Extravaganza

Last Saturday I went to the Lutterworth Embroiderer's Guild annual Extravaganza. This is a wonderful day out with an exhibition of the Guild member's work, trading stalls, demonstrations, an amazing lunch and then an afternoon speaker.

I went with a good friend of mine and what a lovely time we had, comparing notes on what we had seen, sharing peeks of each other's purchases, and passing knowing looks and nods about topics touched on in the afternoon talk.


Alice always used to attend these events (she was the chairperson's daughter!), and somehow, I am glad I did not go to the extravaganza last year (favouring a trip to the stitching show at Harrogate instead), as this meant Alice was not a ghost at every corner for me this year.


I purchased (it is impossible not to purchase at Extravaganza!) 2 felted Christmas Bauble kits (great fun - take wool tops, a ping pong ball, add some pure soap and roll in your hands until felted!); 2 packets of handmade fabric beads; 1 pack of waterlily inspired coloured threads (a bit like a Texere yarns pack); 1 pack of Lutrador (see below); and 1 packet of mixed buttons (OK, I admit now that they are for an idea for NEXT year's Christmas cards). That was quite restrained for me. But luckily (a) I have had my fill of the Guild theme packs and (b) there was no yarn stall this year.


Onto to the afternoon talk, which was entitled "Granny's Sewing Box". Marion Maule was enchanting. Not too much "I, me and mine" and plenty of artifacts to show and anecdotes to share. Her collection of old, vintage and antique sewing implements, boxes, and books was wonderful. She herself said that if she collected an implement, she liked to find an example of work done with it, and if she collected a book, she liked to find an exemplar of one of the patterns in the book. Everyone in the audience had a moment where they thought to themselves "Oh! My Mum/Granny/Aunty etc had one of those". My moments were remembering the darning mushroom (green and black) that my Mum had that was also a needle store, and the carved needle holder that I thought was made of plastic, but have now been informed may have been carved from a South American nut.

I can't manager any pictures of the bits and pieces at the moment, as my scanner is not connected, but pictures will follow soon. In the meantime, here is some information on Lutrador courtesy of The Thread Studio.



Lutradur Hints and Uses
What Is It? - Lutradur is a non woven polyester material. At first glance, it looks like dressmakers interfacing, but its unique spun woven structure makes it see through in nature. It comes in a variety of different weights; the lighter the material, the easier it is to see through it. It’s a truly versatile material. It doesn’t fray, has a slight sheen, is see through, can be combined with all other types of material, can be painted, dyed, distressed with a soldering iron or heat gun, glued, stitched, embroidered…there are no limits to what you can do with Lutradur! It is also suitable for paper arts, such as making books, altered books, card making, Artist’s Trading Cards (ATCs) and postcards.

Can I run it through the printer? - The heavier weights of Lutradur can be run through the printer without backing paper; however, because of the structure of the material, some of the ink is inevitably lost. The lighter weights can be run through attached to freezer paper; again, the lighter the paper, the greater the ink loss. However experimentation with your printer settings is worthwhile.

What kind of dyes can I use with Lutradur? - Disperse dyes are suitable for dyeing lutradur. These dyes are painted onto paper and then transferred by ironing the dye onto the material. They are also available in crayon form.

What about paints? - If it works on cloth, it’ll work on Lutradur! However, if you use thick paint, you will lose the see through nature of the cloth. Better to work with washes of paint.

And inks? - Absolutely. Pens and pencils, too.

Can I use heat to distress Lutradur? - Yes you can. It is possible to use both a heat gun and soldering iron for distressed effects; it tolerates the heat of a hot iron in the transfer dyeing process, but if you leave the iron on the material too long, you can also produce a distressed effect, sometimes when you didn’t intend it!

How does Lutradur withstand intense machine stitching? - Depends on the weight of Lutradur you are using, and how you are using it. As with any other material, the lighter the weight, the more distortion is likely when you stitch intensively into an area. The heavier weights will take a lot of stitching; the lighter weights, if fused onto a supporting material (which would be visible through the lutradur), can also be stitched like this.

Can you stitch Lutradur by hand? - Of course. Hand stitching can look particularly effective.
Can I print on it?Yes. The transfer dyeing process lends itself to printing as well as painting, with a suitable thickener (contact your dye retailer for more information).

Can I use my embellisher on it? - Lutradur makes a great base cloth for the embellisher, but it can’t be felted onto other cloth.

Take a deep breath

Today I had been resigned to posting a "service has been suspended until further notice" message on this blog. But sometimes a nudge can come from the most unexpected places. So thank you to the person who told me today that they had visited my blog, your very simple statement has meant that I have found the motivation to return today and post.

First of all, I had promised to post the Blog Action day statistics. I think they speak for themselves and say that the day was a great success. Visit this link to find out more.

20,603 Blog Participated
23,327 Blog Posts (Google Blog Search)
14,631,038 RSS Readers

I had hoped to say more about the blog action day but it is a long time ago now, and in truth I felt my own entry was rather weak. But visit some of these sites for some some great posts and environmentally aware ideas.

Back to craft-like pursuits... I finally did it! I made all of our 100+ Christmas cards this year plus another 30 for little chap's school chums. There are a variety of techniques, some of them were very easy and repeatable (hence attaining the 100 target) and none of them were overly complicated (although the beaded fabric charms did take quite a while). Here is a picture of some of the cards as they came off the "drawing board".

Apart from that, we have had some fun home made moments. We nearly always do home made fancy dress costumes, and here is little chap as a pumpkin (again!) and loving it. Also a picture of our carved pumpkin - can you tell which is which?

We also lamented the lack of the annual community fireworks display by having a small box of fireworks in our back garden. No loud bangs and no craned necks. But no bumping into old friends either.

I am redecorating at home - teenage boy's bedroom now becomes sophis' guest room. I am 2/3 of the way through stripping the paper off the walls and ceiling. Little chap is always a willing helper.

I hope to have the rest of the paper stripped off this week, and then next week can sand down the skirting boards. I am dreaming of William Morris wallpaper.

I have Alice's children over for tea every couple of weeks, and we have a lot of fun. This week they excelled themselves... they had the play shop out (old packets, a basket, a till and some coins) and grabbed a carton each, filled it with some coins and ran round the house shaking it and calling out "charity... charity"!!! Is this a sign of the times? I love having a couple of hours to be close to them, and to maintain Aidan's friendship with them. They are special moments.

A couple of weeks ago, little chap and I went on a long bike ride down country lanes. On the way back he complained his hands were cold, so I am knitting him some mittens with the self patterning yarn I bought a few weeks ago. They were meant to be socks for me, but mittens sounded like fun and were a new challenge. Pictures next time.

Finally, I have to show you what a winter fruit and veg box looks like - amazing! A few too many parsnips for our family, but still a great selection and great quality. Well done raw'n'pure

I have yet to get my paints out, but am spending the next 2 Saturdays out and about at leisure at the Lutterworth embroiderers guild extravaganza and PTA London trip. Stories to follow.