Monday 31 March 2014

Welly Hats

As you probably know, wellies feature quite significantly in my daily attire. I bought my current pair several years ago. They were a bargain, though still quite a lot more expensive than a bog-standard pair as I wanted support and comfort for walking longer distances with the dog. These are the sort of wellies worn by country folk when out hunting (though they don't go by that particular brand name!)

Coming in from muddy walks leaves me with a dilemma- I don't want dirty wellies in my hall dropping clumps of mud, but keeping them dry in the porch has been challenging this winter. I was really delighted to find these...


                                       WELLY HATS

We spoke to a lovely lady who was selling these at Castlefield Market in Manchester one Sunday. She got the idea from a shower cap. These are brilliant. They have a stiff band that fits into the top of the welly to give it rigidity. They keep out rain, spiders and slugs. And they are cute.


Just the job! Now all I have to worry about is my wellies blowing away in strong winds....

Sunday 23 March 2014

Grandma's Garden

Remember this? My Nan's letter has inspired me in many ways and has crept into my recent work.

I had a thermofax screen made from a page of it in two different sizes and used it to print onto some fabric, which I have been using to make hexagons.


It's very difficult to see in the photograph, but the thermofax process uses a photocopy of an image to burn away the screen material wherever there is a dark area and can be used to make screens to print very fine marks.

I showed you some of my hexies a little while back, so here is what I did with them:

 Work in progress. You can just make out my Nan's writing  printed on the lower shapes. The hexagons are about an inch across- more and more I am needing to use my glasses to sew. Anyone else find that?

                                     The finished wallhanging.

I enlarged a photo of a section of the letter so I could stitch Nan's handwriting onto the quilt.

If you want a close look the quilt is on display at Altrincham Forward as part of the Ten Plus Textiles exhibition until 29th April.