Friday Photo Challenge

Posted on July 6, 2018 by craftycreeky

Today’s word from Postcard from Gibraltar is Golden I thought I might struggle at first as I’m not really a glitzy gold person, but once I spread gold out to natures golds, I had plenty of photos!

This is one of my favourite photo of our holiday in Australia, whilst it’s not the most golden of the morning, I love the gold of the sand against the pale blue sea with the sun just casting a gold tint to the spray over the wave.

Kiama Beach at dawn

Of course I had to include some roses…

This is a little Christmas humbug (design by Faby Reilly) with a gold ribbon embroidered around it, I’ve decided I really don’t like sewing  with the DMC gold thread, so I’m going to find an alternative for the next one!
Holly Humbug gorgeous cross-stitch decoration

I think these are rudbekias or they might be heleniums! This photo is from last year but hopefully they will be coming into flower fairly soon.

I couldn’t have a post on golden without Rosie, our gorgeous golden retriever.

I went to Beverley Minster for the first time last year, it’s a beautiful place, soaring pillars with gold bosses on the ceiling.

fIt was towards the end of autumn when I last visited Thorp Perrow Arboretum but there was still a few trees with golden foliage.

Why not follow the link to Postcard from Gibraltar to see everyone else’s golden photos.

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National Portrait Gallery

Posted on July 5, 2018 by craftycreeky

Following on from yesterday’s post, on the Sunday of my weekend in London we went to the National Portrait Museum. At the moment the BP Portrait Awards exhibition is on, apparently it’s the most prestigious award in the world!

Several paintings caught my eye from a textiles point of view…

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This one is called Patchwork, it’s by Paula Wilson. It was just nice to see quilting as part of a portrait.

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I loved this painting, it’s a portrait of a lady celebrating her 100th birthday. From what I can gather it was actually painted on the vintage floral fabric. If you look the pattern continues through everything. It’s painted by Monika Polak.

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This was the winner of the award and deservedly so. It was absolutely beautiful, so serene and peaceful, it amazes me how anyone can paint a linen table cloth so you can almost feel the texture! It’s painted by Miriam Escodet, it’s a portrait of her mother.

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We then went to the National Gallery next door, this is a painting of Madame de Pompadour at he Tambour Frame, painted around 1763 by Drouais

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This was my favourite room in the National Gallery, it was the schools area. The Gallery obviously run workshops for primary school children mainly, it sounds like they study a painting and then create something similar. Some of them were seriously good, I would have been happy to paint that well! There were also some weavings, this was my favourite. The children were aged 8 and 9, from St Faith’s School in Hampshire, they had to do a weaving on the theme of a story. This one is The Three Little Pigs, isn’t it gorgeous! I just love those three pompoms!

After our day of culture it was time to say our goodbyes and set off home…with a bit of sewing on the train back!

 

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Kew Gardens

Posted on July 4, 2018 by craftycreeky

I’m playing catch up with my blog posts at the moment so apologies if I’m a couple of weeks late…

I went down to London in June to visit my Australian penfriend, it was our last weekend together before she heads back home. She suggested we visited Kew Gardens on the Saturday, I jumped at the idea as when I lived in London in the 1980’s I used to visit Kew whenever I felt the need for a bit of green, which was quite frequent! I lived in the East End, so I would drive round the North Circular Road and wander for hours round the gardens, looking at the huge trees and inside the greenhouses. I loved it, it was my escape.

Roll on a lot of years and it is just as beautiful. Kew is managed by the Royal Horticultural Society, it was first recognised as a National Botanical Garden back in 1872, but there had been a garden there for many years before that. It houses the “largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world”.

We did two free garden tours whilst we were there, which were really informative. Some of the trees are very, very old, it always amazes me to think of history that has happened during the lifetime of a tree. 20180616_112958

There’s a large rose garden at Kew, full of David Austin roses, the scent was amazing. It was lovely wandering round and spotting roses we have in our garden. The photo shows less than half of it!20180616_113038

The palm house was stunning, just from an architectural point of view, never mind the plants! There were little mist puffers up near the ceiling which gave it a very ethereal feel inside.20180616_113704

I made a beeline for the waterlily house as I love waterlilies. I wished I had my DSLR camera with me (ideally with a telephoto lens!)  instead of my phone as the flowers were beautiful. Some of them were tiny and easily missed, others were huge.20180616_120755

Kew gardens is big, about 30 acres, so we barely scratched the surface in a day. We looked on the map to choose things we didn’t want to miss, I spotted a rose walk over near the herb garden, so we wandered there too…oh to have a rose arch like this!20180616_124722

I love looking at trees, their bark patterns, leaf formations, their shape, some of the barks at Kew were beautiful, I could see an embroidery made from this one…20180616_115919

The Temperance House has just been restored after years of work, it’s the worlds largest surviving Victorian glass structure. During our guided tour we heard about the difficult decisions and plans they had to make with plants and trees as they had to empty the Temperate House in order to restore it.20180616_150830

We spent a wonderful day just meandering around the gardens, it brought back many happy memories and made new ones too.

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The difference of a year and a BOM

Posted on July 4, 2018 by craftycreeky

So far I’ve managed to keep up to date with the new Splendid Sampler quilt-a-long, though it’s less arduous this time with only one block a week at the moment. It’s a quilt-a-long organised by Pat Sloan and Jane Davison, with 80 other designers each designing one block, so there’s lots of different styles and techniques. I made the first Splendid Sampler and learnt lots, so I decided to try and make this one too.

I’m aiming to make two throw size quilts to go in our dining room, I seem to have acquired a large selection of soft blues and greys, so that’s what I’m using. I’m aiming just to use this stash and not buy any more, or at least use it all up!

I showed you the first block a couple of weeks ago. It was a pretty straight forward pieced block. I decided to sash and quilt it as I go, keeping the sashing a simple log cabin design. I’m also using the same fabric that a block is sashed with to back it too. Last time I had a mix of pretty floral backs and plain cream, I really ike the effect but it was tricky placing them all as not only did I have to be happy with the front arrangement, the back had to be correct too! This way should be easier as they are both the same.Splendid Sampler 2

It’s amazing the difference a good block of the month can make, I usually choose my BOM’s around what I want to learn, particularly if I’m paying for it. After making the Splendid Sampler last time and also Lynette Anderson’s quilt, I wanted to learn how to do applique, so I joined Sarah Fielke’s Down the Rabbit Hole BOM.

The second block is by Rebecca Bryan, it’s called Milk and Cookies, though in my colour scheme I think I’ll rename mine Summer Moon! It’s a Dresden circle appliqued on a pieced square. Before the DTRH quilt I would have bondawebed the centre circle and buttonhole stitched round and I would have been in a bit of a tiz over the Dresden circle. Twelve months later and I did needle-turn applique without thinking about it!

I finally managed to watch all the Leah Day tutorials on my Craftsy account, I was very impressed, learned lots and now I’m going to practise on my little squares. I finally got the hang of bringing the bobbin thread up so I don’t get a birds nest underneath! I also like the way she travels along stitch lines so you don’t have to keep stopping a starting, this is also helped by using the fmq foot even for straight lines. For this block I just quilted in the ditch around the moon and the sashing and then did a meander over the rest.DSC_0002 (2)

The third block was a bit more tricky, clam shells! Well I’ve done them, I used Sarah’s method of tinfoiling the fabric round a template for pressing and then appliqued them all. It’s not perfect and I can’t say I’ll be rushing to do them again, but I’ve tried it. The little embroidery at the top was definitely the easy part.

I quilted this with two patterns I learned from Leah’s class, a meandering clover around the flowers and an echo around the clam shells. Hopefully my stitch will improve as I get used to the different patterns. This whole block was quilted in one continous line which also means less threads to hide, so hopefully I’ll be a bit better at not leaving threads all over the place.DSC_0001 (2)

The next block is out tomorrow, so we’ll see what that one brings 🙂

 

Posted in Quilt-a-long, Quilting, Serendipity, Splendid Sampler Quilt | Tagged | 13 Comments

Eighteen for 18

Posted on July 3, 2018 by craftycreeky

We’re half way through the year already, so how am I doing with my Eighteen for 18 challenges;

  • 1 Etsy store opened; Still no further, I think I really need to take the plunge and just put a few things on, test the water a bit!
  • 2 Tutorials; Nothing written but I have got two ideas!
  • 3 Sessions a week in the garden; Still doing well at this, I did wilt a bit with the heat, but now I’ve discovered the early morning slot I’m managing a couple of hours at least each time.Rose border
  • 4 Quilts; I finished my hand quilted mini quilt and also a quilted cushion for Ken so I’m going to class these as half a quilt, I’ve included a half for my Down the Rabbit Hole quilt as it’s pieced but not quilted, so together with the Sunshine quilt it’s a total of two, so I’m right on track with this one.
  • 5 Craftsy Classes; I finally started watching these, I’ve had them in my Craftsy library for ages, I’ve watched the Leah Day one on free motion quilting, I was very impressed, there must be eight hours of tutorial to watch! I’ve started practising so you’ll hear more about it soon. I’ve also started one called 40 things every sewer should know, I think I’m half way through and boy does she fit in lots of information! So my tally is 1.5, still a bit of catching up to do but at least I’ve started.
  • 6 New Patterns; Can I class my Chanel jacket as a new pattern? It was new when I started it 8 months ago so I think so!! So I’ve tried four new patterns so far this year.Making a Chanel Jacket
  • 7 Kits stitched; I stitched my little hedgerow embroidery kit this month, I also finished a kit for the stitching sampler. I’m still working on Bertie the blackbird and I’ve just started another little kit, so I’ve now stitched four kits with another two on the way.
  • 8 Pages in my stitch sampler book; I haven’t done any more, so my tally is still at six, I have however made the decision not to add beads to the edges of the pages, this may not sound a big deal but although they look really pretty with a bead every half inch, it does mean I have to be at home at my desk in order to stitch them together. Stitching them with a simple whip stitch means I can do it whilst I’m out and about, so it’s a lot more likely to get done! It will also fit better with the fairly formal set out of the stitch sampler.
  • 9 Pounds Lost!!! I found a meme on facebook which says it all really…33399216_2195752867196301_4326968586221387776_n
  • 10 Mini Embroideries; I’ve stitch two this month, the hedgerow kit and also the Carto ablation one, so with my total at six so far I’m ahead of schedule.Carto embroidery
  • 11 Letters to friends; I’ve been really bad at this, it remains at two!
  • 12 Boxes or Drawers sorted in sewing room; I’ve done lots of sorting this month, mainly as I continue to absorb my mums craft stash and control my own as well. I emptied two drawers in an old pine chest on the landing. It used to be painted dark green as my grandad’s workbench, with vices and lathes screwed to it, my mum had it dipped and waxed years ago and now it’s mine, it’s beautiful. I filled the two drawers with quilting fabrics, sorting colours, batiks and plains where possible. This emptied three fabric boxes into a semblance of order. It also means my stash has crept out of my sewing room on to the landing! So my tally is now ten, so I’m doing pretty well at this one.
  • 13 New Recipes; Nothing new this month so still just five.
  • 14 Less Lengths in my stash! Well…I’ve used another length of fabric, but I bought two in London, although two lengths in London was pretty restrained for me!
  • 15 Posts a month; I’ve just done a quick tally and I counted 24 posts, must be a record for me!
  • 16 cross-stitch smalls; I made three cross-stitch smalls this month, so my tally is fourteen, well ahead on this one!
  • 17 items of clothing made. I think I’ve done quite well this month as I’ve made a dress and finished my Chanel jacket. So far this year I’ve made five things, so not bad, but a bit of catching up to do.
  • 18 Walks; Our training has finally begun, so I’ve managed two walks with my friends so four walks so far and lots of dates in the diary for more practice walks.
Posted in Dressmaking, Eighteen for 18, embroidery, Garden, Serendipity | Tagged | 16 Comments

Sculptures in the Garden

Posted on July 3, 2018 by craftycreeky

Today it’s the first Tuesday in July so it’s time for the monthly photo meet-up organised by Wild Daffodil. This months theme is sculpture.

At first I thought I didn’t have any photos of sculptures, thinking of the big things you see in parks and museums. Then I remembered, what a ninny! I’ve made several chicken wire sculptures myself…

The first one I made was several years ago now, the WI ran a workshop to make a chicken wire chicken. I had chickens at the time so I signed up immediately. The tutor was Susan Nichols and she was great, we learnt all about making yum yums and yoyo’s from chicken wire! My chicken turned out pretty chunky, just like our chickens at home. She’s got long spikes coming out of her feet so she can be positioned anywhere. She’s called Florence after my favourite chuck.

Chicken Wire Sculpture Duck

The following year WI ran a course with Susan to make a duck. These are pretty solid sculptures, they actually weigh quite a lot as the chicken wire is so dense, you can spray paint them or leave them to rust naturally, which is what I’ve done.

I’d seen in Susan’s album photos of a heron, I really wanted to make one but she explained that in the confines of the WI room there just wasn’t the space, from a health and safety view point – herons have very long legs. I’d have to go to her home for a workshop.

The following year I persuaded a friend to come with me and I went over to Fridaythorpe in East Yorkshire and made a heron. If I say so myself, he’s gorgeous! I call him Hubert as he does look quite haughty as herons do! He presides over the pond in the summer. I sometimes move him down to the lower garden in the winter as he’s quite exposed there in the winter and it worries me that someone might decide to take him for a walk! This photo is taken in late winter, he’s almost disappearing amongst the foliage at the moment.hellebores & chicken wire heron

Another year went by and another friend decided she would rather like a heron too! So we both went and this time I made a goose. Goosey Lucy is seriously big, like large Canada Geese size, so she’s pretty heavy as well. I love the way her neck curves round. She’s down in the patio at the moment.DSC_0032

When I looked round the garden I’ve lots of little sculptures too. There’s my stone owl up on the fence, three little guinea fowl chicks (looking a bit cold in this photo!) and a moon gazing hare which props the summer house door open!

…together with a stone duck which is now hidden under geranium but looked amazing in the winter with the frost on it.Frosty morning

I like moving my scuptures around, the wire ones especially look good in a group.

This photo challenge is organised by Wild Daffodil, why not follow the link and check out everyone else’s photos.

If anyone lives within striking distance of East Yorkshire, I can highly recommend Susan’s courses, it’s hard work on your hands as there’s lots of twisting and pushing, but it’s worth it, I fancy making a curlew next, or maybe a pheasant…or a hare!

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Monday’s Meander Round the Garden

Posted on July 2, 2018 by craftycreeky

Our heatwave continues here in in Yorkshire, I think the last time we had any rain was in May, I don’t think it will be long before we have a hosepipe ban, whilst I appreciate the need to conserve water I do worry about all the plants I’ve bought this year!

I was getting a bit behind in the garden too as it was just too hot for me during the day, however I’ve recently discovered a perfect time for gardening in hot weather – my mum’s dog, Lucy, has an annoying habit of waking up to go out at 05.30 and as she is not very reliable in the bladder region, we can’t ignore her. It’s even more annoying as the alarm goes off at 6am, just 30 minutes more… I noticed the other morning how lovely it was outside, so by 6.30am I was weeding in the garden! I lasted until about 10am when it started to get too hot. So that is my pattern now on a day off!

Rosie found a cool spot to have an afternoon snooze…DSC_0010

The astrantia round the patio have gone a bit mad this year, I moved at least one but I still seem to have three big plants, they’re the pale ones too, not the most exciting and they’re starting to smother other plants, so I think come the autumn I’ll move them all up to the old chicken run, have an astrantia border under the old roses!DSC_0016

There’s a beautiful veronica just come into flower in the AA garden, it’s an intense, deep blue. I’ve a few veronicas around the garden of various sizes ut this is the first one to flower this year. They’ve started self seeding round the garden too which is always a nice surprise. I think it looks lovely next to the gold leaf of the pieris…and yes, that’s another astrantia in the background ready for moving in the autumn!DSC_0019

The AA garden is filling out nicely, it looks particularly nice as you walk up the steps and see it at eye level.DSC_0018 (2)

I think the weed killer is working in the gravel, the marestail is looking pretty miserable! I’ve had success with the bindweed too! I still seem to have an evergrowing repetoire of weeds though!

We’ve also got lots of self seeded poppies. Last year when I was clearing the area I made an effort to allow these lovely purple poppies to set their seed and to help them spread it. They are a lovely delicate shade of mauve, each one subtly different.DSC_0025 (2)

We’ve got a huge patch by the compost heap too, just waiting for those to flower.DSC_0024

The geraniums are all in flower, I love the way they mingle with everything, they are very sociable plants. However the pink one (Ann Folkard I think) is getting a bit big for her boots, I let her off a lot as she is in such an awful patch of clay, but I’ve just had to scoop her up and prop up the sides as we were having difficulty opening the gate! I noticed today that the stems which have trailed into the shade of the magnolia tree are a much darker magenta, which looks lovely next to the lime green of the spirea next door.DSC_0017

The black sambuscus is much bigger this year, I usually prune it hard but I wanted it a bit bigger to help cover the fence. We’ve been rewarded with a blackbirds nest! We noticed the pair of blackbirds were flying to the bush a lot and today whilst we were having coffee we heard lots of little cheaps as one of them took a worm in!DSC_0009

We’ve no rain forecast for at least another couple of weeks, so fingers crossed everything survives!

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Chanel Jacket

Posted on July 1, 2018 by craftycreeky

DSC_0009 (2)After about nine months of faffing about I finally knuckled down and finished my Chanel jacket last night. It’s not exactly the weather for wearing it at the moment, but I needed it crossing off my to do list! So it’s definitely time for Snoopy to do a happy dance!

I started this jacket last autumn at a two day workshop at the Yorkshire School of Sewing. It was a great workshop and at the end of it I had the basics of a jacket, I just had all the hand-stitching to do….

There’s an awful lot of hand-stitching on a Chanel style jacket, hence I have only just finished it, not helped by having a few other projects to distract me! This is where I was last time I showed you the jacket in April, lining stitched in but waiting for all the decorative bits…Making a Chanel Jacket

The jacket is made from a gorgeous loose-weave tweed typical of Linton Tweeds, it might be a Linton Tweed but I think I bought it in Dewsbury, so origins are unknown! I love the rich colours in it. Chanel jackets are traditionally a bit shorter and don’t have buttons, but I wanted a slightly more wearable one, this length is more me! The lining is quilted to the tweed before the jacket is constructed, so all the lining seams are effectively hand sewn. The side seams were straight forward but I did find the sleeve head a bit more tricky. Gillian our tutor had suggested padding the sleeve head but I couldn’t work out how to get the lining over the head neatly, so in the end I took them out.

The buttonholes proved a bit tricky too. I couldn’t physically get the front/facing seam under my buttonhole foot without risking ruining the loose weave of the tweed. In the end I paid for a lady in Otley to do them! She has a good reputation for alterations and she did a great job of my buttonholes, it’s worth remembering her again! I wasn’t sure about my black buttons at first, I even tried a set of plain  burgundy ones too, but looking at the photos I think they look fine.DSC_0010

Chanel jackets usually have some kind of decorative braid around the edges. I’d found a burgundy coloured braid which matched beautifully. I decided it would look neatest just a little bit in from the edge. It seemed to take for ever to hand stitch it on, every loop, both sides…it’s a long way round my hips!!DSC_0014

The finishing touch was the chain along the hem. These help the jackets to hang nicely. It’s probably more relevant in the shorter, buttonless jacket but I decided to add it anyway. So for those of you who like to see the innards of an outfit…DSC_0016

I braved the heat to take some photos outside this morning so apologies for the summer skirt and T-shirt that accompany it, though you escaped lightly as if I thought I’d get away with cropping the photo I’d have left my shorts on!!! I’m really pleased with it, the body of the jacket feels like it fits well, though the sleeves feel a bit snug, I certainly couldn’t get a jumper underneath it! I think it’s designed to be worn with a classic Chanel sleeveless shift dress.DSC_0006 (2)

I love the finish of the jacket with all the quilting and hand-stitching, though it’s an awful lot of work so I can’t see me making another one except for a very special occasion! I shall try and remember to wear it to the Knitting and Stitching show in November so I can show Gillian my finished jacket.

Linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday, it may not be quilting or embroidery, but there’s an awful lot of hand-stitching! Follow the link to see what everyone else has been stitching.

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A Tall Order

Posted on June 29, 2018 by craftycreeky

Today’s theme by Postcard from Gibraltar for the Friday Photo Challenge is Tall …

The first thought that came o my head is of course my Tall Year Square etui box which I’m stitching at the moment. It’s a design by  Betsy Morgan and I’m about half way through having completed Spring and Summer sides. Although it’s called Tall Year Square, it’s really pretty small!

I think this was part of the West Bay2Bay walk, Grassington to the Cumbrian Coast, 100 miles walk. The cow parsley and the meadow sweet were very tall, unfortuanetly so were the nettles! This is my walking buddy 🙂

Echinacea with a touch of twining bindweed! I bought an echinacea (cone flower) last week as none of mine seem to have survived either the transplanting or the winter. I’m just waiting for a drop or two of rain so I can dig a hole!

My favourite fell in the Lakes. Catbells seems  tall when you start walking but it’s actually pretty much a baby amongst the Lakeland fells. It has a big mountain view from the top though!

My tall chest of drawers, well it’s not that tall as it fits neatly under the table. It was originally from Ikea, I painted it and wrote on the drawer fronts with a silver marker pen. The drawer knobs are old wooden cotton reels. I really must put a blob of glue on the orange thread as it keeps unwinding around my sewing room

This is a beautiful garden at a house up near Darlington called Thornton Hall, my WI visited a couple of years ago. I’ve been trying to return ever since but it’s only open a few weekends a year and life just seems to get in the way! This white border is stunning with it’s tall spires of delphiniums and lupins.

Follow the link to Postcard from Gibraltar to see what everyone else has been telling tall tales about.

 

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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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