Sweet

Posted on April 12, 2018 by craftycreeky

I’ve just realised I completely missed last weeks Friday Photo Challenge. As I have just spent half an hour writing a post and sorting through photos to show you on a theme that was actually last weeks, I thought I may as well show you them anyway!!

The theme for last weeks photo challenge (from Postcard from Gibraltar) was Sweet. Now I’m not much of a sweet person, I never think to buy sweets (…I’d always prefer to go in a bakers and get a sticky bun!) and I’d always have a starter in preference to a pudding.

Instead I decided to share photos of Helen looking very sweet when she was a tot wearing dresses I made her. I got quite into smocking when she was little, helped by the fact that my mum bought a smocking machine so I didn’t have to do all the gathering!


Most of the designs came from the Australian Smocking magasine, which is a sister to the embroidery magasine Classic Inspirations. There were some beautiful dresses in there.

This one is my favourite, I still have it tucked away, I have plans to have it framed in a box frame so it hangs…one day!

This dress has embroidered circles of flowers down the button band, faggoted ribbon bands and rows of embroiderey on the hem bands.

 

The smocking is called a bishops neckline as it goes in a full circle around the neck. It’s got dozens of bullion roses in amongst the smocking which I seem to remember took forever!.

I made a fine cotton underskirt with vintage broderie anglais along the hem so it just peeped out underneath.

Doesn’t she look sweet 🙂

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Monday’s Meander Round the Garden

Posted on April 9, 2018 by craftycreeky

I think spring has finally arrived!

My Amber & Amethyst garden is beginning to look like a garden. I’ve been buying a few plants on Otley market and Courtyard Planters over the last couple of weeks and today I decided to start trying to arrange them. Including plants I’d saved from clearing the area I’d got about 16 plants, mainly shrubs. It’s surprising how so many plants really doesn’t go that far in a garden…I’ll just have to buy some more!Amber & Amethyst gardenI planted my gorgeous wine hellebore next to a purple tinged hebe, hoping it will make a good match.

My other hellebores around the pond are looking good, the main disadvantage with the flowers is that they hang down, I remember hearing about a castle in England that planted it’s moat sides with hellebores, so when you walked along the bottom you could see all the blooms. I’ve placed my wine one at the top of the steps, hoping it will have a similar effect.hellebores & chicken wire heron

This blue planter of miniature daffodils is looking amazing at the moment, I think it’s the mix of the bright blue and the yellow. Sometimes the simplest of planting schemes works the best.Daffodils

I’ve got quite a big collection of planters in this corner, mainly because the soil was just so bad! A contorted hazel I have in a pot has got some pretty decent catkins this year for the first time..Catkins

and my miniature flowering cherry is in bloom, looking very pretty and delicate.

The pink camellia next to our conservatory is still flowering its socks off, I need to try and remember to prune it this year ones the flowers have faded as it’s starting to get a bit leggy. A brunnera called Jack Frost is just starting to appear underneath, it gives an amazing display of variegated leaves and deep blue flowers, a bit like forget-me-nots.camellia

I’ve ordered two garden arches for my AA garden to grow roses, clematis and honeysuckle over, once they are up it should really start to take shape. Over the next couple weeks I can also make final decisions over what has survived the winter and what hasn’t. I’ve lost quite a few plants this time, I think mainly due to the late frosts and snow. I’ve a few ideas of specific plants I want to get and of course at the end of April it’s the Harrogate Spring Flower Show, always a good day out!

 

 

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Holiday Stitching

Posted on April 8, 2018 by craftycreeky

DSC_0001 (2)Yes, I’ve another bit of holiday stitching to show you!

Last week I shared photos of the first half of my holiday along the coast of Australia between Adelaide and Sydney…

We actually finished our drive at Kiama, a beach resort about one and a half hours south of Sydney. We were there for a family wedding which took place at a hotel in Kiama, outside in the sunshine, of course. I wore (after last minute wobbles!) a dress I’d made for a friends wedding a couple of years ago. I also took an ivory shawl with me, it was interesting as in Yorkshire I wear a shawl for an extra layer, a little bit of warmth against the evening chill, here in Australia, the same shawl kept me cool against the hot midday sun!DSC_0156

It was a wonderful wedding, very personal to the couple, I loved the way they included a vow to be a good step dad and all that that entails.DSC_0105 (1)

Helen, my daughter, came over for the wedding too. The next morning we both woke up early and went to watch the sunrise over the beach…magical moments!DSC_0251 (1)

I started another page to my stitch sampler whilst I was there. Chain stitch was always going to be a double spread as there are so many variations.DSC_0001 (4)

I started off with three rows of basic chain stitch, followed by a square chain and then a lazy daisy stitch or two. The next row of twisted chain looks remarkably similar to another stitch! Underneath the names of the bride and groom is a row of cable chain, this is one of those stitches that I can’t quite work out how it works…but it does!

The row down  the left is called broad chain in my book. Effectively it is exactly the same as chain stitch, just done the other way round, some people find this much easier to get neat and I can see why,.DSC_0002 (4)

The second row is called Portuguese Border stitch, it’s actually made on a framework of straight stitches, with satin stitches woven in between to make a sort of heavy looking chain.

The third one is a raised chain band, which again is stitched on a framework of straight stitches and chain stitched formed over the framework. I finished that page with a bunch of flowers in lazy daisy and some individual broken chain stitches.DSC_0003 (4)

Up to this point I’d stitched each page with a single floss colour from the DMC variegated range, I do like their variegated threads!. On the next page I broke with tradition and used two!! Living dangerously!! Several of the stitches needed a contrasting colour and 4065 (whilst being a useful colour) is a bit of a wishy-washy shade to do a whole page in! I stitched most of the page in 4045 which is a really useful mix of leaf greens. I wish DMC would do more subtly variegated threads like this one, they would be really useful.

After the wedding we flew to Bali, we had a lovely couple of days doing nothing in a quiet village called Manggis. It is the first time we’d been to an Asian country such as this and it was fascinating to learn about the different cultures. After three nights there we moved to Ubud, known as the cultural centre of Bali. Our hotel was was between the monkey jungle and paddy fields.DSC_0324

It was Nieppe whilst we were there which is the Hindu New Year, the evening before there were processions in every village and town of huge models of the bad spirits, these are made by the young people of the village on a bamboo framework covered in what sounds like paper-mache. They are seriously big, they have long poles to hold the electric cables out of the way so they can pass underneath, though this one was so big they were having major troubles! Every household makes lots of noise in every corner of their home to drive out the bad spirits and leaves lots of offerings too. The models are processed through the town to the local cemetery where they are ceremoniously burned, though a few did seem to survive the night from what we saw the next day!DSC_0137

Nieppe itself is a day of silence and fasting. As I understand it, the idea is that having driven the bad spirits out the night before, they are as quiet as they can be in the hope that the spirits will pass by. There is no TV, minimal internet, no transport (airport is closed) visitors are not allowed out of their hotel and after dark if electric light is to be used the blinds must be down.

The advantage of all this is there is absolutely no light pollution. Our hotel left the sunloungers out and suggested we went stargazing. I have never seen stars twinkling as bright, it was amazing, we even saw a shooting star. We laid for ages just watching the stars, it was a magical end to our wedding anniversary.DSC_0003 (2)

The first row of chain on this page was  alternating barred chain, I rather like this one.     The second row was meant to be interlaced cable chain stitch, unfortunately I only realised afterwards that I had stitched standard chain, rather than cable, so it’s just interlaced chain stitch! I think it would be better in a firmer thread such as a perle really.DSC_0004 (2)

I stitched flowers from berry stitch, picot and lazy daisy, stitched some short lengths of stitches such as magic chain and singalese chain, altogether on the double page spread I’ve stitched over twenty variations of chain stitch, I never knew there were so many! I finished off with a lattice pattern simply stitched with individula chain stitches.

I think the green thread of 4045 worked particularly well on this page and very apt for such a lush place as Bali.DSC_0002 (2)

I’ve finally thought out a way of recording the different stitches on each page, my friend gave me two little note books for Christmas, very pretty and only 3.5 x 5″, just a little smaller than these pages. I’m going to put the information in this book and then when I make the sampler book up I’ll stitch a pocket on the inside back cover for my notebook!

Our final stop on this holiday was to visit family in Kuala Lumpur, he lives in a secure compound just outside KL, this was my first experience of compounds, I was amazed how big they are, the size of a market town in England! It reminded me of the ‘new towns’ here in England such as Milton Keynes, it had a similar feel and was just as easy to get lost in ! I did managed to get to the fabric shops and market in KL and bought a few lengths!DSC_0002

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 embroidery, Serendipity, Textile Books | Tagged , | 31 Comments

Down the Rabbit Hole…The Final Frontier!!

Posted on April 7, 2018 by craftycreeky

I can’t quite believe I’ve stitched the last border of my Down the Rabbit Hole quilt, not that I’ve finished the penultimate border yet but at least it is all ready to stitch on when I finally finish those vines!

Sarah Fielke (the designer) assured us that it really wasn’t as difficult as it looked, and it wasn’t really, but I did have to concentrate, especially at each end…Down the Rabbit Hole

I started this border before my holiday, my original plan was for a totally scrappy border look, but you know how I struggle with totally random, so in the end I decided on green triangles inside (as it’s next to a purple border) and purple triangles on the outside. The squares were limited to fabric I had left so I was a bit limited in how I arranged them. I’ve tried to alternate them pale green and grey, but there’s a couple of places that I couldn’t. Apart from the dark purple corner squares I didn’t even look at the centre squares as it just got too complicated! Eventually I had a layout I was happy with.Down the Rabbit Hole

The basic block is the square with a triangle attached opposite ends, these are then stitched so they stagger, this did mean that there was actually only one seam to line up each time but I did still have to concentrate to make sure it was the right seam and the right way up! There’s a couple of places where the triangle isn’t quite long enough, I tried taking it apart and restitching with the same result, I think I might need to cut a bigger triangle and just take that one out.Down the Rabbit Hole

For some reason I found the corners very confusing, My initial plan was to try and match fabrics in the half sized triangles, I then got myself in a pickle and decided it was too difficult…but having stitched one end I sorted myself out and matched the next piece so at least the purple triangles match right round the corners. Matching the inner green was one step too far!!

I tried the first finished border against my quilt and it does seem like it will fit OK, I’ve just got to keep everything crossed that the other three also fit…and I’ve got to finish those vines!Down the Rabbit Hole

 

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Four Months of Cross-stitch

Posted on April 6, 2018 by craftycreeky

I’m trying to get a few finishes under my belt at the moment, I seem to have quite a few projects almost finished…but not quite! So I’m going to make a concerted effort over the next few days, there’s other things I want to start but I really want a clearer sewing room before I start.Joyful World by Snowflower Diaries

Last week I showed you ‘February’ from the Joyful World stitch-a-long by Snowflower Diaries. I managed to finish stitching this on holiday, but I also managed to stitch March and April too! I think April is the only one in the year of designs that I find a little too twee, in fact the squirrel was meant to be carrot orange, but I changed it to soft grey – brown colour.Joyful World by Snowflower Diaries

I looked in my stash and found three prints which coordinated nicely. I made a simple mini cushion and then made some cord from two of the embroidery floss colours. It always surprises me just how long a length of thread you need to make cord, it’s roughly three times the length required, so for these little pads I used about three yards of each colour! For March I decided to try a pale yellow and a dark blue, have a bit of contrast, I don’t think it’s really worked so I won’t try that again, I’ll stick to colours of similar tonal value.Joyful World by Snowflower Diaries

So I have now finished the first four months, and importantly, I’ve caught up with the actual month, so April is now out on display in the dining room and I’ve actually started May!Joyful World by Snowflower Diaries

If you fancy stitching these, they can either be stitched into one panel, or individual ones like I’ve done, they are actually meant to have a border round too but that made them a bit big for what I want. Maja Matyas, the designer, has a facebook page just for these and all the patterns are free on there.

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Eighteen for 18 Update

Posted on April 4, 2018 by craftycreeky

It’s the 4th April already, so I’m overdue for my monthly Eighteen for 18 review. I was away for the first three weeks of March (and jet lagged for the last week!!) so I’m pretty pleased with what I’ve achieved. I’ve actually done a little bit more than this but as I haven’t posted about them yet they can go into next months figures instead!

  • 1 Etsy store opened; I’ve done lots of thinking on this one during the holiday, wondering at the moment whether to start my own website instead of going through Etsy…still thinking!
  • 2 Tutorials; Nothing as yet.
  • 3 Sessions a week in the garden; I’m pretty pleased with this one as since I’ve been back I’ve been gardening at least three times a week. Often the weather doesn’t look too great but once I’m all wrapped up and out there, it’s actually quite nice, in a damp, cold sort of way!
  • 4 Quilts; This stays at one finish, I delivered it to Australia and the happy couple loved it 🙂
  • 5 Craftsy Classes; None as yet, but as I’ve just ordered a peacock panel on Ebay, I’m hoping to use it for a free motion quilting class.
  • 6 New Patterns; This stays at two, though I’m hoping this will change this month as I’ve got a ball to go to in May and I need a new dress!
  • 7 Kits stitched; I took two on holiday, they are almost finished, but not quite, so this stays at none.
  • 8 Pages in my stitch sampler book; Two more pages stitched during the first half of our holiday, so four so far. I’m doing pretty well at this target, half way already!Stitch Sampler
  • 9 Pounds Lost!!! Yes well, it was our holiday… least said the better!
  • 10 Mini Embroideries; We’re starting a new round of travelling sketchbooks again this month so I’ll be doing a little one each month again. Total for the year stays at three.
  • 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’ve done a lot of sorting this month, we’ve been clearing my mums house as she is now in a care home, so I’ve taken all her craft stuff, so I’ve been trying to amalgamate everything into my sewing room. At the same time my sister gave me a huge bag of fabric she no longer wants and a friends mum sent a suitcase full of sewing goodies…I’m just about resurfacing in my sewing room! I have however managed to finish sorting my floss box, everything is neatly wrapped on plastic bobbins, I’ve taken out all the duplicate ones into another box, together with all my variegated ones. It looks a lot better. I’ve also started a box for my mum’s craft work, she was a prolific needlewoman and craftswoman, trying all sorts of crafts, so I’ve collected together all the little bits of bobbin lace, embroidery, cross-stitch etc, hoping to make a textile book out of them. So, I counting this as two boxes sorted this month, making a total of three.
  • 13 New Recipes; This remains at one, hopefully I’ll try some more this month.
  • 14 Less Lengths in my stash! Well….I bought another four length on holiday!!
  • 15 Posts a month; Fourteen, I think that’s pretty good seen as we were away for most of it 🙂
  • 16 cross-stitch smalls; I’ve finished one, my February cross-stitch is now made into a little pillow. I’ve another four nearly there, so my running total is now four.Joyful World February cross-stitch
  • 17 items of clothing made. This stays at two, the top and dress I made last month were worn so often during our holiday, the teal dress could nearly walk itsself to the washing machine!!
  • 18 Walks; We’ve not had chance to walk since we returned, but our training for our long distance walk is starting now! So my tally stays at one but will hopefully improve this month.

 

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Monthly Photo Challenge.

Posted on April 3, 2018 by craftycreeky

Wild Daffodil organises a photo challenge each month. The theme this time is ‘yellow’

Of course at this time of year the first image that springs to mind is daffodils…

or primroses…these are just up by our gate to the back lane.

Yellow isn’t something I tend to sew with so reds, oranges and yellows for a Kaffe Fassett quilt was way out of my comfort zone, I loved it though and so did the couple it was made for.

My flower trellis I stitched last year had a few silk ribbon flowers in yellow.

In the summer I have lots of yellow flowers, particularly in my Amber and Amethyst garden, something to look forward to in all this rain!

For lots of yellow photos, follow the link to Wild Daffodil and see what everyone else has to show.

 

 

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Monday’s Meander Around the Garden

Posted on April 2, 2018 by craftycreeky

Today’s meander around the garden turned into a point and shoot out of the landing window as this is our Easter Monday weather…

…snow, again!!

Despite the inclement weather this week I have managed to spend a bit of time working on the garden most days. Invariably once I’m out there, all wrapped up, the weather isn’t actually that bad. Anyway, if you believe the weather forecasts (with a pinch of salt if you ask me!!) after a wet week the weather should improve next weekend!

I have managed this week to formulate a few plans in my mind of how I want to plant up the new beds in the garden. In the gravel garden I’ll stick to the amber and amethyst colour scheme I had before, I liked that. However I’m planning more of a backbone of small shrubs, like hebes, azaleas, skimmia, I need to make the garden lower maintenance…I’ve started buying a few on the market and in our little nursery in Otley. I’ve got a hebe and also a sarcococca, which is Christmas box, it’s an evergreen which flowers in winter, the flowers look insignificant but they have the most amazing scent.

I also treated myself to a tree peony (well it was purple!) and a gorgeous hellebore in a deep wine colour. I’ve just trimmed all the old leaves off my hellebores round the pond so they look particularly good now.Hellebore

The top area where the chickens used to be has been cleared, we just need to rotavate it once the weather dries up a bit. The compost heaps will be there, but they will be hidden by an Autumn colour border. I’m going to plant shrubs and small trees such as acer, amelanchia and eunonymous alatus (spindle tree), I’ve got one in the front garden and in the autumn it turns an amazing fiery red! I’ll pop some all year ground cover shrubs in between them for winter interest. The Christmas box might go in this area as well. I’m going to grow clematis up the old fence posts too.

I’ve also ordered some paint for our big fence. Our neighbours have spent the last year completely revamping their garden. It makes me smile when I see it as you couldn’t have two gardens more different, theirs is all paving, gambions, decking and artificial grass with some raised beds and all wooden tall fence all round the edges. I’m embracing the big fence as an opportunity to grow lots of climbers, roses, clematis, honeysuckle…but first it needs painting. It’s a big block of colour so I’ve thought long and hard about it. Our back fence has been painted dark brown, thinking it will blend in with the wooded path behind. Having looked at next-doors, I definitely don’t want dark brown. I’ve decided on a colour called willow, which looks like it will be a slightly darker shade than the summerhouse. I’ve ordered the paint so hopefully when this dry spell arrives I can get it done before everything starts to grow. I’ll probably paint the back fence too for a bit of continuity.

I think I’ll be busy this year!!

 

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Down the Rabbit Hole Hand Quilt-a-Long

Posted on April 1, 2018 by craftycreeky

It’s three weeks since I last showed you my Down the Rabbit Hole quilt – doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun!! I was actually on my jollies when the post came out, having made no progress at all in the previous three weeks when preparing for our trip! This is where I was…

These vines seem to have taken for ever, although to be fair I am making them a little longer by extending them around the corner to the running rabbit. However, this is the last side of the last side, if you follow me. This week I have made a concerted effort to finish this section of the applique. Yesterday afternoon this is where I was, reasonable progress but still a few leaves and vines to go…Down the Rabbit Hole

Last night after tea I decided to make a push for a mini finish, I stitched the vines, added some more leaves and stitched them all down.Down the Rabbit Hole

This border is now finished, apart from a bee which hasn’t quite decided where to buzz yet, and I am tempted to add a couple of small flower heads to fill gaps a bit. My next job however is to stitch it to the main quilt and then add the extra vines around the corners, I’ve left an unstitched bit so I can insert a branch into it neatly. This photo shows the other border and how I extended the vines.Down the Rabbit Hole

So hopefully in three weeks time I’ll have the border stitched onto the quilt and the extra vines added. You never know, I might even have added the final border!!

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, Deborah,  Susan, Jessisca, Sherry, Nanette, Sassy, Edith, Sharon and Bella

I’m also linking up with Kathy’s Quilts (a different Kathy!!) for Slow Stitching Sunday for a celebration of all things hand sewn.

 

Posted in Quilt-a-long, Quilting, Serendipity | Tagged , , , | 35 Comments

Batik Painting in Bali

Posted on March 31, 2018 by craftycreeky

One reason I chose Bali as a holiday destination was my interest in batik fabrics. I wanted to see batiks being made, have a go myself and also buy some to make into quilts, I even organised my luggage allowance so I would have plenty of spare capacity!

A few weeks before our holiday I booked a workshop with Widya’s Batiks, he’s based in Ubud where we were staying. He has a facebook page and courses can be booked easily through that.

I had a great day at the workshop, Widya was an excellent teacher. There are lots of different methods of making batik and on Bali I think it is very similar to silk painting. Widya had lots of designs to choose from or you could draw your own if you wanted. I chose a picture of some lotus flowers, it turned out to be pretty apt as I didn’t realise it at the time but there is a lotus garden in Ubud which we visited a couple of days later.

The design was traced with pencil onto a length of cotton clipped to a frame. Then came the tricky part! Batik uses wax as a resist and in Bali it is applied with a bamboo stick with a copper ‘nib’, Luckily we had a practise piece to try the technique out, the conical reservoir was dipped into molten wax and then you could (in theory!) steadily draw the line of wax. Every 10 seconds or so you had to empty out the wax and refil the pen as otherwise it started to set and block the nib.Batik Painting in Bali

Like a lot of things, it’s not as easy as it looks, despite being used to applying gutta! I had some very wobbly lines and some blobs on my practise piece, Widya offered to outline some of the more fiddly bits of my final piece whilst I was still practising, for which I was very grateful. I was the only student there that day so he could give me lots of help! I also used the practise piece to have a go with the actual painting. Batik paints don’t blend or spread in the same way that silk paints do, although the wax does act as the resist. This means that you can paint detail a lot more easily. I painted the darker lines of the flowers first and then went over with two colours, blending as I went. The ‘brushes’ we used were made of wood, one was basically a stick cut on a slant with the end softened somehow. The other was just a stick with some cotton wrapped around the end.  I also found the paints themselves interesting as they reminded me of painting ceramics years ago with my mum, in that what you see is not necessarily what you get after the fixing process, a brown dye turned green in the end, a very pale lemon darkened to vivid orange in sunlight.

Practise Piece!

By the time I had mastered the painting, Widya had (with my permission) outlined my main panel. A little bit of me would have liked to do it all myself but the rest of me was very pleased that I had a decent panel to paint!! What I did do myself was to print the borders, it took about three imprints of hot wax to make each length.Batik Painting in Bali

I was glad I had practised with the painting as I’m really pleased with how my lotus flowers came out. The water in the background was interesting as it didn’t blend at all like silk paints, I would do it differently another time.

After painting it was left to dry in the sunshine. The final part of the process was setting it, this is done in a bath of weak hydrochloric acid and salt (if I remember correctly!) followed by a dunk in boiling water to remove the wax and then a final dunk in cold water. It didn’t take long to dry in the sun in the 30′ heat.Batik Painting in Bali

I’m really pleased with my batik, my plan is to make it the centre of a quilt.Batik Painting in Bali

Widya has been doing batik for around 20 years and his work was amazing, the tiny details in the pictures was stunning.Batik by Widya

The next day he took me to a batik factory where I could see the experts working and also I could buy a length. This is batik to dress-make with, rather than quilting, it is absolutely beautiful and it’s lovely to have a length of ‘proper Balinese batik’

Batik from Bali

The one place I didn’t get to for various reasons, was Jalan Sulawesi, a street in Dempasar which is full of shops selling batik fabrics for quilting, by the metre, jelly rolls, fat quarters…I’ll just have to go back for another holiday!Lotus garden in Bali

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