Another Washcloth

It's been a while since I knitted a washcloth. When I first began remembering how to knit, I made lots of different washcloths as they are a simple and practical project for getting back into knitting and practising different stitches and patterns. They also make perfect handmade presents too!

Washcloths from my Mum.

Recently, my Mum sent me a pair of washcloths she made, together with the patterns for them. I especially like the speckled washcloth with repeating diagonal lines running through it. The pattern is worked in multiples of 6. You cast on 36 stitches, or whatever multiple of six you wish to work with, and then knit this pattern before casting off and weaving in the ends:

Row 1:  Knit 5, Purl 1 (repeat)

Row 2:  Purl 1, Knit 1, Purl 4 (repeat)

Row 3:  Knit 3, Purl 1, Knit 2 (repeat)

Row 4:  Purl 3, Knit 1, Purl 2 (repeat)

Row 5:  Knit 1, Purl 1, Knit 4 (repeat)

Row 6:  Purl 5, Knit 1 (repeat)

A handmade gift.

Following this pattern, and adding a border with a couple of extra plain rows at top and bottom and a few extra plain stitches at beginning and end of each row, I  knitted one up too. I used a soft and creamy organic cotton from my stash. With a little gift tag, saved from a magazine, and a bar of soap it became a lovely gift.

What have you been making lately?

Meg

A Little Handstitched Card

With needle and embroidery threads, I stitched a little gift card, with four tiny pink butterflies. 

Little hand stitched card.

On a leftover piece of watercolour card, I drew four floaty butterflies lightly in pencil. Using the point of a needle, I pin punched their outlines ready for stitching. With a dark and a light pink thread for their wings and a chocolatey brown for their antennae, I sewed in simple back stitch to complete each little butterfly.

Stitching butterflies.

One tiny stitch at a time.

Sitting out in the warm shade on our verandah, sewing one tiny pink stitch at a time into the card, I thoroughly enjoyed this process, so much so that I lost track of time completely while stitching butterflies. 

Meg

Sweetness on Saturday

As the sky warms here today, and Saturday dawns, from my old verandah chair I watched and listened to daybreak. While the world was only half-awake, I thought of the many sweet and gentle joys in my life: from the way my almost-teenage son still lays his head upon my shoulder to the loving voice of my Mum on the phone; from the warm and happy hugs of dear friends to the generosity of a simple-living blogging community; from the soft yet insistent nudge of a Labrador's wet nose (when dinner is less than one-minute late!) to the creamy petals of a new Magnolia bloom unfurling. While I can hold some of these special things in my hands or capture them on camera, there are many that are tucked away in my heart.

Creamy magnolia petals and honeybee stripes. 

(Such a happy, buzzy bee!)

A slice of homemade birthday cheesecake. 🎂

(On my favourite plate!)

Twinkling lookout lights that sparkle across the night.

Handmade goodness that arrived in my mailbox.

(Thank you, Nana Chel and Judy.) Xx

The soft colours of orchids in my Mother's garden. 💛

(They remind me of a fading sunset.)

May there be some sweetness in your Saturday too. 

Meg Xx

Here & Now 25

In these last weeks of November, we are counting down days here. Days that will take my son to the end of his primary schooling journey, that will see us make the last of the long drives up and down the highway to the little school, with the alternative educational philosophy, that we love. Days that will see us packing for our much-anticipated family holiday on our beloved Straddie island. November will merge with December soon, and those days will see us looking forward to the Christmas the come. Now though, in this November, it is a time to remember and to celebrate the journey a once-small boy has made through his primary years before we look forward to a new beginning ... 

White Yarrow and little orange Zinnias.

Spring onion seeds collected from our garden.

A tea towel tote bag of vibrant wildflowers.

Healthy & delicious quinoa salad.

A pale yellow nasturtium blooms in my own garden now.

Loving //         Warm November days that are not too hot!

Eating //         Healthy quinoa salads with roasted carrots, asparagus and cranberries. So good!

Drinking //    Two glasses a day of a green drink to support my body's healing and to help bring it

                             back into balance.

                           

Feeling //        Proud of my beautiful boy and nostalgic too as I remember the small fellow he once 
                             was.

Making //       Lots of little handmade things to gift for Christmas.      

Thinking //    I would like to make a knitted star, like the ones in Sarah's garland.

Dreaming //  Of my feet touching the familiar sands of Straddie again.

These are our Novembers days. Others have joined in with Sarah, over at her gorgeous blog Say, Little Hen, to share some of their Novembers too. It's well worth visiting such loveliness.

May your November days be happy ones.

Meg

Little Makes of Late

Lately, I've been crafting little things. Embroidering small motifs on tiny cotton bags, stitching felt brooches that give new life to snippets of op-shop doilies, making drawstring project bags and sewing tea towels into tote bags.

A tote bag made from an op-shop tea towel.

(I 💗 the bold Australian flowers!)

While I've been forced to 'downsize' my crafty project plans, thanks to bursitis in my right shoulder, I am actually enjoying the quick results and satisfaction that simple, short projects can bring. Many of these little makes will be gifted come Christmas time. From my hands into another's ...

A drawstring project bag made with linen I covered in 'olive twigs'.
(Bag pattern from Melissa Wastney's book, "Sweet and Simple Handmade".

Tiny cotton bags with embroidered motifs.

(Motifs by Melissa Wastney & Charlotte Lyon.)

A little felt brooch became a gift for a very generous lady.

(Thank you, Maria, for your gorgeous linens!)

These little makes mean some bigger projects ...  a knitted shawl, a linen dress, a larger leafy applique and a few more besides ... are waiting idly for me to get back to them. Soon, I hope! 

What crafty projects, little or big, are you working on right now?

Meg

Supporting Handmade

I 💗making simple little things but I am also drawn to the handmade treasures that others create. Handcrafted things appeal to me because they can be well-made, unique, detailed, thoughtful and very beautiful. 

 Simple and useful rope baskets.

(from this Women's Creative Centre)

A sweetly scented lavender sachet.
(I 💜 the way an old doily has been used to make this.)

 A beautiful little ceramic bell.

(made by Kylie of Paper Boat Press)

While I try to make most of the gifts our family gives to those in our lives whom we adore, there are times when I will choose something a local crafter has made to either give instead or to augment my own handmade gift. The simple rope baskets in the first photo will hold some of my handmade washcloths come Christmas time.

Typically, the handmade things I buy are not things I know how to make myself or they are little things that spark an idea. I bought the the little lavender sachet in the second photo because of the way the maker has re-purposed an old doily. I love using old linens and doilies in the things I make too so on my sewing table at the moment is the beginnings of a pincushion inspired by this little lavender sachet.

Supporting the makers in my community has led me away from that which is mass produced to that which is crafted locally. It keeps more of my $ in my local community and helps to ensure that the markets and little shops, that expand my shopping choices in my local area, continue to survive and hopefully thrive. It connects me to the creative folk who craft these lovely things. The sweet handmade bell, in the third photo, is a special farewell gift for someone very dear. It was made by a local ceramicist and poet, Kylie Johnson, who is not only incredibly talented but a most lovely and gentle soul too. When I dropped in to her little shop, we had a long, wide-ranging conversation of a kind that is not possible with oneself at the self-serve checkout of a large retail chain. 

I noticed, while out and about on the weekend, that Christmas trinkets are beginning to appear in some shops now. I really think this happens earlier every year! I still have a lot of my own Xmas crafting to do (I always seem to get behind with it) but I am happy to have a few handmade gifts, made by others, to give this year too. 

Meg

A Tiny Felt Brooch

Little blanket stitches frame a sweet snippet of embroidered flowers, attaching an ever-so-small piece of long-ago stitching to a scrap of soft, woollen felt. Pinned on to a dress or a blouse, with a small pin, and it becomes a tiny brooch.

A tiny handmade brooch.

Tiny brooches like these, made by the talented Jude Van Heel,  featured in a recent issue of Grass Roots magazine (No. 248 Aug/Sept 2018). I set my copy aside, the instructions flagged for when a little window of time opened up for making one. Just such a time presented itself on Saturday evening and I so enjoyed the quiet time I spent stitching the little circle of flowers to the felt backing. Even with very careful stitches, so as not to fray the edge of the old linen, this project took less than an hour.  

A little safety pin for the back.

I didn't have a brooch pin for the back but a little safety pin works just fine. It's only tiny and very light so it doesn't pull on the fabric that it's pinned to. 

Perfect for a dress or a blouse.

I love that a project like this makes use of old embroidered linens, perhaps those stained or forever unfinished or floundering in op-shop piles. I always think the stitching too beautiful not to find a use for and this is one tiny, sweet way to make something from such linens.  I'm sure I'll make a few more soon. 

Meg

Overcast Winter Days

The Winter sun has been obscured by heavy grey cloud the past couple of days. It's been cold and we've had a few showers come through, enough to dampen things a little and keep the washing from the line. Time, for me, tends to go slowly on wintery, overcast days. I tend to spend them in the warmth of "inside". Rather than being drawn out into the garden, by the warm sunshine of blue-sky days, I am nestled instead in the warmth of home. As I wait for that sunshine to break through those thick clouds, there are simple things like soup and stitching, books and baking to fill these overcast days. 

Hearty & nourishing soup.

A little knitting to lengthen my shawl.

An inspiring book to read.

A little project all sewn up.

Some delicious baking too.

Whatever the weather of your coming weekend, I hope you enjoy whatever it is you choose to do.

Meg

Here & Now 20

We've rarely left home the past couple of weeks. It's school holidays here and with very few plans we've been absorbed by the simple happiness of our home. Gardening, baking, sewing, knitting, reading and playing both inside and outside have filled our days. Friends and family have come to share morning teas and afternoon teas out on the verandah. Sir Steve dog has been for his daily stroll around the neighbourhood and occasionally to the park in the back of our old ute. (He barks the whole way there, sharing his quite obvious joy with everyone!) Nightfall comes earlier now that Autumn is here. We tuck ourselves up in our beds with our books, lightweight blankets ready for the crispness of the early morning air come the morning. These are ordinary days but they are good days...

The Autumnal colours of natural dyes.

Delicious and chewy Honey & Ginger ANZAC biscuits. 

A mustard-y yellow sailor top for Autumn.

A bowl of homemade pumpkin soup.

The beginnings of a shawl.

One of Autumn's changing leaves.

Loving //  All of Autumn's glorious golden colours.

Eating //  Morning tea biscuits out on our verandah. (Chocolate chip cookies & ANZAC biscuits too.)

Drinking //  Sparkling mineral water with a little lime juice squeezed in.

         

Feeling //  Content.

Making //  Plans for how I'll use the little stash of the fabric I dyed ages ago. 

Thinking //  That young people, like this little girl who helped convince her city's council to ban 
                           plastic straws, can be so inspiring. 

Dreaming //  ... of a mid-May holiday to Melbourne, a city I have never visited before!

So, this is the here & now of my April. What's been happening during your April days? To join in with Sarah's lovely link-up, over at Say, Little Hen, just visit her there. She's just moved house and run a knitting workshop so there's lots to read about and her photos are gorgeous too. 

Meg

Sunprint Garden

Clustered flowerheads, delicate umbels, whisper-thin stems and feathery leaves casting shadows and leaving beautiful prints.  

Snippets of my garden in a sunprint.

 A magical process that results in stunning prints.

These stunning white on cyan-blue sunprints are technically known as cyanotypes. The process is actually a photographical one, capturing an image without a camera, that was developed by Sir John Herschel. It was a woman, botanist and pioneering photographer, named Anna Atkins, who began using the process, in the mid 19th Century, to record finely detailed botanical images of sea algaes and ferns. I would dearly love to spend time looking at every single page of her exquisite book, but this YouTube clip is the closest I could find to holding it in my own hands. Hers was the first book ever published exclusively with photographic images. How amazing!

The process of making these stunning prints is simple and oh so satisfying!

Gather sprigs of plant material from your garden.

Gather printmaking supplies ...

 cyanotpye paper, thick piece of cardboard, perspex, water bath.

Lay cyanotype paper onto thick cardboard.

Sandwich plant material between the paper with clear perspex on top.

Lay out in sun for up to 5 minutes.

Carefully remove plant material to reveal beautiful prints.

Rinse the paper in a tub of water and watch as the prints fade to white.

Dry on a flat surface. 

As the sunprint dries, the background will become a deeper and deeper cyan blue.

Here are two of the other sunprints I made:

 Almost-finished rocket flowers.

Scattered dry umbels of Queen Anne's Lace.

There are many beautiful projects that can be made with these stunning sunprints. From simply framing your favourite print to using the gorgeous paper to make bookmarks, handmade cards, gift boxes or as wrapping paper. I would love to explore how to make these prints on fabric. How lovely would that be!

Sunprints are a simple and satisfying way to capture the botanical beauty of plants. I made my prints in the sunshine of a scorching hot Summer's day. Perfect for that kind of weather. I think the process could also be quite addictive too!!

Meg 

Touristy Tea Towel Cushion Cover

I have found some lovely linen bargains at the op-shop and antique shop of late. One such find were a few touristy tea towels; the kind made of starchy linen and brightly printed with flora, fauna and tourist trail maps.  One of the touristy tea towels I bought features a map of the area, in Far North Queensland, where I grew up and where my Mum still lives. As she has a birthday coming up very soon, I decided to make this tea towel into a cushion cover for her favourite patio chair.

A cushion cover made from a touristy tea towel.

I had to put "home" on the map first. Just one word, stitched in with red thread, but such a special word!

 The touristy tea towel I turned into a cushion cover.

(Sorry, the photo is a bit blurry!)

 "Home" is now on the map!

Once my stitching was done, I followed this really easy tutorial to transform this touristy tea towel into a little cushion cover. The trickiest part for me was putting the zip in. The last time I put a zip in, I was a teenager and my Mum helped me!! I am happy with how this turned out, it's secure and centred and I think the dark brown of the zip works well with the darker lines of the tea towel's pictures.

Sewing in the zip.

Finished and functional zipper!

Both sides of my touristy tea towel cushion are printed with images of home. There's bananas, sugarcane and pawpaws. Waterfalls and the Kuranda railway. The beautiful Cairns Birdwing Butterfly and a fishing boat. There is the somewhat controversial Captain James Cook statue in the corner too, some say his arm is raised to hold back the masses of tourists (who might buy souvenirs like a touristy tea towel) who visit tropical Cairns every year. 

 The back of the cushion cover.

A bit of a different birthday gift but one covered with pictures of the place where my Mum has lived her whole life.  I hope she likes it!

Meg