Category Archives: patchwork

ScrapHappy August 2020

I’ve been going to ceramic workshops on Tuesday afternoons; there are lots of old aprons available to pop on if you’re wearing something smart, but I never am so I don’t bother. I did, however, have the idea of making one for myself in patchwork, just for fun.

It’s not finished, still needs edging and ties, but I wanted to post today because it’s the 15th. The scraps are leftovers from plant hangers and cushions, and in better light the oranges, reds and greens show up much more brightly :)

pinny 2

pinny 1     pinny 3

I’m inspired to use my scraps by Kate and Gun. Here are the links for everyone who joins ScrapHappy from time to time (they may not post every time, but their blogs are still worth looking at):

KateGun, TittiHeléneEvaSue, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Claire, Jan
Moira, SandraLindaChrisNancyAlysKerryClaireJean,
Joanne, Jon, HayleyDawnGwen, Connie, Bekki, Pauline,
Sue L, Sunny, Kjerstin and Vera

statement chair?

It certainly was a statement when I first got my hands on it – or at least, it had lots of random words printed on the fabric, not all of which made sense, either seperately or together. Consequently, it was dubbed the Donald Trump chair.

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It’s surprisingly comfortable and I thought would be pretty simple to recover (no arms or fiddly shapes). Please remind me to never ever underestimate a piece of furniture again!

But, the job is finally finished and I am definitely pleased with the result. I was able to make use of a beautiful piece of embroidered Indian fabric, the rest is upholstery fabric. There’s also some shocking pink lace.

chair 5

chair 6

The back:

chair 4

Not sure what kind of statement it makes now, but one thing is for sure – it wouldn’t find a home in the White House! I’m hoping it finds a good home somewhere near me, though, and sometime soon. Keep your fingers crossed x

ScrapHappy August

There’s something about Kate’s Scraphappy reminder emails that makes me sit up, take note and galvanise myself into action.

I’ve been making belt bags lately, and I’m rather pleased with my design and how it works. But it occurred to me that it might also work with a bit of patchwork magic. Here are the three pieces I stitched together out of scraps.

scrap belt bag 1 small

And here they are all stitched up.

scrap belt bag 2 small

A close-up of the zip.

scrap belt bag 3 small

And one being modelled by Karen.

belt bag green

I’ll be keeping the scrappy one for myself but I have high hopes for the others: I’ve been busy re-opening my etsy shop and also plan to get some listings on Hello Pretty (a specifically South African platform) this week.

If you want to see what other scraphappy people are up to, click on these links: (Kate and Gun, the first two links, are the hosts)

slightly late scraphappy

Just as I was about to sweep up last week’s cuttings, Kate’s email reminder about ScrapHappy popped into my head. This is what the floor in the garage/workroom looks like most of the time!

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And here’s what I salvaged and stitched together:

IMG_20190413_095732

And here’s what it turned into:

boho 3

My favourite boho bag yet! Here are two of the others.

 

The scrappy bits take longer to sew into a bag than the ones with squares or strips, but the pleasure of creating a piece of fabric from all those chopped-off bits was enormous.

I officially had my first showroom last week – yes, Kate was right, I needed to commit to a date to make sure I carried through. And I wanted a slow start, which was precisely what I got. I’ve only notified neighbours, friends and customers from the Made in the Cape market, the idea being that only people who know and like the kind of things I make will come. So not an open house and no unknowns off the street! I had three customers, two of whom made purchases. The first step (is it always the hardest one?) is over.

cubes and black holes

I found this little cube stool thing on one of the zillions of facebook sales pages I scour every single day as a major work avoidance strategy I occasionally look at. I’m going to use it in the new room so it can be sat on if required, but I couldn’t let it remain beige and plain. As you may have noticed, I’m like fully into more of a groovy boho vibe if you know what I mean, so it had to get jazzed up.

cube 1

Finally sewed the seams this morning! The colours don’t show too well but they are lilacs and different shades of grey, all cut from upholstery swatch books.

cube 4

cube 2cube 3

It’s not 100% perfect but I’m happy with it for now, may get around to edging the bottom with something or topstitching the seams a bit later on.  At least it’s another tick on my to-do list. That list is supposed to keep me focused and busy, but in the last couple of weeks it’s felt more like an albatross round my neck.

One of my lovely blog readers recently commented that she guessed I was always an upbeat, positive kind of person. I haven’t been able to get this out of my mind because that is the absolute opposite of what I am really like, and it strikes me how well some of us hide behind our facades and manage to fool others. My mind is often restless and disturbed, and sometimes I don’t even have that – I just have a black hole where creative thoughts and emotions and initiative are supposed to be. It’s a zombie-like state, a symptom of depression, and can vary in magnitude. Sometimes it’s minor and passes quite rapidly and doesn’t get in the way of doing basic stuff, and other times it’s worse and I can barely function. It’s almost impossible to engage with other people, to find words,  and absolutely nothing gets done – no work, no reading, no nothing. I had one of these wonderful ‘episodes’ recently and it lasted about 10 days. I had to cancel social outings with friends, put off running errands, and try and switch off the voice in my head that was constantly telling me what a useless waste of skin I am. It sounds so extreme, doesn’t it? It’s not really that easy to explain, except perhaps to someone else who is familiar with the joys of that particular roundabout. I’ve started referring to it as “brain flu” because when I get flu or a bad cold or something similar, I don’t put myself under the same kind of pressure to recover. I just endure.

I suppose what I’m saying is that none of us can ever really know another person or their reality, and how they express themselves through their words or demeanour is sometimes just a social pretence. Most of the time I feel like a fraud because I wish I was naturally positive and well-balanced but, left to my own devices, I’d fold in on myself like a little house of cards.