String Revolution

Oh, there are posts queueing up in my head waiting to be written, but this evening I must content myself with showing you some progress on my latest Oyster-inspired project. I’ve been nudging it gently along over the past few days, and it’s now at the point where I can start adding the surface stitching.
You [...]

I’m sewing another picture by the Oyster (the first one being the dragon). This one uses fabric as well as surface embroidery.
In the photo you can see me starting the reverse appliqué on one of the main sections. I’ve tacked the pattern piece behind the background, then cut out the centre to within about [...]

I joined the Irish Patchwork Society (Eastern Branch) last September, in a bid to do something about my dark yearnings.
Yesterday was the January meeting, and [trumpet fanfare, angel choir] I won a prize in the monthly raffle! This never happens. Really, never. In fact, I think this may be the first time. I was so [...]

I finished a sock! And it only took me a sock and three-quarters to do it.
As you may recall, I had to change needle size when I’d knitted nearly all of my first Spring Forward sock, because it wouldn’t go over my ankle. Keeping the cursing and wailing to a functional minimum (there are children [...]

I was chatting to an online friend recently about creativity and blocks, and something she said made a little light go on in my brain.
“I looked at my writing,” says she to me, “the way I looked at a pre-schooler’s macaroni necklace, something that no one would ever pay me for…”
A pre-schooler’s macaroni necklace.
Yes! This [...]

In December I went to the National Crafts and Design Fair in the RDS for the first time, which gave rise to some unexpectedly insistent thoughts about sales and marketing. (Who am I, and what have I done with the real Léan?)
The show was a complete sensory overload, and it didn’t help that I had [...]

Well, now. The holiday season has done its usual thing, muscling in, swaggering around, laying about it left, right, and centre with its distinctive brand of two-fisted festive cheer.
Halls were decked, carols were trolled, merry was industriously made. I even finished my sister’s Christmas present – with a day to spare. (Forgot to photograph it, [...]