Tree Fall

Life is so very different once you have children. Of course, if you have kids, this is not exactly a bombshell. In fact, it's more of a 'Duh!' moment. It's just that every now and again the incessant speed of life postpartum is a tad overwhelming and makes you (me) stop and wonder where, how and for the love of goodness, 'why?'.

For me the crunch is inevitably a few days after an experience that requires me to be wholly adult and focused. In other words, someone that can string entire whole thoughts and sentences together, without once uttering the words "poo", "wee" or "snot" . 

Not going out to work has many bonuses. None of which need pointing out here, of course. But it also has a number of negatives. The least recognised of which is the fact that unlike the huge majority of my friends that went back to work, outside of the home, once their babies were 6 months old, I never had the need or opportunity or chance to re-develop the skills necessary to concentrate on anything for more that 10 minutes or the ability to act and be judged independently of my children. Whilst it can be tiring always have a child hanging on your every word and every limb, it also allows you to feel shielded from 'normal' expectations. 

Therefore when you discover yourself slap bang in the middle of a childless, adult based situation it can be a little overwhelming. Or in other words, it can have a similar effect to a nuclear fallout. The effects may not be immediately apparent, but they're definitely there (admittedly underplaying the effects of a nuclear fallout in that analogy!).

And as I said, for me, it's a couple of days later. When I'm trying to once again merge the two, hugely shizophrenic aspects of my personality - Mum and Manda - and I find myself feeling off kilter and out of sorts and just a little disappointed.

It's a strange situation. When you are both hugely relieved to be back with the people you love and cherish more than life itself and simultaneously slightly uncomfortable with the idea of once again letting go of that person you just got to be again, if only for a day or two.

Those of you in the UK, who read my last post, will have gathered that I have just filmed a feature for an episode of Kirstie Allsopp's new Homemade Home series. Of course, outside of the UK, that will mean nothing - but over here, it's worth a tiny bit of a 'hurrah'!

Taking part in the filming meant that I spent an entire day being me - Manda - without a single outside reference to being a mum (apart from when Jim texted me a photo of Lily putting Daddy Pig in the corner because he'd been very bad indeed). Which was both wonderful and invigorating (and of course unnerving) . And yet I still managed to discuss vomit, wee, Ben 10, Peppa Pig and childbirth, with almost anyone within earshot (including Kirstie Allsopp) even though 95% of the people surrounding me were both 15 years younger and completely child (and even possibly pet) free. Unbelieveable.

And totally typical.

So here I am, almost a week later, suffering the fall out of my brief excursion with wholly adult company, trying to reconcile once again, my need to be an inspiring, artistic, communicative, 40 year old (almost!!), with being 'Mum'. The person that wipes noses and bums and talks gobbaldy gook and sings (badly) at the top of her voice, whilst dancing around with the girls. The one that is ocassionally kicked and shouted at and treated like a servant.

Of course, these two personas are not exclusive. And quite rightly so. Without the exerience of parenthood I would not be the person I am. I would not have the artistic abilities that I have. My love of textiles and print and pattern comes almost solely from the experience of being a mother. But that doesn't stop me from wishing that I was a little more adept at combining the two.

Not that I'm complaining - just re-adjusting!

This quilt is just finished and on it's way here.

I've been away for the last few days, on a very exciting trip (that I'm going to tell you all about very soon, but in the meantime I'll give you a little hint ),  and it's been the first time that Bella seemed to really feel my absence. So this morning when she came to me with a plastic carrier bag full of her 'work' (notepads, pens, blu tack etc) complaining that the bag was too big, I suggested that we get her new sewing machine out and make a bag together. (a huge amount of giddyness ensued. Followed swiftly by shouts of "let me have my breakfast first!!...I will in a minute...Bella, one more time and we won't make anything!")

Bella chose the fabrics - the brief was "pink and flowery" of course, so Bella picked a vintage Laura Ashley and a print by Tanya Whelan (Barefoot Roses for Free Spirit) that came out a couple of years ago.

Because I didn't want to be messing about with finishing seams etc and wanted the bag to be a little sturdier than a single layer of cotton would allow, I decided to line it. Which meant cutting two identical sized pieces for the bag outer and inner from the two fabric choices.

Bella had requested that the bag could be worn across her body, courier bag style, because that's how I wear my everyday bag. So I cut an extra long piece and draped it over her shoulder to get the right length.

Once I had cut the pieces (not ready to let Bella loose with a rotary cutter just yet), Bella sewed the pieces up, with me working the pedal so that she could feed the fabric through. I then ironed the top seams and again Bella did the rest of the sewing whilst I operated the foot.

I have to say that if anyone's thinking of buying a child (or even themselves) a first sewing machine, then this is a really good one to go for. It's two thirds the size of a normal machine and only has four different stitches - straight stitch in 5 sizes, zigzag stitch in 3 sizes, a scallop stitch and a tricot stitch, but for everyday sewing you really don't need anything else.

As a child it's perfect because the size makes it easy for them to handle and even at four (almost 5!!) Bella can understand the dial and totally gets that it's how to choose the stitches. And as an adult, if you haven't got a lot of cash to spend, or you know you're not going to use it often, then it's cheap at £49 (relatively speaking!) and takes up very little space. 

I wouldn't recommend it for constant use, or for sewing anything heavy, for example it probably wouldn't be strong enough to quilt on. But if you want to make everyday bits and pieces then it's a good place to start.  Bella certainly loves it and I'm happy that it's going to last her for a good few years. Which wouldn't be the case if I had bought her one of the dedicated children's machines, which I don't recommend to be honest. They tend to be very plasticky, with no real stitches and I just don't think that you can do enough on one of them to really get a child hooked on to the fun of sewing and creating.

To make this really simple bag -

Bag outer - 1 piece of fabric cut - 12 x 22"

Bag inner - 1 piece of fabric cut - 12 x22"

Bag strap - 1 piece (from either fabric) cut - 3x30"

1. Take the outer piece, fold in half, short edge to short edge - right sides facing.

2. Sew down the two long sides, using a 1/4" seam allowance.

3. Take the inner piece, fold in half, short edge to short edge - right sides facing.

4. Sew down the two long sides, so that both the outer and inner are the same.

5. Still inside out, fold the top seams over by about 1/2" and iron flat, on both the outer and inner.

6. Turn the outer bag the right way out, but leave the inner bag as it is. Put both to one side.

7. Take the long strap piece, wrong side up and fold one long edge over by a 1/4" and iron flat, then do the same for the other edge

8. Now fold the entire strip along it's length wrong sides facing, so that the two longest edges are together and iron flat.

9. Sew down the whole length of the strap, close to the edge.

10. Take the outer and inner bags and place the inner bag inside the outer bag, matching the seams up.

11. Separate the outer and inner bags at the corner seams and insert the ends of the handle, in each corner, about an inch in , so that they sit between the inner and outer layers, pin in place. Then pin all around the top edge of the bag.

12. Sewing close to the edge, stitch around the whole top edge of the bag.

And that's it. Super easy and quick.

I made this rug exactly two years ago when I was decorating Lily's  'nursery' (otherwise known as the corner of our bedroom). I had wanted to make a rug that was girly without actually being pink, or for that matter red and white. So, quite unusually for me at the time, I chose orange as the main colour and teamed it with red and just a tiny bit of pink.

The orange and grey fabric is one of my all time favourites - Forest Pods by Amy Butler. I only have a few small pieces, no actual yardage, that I bought when I was only holiday in New York before I had Lily. It felt very fitting to use it, because I bought it at the time when Jim and I had decided to try for another baby after all the miscarriages. The rest of the fabrics are a mix of Amy Butler, Moda and Kaffe Fassett, with a Denyse Schmidt thrown in for good measure. And for the border I've used a natural linen, that I've hand stitched, with a thick embroidery thread. I think I sort of had a woven look in mind, rather than an embroidery look.

When the rug was in Lily's part of the room it took up most of the floor space, so suffered a lot of foot fall. Especially those first few weeks before we got her dairy allergy figured out and would spend most to the nights walking her up and down. So in the hopes of making it a little more practical than a normal quilt would be, as well as using wool batting I backed it and bound it in a really good strong canvas.

Of course Lily moved in to the girl's shared room a year ago, and since then the rug has been buried under an annoyingly huge pile of debris that has taken over one end of our bedroom - which by the way is destined to become a beautiful and comfortable reading corner, one day.  Really, it is!

So when I rediscovered it a couple of weeks ago I was able to look at it afresh and realised that it would look perfect in the kitchen. Especially as Lily has such a love of playing with her dolls on the kitchen floor, which I worry is a little cold for her.

I have to say as well, that although it's getting a lot of harder wear, with dirty boots and food being spilt etc, it seems to be coping pretty well. It would of course, cope even better if I could get our cat to wipe his paws before he came in!

I was approached last year by the Bilston Craft Gallery in Wolverhampton and invited to take part in an exhibition called Just For Kids. It's the first time that I've been asked to be involved in something that isn't retail or wholesale based and it felt very strange packing up my work and shipping it down to an unseen gallery. So much so that it wasn't until a few days ago that I realised that if I didn't get down there soon, I'd miss my first exhibition! So hopefully we'll all be heading to Wolverhampton at some point in the next few weeks. But if you're over that way, I recommend a visit as there are some wonderful artists in the show, including  Lucy Jane Batchelor , Clare Beaton , Theresa Green and Lindsey Gardiner and there are lots of interactive activities for children as well as the opportunity to buy some of the pieces on display.

The show itself is has "been created with the Gallery's youngest visitors and their families in mind and showcases the breadth of innovative products being made specifically for the children/baby market....The exhibition will explore the notion of handmade and how we can introducee it into our everyday lives through clothing, child friendly jewellery, furniture, toys and crockery. Featuring work by 27 makers it also includes original artworks from the renowned illustrators, Clare Beaton, Siobhan Bell, Liz and Kate Pope...There are plenty of other interactive elements, including Drawing Tops by Thomas Forsyth, Join-The-Dots Wallpaper by Sally Pawson, Genius Pads by Arash + Kelly and work by Lucy Jane Batchelor, Bronwen Tyler Jones, Julie Allison, Manda McGrory and Laura Masson on the handling table to explore".

If you do manage to pop in and see the exhibit, please do let me know, I'd love to know what you think.

I'm also excited to say that the lovely Apartment Therapy has featured our kitchen today!

New Christmas books. Is there anything better?

The top two books are by Djerba Goldfinger, the founder of the famous online fabric store Reprodepot. Known for her love of pattern Djerba has put together two amazing books of patterns, that not only offer a huge amount of inspiration, but also give you the option of printing them out for personal use, using the cd that is included in the books which features all 225 patterns (75 designs in 3 different colourways).

After years of collecting vintage textiles, Djerba created Reprodepot, initially as a way of feeding her stash, but these days it stocks a beautiful array of both authentic vintage textiles as well as vintage inspired fabrics, including many wonderful Japanese prints. Even with the rapid increase of online stores that now specialise in Japanese and retro fabrics, Reprodepot is still a firm favourite with anyone that loves pattern as much as Djerba does.

The books themselves are beautifully presented, with the sort of photography and attention to detail that you would expect from Chronicle Books. The paper quality alone makes you instantly fall in love and then add the incredible patterns in to the mix as well as 10 craft projects and you're on to an instant winner.

The two volumes are Flora and Folk, and are equally inspiring. Flora concentrates on mostly tiny floral (obviously) prints, all with the vintage vibe you would expect teamed with a strong scandi/japanese flavour.

 

As well as the 225 patterns available on the cd, you can also print out templates for some of the 10 paper craft projects that are included at the back of the book.

The projects are well explained and range in simplicity from a sheet of wrapping paper to the more complex instructions for creating a stab-bound book.  And I have to say that as someone that has no experiance with paper crafts I definitely found the ideas inspiring - basic enough not to scare me off whilst still varied enough to keep me interested. My only slight negative is that both books have the same projects in them, but I guess that's fair enough when it's all about the patterns rather than being actual project books.

I love the fact that there are 224 straight pages of pure pattern here. I don't know if it's just because I'm a total geek, but this stuff makes me happy. Especially when it's presented in such a lovely format and also offers me the chance to use the patterns as often as I like in as many ways as I can think of.

If you're into print and pattern then I'm pretty confident that one or both of these books will appeal to you, whether you're looking for patterns to use or just some beautiful eye candy.

I've been working on a new design for the last few days. I desperately need to find the time to sit down and plan and sketch a number of different ideas that are brewing, but at the moment there seems to be 10 things, 10 times more important, to do every hour.

This hare has been persistent though.

I've been wanting to make this dress since Bella was 2 years old. I bought a dress for her back then that I thought I might be able to copy, but at that point I didn't have the ability or know how to work out a pattern from it.

When Bella outgrew the original dress I packed it away and didn't look at it again until about a month ago, when I unpacked it for Lily.

One of the things about creating as a career is that you don't really notice the markers that tell you if you're improving or growing. There aren't any quarterly reviews or pay rises to  encourage you, just the hope that you're not stagnating and that somewhere along the way you're actually getting better at it all.

Which is why it's so nice when you are reintroduced to something that suddenly seems so easy and makes total sense in a way it never did before.

Three years ago I was totally foxed by the construction of the store bought dress and didn't know where to begin with drafting a dress of my own. And yet, when I revisited it a few weeks ago I was amazed at how simple the design was and how quickly I was able to run up a new pattern. And surprised by how much my understanding and practical abilities had grown.

For the dress itself I used a print from the Come Quilt With Me collection by Pat Yamin for Marcus Brothers, which I'm not sure is available anymore unfortunately. Not long after it was released I was lucky enough to snap up a ton of it on sale, so I was happy to risk a yard on this dress, even though I was working the pattern out as I went along. I know that it's recommended that you test a design out using muslin first, but I'm just too impatient for that, and with such limited time to play, I wasn't going to waste it making a mock up that then couldn't be worn.

For the lining I used a Liberty print that I found cheap a couple of years ago (and have always wondered why I didn't buy more when I could!) because I love the contrast of the shot of colour against the grey, and details like that just make me happy. I love the way Clothkits dresses are lined with Liberty and can totally see how it elevates a relatively plain dress design and turns it in to something a bit more special.

The front of the dress crosses over on the inside and ties under the arm.  It then closes with a press stud on the outside.

Once I finally found some free time to myself (yesterday, thank you Playdoh!!) it only took me a few hours to pull the whole thing together and will take me even less time for the next one.

It's such a simple pattern and great for wearing over long sleeved tops and tights or leggings, and as Bella pointed out, it will also be perfect in the summer (she's obsessed with summer dresses for some reason).

The best thing about it though is how much sense it made to me. It's such a relief to find out that I am actually learning something!

Jim took Lily out this afternoon, whilst my mum took Bella to the pantomime, so I used the time on my own to start taking the decorations down ( I know, I could have been sewing or reading or good lord, even napping!). Every year when I put them up I think that I'm going to be miserable when I take them down. And then every year it gets to New Years day and I start to long for them to disappear and for the house to look clean and tidy again.

This decoration is destined to stay though. Especially as it so nicely compliments the lovely oilcloth  that adorns our new kitchen table.  I initially bought the oilcloth to protect the table from the girls' various artistic endeavours but of course love it too much for it to get ruined, so I now put a cheaper Ikea oilcloth on top of the other oilcloth whenever the girls want to draw/paint/playdoh/eat/etc. Actually I have a history of this type of behaviour, and was witnessed recently protecting my solid oak kitchen worktop with a large Ikea chopping board and then protecting that (it was new!) with an old crappy chopping board. I have a feeling that in another life I would have been guilty of leaving the plastic covers on the sofa's!

The other decorations that won't be disappearing are the pom-poms. I so love the way that they look and as we have a number of birthdays on the horizon, it seems silly to take them down now. And I'm sticking to that excuse.

Unfortunately, and much to Bella's annoyance, the snow flakes do have to go though.