Tall Year Square Etui SAL 6

Posted on May 6, 2018 by craftycreeky

Three weeks have flown by since I last shared my Tall Year Square Etui with you. It’s a design by Betsy Morgan which is in the Classic Inspirations magasine. Three weeks ago I was doing a mini happy dance, a hop, skip and a jump as I had just finished the cross-stitch for the side representing spring…

It took me a while to choose my threads for summer. I’m not using the threads recommended for the project, as it would be way out of my budget, instead I’m using DMC variegated threads. Rather than trying (and failing) to find a DMC thread similar to the official thread, I’m choosing a few threads that for me suggest the season I’m stitching. So for spring it was fresh green, blues, yellows and a touch of pink.Betsy Morgan, Classic Inspirations Magasine

Summer proved a little more tricky. My initial thoughts started with the heathery green colours, but the design included a dragonfly and waterlilies! I selected some threads that would work for the dragon flies wings and body, pink for the waterlilies and a green for the frog. I’ve included the purple too, hopefully it will work, it does in nature!!

I’m also hoping the 4025 doesn’t look quite so bright when it’s just back-stitch, I might change my mind and use 4030 instead which is slightly greener and softer.


I hoped to be a bit further, but I’ve been concentrating on other things, and I do need to concentrate with this one, it’s not one I can pick up and put down whilst cooking tea! I took it to my Embroiderers Guild meeting so I stitched for a few hours then though it doesn’t look much so I must have been talking a lot as well!Betsy Morgan, Classin Inspirations Magasine.

There’s quite a few of us joining in the stitch-a-long now, stitching an amazing selection of projects, so please follow the links to see how everyone else is doing. If you would like a join our merry gang, please send Avis a message.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, LucyAnn, Kate, Jess, Sue, Constanze, Debbierose, Christina,

Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Helen, Steph, Linda, Mary Margaret,

Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Tony, Megan, Timothy

Posted in embroidery, Serendipity, Stitch-a-long | Tagged , , , | 30 Comments

Keyholes

Posted on May 4, 2018 by craftycreeky

It’s Friday already! This weeks Friday Photo Challenge has been a big challenge. It’s set by Postcard from Gibraltar and this week the theme is Keyhole which should be fairly straight forward…if only I could find a photo of a keyhole!

I looked for door photos, I even looked for buttonhole photos as my machine does keyhole buttonholes…nothing!

So you have a photo of half a keyhole…Craft by Rovaris

..a key 🙂

Posted in Photo Challenge, Serendipity | 3 Comments

Poppy Humbug

Posted on May 3, 2018 by craftycreeky

I started another cross-stitch small a couple of weeks ago. As I was ahead with my monthly Snowflower ones I decided to have a bit of a break from them and do something that’s been in my to do pile for a while.

I love Faby Reilly designs, I’ve stitched quite a few of her designs now, they’re just so pretty and a bit different, I like the way she uses different stitches and beads to embellish and her back-stitching just lifts the design.

When we finished the Lizzie Stitching Wallet stitch-a-long we all got a discount code and amongst other things I bought the pattern for a poppy humbug.poppy-humbug-wsqr02

Isn’t it gorgeous!

I’m stitching it on a soft green linen which I think I bought by accident as it’s 28 count, whereas most of mine is 32 count. It does make it a nice size to stitch. The colour doesn’t show up at all in the photo below so you just have to imagine a nice soft green!

I started in the middle, but as soon as I had finished the cross-stitch on the first poppy I stitched the back-stitch round the outside with the markings every 5 stitches, it does make it so much easier with this kind of project as I didn’t need to count across from one poppy to the next. It will be used for whip-stitching it together at the end.DSC_0049 (2)

The poppies are growing pretty quickly, I’ve just started back-stitching one so I’m not left with all the back-stitching at the end. I’m also stitching the lettering every so often, mainly when I’ve got good light as it’s cross-stitch over one thread – tiny! It took me a while to work out the words, when the centre seam is stitched it will say Poppy across the bottom, but the word going up took a little more working out. It’s coquelicot, I reached for my big French dictionary from the shelf and discovered it is french for poppy. I rather like having both words on the design.

Hopefully I will have it finished and on display when the poppies come into flower in our garden.

Poppy

 

 

Posted in embroidery, Serendipity | Tagged , , | 17 Comments

Eighteen for 18 Update

Posted on May 2, 2018 by craftycreeky

Well, a third of the year has gone by!!! So in theory I should be a third of the way through my challenges…in theory!

  • 1 Etsy store opened; Still at the thinking stage!
  • 2 Tutorials; Nothing as yet.
  • 3 Sessions a week in the garden;This is one challenge I have pretty much stuck with so far this year and the garden is definitely looking better for the early start.
  • 4 Quilts; I’ve finished piecing my Down the Rabbit Hole quilt, but I’ve still to quilt it, maybe I’ll call it a half finish, so tha’ts 1.5 quilts finished – just over a third 🙂Down the Rabbit Hole Quilt
  • 5 Craftsy Classes; I’ve started watching a Leah Day class on free motion quilting. I’m pleasantly surprised just how long these classes are, there must be several hours of tuition. I’ve just finished the basting class and whilst I don’t intend to start using safety pins I have picked up quite a few tips already. I’ve bought a beautiful peacock panel which I’m hoping to use as a practice piece.DSC_0049 (2)
  • 6 New Patterns; This stays at two, but I have just cut out an evening dress in taffeta and sequins for a ball I’m going to in a couple of weeks time, so I’d better get a shiftie on that one!DSC_0049
  • 7 Kits stitched; I finished two kits last month, just little ones. One of them had been in my stash for several years.
  • 8 Pages in my stitch sampler book; I stitched another two pages in the second half of our holiday, so six pages this year. I just need to start stitching them together.
  • 9 Pounds Lost!!! Lost the plot on this one a bit, like I’ve still not lost what I put on on holiday!
  • 10 Mini Embroideries; I started my travelling sketchbook off by finishing a little wool embroidery, I was pleased with how this came out. Total for the year is now four
  • 11 Letters to friends; Just one so far this year, I really need to get cracking on this.
  • 12 Boxes or Drawers sorted in sewing room; I had a good session reorganising boxes in my sewing room this month. I’ve got quite a few of those nice boxes you can get at TK Maxx, I’ve stuck to a theme of peacocks to give a bit of continuity! I had one box with embroidery linens and UFO’s in and another with current projects in, it was all getting a bit mixed up and confusing. I now have one box with completed cross-stitch or cross-stitch sections, such as pages of my stitch sampler or a side of my Etui. Another box just has evenweave linen in and a third box just has Aida, I’ll probably review this soon as I rarely use aida, but I got lots from my mums house. At least it’s a bit more organised. I also had a big sort out with my bead box, it was over flowing so I’ve moved it to a bigger box and managed to get most of the little packets into connecting containers. So my running total here is seven.DSC_0048 (3)
  • 13 New Recipes; This month I tried an adaptation of a recipe, so I’m classing it as a new one. I’ve a recipe for slow cooked leg of lamb in lots of garlic (like three BULBS!!) it cooks over about eight hours. Instead of the garlic I used red wine and redcurrant jelly with a sprinkling of rosemary, I wrapped it in foil and cooked it on a low heat for eight hours, it was beautiful, fell off the bone. It was so nice that when we had friends round for dinner at the weekend I did it again 🙂 So that’s two recipes, I need to try harder with this one as it’s really one of the easier challenges!
  • 14 Less Lengths in my stash! I’ve not reduced it this month, but then I’ve not increased it either! My evening dress will take up two lengths and hopefully I’ll make other stuff as well this month.
  • 15 Posts a month; I actually managed 22 posts this month!
  • 16 cross-stitch smalls; I’ve finished five this month but two still need making up so I’ll count those in May! I’d almost finished a few on holiday, so those finishes helped boost my tally, so my running total is now seven.
  • 17 items of clothing made. This stays at two, but my Chanel jacket is just waiting for buttonholes and trim and I’ve my evening dress cut out, so progress is being made.Making a Chanel Jacket
  • 18 Walks; We’ve not done well on this one so far, but my friend and I have now booked our walking holiday for September, we’re walking St Cuthberts Way from Melrose to Lindisfarne so we need to start building ourselves up again. WI walking club has restarted too so I’ve a walk planned next week. So my tally stays at one but will hopefully improve this month.

 

Posted in Eighteen for 18, Serendipity | Tagged | 23 Comments

Flowers

Posted on May 1, 2018 by craftycreeky

It’s time for the monthly photo challenge organised by Wild Daffodil. I like today’s theme, it’s flowers, so here’s some of my favourite flower photos from my garden.

An amber rose and an amethyst coneflower…

Shades of amethyst…

Shades of amber…

I’m looking forward to seeing my Amber & Amethyst garden grow.

Posted in Serendipity | 8 Comments

Monday’s Meander Round the Garden

Posted on April 30, 2018 by craftycreeky

My friend and I had a wonderful day at Harrogate Spring Flower Show, even a bit of rain didn’t dampen our spirits, we even laughed about being towed off the field because it was so muddy! We laughed even more when my friend rang her OH (We were in his car) to let me know we would be a bit late due to being towed off field. He commented on how dirty the outside of the car would be. My friend quickly replied ‘Oh the outside is fine…’ There was a few moments silence as he realised what that meant 🙂

I think it’s the first time we’ve been when we have both got big garden projects in progress, so we both bought a large amount of plants, I don’t think the car has ever been so full, the back seat was down and I still had one large camillia bush between my feet at the front!Image may contain: flower and plant

I got quite a few plants that were on my shopping list, an acer, a eunonymous alatus (Spindle tree, it turns an amazing shade of red in the autumn!) rhododendrons, iris, aquilegia, orange flowered honeysuckle and lots of clematis…together with quite a few impulse buys!

I’d been clearing beds and weeding in preparation for all these plants though I still need to rotavate three beds. My lovely OH carried lots of trugs of beautiful compost from the old heap down to lower beds, ready for me to dig it in, trying to improve my clay soil. I’ll probably dig a bag of pea shingle in this bed as well whilst I’m at it to help with drainage.improving clay soil

The AA garden is starting to fill out and look like a garden. I moved a peony last week when it was only about 3″ tall, it’s shot up this week!

One shrub that I saved when clearing beds for the AA garden is a chaenomeles (Japanese quince) it has just started flowering. The flowers seem to peep out from under the leaves but they are a lovely deep shade of red.Japanese quince

I finally managed to paint the top of the fence, my eldest is a plumber so he has a long set of ladders, very long and very heavy! The advantage I found with such heavy ladders is that they don’t move an inch, so I felt perfectly safe at the top of them! I just need to finish the fence at the lower end and then give a second coat to what ever I can reach!

A clematis alpina I bought a couple of years ago at the flower show is also flowering, they’re pretty bell shaped blue flowers set against fresh green leaves.  (It’s actually the one in the blue pot in the middle of the photo above.)There’s not as many flowers as I hoped, I might give it a good prune and feed after the flowers have faded and see how it does next year.clematis alpina

This week I’m going to be busy preparing soil and getting everything planted, on Saturday we’ve hopefully got 20 bags of pea shingle arriving to finish off the AA garden and a few other places that need topping up.

I managed to tackle the weeds in the pond garden this week, so it’s looking much better, the solomons seal are growing fast, the brunnera is covered in little blue flowers and the yellow erythroniums are looking very dainty…pond garden

…oops, I’ve just spotted a dandelion!

Posted in Garden, Serendipity | Tagged , | 11 Comments

Transport; Running Late!

Posted on April 30, 2018 by craftycreeky

I’ve just realised I didn’t press the publish button for this post, it was meant to be posted 10 days ago!! As I’ve written it I may as well show you it anyway 🙂

It’s Friday Photo time again, this weekly challenge is organised by Postcard from Gibraltar, so follow the link to see what everyone else has come up with for transport.

It took me a while to think of a photo, I don’t particularly have photos of cars or trains! In the end I flicked down my images on here and found a perfect photo, the launch at Keswick.

Launch on Derwentwater

It’s perfect to me because we take the launch across Derwentwater to Hawse End to start my favourite walk, Catbells!

…we then transport ourselves under our own steam to the top…

The view is amazing, worth all the huffing and puffing 🙂

We walk down towards Grange, cut across the duck boards if conditions allow and catch the launch at Lodore back to Keswick.

A perfect day 🙂

Posted in Photo Challenge, Serendipity, Walking | Tagged , | 3 Comments

UFO Warning

Posted on April 28, 2018 by craftycreeky

QuiltI’ve finished another quilt! This isn’t quite a happy dance time though, more of a warning to those of you who have quilt tops just not quite finished…a UFO

This quilt was made by my mum, years ago, probably over ten years ago, we found it whilst we were clearing her house. She doesn’t remember making it, but I think it’s probably one of her best (she made a lot of quilts!) I love the colours and the idea of just having one large piece of special fabric in the centre, it’s simple but very effective. I think it’s beautiful.

My mum pieced it, she clearly sent it off to Christine Marriage for quilting (our local long arm quilter) as it’s beautifully quilted. My mum machine stitched the binding on, all she had to do was hand stitch it down on the back…

…but it sat there probably for over a decade, all for the sake of a couple of evenings hand-stitching, never finished and therefore never used.

My sister would like the quilt for her spare room, so I said I would finish it for her as she doesn’t do much sewing these days and has never got into quilting.

The binding is heavier cotton than usual quilting weight, so it was a bit bulky to stitch down. It’s quite a big quilt too at about 90″ by 72″ but after a couple of evenings it was done. I quite like stitching binding down, though judging by comments on facebook pages, I think I’m in the minority! It’s one of those tedious tasks you can do whilst your mind wanders all over the place 🙂

So if anyone reading this has quilts like this, UFO’s for the sake of a couple of evenings, just stop procrastinating, get on with it and finish them! Then at least you can have the pleasure of using it or giving it to someone else to cherish.

My sister is coming to collect it soon, she can launder it to freshen it up and then pop it on the spare room bed for visitors to admire and enjoy. I think it’s lovely that it is finally finished and going to it’s new home.


I’m linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday, why not follow the link and see what everyone else has been hand-stitching.

Posted in Quilting, Serendipity | Tagged , | 17 Comments

Friday Blues

Posted on April 27, 2018 by craftycreeky

This weeks photo challenge set by Postcards from Gibralter is Blue 

Blue is a whole range of colours, but it can also be a feeling. However, as I’m off to the Harrogate Spring Flower Show today I’m feeling far from blue! It’s an annual girlie trip out for my friend and I, I’ve lots of plants to buy this year for the beds I’ve cleared so I’ve money in my purse and a smile on my face 🙂 I might even buy some more blue flowers…

As I’ve embroidered a lot of flowers, there’s a fair few blue ones…

Faby Reilly Design

Both my travelling sketchbooks have been blue…

On our holidays we say some wonderful deep blue skies…DSC_0365

..and water, this looks like sky but it is actually a blue lake we saw on the Great Ocean Road, it’s this colour for several months of the year.DSC_0164

The cool blue of morning light…

Twelve Apostles

Twelve Apostles

…or the warm dusky blues as the sun first rises…Sunrise

I rather like blue, in all it’s shades, I’ll let you know how many blue plants I buy later 🙂

Posted in Photo Challenge, Serendipity | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Chanel Jacket

Posted on April 26, 2018 by craftycreeky

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I wanted a few projects finished before I started more, well this was one of them and whilst it isn’t happy dance time yet I’ve made enough progress to show you it again.

Last October I went on a course with Anne to the Yorkshire School of Sewing. I wanted to make a Chanel jacket. It was a two day course and we were under no illusions that we would complete the jacket in that time. The aim was for us to have done enough to be able to complete the jacket at home. This was Ann and myself after two days, jackets basically put together but with lots to do on the inside! If you want to read my earlier post about how we got this far follow this link.

There’s an awful lot of hand-stitching on a Chanel jacket. The lining is quilted to each piece before the jacket is constructed, so basically the whole lining is hand-stitched in…

Awaiting the arrival of the ham!

After the course I started hand-stitching the lining down but then I got waylaid with other projects and it has been on Florence, my muse, ever since.

After I finished piecing my Down the Rabbit Hole quilt I decided this had to be on my list of things to do next. I started hand-stitching the seams down, there’s an awful lot of seams!! Even the sleeves have two seams each! Gillian (from Yorkshire School of Sewing) had suggested a small sleeve head made frpm wadding, I couldn’t get the sleeve to lie flat for the lining with it in, so in the end I removed them.Making a Chanel Jacket

After quite a few evenings work I have hemmed it, stitched the neck-facing down and stitched all the linings down. The basic jacket is now complete!

My next problem is the buttonholes. I wanted my jacket to have buttons so I have a proper facing at the front. I marked my buttonholes but I can’t get the thickness of the fabric under the buttonhole foot. I’ve had this problem with the last two coats I’ve made, I can’t decide if it’s a problem with the foot or if it is because the tweeds are a fairly loose weave so the fabric is more easily damaged and caught under the foot. Either way, I couldn’t do it.Making a Chanel Jacket

In the end I decided to see if someone else could do it. We have a lady in Otley who I’ve heard very good reports of, she does alterations and repairs. I popped in to see her this morning to ask if she could do my button holes. She’s snowed under with work at the moment (she was buried under a wedding dress skirt when I arrived!) so it will be mid May before she has chance to do it. I’ve left a reel of thread and a button and even the pattern piece with the spacings on, just in case my pins come out!Making a Chanel Jacket

Once it returns I’ve got all the titivating to do. I’ll make a final decision on false welt pockets, stitch braid around the edges, chain inside the hem to give weight to the jacket and help it to hang well, maybe buttons up a false sleeve placket too. I haven’t quite decided on the buttons yet, fancy black or plain burgundy. The pink and red cord might be couched inside next to the lining edge, maybe!

Anne finished hers ages ago, have a look to see her version here, she’s much more patient than me and worked hard to get a beautifully finished jacket.

I think I’ll just be happy to have a finished, wearable jacket 🙂

Posted in Dressmaking, Serendipity | Tagged , | 18 Comments