Coming Home

Posted on February 8, 2019 by craftycreeky

I’ve just finished the first block of Sarah Fielke’s 2019 BOM, it’s called Coming Home. It’s a gorgeous design with lots of cottages and trees on. It’s the second quilt I’ve made of Sarah’s, the first being Down the Rabbit Hole, which I am still hand-quilting. Sarah’s quilts are a great way to learn needle-turn applique as it always features quite heavily on her designs.

I’ve started with a box of fabrics in soft teal, grey, purple and peach, I’ve also got background fabrics in light grey and teal, though I’ve already had to add to them!

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It’s a medallion quilt so we’re starting in the middle with eight pieced cottages. It took some careful cutting and sewing to get those windows square, they’re pretty small!

Our applique homework was five circles. These can be quite tricky to get neat but Sarah’s method of using tinfoil wraps works a treat. I fussy cut mine to have a sprig of flowers in each one and then hand sewed them round.

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I was originally planning to use one of the background fabrics next to the houses but it just looked too dark. I tried plain fabrics in cream and very pale blue but they look too stark. Then I remembered one from my Splendid Sampler stash, it’s ivory with a tiny soft grey sprig, perfect!

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The block went together fairly easily, it just needed concentration and plenty of time when I wouldn’t be interrupted or rushed. I found my block book very helpful in holding various components safe whilst I worked on another area. I’m pretty pleased with how the colours have worked out so far and my points look OK too…and even more important, it’s exactly the right finished size, ready for the next border.

It’s now sat patiently waiting in my quilt block book for part two to be released at the very end of the month.

Posted in Coming Home Quilt, Quilt-a-long, Quilting | Tagged , | 16 Comments

UFO Time

Posted on February 7, 2019 by craftycreeky

I’ve been trying to have a bit of a sort out at home, including my sewing room. Whilst mooching through boxes I found an embroidery I did years ago, 1988 to be precise, I know that because luckily I embroidered my name and the year at the bottom. So it’s been sitting in my sewing box for thirty years waiting to be made into something!

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I seem to remember this was a Dimensions kit, one of those with a picture printed onto fabric which you then embellished with embroidery. My mum did exactly the same one, her version was put in a fire screen which now lives with us!

The embroidery isn’t perfect but I’ve got to the point with various unused items like this that I either make something or it goes! I decided to make a cushion.

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The embroidery is oblong so my original plan was to add a side border to square it up and make a 16″ cushion. The design already had a printed side border so adding another one would fit in. I even sent my OH out to a fabric shop to buy a pad! I found a fat quarter from my stash that matched pretty well both in terms of colour and style. However I discovered that to square it up the borders would actually be pretty narrow, I looked at making it oblong the other way, but I then felt I lost some of the design in the curve of the cushion.

I found another co-ordinating fabric! I stitched the first pair of borders on either side. I then added a 2″ border on all four sides in the darker green. It framed it nicely. There was also enough of the dark green to back the cushion. By this time it was a lot bigger than 16″, it was more like a slightly oblong 20″! As it happens I had just, the day before, put an unused IKEA 20″ cushion pad in a box for charity, on the grounds that I never make cushions that big!! I retrieved it from said box!

I’ve made the back with a pillowcase opening, it seems to happily stay closed without any buttons etc. I popped the cushion pad in, it will need replacing when I next go to Skipton as it’s a pretty thin pad, but it will suffice for now.

It looks great on the sofa in the conservatory, not too big either!

Posted in Crafts, Home | Tagged , , | 17 Comments

Nineteen for 19

Posted on February 6, 2019 by craftycreeky

We’re already well into the first week of February, so I thought I’d better see how I fared in January with my nineteen challenges for 2019…

…I think I’ve made a reasonable start!

  • 1 Scrap Quilt; nothing as yet but I am collecting ideas and making plans – I probably just need to set too and make blocks instead of plans!
  • 2 Tutorials; nothing here either.
  • 3 sessions in the garden; I’ve managed this most weeks in January, and my garden is looking tidier for it!
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  • 4 workshops; I’ve booked two for May and June at Fabbadashery, ones a hand embroidery one and the other is to make Harold the Hare, a mixed media, machine embroidered picture. I’m quite excited about this one as I’ve admired Harold for some time!
  • 5 presents; I made a baby quilt for my niece who is due next week so she hasn’t seen it yet, but I’m counting it in January as I’ve finished it.
  • 6 quilts; One baby quilt finished already! My Spring Wreath quilt will hopefully be finished around May but by then I also need to make another quilt, I’ve been asked to make one for a charity auction. The Splendid Sampler quilt hopefully won’t be far behind either…
  • 7 new patterns; none as yet but I am planning a good sort out of my pattern stash.
  • 8 kits; I stitched my bobbin garden kit and I’m half way through a mandala, so one so far.
Sewing room cushion; www.thecraftycreek.com
  • 9 mini embroideries; we all received our new travelling sketchbook to cover and start ready for the February meeting, so I’ll be stitching one a month at least for a while.
  • 10 things; I made a quilt block book for my Coming Home quilt.
  • 11 cross-stitch smalls; I made a good start with three stitched this month, I’ve another another one which just needs finishing too.
  • 12 pages in my book; this is going to be quite a special textile book as I’m including all the pieces of handwokr I found when clearing my mums house, both finished and unfinished. I’m still making plans in my head.
  • 13 clothes made; I thought I’d made a dress in January, then I realised I sneaked it into December!
  • 14 drawers organised; I’ve started organising my machine embroidery threads, having bought a few from Raggedy Ruff designs for my Spring Wreath quilt BOM I now have quite a few, so they have a box to themselves. I’ve also started sorting my cross-stitch patterns, I must have dozens on my computer which I’ve either bought or found freebies, as I can’t easily see the picture I forget about them, so I’ve started printing them off and putting them into a file. I’m classing this as one completed.
  • 15 minutes tidying at the end of a sewing session. I can’t say I do this every night, but I am getting much better at having a quick tidy up, hanging things back on my peg board and clearing the cutting table.
  • 16 books; One read and almost finished the second, so a good start. I read A Golden Thread which was fascinating, all about the history of textiles through the ages. I’m now re-reading West With the Night by Beryl Markham, which I’ll tell you about when I’ve finished it.
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  • 17 blogs a month; I wrote 19 posts in January, which I was pleased about as I haven’t got the weekly photo challenge now.
  • 18 walks; I’ve had a good start here too, I’ve been on three walks, only about 5 miles each, but it’s enough at this time of year. I’ve walked on the Chevin twice and round Fewston reservoir once. It’s nice to get out and have a bit of fresh air.
  • 19 Splendid Sampler Blocks; I completed another four this month, so I’ve got twenty made altogether, all pieced, sandwiched and quilted.

So all in all, not a bad start to 2019!

Posted in embroidery, Nineteen for 19, Quilting | Tagged | 9 Comments

February Windows

Posted on February 5, 2019 by craftycreeky

Wild Daffodil is organising a monthly photo challenge with one theme all year, windows, so here’s another little collection of photos;

English Garden

This photo of the garden last summer reminds me that I really need to fix the window on the summerhouse – the door fell off in a storm and broke the glass, I’ve got two sheets of perspex sitting in the conservatory waiting to be fitted!

The window fittings at Blackwell House near Windermere were all individual, lots of beautiful designs typical of the Arts and Crafts movement. I visited last year with my Embroiderers Guild and enjoyed a fascinating guided tour.

Catbells

This was the view from the dining room window of our hotel in Keswick when we did our four lakes walk a couple of years ago. It is, of course, my favourite fell, Catbells!

The Old Barn

The windows on this old red barn are appliqued and embroidered. It is one of the blocks of the Anderson Farm quilt, I hadn’t mastered needle-turn applique at that point so I think they are bondawebbed on and stitched down.

Why not follow the link to Wild Daffodil and see else is sharing lots of window photos.

Posted in Photo Challenge | Tagged | 6 Comments

Monday’s Meander Round the Garden

Posted on February 4, 2019 by craftycreeky

We’ve had hoar frosts and a smattering of snow this week, not weather conducive to gardening, luckily today it’s warmed up a bit and everything has thawed.

The little patch of snowdrops by the pond is looking very pretty. A few stately homes round here open their gardens at this time of year for people to see the snowdrops. My WI is off to Goldsborough Hall in a couple of weeks time and they have a huge display.

Winter garden

For me, this time of year is all about hope, winter is passing, the days are getting noticeably longer and there’s shoots appearing all over the garden, bulbs, perennials and buds on trees. They may only be small, but they’re starting, spring will soon be here! These big red buds are the shoots of a peony.

Winter garden

There’s a few shrubs putting on a quiet, understated display at the moment, they are all the more appreciated at this time of year. The skimmia is in the Amber and Amethyst garden with it’s tiny coral coloured buds…

Winter garden

Hebe’s a great at all times of the year, there’s the flowers in the summer and the foliage the rest of the year. I’ve got several of diffent sizes and colours. This one has reddish-purple tinge to it’s leaves and will (hopefully) be covered in purple flowers in the summer.

Winter garden

Looking at the garden from upstairs at this year really shows the bare structure and plan of the garden, what it doesn’t show is everything that’s happening underneath 🙂

Winter garden
Posted in Garden | Tagged | 9 Comments

The Finery of Nature

Posted on February 3, 2019 by craftycreeky

Three weeks ago I finally finished by Tall Year Square etui, so it was time to start a new project for the stitch-a-long. I decided on a kit which will take a while to do but which I hope is straight forward enough for me to do in short spells such as whilst I’m cooking tea or having my morning coffee.

At Embroiderers Guild we have a sales table, anything a member no longer wants can be put on the table, and anyone can have it for a donation to the Guild. A few months ago I spotted this cross-stitch kit, it’s by Dimensions and it’s called The Finery of Nature. I popped a donation in the pot and it was mine!

The Finery of Nature

I liked the nature theme with it’s birds and butterflies, the flowers also reminded me of the medieval style tapestries, I think they’re called mille-fleurs. The only thing I didn’t like was the black aida, mainly because it’s so difficult to work with, but that was easy to sort out.

I chose a soft blue-green permin 32 count linen called sapphire. Hopefully it will work OK with the design. It took me quite a while to sort the threads out as there were four bundles to identify. I sorted them into colours so I have a card of blues and greens, one of reds and oranges and a third one of neutrals. So far it’s working pretty well. There’s a few different stitches in this design too, apart from the usual cross and back-stitch, there’s french knots, cording and couching too. Some of the french knots are with thicker thread too to make them stand out. It all adds interest!

The Finery of Nature

I’m working the quarter with the little bird first, I think he’d a chickadee. As you can see I’ve stitched the violets at the bottom and I’m just working up the stem to be able to start the bird. I’m aiming to back-stitch as I go along but there’s also quite a bit of gold thread used both for back-stitch, cording and couched stitches. I might leave that until the end as I’m using a hoop and I’m concerned about the couched and corded stitches in particular being damaged. I could change over to a frame, but the hoop is one of those you sit on whilst you stitch, so it’s easy, convenient and I can stitch with both hands so it’s quicker.

The Finery of Nature

This stitch-a-long is organised by Avis from Stitching by the Sea, we all choose our own projects and just share our progress every three weeks. It’s a great motivator to keep going! We’ve got two new members today too, welcome to Carmela and Jocelyn, please follow the links and see what everyone else has been stitching.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, LucyAnn, Kate, Jess, Sue, Constanze, Debbierose, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Helen, Steph, Linda, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Catherine, Deborah, Connie, Clare, Mary Margaret, Renee, Jenny, Carmela, Jocelyn

Posted in embroidery, Stitch-a-long | Tagged , , | 29 Comments

A Bird in the Hand..

Posted on February 2, 2019 by craftycreeky

I’ve got two embroidery projects on the go at the moment, well actually I’ve got three, but one is my new stitch-a-long piece so you’ll have to wait til tomorrow to see that one.

At one of the big shows last year I saw a stall selling embroidery kits for mandalas, luckily they had samples stitched on display as I must admit if I had only seen the image on the packet I wouldn’t have bought it. It’s a french company called Chat Dans l’Aiguille and both the colours and the designs are beautiful.

I popped it in my bag a couple of weeks ago when I was going to Embroiders Guild, just in case I had chance to start it, I did!

Mandala

It’s lovely to stitch, the transfer is printed in pink on the fabric and so far I’ve used stem, chain, buttonhole stitch and french knots. The diagram telling me which stitch and colour to use is nice and clear, I’m finding it a really relaxing stitching project, the word mindfullness comes to mind! I’m tempted to do some more as I remembered I already have a book of mandala designs, I’m just hesitating as I’m not sure what you can do with them apart from hoop art or maybe a cushion.

Embroidered Mandala

I hope no one is offended by my next project, there is a bit of a trend in cross-stitch at the moment called subversive cross-stitch. It’s not my cup of tea at all as it’s basically stitching phrases with swear words. I’m not saying that the occasional expletive doesn’t pass my lips at times, but there’s something about reading the words that I really don’t like, whether it’s in books, memes or cross-stitch. However…this one made me smile and actually it’s more double meanings rather than blatant profanities!

It’s our twelfth wedding anniversary in March and over the last couple of years I’ve started a bit of a tradition of stitching a card. I’ve done hearts etc, I wanted something a bit different. I saw a design on Etsy of two birds, but it was only available as a kit and I think it will have been a little big for a card. I found a similar pattern on Etsy from a different designer of a smaller bird which conveniently she provided in reverse too, perfect for my plan…

Here in the UK we have lots of little garden birds called tits, bluetits, coaltits, long tailed tits and great tits. They visit our garden most days and regularly nest in our bird boxes too.

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Blue tits in our garden

My OH grew up in Australia and I think has only really learnt to identify British birds since meeting me. I’m not sure if it’s the school boy in him or what but I’m sure I still detect a slight smirk every time we see great tits in the garden!

I started stitching this in the clinic at the local hospital waiting for a mammogram (nothing to worry about by the way) which I couldn’t decide was apt or inappropriate! I positioned one bird a couple of stitches higher than the other and also made his ‘beard’ a bit longer, I think the males have a longer beard than the females. All I had to do then was join the two branches together, I also added a couple of tiny black beads to give their eyes a bit of a sparkle.

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I finished the stitching a couple of evenings later, I just need to make it up now so it can be on the front of a card and used as an ornament later. I think it’ll make him laugh!

I’ll be linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday, please follow the link for more hand-stitching.

Posted in embroidery, Serendipity | Tagged , , | 28 Comments

February Smalls

Posted on February 2, 2019 by craftycreeky

Yesterday I changed my little display of cross-stitch smalls with the beginning of the new month.I’m rather enjoying putting together these little groups, deciding which can stay and which to change. They’re all together of a burr elm bowl, which isn’t perfect shape wise as it isn’t really deep enough, but I love having a use for such a beautiful piece of wood.

This months smalls predictably have a valentine’s theme running through them, although luckily it’s not all red!

The snowdrop one is the only one to stay over from January as they are all just coming into flower at the moment. I made this one last winter. It was a very old cross-stitch that actually said lily, I thought they look much more like snowdrops so I unpicked it and changed it.

Cross-stitch snowdrop

I made three valentine themed ones last month…

Cross-stitch smalls

Of course the February small from the Snowflake Diaries set is out, this is one of my favourites with a pair of mallard ducks.

Joyful World February cross-stitch

The little red one on the left is one I made years ago, like about twenty years ago! I seem to remember it was a Just Nan kit. I was so pleased with it at the time I made my mum one as a present. She hung it on my dad’s carriage clock handle and it was still there when we cleared her house, so I have two versions now!

Cross-stitch smalls

I’m getting quite a collection of cross-stitch smalls to choose from now!

Posted in embroidery, Smalls of the Month | Tagged , | 9 Comments

Getting Ready for Coming Home

Posted on January 31, 2019 by craftycreeky

It was quite exciting today as this year’s Sarah Fielke Block of the Month started. It’s a gorgeous quilt of houses, cottages, trees, as soon as I saw the design I signed up. Sarah was the designer of Down the Rabbit Hole quilt which I’m quilting at the moment, so I know her designs are wonderful and her instructions are great. I tried very hard to veer away from my usual quiet palettes of colour, I went to a quilt show with a completely open mind…and came home with a subtle collection of fabrics in teal, grey, adding a little purple (of course!) and peach. I found my background fabrics later with the trees on together with a couple of plains in light teal and grey.

Coming Home Quilt

As a lead up to the start of the BOM, Sarah suggested we made a fabric block book to store both our finished blocks and work in progress too. She released a video to show us a simple way to make one. I finally got round to sewing mine yesterday, just in time!

Sarah used an orphan block for the front, I haven’t got any orphan blocks so I raided my stash for some sewing themed fabrics. I bought these ages ago on a whim and then wondered what on earth I was going to do with them, this was the perfect project to use them. I even had just enough of the tape measure cotton tape left in my stash for the ties.

Quilters Block Book

The book was very straight forward to make with cardboard inserts front and back and pages of batting which acts like fuzzy felt for work in progress and finished blocks. My main difficulty was trying to persuade my twenty year old sewing machine that it could stitch through six layers of batting, necessary to make the spine. It flatly refused at first – I got that STOP IMMEDIATELY FOR SAFETY sign! I lengthened the stitch and tried it with just three pages, it stitched OK. I did two sets of three and then put one on top of the other and it happily stitched all six together!! It didn’t even complain when I added the two layers of fabric for the cover – I think it was just feeling it’s age at first!

Quilters Block book

The only change I made was to add two handles to the book. It measures about 13″ square and I can see myself using it to carry work to sew at Embroiderers Guild or when visiting my mum. Handles will make it a lot more convenient.

Quilters Block book

I’m really pleased with my book, I’m actually tempted to make another one as I’ve now got three BOM’s on the go and another one would help keep things organised.

So now I need to choose the fabrics for the centre of my quilt and make the first eight houses.

Posted in Coming Home Quilt, Quilt-a-long, Quilting | Tagged , , , | 16 Comments

Wednesday’s Wander Round the Garden

Posted on January 30, 2019 by craftycreeky

I was all set to write this post on Monday, I took the photos, sat down at my computer in the corner of my sewing room and with a slight ping I was plunged into darkness, at first I thought it was a power cut, until I realised it was just my sewing room! The LED strip light had gone!! I’m hoping my son will come round tonight to wire up a new one as daylight is in short supply at this time of year!

I have managed to continue my tidy-up in the garden. The drive is getting somewhat overgrown and my OH is chuntering about his new car, so I pruned back all the overhanging branches, cut out lots of dead wood and made a very big pile to go to the tip. I really need to take a saw to some of it as it does need a good chop but that will wait a little longer.

I’m still concentrating on the patio area mainly. The clematis over the arch was starting to bud so I’ve given it it’s annual hard prune. I usually use the appearance of leaf buds as a good sign of when to prune a lot of shrubs. I climbed up onto the raised bed by the patio and had a good tidy up there too, the magnolia stellata is covered in flower buds so hopefully we’ll have a good show this year. They’ve still a long way to go before they flower but it’s encouraging to see them.

Magnolia in bud

Our garden is still in shadow all day, though the sun is getting nearer. We live in the lea of a big hill called the Chevin so we have to wait usually until mid to late February for the sunshine to light up the garden. I was very surprised therefore to see a bright patch of sunlight on the raised bed the other day. Something about it didn’t look quite right, like why just that area! I went outside to investigate and found the sun was actually reflected from an upstairs window!

Reflective sunshine

My plant of the month is definitely my beautiful hellebore…

Hellebore

In my garden I have heavy clay soil, so if I find something grows well, I’ll buy one of each colour! I’ve had an idea following on from the success of my hellebores to plant some just in front of the rosa rugosa by the back fence, they make good ground cover, don’t mind dappled shade and look good in the winter. So I bought another four! I’ve got a pretty speckled purple one, a pink one and two creamy ones. I’m just waiting for the soil to defrost a bit before I plant them.

hellebores

The sweet box is coming into flower at the moment, I bought it for it’s winter scent which is very strong, especially considering the size of the flowers. The scent isn’t noticeable yet, so I’m presuming the flowers aren’t fully open yet.

sweet box

There’s a pretty little blue flower appeared near the pond and I can’t for the life of me remember what it’s called, the leaves are the big rounded ones you can see, it’s a gorgeous shade of blue. If anyone recognises it please do tell!

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There’s bulbs appearing all over the garden, these daffodils are under the bird feeders by the patio. Lots of promise of things to come…

Daffodils

Posted in Garden | Tagged , | 10 Comments