We have taken to meeting up at undisclosed locations (each other's houses mainly!) imbibing gin and practicing the art of stitching things by hand in a million different ways. Mending, darning, patching, embroidering and generally celebrating the happiness that ensues from making something not only whole again but more beautiful in the process.
A while ago - quite a while actually, I bought a piece of an antique quilt at a vintage fair to make into a cushion for my daughter, for some reason I never got around to it and just left it in one of my fabric trays. Not only has the cushion finally appeared but I've used up the extra scraps too! I've made a fabric button necklace (as I tend to do with tiny bits of fabric) , but I've also made some tiny patchwork from the torn scraps of disintegrating old cotton. I've mended some of the hexagons while they were still separate on the papers and others once I had pieced them all together, I've done yet more mending on top once I'd appliqued the patches on to a piece of hand embroidery I did reading 'Sewing Mends the Soul'. The whole thing has now become a pincushion in a 3" embroidery hoop which will hang rather nicely on the wall!
You can find more joyous mending in the following places :
http://tomofholland.com/
http://uk.pinterest.com/cwellesleysmith/mending/
http://mymakedoandmendyear.wordpress.com/
http://katebowles.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/more-darned-books.html
http://hannahlamb.co.uk/Site/Visible_Mending.html
Happy stitching! pxxxxx
ooh loving this secret coveny activity. I might have to have a rummage and see what I can mend. Do you know any way to make taking up uniform trouser hems any more interesting? Secret messages, times tables cribs - now there's an idea....
ReplyDeleteGin Liz, gin makes the mending more interesting! ;-) px
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