Have you had any amusing misadventures in your quest for craft? Do you have to come up with new and innovative ways to hide your latest purchase from DH (dear hubby)? Has craft allowed you to make life-long friends or has it helped you through some dark times? We would love to share your amusing, light-hearted or inspirational craft-related thoughts, anecdotes, stories or poems with all our readers. So, put pen to paper – or fingers on the keyboard – and email us at editorial@handmade.com.au so we can publish your yarns for everyone to enjoy! Check out our submissions so far …

 

THE ADVENT SWAP

Hope Francis of Brighton in Queensland has been a part of the Handmade forum for a couple years now, which she really loves as she has met some lovely people and enjoyed some great swaps. She wrote to us recently.
“I have been purchasing Handmade magazine for several years now and enjoy the opportunity to try a new project, especially at Christmas time… We are participating in an Advent Swap at the moment and while preparing my gifts for the post, I wrote this poem as a tribute to the part this forum plays in the life of the 21st century crafter”.

T’was the month before Christmas when all across the nation
All crafters were buzzing with anticipation,
In a bid to discover,
Just what each one had sent to the other.

To fill a sack with presents galore,
One for each day of the month before
The 25 December had been the decision,
All wrapped and posted with military precision!

Two dollars a gift was the target amount,
How many of us stuck to this small account?
When something delightful came in our way
Were we strong, or more did we pay?

Buttons and beads and cotton galore,
Papers and patterns and plant seeds and more,
All purchased or pillaged from stashes
And some, even handmade, by those that were cashless.

Some us tardy I hate to relate,
Left some of us waiting each day by the gate;
For a stop by the postie with a parcel in tow,
Now wouldn’t you know it, there’s still one day to go.

For forum friends have become firm,
Even though computers make some squirm,
We have found a way to make technology a part of our passion
Swapping and designing projects in the newest fashion.

We chat and we swap, share good times and bad
Support each other when we’re down, rejoice when we’re glad!
Letters and parcels, making new friends, through email and chat room,
This Advent swap has had good time to bloom.

Into something larger than we all expected,
The meaning of Christmas on all, has reflected;
That we all have in common with those whom we share,
Hope for Peace and Joy and Love, beyond compare.

- Hope Francis (with apologies to Henry Livingstone)

 

Ode on an Aussie quilt

O! Sweet quilt
On a bed thou wilt be displayed,
Thine fibres arranged in the finest hues
Of tropical pinks and soothing blues
To grant my weary bod and toes
A night of dreams and sweet repose.
Mine eyes shall gaze
Upon thy patchwork blocks
As I remove
My smelly towelling socks
And slip beneath the covers warm
To find some shelter from the storm
Of daily life, the haste and worry
Of time and traffic, meals and money.
Yet ’pon thy lovely handmade covers
My head shall gladly find some rest
I’ll take my leave of store-bought quilts
A crafter’s life’s what suits me best.

- Tamara Stanley

 

Scrap happy

There’s a certain breed of crafter
Who’ll do whate’er it takes
To buy the latest papers
And the matching stamps and inks.
She’ll shop all weekend long
And cut and paste all night
To make an album worthy of
The recipient’s delight.
She’ll spend so much of her hard-earned dough
On embellishments, buttons  and ribbons though
That she needs to sneak the parcels home
Lest her hubby see and loudly groan.

- Tamara Stanley