School Journals

During a recent sort out of my father-in-law's basement, a box of 1950s and 60s School Journals was unearthed. I've gratefully added them to my growing collection. Here's a sampling of some of my favourite cover designs:

Robert Ellis cover design

Jill McDonald cover design

William Stobbs cover design

Roy Cowan cover design

Robert Ellis cover design

Denis Beytagh cover design

Richard Kennedy cover design

Charles Keeping cover design

Roy Cowan cover design

Roy Cowan cover design

Roy Spencer cover design

one rug

This 20 square felt rug is hands-down the most satisfying craft project I've undertaken to date. There's something so cool about making your own fabric from scratch using unspun wool, warm soapy water, a bamboo mat and pure muscle power. I think I'll blanket stitch around the outside edge to tidy up the slight wonkiness, but beyond that it's ready to be stepped on and enjoyed.

Bauhaus and Brian

Emma was telling me last night that my felt designs reminded her of Bauhaus textiles. That's a very nice thing to say because I happen to love the simple geometric structures and beautiful colour combinations of Anni Albers weaving.

While I discovered Bauhaus design relatively recently, I would have to say that the illustrations of Brian Wildsmith have been one of the formative influences on my handcrafting activities. As a child of the 60s his were the picture books that I loved the best. His patchwork style of illustration using inks and pastels in every colour imaginable have stayed with me ever since, and I was lucky enough to find two of his books in second-hand bookshops recently: The Oxford Book of Poetry for Children (1963) and The Rich Man and the Shoemaker (1965).

This is a neckpiece made from scraps of felt. It's arranged on the back of the new 20 square rug, which I've almost finished sewing together, and will show you in my next post.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

cuffs

It seemed a shame to throw away the off-cuts of felt trimmed away to make the evenly sized squares for the rug, so I've made some cosy cuffs from the left overs. This lot are off to my sis to keep her skinny wrists nice and warm for winter.

stripes

Something about this crisp autumn day made me want to make some thick pieces of merino felt. When I have enough squares I'll piece together an abstract composition and sew them together to make a rug.