The Pursuit of Bears and other Things.

I’ve been making these bears, and it’s becoming a bit of a problem, there are too many of the little critters in my head trying to get out, and they’re romping all over the cabin demanding to be made into something, ie the F word – Finished!
The trouble is I’m the sort of person that would love to make a doll’s clothes and bed-linen – ie all the frills and fancies, but when it comes to stuffing the dolls, the nitty gritty, bless me, I’ve found some housework or summink more pressing! Sometimes more ideas are tumbling out, and there are always new things to try, and the nitty gritty seems a bit of a chore…Anyway, here’s a line of some new girls, waiting for me to give them their faces, buttons etc…

Here’s a close up of a section of an old embroidered little table, or possibly tray cloth. You can see that someone has had at it with a pair of scissors – that would be me!

This cloth was given to me by a lovely lady called Lou who trades near me at the Malvern show; she buys and sells old linens and gives the poorly ones to me. They are ripped, stained, or just not that great. This one had some prettier bits among the heavy ugly bits, and not liking to throw it away, and rather than stuff it in a drawer, I thought maybe I could give some of the sections of embroidery a new life…and this is what I’ve started to do…

On a last note, once I salvaged an old but pretty embroidered table cloth by cutting off its stained and ripped edges, which looked so nasty you’d never have used it. Then I pieced a beautiful border of tiny log cabin blocks in silks, and Liberty Tana Lawn and finally it was lovingly Gammill quilted by my dear friend Janie, and featured in a magazine article. I hung it on my Sunflower Fabrics stand at Alexandra Palace, and truly, a lady ripped into me with a lecture, casting nasturtiums on my character for “Hacking up our Textile Heritage!”

My thoughts were many. I sum up by saying that if I had made a textile piece which was an everyday item, and it was beyond using, personally I’d be really happy if long after I’d gone someone valued it enough to not want to throw it away, to bring it back to life and create something loveable and usable with it. I would not of course hack up the Bayeux Tapestry!
The other point I’d make was that it was not “Our Textile Heritage” that I was, um, modifying – it was Mine! Brought from a charity shop and cherished! So there. Hands off lady and move on with your braying voice!
I sometimes get a tad tetchy on the run up to Christmas…