Category: Bettina Holland

Making Patches

Preparation for the local market

My attendance at the local market accompanied by my sewing machine is proving to be quite popular.

I provide a service to replace broken zips, take up hems on trousers, skirts and dresses, reinforce seams, create a velcro opening where there had not been one before and put patches on.

This morning I made up some patches using some of the offcuts and scraps of fabric left over from a variety of sources including curtain making.

My over-locker has been a relatively new purchase and I find it so useful for this purpose. It finishes the edges off nicely and all I have to do is stitch them onto the garment as requested.

I do use double fabric for each one but I do not use the same fabric on both sides. This gives me, and the customer, a greater choice. And it strengthens the area where the patch is required.

So I begin with a stack of pieces cut to the same size. Wrong sides together. These are edged on the over-locker and when finished I have double the number of patches in terms of colourway.

Limited waste of course. Plenty of choice. Variety of sizes.

A Trip to Tate St Ives

You can’t help but be fully aware of the weather when in St Ives. The sight of the turbulent sea was enough to make me very grateful for my winter coat, hat and scarf.

St Ives is one of my most loved places. I grew up not too far from here. It has changed of course, but so has everywhere else.

The primary reason for going was to see the exhibition – Andy Holden – A Natural History of Nest Building. As a maker myself I was amazed at the variety of materials, methods of construction, sites, locations and skills of birds around the world. It was intriguing, amazing, heart-warming and astounding. Check out the activities of the oven bird and the bower bird in particular.

https://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-st-ives/display/andy-holden-a-natural-history-of-nest-building

Exhibition Spaces

When life seems to get a bit too busy I make time for a trip to Tate St Ives. It is always a renewing and refreshing experience. It provides a calming space and I can leave everything else on my mind and “to do” list outside the gallery.

I enjoy spending time with works of art which raise questions or inspire me. I take notes, photographs and sketches. One question asked of the visitor is whether they consider themselves as “modern” in our modern age.

Over lunch with my husband we both acknowledged that we are living in a modern age. But maybe we would prefer it to be a part-time experience! There are many benefits and advantages to all that we now know and have knowledge of. The modern age comes with a lot of information and conversation. Sometimes too much and how much of it do we really need to enrich our lives?

Nest Building

Visiting this exhibition today was like an interlude to modern life. It was a space in which I was enriched in my knowledge by the techniques of building nests that been repeated over and over again. The existence of such creativity often unseen is delightful.

Whilst human existence has continued to evolve over the centuries constantly improving and developing on the achievements of previous generations, birds had it just right in the first place when it comes to building their nests. This is just the information and conversation we need to enrich our modern lives in these challenging times.

And to finish..

The view from outside Tate St Ives today

Currently Reading:

Winter King: The Dawn of Tudor England by Thomas Penn

Making the Sun Shine

I miss the presence of the sun. I miss the warmth of the sun. I miss the light of the sun.

Today is 1st March. It’s St David’s Day. According to the meteorological calendar it is the first day of Spring. I look out of the window as I write this and see a mass of buds on the branches of the flowering cherry tree. In stark contrast we have just had a shower of sleet or hail.

Like other creatives I make cards. My challenge today is to make the sun shine. It was good therapy to seek out all the yellow, orange and red fabrics. I work on hand-made paper and stitch my pieces onto the paper using the sewing machine. A fine needle is required of course.

Bright colours lift the mood. These cards will give a lift to my card stand. Especially now that Spring is hopefully around the corner.

And they have inspired me to take this idea into another creative process. I have some more sunshine to make in the coming days, even if the actual sun doesn’t come out for us – so watch this space.

Sharing A Day Out

I had the opportunity to take my young niece to the zoo the other day. I purchased the tickets online the day before and hoped my niece had not changed her mind about going.

Fortunately she is creative. So with my sketchbook in my hand and my niece by my side we went to explore what the zoo had to offer.

It was a typical February morning – dull, overcast and quite chilly. It was not surprising to find a number of empty enclosures. With many of the animals preferring to look out at us from the warmth of their hides and homes.

However the ducks love the wet weather, so I began to make some drawings and it wasn’t long before I had to share my sketchbook. It was great to see both our drawings side by side on the same page.

By lunchtime some weak wintery sunshine had come out. We had found penguins, zebra, tortoises, deer, owls, monkeys, pelicans, cranes, warthogs and meerkats. There were notices on some of the enclosures showing visitors how to “sign” for the deaf. We really enjoyed learning these together.

We had a lovely day together. I took a few photographs but they did not capture the real essence of the day. It is now wonderful to have these drawings in my sketchbook. We did laugh at the meerkats who remained in their warm house trying to get as close to the overhanging heat lamp as they could.

Saying “Thank You”

On the way home we stopped at the local garden centre and had some lunch in the café. While we waited for our food my niece asked for some paper from the sketchbook and began to draw.

When we had finished our lunch I duly paid. And she gave the member of staff this colourful “thank you”. She was told it would be displayed on the staff noticeboard.

https://www.newquaygardencentre.co.uk/the-potting-shed/

This blog is dedicated to my niece as my “thank you” for sharing a very special day out.

Now, where shall we go next time?