Chicken Wire Sculptures

Posted on September 19, 2014 by craftycreeky

Meet Goosey Lucy, the latest addition to our garden.

Chicken Wire Sculpture

Goosey Lucy

I made her on Saturday at a workshop run by Susan Nichols in Fridaythorpe, which is a little village on the York to Bridlington road. Susan makes amazing life-size sculptures from chicken wire of birds, animals, children, have a look at her website to see what she makes http://www.holmfieldnurseries.co.uk

I first met Susan at a workshop organised by the Women’s Institute at Alma House in Ripon, I made a chicken, mine was a very chunky chuck, that was about three years ago and she still looks great!

Chicken Wire Sculpture

Nettie the Chicken wire chicken

We started off with a basic wire frame, this was then padded out using ‘sausage rolls and yumyums’ of chicken wire held on with more sheets of chicken wire. Susan is a great teacher, very patient, no one ever goes home with a duff bird! It’s quite hard work making the birds, there’s a lot of  twisting movements to secure the wire, I was tired at the end of the day!

A couple of years ago I made Daphne the Duck at another WI workshop.

Chicken Wire Sculpture

Chicken Wire Sculpture

My pride and joy however has to be Hubert the Heron. I made Hubert in March this year. He presides over the pond. The sculptures are very sturdy. Their legs are made from 6mm steel rods and Susan’s engineering background ensures they are well braced!

Hubert the Heron

Goosey Lucy was made to go in the AA garden, I needed a fairly tall bird as the plants are pretty tall, ideally I should have made her looking up but I like the shape of the neck on the geese looking down. She is a big bird,  weighs a lot too. I’m really pleased with her!

Chicken Wire Sculpture

Goosey Lucy in the AA garden

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Christmas wall hanging

Posted on September 16, 2014 by craftycreeky

I’m making a concerted effort this autumn to finish things, UFO’s as I call them (unfinished objects!) I have quite a few stashed in my sewing room in various stages of completion.

Yesterday I finally completed my Christmas wall-hanging. I started this about twelve months ago, thinking I’d have it ready for Christmas last year, but life got in the way and somehow sewing Christmas things in spring doesn’t work for me. I bought it as a complete impulse buy in Samuel Taylors in Leeds, I was in the queue to buy some thread and there it was on display on the wall, I loved the colours and I have to admit being a bit of a sucker for Christmas things, so before I had chance to think about it, it was in my bag with the thread!

I think fabric panels are great for Christmas, I usually hand quilt them,  I haven’t as yet mastered machine quilting, but I also find hand quilting very relaxing, I don’t have to concentrate much,  I can take it to work to sew in my lunch break too.

I backed this one with a patterned green cotton I had in my stash, it’s one thing I would change if I did it again as I can’t see the quilted shapes on the back. I quilted this one in different colour threads depending on the shape I was going round.

The quilt binding was from the same range of fabric, I cut 2″ wide  lengths with my rotary cutter, machine stitched round the quilt with a 3/8″ seam, then hand-stitched it to the backing. The hangers were made from left over binding strips.

Looking forward to Christmas now so I can hang it at the bottom of our stairs.

Twelve days of Christmas wall hanging

Twelve days of Christmas wall hanging

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Leisure by W H Davies

Posted on September 5, 2014 by craftycreeky

I often think of this poem when walking with my friend, we have started doing a long distance walk each year, this year we walked half of the Bay2Bay walk, 100 miles from Grassington to Barrow in Furness. We take our time and organise the walks so we do a maximum of 12 miles a day. We like to have time to enjoy the walk, stop and admire wild flowers, watch red squirrels. Our OH’s think it very amusing as how ever long the walk is, it will take us all day, we have a sausage roll break, banana break, coffee break, lunch, sticky bun break….we basically graze all day. This doesn’t include all the stops for photographing a view, especially if going up a steep hill! If we can organise a teashop at the end, even better.

We don’t see the point of marching up and down dale if you’re going so fast you miss the beauty around you, everyone should take time to stand and stare…

One of my favourite walks ever involved getting up at 4.30 one morning to climb Catbells to watch the sunrise. Catbells is one of the smaller fells in the Lake District, but it has fantastic views of Derwentwater. It took about 45 minutes to climb to the top then we just sat and watched as early morning mist formed over the lake, the sun rose over Blencathra turning everything golden orange, it was absolutely beautiful.

The Poem “Leisure”

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

WH Davies

From Songs Of Joy and Others (1911)

View over Derwentwater from Catbells

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The Butterfly Garden

Posted on August 26, 2014 by craftycreeky

I have just completed the Butterfly Garden cross-stitch kit by The Drawn Thread. I started it three months ago having fallen for it at the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show on the Nimble Thimble stall last year. They had a beautiful display of samplers which really sold it for me.

I have thoroughly enjoyed stitching it, partly because of the variety of stitches involved. There were lots of new stitches to learn but the instructions  and the charts were very clear. The subtle colour variation from the Caron Waterlily threads were very effective with the flowers in particular, I always felt they were rather expensive before but I must admit I would be tempted to buy them now. Chris from Nimble Thread in Oswestry was very helpful when I ran out of a couple of threads, sending out more than I had asked for and very promptly too.

Buddleia were stitched in Smyrna cross-stitch, which is like a double cross, phlox were in lazy-daisy stitch, tansy were stitched with French knots.

Butterfly Garden

Buddleia, phlox, tansy and campsis

Bergamot, salvia and campsis were stitched with a variety of backstitch combinations. Sunflowers were stitched with lazy-daisy and French knots, verbena with Smyrna cross-stitch.

Butterfly Garden

Salvia, campsis and sunflowers

Mallow flowers were a mixture of a broad cross-stitch for the centre, surrounded by woven satin stitch. Blackberry flowers were double cushion stitch and the berries were in square boss-stitch. The little bumble bees were very cute, they were stitched in cross-stitch but over a single thread of linen.

The Butterfly Garden

Verbena, lantana, mallow and blackberry

I had it framed down at Artworks in Otley, they always do a fantastic job of framing and just as importantly  I trust them with my embroideries. I just need to find somewhere to hang it now!

So if you fancy doing a cross-stitch kit that grows quickly and has lots to keep you interested, I can recommend the Butterfly Garden.

The Butterfly Garden

The Butterfly Garden

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