We're Still Here

Hi.

A quickie to let you know that A Crafty Coffee still meets every Friday morning, Trago Lounge, Portswood, Southampton between 9.30 and 11.30 am - ALL welcome.

There is an additional Tuesday evening meeting but we don't make the venue public as it is hosted in a home.

To stay abreast of what we're up to while we're not blogging, please find our facebook page here; Our facebook group here; or our Twitter feed here, @ACraftyCoffee.

Sorry for not keeping our blog updated, we were trying to move to Wordpress but someone already owns our name there.

Changes Afoot

PLEASE bear with us, there are changes afoot ... watch this space (but not too closely, that'd be like watching paint dry).

Been a long time: Summer catch up.

(Guest blog post from Elliot: 6 months, below.)
saß rtx

And now onto the more serious matter of catching up ...

Firstly, as usual, may I apologise for the sporadic approach to blogging for A Crafty Coffee. No excuses, it's me on my own because, although Emma is back in it ... they have a new addition to the family ... Megan arrived when I was away camping in beautiful Dorset. She's the cutest Tibetan Terrier (don't be fooled by the name, she is not in fact a terrier at all).




Craft wise, the summer is proving to be an opportunity to try out new things. Next to me right now, Stephanie and Alison are teaching Lisa to crochet. She may be a recovering perfectionist, but she's just been told to "love the mistakes" and appeared genuinely relieved to not have to unpick all of her hard work. Result.
At the weekend, my daughter and I tried out a jewellery recycling workshop at The Lounge Café. Go to The Inexpert Crafter to see more on that one.
Then, in the week, Karen and her youngest and myself and my youngest went to Poppies Crafts (no I have not missed an apostrophe) to try out Decopatch. We're beginning to think Chr*stm*s (shhhhhhh), only in terms of an event and some kind of crafty social though, I promise.
I've also observed people sewing in name tapes, which represents a shift in season, lifewise and cyclewise, Steph has one starting pre-school, I have one starting secondary school, Ruth has one in a care home (not a child of course, but a grandparent) ...




More than one of the group are returning to work, which is making them sad in the sense that they don't want to miss out on A Crafty Coffee. Born out of this, Alison and Ruth are looking into the possibility of starting a splinter group, on a Tuesday evening at The Lounge. There is a real need for people to be able to maintain contact with the group, and also for us to patronise local, small businesses to enable them to stay afloat in such trying times. All round, I think this is a wonderful idea. I am happy and confident to facilitate and publicise the second group, and really want it to share the name and identity that we have established with A Crafty Coffee, but I imagine the group will ultimately take its own shape because of the market it will draw. I have high hopes for it, and am thrilled to hear that Jenni at The Lounge is keen to support it too.

Fond Farewell

On Friday we were faced with the fond farewell ... Eddie is off (today in fact) to her homeland. She's an honorary Brit though, so the return to Denmark will potentially be as tough for her as it will be for her husband who has only holidayed there. Eddie doesn't do goodbyes, so we'll say "See you" and hope that it will be sooner rather than later.
Gonna miss you Eddie, but at least we can stay abreast of things via the worldwide web, look in our blogroll for two of the blogs Eddie writes.

A couple of weeks ago I was asked if I knew anyone who'd be able to knit a kitty bride and groom. And odd request no? Being part of A Crafty Coffee means that I do know people who can make most things. A knitted, cat, bride and groom ... no problem.
The lady who asked me wants them for a gift for a really good friend of hers who is getting married, a quirky gift, but a bespoke one.
I elected to ask Marion, I've seen her knit up clowns, dolls, animals, a bride and groom ... allsorts, and ALL from her head as opposed to a pattern. Here's the groom she came up with:



He's rocking isn't he? She's so talented and yet she has no idea that she is!
I think I am rambling a bit ...

Suffice to say that there are a number of crafts going on ... loads of people planning on coming throughout the holidays so we'll see what the next few weeks have in store.

Crafty and Coffee xxx

A Letter to Lucy at Attic24: an Inspiration.

I'm so sorry you lovely people, it's been practically a full month since one of us wrote a post! Emma WILL be in a position to write soon, I know she will, but for the time being it's best if I keep on keeping on.

We have news, and new members ...
One of our number is expecting a baby, whoop whoop!
One of our number is moving to Denmark, great news for her, devastating for us. Looking on the positive side, Denmark is a great place for us to visit and she is 100% keen for people to go visit so ...
We welcome not one, not two, but three new members to our real life community, and a further two to the online community!
Some of us have had holidays, some of us have holidays to look forward to.
ALL of us are beavering away on craft projects, and it seems only right and proper to credit the lovely Lucy over at Attic24 as she has inspired many of the current WsiP at ACC.
If you are an avid follower of Lucy's, you will know that she's had a really hard time recently, and has not been her usual sunshiney, bloggy self ... So Lucy, this one is dedicated to you:

I saw your vintage stripe blanket in the Blanket Fest and just knew I wanted to make one for myself, but in colours that were reminiscent of the beaches in Dorset. I thought it would be a project for next year, but when I saw Alison working up a baby doll sized one in pastels, and then I inherited yarns in perfect colours for what I was trying to achieve, I embarked on it a few short weeks ago.



Emma has, for sometime now, been working on an Attic24 inspired granny stripe blanket, and it's now too big to be portable so she'll have to dig it out to work on at home from time to time. Getting back into crafting after her own tough 12 months has been a really big deal so it will be lovely to see her rooting out some of her WsiP over the next 12.

Liv is also working up a granny stripe affair, the colours she's putting together are delicious, Lucy, you'd be so proud!



Eddie started a mini trend by using your Hexagon Blanket as the perfect project to work up her foray (with Cecile) into natural dying. Since Eddie starting on it, Karen has made a baby blanket from the same pattern, in soft hues of blue, yellow and beige, as a gift for one of the staff at Trago Lounge who is expecting her baby next month. She's working up a second one now in sweetie colours, it's like dolly mixtures, looks totally yummy! Karen's teaching newbie Lisa to crochet the same project ... and I am CERTAIN there is someone else who jumped on that bandwagon, but it is escaping me at the moment.
















So Lucy, while you've been having a rough ride, you have been unwittingly spreading the love via the medium of crochet through your beautiful blog, your stunning photography, your love for and use of colour and your genuine 'feel good' approach to life.
Thank you for sharing all you have with us, I was pleased to note that Mum is now out of hospital, you weren't far from my thoughts and prayers in that time.
Keep hooking away, living and loving life, and sharing from the Attic, we love you. xxx

Exciting Times Ahead ...

What a lovely morning it was at ACC this week. A great turnout, we welcomed back Sue and Sarah after long breaks which was really special.
Jo treated me to an undeserved latte saying that, on her first week, someone shouted her a coffee and she's never been able to repay the favour. It's the tiniest things like that which make ACC such a fabulous group, when I hear these little anecdotes they warm my heart.

Even though I have known who she is for sometime now, Janet finally found out who I was and came to put an idea to me. She often creates hanging banners for our local church and has the idea of making six new ones for the Autumn. She thought it might me the kind of thing that some of ACC might be interested in getting involved with, and had given some consideration to how we might like to mark William and the bible verse "shine like stars in the universe" (which is used as a basis for children's work at the church). As a bizarre coincidence, three of us had been researching a new café which has a 'Stitch' room at the back only the day before.
I had tentatively suggested that we may host a Strawberry Tea for Breast Cancer Care at The Lounge, but now think that this will be the ideal location (all set up with sewing machines) to make up the banners.

So, with the banners likely to happen in The Lounge, one of my next jobs is to arrange and co-ordinate the Strawberry Tea. My home is as good a place as any, Stephanie wants to mark her Mum's triumph over breast cancer by getting involved with making goody bags and Priya has already offered up her baking skills ... all good so far. You WILL be invited in due course, patience.

And the third 'thing' we have in the pipeline is dependent on how successful my and Emma's first foray into soap making goes next week.
We went on a course last Sunday (you can read about it here) and it turns out that Alison is a very experienced soap maker who we have inspired to dig out her kit and get making!
If all goes well, we'd like to draw on her experience and generosity and run small soap making courses for interested members of ACC and beyond.



















So, milestones this week were Sarah making it along with the help of Ruth, the return of Sue who wisely brought a friend for moral support, Emma getting her knits out for the first time at ACC since, erm, February at a guess, Janet and I finally getting to meet, Lesley parting with an 80s Laura Ashley dress for me to refashion (thank you, so very kind), and not one, not two, but three 'events' in the pipeline.
This community just goes from strength to strength, we must start adding more photos to this blog so that you can see what we get up to!

Love for the week ahead
C&C
xxx

Wow wow wow Whata Lota WsiP

Loads and loads of crafters came along this morning for A Crafty Coffee. Two new ladies bobbed by to say hi, one on her day off because she thought if she didn't come then she'd never get to see what she was missing out on, and the other because she usually plays tennis but has had an op on her shoulder so is out of action. I do hope she comes back next week so that we can get to know her better.

Newlyweds Dee and Ron came in for a while which was really quite special and I was literally delighted to see Alison make a return visit, I caught her knitting out of the corner of my eye, but the table layout in Trago Lounge does mean that we are in smaller, more disparate groups than we used to be. Ah well, my positive thinking leads me to believe that we will forge more intimate relationships with a few fellow crafters this way, as opposed to having superficial relationships with lots of people.

Sadly Sarah won't be with us for a while, and some of the group members are very keen to find out how she's doing and to support her where they can. This is where I believe a community like ours really comes into its own. The craft is great, as is the conversation, but the way a group can pull together to help a friend in need is really special, and pretty rare in the society that we inhabit these days.

Want to know what was going on craftwise?
I'm crocheting a camping blanket, and 'Is' took great delight in teaching me Tunisian crochet today which could easily become a project!
Carol was knitting socks, on needles so small and fine that it looks like she's knitting on cocktail sticks.
Alison was working on blanket squares for the project she's been working on since we inspired her back in April. 2010.
Stephanie is cross-stitching Disney Princesses to go in frames in her DD's bedroom.
Su is working on a crochet cardigan for a friend, as well as a lace knit cover-up for her DD.
Karen is crocheting a border on the baby blanket that we were all contributing to for Meghan, a member of Trago Lounge staff who's expecting in September. Karen got carried away with her little hexagons and before she knew it she pretty much had the blanket all sewn up. I do think it is a very special way to show our thanks and appreciation to the staff, to make them a little gift when they reproduce.
Amy was making the Peter Pan collars from Mollie Makes, her friend whipping up sock monkeys at a rate of knots.
Liv chose to work on her crocheted shawl, I'm led to believe it is to be a gift so she needs to get a shift on.
And that's all I can reliably report on, but I know there were other things going on and that there were at least seven crafters present who have remained un-named this week.

I am sorry I don't get round all of you anymore, there is something about that 'bride at a wedding' thing that is so lovely, but also so superficial. And it always meant that my own craft never got touched.

See as many of you next week as can be there.
Love Crafty.