Author Archives: Margaret Ford

Red Onion Treasure

I love caramelised onion. Particularly caramelised RED onions. They make great tart fillings with goats cheese or blue cheese, served as entrees at a dinner party or as the main lunch option, especially if you might have vegetarians in the … Continue reading

Posted in dyeing with red onion, Natural dyeing, woollen yarn dyeing | 2 Comments

Crocheted necklace ventures

Recently I was showing some friends the bag handles I’d crocheted for an, as yet, UFB (unfinished bag). I got this technique from a marvellous u-tube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnX4t8ypGtc The comment was “that rope would make a great neck piece”. So…. … Continue reading

Posted in Crocheting, freeform crocheting, Stash-busting yarn | Tagged | Leave a comment

Felting the cat for Christmas

My cat Sam is a blue point Rag Doll. So he has a lot of very fluffy fur that he sheds generously every day and everywhere, even more so in Summer, which is now. This is Raggelida Sampson aged 5 … Continue reading

Posted in cochineal dyeing, Crocheting, Felting cat fur | 2 Comments

Welding: The Next Step?

In my last post of 26 October 2022 called 25+crossover: a juried exhibition I admitted that my original ambitions for the selected piece were stymied by my lack of the requisite skills of armature building. I had designed a work … Continue reading

Posted in Design, Welding, Welding for armatures | 1 Comment

25+ crossover: a juried WAFTA exhibition

When I posted on 7 Sept 2022 about my work in a WAFTA (Western Australian Fibre and Textile Association) members’ exhibition in 2020 I said that I was thrilled to have been juried into a special 25th anniversary exhibition by … Continue reading

Posted in bead crochet, Design, exhibiting, freeform crocheting, freeform knitting, Hand embroidery, Knitting, Stash-busting yarn, WAFTA | 2 Comments

Contemporary Quilts: The Challenge to Make a Point

Bear with me, this is a long and indulgent blog. At a recent meeting of the Contemporary Quilt Group (contemporarywa.wordpress.com/about/) of the Western Australian Quilters’ Association (https://www.waquilters.com) our speaker issued a challenge. After a thoughtful presentation to us all about … Continue reading

Posted in brown onion as dye, casuarina dyeing, cochineal dyeing, Design, dyeing with avocado pips, dyeing with red onion, Eucalyptus sp as dye, exhibiting, Geranium leaf printing, Machine quilting, Natural dyeing, patchwork | 8 Comments

Je ne sais quoi: but it’s fun!

I love making fabric out of yarn using knitting and crochet plus hand stitch. A recent request, in the context of an upcoming exhibition, to provide some background images of my work and perhaps some work in progress, prompted me … Continue reading

Posted in Crocheting, Design | Leave a comment

Vegetable Stash-busting: Baba Ganoush

I’m not hoarding, promise.  But I must admit I am probably a bit ambitious when I go to the green grocer. For example, I bought a large eggplant six days ago and it’s still in the crisper. I would have … Continue reading

Posted in Cooking | Leave a comment

Crochet bags as stash-busters

I’m probably not alone in having accumulated lots of the “novelty” yarns of the nineties and noughties. You know the kind: hairy, glitzy, chunky, loopy and often all these in the same ball! Time, I thought, to get rid of … Continue reading

Posted in Bag, Clothing, Crochet basket, Crocheting, Design, Stash-busting yarn | 1 Comment

Hanging By A Thread: catch up post

Hooray!! A piece of my work will be in the landmark juried exhibition celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Western Australian Fibre and Textile Association Inc. (WAFTA). The exhibition will run from 22 October to 12 November 2022 in the … Continue reading

Posted in Design, freeform crocheting, freeform knitting, Knitting, Stash-busting yarn, WAFTA | 1 Comment