My Malayan Silk Dress

Posted on June 28, 2018 by craftycreeky

We had a big holiday in March which include two days in Kuala Lumpar visiting family. I managed to include a trip to the quarter with all the fabric shops in. Of course I had to buy  a few lengths…DSC_0002

The turquoise one on the right is actually pure silk, it’s quite a heavy, drapy silk with a lovely soft sheen. I loved the pattern on it, they had this style of fabric in dozens of colourways and subtly different patterns, I was spoilt for choice and just couldn’t make my mind up, in the end my OH chose this one!

As we are having a bit of a heatwave at the moment I decided it would be rather nice as a simple summer dress. I made a dress just before we went away which turned out to be one of those dresses you could just live in on holiday, cool, comfortable, smart/casual…in fact I wore it that much it could have walked off the plane on it’s own!!

It was Burda pattern 2943, one of their super-easy range, I made it in an etched cotton lawn.

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I decided it would be lovely made up in the slinky, drapy silk. It was actually lovely fabric to sew with, although it’s drapy, it’s quite a firm fabric, it doesn’t move all over the place when you’re trying to cut it out, it doesn’t slip and slide when you’re trying to sew patterns. In fact it was so unlike silk to sew that I double checked the content listed on the selvage with Google translate, 100% Seta.

I also cut a 6″ square and popped it through the wash. it came out perfect, not even fraying! Despite the initial lack of fraying I decided to overstitch the side seams, with the cotton dress I had used french seams, but I felt it would be too bulky in the silk.

Having made the basic dress I had a bit of a conundrum over the finishing of the neck and arm holes. The pattern uses a folded strip of bias fabric but with the cotton dress I had made a facing instead. I actually have a length of fabric which would have lined it perfectly, however I did feel that having made a cool, silk dress I didn’t want to line it in a hot synthetic fabric! In the end I decided to try the bias tape method. It’s basically made in the same way you bind a quilt, the folded strip is stitched on the seam line, then folded to the inside and stitched down. I’m always concerned about the bulk with this type of finishing as you end up with seven layers of fabric, a lot more at seams.

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I was pleasantly surprised at the result of the binding method. OK, it’s a firm edge, but it feels fine to wear and looks pretty neat I think.

I’m really pleased with this dress, it feels lovely to wear, it just sort of slinks into place as you put it on!! I think it will be lovely to wear when I go out to lunch with friends. ..and even better I can pop it in the wash afterwards!DSC_0006

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The Training Begins

Posted on June 27, 2018 by craftycreeky

I’ve been pretty busy over the last couple of weeks and got a bit behind in the what I’ve been doing sort of posts, so hopefully over the next few days there will be a bit of catching up!

In September my friend and I are walking St Cuthberts Way, a 62 mile walk from Melrose in the Scottish Borders to Lindisfarne, a little island off the Northumberland coast, it has a causeway you can use to walk to the island if you time it right with the tides! It sounds a lovely walk, through beautiful countryside, and hopefully not too strenuous. We’re taking a week to walk it, some short days, some longer days. We’re getting pretty excited!

This will be about the 6th walk we’ve done together, so far they’ve all been in Yorkshire or the Lakes, so not too far to travel. We’re spreading our wings a bit this time. Here in the UK there are quite a lot of official long distance walks, a lot of them are route marked, most of them are also marked on the Ordnance Survey maps. I was amazed recently at a talk by the Yorkshire Shepherdess who lives in the middle of nowhere but on the route of the Pennine Way (which I think is the oldest long distance walk) that approximately 12,000 people walk all or part of it each year. This means that many of the B&B’s and farms are geared up for walkers, when we walked the Dales Way a couple of years ago, it was really hot, many farmers had ice boxes with bottles of water in and an honesty box.

Although we do a walk each year, we don’t do much to keep our fitness up afterwards, so we always have to start training walks a few months before. We officially started our training regime a couple of weeks ago! We always put a load of dates for walks in our diaries as otherwise the weeks go by with no walking!

We started off with a 5 mile walk round Otley Chevin. The Chevin is the hill behind our house, it’s all part of a huge moor called Rombalds Moor, which includes Ilkley Moor if you heard of the song On Ilkl’a Moor baht ‘hat.

The Chevin is now managed forestry, with lots of footpaths, it’s great for dog walking as you can walk miles with the dogs off the lead. We did a big loop to take in both sides of the Chevin. From the top you get a great view of Otley, our house is in the trees down to the left.

Running from east to west along the side of one of the paths is a long row of standing stone slabs. It’s always fascinated me. It’s known as the Vacca Wall, it’s obviously very ancient, but it seems a bit unclear what it was for. Vacca is supposed to relate to cows, so it’s thought it may be to keep cows safe from predators.

On the top of the Chevin there’s a rocky area known as Surprise View, and the view on a good day is amazing. It was pretty clear when we were there and we could just make out the White Horse of Kilburn, which is about 40 miles away on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors. Ok, it was just a white splodge, but we could make it out! Unfortunately there is little point taking a photo of a tiny white splodge, so you just have to believe me!

Walks on the Chevin tend to involve a lot of up and down, so we were pretty pleased how the first days training went.

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A Pair and a Spare

Posted on June 26, 2018 by craftycreeky

This post was going to be called a Pair of Smalls, then I found another one, so I have a spare like any good Girl Guide 🙂

I started June on my trip down to London, it’s a really cute one with a bear and a hive of bees. These designs are by Maia Matyas of Snowflower Diaries, they’re a free SAL from 2016 called Joyful World. I think they are cute without being twee!

It amazed me that within probably 20 stitches, you could already tell it was a bear, just by the snout and the position of the eyes. I stitched on the train journeys and a little bit in London. I was even stitching in Kings Cross Station whilst I waited for the platform to be announced!

I didn’t have so much to do when I returned. With the little bees on this design the obvious choice for the backing was my sage green bee fabric, it coordinates beautifully. The cord round the edge is actually one I made for another project but the colours didn’t work, I think it matches pretty well on my bear.June; Joyful World SAL

Whilst I was in London I also stitched a little blackwork sheep. This was a practice piece as my Embroiderers Guild are doing a joint project where everyone stitches one square on a blackwork grid. There’s some beautiful blackwork being stitched. We could either do traditional or modern blackwork, but our square was only 25 stitches across. As soon as I saw this sheep on Pinterest I knew he was the one. The name Skipton means sheep town, so I felt we had to have a sheep on there. Blackwork Sheep

I needed a practice because the sheep on the pattern was a bit big, just by a few stitches. So I cut off his tail, put him on a diet and trimmed his legs!!! A bit drastic but it worked! I added some grass to fill the square a little. I think he’s rather cute.Blackwork Sheep

I stitched one on the official piece at my Embroiderers Guild meeting, I didn’t manage to get a photo of it, maybe next time! Last night when I was making June the bear up, I decided to make my little sheep into a mini pillow…and it’s pretty small. I found a grey quilting fabric which toned in nicely as it is actually stitched  on a scrap of very pale blue/grey linen. I found some grey trim in my stash which was just enough.

Yesterday afternoon I was sorting through my mums stuff and I found a box of old cards, in it was a birthday card I made for her over twenty years ago. It’s a rather pretty forget-me-not design. Luckily I had done my usual trick of using sticky tape rather than glue, so it was easy to remove from the card. After that it was a fairly quick job to make it into another pillow. My spare small!Forget-me-not cross-stitch

 

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Monday’s Meander Round the Garden

Posted on June 25, 2018 by craftycreeky

It seems to be getting hotter and hotter here in Yorkshire, I’m not good in the heat so I either sit in the shade or find a cool room inside…and yes, my sewing room is pretty cool! The heat also means some plants are starting to struggle, I can’t remember the last time it rained properly so our clay soil is like concrete at the moment. I’ve three plants waiting to be planted but there isn’t even much point trying to dig a hole at the moment, I’ve already broken one spade this year!!

I’m watering all my new plants every few days, I don’t like watering too frequently, I’d rather give a good soaking and then leave them a bit. I think if you just sprinkle daily you encourage the roots to come to the surface. In fact usually I’ll water a plant when I plant it, maybe once more if it’s lucky, then it’s got to fend for itself, but this year is too dry and I’ve spent quite a lot buying them so I don’t want to lose them!Lady Emma Hamilton

Most of the roses seem to be loving the sunshine. My favourite at the moment is up in the Amber & Amethyst garden. It’s called Lady Emma Hamilton, it’s a beautiful copper colour which ages with a pink blush. It’s got a gorgeous heady scent too, I love it!

The roses in the rose border are all starting to look good, you just have to ignore the couch grass in the photo! I think the pink one at the front is the Alnwick rose.Rose border

The yellow rose is one you don’t see very often, it’s called the Buttercup rose, and you can see why, it has rich yellow petals which are very cupped, it’s an unusual shape, not very big,  but I think it’s beautiful.Buttercup Rose

The white rose is Champagne Moments, we planted them when we got married, in fact we bought them instead of bouquets to those who played an important role at our wedding. I’ve also given them as presents. The only downside is that it doesn’t have much of a scent, but it flowers it’s socks off to compensate!Champagne Moments

The arbour down by the patio is looking lovely at the moment with Generous Gardener flowering over it’s roof. It took a few years to persuade this rose which way to go, but it finally seems to have got the idea, though occasionally it tries to take a short cut through the trellis at the side!Rose Arbour

I’ve had a good prune down the drive, cutting back spring flowering shrubs, there’s a few getting a bit big so I’m going to be pretty hard on them this year, they’re tough shrubs so they’ll bounce back! It’s hard to believe when you look at the photo that I filled two tonne bags with clippings!! Lots more to go!Summer pruning

I’ve been round with Pathclear this evening on the gravel, so hopefully we might see some success with the fight against the marestail!

The AA garden is starting to come together, it’s amazing how quickly a border can fill out. Most evenings at the moment we’re managing to spend a while just sitting chatting up there. I planned this area to catch the evening sun, so it’s nice we’re having the weather to enjoy it.Lady Emma Hamilton

 

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Little Wiggle Time

Posted on June 25, 2018 by craftycreeky

I can’t manage a happy dance as I ache so much after Go  Ape yesterday!! So here’s a little wiggle instead…

I finished my Spring hand quilting last night, all bound and ready to find a home. I’m not quite sure where to hang it or what to do with it yet. I’m tempted to put it on the tea trolley in the summerhouse as a pretty mat, it is just a practice piece after all. I can bring it in over winter so it doesn’t get damp.

A few of you asked about Go Ape yesterday, well it was awesome! It’s one of those tree top adventures where you’re strapped into a harness and then go along swing bridges (literally a line of swings to walk along!!) zip wires and leaps of faith.

Now don’t get the wrong impression of me here, I’m no adrenaline junkie, in fact I’ve analysed myself and decided I just don’t like being scared, you’d never get me on a fairground ride, I can’t even watch Dr Who (those angels that blinked did it for me!!!) But somehow at Go Ape it’s different, I feel safe because I know I’m hooked onto a safety wire, it’s more about learning to overcome your fears. The first time you do a Go Ape course the sense of achievement is HUGE!!

Having said that I did have a few wobbles faced with the Plummet, a 40′ sheer drop off a platform. The line slows you down before you land so you have a pretty gentle landing, it’s standing at the top with the instructor trying to persuade to move a bit closer to the edge…and don’t look down!! The Tarzan free fall was pretty similar in that it was a Tarzan swing where you couldn’t feel it take your weight until after you jumped – about 60′ up and across about 30′ (guessing here but it was high!!)

As you can probably tell from the photos, most of the group were ALOT younger than me, like I’m old enough to be their mother! So I was pretty pleased to have managed it, there was only one section I bottled out of, where you had metal rings hung on ropes about 6′ long and you had to go from one to the next (about 8 in total) to get to the other side, I just knew I didn’t body strength to do it!

We all celebrated with an ice cream afterwards, then a trip to a pub for a well earned drink!

 

 

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A Spring HQAL

Posted on June 24, 2018 by craftycreeky

I was hoping to have a happy dance today, but I’m not quite there, life has got in the way, or probably more to the point, other projects have got in the way! I worked out a couple of days ago that I had twelve projects on the go, quilting, sewing and embroidery. I think I need to concentrate on getting a few finishes under my belt. I like having a variety of projects but sometimes it just gets a bit too much, it’s hard to control the mess (AKA the creative process!) in my sewing room!

Anyway, three weeks ago this is where I was…

This is a practice piece I’m doing before I start hand-quilting my Down the Rabbit Hole Quilt. I collected my quilt from the Long Arm Quilter last week, she has sandwiched and basted it. It was just too big for me to sandwich at home, it’s 96″ square! It’s lovely to get it back home, but I am determined not to start quilting it until I have finished this one.

Spring is a pre-printed panel from my stash, I’m just doing a simple quilting pattern to get my stitches nice and even. I took it with me when I went to visit my mum, only I forgot one half of my quilting hoop! I stitched it without the hoop and actually it came out OK. My mum was keen to try quilting again, so last week I basted a William Morris panel I’ve had for years and took it in with threads etc.

So, three weeks later and this is where I am…

It’s probably easier to see my progress on the back…

I’m pretty pleased with my stitches, they’re reasonably even and not too many missing on the back! I just need to quilt one bottom square and the title box, then I can bind it and it’s happy dance time!

I’m thinking of setting up the landing area just outside my sewing room for hand-quilting my DTRH, it’s quite a big area and I already have a comfy armchair there, so if I add a good light and a frame, I’m sorted!…oh, and I need a bit of a tidy up too 🙂

*** Update ***

Last night I managed a bit more quilting, I quilted a double heart on the remaining square, I was then pondering how to quilt ‘Spring’, well I decided to quilt a spring pattern, as in a bouncy spring! I hand drew it with pencil and quilted over the line. A bit cheesy, but I like it 🙂

So quilting is now complete, if I manage to bind it tomorrow I’ll write a quick update post, though that depends if my nerves survive Go-Ape tomorrow afternoon, a high level tree top experience, I like zip-wires, but not sure about ‘The Plummet’, a 40′ sheer drop!!!

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 and Bella.

 

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Paper Piecing Australia

Posted on June 23, 2018 by craftycreeky

Earlier in the year one of the blogs I follow (Granny Maud’s Girl) featured a quilted map of Australia, just nicely cushion size, each state was created in a different colour, I decided that when it came out as a pattern, I would make one for my OH.

Roll on a couple of months and Granny Maud’s Girl published the pattern on Craftsy  I immediately purchased the pdf.

Roll on another couple of months and this week I decided to make it. I raided my scrap box for bright, colourful prints, the leftovers from the Kaffe Fasset quilt I made over winter came in very useful! I eventually had little piles of green, blue, red, orange, yellow, teal and purple.

The pattern is made using foundation paper piecing, it went together beautifully, the instructions are straight forward and it’s easy to work out what colour goes where as each area is colour-coded. I made the 12″ version, though the pattern also includes a mini version too.

After a couple of evenings I had a collection of brightly coloured shapes, looking a bit like a colourful jigsaw!

I stitched them all together, following the instructions. The only one that jumped out at me was the plain green! I haven’t used many plain fabrics in my quilting so it didn’t twig that it would stand out so much. Trying to remove and replace it just wasn’t going to happen so I pondered over alternatives. I thought about embroidering it, but again it would stand out too much. In the end I decided to bondaweb a patterned square over it, leaving a very narrow border. It did look much better, all I had to do was make sure I quilted enough over the top of it.Australia by Granny Maud's Girl

To make it more standard cushion size I added three borders, a narrow yellow, a wider blue and a white in-between, it sort of reflects the blue skies and sea and  the golden sand. It was now about 19″ square.

I sandwiched it ready for quilting and initially my thought was just to meander a quilting line over the square, however trying to find a thread that would look OK over the white and the red and blue proved tricky, I didn’t really want to be swapping threads all the time. In the end I just quilted in the ditch around the shape and round each state. I then echo quilted round Australia until I had enough quilting on the piece. I used a variegated light blue/grey Gutermann thread. It’s turned out OK but I think if I was doing it again I might just outline and then stitch an overall wave pattern instead.Australia by Granny Maud's Girl

The green square…Quilting patterns I thought of weren’t going to cover it sufficiently, I decided in the end to stitch the letter ‘M’ over it as my label, it nicely covers quite a lot of the square and I don’t think it jumps out any more!

I used a leftover length of batik fabric in blues and greens for the back and made it up into a cushion simply by hand-stitching one side closed. My final touch was to stitch a button for each place he lived in or where close family were, he was born in Melbourne, lived in Brisbane and family live in Sydney.

As soon as I had finished it I gave it to him, I think he’s well chuffed with it 🙂Australia by Granny Maud's Girl

Linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday, follow the link to see what everyone else is hand-stitching.

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Friday Photos on Saturday

Posted on June 23, 2018 by craftycreeky

I completely forgot it was Friday yesterday, well I didn’t forget as such, I just forgot to post the Friday Photo Challenge from Postcard from Gibraltar! So maybe this should be called Snaps on Saturday!!

The theme yesterday was midsummer, so I immediately thought flowers…


…and of course roses…

…visiting gardens, this is Thornton Hall near Darlington.

…and walking up Catbells, this id the view over Derwentwater towards Skiddaw and Blencathra.

or just enjoying a glass of wine in the garden!

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Haberdashery and More

Posted on June 21, 2018 by craftycreeky

I love that word, haberdashery, it is such an old word and there’s no other word that quite sums up all the bits and bats you need for sewing, ribbons, trims, laces, threads…

I was in London last weekend meeting up with my penfriend from Australia. We started writing through the Girl Guides when we were 12 years old, 40 years ago!!! There’s been times when it waned, but we kept in touch. Now I’m married to an Australian so we go over to Australia to see family every couple of years so we have met a couple of times over there. This year has been a bit different, she has been working in London for six months, so we’ve managed to meet up for three lovely weekends. It’s been great to have a bit more time to chat about this and that. Last weekend was the final meet up before she goes back to Australia.

I took the train down to London, I started sewing June of the Joyful World stitch-a-long. It has a very cute bear on it, sitting next to a hive of honey bees. It amazed me that with just a few stitches, you could tell it was a bear, I started with the nose, added the eyes and already you could see what it was! Two hours on the train and I made reasonable progress.

I had the afternoon in London before my friend finished work. I decided I didn’t need any more fabric (I know, a rare moment of rational thinking!!) so I wouldn’t tempt myself by going down Goldhawk Road. I decided to look more at embroidery threads and trimmings for my cross-stitch smalls…

Well that didn’t work!

I took the train one stop to Kentish Town, where just opposite the station is Delicate Stitches and the London Bead Company. It’s beads at the front and all manner of embroidery threads at the back. I love the threads there but I do find it all a bit overwhelming, there’s just so many types of thread. It’s also a bit of a higgledy piggledy shop with an old fashioned feel to it. I think half the problem is that I still feel pretty new to embroidery, I might see a gorgeous thread, buy it, it then just sits in my box as I don’t really know what to do with it! I did treat myself to some overdyed stranded cottons, mainly in colours which I think DMC and Anchor are lacking in with their variegated threads.

One more stop on the train and I was at West Hampstead where I found the Village Haberdashery. It’s a lovely light shop with a wide range of sewing things, I did succumb to some Kona Solid quilting fabrics, they had a great range and I hadn’t appreciate the subtle colour range before. I bought four fat quarters in pale colours that I think will be useful for embroidery.

Next I caught the bus to Oxford Street. My original plan was just to find McCulloch & Wallis and then go to the other end to VV Rouleaux. I decided as I was in the area to have a wander through Liberty as it is a beautiful building. I’m always a little disappinted with the fabric department in Liberty, as I remember when it covered about three floors, one for cottons, one for wools and another for silks, I’m also a bit narked that none of their fabrics are made in the UK anymore. Anyway, I digress…as I walked towards Liberty’s I saw the windows were covered in big signs, Up to 50% off!!!  Oh dear…

I do love the way they display quilts over the panelling in the atrium.

I walked out with a 3m lemgth of Tana lawn with nearly 50% off, it’s a beautiful smudgy pink design, I think it will make a really pretty summer dress or skirt. I picked up a couple of lengths of trimmings too from their bargain box.

Round the corner I finally found McCullock & Wallis on Poland Street, I’ve been meaning to find this shop for a couple of years but I always got distracted by the shops on Berwick Street which is parallel. Berwick Street in Soho used to be my haunt for fabric shopping back in the 80’s when it was still a decidedly seedy place at night time.

McCulloch & Wallis is a beautiful shop, gorgeous fabrics on the ground floor and a huge range of haberdashery in the basement, I loved the way everything was displayed by colour, and I’ve never seen so many zips!!

On the ground floor I fell for a gorgeous fine cotton lawn, it feels like silk. I’m sure I’ve seen a couple of tops made from it on the internet. It’s a charcoal grey background with pink flying geese. I love it! I just bought a metre as it was quite expensive for me, so I’ll have enough for a simple top.

After all that shopping I ran out of time to get to VV Rouleaux in Marylebone, so that will have to wait for another visit…or a mooch on their website!

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Splendid Sampler 2

Posted on June 18, 2018 by craftycreeky

I tried to resist, I really did!

I have succumbed again to Pat Sloan’s Splendid Sampler! I learnt so much with the first Splendid Sampler quilt and at least this time I haven’t got another two BOM’s to keep up with as well! The Splendid Sampler is a quilt-a-long organised by Pat together with Jane Davison. A new 6.5″ block is released every Thursday for a year, giving a total of 100 blocks. What makes this special is that the blocks are designed by over 80 different quilters from all over the world, so you get lots of different styles and techniques. If you’re not keen on a block it really doesn’t matter, you only have to make one!

One thing that is slightly different this year is that the first twenty blocks will be released on line for free, after that you have to buy the book. I still haven’t decided if I’ll just make twenty or keep going.

My original plan was to make a scrappy quilt, my scrap boxes are overflowing! I did start rummaging round but I couldn’t get inspired. I then remembered some soft blue and grey fabrics I have in my stash. I think I bought them over time thinking they would work either with the last SS or my Down the Rabbit Hole quilt, they didn’t so they sat in my stash. I’m wanting a pair of blue/grey quilts as throws for the chairs in our dining room. The colour scheme is a lovely peaceful silvery grey and soft blue. We’ve just had the chairs reupholstered so I want throws to protect them from Zach if he sneaks up.DSC_0003 (3)

So I’m sticking with my plan not to buy any fabric for this quilt, just use from my stash. I’ve collected quite a few fabrics in greys, blues and a few teals, as well as off whites. The only one I’m not sure about at the moment is the blue with wiggly lines on. It’s in for now, even if I just use it a few times.

The first block was designed by Alex Veronelli, he’s called it Quilt Market.

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It went together pretty easily, though it did seem a bit wasteful when so much was trimmed off! I’ve decided to add a simple sashing as I go and I’ll hopefully quilt them pretty much straight away too. I’m planning to use different fabrics for the sashing.DSC_0006 (2)

So here is my first block completed!DSC_0007 (2)

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