa, I too explored the idea of a pupae, but mine was meant to unzip to reveal a dragonfly. In the end I added a much larger zip which opens to reveal a shopping bag. The dragonfly decorates the outside of the bag which I made in colours of a dragonfly's watery environment. The printed strip is a piece I printed at a workshop Lesley and I attended together in Leeds a couple of years ago. I liked the way it encorporated the greens and blues with a touch of red to tie into Lesley's ribbon.

I was keen to use this project to explore the shapes and patterns of dragonflies' lacy wings. The most fun part of the project was machine stitching the black lines on the teal background. I traced the pattern onto thin iron-on vilene which I adhered to the back of the fabric. I did the sewing from that side so I could follow the lines. In the body of the dragonfly I couched down tiny pieces of all the contributions with machine stitching (including chunks of Louisa's zip). I found two faceted black button "insect eyes" to finish it off.

The big problem of this bag is that the fabric is soft and billowy and the zip is very large scale. I can't zip or unzip without constantly catching the fabric in the teeth ... so it is waiting in the sewing basket for a simple renovation. I will apply the dragonfly zipped pocket to a bag made of sturdier fabric and the original bag will get a simple pouch or a velcro strip to fasten it.

Kathy's insect swop

I loved the insect theme, so many possibilities. Decided to use a previous unfinished embroidery project as the starting point, and it gradually morphed into a sunflower. The French knots include Lesley's red ribbon, Ruth's black ribbon, my purple yarn, and a rainbow of other colours meant to show the circle of the seasons.The backing is a loose-weave dishcloth (new) which I found in a charity shop in Oxford four years ago on our last get-together! It was so soft and worked well for French knots, even allowing the ribbon to pull through the open weave.

Some fabric bits in my stash, with dragonflies, ladybugs and butterflies worked for the insect theme. They ended up on the petals around the embroidered centre.

The orange zipper from Louisa is tucked along the edge of the curved stem, adding a bit of texture, like a real sunflower stem. The leaves are African fabric, a bit wild. Our front door needed a summery decoration, and the peephole shows through the hole in the centre.

Insect swap -- Louisa

Insects!  This opened up a lot of possibilities, and since I already had a good collection of fabrics featuring butterflies I thought my solution was going to be obvious -- a butterfly quilt!  Possibly a "bug jar" quilt -- always wanted to make one and now I had a great reason to do it.

I drew up some patterns, but hesitated.  Did I really want to make something big that I would need to transport across the ocean?  And besides, there was already a quilt claiming space in my suitcase!

Thought about it some more.

All these items needed to be included in the project.  Who on earth would have included a zipper in the mix!?

As I was trying to figure out the zipper part of the project Luke pointed out that a zipper suggests an opening of some kind.  We played with that thought a bit and come up with the idea of a pouch. 

         

  Maybe a chrysalis shape?

The outside of the pouch was made with fabric that Ruth gave me.  The design was printed with sunlight -- is that called cyanotype?   I thought it looked quite "chrysalis-y".  I added a light brown organza overlay, couching it in place using the purple yarn from Kathy (and a bit of a gold cord from a previous swap.)

The zipper was inserted by hand because it was hard to get the machine around the fairly tight curves.  Zipper pull tab uses Lesley's red and white ribbon.

And when the chrysalis opens up -- 

The butterfly was mostly machine stitched.  I used Ruth's black trim to make the body.  Original plan was to add some dots to the wings with buttons and crocheted flowers (purple yarn), but this hasn't happened, and I think the pouch might be more useful without embellishments on the inside.

Visit to Lesley's

    Lesley in her sewing room

Wedding coursage materials

New KLLR Swap 2017

We have put our heads together for our next challenge: the final pieces to be revealed at the gathering at Lesley’s place in August. 

Theme: insects

Requirement: must include some recycled element

Contributions:

• must fit in an ordinary envelope
• anything EXCEPT fabric
• send by end of January

Have fun! 

Love from Lesley and Ruth

 I decided to make a cushion for my bedroom on a lilac/purple background and set out to do an applique design similar to the one on a bag I made about 4 years ago.
All of the 4 fabrics contribute to the petals although only in very small pieces. I had lots of fun cutting out the petals and arranging them, I wish now that I had placed  the main central flower slightly off centrre and not so upright to give it more character.
 The buttons make a centre for two of the flowers.

I saw the words on a product in Marks and Spencers and thought they were very true. Also, with the idea of a flower design developing in my head they seemed to suit the project. I had also experimented with embroidered butterflies and moths so the 'dreams flying' bit seemed to work too, but these didn't win a place in the final piece!

 

The back is plain lilac with a simple pillowcase opening and to finish it off there  are 2 bows and a gorgeous little cat!

Kathy's "home" swop project

I received a little blue and white woven sewing box from Mum more than 50 years ago, and used it all the time. Eventually it fell apart; all that was left was the blue silk pincushion from inside the lid. I pinned it to the wall beside my sewing machine a few years ago, as a home for needles. This kept them separate from the pins in my main pincushion on the table.

This swop was an attempt to salvage what was left of the blue silk, and make a more durable needle cushion for my sewing corner. It was just enough to make three little padded cushions (a door and two small windows). The two little blue buttons plus the little strip of blue doormat were also rescued from the original. The only thing I haven't used yet are the buttons I contributed .... decided to use the tiny original blue ones instead! They are about 5mm wide.

Louisa's Challenge project

I see Ruth shorthanding our challenge as the “KLLR” challenge.  I like that -- sounds mysterious and perhaps a bit dangerous!

For this project I set myself some goals:  

1. I would use all the contributed fabrics fairly prominently.
2. The “lettering” part of the challenge would be my focus.
3. I would make something to hang up for Christmas.

I did okay with numbers 1 and 2, not so well with number 3.

I chose to make bunting and spent considerable time researching shapes and sizes for the individual flags.  Finally realized that shapes and sizes were totally up to me as the designer!  

Words:  I wanted my project to “say” something.  Came up with several possibilities -- “home is where the heart is”, “east or west, home is best”.  Thought I might use “home is where the hugs are”.  Realized that all of these were way too long!  And the word “home” by itself was too short!  I could have used “Home (heart) home”  -- that had a reasonable amount of characters, but I didn’t like it. So we have “family”.  Which is still on the short side, so I added two flags using the houses fabric and two more with hugs and kisses on them.  I was really adventurous and used several shapes and sizes of the flags!!

I sent a picture of the finished product to a friend and called it “my odd little project”.  She agreed me with that odd was a good word. So here it is:

It’s odd because what on earth does one do with a bunting that says “family”?  It doesn’t really make much sense to put it on the fireplace at Christmas.  I think I need to choose a nice blank wall to hang it on and then add some family pictures around and below.  (And can we see this happening anytime soon?)

It’s also odd because once I stand back and look at it, my clever little hugs and kisses and heart-with-kitty-inside  look like skulls and crossbones!  

For the moment my bunting is hanging on the wall downstairs near the sewing machine (because that was the first available blank space I came across.)   I had fun making this, but now that it is finished I’m not convinced of its usefulness!

Countdown to Christmas

Day 4

This challenge was the perfect opportunity to make the Advent calendar I have always wanted. I have been saving little charms and decorations over the years with the idea of a calendar that allows me to decorate a miniature tree gradually over the weeks before Christmas.

All the contributions fitted well: Kathy's cats sit happily on Lesley's bright print carpet; Louisa's houses (complete with a Christmas signboard) and my cool print form part of the night scene viewed through the window; Kathy's buttons added to the tree decorations. Pockets of the wall and floor fabrics hold the set of envelops which Miriam designed and folded for me. She also consulted on typesetting the numbers and inserts to help me include the "script" element. I scoured charity shops until I found a 50p jumper in Christmas tree green.

I've had great fun pinning a star in the sky and two ornaments on the tree every day when I read my Advent readings. :). Happy New Year!

Day 25

Close up of decorations