Springtime Artwork

How unpredictable is the weather in the UK at the moment? It's almost June and I'm sat here wrapped up in two blankets! After a beautiful Bank Holiday Weekend, where my husband burnt the back of his neck because he forgot to apply sunscreen there (silly billy), it's turned most chilly and hasn't stopped raining. This Spring has certainly been a mixed bag. I am eagerly awaiting my alliums to burst into flower to add some colour to the garden. I'm by no means at all green fingered but I loved them so much I planted some bulbs a few years ago and they were certainly worth the effort - not that is was all that difficult. They are just starting to open and each day I look forward to seeing how they are progressing. In the mean time I'll have to settle for a picture from the Royal Horticultural Society (here's a link to their advice on growing alliums- trust me it's not hard if I can do it http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/Profile.aspx?PID=316)

With the alliums comes the butterflies. I truly love butterflies, they were the theme at my wedding and I now have them dotted round the house.

Here's a wonderful, little webpage  about which flowers are great to attract butterflies and includes all three of my favourites- alliums, chives and cosmos- there's a variety of cosmos called "Chocolate Cosmos", it's a beautiful dark browny red and yep, you guessed it, smells of chocolate- what's not to love?!

http://urbanext.illinois.edu/gardenerscorner/issue_02/spring_04_06.cfm

To get a little taste of Spring on the dull days like today I have sewn a little canvas. Using freehand machine embroidery and some fabric with a large flower print, I "drew" round an individual flower motif with stitches and in a contrasting colour wrote "flutter by Butterfly". Then using some transfer paper, the kind used with your home printer and a iron to transfer the image to fabric, I transferred a picture of a butterfly to some plain white cotton and cut it out. The great thing is the transfer process gives the fabric a bit of structure. I added a few beads and stitched the body of the butterfly to the picture, allowing the wings to stand out.

It's a little bit of Springtime when the outside thinks otherwise! Though the photo makes the colours seem more muted than they really are

I hope you like it?

Until next time, craft in earnest, Craftin' Ernest x

V&A Museum

I mentioned last time my day trip to London to meet with a friend. As London has so much to offer we had a very busy day but spent the majority of the morning in The Victoria & Albert Museum. I love museums and was really fortunate to do some voluntary work at the Natural History Museum a few years back (actually 15 to be precise, ooh that's longer than I thought?!) It is right next door to the V&A Museum so I spent many of my lunch breaks there. The Science Museum is just behind the NHM too, South Kensington is a must if you're a museum fan & in London!

There's so much to see, for example Room 40: The Fashion Galleries. There's some truly beautiful items on display ranging from the 18th Century to today http://www.vam.ac.uk/page/f/fashion/

I had two favourites as I couldn't decide between them, both dresses from the Thirties but I think they're just timeless

Another must-see is the work by Martha Edlin. There's a collection of incredible embroidered items, from the later half of the 17th Century, including a sampler, a casket a pin cushion. All of which are stunning and exquisitely made. Then there's a jewellery case embroidered with beads- incredible. What makes it truly remarkable is when you read the information and find out how young she was when she made them. Have a look at this video and keep in mind she embroidered the casket when she was eleven! http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/videos/m/video-martha-edlins-casket/

She made the above beaded jewellery case when she was just thirteen, oh so talented

I got some decorating ideas too ;-)

Definitely worth a visit!
Until next time Craft in Earnest, Craftin' Ernest x

T-Shirt Print Make-Over

Hello, sorry about the hiatus in posts. Busy, busy, busy and something had to give- the beautiful weather we've just had was not the reason at all ;-)
The Sun shining has inspired me to start on the summery makes- I have been making lots of jug covers for an up-coming craft fair on Saturday 25th of May. I've mainly crocheted them so far but I'm going to start on fabric ones with a crochet trim- watch this space.
I went to London on Saturday to meet with my best bud from Uni. I bought lots of big beads perfect for weighing down the jug covers so I have no excuse not to make lots by the Craft Fair. We also discovered a wonderful shop in Kingly Court, just off Carnaby Street, called "Things British"- http://thingsbritish.co.uk/ It sells some exquisite, handmade items and to show our support we bought each other a present- it would be rude not to support such an enterprise with lots of beautiful items for sale! My present was a pair of earrings and my friend's was a bracelet, both from a maker called "Altered Era". The theme of mine is Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice", one of my favourite stories. The bracelet is Wuthering Heights, my friend's favourite. How could we not treat each other and show our support? Here's a pic of mine- love them!

So onto this post's tutorial (an extension of a previous one really) -
Top/T-Shirt Print Make-over

Continue reading for instructions to make your own . . . . .

Flower Brooch Tutorial

Yay, the Sun is finally shining! Spring is here and when the daffodils are at their best the car-boot sales start- wonderful places to pick up some buttony bargains. It can be difficult getting up early on a Sunday morning but with the sunlight bursting through the curtains we decided to go to our first this year. It was not a disappointment. The hubby spotted a Quality Street tin, often a great sign, and sure enough it contained buttons. I love taking them home and sorting through them, it's not quite the same when they're already sorted. There was a card labelled with "Fashionable Buttons, Made in England" with 3 yellow buttons still attached priced at 6p. The best before date on the tin is Oct 1988 and it was still Mackintosh Quality Street back then.

My favourites were two sets of green buttons, similar but different so I can't decide which I like better.

I also bought some knitting and crochet bits and bobs, I'll feature them in a future post. Fingers crossed for more car-boot sale finds this year! Now on to the tutorial.

Flower Brooch Tutorial 

This brooch can be made using any a variety of fabric providing it has a bit of stiffness. Felt is a good choice, shop bought or from a wooly jumper shrunk in the wash. A previous post, "Keep Your Cutoffs", features a brooch made in the same way using left over bonded fabric. The finished example using the measurements below creates quite a large flower, approx. 10cm X 10cm. Obviously if you want a smaller one just decrease all the measurements as required. All the measurements are approximate as they don't need to be spot on, after all flowers aren't geometrically precise so the brooch needn't be either ;-)

You will need- felt for the flower in colour of your choice- roughly 20cm x 20cm, green felt for the leaves- 6cm x 5cm , brooch finding, needle and matching thread

Instructions continue after the break. . . . .

Brooch Making Frenzy

Unfortunately, we didn't have any takers for the giveaway so I am going to extend it, surely someone has something to say about buttons, for example how wonderful they are? ;-) It's difficult not to get tempted by the fabric bundle myself, they're crying out to used, some patchwork hearts or mini bunting perhaps?
All you have to do is leave a button related comment OR email craftinernest[at]gmail[dot]com mentioning buttons OR tweet @CraftInErnest, you guessed it, about buttons!

This week I have mainly been making brooches, here's a few I've made using various materials and techniques-

The weekend post will include a tutorial to make a felt rose brooch!
Also I did some button-related crafting (I think you're starting to realise how much I love buttons),

And these extremely simple button earrings. Just a case of using a strong glue (e.g. epoxy resin or E6000) to attach earring posts to a pair of buttons. I particularly like these vintage, metal buttons

I also had a great day on Saturday with my Dad out our second "Time to Knot" macrame meeting at Craft in the Bay. We arrived a few hours late as my Dad had to get a quick (not at all) round of golf in, but we still had a lot of fun. I knocked up a rather simple bracelet but haven't attached a clasp yet.

Thanks for reading! Remember to Craft in Earnest x Craftin' Ernest 

GIVEAWAY- Fabric Bundle and Vintage Buttons!

Hi there, today’s post will catch up on a few things and include the first giveaway!

In a previous post, I mentioned a small, oak table I renovated in a class with my Dad for my Mum. I didn't have a photo to hand at the time of that post but took a couple over the weekend. As I said before I don’t have a picture of it before we got cracking sorry. Just imagine a really black table barely recognizable as wood. A lot of elbow grease, a scraper, very fine wire wool and some furniture wax later…..voilà

We had some bad news on the sheepskin front :-( Seven of the ten skins were rejected by the dresser (the person who inspects and prepares the skin) as the fleece was too long and some had begun to moult. Hard to believe in the weather we've been having! To look on the bright side, at least three are going to be tanned. It would have been heart-breaking if they were all unsuitable.
On Sunday I taught a crochet class to seven beginners that hopefully have caught the crochet bug- it’s awfully hard to resist! The all did really well and were super keen, I really enjoyed myself.

So on to the giveaway….........The prize is a varied bundle of 10x10cm fabric squares (approx. 85 in total) and 5 vintage, peach coloured buttons!

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post, send me a tweet @craftinernest OR email me on craftinernest[at]gmail[dot]com (fill in the "at" and "dot" as normal - I'm trying to avoid spambots) and mention BUTTONS. The closing date is Wednesday 17^th April and I will pick a random winner on Thursday 18^th April.

Best of luck and remember to Craft in Earnest!

Sheepskin Slippers

This post probably isn't for you if you are a strict vegan! I’m most definitely a meat eater. I know there are a lot of good arguments for and against eating meat, I’m afraid I love the taste just too much to contemplate giving it up. My Mum is a strict vegetarian and has been since she was fifteen, so we’re used to veggie food although she did cook meat for us, but she eats dairy and wears leather.

Up until about 2 years ago my parents had a couple of sheepskin rugs in their house. One on the floor in front of the television and from childhood right up until they gave them away, I use to lie on it when watching TV. Here’s a good old 80’s photo (hence the poor quality) of my brother and me doing just that!

My boss, Pete, keeps sheep on his small holding for breeding and to sell the meat. They are all the same breed, Lleyn which originated in the Lleyn Peninsula in North Wales. http://www.lleynsheep.com/ He sells the ewes for breeding and the males (wethers) for meat when they are old enough. Until then he gives them everything they could want on his orchard/farm in North Somerset overlooking the Avon Valley. Here's a picture of me helping to feed some of the ewes:

Last year I went over to his during lambing season just in time to see twins being born. Unfortunately the first did not come out smoothly, it took over an hour and was quite traumatic but the second popped straight out no problem. They were both fine and healthy though. This is a picture of the first lamb: