Blog

The line "what's in a name" could refer to the words spoken by Juliet, Act II, Scene II in William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. But the reason for my title is a lot less literary. Each Private Lives design name may differ in colour, fabric or have stylistic nips...

For the Bank Holiday at the end May, I packed my ration book, coupons and ID card and journeyed up to  Cambridgeshire to set up my "Make Do and Mend" stall as part of the Word War II weekend at the Denny Abbey Farmland Museum.  www.farmlandmuseum.org.uk Every year at...

At the beginning of May,  beautiful beaded buttons  bloomed (say that five times fast) at our workshop held by the Essex Federation of the Women's Institute (WI) at the Hatfield Peverel headquarters www.essexwi.org.uk . Using self cover buttons, widely available from...

The last dark days of February were chased away at the Warner Textile Archive, Braintree by participants creating their own beautiful floral silk ribbon embroidery pincushions. We met in a most appropriate venue - a former silk mill that now holds a wonderful...

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Here comes a teeny, tiny little pattern just for some crafting fun. It’s a simple floral motif that I developed form a corner of a William Morris fabric. I have often included it in my instruction sheets for patchwork, applique and creative embroidery sessions for a...

Not soon after the machine applique class with the WI, another similar machine applique technique presented itself right at my front door.

Had a great time in late September presenting a Machine Applique session at the Essex Federation of Women’s Institutes headquarters www.essexwi.org.uk . If you are a member and want to see what’s on or just looking for info on groups in your area, have a look at their site.

After reading, asking, looking, wondering, agonizing over, skulking about on other sites and trying to plan, organise and rationalise about how to start a blog, I figure the best way is to just jump in and share with you all the things that I find interesting about sewing, textiles and craft heritage.