Stitching in the blood … with Handmade Monday
Posted: February 26, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Christie Morrison, family history, needlework, patchwork, sewing 31 Comments »
Way back in 1921 Margaret Morrison and her two sisters and older brother were orphaned, losing their coal miner father to an obstructed bowel. Their mother had died the previous year and they were left alone. John, the oldest at 17, reported the death to the Registrar and the family left their tied accommodation to go to their nearest family in Edinburgh. They couldn’t all be accommodated with their grandparents and in order to stay together they set up home on their own. Margaret was 13 and Christie and Bessie were between Margaret and John in age.
John joined the merchant navy and Margaret became apprenticed to a dressmaker. Between them, Margaret and John paid for the home and set about paying for Christie and Bessie to become nurses. They both became nurses, Bessie became a very senior Matron in a number of large hospitals around the country. There was some kind of rift during or just after world war two and Christie became estranged from the rest of the family – if you know anything of Christie Morrison born circa 1905 in Bannockburn, Linlithgowshire, Scotland I would be delighted to hear it.
Margaret Morrison was my grandmother. Her full name is a bit of a mouthful, Margaret MacLennan Morrison MacLachlan, and she has been gone for long time, having died in 1981. Whenever I am stitching I think of her. She worked for most of her life and I wish that I had her treddle singer. I have one small piece from her home. A pottery cat string holder which hung on the wall of her kitchen where we sat together when I was very small watching with fascination as she removed her rollers.
I hope she would think I have done a good job on the bag above. It is made from alternately pieced 2 1/2 inch strips of fabric which are then pressed and pleated to conceal the contrast fabric. The pleats are partially stitched so that the contrast fabric can be glimpsed. It has had cotton wadding added to give it some body and the top has been bound in black bias binding and hand stitched. there are two imitation leather handles attached with vintage green silk twist. It is lined with matching cream fabric. I have been thinking about it for a couple of weeks and I’m very pleased with the way it’s turned out. It really is lovely to be able to make things and to share the creativity of others – please visit Wendy and the crowd for another Handmade Monday extravaganza – I’m a bit early but won’t have time to post tomorrow.
Day Tripper
Posted: February 24, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 70s, Kate Spain, life, moda fabric, quilt, sewing, Terrain 4 Comments »
I think I may have given the impression over the last couple of posts that I am a bit down. I hope this blog doesn’t come across as wallowing or depressing as most of the time that’s not the way I feel at all, occasionally, a bit of a wallow is quite therapeutic and allows one, well, me anyway, to spring back with vim and vigour. The vim and vigour might be a bit more evident if we had had the much mooted T-shirt day yesterday. It was dull, dreich and miserable. I put my newest quilt on the line for four hours and it made absolutely no difference to it. It just sat there, waving its funkiness in the grey air.
I brought it in 4 hours later weighing approximately 0.0025 grammes less than when I put it out. There was, as they used to say in a part of the world where I once lived – frequently in Post Office queues, “no drying”.
But it is now finished, dry and folded and in a little while when the light gets better I will attempt to photograph. I am really delighted with this one. If you thought I was chintzy and traditional at heart well, you were wrong. The fact is I love it all.
I have used the Kate Spain Terrain patterns (a jelly roll) and some additional yardage (a yard and a half) of a matching print. The quilt it has yielded is bigger than my recent ones being about 40″ x 60″ about the right size for a first bed, a coverlet for a single or a throw for the back of a sofa. The way she has used the colours which are strongly contrasting make me want to sing – they really are joyful. It is, as you can see very simply pieced and echo-quilted to emphasise the strips of colour. This looks particularly effective on the back of the quilt. The thing I am most pleased about is the binding. I have made a binding strip from some of the left-over strip and well, it just works really well and I’m delighted.
Today I will be mostly playing with my (sshh!!!) new sewing machine. It has a larger harp area for rolling my quilts, droppable feed dogs and 84 different stitches. It also hums pleasantly, in a reassuring, germanic way and just feels more “the ticket” for a more industrial set up. It was not what I thought when I bought Hannah a sewing machine for her Christmas present last September (which she never got, see here).
Now, all that said, I’m off, back to my hollow and there I will wallow … in glorious mud. It must be a legacy of Junior Choice but I cannot hear the word wallow without that song coming to mind.
Off to hum Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud in a reassuring, germanic way for the rest of the day.
discover new oceans
Posted: February 20, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized 2 Comments »
Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore. — André Gide (1869–1951)
Because I care – featuring handmade Monday
Posted: February 20, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: carer, etsy, life, quilt, red, stroke 13 Comments »
I admit it. I have been a little distracted for the last couple of weeks and have not really settled down to writing . The whole business of the previous post discomfited me and the issue of the house I am trying to no-longer think about. This is odd as it has been the one beacon of solace for so long. I should have known better …
Whilst I have not been busy blogging, I have bee busy with other things – meet Pavlova, my latest creation which has kept me occupied along with another two quilts, Trip and Dolly Mixture which should be done later this week.
In other news, I have been out to a Carers’ Ambassadors meeting this morning. Carers Champions are a not for profit organisation representing and helping carers in the Plymouth local authority area.
If you are a carer and live in Plymouth have you heard of them? Have you had any help or assistance in your role? Have you had a Carer’s Assessment by the local authority and if so what has been your experience of the process? Any compliments – any concerns? I am meeting with the local authority on 3 April to provide a carer’s perspective and would welcome local input and even experiences from further afield. Leave me a comment or if you prefer not to leave it here, email me at fimacmorris@aol.com. I am attending the Carers Champions drop-in on 5 March in Plympton to ask carers there about their experiences and would love to hear from anyone who has experience of this, good or bad.
I can tick this off today’s to do list and pop over to Handmade Monday to see what Wendy and the gang have been up to.
Intercepted
Posted: February 10, 2012 Filed under: artist, council house, demolition, family, illness, life, stroke | Tags: brain injury, life, stroke 4 Comments »
Disappointment seems to follow swiftly on the heels of disappointment in my little life. Closely followed by a swift kicking . Are you detecting a particular tone to this post? Sorry about that. It seems that despite suggestions from our social landlord that due to our circumstances we may be eligible for an early move it now seems that we are not and that by the time we do move there will be none of the new houses that are suitable and adaptable left.
I know I shouldn’t have trusted the woman in the office gotten my hopes up but I just wanted something nice to look forward to.
In an attempt to cheer myself up I was playing old TV themes – it’s a game we used to like to play, our own version of Name That Tune, but during the course of this little interlude it emerges that John can no longer remember that Jason King drove a Jensen Interceptor. The only reason I have ever heard of a Jensen Interceptor is because John used to bang on and on and on and on and …. about Jason bloody King and his Jensen bloody Interceptor. I feel bereft.
I have a lovely report from the lovely psychologist to tell us that actually after all the brain mashing John is still average with some particular difficulties thrown in for good measure but was highly superior before. I had actually worked that one out for myself but ho hum. There are whole chunks of our life and of his own that he can no-longer remember and every time I am confronted with it I feel gutted again. It is almost seven years since this nightmare began.
