Honey, I’ve Shrunk The Craft Room!!

 This is a long one, so get yourself a beverage of choice first (I’m writing this while having a cup of tea 🫖).

Several years ago I would have said I was a quilter and my room was a Sewing Room. Nowadays it’s a Craft Room as over recent years (due mainly to retirement and wanting to keep busy!) other things have crept in. It started with knitting and the craze for sock knitting which I started while working at my last job. Being small and portable, it just needed a small bag to contain yarn, knitting on a circular needle, a small pouch to contain stitch markers, tape measure and other bits and bobs.  It would fit in my rucksack and easy to pull out and work on during my bus ride home.  The knitting soon became bigger as I started making cardigans, jumpers and toys in the evening when watching TV. So a yarn stash grew in my room.

Along with the knitting, I also started making crochet blankets, tempted by the likes of Lucy of Attic 24 and Rosina of Rosina Crochet.  At the moment I have a Neat Ripple (Attic 24) lap size blanket with remnants of yarn from previous blanket projects.

I’ve always enjoyed some embroidery and hand stitching so when I retired (6 years ago) I joined West Country Embroiderers Poole Branch, which has since become Dorset Creative Embroiderers and I really enjoy then monthly meetings.  But of course it means there are projects made (and I enjoy making them) and a slowly growing collection of items with nowhere to put them, so they’ve stayed in my room.

Another group I wanted to join was my local Knit and Natter group which met at the local cafe. The cafe closed after lockdown but reopened when new owners took over some months later.  Meanwhile the group meets at the local pub just along from the cafe.  Meeting people there I got involved with the local Townswomen’s Guild, then on the committee.  Last year I became treasurer so the paperwork was in my room for a while, but that’s now moved to the small bedroom we refer to as the office.  However I enjoy the Hotchpotch crafts sub group and making items they’ve also accumulated.  While in lockdown TG made members aware that there were some Internet Groups, one of which was an ATC swap group and recently the crafts group, usually making cards.  Locally there is a card crafting shop and I’ve taken occasional workshops there.  So, you’ve guessed I’ve got drawn into card making.

The other week I went to my Mum’s who is no longer sewing and has a collection of cross stitching, patterns, fabric scraps (she also made quilts for Project Linus) and I have bought all that collection back, which I am currently in he process of sorting.  

All the above to say that my Craft Room is Shrinking!! 

I have got projects to finish off.  The quilt below is going to Project Linus (West Dorset), which started out as L blocks (I think this may have been inspired by a recent Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine)

I didn’t have enough fabric for the backing so added a strip of orange fabric to pick out colours used and I’m machine quilting this. I must get this done as I bought home a Linus quilt kit to make up, but I’ve got until September to get both done.

I dug out this mini quilt that I started in 2019 (so it’s not an old WIP). It was a paper piecing kit from The Bramble Patch and the design I’d 16” square. I wasn’t quite sure how to finish this, so this week I backed it onto a square of neutral coloured Moda Grunge fabric. Instead of wadding, which might be too bulky on this I’ve layered 2 layers of cheesecloth muslin and backed with a cream fabric. I found a quarter of Makower linen texture in a dark purple which matches the purple in the quilt to border.  It’s a difficult pattern to know how to quilt but I’m using a fine green perle thread in the white fabric around the blocks.

It’s going to be fiddly.

So that’s the quilting.  This has gone on for a long time (and you’ve probably finished that cup of something) and I will catch up with the knitting and paper crafting projects soon.