Tree Fall

Autumn!

As I've been driving to and from school this week, down country lanes and past churches and fields I've been truly appreciating the wonderful Autumnal colours that have suddenly flooded the landscape.

The incredible golds, yellow and reds of the leaves and berries, against the dark grey storm clouds, have been the main inspiration behind our new cushion.

I've used beautiful 100% wool felt for both the front and back of the cushion and because it's the natural landscape that has inspired me, it seemed only right that I should use a leather, woody looking, vintage button to finish it off.

Happy first day of Autumn, my favourite season of all!

The Old Tailors

I'm teaching a series of workshops in a lovely new venue over the next few weeks. Based in Darlington, the Old Tailors is a renovated old tailors workshop, situated above the Singer Sewing shop.

I have to admit that the venue is an absolute pleasure to teach in, with large windows and plenty of sewing and cutting space, it's bright and warm and extremely welcoming.

On Saturday, I taught a really lovely group of women an introduction to sewing and how to make a basic, fully lined tote and envelope backed cushion.

It was a full day course and not only included a gorgeous lunch, but also the chance to chose fabrics from the sewing shop below, who stock a small but beautiful range of modern quilting cottons.

 

The next workshop is this saturday 24th September and is an introduction to making childrens clothes, making a children's blouse with applique detail. Followed the next week, Saturday 1st October, by an introduction to patchwork, with making a patchwork runner.

 

If you've never been to Darlington (or even if you have) then this is the perfect excuse. You can spend the day sewing and buying gorgeous fabric in the shop downstairs and then, you could really make a weekend of it and book a room in the Old Tailors, which as well as hosting workshops, is also one of Darlington's nicest boutique guesthouses.

 

For details on how to book a place in the workshop and even a room for the night, check out the website and if you're in the area and are looking for some lovely fabrics, then pop in to the Singer Sewing Centre on Bondgate, but don't buy it all before I get back there on Saturday!! Seriously.

Why

I only write about my life on this blog. I have no right to talk about other people, so I don't, except for Jim and the girls (and occasionally, with permission, my Mum). But today all of my words should be for someone else. Someone who is in all of my family's thoughts.

In lieu of all the words I want to write, I'm going to tell you that 8 weeks ago I started running. I started because having tried and failed last year, I thought I couldn't do it and I needed to prove myself wrong and take control of something tangible.

8 weeks ago running for more than 60 seconds felt impossible. Today I ran almost 7k. And every single step was for my family. And for all the families out there, affected by cancer.

Today I ran further and faster than I've ever run before in my life. I was fueled by anger and need. Anger that someone I love suffered an awful loss last night. Anger that I will also suffer that loss. Anger that the lives of my family have changed forever because of cancer. And a need to take charge, to do something. To do anything at all.

So I'm running. In 3 weeks time, I'm running a 10k race, to raise money for cancer research and treatment. It's not much, but it is all I can do. And it's the only way I've found to combat the lack of control that I've felt since Mum's diagnosis.

The link to my fundraising page is here. Please, if you can, please donate. And if you can't, please send positive thoughts to help me run even faster.

And know that there are many more words that can't be said here.

 

 

Saltaire Makers Fair

 

 

 

 

 

It was the Saltaire Makers Fair last weekend. Unlike the one in May, this fair was only for one day and unfortunately for me, it was a day that I was teaching a workshop at Manningham Mills Community Centre. Unfortunate only because it meant that I didn't get to spend the day chatting and enjoying the company of so many other designer/makers, not because I was teaching the workshop, which was also great fun. Fortunately though, Jim stepped up (as he always does) and attended the fair for me.

 

I was a little nervous about this one, because rather than focusing on my usual bunnies, bibs and blankets, I produced a lot more clothes and was interested to see how or if they sold.

Strangely, and for the first time ever, I didn't sell a single bunny or bib, and only sold dresses and blouses. And whilst I would have obviously liked to sell everything (aim high, I say!), it's given me a little boost in confidence as I continue to focus more and more on childrens clothes and less on blankets etc.

 

Some of the new dresses are in the shop now.

In the present

 

 

 

This outfit is the second half of my niece's birthday present. The aqua linen has been lovely to work with all summer and I think is just heavy enough to still be worn in winter with a second layer.

The stripey leggings are made from a really lovely cotton jersey, but I think they may be a little big for my niece.

I might make a pair for myself, to wear through winter, the black and blue stripe really is great.

 

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The winner of Janet Clare's book, Freya and Fred is......

comment number 30, El Thomson who said -

"Thanks! Please add me to the draw for this lovely book!"

Congratulations El!! Please drop me an email with your address and I'll get the book in the post to you!

 

 

 

 

Simple

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wish I had enough of this fabric to make this dress in my size. It's the softest, most beautiful Paul Smith grey striped cotton ever. It's slightly heavier than a quilters cotton, but still drapes really well and is extremely comfortable. The stripe is a woven and is slightly raised, making it really tactile. And to offset the grey stripe, I've lined it in a pink and cream dandelion clock Liberty print.

By way of..

People sometimes ask me why I blog and I usually answer that I love the community and the commitment. But I also love the fact that over the last 5 years I have created a written record of far more than just my progress with designing and making. In the time that I have been blogging I have shared many personal events in my life and in particular I have shared and recorded my experiences as a mother to Bella (who was 5 weeks off her 1st birthday when I started) and my very difficult journey through 7 miscarriages and a horribly stressful pregnancy before I became a mother to Lily.

 

The girls often ask me to tell them about their birth's and I happily regale them with tales of 26 hour labours (Bella) and 3 hour labours (Lily), heads being pulled out with forceps (Bella) and heads being pulled out with vacuums (Lily) and squashed faces (Bella) and pointy heads (Lily), beautiful babies (Bella) and well, less than beautiful, but still totally loved babies (Lily - and don't worry, we all laugh about how she looked when she was born). But I rarely think about or talk about how we got here. What we went through, to have both the girls, and in particular Lily. Not because it's too painful, but because who really has time to look back that much, when the here and now is so time consuming.

Which brings me back to why I blog. Because tonight, just by chance, I found myself reading this post and was surprised when I realised that I had forgotten what Lily's pregnancy felt like and how worried I had been that I wouldn't love her enough. I had forgotten about the weekly visits to the miscarriage clinic to have a scan and (once we had established she was still viable) a weekly injection to try and maintain the pregnancy. I read the post and almost cried, because I truly remember feeling that I wouldn't cope - when we thought the pregnancy had failed, or when we were told she almost definitely had Downs Syndrome, or when I got ill and had to go in to hospital again.

And at the very point when I was remembering all that fear and anger and sadness, I heard Lily at the top of the stairs, asking to go to the toilet. And as I picked her up to carry her to the bathroom I told her that I was just reading about when she was in my tummy and how very, very lucky I am to have her.

And Lily told me that she's too big to go in my tummy now. And I told her that she never liked it much in there anyway.

And that is the reason I blog.

 

 

Colour

 

Geometrics and bright colours. What's not to love?

(top three images, Living Etc)

Movie time

 

Just in case you think it's not genetic.....