I’ve been quietly working away on my Splendid Sampler Quilt this week, I’ve stitched 36 blocks now, so I’m over a third of the way through this project!
Last week I was stitching lots of tiny hexagons, like 42 of them…well actually I found I’d stitched 48 by accident, so I’m half hoping another block requires tiny hexagons, then I’ll be well ahead! This week I picked out all the paper templates from the back of each hexagon and appliqued the design to the background square. Continue reading
There’s a few events coming up which may be of interest to those of you either living in or near our wonderful county;
Landscapes and Gardens Exhibition; Fountains Hall at Fountains Abbey, 1st July to 31st August. It’s the 300th anniversary of the Capability Brown, the landscape designer who shaped many of gardens and parks around Englands finest houses. The Embroiderers Guild have drawn on the landscapes for inspiration, having seen Skipton’s contribution, it should be an excellent exhibition. There are similar exhibitions at National Trust properties across the country.
Exquisite Threads exhibition; Bankfield museum, Halifax. This exhibition of embroidered treasures is on until 10th September, there’s work from the Embroiderers Guild as well as Calderdale museums.
Great Northern Quilt Show; 2-4th September at Great Yorkshire Showground, Harrogate. I really like this show, there are lots of stunning quilts on show and enough trade stands to keep me happy without being overwelming like the Knitting and Stitching Show. Quite a few quilting shops come here rather than K&SS.
Yarndale; Skipton Auction Mart, 24-25th September. I went for the first time last year and loved it, and I’m not a great wool lover! Lots of hand-dyed wools, independent patterns, small wool manufacturers, I loved the colours! It is in a farmers auction mart, so although it’s under cover, if it’s cold then wrap up!
XL Exhibition; Skipton Embroiderers Guild; Friday 7th October – Saturday 8th October at Christ Church, Skipton. I’ve recently joined SEG and it’s celebrating it’s 40th birthday in October. There are lots of very talented ladies there so it should be an excellent exhibition.
Knitting & Stitching Show, Harrogate International Centre, 24th – 27th November. This is the big one round here, it’s huge! Four big halls just full of trade stands, fabrics, embroidery, knitting…anything and everything! One of my highlights is finding the Rowandean stand as for about £5 you can sit and do an embroidery, it’s like a little oasis in the hustle and bustle of the show!
Rowandean Embroidery Stitched at the Show
I’ve been to fabric shop heaven again, AKA Goldhawk Road in West London! I went for the first time last year and was a bit overawed by the sight of fifteen or so fabric shops all next-door to each other,this time I wasn’t hampered by the constraints of carrying it on the train back to Yorkshire either, so I could really enjoy myself!
We were staying in Richmond, a town on the outskirts of London, thanks to a £1 raffle ticket prize! We went to a charity dinner a few months ago and this was the last prize drawn, we thought it might be a bit of a booby prize so we were amazed to find it was a two night stay in a 4* hotel in Richmond, including dinner!
View from Richmond Hill
My immediate thought was ooh, fabric shopping! I suggested to my OH that we had one day doing something together and one day doing our own thing. He was more than happy with that as he wanted to go to the Imperial War Museum again.
We arrived at the hotel on Friday morning and had a lovely day wandering round Richmond (named after the Yorkshire town of Richmond) we were staying at a hotel on the top of Richmond Hill so we had great views across the countryside, it always amazes me just how green it is just a few miles out of London. We walked along the Thames path to Ham House which was built in 1610.
On Saturday I traveled by bus to Goldhawk Road, it was only about 15 minutes longer than tube and train and I much prefer buses. I like looking at the architecture as I’m going along.
Goldhawk Road didn’t disappoint! I thought I was pretty restrained, I only bought just over 25m!
I went with the idea that I wanted some summer dress lengths, I fancy some shirtdresses and just some pretty cotton everyday dresses. I found a few lengths I liked, the pretty pink one was only about £5/m, Liberty Tana lawn was about £10/m. My favourite is the blue geometric print, it’s a silk and cotton mix, about 30% silk, 70% cotton, it feels gorgeous, the assistant reckoned it would be washable on a delicate cycle, I think I might test a scrap first! I thought it was a bargain at £7 a metre.
I bought a couple of knit fabrics, the printed grey lace effect is a really pretty jersey, probably for a simple dress, the cream knit has tiny sequins in too and I thought that would be nice for a cardigan.
The cream cotton is actually a broderie anglais with the pattern stitched in stripes. My original plan was for a shirt / top, so I just asked for 1.5m as its 150cm wide. It left about 1.3m at the end of the roll. The assistant was trying to persuade me to buy it, I could have it for £17 instead of £20, I can be a tough cookie when it comes to bartering, I offered £15, he wasn’t happy but I stuck to my guns, I did offer to have my 1.5m of another almost identical roll, eventually I got the piece for £15! I’m undecided now whether to make a shirtdress or a Gabriole skirt!
The other three lengths were some polyester dupion, I just loved the plum colour, some black denim for some Morgan Jeans (I am going to get round to making some jeans, promise!) and a jacket length in a purply tweed which I’m hoping doesn’t look to stripy when it’s made up.
So my stash has increased somewhat in June, not only have I just bought several lengths at Goldhawk Road, the three sari’s I bought off ebay are about 5m each…
June Stash Report
Stash at end of May 79.4m
Fabric used 5.2m
Fabric purchased 40.8m
Total stash at end of June 115m
I think I need to make some high yardage clothes, watch out for dresses and Gabriole skirts!!
I haven’t had any time in the garden this week, it’s been perfect growing weather too, wet and warm (ish!) so the weeds are growing nicely, we’ll just have to turn a blind eye to those, selective photography and all that!
I seem to have amassed quite a collection of astrantia, they’re all just coming into flower now. The flowers last for ages, especially as a cut flower, they seem to self seed everywhere too, especially the lighter ones!
This pretty pink one is peeping out from underneath a David Austin rose called Jude the Obscure.
I love this deeper pink one too that’s in my AA garden.
The ceanothus at the top of the drive is still looking amazing, it’s positively humming with bees. It’s not easy to photograph as it’s so big with little flowers, but here’s my best shot!
The scent from the ceanothus is now being joined by the scent from a large rose bush at the bottom of the drive. It’s called celsio I think, it’s a bit on the loose side as bushes go, as it’s like a wild rose, it’s flowers are easily bashed by the weather, but it’s scent is wonderful, it’s worth growing just for the perfume.
Over the winter a wooden obelisk I made several years ago finally gave up the ghost, it fell down several times and the feet were pretty rotten. I took it out but I haven’t had chance to make a new one yet. My clematis have found their own support, the bird table! Under all that foliage is a single metal stake! The geranium in front is just coming into flower too, I think it’s called Ann Folkard, the leaves are slightly lime green and the flowers are a wonderful magenta. It’s a pretty big geranium, I’ll need to tie it up off the path soon.
Hopefully this week I’ll have chance to get outside and tidy up the garden a bit!
I had a bit of a panic last night when I realised it was less than three weeks to Tea and Tents, the WI camping and crafting festival. It was brilliant last year and I’m really looking forward to it, I’m even holding a workshop on silk-painting!
In a rash moment a few months ago I put my name down for a stall in the market place at Tea and Tents, this happens on the Sunday morning and lasts about two hours.Lots of members sell their handmade wares from jams or lemonade, jewelry, hats, bags, paintings…all sorts.
Only I haven’t got myself organised! I have a box of what I would call samples which I can sell, but I need a few more things. I started pulling fabric and stuff from my shelves to get started.
I remembered I had three Kilner jars on my shelf waiting to be created with. I think these may be called Mason jars in other countries, they are the screw top preserving jars. I made a pin cushion out of one a couple of years back and I find it really useful, I use it just for needles, I keep the packets in the jar and the odd ones on top! I seem to remember it was quite fiddly to make though…
Perfect timing…this morning one of the blogs in my reader included a link for a tutorial by Nikki of Pin Cut Sew on how to make one…I got out my glue gun immediately!
I fell out with my glue gun last time I used it but I think I’ve got the knack now, it sets almost instantly so you can only glue a small section at a time. The advantage being that you don’t have to wait for it to dry before moving on to the next process.
Nikki’s tutorial is nice and clear, the only bit I changed was when to glue the lid in. The Kilner jars have the disc in the centre of the lid and Nikki suggested gluing it down at the beginning. I decided to stuff it that way instead. I gathered the circle of cotton around the lid and glued it down all the way round. I could then stuff the pin cushion through the lid.
I did have a bit of a moment as to how I was going to keep the stuffing in whilst gluing down the disc but I had a bit of a brainwave! I cut a disc out of stiff vilene, I think it’s pelmet weight. I eased that through the hole and it tidily held the stuffing in place whilst I glued the disc down.
I used some tape measure tape and some cotton reel shaped buttons to trim them, though I’m still tempted to add a strip of tiny pompoms like Nikki did, they look so sweet!
I’ve still not decided whether to sell them just as pin cushions or whether to put things inside and sell them as a sewing kit.
So that’s three items made…at least I’ve started!
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been steadily working away at my quilt blocks, both for the Splendid Sampler and the Anderson Farm quilt. Some of them were nice, simple, quick blocks, others took a fair bit of work or concentration…
I’ve been putting off doing block 26 of The Splendid Sampler since it came out in the middle of May! I’ve been dreading making the Dresden circle, it’s called ‘Dreaming of Dresden’s’ whereas to me it looked more like a nightmare! I finally decided to buckle down and stitch it! As usual it wasn’t half as complicated as I thought! I decided to fussycut the blocks, rather than stitching applique circles onto them which the design called for. The top corner was alot easier to make then I thought, it’s just stitched straight across and then turned, I was a bit worried when I stitched them altogether that it wouldn’t lie flat, it certainly didn’t look like it would, but I think pressing it allowed for a lot of leeway. I can’t say I’m enamoured to ever make anymore, but I’m pretty pleased with it!
Can’t quite believe I’ve just made myself a bra, don’t panic though, I’m not going to model it!!
Back on the second episode of the Great British Sewing Bee, contestants had to make a bra, to be honest I wasn’t overly surprised that this came up as there are quite a few appearing on the internet. I knew I didn’t have time that week to buy all the supplies so for my little sewing bee challenge that week I made a camisole.
However, I did find on line a bra making kit on Etsy (the Bra Shop) so the lace, stretch powermesh, elastics and rings etc were all included for £12.95. It even included a bow for the centre! I decided it was worth it to have a go. There are four different types of elastic in a bra, so buying a metre here and there would have added up. The only thing not included was clear elastic and I found that on Minerva Crafts website.
The pattern is included in the GBSB book, I was a bit surprised that the sizing was just dress sizes, no cup size or anything else for that matter. I decided to make a size 10, I usually make up a 12, but that correlated better to my usual 34c.
The pattern calls for stretch lace, the one in the pack wasn’t stretch so I swapped it for one in my stash which was about 6″ wide with a scalloped edge. I found it a bit confusing cutting out as it wasn’t clear which way up to have the pattern design, so I’ve got fleur de lys going in different directions. Next time I’ll know how the pattern goes together!
The actual construction was pretty simple and the instructions are very clear and straightforward. Next time I think I would put the powermesh under the lower band as it does look a bit of a weak spot and possibly the bottom half of the cups to help neaten the seams.
The hook and eye bands were a bit fiddly to stitch on, I’m pretty sure Patricks beady eye would have noticed that the powermesh isn’t totally in the band inside!
The pack I had didn’t quite have the length of strap elastic the pattern calls for do I used the pico edged one for the little loop at the front.
I’m really pleased with it, the pico edging is just neatly peeping out, I’ve got the scallops pretty symmetrical…and to my utter amazement, it fits beautifully!! It’s so comfortable too…I think I might just be making some more bras sometime soon, just got to make some matching undies, as I do like everything to match!
Our garden is smelling rather nice at the moment. There’s a few flowering shrubs in bloom at the moment…
At the top of our steep drive the ceanothus is in full flower, it’s full of bees and the honey scent is lovely as you stand by the back door. My OH keeps telling me it needs cutting back, which it does, but not until after it’s finished flowering!
In the back garden we ‘borrow’ scent from the back lane, we back onto a disused railway line which is great for dog walking, not so good for weeds, the tall green plants to the left of the path in the sunshine are mainly nettles, they’re taller than me! The other photo is the area directly behind our garden…mmm it’s a weedery!
However when you turn the other way there is a HUGE Philadelphus, or Mock Orange Blossom, the scent drifts over and fills our garden, which is lovely. We do have a couple of philadelphus shrubs in the garden, but they never flower as profusely as the one on the back lane!
I’ve been having a battle with weeds this week, I’m trying to clear the front garden as much as possible before putting membrane down so I’ve been spraying mares tail and bindweed, so we’ll just have to see how effective it is, mares tail is notoriously difficult to kill!
I learnt something new this week, hope I’m not the only one not to have realised this! I love peonies, I think the flowers are stunning, but I never really thought of them as scented flowers. I fell for a bunch of gorgeous white peonies on the market, as soon as he passed me the bunch I noticed the perfume, but when I got home and put them in a vase in the dining room, the scent filled the room like lillies! I haven’t had chance to check the perfume of the peonies in the garden yet!
Another shrub in flower at the moment is a sambuscus nigra black lace, it makes a lovely backdrop by the arbour. I usually prune it hard in the spring as I grow it mainly for the foliage, and it does get a bit big if it’s just left, but this year I never got round to it, so I’m enjoying the flowers!
It’s the longest day of the year here, hopefully summer has realised it’s meant to be making an appearance!
I’m a little bit behind with the Great British Sewing Bee, last weekend we were catering for the local village show, so two coffee cakes, two coconut and lime cakes, an elderflower drizzle cake and a chocolate cake later…oh and two dozen iced cupcake…not a lot of time left for sewing!
Last weeks Great British Sewing Bee had an international theme, the first challenge was to make a chinese inspired top. It was based on the qipao, a traditional chinese dress, the pattern for it is in the new book that goes with the series. It did look quite a complicated pattern, one where you have to really concentrate! The fabric didn’t particularly help either being a satin brocade. I can’t say I’ll be rushing off to make that pattern up!
The upcycling challenge was to make something from a sari, there were a few harem pants and a couple of nice tunics. Last year I bought a vintage silk sari off ebay and made a beautiful dress, I love wearing it, it’s so light. Have a look at it here. A couple of weeks ago I was browsing on ebay (always a mistake!) and I fell for three vintage silk saris, they were £10 to £12 each, including postage from India! A sari is on average about 5m long, so that’s a lot of silk for £12! I was feeling a bit guilty about buying all this beautiful silk so cheaply and I mentioned about it to one of my colleagues at work who is Asian. She made me feel much better when she pointed out that over there they would be seen as second hand clothes, whereas I look and see gorgeous silk!
My saris arrived at the weekend, one of them is a rich turquoise blue and purple pattern, very similar to my other dress, it does have a gold border on which I may or may not use, it’s a bit bright for me. The second one is a gorgeous soft mauve colour with a delicate gold border (I like this one!) and a beautiful patterned square at one end. I’m thinking of making dresses out of these two.
The third one is the one I’ve been sewing this weekend as part of my Little Sewing Bee challenge. It’s a gorgeous steel grey colour, it has a slight sheen to it but it isn’t as shiny as the photos make it look! It has what I would call an ombre effect at both edges where it darkens to almost black. Within the weave there is a subtle check in very dark grey and then every so often there is a gold flower in the square of the check. The border has gold flowers and then the decorative square at the end is all gold flowers. I love it!
I decided to make an Anywhere Maxi Skirt, I made one a couple of weeks back in a liberty print and I’ve worn it several times, it’s lovely to wear and even better I’ve had quite a few compliments about it! I decided to sew it without side seams (and therefore pockets!) so I could have the border round the hem uninterrupted. On saris there is a hand sewn cotton strip along one edge, I presume it would have originally gone next to the skin to protect the silk, on this one it looked fine, no noticeable wear marks so I decided to use it as my hem to help give a bit of weight.
With no side seams and no hem it was a pretty quick skirt to make, it would have been even quicker if I hadn’t cut the waistband a touch short, I added a strip of gold squares, it seemed a good idea at the time, but I’m not sure now as it looks a bit messy with the sash. I’ll wear it a couple of times before I decide whether to keep the sashes or not, it took me a couple of wears last time to get used to how to tie it.
I went down to Duttons for Buttons for my buttons. There is a shop locally in Ilkley which is very handy. They stock about 12,000 buttons, shelf after shelf of them, it’s like an Aladins cave! The assistant came to help, usually I prefer to browse on my own so I don’t feel pressured but she was really helpful and found some perfect grey buttons with a lighter grey swirl and the tiniest bit of sparkle, just what I needed!
I finished the skirt this afternoon and I’m hoping to make a simple top from the gold flowered end, possibly this weekend.
Maybe I should have hoovered the sewing room floor first…
These Monday’s seem to come around awfully fast these days, I’m sure that’s a sign of getting old!!
I love early June in the garden, the leaves are still a pretty fresh green, all the foliage is still luxuriant, the slugs haven’t had chance to nibble the hostas and the summer flowers are starting to bloom.
I’ve got a big clump of irises with gorgous silver edges in the lower garden, right in front of a stone bird bath. The soil there is very heavy clay but they seem really happy there, in fact they are so happy I think they are going to have to be divided soon!
The paeonies have all come into flower this week, I’ve got a few different ones as I do have a soft spot for paeonies, they have a very short flowering season, but it’s glorious! I’ve got a standard pink one, which I’ve not taken a photo of, but aren’t these two gorgeous, they are just as bright in real life!
Our roses are just starting to come into flower, most of our roses are from David Austins, I particularly like his English roses as they are strongly scented. We’ve got Generous Gardener climbing over the arbour, though I’m not very good at training roses, it didn’t help that when we replaced our arbour the new one was about a foot shorter. I’ve put some netting on the roof this year to tie it to.
Teasing Georgia is a lovely golden yellow rose which climbs (slightly more successfully) over the arch. We’ve got a purple clematis growing up the other side so it does look nice when they are both in flower.
I think the pink rose is Scepter’d Isle, either that or it’s Queen of Sweden! We planted three bushes close together to make one big bush. It looks lovely when it’s in full bloom.
The weather has been a bit miserable this week and I’ve been really busy so I haven’t had chance to get out in the garden and start attacking those weeds. I’ve got a week or so off work after tomorrow so hopefully I’ll have chance to get my hands dirty!
thecraftycreek 