Friday Photo Challenge

Posted on November 30, 2018 by craftycreeky

After last weeks pickle I’m pleased to say I’ve got the right day and the right challenge – I think!

Today’s photo challenge by Postcard from Gibraltar is Wild, so I think I feel some more walking photos coming on!

Kirkstone Pass

This is Kirkstone Pass up in the Lake District, it runs from Ambleside at the top end of Windermere (which you can just see) over the bleak tops to Ullswater, it’s a fantastic drive but it is pretty wild up there if the weather turns.

This is a fairly flat bit in the Yorkshire Dales, we were walking the western half of the Bay2Bay walk, Grassington to Barrow in Furness, I think it’s around the Settle area….

…a bit higher on the same walk, this is typical Dales scenery, dry stone walls (there’s no mortar, they are just built by skillful positioning of the irregular stones) moors and limestone outcrops and pavements.

This is The Strid, where the River Wharfe goes from a fairly wide river to a wild torrent as it travels through a chasm not much wider than a stride, hence the name. Unfortunately many people have lost their lives over the centuries, believing they could jump across.

Wild sorghum in stitches from my Flower Lattice embroidery.

More dry stone walls from our Bay2Bay walk. The skill and stamina required to build these walls always amazes me, these walls will be 100’s of years old. This hill is as steep and long as it looks,we’d just hauled ourselves up it! It is straight as a die as far as the eye can see.

One of the joys of walking in late spring or early summer is wild bluebells flowering in ancient woodland. The scent is heavenly and travels quite a distance. You catch a scent and then you see a sea of blue.

I will finish with the video I put on youtube of the view from Wideopen Hill on St Cuthberts Way when we walked it in September, just in case anyone missed it last time! We pretty much walked for a week in countryside like this, we didn’t appreciate just how much we had got used to the quiet and the solitude until we reached Lindisfarne, a tiny island off the Northumberland coast. The coachloads of tourists were really quite overwhelming at first. It surprised us as this is the sixth long distance walk we’ve done, but this is the first time we experience that feeling of bewilderment when we ‘rejoined’ society.

 

 

Posted in Photo Challenge, Serendipity, Walking | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Damsons and Plums

Posted on November 30, 2018 by craftycreeky

Purple is one of my favourite colours, so I do have a fair bit of the colour in my stash, in all hues and shades. When I started rearranging my sewing room recently my stash storage space was reduced somewhat, so I’m trying to sew according to lengths that are bulky and therefore take up a lot of space in my cupboard! I’ve made two things in the last couple of weeks or so, both shades of purple, in fact I used up three lengths from my stash!

My first make was a cardigan, it’s getting cold over here and my cardies are looking past their best. I used Butterick 6258 which is my go to pattern for an everyday cardigan, in fact I think this was the seventh time I’ve made it.

The fabric is what I would call a waffle jersey, sort of textured, I’ve no idea where or when I bought it but it is a nice shade of purple!  My plan was to make it on my overlocker however we had a major falling out! I spent over an hour cleaning and rethreading it several times, testing it, I went from a four thread OK stitch, cleaned it (it was very dusty) to a very poor 3 thread stitch, rethreaded, cleaned more, improved to an OK 3 thread stitch, tried on my actual garment and it nicely trimmed the seam but made absolutely no effort to sew! It is now visiting the mechanic for it’s last chance!!!This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is dsc_00072.jpg

In the end I made the cardigan on my standard machine with a double seam in a slight zig-zag, I didn’t think to use my walking foot until near the end. The seams haven’t come out as flat as I would have liked but it’s fine for everyday pottering round cardi. I made it a longer length as one of my favourite ones is longer. Somehow with this one it didn’t look quite right, so I put big patch pockets on the front which seems to help and I do like a cardigan with pockets.

All in all, not my most successful make but OK for everyday, I’ve certainly worn it a fair bit so far , this is me doing a talk at my Embroiderers Guild…Image may contain: one or more people and people standing

My second make was a coat, as you can imagine a coat length takes up quite a lot of space! I bought this wool on one of my trips to Goldhawk Road in London. It’s a gorgeous loose woven Herringbone Tweed, when I first pulled it out I thought it was going to be a bit stripy, but then I noticed the other side was much more muted, I think this is the right side as it was on the inside of the fold which is the traditional way to fold wool.This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is dsc_0001-1-e1543594357572.jpg

When I say it’s loose woven, you only need to look at it and it frays, the issue being that it is also quite a coarse wool (though soft to feel) so if two threads fray you seem to lose 5mm. If I’d realised before I started how much it would fray I might have used a fine interfacing all over. It didn’t help that I also used my Coatigan pattern and the seam allowance is only 1cm!

I used a taffeta lining (from my stash) which has a diamond pintuck pattern, I seem to recall I bought this at Bombay Stores at one of the shows. I’ve no idea what I was thinking of making with it as I think to make a garment the tucks would make it quite difficult to get neat. For a coat lining it’s perfect, a bit of inside interest and somehow the tucks make it feel nice and chunky and cuddly.

I’ve used the Coatigan Sylvia pattern by Schnittchen a couple of times too, it’s a comfortable, everyday, throw it on sort of coat…

Despite the fraying, it actually went together pretty well. I managed to line the ‘stripes’ up on the front and back and also across the sleeve.

The Coatigan instructions are pretty minimalist, there’s no pictures though apparently there is an on line tutorial. In the instructions the lining is ‘bagged’, stitched all round to the coat and then turned through a hole left in the sleeve lining!! I still can’t quite follow this so I stitch facings and collar and then hand stitch the hem and sleeve ends. The actual hems were machine stitched, which is not my norm, I usually hand-stitch them up with a herringbone stitch. I was still concerned about the fraying though and decided there was less likely to be movement and therefore potentially fraying if it was just machine stitched up. It does make the line more visible but I can live with that.This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is dsc_00132.jpg

Having worn the coat for several days I still haven’t quite decided on the closure, the pattern has nothing or a single button. This looks fine but I know from experience that there is no way I’ll get the facing under my buttonhole foot. I have bought a black leather toggle which I think I will try first, hand stitch it on to see how it goes. I cold use a popper but for such a big coat I’d need quite a big one and I’m not sure it would suit the style.

I’ve worn my new coat several times this week and it’s lovely and warm and comfortable too. A success 🙂DSC_0011

Posted in Dressmaking, Serendipity, Sewing | Tagged , , | 13 Comments

Christmas Swaps

Posted on November 29, 2018 by craftycreeky

A couple of months ago Deborah from Sweet Fallen Angels suggested a Christmas tree decoration swap. I thought it was a great idea, I make a handmade Christmas decoration for someone whilst someone else is making one for me! I love Christmas and especially a handmade Christmas. I signed up immediately.

I’ve been secretly sewing  away my present which I will show you in the next couple of days. We had to have them in the post by the end of November as it was an international swap. So I’ve also been eagerly anticipating an arrival of a parcel from somewhere!

I was very surprised yesterday when not one but two little parcels arrived!

The first parcel I opened was from Linda of Linda’s Cr8tions, all the way from America. She has been secretly knitting a gorgeous gnome for me, isn’t he cute! I love his cheeky little round nose poking out above his woolly beard. It’s such fine knitting too, it’s lovely to have a knitted decoration as it’s something I never do, I have knitted years ago but I’m really not very good and it takes me FOREVER so I do admire beautiful knitting. I know just where he’s going to go at Christmas, he will look great on our mantelpiece next to the Santa’s and the reindeer! Thank you Linda 🙂DSC_0001 (1)

The second was a complete surprise, a lovely peg doll angel from Deborah as a thank you for taking part. She’s beautifully made with hand embroidery and beading, she’s all dressed up for Christmas with a silk skirt, a glitzy top, a little beaded necklace and of course a pair of gold wings. I can even move her legs and arms so she’s dancing! She will look lovely on our Christmas tree, skipping across the branches. To add to this, she was wrapped in a square of pretty quilting cotton which goes nicely with the collection I’ve just put together for my next Sarah Fielke quilt.DSC_0002

So thank you to Deborah for organising the swap, and especially for my little angel, it’s been a lovely start to Christmas.

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Friday Photo Challenge

Posted on November 24, 2018 by craftycreeky

OK, I’ve checked and the photo challenge from Postcard from Gibraltar for yesterday is definitely  Climb, so here’s another collection of photos !

As most of you know, my favourite fell to climb is Catbells, it’s only little at 1480 feet but it’s quite a pull to get to the summit, and there’s glorious views all along the way up to distract you for a rest!

Catbells

I’ve stitched various pictures of Catbells, this one is my most recent. It’s a for a quilt to be auctioned for an Ovarian Cancer charity, Kate from Tall Tales from Chiconia organises one each year and puts it all together. This year it’s called Teal it on the Mountain, so I could do another picture of Catbells.View over Derwentwater from Catbells

This is the view as you’re just starting to come down from the summit towards Grange (for a nice cup of tea!) looking over Derwentwater towards Skiddaw on the left and Blencathra in the distance, the town of Keswick is nestled  at the bottom.

Looking over to Borrowdale from the top. This was my 50th birthday walk and my two partners in crime are enjoying their lunch. We had a fabulous day!

Catbells from Keswick, taken from our hotel on the Heads.

This was my entry for the Sisterhood of the Travelling Sketchbook. The inchies on the left represent different aspects of the walk such as the launch across Derwentwater and the field patterns you can see in Newlands Valley on the far side of Catbells.

This was a little workshop we did at Embroiderers Guild called Rolling Landscapes, a long thin embroidery depicting Catbells and the nearby fells.

One of my early images of Catbells, this is the front cover of my Travelling Sketchbook on the theme of mountains. It is now filled with embroideries from my friends in my Embroiderers Guild.

My sister, me and Wags the dog on Catbells

A cute photo to finish, though it’s quite scary to think this was half a century ago!!! This is me near the top of Catbells with my elder sister and our dog Wags. As you can see I am very suitably dressed for walking in a little white dress and red shoes!! I’m not sure how much I walked that day but family lore says I climbed up Catbells under my own steam aged 4, bribed with squares of Kendal Mint Cake!

For more images of Climbs, please follow the link to Postcard from Gibraltar.

 

 

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Friday Photo Challenge

Posted on November 24, 2018 by craftycreeky

Editors note; I’ve just realised I’m completely out with my timing, I seem to have missed a couple  of weeks somewhere, but having written the post I thought I may as well show you!

OK, I’m a day late, (or maybe more!!) but as I seem to have missed last weeks as well I thought I’d choose a few photos for this weeks theme, storm. Having done a fair bit of walking over the years I’ve a few storms to show you, although they’re only little storms as we’re fair weather walkers really! Our storms here in the UK also are usually a lot milder than other parts of the world we here about. It says it all that we still talk about the 1987 hurricane!!

The first one is a photo I think my daughter took of heavy rain in our garden, taken from the comfort of her bedroom !DSC_0005

This one isn’t actually a storm, but it looks quite dramatic! It’s a lunar eclipse from a couple of years ago.

So how would you knit a storm? This is the tornado in Wizard of Oz that whipped up poor Dorothy and Toto, it was knitted for the Tea and Tents WI camping festival as we always have a knitting theme. In case you haven’t sussed it it was wrapped around a rotary clothes line – brilliant idea!

We don’t get snow falls like we used to do, I remember building igloos when I was a child! The garden still looks pretty after a night of snow.

A Snowy Garden

I love seeing the weather forming across the valley, seeing the rain coming nearer (so long as I have all my wet weather gear!) This is Ullswater up in the Lake District. I always presumed everyone could recognise rain in the distance as being brought up walking alot it was something we always did. It was only when I was at work one day looking out of the window and I commented to a colleague that someone was copping a load of rain, she ( a self confessed townie!) didn’t have a clue what I was looking at, I then realised it’s a skill you learn from being outside in the countryside.

Two old ladies enjoying the snow!!

Another photo of the weather coming across the hills, this was from our last walk, St Cuthberts Way. We were really lucky on the whole as we kept seeing the rain coming across but it would go down the other side of the hill, though I think the one in the photo did make us rather wet!DSC_0223

I’m sure there will be much more dramatic photos of storms over on Postcard from Gibraltar, so follow the link to have a look.

 

Posted in Photo Challenge, Serendipity | Tagged | 4 Comments

Little Things Please Little Minds…

Posted on November 23, 2018 by craftycreeky

Sometimes I find I have little things I want to share with you but they’re not really enough to write a whole post about, so I thought I’d lump three of them together, completely unrelated, a trio of little things…

I reorganised my sewing room recently and some of my stash is now in a set of four drawers. I decided to make some labels  so I remember what’s in each one, but also to cover up the patches where someone has previously stuck a sticky label!

I found some old-fashioned parcel tags which I think were left over from my daughter making Christmas tags last year. I also dug out a little book of labels which came free with a magasine years ago, in fact it was in the charity shop pile! I cut out four labels and stuck them on the tags having written on with a silver gel pen. They needed a bit more, so I rummaged in my button box for mini buttons and glued three on each one.This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is dsc_00063.jpg

I glued them onto the drawers and I think they look great. In fact I was so pleased with them I’ve made another eight for all my peacock boxes, as I’m forever pulling out the wrong box. These will just be blu-tacked on as I do change the boxes around and sometimes they will be better on the end, other times on the front; I’m gradually getting organised!This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is dsc_0014-2.jpg

A couple of weeks ago I was in Duttons for Buttons buying some binca for my mum, I was stood at the counter just about to pay when a pair of embroidery  scissors caught my eye on a nearby stand. Well it was love at first sight!! Aren’t they gorgeous!! I just love the peacock colours and the shape of the handles. Of course with at least half a dozen pairs of embroidery scissors they weren’t exactly a necessity, more of a complete impulse buy!!  I wasn’t sure what they would be like to use with the shape of the handle, but they are actually really comfortable as well as beautiful!This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is dsc_0016-2.jpg

Last January Catherine from Hillview Embroidery wrote a review about Advent Calendars for embroiderers. I was rather taken with the idea, so I kept an eye on the De Vere website and a couple of weeks ago a little box arrived. It was beautifully packaged, wrapped in tissue paper with a sprinkling of silver stars, 24 little bags filled with a different embroidery thread all wrapped in silver paper, string and pegs to hang it from and extra decorations such as cinnamon sticks attached to half a dozen of the bags. I’ve hung it up in my sewing room, just got to wait for December 1st!This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is dsc_00052.jpg

 

If I save all the little bags and pegs I can even get a refill next year! I bought three cheese Advent Calendars as well for my OH and my kids, so they’re happy too 🙂

Posted in Christmas, Crafts, Home, Serendipity | Tagged , , | 18 Comments

Christie SAL 2

Posted on November 20, 2018 by craftycreeky

I’ve just finished the second part of Faby Reilly’s Christmas stitch-a-long. She’s releasing a design every two weeks, they’re Christmas card size but I’m making them into decorations. The designs are gorgeous, this was the first one…Christie SAL Faby Reilly

I changed the colour scheme with that one as I’m a bit of a traditionalist at Christmas, I do like red and green with a bit of sparkle!

The second one is a beautiful snowflake design, I decided to use the colours Faby suggested with this one, though I did manage to use silver thread instead of gold by mistake! The fabric is actually the same as the one above, it’s not as grey as the photo suggests – winter lighting! I love the rice stitch border, it’s so delicate with the little bit of twinkle. I’d only used rice stitch once before and that’s on the Tall Year Square etui and they’re individual stitches which never seemed to look that neat, in a row like here they look much better.

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Having stitched the design I had to decide how to make it up. I felt early on that this design would look good on point, I found some lovely red and gold check in my stash, I cut it on the bias so I could get the squares on point as well. I sprayed it liberally with starch before I sewed it to stop the bias from distorting the square.This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is dsc_0009-1.jpg

I made a cord from some red and some silver grey DMC thread and stitched it round. I added a red bead on the corners and a dangly line of beads from the bottom. I used a few extra beads at the top to neaten up the join of the cord, I stitched both ends to the back and made it look like a mini tassel.Faby Reilly Christie SAL

I love this one, though I’m tempted to give it as a present, I’ll see how I feel when I’ve finished all four! I might not be able to part with it!!

I’ve already started stitching the next one, it’s a gorgeous Christmas tree design, so we’re back to the traditional colour scheme!This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is dsc_0010-2.jpg

 

Posted in Christmas, embroidery, Serendipity, Stitch-a-long | Tagged , , | 12 Comments

Stained Glass Christmas Decorations

Posted on November 20, 2018 by craftycreeky

Stained Glass NativityLast year a few of us from my WI went to Alma House in Ripon for a workshop with Rachel Poole to make a stained glass nativity, we loved it and we were really proud of our nativities. So when we discovered Rachel would be doing another stained glass workshop myself and Theresa put our names down immediately. This time we would be making Christmas decorations.

It was a lovely autumn day when we drove over to Ripon, this was the canal just by the sandwich shop!20181110_093817 1

We had a great time at the workshop, Rachel is an excellent tutor, knowing we had been before she was happy for us to work on independently but more than happy to do quick refreshers in how to do various stages.DSC_0009

Rachel got everyone to tackle the holly first because as she said, everyone thinks it’s the most difficult where as actually it’s one of the easier ones to do! We learnt how to score the glass and break it and then how to grind the edges to neaten and smooth them off. We all then chose different decorations to make, cutting all the glass and grinding it before lunch.

Choosing glass reminded me a lot of selecting fabric, I fell for the same colours, purple, jade, blue! We flicked through the box containing little sheets of glass and all of a sudden I’d see one and think Oooh I like that!

The Christmas decorations were made using the Tiffany technique, so we had to stick narrow copper tape around each piece of glass, then came the fun bit…DSC_0010

We had to soak each piece in acid and then solder all round, coating the copper tape completely. We could then solder different pieces together and add the silver wire to decorate. We learnt very quickly that the other end of the wire gets very hot when you solder!

We had a great time and we’re already looking forward to next years workshops with Rachel.DSC_0011

Posted in Christmas, Crafts, Serendipity, Women's Institute | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments

Monday’s Meander Round the Garden

Posted on November 19, 2018 by craftycreeky

The days are getting shorter and shorter, it’s only about five weeks now to the shortest day, on the plus side after that the days will start getting longer! I managed to get home today just in time to take some photos of the garden, though the light was falling fast.

We’ve had quite a dry, mild November so far so there’s still a few leaves in the trees and it’s still lovely and crunchy underfoot when I walk the dogs up the back lane. Yesterday when I was walking them I happened to stop for Rosie just as the lightest ripple of a breeze went past, it was just enough to make dozens of leaves flutter to the ground. What amazed me was the sound, it was like raindrops falling, they tinkled down through the branches, fluttering like the poppy petals at the festival of Remembrance. I stood and listened to it for several minutes, it was quite magical.

My rose order from David Austin came this week, four rose bushes of various sizes. A special Claire Austin standard rose was earmarked to put over Zach’s ashes, my son James had promised me he would dig the hole and it was obviously quite important to him. So on Saturday night he came a dug a big hole and hammered the stake in for the standard rose. It’s amazing the difference young muscles make, it would have taken me for ever! It was too dark to start planting then, but first thing Sunday morning I soaked the bare roots, popped the little bag of ashes in the bottom, sprinkled some mycorrhizal funghi for good measure and planted the rose. The trunk is strapped to the stake so I need to keep an eye on it as it grows to loosen it as needed. Hopefully it will be glorious this summer!

The other three roses are two small ones for the patio area and a big shrub rose for in front of the big fence. I planted those too with the rest of the sachet of m.funghi, it’s meant to help with settling in and early root formation which really sets the rose off with a good start.

Down the drive I’ve a big mahonia, I have a love/hate relationship with it as when I’m walking down the drive it’s prickly!! However it has just come into flower, so at the moment it is forgiven!

Whilst I was down the drive I noticed how high the eunonymous has crept up the wall, I’m going to have to start pruning it soon or it will be in the gutters.

As the flowers and the foliage die back the other features in the garden start to take on more of a role in the garden. My collection of blue and grey planters looks pretty good in the summer, but I particularly like it in the winter for that little splash of colour.

The wire sculptures I have around the garden start to be noticeable too. The chicken has been hidden in the geraniums all summer…

From ground level the garden seems to be heading rapidly towards winter, so I was pleasantly surprised when I looked at the upstairs photo as it still looks fairly colourful, albeit with the soft colours of late autumn.

I’ve not been out much over the last couple of weeks due to a heavy cold, but hopefully now I’ll be able to get back to my three sessions a week and do a bit more tidying up and weeding.

Posted in Garden, Serendipity | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

HQAL Round the Houses.

Posted on November 18, 2018 by craftycreeky

It’s three weeks since I last showed you my Down the Rabbit Hole quilt, in that time I’ve actually met the designer, Sarah Fielkes at a talk in Slaithwaite, thousands of miles from her home in Sydney. It was pretty exciting and inspiring.20181112_195918

Of course I took my quilt a long to show her and also asked her to sign a square of fabric. As soon as I got home I embroidered over it to make a ‘designer label’ for my quilt.DSC_0001 (2)

Despite all the excitement I haven’t managed to spend many hours quilting it. Three weeks ago I was just about to start quilting the houses…DSC_0606 (1)

I’ve prevaricated a bit about this border and how to quilt it, mainly because it’s foundation paper pieced, so there’s a lot of layers in places making it quite hard to quilt. I tried initially to quilt in the ditch round the roofs, but it just wasn’t happening so I decided to quilt 1/4″ out from the roofs, I even found a roll of 1/4″ masking tape to try and keep my seams even-ish and I think it did help.DSC_0002

Across the main block of houses I’ve stitched a sort of zig-zag line, going across the house but then going up or down around the windows, so I’m not going all the way round the windows, just two or three sides. Once I’ve got all the way round I might look and see if I need to do another row and perhaps stitch a little more in big roofs. I’m trying to quilt mainly in the same direction as I find it a very big quilt to manoevre around.

I didn’t quilt for long but I almost completed a row of houses. I’m stitching in the ditch on the purple border above as I go round.

I think I need a plan with this quilt. Every time I do a bit of quilting it grows a lot quicker than I anticipate, so I know if I made a concerted effort it would get finished in a reasonable length of time but…DSC_0021 (2)

I’m concentrating on my Tall Year Square etui at the moment, trying to get that finished, hopefully by Christmas. Once that is done my next SAL will be a (very pretty) cross-stitch, so I can do it in my ‘borrowed time’ , when I’m making tea, visiting my mum etc. I can then concentrate on my quilt better and hopefully get that finished.

It’s a plan!

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.

Kathy, Lori, Margaret, Kerry, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Connie, Susan,  Nanette, Sassy , Edith, Sharon, Karrin, and Gretchen

 

Posted in Down The Rabbit Hole, Quilt-a-long, Quilting, Serendipity | Tagged , , , | 21 Comments