Back in the early ’80s my mother, in an effort to keep her sanity while on an enforced break in her acedemic career brought on by my arrival and her move from the United States to Ireland, started collecting the Busy Needles partwork. This time at home started her on a crafting journey which continues to this day and which has, inturn, �infused me with the same, strong, love of handmade and crafting.
Prior to my arrival she had dabbled only with sewing as a child and she didn’t remember it fondly. Now she not only has made tens of quilts completely by hand, but has embroidered profusely. She still can not knit and I had to be taught by a schoolmate’s mother, as in the 80′s in my primary school it was the one needle craft we were all taught, boys and girls alike!
My mother recently, in an effort to make more room for fabric, brought over what issues of Busy Needles she had to hand. And while flicking through them I decided they would make an excellent basis for a blogging/crafting project; not only getting me to try out techniques that were new to me but also revisiting some of the styles of the early ’80s.
You can add images of items you’ve made based on an issue to the�Craftopia Flickr group, be sure to tag it as ‘Busy Needles’. I’ll then do a round up on what others have been doing based on the projects and techniques covered.
I’ll be starting this coming Monday with an at present undetermined issue;�covering one issue over the course of two weeks, looking at the stitches and projects as well as looking at how these can be used for more upto the minute projects. I hope you’ll join in!
Oh yes, and why on earth am I doing this? Well partially because I think it will be fun to widen my sphere of techniques; I can get a little too bogged down in beading and a change is as good as a rest. And, because like my mother nearly 30 years ago, I too am in an enforced career break and need to do something to stop me going (completely) loopy!
[...] For more information on the project see the initial post here [...]