Shipley Fun Times

Hey y'all

Belated post to mention a few crafting things the craftergirls have been up to for the past few weeks.

1. Crafting Chez Bainbridge

Amy hosted craft night a few weeks ago, much fun was had, pizza and chocolate eaten. And not only was there fantastic hospitality, but Fiona also brought some pretty darn (yarn!) goodies in the form of homemade beetroot chutney, a mahoosive bag of wool to share and some Moomin related treats!

Don't know what Fiona has said to get this face from L!

Nom!

Moomin!

So very very much wool - my stash has already gone in to two seperate blankets and the beginnings of some Christmas decorations :)

Some not at all creepy patterns...

This is amazeballs - I'm sure either my Auntie Doris or Grandma made this for my Barbie when I was little!

The blanket is enlargening - and in constant blur!

Sorry to not write more - I am both tired and ill and can't remember anything else! Amy was there too but seems to have hidden from the camera all night!

2. Collected Threads Exhibition and Craft Market at the Shipley 

Laura and I headed up to the Shipley - a fantastic but small craft and design museum and gallery, which is part of Tyne and Wear Museums, and happens to be mere minutes from both of our houses!

Craft activities! And yes, we did partake.

Want this rug! Knitted giant tubes made on a 19th C weaving machine!

Lions and robots!

Fantastic patterened rug

Rainbow rag rug made with fabric scraps

Very fuzzy photo of the craft market!

Shipley Gallery

Textured wall rug artwork piece

Fantastic exhibition - a rare glimpse at some of the textile collections held by the Shipley with lots of different textures and techniques to pore over. Definitely worth a look if you are in the region!

There also happened to be a good little craft fair on that day, taking up most of the main hall and selling some delicious cupcakes (<3 Pet Lamb Patisserie) and a number of interesting little stalls selling some funky items. Laura bought some brilliant dinosaur socks, and I got a Mexican style skeleton butterfly box!

3. Shipley Lates

Lots going on at the Shipley this month! Laura, Fiona and I all moseyed on down to the gallery for an amazing evening of crafting. 7 different stalls with lots of different fabrics and instructions to play with, and all covered by the incredibly reasonable £5 cover charge! And wine too, what more do you want! We had a good time, although some of the crafts I found a bit too difficult after 2 glasses of wine, but I loved making the silk button broach, and the random curled up wool things - not sure what to do with it, maybe a tiny hat/fascinator?! 

Scraps of wool that we curled up and sewed together! Why, not sure but it was cute!

Possible tiny hat?

They usually do a few of these each September, but this year they decided to cram all the activities in to one evening and it really paid off. 

And that is it for now - very busy times coming up at work over the next month so won't be much crafty happening :(

Love Ali

xx

Circles, Squares and Wiggles: Crochet Blankets

Hi all!

This isn't a How To, just a bit of showing off! I've just finally finished sewing in the ends of a new baby blanket for a friend and as I'm waiting until she is a bit nearer giving birth to give it to her, I'll show the internet instead! The pattern is based on one from a crochet book I got out from the library a few weeks ago, and is a fantastic book written by Linda Permann called 'Little Crochet, Modern Designs for Babies and Toddlers'. Worth checking out if you or anyone nearby has an little ones! Modified slightly in that the pattern in the book was very small, so I increased it by making a few extra rows of squares.

And then I thought, oh, I haven't put any pictures of my wiggly rainbow blanket I made months ago on Pinterest yet, I can add them in here! This pattern was slavishly followed from the very easily followable patterns from Lucy at Attic 24. I'm in love with this, but didn't make it quite wide enough for a grown up blanket, still love it and it will stay in blanket cupboard (or on a random chair in the living room...) until a purpose for it appears!

And then this is what I'm working on at the moment, although I'm having a little break and sewing in ends tonight as my crochet finger feels pretty much like it is going to fall off! 

This one was inspired by some Pinterest wanderings a little while ago that I've become fairly obsessed with (here for the original photo). The pattern is very basic, just a normal granny square but instead of going straight in to the previous row, doing a row of 3 chain and single stitches in each gap in white. I think it looks lovely and has built up really quickly. If I do this again, I would go for a rectangle shape instead as maybe the final product will be more useable?

Love Ali

xx

Craft Night Road Trip

Hello everyone! 

Two of the Crafterteers went on a mini road trip today to Beamish Open Air Museum in County Durham. They had a quilt exhibition on over the weekend so Amy and I went to check it out - we both have passes to get in free which was a bonus too! The museum is an open air museum, great on a bank holiday in August right! No, it was drizzling the whole time (see the very soggy sign below!), but we made the most of it and wrapped up warm :)

Beamish is one of my favourite museums, and they have a fantastic collection of locally made quilts from the 1800's to the present day. The exhibition was put on with the Quilters Guild, and mixed quilts old and new - with the newer quilts inspired by the ones from the museum's collections.

These are some of the old and new quilts on display, we both really like the family tree (second one from below) which told the family history of the quilt maker, complete with photographs and quotes from marriage certificates. It went all the way back to the 16th Century which was pretty amazing!

The display also had a few hands on elements, and a display from the Young Quilters Guild. They also had some members of the Quilters Guild there to speak to, who were doing lots of English Paper Piecing.

The most interesting part of today was finding out about regional craft groups from the past! Both from the exhibition displays, but also the brilliant book I bought afterwards, about how craft groups have been going on amongst groups of women for centuries - made me feel part of a long tradition! It is amazing to think that our little approx-once-a-month craft night is doing all the same things those women used to do, getting together to help each other out, figure out how to create new patterns, and eat and talk!

I particularly like this little passage above about the preparations for craft night being an "awful sight", and the worst thing about craft night was that the women were looking after themselves and not their men! Good on 'em!

The rest of the museum also had some bits and pieces on display, including a yoyo quilt and a fantastic granny square blanket in some fantastic colours!

Oh, and before I forget, this was my new book Amy talked me into getting...

A catalogue of Beamish quilt collections, but also a decent handful of women's history in there too, makes me feel itchy for my History degree days!

See y'all next time!

Love Ali

xx