Phenology Wheel SAL

Posted on April 12, 2026 by craftycreeky

This year Skipton Stitchers are doing phenology wheels as a group project. I was delighted when this was suggested as I’ve been toying with the idea of stitching one for a couple of years. A phenology wheel is a circular visual nature journal, you can paint them, stitch them, create the picture however you wish. I’m stitching flowers and plants which are in the garden or on the back lane each month.

Last time I posted about my wheel I had just finished the snowdrops for January…

Well I’m not much further on! We’ve just this week had wardrobes fitted in our bedroom for the first time, so of course we had to completely empty the room, so there’s furniture everywhere, bedding and clothes heaped up, I’m the chief decorator in this house so I repainted the walls, hung wallpaper, glossed…the house is in chaos! Luckily the carpet goes down tomorrow so we can start finding a new home for everything and get back to normality!

Yesterday evening I finally managed a little stitching on my wheel.

I decided to stitch catkins, they were particularly lovely this year. Catkins are the petal-less flowers of certain trees, willow and hazel are most common down the back lane. They are long dangly flowers, apparently there are male and female catkins, I didn’t know that until just now! They appear in February, before the leaves, usually hanging in twos or threes, it’s lovely to see them dancing in the breeze.

I decided to use French knots in a variegated greeny-yellow. I’ve also another variegated which is slightly darker and more orange, I might use that where the catkins overlap. I’m pleased with the way the catkin does looked rounded. I’ve not done much as you can see but at least I’ve started!

The next SAL post will be on May 3rd, two days before I go on my big adventure interrailing round Europe with my daughter. I’ve a lot to do in the next three weeks including trips to London to see friends, visiting my daughter, sorting out the garden, never mind the house…so I’ll do my best to get this project up to date but I’m not promising :-/

Please follow the links to see what everyone else is stitching.

Avis, Claire, Kathy, Margaret,

Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, Cathie,

Linda, MaryMargaret, Helen

Posted in embroidery, Serendipity, Skipton Stitchers, Stitch-a-long | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Harvest Mice Quilt

Posted on April 11, 2026 by craftycreeky

I’ve just finished this wall hanging of harvest mice for my sewing room. I actually started this in January last year as part of the declutter challenge, I did the right hand side and then it just stayed on my design wall, waiting for the other half. When the declutter challenge came round again this year, I knew what to do as my ‘treat’ project, the left hand side!

Here it is a couple of weeks ago, both sides machine embroidered, it just needed quilting.

I’d already chosen a thread for quilting, the purple and gold thread you can see in the photo. I felt it was too dark for the pale gold and light mauve areas so I also used a variegated pale gold thread, they’re both Wonderfil threads which are nice and fine for this kind of quilting.

I mulled over how to quilt it for quite some time, Andrea (the designer) used a double flame shape but I felt I wanted something a bit easier, it wasn’t the quilt to try a new pattern on. I decided in the end to do a fairly small meander. I sandwiched the quilt with some 80/20 batting and backed it with a batik fabric which has a fine purple leaf design over a pale gold background. I’ve had it for several years in my stash, I bought it on impulse as I loved the colours but it was always too busy for any quilt I tried it with. The colours matched perfectly with this quilt and I even had just enough left for binding.

I started quilting with the darker thread, meandering up and down the various spaces, I overlapped a little onto the lighter blocks to help it to blend. I then changed to the light gold variegated which has also got some very pale mauve in, meandering over the lighter blocks. I’m really pleased how the two colour threads have worked out as you can’t actually tell, it all just blends together. My free motion quilting is improving, there is still a few wobbles when I’ve lost the plot where to go but I’m happy with it.

I bound it with the backing fabric, a plain might have been better but it’s on! I remembered to put triangles in the top corners to catch the hanging pole in. I hand-stitched the binding down at my patchwork group, it was a nice easy project to take along to stitch and chat.

Here is my finished wall hanging, it’s going in my sewing room. I just need to get a length of dowling.

I’ve still quite a few kits to make from Raggedy Ruff Designs, so I need to keep going with them.

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Foragers Journal

Posted on March 29, 2026 by craftycreeky

I’ve started another monthly subscription! This one is for a fabric book which is embroidered and then hand quilted. It’s by Sarah Edgar who has a company called ‘Pretty Fabrics and Trims’, this is the fourth journal she has stitched though I think she is now on her fifth or even sixth. I liked the fact that I could see the whole book before I committed, there’s nothing worse than starting a stitch-a-long and then finding you don’t really like it!

The theme of this book is foraging, so there’s a different plant featured on each page. The designs are pre-printed and the kit includes all the threads and fabrics we need to make it into a book.

January’s page is nettle, so there’s a recipe for nettle tea, not that I fancy trying it! There’s lots of nettles on the back lane which is good as they’re an important food for caterpillers. The words are all stitched with back-stitch. The plant is a mixture of satin, fishbone and stem stitch with a few French knots.

I’ve started February, the plant of the month is gorse, a prickly shrub, apparently the little yellow flowers can be eaten raw, in salads for example, they can also be made into wine or infused in gin!

Once these two pages are embroidered, they are stitched together down one side and basted onto batting, they are then quilted before putting back to back and binding with Liberty cotton.

I’m rejoining the hand-quilt-a-long next month, so hopefully by then I’ll be on with the quilting.

Posted in embroidery, Quilt-a-long, Serendipity, Textile Books | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Phenology Wheel SAL

Posted on March 22, 2026 by craftycreeky

Three weeks ago I gave you a peek of my new project, a phenology wheel. These are illustrated records of the year, usually of nature, in a wheel pattern. If you google them you’ll see lots of examples. I’ve wanted to stitch one for a while, you can get templates on Etsy but I could never find one that was just what I wanted at the right time for me to start stitching it. I was delighted when Skipton Stitchers decided this would be a group challenge this year.

We were given the choice of fonts and size, most people have gone for this size which comfortably fits in a 10″ hoop. The design was printed on Stick and Stitch which feels a bit like thin interfacing stuck on paper, this could then be ironed onto our chosen fabric. Once the embroidery is complete a quick rinse dissolves it. I washed mine once I’d stitched the outline and the letters as apparently it can be difficult to remove if it’s densely stitched.

I stitched the outline in split stitch using a variegated green perle thread, I haven’t decided if I’m going to whip stitch it yet or what I’m going to put in the centre of the wheel.

The seasons are stitched with a variegated DMC thread using chain stitch. I wasn’t quite sure how the lighter shades would work out but once it was washed I was happy with the effect. The months are embroidered with DMC4040 which is a variegated green and a split stitch, it looks a bit thick really but it’s legible!

I’ve decided to illustrate mine with flowers and leaves either from my garden or the back lane. For January I chose snowdrops. We have a large number of snowdrops up near the pond, my mum gave me a bunch from her garden many years ago and they’ve been quietly spreading ever since.

I drew the outline with a fine frixion pen before embroidering it with DMC threads. I embroidered them with stem stitch and long and short stitch. I need to iron off the markings before I decide if it needs more green on the petals but I need to stitch February first so I don’t accidently remove those too!

As you can see I haven’t started February yet and we’re nearly at the end of March! February is catkins, which have been lovely this year on the back lane. For March I’m thinking of primroses as they’re easier to stitch than daffodils!!

Please visit the other blogs that are also taking part in this SAL. There are lots of different projects to enjoy. The participants live all over the world so you may need to allow for time differences. Click the links to their blogs below and see what they’re up to.

Our next updates will be published on 12th April 2026.

Avis, Claire, Kathy, Margaret,

Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, Cathie,

Linda, MaryMargaret, Cindy, Helen

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Robin and Dormice Wallhanging

Posted on March 20, 2026 by craftycreeky

At the last quilting meeting I cracked on with my Raggedy Ruff kit. I started this over twelve months ago when I was doing the declutter challenge. I completed half of it then, so I decided to do the other half for this years challenge. Last time I posted about it at the end of January I had just finished the background. This was my progress photo with the other half..

I love the backgrounds of the Raggedy Ruff designs, they’re interesting without dominating the quilt.

Over the last month I cut out the applique shapes and started the machine embroidery. After a couple of meetings and a couple of evenings, I managed to finish the left hand side I’m pretty pleased with it. Obviously it’s not perfect, it certainly doesn’t measure up to close scrutiny, but the overall effect is fine…

As you can see I immediately stitched it to the left hand side and sandwiched it with some fabric from my stash which works perfectly as its purple and gold colour. I’ve just got to decide how to quilt it now. I’m thinking of using the thread in the photo which seems to incorporate all the background shades. In the pattern photos, the quilting is quite dense with a double flame design, I’m wondering about a more leafy design, or I might just do a meander. I think I need to doodle on the paper pattern first

Posted in kits, Quilting, Raggedy Ruff Designs, Serendipity | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Bird Alphabet

Posted on March 16, 2026 by craftycreeky

We’ve just had a few days away in Tenerife, my OH wanted a bit of winter sun, I’m not really into sun-bathing but I’m quite happy sewing under a parasol…and of course there’s the 4.5 hour flight to fill too!!

I decided to take my bird alphabet for the flight as it’s small and portable. The night before we flew I started the letter ‘I’, just managing to stitch most of the actual letter. On the flight I finished the goldfinch and just had a bit of back-stitching to do.

We regularly get goldfinch in our garden, they love the sunflower hearts in the feeders. A group of goldfinches is called a charm, which I think is lovely.

I was planning to do a different embroidery whilst we were there but I realised I didn’t have a sharp needle, only cross-stitch ones and of course I didn’t manage to buy one until our last day…so I carried on with the alphabet.

J has a small crested bird on, I think it’s meant to be a crested tit, though they are actually grey, black and white, not blue. I thought it was a bit odd but I’ve realised in the palette of threads there isn’t a grey, so I presume they thought blue was nearest. Crested tits are only found in a fairly small area in the north of Scotland here in the UK.

Having only brought enough linen for one more letter I was getting a bit worried I would have nothing to do on the flight, which is why I bought needles on our last day, at least I could start the other embroidery!

On our flight home I finished the J and started K. I stitched the bird on the flight and I’ve done the letter and started the foliage since getting home. I think this one is a willow tit.

After that little burst of productivity I’m almost half way, with nearly eleven letters stitched.

Posted in cross-stitch, Textile Books | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Travel Journal

Posted on March 6, 2026 by craftycreeky

I’ve got a big holiday coming up in May (if things don’t escalate even more!) I’m going interrailing with my daughter round Europe for six weeks, I’m so excited!!

Anyway, obviously I want to make some kind of journal of our trip, I want to be able to write things, draw or paint, maybe stick in tickets etc. I do need to practice the drawing and painting bit though as I’m no artist!! I’ve been trying to decide what kind of journal I wanted when I spotted on Etsy a kit to make your own leather-bound journal, it was £30 for everything which I thought was a pretty fair price.

The company is called Lucas Ruth, they also sell ready-made ones if you don’t want to make your own. You could choose size, colour, personalisation and shape of tri-fold flap (straight, natural or curved as I chose). The box arrived quickly, it contained a roll of leather with my initials on and holes punched ready for the binding, some ready-threaded waxed thread, four sets of pages and a strap for wrapping round after.

The instructions were really easy to follow though there is a video too if you find that better. It probably took less than half an hour and it was made. I love it, the leather feels nice and smells lovely, I like the way the binding stitches show on the outside, I’ve left the strap long at the moment in case it ends up bulging at the seams. I can’t wait to start writing in it!

Posted in kits, Serendipity, Textile Books | Tagged , , | 12 Comments

Bird Alphabet

Posted on March 4, 2026 by craftycreeky

Last night I finished another letter in the bird alphabet, so I have stitched A to H now, almost a third of the way through. This morning I also worked out what size to do the back-stitch squares round each letter, these will be used to slip-stitch the letters together. I’m going to do them 70 x 70 stitches, which is about 4.5″ square, it gives me a comfortable border round the letters without being too big. It took a bit of working out as I want the letters to be centralised but the flowers and birds are often more to one side. I’ve decided to use a variegated DMC thread in very pale blue, brown and white, it blends in nicely with the blue and the white linen and occasionally picks out the brown of the birds, hopefully it will work out OK.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s H…

We occasionally see wrens in the garden so I was pleased they were included in the alphabet. They are tiny birds so not easy to see but they have a very loud and melodious song so we know there are lots of wrens on the back lane behind us. For a couple of years they nested under our carport which was wonderful, but dawn chorus was deafening!!

These designs are from the French company Les Brodeuses Parisiennes, they are a delight to stitch. I think they have a shop in Montmartre so I’m hoping to find it during our visit in June.

Posted in Serendipity | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Postcards from the Hedge SAL

Posted on March 1, 2026 by craftycreeky

It’s time for a happy dance, I finished my Postcards from the Hedge book! Three weeks ago I had a little stack of prepared pages, I just had to make the cover and work out how to bind the book.

For a while I’ve wanted to make a book with an exposed spine, so the stitching is visible, this seemed like a good one to try it on. I would have preferred to have the binding down the long edge but I realised too late that I had the orientation of the facing pages for that, so short side it had to be.

First of all I needed to make a front and back cover. I found in my stash some Lynette Anderson which went well with the theme and the colours, it has flowers and butterflies on but in nicely muted colours, I found a co-ordinating green strip in my scrap box. For the inside I used a pretty green and pink blossom sprig which I’ve had for years, it’s so pretty but I’ve never found the right place for it in a quilt. I used Pellon to stiffen them.

Now to the binding, I looked on Youtube, but instructions are mainly for double page signatures, not for binding single pages. I had to make it up as I went along! I decided to use chain stitch, I chose a perle thread as it was fairly strong but decorative as well. I drew lines across the spine where I wanted the stitching to be using a Frixion pen so I had a vague chance of them looking neat at the end. I wasn’t sure at first if I wanted to do three lines or five, so I marked up five lines, I’ve just realised I didn’t erase the 2nd and 4th so you can just still see them, I’ll have to get my iron out!

I basically then just stitched a firm chain stitch across the pages, ensuring I caught both sides of the page with the needle. It was fiddly but doable, put it this way, I didn’t fancy going back to do lines 2 and 4, as the more constructed the book was, the harder it was to stitch neatly. I’m pleased with it, I like the way you can see a bit of the stitch from inside.

I like ribbon tied round my books and I certainly felt with this one it needed it to help it stay neat with being a landscape orientation. I found a button in my stash and some organza ribbon, I found a little button to go on the inside to cover up the button stitching. I was thinking of maybe just gluing it over the stitching, but I realised that despite one being twice the size of the other, the holes were in the same place!! This meant I could stitch both buttons on at the same time!

This book has been lovely to stitch and it has introduced me to new ideas and techniques. The designs are all from Rebecca of Featherstitch House, she has some beautiful designs, she was releasing a new design each week, each with a great video and clear instructions. She’s taking a break from designing at the moment for personal reasons, so I do hope she’s soon back stitching and designing soon as she is certainly a very skilled and talented embroiderer.

Here’s a quick preview of my next project, a phrenology wheel! I’ve been wanting to do one for a while so I was delighted when my stitch group decided to do them as a group project. We were given the design outline printed on Stick and Stitch which I’ve not used before. It ironed on my chosen fabric, I could then stitch the outline and lettering before rinsing it away. I could have left it on to design on but apparently it can be harder to rinse out if there is lots of stitching on it. I used stem stitch for the spokes, chain stitch for the seasons and split stitch for the months. As you can see I’m two months behind already, so I’m hoping that by having this for my SAL project, I’ll keep going!

This SAL is organised by Avis, we post our progress every three weeks, please follow the links to see what everyone else is stitching.

Our next updates will be published on 22nd March 2026.

Avis, Claire, Kathy, Margaret,

Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, Cathie,

Linda, MaryMargaret, Cindy, Helen

Posted in embroidery, Postcards from the Hedge, Serendipity, Textile Books | Tagged , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Spiderman Quilt

Posted on February 28, 2026 by craftycreeky

I’ve been a busy bee over the last couple of weeks with walking, gardening and of course sewing! I managed to make a quilt in just over a week. About three years ago I promised my niece’s son a bed size quilt to replace the cot quilt I made when he was born. I was planning to make a train themed quilt as he was very into trains, even found an amazing pattern which wasn’t too childish. Time went by and last year Marvel characters took over from trains, especially spiderman.

I looked at the quilt panels with spiderman on, but they were only for sale in USA, I bought a few fat quarters at the local shop and kept my eye open for a centre panel. By chance I saw on Ebay an M&S duvet set with Spiderman on, still in it’s packet, for about £25. As it was M&S I felt the fabric would be a decent quality so I bought it. It turned out it was percale cotton, so it feels smoother than the usual quilting fabric, it feels nice.

My original plan was to have 6″ squares around the panel. I cut the panel next to the seam line, squared it off, it was exactly 54″…and of course I needed 54.5″ to have the 6″ squares around. I decided it was too complicated to work out the size of squares I would need, so I cut them all in half to make strips. I think it actually works better as it looks a bit like a cartoon strip round the edge. So the top didn’t take long at all.

I could have used the back of the duvet cover to back the quilt but it was a white background with Spiderman on. Not only did I think it would be impractical for a child’s quilt, it would also show every dodgy bit of quilting. I bought some splodgy navy blue fabric instead which worked really well…and covers a multitude of sins!

I quilted the figure first using a free motion quilting foot, just following the lines of the design with a couple of extra ones where I felt the gap was to big. I then changed to the walking foot to follow the lines of the web. I added a few extra lines where I felt it was needed.

The label on the back came from the trimmings of the duvet front as did the binding. I just added my initials and the date to the label.

Mum came round to collect it yesterday and today I received a video of him with the quilt saying thank you, he loves it.

Posted in Quilting, Serendipity | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments