Well I’ve still not finished my catkins, I have made a little progress but life has got in the way over the last few weeks. This retirement lark is pretty busy!!
Three weeks ago I had started the catkins…
I think I’ve made the mistake of using a single thread of floss for these French knots, so they are taking AGES!! I have, after several evenings work, almost finished the first catkin…
…maybe there will just be two catkins rather than three!!
As I’m away now until mid June, there won’t be any progress with my wheel for a while but please do visit the other SAL members and see what they have been stitching.
I’ve been doing a little sewing and stitching for my big holiday – we leave on Tuesday to go interrailing round Europe for six weeks, just me and my daughter, I’m so excited!!
I’ve not been sewing clothes for my holiday, but a sewing bag! I’m sure you will not be surprised to hear I’m taking a little stitching on my travels, both something to stitch on long train journeys and something to record our holiday in stitch.
I decided I needed a new bag for my embroidery, the one I’m using is a simple draw string I got with an order, it suffices in my handbag, but it’s quite bulky and space is tight on this trip so I wanted something which would slip easily into my cross-body bag.
I rummaged around in my stash and found a fat quarter of sewing themed cotton, nice and cheerful. I made a very simple bag by folding it in half and sewing the side and the bottom. I then turned the top over twice to make a channel for my ribbon. I realised that only having one side seam meant there wasn’t a seam to leave open for the second ribbon. I decided to make a button hole at each side, I folded the fabric and marked with a Frixion pen where I wanted the button holes to be. Somehow they ended up higher than I planned but it all worked out OK as the button holes are across the top fold.
I threaded two lengths of ribbon and the bag was finished, it wouldn’t win any prizes but it’s pretty and it will do the job!!
As you can see, I’m taking some of the bird alphabet patterns.
I also want to make a record in stitch of our trip, my idea is to just stitch a little something in each place, it might be a flower or a simple scene, it might just be abstract stitching. I found a long thin piece of linen in my stash, it’s a lovely duck egg blue sort of colour. I’m not sure where I got it but it had already been overlocked down each long edge. My plan is to stitch a long running stitch for our route the length of the linen with places etc stitched along the way. I’ll then turn it into a concertina book.
As I want to make it into a book I decided to divide the pages off so I wouldn’t end up with a lovely bit of stitching folded in half. I just finger pressed it to start, but thinking ahead to packing and travelling, the creases could get lost! Instead I did a big running stitch in some basic sewing thread up each crease.
Thinking ahead, I thought the blank pages of linen could get a bit overwhelming, so I’ve cut several snippets of fabric and lace so I can add to the pages if I want. I’ve packed some of my favourite DMC colours but I’m planning to use the colours from the bird alphabet, it’s a lovely palette and I’m taking plenty of each colour.
You can also see on the photo above that I pulled a thread out top and bottom. I realised it hadn’t been cut straight, at first I tried to trim it straight, but then I thought the overlocked edge would be quite useful on the trip, so I pulled one thread out to show the top and bottom line of the finished piece.
I’m hoping to write short posts on here along the way, but they will be short as I’ll be writing them on my phone! First stop is Ghent 🙂
I’ve made a little progress with my foragers journal, but not as much as I hoped as life has been somewhat hectic over the last month – however did I ever find time to work!!
Three weeks ago I had started the February page which is gorse…
This is a subscription from Pretty Fabrics and Trims, each month I get everything I need for another page. So far it’s been lovely to stitch, the instructions are nice and clear and the design is well printed on the cloth.
I’ve not done a huge amount but I have done some…
I’ve stitched the stems of the gorse using stem and straight stitch and I’m just doing the flowers with satin stitch. I’ve finished all the lettering too. I’ve got my Skipton Stitchers meeting tomorrow so I’m hoping to finish it then.
Once it is finished I then stitch it to the January one, apply wadding to the back and hand quilt it before binding the pages together with some Liberty tana lawn. I don’t think I’ll get the quilting done (or even started!) before I go on my big adventure in two weeks time, but I’ll post whatever I’ve managed to do in three weeks time.
I’m posting this as part of the Hand Quilt-a-long. Pleas follow the links to see what everyone else has been quilting:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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!
thecraftycreek 