I’m trying to read more this year, it’s one of my Nineteen for 19 challenges, so when I saw an interesting book just before Christmas I dropped a big hint that it was on my wish list! As it’s all about textiles I thought it may be of interest.
The book in question is called The Golden Thread, it’s by Kassia St Clair and it is fascinating! It’s all about the history of thread and textiles and how they have impacted on our lives over the centuries. As it says on the cover “When we talk of lives hanging by a thread, being interwoven, or part of the social fabric, we are part of a tradition that stretches back many thousands of years. Fabric has allowed us to achieve extraordinary things and survive in unlikely places and this book shows you how and why.”
Each chapter tells the story of a different thread and she goes right back to the beginning – 30,000 years ago!!!! Thread has been found which dates back 30,000 years! There’s a chapter on the Vikings and their woollen sail cloths, the linen used to wrap Egyptian mummies, the story of silk and the connection with the Great Wall of China, cotton, lace…
Kassia also tells the dark history of man-made fibres such as rayon and viscose. To be honest I never really knew the difference between the various man-made fabrics and I certainly didn’t really consider how they were made, but I can also now see where bamboo fabric fits in.
The book goes right up to date with sporting fabrics, mountaineering and space exploration. She also covers the ecological and political issues and events such as the Bhopal factory disaster.
It’s a wide ranging book, full of fascinating insights into something many people take for granted, textiles. For those of you in the UK, The Book People have it at a very good price!
We seem to be having a dry but chilly winter, so as long as I’m wrapped up with scarf, hat, gloves etc I’m OK for a while in the garden. I’ve been concentrating on the raised bed by the patio. It’s about 6′ deep and about 20′ long, so it’s taking a while! It’s also 2.5 to 3′ high, so far I’ve been tidying up and weeding the area I can reach without having to climb up. It’s looking better already…
My deep wine hellebores have finally started flowering, aren’t they a beautiful colour! I bought them last year on Otley market, they’re just by the path in the Amethyst and Amber garden, so I can admire them whenever I walk the dogs!
I was checking the other hellebores near the pond and there’s lots of buds just appearing so hopefully in a few weeks it should look pretty good. I’ve just discovered this one is called Helleborus argutifolius, otherwise known as the holly leaved hellebore – that will be why it’s so prickly!!!
The mahonia down the drive is still putting on a good show, I have a love hate relationship with this one as it regularly prickles me as I walk down the drive. This one is getting rather large and straggly so I’ll be checking in my pruning book when and how to tackle it – apart from with gloves on!
In the front garden I’ve got a very pretty erysimum, the perennial wall flower. It’s a beautiful amber / rusty pink sort of colour and it’s been flowering for most of the winter, it’s definitely earning it’s keep.
Down the drive by the house I’ve also got a euphorbia wolfenii, it is a particularly dry bed as it’s under the shelter of the eaves but it seems happy there. The new fronds are looking quite statuesque.
All over the garden bulbs are starting to push their shoots up, daffodils, alliums, unidentified bulbs in pots from my mums and of course snowdrops. These are tiny ones and they are just starting to open their dainty white petals. They’re up by the pond so I keep having a peep when I walk past with the dogs.
The cold but dry weather looks set to continue next week, so hopefully I’ll get a few sessions tidying up in the garden.
It doesn’t seem three weeks since I last showed you my Down the Rabbit Hole quilt, I was nearly three quarters of the way round the rows of houses…
I’ve not done as much as I hoped as I was concentrating on my other long term project, my Tall Year Square etui. Now that is finished I’m hoping to spend more time getting this rather large quilt finished too.
Excuses over, I have managed to finish the rows of houses, I’ve stitched quarter of an inch around the skyline and also run a stitch zig-zagging across the middle of the little houses. I’ve learnt that paper piecing does not make for easy quilting! My quilting isn’t perfect but it’s quilted. The backing fabric is quite a busy but subtle soft purple which has the big advantage that my quilting doesn’t particularly show up on it. I have checked however, and I think most stitches are getting through to the back!
I’m thinking of stitching some nice straight lines like rays from the sunflowers in the corners and then this border is complete. It’s quite a nice feeling when it’s a struggle to fit the area you’ve quilted on a photo easily!
Hand Quilt Along Links
This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another. If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.
I’ve just finished stitching Le Jardin de Bobines by Nathalie Cichon of Jardin Privee, I bought the pattern at the Festival of Quilts last year, I loved the colours and it brings together two of my loves, gardening and sewing! I think it’s the fourth design of Nathalie’s I’ve stitched over the years.
It’s been fairly quick to stitch, of course I did make a bit of a variation on the left hand plant. I managed to stitch a wiggle in where it was meant to be a gentle curve, I was stitching in the coffee room at work before my shift started so I was obviously concentrating more on the banter than I was on my pattern! I undid the worse line and make it at least look OK, even if it wasn’t correct! However it did mean that everything above that point is two stitches to the right. It’s the sort of pattern where that doesn’t really matter, though my butterfly is fluttering through a bit of a narrower gap than he would like, and the pink flower has a slightly smaller petal. It’s unique!!
The finished design is about 6″ square, a bit too big for a small so I decided to make it into a cushion for my sewing room. I had a good rifle through my stash looking at various colours and combinations, nothing jumped out until I saw a batik which Helen gave me for Christmas, it seems to include most of the colours in the design and looks vaguely garden-like, it’s got the pinks and purples, turquoise and green. I had found my fabric!
I stitched a 4″ border round the design, thinking I’d trim it to size. I thought I’d bought a 12″ cushion pad, but when I tried it I discovered it was actually 14″, so my 4″ border made it just the right size. I did have a play with some ric-rac round the cross-stitch, but it didn’t seem to add anything, so I went with a simple border. I backed it with the same fabric and just slip-stitched the pad inside.
I have a little bentwood chair in my sewing room which I recovered a few years ago so my cushion looks perfect sat on there, next to my sewing shelves.
I’ve got a bit behind with my Splendid Sampler blocks, this is one reason why they are listed on my Nineteen for 19 challenge. I just looked and it was October when I last posted any photos! I’d made sixteen at that point.
The Splendid Sampler 2 is a quilt-a-long organised by Pat Sloan and Jane Davison. I did the first SS quilt and loved it, two blocks a week and lots of camaraderie on facebook. This time only the first twenty blocks were free, then you had to buy the book for the other 80 blocks. I bought the book in the autumn and it’s pretty much sat there since! Somehow there isn’t the same camaraderie which keeps you going on a big project like this.
When I read the introduction Pat did come up with a very good suggestion. Make it a personal quilt with blocks that mean something to you. I was never planning to do all 100 blocks, I want a throw size this time, maybe 49 or 64. I’ve looked through the patterns and chosen ones that relate to me, so all the sewing ones are in! There’s also a music one, mountains, countryside, flowers and books all feature in different blocks. After that I’ll do the ‘general’ blocks I like!
Just before Christmas I did manage to embroider one of the blocks, but I didn’t quite get it sashed and quilted to show you. Over the weekend I had a good session in the sewing room and managed to complete another four blocks;
The sewing one is a design by Pat herself, I embroidered it in a soft blue variegated thread, it’s just back-stitch and french knots. I was a bit wary of quilting it, I’m always a bit more apprehensive on blocks I really like! In the end I quilted round the flowers, stitched a wavy line round to the next flower and quilted the word sew across the centre. I deliberately didn’t try and match the embroidery as I didn’t want to stitch over the embroidery too much.
I also finished the fruit bowl block by Jo Avery. This hasn’t come out as well as I hoped, the applique circles are a bit cornered! However the advantage of this is that I was a bit more adventurous with my quilting! I made a sort of figure of 8 pattern along the edge of the basket (I think mine looks more like a fruit basket!) and then quilted a petal shape on the sides of the basket. The fruit was all stitched in the ditch and then a swirl added in each circle.
The First Aid block by Jane Davidson is about wear and tear of quilts and mending these treasures. As a nurse for me it’s more about emergency first aid and the work I do each week. I quilted this one fairly simply with some extra crosses.
The last block I tackled was called Nancy’s Spool, it was designed by the late Nancy Zieman. It’s a lovely simple block of a spool of thread. I quilted it in the ditch but I also added a pattern down the centre, in calligraphy I would call it a flourish! I thought it would look a bit like the criss-cross pattern you get on a spool of thread.
I’ve made twenty blocks now, I arranged them on my design wall and I have to say they look pretty good!
I’ve managed to get my three sessions of gardening in this week, sometimes short, at least one was a couple of hours! I find that once I’m out there, all wrapped up, it’s actually quite pleasant!
I’m still waiting for my wine hellebore to bloom, there’s lots of buds now though, a couple of the other hellebores are just starting to flower too, this is a pretty double one I grew from a little plug plant a few years ago…
…I think I’ve a bit more tidying up to do round the pond! Those are old iris and crocosmia leaves which need a good trim.
Whilst I’m tidying the beds up I uncover all sorts of bulbs just starting to make an appearance, in particular daffodils and snowdrops.
I’m concentrating on the patio area at the moment, down by the conservatory. I’ve pulled up all the dead geranium and brunnera leaves, cut back all the irises, weeded and generally tidied. My next area to tackle is the raised bed, it’s about 6′ deep and about 18′ long, I’ve planted lots of shrubs but I think I need a few more smaller ones. It always looks a mess at this time of year! At one end there’s a large choisya which I think needs a good prune as it’s being a bit of a bully to nearby shrubs. The rose is getting swamped and there’s a poor artemisia just to the right of the shrub which looked like it was being pushed off the wall last year!
The pots still need sorting a bit but I did notice an early iris reticulata, it’s been fairly mild over the last couple of weeks and I think a few plants are earlier than usual.
Hopefully next week I’ll be able to show you a tidy patio and maybe some wine red hellebores!
It’s three weeks since I last showed you my etui, it’s a design from the Classic Inspirations magasine by Betsy Morgan. I was still embroidering the final pieces then…
I’ve been working hard on it since then, I was ready for a finish but I also had a competition deadline to urge me on. You may recall last year I was short-listed for the Needlecrafter of the Year award with my silk ribbon embroidery. Well I didn’t think it would work for that but I noticed they also had several other competitions, including use of colour. The deadline was Friday and I finished it with hours to spare…
Yes, it’s happy dance time!!!
Once I had finished all the embroidery I had to steadily and methodically go through the construction instructions. I’m afraid I hardly took any photos during the construction – I was too busy concentrating!
I was surprised to see the etui is made with pelmet vilene, not cardboard. I bought some on line and also bought a stiffer one to try as I wasn’t convinced about just using vilene. All the pieces were backed with a medium weight iron on vilene, just big enough to fit inside the outline stitches. The embroidery was then laced over a piece of pelmet vilene. I did cut out some of the stiffer vilene but I decided it would be too bulky. Each side is lined with silk dupion, again this had a medium weight vilene ironed on and then I gently laced it round another rectangle of pelmet vilene. The pocket strips were cut right next to the nun-stitching, which was a bit terrifying! They were then laid across the silk lining and stitched across the back.
When I first saw the back-stitch outline round each piece, I presumed I would be whip-stitching sides together, however the stitching just seemed to be a way of keeping the edge sharp and neat, I had to run a thread under every backstitch and then make a tiny stitch across to the silk in-between. It does make a neat, even finish.
The base was made the same way. The sides were stitched onto the prepared base using a ladder stitch. I used the thick interlining for the base as I thought it might help the structure.
I had changed the design of the lid from a flat piece to a cornered shape so I had to make it up as I went a long. I used my hera marker to score the interlining along the folds. I ladder-stitched the corners together and folded and pressed the sides under along the stitch-line, I slotted the pelmet vilene in and tacked the sides to the interfacing. The lining was a bit more tricky to work out, in the end I ironed on a square of interfacing which would just fit the centre, I did a little squirt of 505 basting spray just to help it stay in place. I made some tiny stitches into the corners to hold it neatly and then trimmed and turned under the silk against the sides. Clover clips came in very useful here! At the corners I just to make it as neat as I could, I then gave it a good press using the corners on my tailors block.
I made four lengths of cord from for co-ordinating DMC threads with a little mother of pearl button threaded at one end before the cording started. This then had to be threaded through the eyelet in the middle of each side using a large darning needle, passed under a buttonhole loop and then up through the corresponding eyelet in the lid and finally through a hole in a larger button on the top! The four cords were tied into two loops and then I made a tassel to go over the top of them using a purple perle thread.
Having made the basic etui, I then turned to the pin cube. This was prepared the same way with interfacing and lacing over pelmet vilene. I then used ladder stitch to join all the sides, stuffing it firmly before the last two sides were stitched. Attaching it to the box proved tricky! I made another length of cord. I then had to find a needle which was large enough to thread the cord through, but small enough to pass through the holes in a little button, and finally long enough to pass right through the pin cube!!! It took some finding! It was a miliners straw needle that passed the test in the end! I had to pass the needle through the button and eyelet on the top, through to the eyelet on the bottom of the pincube – not as simple as it sounds with all the stuffing! It then went through the eyelet in the base, through a button, then all the way back again! It was then just tied in a bow.
I’ve really enjoyed making this etui, it’s taken about 15 months, though I have made a few other things along the way! I didn’t find the pattern easy to read at all, it took me a long time to get my eye in as it’s written so you count lines, not squares, there’s quite a few miscounts in there! I’m really pleased with how the colours worked out as I used my own choice of thread rather than the ones listed for the project which were way out of my budget. Each side of the etui, the lid and the pincube represents a different season but the design flows round the edges from side to side. It is a lovely design!
I’ve already chosen what I’m stitching next, I need a simpler design which I don’t need to concentrate on too much so I can spend time on my hand-quilting as well. All will be revealed in three weeks time!
This stitch-a-long is organised by Avis of Stitching by the Sea, we post every three weeks which is a great incentive and motivator to keep going on a project! If you would like to join us, just send Avis a message. In the meantime please follow the links to see what everyone else has been stitching.
I think Guess How Much I Love You has to be my favourite children’s book from when my kids were little, it had only just been published then and I loved sitting on their beds, snuggled under a quilt, reading the story to them. I’m going to be a great aunt soon (makes me feel very old, I used to have a Great Aunt Margaret and she seemed positively ancient!!) so of course I’m making a baby quilt. It didn’t take long for me to decide on fabrics as soon as I saw this range. I wanted a fairly neutral palette as we don’t know whether it’s a girl or a boy, so I avoided the pink colourway.
I wanted a very simple pattern which wouldn’t detract from the cute hares on the fabric. I remembered a baby quilt I’d saved on Pinterest and luckily it was a link that actually went back to the original post on Lo, Ray & Me.
The pattern is very straight forward, initially I planned to stitch a wider strip of rectangles and then cut off the 6.5″ strip for the end, but the first fabric I cut I wanted to fussy cut so that idea went out of the window. I do like the two hares in the squares! The only cutting out problem I had was with the spotty fabric going down. The dots aren’t true to the grain along the width, which is how I was cutting it. After much thought I decided to go with the dots and keep my fingers crossed that being slightly off grain wouldn’t matter…
Everything went smoothly until I stitched that dotty length on, I couldn’t get the stripes across to match. Unfortunately I didn’t take any photos at this point, but trust me, it may have only have been a good 1/4″ off but it looked really off! It took me a while to work out that somewhere along the dotty edge some stretching and waving had occurred. I spent a bit of time with my ripper and started that bit again. I decided it was a mixture of two things, the off-grain situation can’t have helped, but also I’ve got into a bit of a bad habit when stitching plain borders on of not measuring the length, just carefully feeding it in and stitching it. I’ve always got away with it, ending up with nice flat borders. I think on the whole I must be fairly even when feeding the top and bottom layers under the foot. Not this time! I then measured my quilt and cut the border strip, pinned them together and stitched. It worked! I think I’ve learnt my lesson!
I thought I had enough batting in my scrap box, but the piece was about 2″ too narrow, so I’ll have to finish it next week. I’m thinking of quilting the word Love or Baby down the dotty strip,maybe with a close stipple behind to make it stand out. I haven’t quite worked the rest out so any ideas welcome!
I really enjoyed my Eighteen for 18 challenge, I found it did help me keep focused on what I’m making, without getting stressy if it didn’t happen! It’s taken me a little while to compose my list for this year, it’s got to be potentially achievable but still a challenge, a fine balance!
1 scrap quilt; my scrap boxes are bulging so I desperately need to do something with them. I’ve found a pattern which I could just make a few blocks every so often.
2 Tutorials; I know this was down for last year, but I’ve had several requests for one on my stitch journal.
3 Sessions a week in the garden; This worked so well last year it’s going in again. It doesn’t matter how long I’m out there, three lots of ten minutes is half an hour! Invariable once I get out there I’m out for much longer. It made a huge difference to the garden this year. I’ve promised my OH to open the garden in the summer to raise money for the Soldiers Charity, so I’ve got something to aim for!
4 workshops; I like learning new techniques or ideas and a day workshop is ideal. They could be run by WI or one of the fabric shops, I’ve just sent an e-mail to Fabbadashery to see if they still have places on two of their workshops in the summer.
5 Presents; I like making presents and this will hopefully encourage me to make a few more.
6 Quilts; This may seem a lot, but I’ve a baby quilt to make this month, the Splendid Sampler quilt and the Spring Wreath quilt will hopefully be finished by the summer as will Down the Rabbit Hole and I’ve got two or three kits for wall hangings…
7 New Patterns; I still have an embarrassing number of patterns I’ve never sewn!
8 Kits; I’m a bit of a sucker for kits at shows, despite sewing quite a number last year my kit box doesn’t seem to be getting any emptier!
9 Mini Embroideries; My Embroiderers Guild is starting a new Travelling Sketchbook this month so I’ll have a good excuse for stitching simple little embroideries.
10 Things! There’s quite a few things I want to sew such as a new handbag, wallet, fabric baskets, a rug, sewing mat, a rabbit!….I thought I’d bundle them all together under ‘things’!!
11 Cross-stitch Smalls; I like stitching these and they are perfect projects for keeping in my handbag for any opportune moment for a bit of sewing.
12 Pages in my book; I’ve a new project I want to start which I’ve been planning for a while. When we cleared my mum’s house I kept all her embroideries, cross-stitch, bobbin lace, several unfinished. I want to make them into a textile book, both to keep them safe and also hopefully for my mum to enjoy.
13 clothes made; my wardrobe is getting a bit bare now, I do need to make some more everyday outfits, tops, skirts and trousers.
14 Drawers organised; this is on-going from last year as I’m not very good at keeping them organised!
15 minutes tidying at the end of each sewing session (like nearly every evening!) I’m hoping this will help me keep my sewing room tidier and therefore easier to work in! At the moment I put stuff down and lose it!
16 Books; I love reading but I have got a bit out of the habit. One problem is finding a time that will fit in, it also doesn’t help that when I get into a book, I really get into it, my perfect way to read a good book is to start mid morning and just read it to the end! My OH reads at bedtime which I’ve always resisted as it’s in 15-20 minute slots, but that’s better than nothing. At the moment I’m reading The Golden Thread, a fascinating book.
17 blogs a month; this shouldn’t be a problem, though I’m not doing the weekly photo challenge this year, just the monthly one, so that’s 4-5 less a month.
18 Walks; We’re just planning our next big walk, we’re doing the Cleveland Way in June, walking from Helmsley to Saltburn and then down to Whitby, over 8 days. we will walk the final 30 miles over the summer to complete the walk to Filey. We’ll need lots of practise walks again to get our stamina up.
19 Splendid Sampler Blocks. I’ve made about twenty so far, I’ve got the book so I need to get organised to make enough for a throw, maybe 49 or 64.
I think that will keep me busy for a while! Quite a few things overlap, like scrap quilts, quilts and presents, patterns and clothes or kits and cross-stitch, so it’s not as huge a list as it may seem at first! Time will tell…
As it’s the first Monday of the year I thought I’d better start as I mean to go on with a little wander round the garden. It was only a little one as it was cold, wet and miserable outside today!
Last year on Otley market I bought a beautiful deep wine hellebore, it was gorgeous. I was delighted to see it’s full of buds at the moment so hopefully we’ll soon have a good display.
The first camellia flower is out, just one so far! This is a shrub I rescued from under my mum’s privet hedge about ten years ago, it was dried out in it’s tiny plastic pot with two twigs and one shrivelled leaf, I decided to rescue it and it’s thriving. I like to remind my mum of this whenever she admires it! It’s about 4′ tall now and covered in buds.
At this time of year I really appreciate the evergreen shrubs, they give the garden some shape and interest over the long winter months. These two are at the entrance to the Amber & Amethyst garden, a purple flowered hebe and an erysimum which I seem to remember is an amber colour, rather than the usual purple. At the moment I just enjoy their foliage.
I’m trying to get back to my three sessions a week in the garden, hopefully I’ll manage a bit of tidying up and weeding tomorrow.
thecraftycreek 