18/07/2011

Embroidery at the Idler















I had a lovely day on Saturday teaching an Embroidery class at the Idler Academy on Westbourne park rd, London.
This is a wonderful place dedicated to teaching, learning and great coffee! Here is a description about what they are about taken from the website;

In Ancient Greece, the word which turned into our word for school, scholee, originally meant ‘leisure’. Education was a pleasure; it was a privilege freely chosen by the freeborn citizens of Athens. The Idler Academy brings this spirit of cultivated leisure to the 21st century, and crosses it with the lively atmosphere of an 18th century coffeehouse. We sell a wide range of new and secondhand books, largely educational in nature. We serve Monnouth coffee, Oolong tea from the Himalayas and Valrhona hot chocolate. We sell delicious cakes from Blueberry Hill. We run courses in academic and practical subjects, from Latin to embroidery, from book-keeping to ukulele, from life-drawing to ancient philosophy. This is a place to read, think, debate and learn, to sharpen your mind and learn creative skills. Above all, we seek liberty, and our Latin motto, libertas per cultum, means ‘freedom through education’.

I brought along a modern day sampler designed and printed by Peter and taught some basic stitches and variations on simple stitches to achieve this (almost) finished Sampler.
We had a wonderful lunch of salmon and asparagus, had delicious morning coffee and afternoon tea and cakes - a lovely way to spend a wet July Saturday.
Should be doing another in September - sign up for the Headmasters newsletter!

Ercol Sofas







I have just finished making new cushions and covers for Alison's 2 Ercol day beds - they are all the rage for a reason, they are simple, elegant and comfortable!
Alison inherited one of the sofas from her grandmother and was keen to retain the shape of the old cushions which had sadly disintegrated, so we worked together to achieve a lovely curve on the seat and back cushions. The piping is made using the reverse of the fabric to give a slightly lighter shade - have to say I could do with a break from making piping - over 30m! (done twice as I used the right side of the fabric first!)
Shown here in Alison's house - a real living environment complete with toys!

10/07/2011

Idler Academy



This Saturday I will be teaching an embroidery class at the
Idler Academy in west London. Look here for details. Peter has designed a modern sampler which will be printed on linen ready for some stitch work! I will be teaching how to build up basic stitch techniques to create a lovely finished sampler. This class will be suitable for anyone with basic sewing knowledge, it should be a fun day for making work!

Birthday season!











Its been a busy month in the Nencini house with Sadie and Syds birthdays. Sadie wanted a big dolly with clothes so a few long late nights later (especially hand tying each strand of hair on - respect to all rug makers!) I came up with this Sadie doll - plus some outfits.
Syd got a DSi so to compensate I made a case to put it in!

07/07/2011

My new galt toy!



My latest vintage Galt purchase!

Lumi and Lewis cushions





I recently finished making up a small order of cushions that I worked on with Le train Fantome, featuring the lovely Lumi doll and Lewis rabbit, these are available in Fanja's Le train Fantome shop
I had bits and pieces of trial Lumi and Lewis knitted pattern which I made into lavender bags for Fanja - seemed a shame not to use them!