All Quiet on the Blogging Front

...yes, there's been virtual tumbleweed blowing around here lately, I confess! Things have been a little crazy but I have lots of inspiring things to share with you in the coming weeks.

I recently started a new job which has got me walking down familiar paths but seeing things in a new light. I'm revisiting many things I used to be so involved with as a textile student - it's hard to believe it was almost a decade ago that I completed my degree in that field!

The wonderful thing is that I still find this area so inspiring even after all these years. I thought I'd give you a visual tour of what's got my creative juices flowing of late:

This is a gorgeous fabric I recently received in the post, as part of the Hillarys Blinds Country Craft Competition. The fabric is called Bird Parade and it's from their Country Retreat range. I have yet to make something with it, at this point I'm thinking my limited sewing skills might stretch to a bag but I love the idea of a skirt, should I have enough material! If you want to find out more about the comp, check out this post on the UK Craft Blog.

Image via Pinterest

The colours of spring emerging from the garden always have an impact on me at this time of year. I love that first sign of delicate snowdrops, heralding new life and fresh growth, which is soon followed by crocus, daffodils and tulips (one of my favourite flowers).

Image via Designers Guild

Sharing the Love

Today I'm sharing a little love, as it seems like the right thing to do on Valentine's day. I thought it would be nice to tell you about some of my wonderfully talented and creative friends :)

Andrea is an avid knitter (much like myself!) from Canada who has recently gotten into spinning yarn too.

Above you can see one of her lovely handspun yarns, find it here in her etsy shop, AndiSocial's Twist.

I also love cats...and I really like Julia of Materialised's kitty creations. Meet Kimberly the cat!

From stitched felines to fluffy birds: Mel is the brains - and the needle-felty hands! - behind Feltmeup Designs, aka The Felt Menagerie. Some of you may well be familliar with these cute little birdies.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed those :)

Adornment

Day Seven: Embellish the story.

I can't believe it's the last day of Knitting & Crochet Blog Week again, already! This week has really flown by but it's been a lot of fun and I've very much enjoyed reading the blogs of other crafters taking part too.

Most folks are covering "your knitting and crochet time" today, but as I did a post last year which I feel would be a bit too similar, I have gone for the wildcard topic which will hopefully make for a more interesting read!

I'll be honest here, I don't really do huge amounts of embellishment on my knits as I like them to have fairly clean, classic lines. An obvious example is these shell buttons which finished off a pair of shoes neatly:


There have been, however, have a few memorable occasions where I have had a bit of a play around with some ideas!

When I was working on pieces for my degree show, I experimented with knitting on huge needles and creating my own yarns from strips of fabric sewn together - I decided to make the stitched joins a feature, using zig-zagging contrasting thread:


Around the same time, I also tried various ways of embedding fibres into knitted woollen fabrics, using needlepunch and hand felting techniques:






...and finally: you'll probably think me a little bit nutty for including this, but I'm going to incorporate it anyway for the fun factor!


In case you're wondering, they're meant to be 'textile art' and were made for a Comic Relief challenge project several years back ;)

Fabric Crush

I was idly reading the Conversation Pieces blog today (including a fab post about a Las Vegas wedding idea!) and was intrigued by the mention of Ikea fabrics...


Which inevitably, led me to looking at the fabrics available on the Ikea website!

Sure enough, there was loveliness to be found:






(All fabrics can be found on the Ikea online catalogue under Textiles: Fabrics & Sewing)