Tag: hops

Hop Pillows ready for the EMPORIUM

Hop Pillows

Remember the hops that I started making into pillows, way back in November? I finished one, for Sarah’s birthday, as she’d kindly harvested the hops for me from the skycarrots allotment. The rest have been sitting around almost finished, just waiting for the top of each pillow to be ladder-stitched together by hand.

Today, in a flurry of productivity, I’ve sewn them all together and wrapped them all up with labels styled for the INEXPLICABLE EMPORIUM. These prints aren’t particularly “steampunk”, but as I’m trying to recycle the remnants of my stash before I buy anything new, I decided to use them anyway.

You might recognise a few of these fabrics – some of them turned out to have been hanging around for rather a long time!

  • Koi fabric from a circle skirt and corset that I made to wear to a friend’s wedding
  • Sewing print left over from an ill-fated dress that I’ve never worn
  • Psychedelic design was the lining for my Beatles jacket
  • Sugar skulls from my favourite skirt!
  • Flames from Lettice’s skirt
  • Strawberries left over from a pair of BIG PANTS that went straight from my sewing machine to the charity shop
  • Rainforest creatures from a dress I bought that turned out to be so badly made that the only thing I could do with it was chop it up.

The clover & ladybirds print is the only fabric that’s never had any other incarnation. I bought it back in the days when I was making lots of tote bags, but it turned out to be a little bit too thin. I have a little bit left over (along with most of the other fabrics) that I’ll be using to make some matching lavender bags. I have enough dried lavender to fill a hundred bags, so that should keep me busy for a little while!

Pads, pouches, pillows and pockets

zipped pouch for Sarah

This is a zipped pouch that I made for Sarah’s birthday. It’s about 12″ long, but sadly not quite big enough to fit a 12″ ruler inside, otherwise it would have made a lovely pencil case! Although it is long enough for pencils…

I wanted to pop something inside the pouch, and it was just the right size for a wheat pad, a hop pocket and a little clove and lavender pillow. The hops came from the skycarrots allotment, but I didn’t think Sarah would mind getting a few back again!

Wheat, hops, lavender & cloves

Sarah and I are doing a fun art project together, where we take it in turns to create an image which we then share on a tumblr called scribblescribes. Each of our entries is “inspired by the day” and contains lettering. So far I think Sarah’s “scribbles” are much more imaginative than mine, so I want to try and think about my days a bit more creatively!

Today I am mostly staring at a blank Risk Assessment form that I need to fill in to apply for a market stall at an event in May. These things just feel so terribly soul-sucking. What risk can there possibly be from a stall full of haberdashery that can’t be avoided by the application of simple common sense? Okay, so we are hoping to take candles, but there’s a strong possibility that we won’t be allowed to light them anyway, so hopefully our chances of setting fire to all our customers and burning down the venue will be minimal!

(Note to self: must buy small fire blanket.)

Hops and Walks

Hop flowers

This morning I have been mostly separating dried hop flowers from their stalks. I found out the hard way that hop flowers contain a great deal of pollen, which is very sticky and dyes your fingers bright yellow. Apparently the stems can also be an irritant, so I’ll definitely be wearing gloves next time!

The hops were harvested by Sarah from the Skycarrots allotment, and now that they’ve dried, they’re destined for little hop pillows. I’ve made the insides for nine already, and should be able to double that with this crop.

I didn’t want to show you the unfinished hop pillows, lying around in their underwear, so more photos will come once I’ve sewn up the outer bags. So, in the meantime, I thought I’d show you a couple of random photos I’ve taken on recent walks.

Cat

Here’s a cat, who I often meet on the way to the Post Office. The trees that he usually hides amongst have been recently chopped down, so he was watching the squirrels from this excellent vantage point on top of a fence.

Twilight on campus

This is what the University campus looked like at 5pm last Wednesday. I came out of the Cole Museum to see this amazing sky, and thoroughly confused a number of students by stopping to take a photo of it.

I’m really enjoying having a camera with me at all times. Fingers crossed I’ll be able to afford a new copy of Lightroom soon, so I can get back to using RAW files with a bit more room for editing. Still loving the automatic square format though. I know it’s just an affectation, but there’s something about it that I really like.