Creative Space

I was in the States for three and a half months this summer, and from about the third month on I began experiencing strong, recurring urges to create something with fabric. Alas, I had another month plus of transient, though delightful, living to endure before I would be reunited with my sewing machine, and so I just let myself enjoy the ideas swimming around in my head. I had found a plastic bag of denim scraps at a thrift store, already cut for a small quilt and costing under three dollars, so though they were a little heavy, I made sure to pack them in my carry-on. I knew this was a project that could go directly under my sewing machine needle when I arrived home. And so it did.

The laying-out stage is always a bit like putting together a puzzle

I ended up with this quilt top, along with the immense satisfaction received in just creating something. I wasn't yet sure what I would do with the quilt top, but it would make a nice picnic blanket sort of quilt when I could find some coordinating flannel to back it.

Soon to begin my month long intensive CELTA course, and knowing that all sewing would soon cease,  I hurried to sew this cashmere baby blanket for a dear friend's new baby boy.

And, some felted-wool potholders for Artist Son, who is living in a real apartment and cooking real meals for himself these days.

I also made a long longed-for ottoman/pouf/footstool  to use with my favorite reading chair. I used the basic pattern found on this site, though I modified it a bit. particularly by making it about 8 cm higher.

And then, CELTA. I lived in Amman during most of this month-long course and I had not a moment to sew during this time, let alone think of what I might want to sew. When I finished my course, I promptly got sick (no surprise given the stress and sleep deprivation) and then had "just life" to catch up on. I didn't do much sewing for Christmas, but I did manage to sew up about five of these denim-pocket purses for some sweet younger friends...

...a make-it-in-10-minutes gift card holder for Tayta...

...and I finally made a recycled linen dishcloth I was thinking about since a friend told me she had re-purposed linen in this way. This was a stocking gift for Tayta. My used clothing source marked their summer wear down to about $.75 per item in the early fall, so I stocked up on all the good linen I could find. I'm plotting pillow covers next.

While home for the holidays, Tayta spied my denim quilt top and shyly asked what I planned to do with it. It had crossed my mind earlier to give it to her, but I wasn't sure she'd like the colors, and that she might want the same style of denim picnic blanket I had made for her siblings. Turns out she didn't mind having something different, and she liked the colors, so my quilt top took on a purpose. Now to back it. We headed to the used clothes market and found five flannel shirts in somewhat coordinating colors. I showed Tayta my deconstruction procedure, so she did the hard part: cutting, and layout. I just sewed it up.

I taught her how to yarn-tie the quilt and she did that too. (I just noticed her reflection in the mirror. Lol!)

I bound the quilt with left-over flannel scraps. Nice to have that one finished and out the door!

This pillow had been percolating in my mind for a few months as I had seen something kind of similar on Pinterest. Oldest Daughter has turned into a Cat Lady (of the best kind) and adores her two cats, Winter and Autumn. And her birthday was coming up.

I drew up a paper pattern for the felted wool pieces, and then appliqued them onto the red felted wool backround. This was my first attempt at wool-on-wool applique and I found it so easy and rewarding. I look forward to doing more. 

As I finished this wool project and the wheels of my creative brain began imagining my next project, and then the one after that, I became overwhelmed with what an unorganized and unworkable jumble my sewing room had become. I had about twenty plastic tubs, drawers, and cupboards stuffed with fabric, which meant that I couldn't really see what I had, except for some wool stacked on a shelf. That visual encouragement kept me going, but the rest was a mess. It was a new year and time to take action.

I told Dear Husband of my desire to purge and organize and since he was very agreeable to at least the purging part, he set out to help me. What I really wanted was to get everything out of tubs, where I could see it and keep it organized. He got on the IKEA site and figured out the most efficient and inexpensive system that would work for my space.

I absolutely love it! With such a great design upgrade, I am now referring to this room as my studio rather than my sewing room. The green table on the left is a left-over first kitchen table, which Dear Husband transformed into a changing table when Oldest Daughter was born. The children grew, we moved house, and it became a plant table. We moved again and it became a sort of catch-all table but I couldn't bare to part with it. I actually moved it out last week, but Dear Husband said he would put a small work surface on it and I can use it for cutting fabric. It is just the right height.

Cashmere on the left, cottons and linens on the right.

I just began a cashmere scarf for a friend, and it was so easy and enjoyable to consider the colors I might use as they were all right in front of me. Sometimes I stand in front of this shelf just to admire the colors and textures. And all recycled fabric.

Peace, Love, and Save the Wool

It began so innocently, my obsession with felted wool, when I casually thumbed through a book my mom had checked out of the library:

Sweater Chop Shop

One Google search lead to another and I had soon amassed inspirations for dozens of felted wool projects. I was dazzled by the possibilities and ready for another bold textile endeavor, similar to my quilts from recycled denim. That was fall 2010, when I was still in the States, and soon after we returned to Jordan I began frequenting the Friday open market which specializes in used clothes from Europe and the U.S.

My good friend once referred to the used clothes market as her lily field, as in Consider the lilies of the field... But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you...Back in the day of raising small children with very few and then, expensive, imported clothes, we young mothers spent many hours at the used clothes market so as to clothe our families.

I knew that amongst the crowds, yelling hawkers, and pallets of old sweaters there were wool treasures to be found, and so the treasure hunting ensued. I purposed to spend as little money as possible so stuck to the cheaper stalls, buying my wool sweaters for approximately $.70 or $1.40 each. The fun of buying old wool sweaters to felt and repurpose (the new recycling ling0) is that they don't have to fit! I can use any sweater as long as it is made of good wool. A few especially fortuitous finds have yielded cashmere sweaters which actually do fit. My first cashmere sweaters. I found one for Dear Husband too.

I was perhaps a little enthusiastic about my wool treasures and by the end of the winter season, when the sweaters are no longer in the market, I had purchased and felted oh, about 100 sweaters--maybe a few more ? We don't own a dryer so felting the sweaters was done by placing each one in an old pillowcase (to keep fibers from mixing), secured with a strong rubber band, washed in batches of five or so in boiling water, and hung out to dry. Wool drys quickly and we have plenty of sunny winter days, so this was do-able.

Storage was a problem, sort of, so I temporarily stacked my wool (pressed and according to color) in our spare room. I can't really put my finger on exactly what I relished about this felting process, but I enjoyed it a lot and found a lot of satisfaction in gazing at and touching my colorful stacks--true confessions here. My kids thought I was a little nutty.

The purples and lavenders

the reds

and the naturals

But when I starting making things with the felted wool, my kids caught the vision. I began with a challenging project. Oldest daughter was home on her January break, thumbed through a purchased copy of the same book had set me off on felting and found something that she would dearly love me to make for her before returning to school. How could I refuse?

The design for this jumper came from The Sweater Chop Shop (link above) and was made with parts from four sweaters. The edge stitching and some of the piecing (waist band) was done by hand with DMC wool yarn. The side seams of the bodice and the skirt panels were sown by machine. (The author of the The Sweater Chop Shop, Crispina Ffrench, sells these sweater creations for a pretty penny on Etsy.)

I sent her back to school with a pair of wool mittens, lined and cuffed with cashmere:

Instructions and a pdf pattern for the mittens can be found at the Purl bee blog. Instead of knitting the cuffs, I use the ribbing of the cashmere sweater I use for the lining.

I made cashmere scarves, ruffling the edges with a simple zig-zag stitch, holding the wool taut as it went through the machine :


And more cashmere lined mittens for family and friends who live in cold places:

Next came the Kindle sleeves, so easy, inexpensive, and practical:

When Active Son was young, one of his all- time favorite toys was a cloth covered foam ball that he played with until it was falling apart. With his love for that ball as my inspiration, I made these wool covered balls for a sweet one-year old's birthday. Again, the pattern is found at the Purl bee:

Soon, Tayta got into re-purposing wool act. This jumper was a project we worked on together, loosely based on a design in The Sweater Chop Shop:


And then she was off and running on her own. Purses are her specialty. Here's one made for a young friend when a birthday present needed to be whipped up in a matter of a couple of hours:

And here is one of her favorites that she made for herself:


Now that winter is here, I have lots of projects in the works--too many, of course: more mittens, scarves, a cape for Tayta (almost finished), Christmas stockings, Christmas ornaments...What couldn't you make from felted wool? One young man we know ventured that well, you could even make a wool house--he lived in one growing up in Mongolia! Maybe next year...

Autumn Accumulation

The hardest thing about letting the blog go for awhile is jumping back in again; so many thoughts and events have accumulated, but it is beyond me to blog them all. I'll just make this about our autumn, which is really not much of a season at all in Jordan, and try to keep going.

I love the weather patterns in Jordan, arid and warm, so I am not really complaining, but I do miss autumn. No stunning golden and crimson leaves to intoxicate my vision, just the lovely fall-ish golden sunlight coming through the windows on a fabric-leaf wreath a dear friend so lovingly made for us when she found out we had no fall leaves.


We do some leaf color changes in Jordan: from gray to green. After a long rainless summer, the accumulation of dust casts a grayish hue over the landscape; everyone rejoices when the first rain falls. We've received a few good downpours in the last 24 hours and this morning, between cloudbursts, I spent some time walking around the garden, admiring the green leaves which have been covered with dust since we moved in. We recently spread bags of sheep manure in the garden, so it smelled fresh, indeed!


With no further aideu, we head into the winter/rainy season, which on one hand we hope will be very rainy, but on the other we hope will not be too terribly cold. Homes generally have poor insulation, and are difficult and expensive to heat, but a beautiful spring will make it all worthy it. Though we don't really have an autumn, the Jordanian countryside puts on a riotous show of wildflower color in the spring if the rains are abundant. It is Jordan's most beautiful season of all.

We are cozily secure in our new home in Mafraq, and now just have minor things to do, such as hanging pictures and painting mirror frames. Tayta and I have been on a creative adrenalin high since being introduced to Pinterest a few weeks (don't click this link unless you have some free time.) After letting myself be sucked into it's vortex and swirled around for a couple of weeks, I found my equilibrium and can now spend a very modest amount of time on Pinterest, and find a lot of useful DIY, craft, garden, recycling, cooking and baking ideas. A couple recent results of all the creative inspiration: this sweet needed-for-ages sewing machine cover that I made from an over-sized European pillowcase I found in the used clothes market. I love the colors!

These simple garden markers were made from a recycled yogurt container:

An then there are the pine cone decorations and some really great recipes we've tried...

We continue to make new friends and otherwise get involved in the Mafraq community. Artist Son has been playing drums for the Arab church we are attending and he and Tayta will go with the shabibi, or youth of the church on an outing this week. I've been spending too many (sometimes angst filled) hours searching out college options for Artist Son as he prepares sit for his last SAT exam and apply to colleges. I can now fill out the online scholarship/financial aid calculators with one hand tied behind my back. I'm thankful that we seem to have narrowed the field to three schools, two of which require portfolio submissions and artist statements. Remembering is important: God has so faithfully and generously provided for Oldest Daughter and Active Son. He will provide for Artist Son as well.