Making a Bag (or lots of them)
August 29, 2009 at 6:34 pm | Posted in General | 1 CommentSorry for being so quiet, I’ve been busy and just returned from this year’s trip to the UK, in what seems to become an annual event for me. I’m pretty sure I’ll go next year, too, but that’s for another post.
My first stop this year was in Birmingham, for two days of fun at the Festival of Quilts. And yes, it’s big enough that you really need two days if you want to see everything at leisure. I enjoyed the exhibitions and the shopping, and we’ll get to pics of the shopping later, but what intrigued me right away was a stall that didn’t have anything to sell, just things to give away.
morsbags sociable guerilla bagging is an initiative to recycle fabric that isn’t used anymore into shopping bags and give them away to in front of supermarkets so people don’t have to get plastic bags that will just further clog up the environment. The idea is to get together with friends to make loads of bags and have fun while doing it, and then give them away. They had set a table with a few sewing machines at the festival and invited people to choose some of the recycled fabric they had there and make their own bag. So of course I had to play! Here’s the result:
The fabric is a nice heavy upholstery fabric, making a really sturdy shopping bag which I’ll definitely use. The intent of this initiative has some parallels to the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef stuff I saw last year in London, but with a rather more practical bent to it.
Every plastic bag that isn’t needed is a good thing, but eliminating them isn’t easy at all. I’ve been trying to acquire as few of them as possible for quite a few years now, and it is difficult. There are so many shops that’ll pack your stuff into a plastic bag before you can stop them, and in some cases (say, clothing) they are practical to keep your new clothes (or wool, or yarn, or fabric) from becoming soiled while carrying them home. There are no easy solutions out there, but I still think every little bit helps, and I wouldn’t mind getting together with friends, make a few more of those bags and give them away.
More Virtual Textile Exhibits
June 15, 2008 at 3:22 pm | Posted in General, Patchwork, quilt | Leave a commentTags: Bath, museum, UK
A couple of weeks ago I posted about my explorations of textile exhibits in the UK. My planning has continued in the meantime, and I’ve added two more destinations to my definite “to see” list. Those have the advantage of both being situated in the same town, namely Bath. Apart from being a World Heritage site, Bath houses two museums of interest for textile lovers.
The Fashion Museum, which might be still known to some under its former name of “Museum of Costume”, shows a wide variety of costumes covering several centuries. The website has all the information you could want, some nice pictures of current and past exhibits, and even a couple of games that are more difficult than I thought at first look (under “Just for Fun”).
The second place I want to go to in Bath is the American Museum. While this year’s special exhibit about the Titanic isn’t my cup of tea, there are the Period Rooms showing fully furnished rooms in different American styles, and most importantly there’s the Textile Room with quilts and weavings from America. While it might feel funny to go to the UK to visit an American Museum, I guess you won’t easily find a comparable exhibit anywhere else in Europe.
On fiber news, I’m still trying to get the fractal quilt quilted, which proves not easy as the quilting thread and I can’t seem to cooperate for long stretches at a time. But I’m making progress and I still have hopes I’ll be able to finish it in time.
First Try at Temari
January 13, 2008 at 3:31 pm | Posted in General | Leave a commentTags: Temari
I’ve always admired the colourful patterns of Temari balls when I saw pictures of them somewhere. So, when I stumbled upon Temari für Einsteiger some weeks ago, the book followed me home. And here’s the result of my first try:
And here’s a view from a different direction:
This ball is made from a styrofoam ball 6 cm in diameter, wrapped in yellow sewing thread and decorated with Nr. 5 Perle Cotton. Wrapping the ball in sewing thread is not really an enjoyable activity, and I think I stopped a bit too early, not thinking that I’d need to hide all of the perle cotton ends in there. So those ends are visible in some places, but hey, it’s my first project, and I enjoyed making it and really like the result.
Here’s a nice English-language site I found while looking Temari up on the web. Enjoy!
Christmas ornaments
December 19, 2006 at 10:34 pm | Posted in General | Leave a comment
I made these stars to attach them to this year’s Christmas presents. This was a really fun project and I got to try something new (and spend lots of money buying nice shiny beads). Especially the white and gold snowflakes where a challenge, since the wire often wouldn’t want to go through the white beads twice. Otherwise, these are quite easy to make and dont take too much time.
So, with those nice, sparkling stars I want to wish everybody a merry Christmas and a good start for 2007.
Hello world!
May 17, 2006 at 8:47 pm | Posted in General | 1 CommentAfter reading lots of fiber-related blogs, this is my first try to tell you about my assorted projects. I plan to show you pictures of my work in progress and completed items. I'll share my experiences with different techniques and tell you the best places on the web and in books to learn them.
I'm interested in almost everything that has to do with fiber or fabric, so you can expect to read posts about knitting and crochet, weaving and patchwork, tatting and bobbin lace, embroidery, needlepoint lace – you name it, I've at least tried it, even if I don't do it actively at the moment.
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textile dreams - fibery wake up 