Tag: little lion

Not Quite Hibernating

10 April, 2015 / Katy / 1 Comment

Is there a word for hibernating which evokes lying in the sunshine?

All this baby stuff is certainly different this time around, or perhaps I am different, or (even more likely) it’s a little of both.

I remember feeling an overwhelming urge and ability to accomplish things when Dragon was born. This resulted in the Three by Three quilt (which is much in use at the moment) and a fairly extensive baby book.

This time, while the astonishing range and throughput of infant digestive systems no longer makes me weep, I’m really struggling to do… anything.

Instead piles of things I’m halfway through are mushrooming up around the house while I read Agatha Christie and stare vaguely at the walls.

On the other hand, I sold two pieces this week, so perhaps all is not lost.

Little Lion – in the wild

3 April, 2015 / Katy / 4 Comments

[whispered, in the style of David Attenborough]

Little Lion

Here we can see the most juvenile member of the Misericordia Mansions Menagerie. This young female appears to prize physical contact above all other stimuli and will frequently spend hours in the same position in a more senior Menagerist’s arms. At only two weeks old, she will eventually open her eyes and start to interact with other members of the group, especially the junior male.

nappy change

To demonstrate his new position in the Menagerie, the junior male brings gifts and watches the mid-ranking male and female as they care for the new arrival.

Small scuffles have been observed between the most senior female Menagerists, but these rarely lead to violence and are probably part of a complex ritual to demonstrate their joint status in the hierarchy.

That Whooshing Sound?

20 March, 2015 / Katy / 0 Comments

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.

– Douglas Adams

For once it’s not me missing a deadline, it’s Little Lion.

Obviously giving them a feline nickname was a mistake, as they seem entirely unwilling to vacate their comfortable nest.

But today’s the day the metaphorical duvet is shaken out and the tedious sleeplessness and vagueness of late pregnancy is replaced by the bewildering sleeplessness and vagueness of life with a newborn.

See you on the other side.

In the Walled Garden – Baby Quilt

20 February, 2015 / Katy / 0 Comments

This baby quilt feels like the end of an era.

Many moons ago when I was child-free and full of time that was my own, a very good school friend had a baby. So what could be more natural than to make her a quilt?

(Look at wee Kippie trying to help!)

Then I had a baby, then she had another baby. I didn’t want anyone to feel I was playing favourites, so I made a quilt. I enjoyed it, but it took a little longer than the first one (still under a year).

Then we had a synchronous increase in family size, her youngest arrived at about the time I discovered there was a Little Lion on the way, and I’ve been working on (what she assures me will be) the last quilt in the series.

It’s a mixture of machine and hand quilting, and I’m quite pleased with how it turned out in the end. (Although I have to admit I got a little stuck in the middle of it all.) Plus, I’ve managed to finish it within the one year self-imposed limit!

I think I’m going to give quilt-making for other people’s children a little break; for one thing I now have two quilts to finish for my own offspring and I’m also finding that hand sewing as a way to relax from hand embroidering is not quite as soothing as it might be.

But watch this space for Dragon and Lion’s quilt updates because I’m determined to get moving while my nesting spell is upon me!

(The photos of the previous quilts link to their original outings on my blog, if you fancy seeing more photos or reading more about their creation.)

The Embroiderer’s Children Have No…

13 February, 2015 / Katy / 2 Comments

It occurred to me a few months ago that if I was going to get any quilts finished for our increasing menagerie, I was going to have to get cracking.

Unusually for me, I had the urge to finish a project I’d already started, so I’ve decided to give Little Lion the Shirt Quilt.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this long-term (ca. 2008) WIP, it’s made from my dad’s (forcibly) retired shirts. I’m paper piecing 1″ hexagons for both sides (I have quite a lot of shirts) in a fairly random pattern.

The palette is (as you will have noticed) fairly limited, so there may be some surface decoration, but I’m not quite sure what it will be yet.

If you’re interested in the process of going from shirt to hexagon I can write an explanatory post, but this is a good start for an overview.

Also, if anyone wants some shirt-skeletons – collars, cuffs, button plackets and French seams all still in shirt shape, please let me know.

Happy 2015?

9 January, 2015 / Katy / 0 Comments

I don’t know about you, but I’m having a hard time getting 2015 started.

Our goal over the holidays was to keep things simple, and we largely succeeded, thanks to a series of virulent colds which left us alternately in bed or collapsed on the sofa watching films.

I did manage to make the most obscene chocolate log (I should have read the recipe more carefully before I started) which was almost entirely butter and chocolate combined in ways I never knew were possible.

The best bit was the meringue mushrooms, the worst bit was the feeling of malaise and the guilt of Western excess that hung over you after you’d finished your slice. (Yes, that’s a massive Christmas cake in the background.)

When I wasn’t eating cake, I made a piece for the curator of Thrive Archive’s Away Being, and she very kindly hung it in the exhibition.

There was an awful lot of overambitious satin stitch, which was quite stressful at the time, but I’m very happy with the way it came out.

We went to the opening which had live music and lots of lovely responses to the themes of the exhibition.

I’ll be doing my best to maintain some sort of posting schedule over the next two months, but seeing as it’s taken me about two hours to write this piece (most of it spent staring vacantly at the spot where the Christmas tree used to be), I’m not making any grand promises. I hope you’ll forgive me if it slips a little.

In fact, in lieu of proper resolutions this year, I’m trying to make my goals a little less relentless. The last six months have been more of a slog than a challenge, so I’m trying to adjust my focus to allow for some gaps in the schedule. Wish me luck!

A New Member of Staff

4 November, 2014 / Katy / 7 Comments

I’ve just looked at my holiday craft fair diary (you can see it here) and it’s looking so busy that I thought it might be an idea to recruit a new member of staff.

After due consideration of potential candidates, we decided that it would be better to train one up from scratch rather than hire someone who wasn’t versed in the ways of Misericordia Mansions.

Unfortunately, this process takes a while, so the new employee won’t be joining us until March, well after the holiday rush, but I think it will be worth it in the long run.

Dragon is looking forward to his position as line manager, and we’ve given the new recruit the honorary title – Little Lion.

(Any and all advice about how to seamless expand an embroidery empire will be gratefully received.)