A day out – Museum of Childhood

12 Tuesday May 2020

Posted by in Dolls' houses, Gallery Visit, London, Museum of Childhood, Museum Visit, V&A

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v&A Museum of Childhood

Last summer I went to the Museum of Childhood with my daughter. I’d been several times before – before even having children of my own (twenty years ago!!). This visit with my now grown up daughter was fairly relaxed. You get to actually read about the items and take your time.

There are several doll’s houses at the museum. I think that the older ones must have once been at the V&A in Kensington because they are mentioned in Ballet Shoes. The fossil sisters are taken to see them from the Old Cromwell Road. They usually walk but take the bus if it’s raining!

I love dolls’ houses and have two! Rachel Whiteread’s artwork Place is lots of dolls’ houses bought together in one place – a village of vintage. It is a wonderful collection. My lundby dolls house is right there!

Lundby dolls’ house

A sampler – how amazing are those stitches?!

I loved the colourful satcks of boxes in the Open Studio made by school children

The Museum of Childhood building is really open and spacious. The floor tiles were made by prisoners (beautifully made!). This is maybe a lesser known fact of the museum! As I said if you go with a grown up child you have time to read stuff 🙂

Outside the decoration on the building is detailed – they went to so much trouble in the 1800’s.

Once we had finished our wander around and been to the cafe and shop we went for a walk .. it was a lovely sunny day.

And then back home…

As I write this we are in semi lockdown – no tube rides for me for a while. But when I can I will be enjoying gallery visits again. In the meantime this is a very happy memory to enjoy. I won’t ever be seeing the Museum of Childhood like this again though. It’s closed for a £13m revamp. It will reopen in 2022. I wonder what it will be like?

‘Crochet a long’ so far

27 Monday Feb 2017

Posted by in Crochet

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When I first started reading blogs there were a few crafty terms that I just didn’t understand. What was a WIP? What Is a CAL?

Well, a CAL is a ‘crochet-a-long’. You buy a kit and then the pattern is released a week at a time and you all work on it together. At least that’s the theory. If you get behind it’s not the end of the world. A WIP is a ‘work in progress’. It took me ages to figure that out!

I am really enjoying doing the Scheepjes CAL called Hugge designed by Kirsten Ballering. It’s been great to have a timetable to stick to and I’ve learnt how to do bobble stitches and surface crochet. img_0821

This is the tension square that you start with to work out your hook size – and the following pictures are the CAL so far. Unbelievably, I am up to date. I’m loving doing cross stitch onto crochet.

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CAL

07 Tuesday Feb 2017

Posted by in Crochet

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I am so looking forward to taking part in a crochet-a-long. I’ve never done one before and when I saw the Scheepjes Hygge Cal I couldn’t resist. It brings together two of my favourite things – crochet and embroidery. I wouldn’t even think of having a go if it wasn’t for the online tutorials that will be provided. I read all about the info on a lovely blog It’s all in a nutshell.

Here’s a photo of the lovely kit – it’s the jewel colourway.They are the most gorgeous colours! It’s been designed by Kirsten Ballering

I’ve also joined Slimming world – but that’s a whole other story!

Is it a bit too blingy?!

24 Thursday Nov 2016

Posted by in christmas, christmas craft

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I had a lot of fun making this. So easy. Tuesday night I made a dash for Hobbycraft and bought the wreath. The tinsel is from Poundland. The pompoms are hand made using a pompom maker. I know you don’t really need a pompom maker but they are great! At the moment the pompoms are pinned in place. There is one crochet star using a pattern from Attic24. I might add some more.

I was inspired by Mollymakes magazine.

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all done

23 Wednesday Nov 2016

Posted by in Crochet

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At last my granny square blanket is done. Decided not to go to bed last night until it was finished 🙂 Trying to make each square a different set of colours was sometimes tricky. It seemed that there were colour combinations that I was preferable to and I had to concentrate on making ‘random’ choices. It’s been a good way to see how different colours work together and some squares I like very much. I will be referring to the blanket for colour combination ideas for other makes. But I’m ahead of myself – I still have another blanket on the go!! well two in fact. But for now I am happy that the granny squares are all crocheted together.

I used Stylecraft Special DK from wool warehouse. It’s inexpensive, there are a lot of colours and it’s washable. It feels soft and lovely too. Hook size 4mm.

My inspiration was from Sue Pinner’s book ‘Granny Squares. 20 crochet projects with a vintage vibe’ But I made my granny squares simpler with triple crochet (UK) rather than a cluster stitch. I’ll try to work up to that! It’s a great book with lovely ideas.

 

taking forever?

26 Wednesday Oct 2016

Posted by in Crochet

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I am so enjoying half term. Spent yesterday shopping with my daughter and making pancakes and pastry with my son. I’ve managed a trip to the allotment and Ikea. Does life get any better?! Well a cottage in the country would be lovely but you can’t have everything.

Anyway,

I am trying to get to the end of a crochet blanket that I seem to have been making for almost two years!!!! I was ordering a couple of balls of wool last night from wool warehouse and there, on my account page, was the order for the wool I am using for this granny square blanket – from two years ago. I need to get it finished.

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