the patchwork dress

a letter from Nepal

 I received this drawing from a 9 year old girl from Nepal.  The letter tells me she lives in a house made of bamboo and mud, with a slate roof and a dung floor.  The family use straw for cooking and get water from a bore hole - collection takes around 5 minutes.  This girl goes to school, but her family use an open field for a latrine as they have no toilet.

I have been a sponsor with Plan for nearly 10 years.  Recently my sponsorship with the first child (also from Nepal) ended when Plan decided they had done enough in that community - R was now a teenager, and they moved my sponsorship and their efforts to another area.  It was kind of sad to lose R - so I decided to write her a final postcard, and also an introductory one to my new sponsored child, S.

Plan go into communities in 'developing' countries.  Through sponsorship, they set up a link with an individual - and over the years there has been an exchange of photographs and drawings (from her), postcards and the odd gift from me.  All correspondance is sent through Plan, so there are no direct details of addresses or contact, but roughly once a year you receive a small piece of post, a message and a photograph from the family - and likewise you can send them a message or a small gift (although they may have stopped that now due to costs?).

I must say as it went on I found it harder to write, once initial formalities had been exchanged - and I think the main cause of this was just overwhelming guilt - news from my world seemed so priviledged that I found it uncomfortable to talk about my life.. even a simple laptop like the one I'm using now would be 'out of this world' for my sponsored child.  So mostly enquiries are made to the health and happiness of the family - and perhaps the thought is really what counts.

It is lovely to receive post from someone you have never met, but have this strange link with, and makes the transaction more human than charity.  It's rather humbling.

Plan tell me that in R's area of Nepal they helped to install 1159 wells, 1341 toilets for families - they also support schooling, education and health education in the sponsored areas.

If you are interested in the scheme, Plan can be found here.

 

migrating to the northern hemisphere

Something lovely through the post...

I ordered this bird purse from Melissa over at tinyhappy in New Zealand.  My taste in blogs has come and gone, but Melissa's is one I look at everyday.. and I always enjoy browsing her shop update each Wednesday.

I've bought a few things such as the baby bootees as gifts from her, but this one I plan to keep!  Many of her makes are from upcycled materials, but she has also started printing her own fabric designs.  

Melissa also very kindly sent me a fat quarter of her own stamped linen and an inspiring magazine article about an artists collective from the southern hemisphere - hence the Vegemite!

 

 

homemade with love

I won this gorgeous book, courtesy of Diana's giveaway.  Thanks again, D for the lovely package.  Can you believe it is most likely 3 years since I 'met' Diana through blogging - that Christmas she sent me another lovely package full of baker's string and soap.

I have been musing about the way I blog, or what this blog is for.. but haven't yet found the means of expression for it.  I don't want to give it up, but don't feel I have much to say at the moment!  Perhaps it will change only when I do.  

The book reminds me of why I started blogging and how exciting it was to discover others all around the world who were observing nature, trying to change their lives by slowing down, sharing ideas... and most importantly making things and sharing their inspiration.  It is full of lovely images and has such a nice tone, even if I don't make anything from it, just to glance through the pictures is a touchstone.

On a homemade, handmade note - I have been making some things for the home..!

...more 'clutterbuckets'! and this time a smaller model which can sit on a desk or sideboard.  It has quilted handles and a pleasing curve to the corners on the base, and is made from 3 layers of fabric, with all seams hidden.

I am enjoying using combinations of rather festive ticking... and so if you would like one for yourself or a friend, they will be up in my  'Christmas shop' soon - from this weekend.  I think they would be handy for holding papers, bits and pieces or crafty projects.

There will also be a few of the original style, with a mix of vintage and new fabrics - like this one..

Hope you are having a good week x.

 

lucky me!

 

 
...look what arrived in the post yesterday from my dear friend Barbara! Thank you, B! 

Reprinted fabrics specially created for this great quilt exhibition at the V&A - I wonder if I can make it down there to see it.  Meanwhile I have these lovely prints to gloat over, you can buy them and others here too.

I am feeling a rummage through my fabrics coming on... 

blitz book bag

As the result of some enforced domestication (due to a stinker of a cold), and being gifted some lovely vintage fabric by a work colleague... I woke up on Saturday with an urge to design..

 

a book bag!

What do you think? - it's just big enough to take a couple of paperbacks or a nice hardback, with handles big enough to loop over a forearm - perhaps for a literary nosebag for a long journey?

 

The fabric given to me was some wonderful old suiting that Anne-Marie reckoned was 1930's or 40's - and this amazing lining fabric - which appropriately reminded me of fireworks...

 

While sewing, the combination of fabrics reminded me of wartime, as the pattern could be fireworks or lights from the blitz - again all quite relevant to this Remembrance weekend.

 

I wanted the lining to start further down inside the bag, so then had to think how the handles would come out - so they are also recessed. I quite like the idea of finding a use for that slot - perhaps to hold a pen? 

The original idea was to sew right round the mouth of the bag in a contrasting thread to fasten the handles further up - but the suiting fabric was so fine, it looked better with as little stitching as possible.

In the end I just did a stitch line on the outside.  The handles have a little flash of the lining sewn in as a detail.  I'm intending to give the bag to the lady who donated the fabric, as she had held on to it for so long, I felt she should have something from it, plus it has inspired me to move along with this design I have been ruminating about for a while!

 

Coincidentally - while I was cutting out my patterns - this parcel arrived from Ginny.  I was fortunate enough to win one of her Morsbags in the recent giveaway.  So give a bag, gain a bag!

 

I used it today Ginny and it is great - big and strong to hold a lot of shopping!

By the way, Ginny is also running a series of posts about gratitude and being grateful throughout November... a Thanksgiving if you will.  I hope to be joining her, as I have found it hard to get time to do many creative or extracurricular things to blog about - and this will be a nice simplistic way to blog and to bring me back to that noticing space.

Today I am grateful for the wonderful connections and serendipity blogging and making through the patchwork dress has brought me xx

some lovely things...

...in no particular order, some lovely things that came to me in the last while...

 

 - a leaving present from work. made by Gillian Kyle.  I notice she has a wee stall at the bottom of Buchanan Street. Glasgow on a Sunday as part of an otherwise odd little craft fair in the arcade there. - but I like her stuff, and she is also featured in this month's Country Living!

 

Spoils from another Glasgow outpost worth visiting - the new 'Welcome Home' which is positioned down a sidestreet by the new Tescos in Partick.  I heard about it through a colleague at work, and is well worth the visit for things that are a bit more off the beaten track - more delicate, arty and etsyish... the thing I loved most was the sticky tape with the fairisle pattern.

 

nice fabrics I bought at the Birmingham quilt festival from eternalmaker.com - who had some really nice modern, cute & funky prints.

 

a gift from Ginny - handmade beads made by her and her girls from magazine paper (to be kept hidden from small black cats!) and some poppy seeds..

In the background there is a pack of reclaimed liberty fabrics I bought from my favourite stall in Birmingham - worn and washed fabrics by Kim Porter.  I bought some more for a specific quilt I may share later.

 

and lastly, not leastly - a lovely package I received from my friend Barbara weeks ago!  She visited the Selvedge

shop in London and sent me these lovely ribbons, and foglinenwork  braids.  Too nice to use, just to look at for the moment! I was tempted to take them in to work to sit on my desk and remind me of tactile things - but as it was I hid them in an envelope (away from kittens who like to chase ribbon) and only just discovered them again, after hardly being near my desk at home.

hope you are all well. thanks for sticking with me during this time away.

My type text is playing up again on this post - so please excuse if it formats funny...

 

paying it forward

A while ago I entered a "pay it forward" idea on Diana's blog.  That is 3 people leave their names to be sent a handmade gift by the blogger, and in return, will forward something of their own to the next 3 people who leave comments and so on.  I get the picture of a stone rippling in a pond, sending out lots of handmade goodwill! 

So here at last is my post on the goodies I received from Diana a week or so ago.  First of all these lovely gocco printed recycled paper cards (above) which came in stylish glassine envelopes - the hedgerow one there also had a gocco print on the glassine paper.

I believe Diana is selling these, so if you would like some, please contact her via her blog.

Then (so exciting!) was this gorgeous notebook, also in its glassine envelope.  

The notebook is a slim moleskin with the cover made from book text, and printed with this fern design. So lovely I couldn't bear to open it! (I have since!!) - but isn't it just so desirable?

Lastly, but by no means leastly was this handmade little pouch featuring an embroidered bee linen, and lovely lime green gingham lining.  Diana, your stitching is so neat!

As usual, universal timing is unique as the Soil Association are currently running a petition to save the honeybee - please do look in and sign it if you would like to support them - even just watch the little animation which is so sweet, then so sad!

So as they say in Glasgow "I won a watch" when I put my name down!  

Now it is your turn if you would like to pay it forward.  If you leave your name in a comment, I will take the first 3 names and promise to forward a handmade gift to you within 365 days - so lets say 1st August 2010.  In return you blog about it (if you have a blog, but don't worry if you don't) - but in some way you have to continue by giving something that you have made away to another 3 people. Does that make sense?

Look forward to hearing from you...

under the weather

I don't know about you, but I've been really affected by this fluctuating weather we're having at the moment - one minute sunshine, then windy showers.  Mostly windy showers.  From my rudimentary knowlege of Ayurveda the body is made up of elements - earth, water, air & fire.  This is the kind of weather guaranteed to put your fire out, either through dowse-ing or blowing!  I started feeling a bit ropey on Saturday, and perhaps being a bit oversensitive could already tell it was grumbly kidneys.  A lot of people at work were also feeling rundown or with achey backs.  With a bit of research I found out the kidneys are where a lot of the body's chi is stored, the sort of fire you need to get through the days.

I remember taking this tea a few years ago - in german it translates as 'Rainyweather tea' - so was desperate to get my hands on some.  Just had my first cup, and felt my body put on a smile - it's like a herby white tea with black peppery spice, and cheaper than a massage - soooh good.

The other delight received through the letterbox, were more handwritten postcards from Barbara.  She recently bought a stash of old 70's looking wildlife postcards in a charity shop, and has been writing and sending them to me over the past few weeks.  

Here's a little patchwork of today's batch.  Funnily enough, during the week, I was walking past the kitchen window and thought - what's that out on the birdfeeder? - and it was a huge black and white woodpecker just like the one in the card.  He also flew off immediately just like this too!

I love that one of the cards had been written - to Uncle Ray who lived in Worthing in 1978.  Christopher had seen a bittern at the RSPB reserve.. and perhaps, more rarely, was having a sunny British holiday! As Barbara mentions, Christopher is probably now in his middle ages.

I am developing a wistful nosey-parkerishness for old postcards that have been written, and end up in charity or antique shops.  Little snippets of lost time, sent through the post, with a picture, to brighten someone's day.

some nice things that came to me

 

I received some great post last week.  Coming home one day there were 2 packages waiting on the dining table.  One was an artist's date package from my friend Barbara which included some interesting maps and old drawings, and the other contained this beautiful handmade brooch from Ginny.  She had thoughtfully sewed a crystal at the centre as she knows I'm not big on buttons. I thought the colours and shapes went well with the maps!

Then Lynne came round on Thursday morning for a coffee, and brought me some old sheet music and calligraphy/typography artwork that she had kept hold of and had decided to pay forward to me.  She also brought samples of a new range she is developing and it was really nice to get a sneak preview and be inspired by her enthusiasm... I won't say too much about it, keep an eye on her blog, but 2 of the items solved some gift giving I had coming up - and I love the fact they are new and not available YET!  Sold to the lady in the patchwork dress.

 

More of the old prints from Barbara's package.  I like old stone crosses and carvings, and am interested in Irish round towers.  There is a very interesting theory that they help to generate energy into the ground, acting like antennae.  They definitely had a specific purpose by design (the raised door means the base of the tower is intact and unbroken) and I've met and read a few authors who have studied this... a vast subject maybe for another day.  One belief was that monks used this ancient knowledge and often planted their gardens around the towers knowing they would get a better yield.  The towers always remind me of the story of Rapunzel.

 

I love this typeface and title for another of the drawings.  I've mentioned before about artist's date packages.  Barbara and I write postcards to each other about any exhibitions or places we visit.  I'm hoping to be able to send a few more her way, as my artist, and indeed Barbara's postbox were a little neglected in 2008!

in the post

Just had to take a photo of my Christmas cards all ready to go out.  They look so pretty with the mix of eco magazine envelopes and the normal recycled juice carton ones!  The stamps were courtesy of N's work - he gets 2 free sheets of stamps every year, which really helps with this task!  I love the rich colours of stamp and envelope together.

Every year I make my own cards and this was one of the reasons for making them as part of 'the patchwork dress', as I have always had such positive responses.  This year, however, I must confess to raiding my stock and using up all the cards I'd already made rather than making new ones.  It was actually a lot of fun, as usually I have one card suits all.  This year I could pick the cards I thought people would like, whilst also aware that I'm using every last drop of my resources, and won't have to store anything until next year.