Addicted to flowers

Back in the summer (I use the term loosely), I attended a class at the lovely Grace and Jacob, taught by the very talented Bryony to learn how to make fabric flowers, having seen a sample in the shop and been fascinated by them.

It wasn’t nearly as hard as I’d thought it might be, and within an hour we’d all made our first flower.

Which was soon joined by a second, with pointy petals this time.

And then a third, with pointy folded petals. We sewed pins on the backs, and they’ve been happily adorning my denim jacket ever since – and are only a little the worse for wear!

But what I really wanted to do was to make a bunch of flowers to put in a vase. I’d chosen these fabrics because they’re from the same range I used to make baby quilts last year, and I had leftovers. Which I attacked as soon as I got home, and before I knew it I had lots of flowers – it’s strangely addictive, especially when you realise that you can combine different shapes and sizes of petals, and mix fabrics, the possibilities are endless.

A few close ups of different combinations and sizes of petals –

I covered the stems of these with florists tape, but it was horrible sticky stuff (or at least the roll I got was!) and since then I’ve only used it for holding bunches together.

Like this one. A tiny bunch (the whole thing including the vase is only about seven inches tall) using silk leftovers from the cushion I made last year. These flowers are great for fabric scraps, I’ll never throw any away again! And as the scraps get smaller, so do the flowers…

One thing I did find with the silk though was that it frayed like mad, so when I decided to make a bigger bunch for my mum’s birthday, I used bondaweb on the back of the silk before cutting it to hold it together, which worked much better, and stiffened the silk slightly too.

I also had leftovers of some Kaffe Fassett paperweight fabric in red, so I bought a couple more fat quarters in lime green and blue to go with it, and made this bunch. It was going to be for my desk at work, but we’ve recently adopted a clear desk policy (which is a complete nightmare to untidy me) in preparation to our move to a new headquarters building where we’ll all be hotdesking. I am so not looking forward to that! But anyway, back to the flowers.

My next project is to make a Christmas wreath, using a polystyrene circle. I’ve made five flowers for it so far, I should be able to make enough in the next two months to finish it!

They’ve all got a u-shaped piece of wire on the back, going through the shank of the central button, so they’ll just push into the polystyrene. Well, that’s the theory, anyway!

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York – Grace and Jacob

Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that I often mention my favourite shop in York, the lovely Grace and Jacob. Long time readers may even remember that I’ve posted about the shop a couple of times before, the last time being in August 2010, but things have come a long way since then! For a start, Fiona’s moved the shop into a space twice as big, next door to the old shop, but fronting onto Walmgate – this is the front of the shop, the door is still on the passage into Barleycorn Yard.

And the stock range has increased dramatically – the inside is like a tardis, but with beautiful things wherever you look!

This is in the first room you go into, with lots of gorgeous fabrics, patterns, feltmaking kits and yarn.

Then you go into the front room, which is just amazing.

This is my favourite feature of the shop – the building used to be a pub, and this was the original dresser with the holes intact where the beer was pumped. Or something.

Next to it is the window where off-sales took place – locals used to come with a jug which was filled with ale for a small fee. Now it has much prettier things, including Knitpros. And the dresser has a large selection of coloured merino fibre, as well as a huge range of crafty tools and notions, which make me want to start many new hobbies, it’s very hard to restrain myself!

Fiona is also a very talented hand-dyer, producing beautiful yarn and fibre (including the fibre I used for the socks I finished a couple of weeks ago).

And there is a great range of fabrics, with more arriving all the time – I took these photos a week or so ago, then when I went in this morning, more loveliness had arrived –

If you’re planning a visit to York this summer, I’d definitely recommend a visit to Grace and Jacob – it’s down Walmgate, so a little off the beaten track, but it’s less than five minutes walk from the main shopping street, just go down Fossgate, over the bridge over the River Foss, and keep going – you pass a couple of interesting bookshops on your way too, if you fancy a browse, as well as other slightly more quirky shops than you find in the city centre.

There’s also a popular spinning group twice a month, on the first and third Thursdays of the month, from 6-9pm – details are in the Grace and Jacob Ravelry group (which also has opening times and contact details). All are welcome, and Fiona’s happy to teach people to use a spindle.

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