Monday 22 March 2010

Bluebird mobile...

At last, I have finished Mary's mobile! It is on its way to the other side of the planet!


There seemed to be a lot of things that prevented me from finishing this project, but it is done and I am glad it is on its way.



It was fun to do - I think the birds are so sweet.  It is made using Debbie Bliss Rialto Aran.



I used Anchor tapestry wool for the little flowers - the selection of colours is huge, so if you're looking for something small and in a particular colour, it's a good option.  I find buying yellow yarn really difficult for some reason...



Here it is hanging in my conservatory.  Bon voyage, bluebirds.

Friday 19 March 2010

A little bit of everything...


In my now customary way, I couldn't resist making some cushions out of the scrap from Harry and Max's quilts.

Ages ago, I saw this great tutorial by Aneela at Comfort Stitching and knew that I would like to give it a go. It sat around in my head for a while and then the idea was born to make these cushions.  I have never 'lowered the dogs' on my machine before and taking off the foot took a bit of nerve.  I practised on some scrap for a while  ages until I found the confidence to put needle to fabric.



I'm really liking the scrappy, sketchy look to this.   A real departure from my usual standards of neatness.  There will be more projects like this in the future.



I had a ball with the bondaweb!  I found a fun font, which I enlarged then transferred to fabric.  At first, I tried machine embroidering it on to the scrappy panel, but it didn't really stand out enough so I decided to put into practice a new stitch I learnt at my embroidery workshop last Saturday.  (You can read about our day here and here!)  This is palestrino stitch - my new favourite! A natty little knotty number!



After embroidering on the initial, I lighty quilted the panel with some scrap batting and a bit of muslin, just to give it a bit of extra body.  The back of the cushions are made with the offcuts of the backings of the quilts, to which I added a little fun label to make the boys smile when they turn their cushions over.  I'm still loving Harry's little snail:



And Max has got a frog that featured on one of his fabrics!



The backs are simple envelope style, therefore eliminating the drama of zips and I used left-over binding to join front and back together.



With hindsight, the letter would have stood out more had it been done in a plain fabric, but that would have meant buying something when the idea is to be a scrap-busting project!



The cushion pads are from John Lewis and measure 30 x 40 cm.

I'm brimming with ideas for cushions now...

...uh-oh!





Wednesday 17 March 2010

2:2010


Binding...done...



Corners...neat...



Obligatory folded-up photo...ok, folded then mussed up...sorted...



Modified bento boxes...80...



Boyish, but not babyish...I think so...



Max's quilt...finished!

It feels as though I've been working on this quilt for ages...

...bring on the next one!

Monday 8 March 2010

One week, ten things...

  • Apologies for not getting round to sharing a bit of borrowed beauty...

...while my parents are staying with me, I have been enjoying the blooms of my Mum's orchids which are residing in my conservatory... there are frilly ones...



...spotty ones...



...yellow ones...



...and white ones.  They seem to be thriving at the moment

  • My day at St Mary's went really well.  I would even go as far as saying that I enjoyed it.  I mean, I don't often get the chance to talk about Tom much anymore, so it was more than welcome as far as I'm concerned.  I spoke to my counsellor today and the feed-back she has received was really positive about my contribution to the lecture.  The Registrars were so nice and they asked me lots of questions - some of which were quite challenging.  I'm happy to do it again in spite of feeling absolutely exhausted by the time I got home.

  • Better late than never, but I have continued to do my 365 Days project over at Flickr and so here is my mosaic for February.


  • I have a new favourite chocolate bar.  It has proved to be elusive, but one of my lovely friends tracked a bar down in Surrey and posted it to me!


  • I also forgot to mention the craft table we did at an Indulgence evening.  I didn't sell One Single Thing!  Never mind.  We managed to get some dates for proper craft fairs!  I didn't really get round to making that much so I'm not as disappointed as I might have been.  I was surprised that anyone could resist this cute pram toy!



  • I need to finish hand-quilting Max's quilt.  I'm half way through and would really like to get it done this week as I am impatient to start my next one!


  • I have discovered Spoonflower.  Dangerous territory.  Believe me.


  • Continuing in the forgetful way that has become the norm at the moment, I also forgot to mention the discovery of the most wonderful haberdashery in Frome, Somerset.  I spent a lovely while browsing through fabrics, buttons and trimmings.

  • Pip has a new girlfriend.  Meet Daisy...


...she has the most expressive ears!  I have a request to make her a jumper - she's a shivery little thing!  Unfortunately, she is not mine.  She belongs to another of my lovely friends.


  • I have almost finished my giveaway amigurumi.  I'm hoping to post it out at the end of the week.

Tuesday 2 March 2010

Title unknown...

At the beginning of the year, my lovely friend Mary, quoted that her mantra for the year would be to "Be open and stay alert", I asked her if I could adopt if for my year too and I think that maybe it is having an effect.


So, following on from my last post, my training at Helen House has started once again this year.  You can read about the beginnings of it here.  In our latest session we discussed the differences between open and closed questions - subtle differences in language that make a huge difference when you are trying to actively listen to somebody talking about incredibly difficult subjects.  There is always a significant amount of role play during our training and I am having to learn to really think before I speak and use silence constructively.  Not easy, I can tell you. 

Our group has now been asked how we feel about facilitating workshops for not-so-newly bereaved parents who would like some form of support to continue.  I am interested as I really see it as a two-way opportunity for support, both for the people who join us and for myself. 

A few weeks ago, I had a letter out of the blue from Tom's Consultant Paediatrician asking me if I would be interested in participating in a training day at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington that was being aimed at teaching all the Paediatric Registrars in London how to support bereaved parents and children.  She is a trustee of the Child Bereavement Charity, who will run the lectures.  Last week we met for coffee and discussed what would be useful to talk about for about an hour during the lecture.  I will be fully supported during my time by a counsellor at St Mary's who I met last week too.  My first lecture is on Thursday and I plan to go without notes as I find it easier to talk without having an agenda.  I have also said that I am more than happy for it to be open for discussion rather than have to have too much of a script to follow.  I will talk about preparation for death and discussions and interactions that took place in the weeks, months and years before.  I will also share what I thought was helpful or things that I think could have been done better.  I know it's not something that anyone could do and when I have tried to discuss it with friends and family, I get very mixed reactions.  But I feel that I can do it and that I need to give it a go.  I am trying to find a balance in my life and I think that by using my experiences constructively balances the more frivolous side of my creative life now. 

During coffee we also talked about a new government directive called the Child Death Overview Process and I was asked if I would consider being a parent member within our Local Safeguarding Children Board.  It is a role that would not be very time-consuming and from what I can gather, I would be required to read through publications from a parent's perspective to make sure that they were not too insensitive. Since 2008, it has been mandatory for every child death to be investigated and I still feel fortunate to this day that I didn't have to go through the agony of having to face Tom having a post-mortem.

Who knows if this is the right or wrong thing for me to be doing now.  I feel that unless I try it, I'll never know.  It feels incongruous to mention in my space here because I know it is a distressing and sensitive subject to stumble upon amongst the quilting and crochet and baking.  But here's the thing:  it is the biggest part of my life and no amount of creativity will ever fill the void.  In the run-up to Tom's anniversary and birthday that both fall in spring, it feels worthwhile, but I'm nervous and know it will be exhausting.  Perhaps it is my way of keeping my darling boy alongside me.  Like I could ever forget such a face - there is a serenity to this, one of my favourite photos, that always makes me sigh.


I will be back tomorrow with some borrowed beauty...