Too Ditsy?

Posted on April 3, 2024 by craftycreeky

I managed to finish the Easter sewing for the grandchildren, although they’re away this week so they’ll have them on their return.

Youngest granddaughter is still into pretty dresses, I spotted a pattern on Little Lizard King called Emilia which had a lovely deep scooped back and some pretty sleeve and hem variations. I do like the Little Lizard King patterns, they’re a bit different, they usually have several variations and they cover a lot of sizes.

Mum suggested a pretty ditsy flower fabric. She sent me a photo of a purple ditsy print. I went along to The Remnant Shop in Harrogate which does have a huge range of pretty flowery prints. Of course there was nothing quite like the one she sent me, there was a purple one but it somehow looked a bit drab. It looked much prettier in the pink. I know granddaughter is still into pink as she wants a Barbie pink quilt, so pink wasn’t a problem. What caused problems was that I wanted another print that would contrast with it for frills, pockets, sleeve ruffles etc. Eventually we found a very pretty rosebud print, like a larger version of the ditsy, that would work I thought!

I hesitated a bit at home as the backgrounds were different colours but I persuaded myself it would work. I made the dress with the larger flower print and used the ditsy for the ruffles etc.

It took me quite a while to make, but I’m just not happy with it. I think it’s too much ditsy!! I haven’t quite finished it but I’ve stopped to see what mum and granddaughter think.

I have several options as I see it;

  • I have enough rosebud fabric left to remove the skirt and just put a simple skirt round
  • Cut the ruffle off and replace with rosebud ruffle
  • Cut the skirt right back to make a top with a bit of a frill
  • Scrap the lot and add it to my quilt fabric scraps

I shall see what mum and granddaughter think, in the meantime I made another dress!

Posted in Dressmaking, grandchildren, Sewing, Sewing for Grandchildren | Tagged , | 14 Comments

Tuesday’s Totter Round the Garden

Posted on April 2, 2024 by craftycreeky

I’ve finally managed to have a few good sessions in the garden – it’s been so wet up to recently that I’m way behind on the spring tidy up, over Easter I managed two good days in the garden…

I spent Saturday tidying up round the pond, there’s still a lot to do as it really needs a good clear as a few plants are taking over. It’s probably over ten years since I really did any big work on this bed so I think it’s due for a sort out…

The pond is full of duck weed as you can see but as we do have a resident frog, a few toads and quite a lot of newts, I don’t want to clear it just yet in case there’s some frog or toad spawn in there. I also want to remove all the edging stones, clear any weeds that are hiding underneath the plastic membrane, then relay the stones neatly so they hide the plastic again. It would be nice to have plant’s growing in there again and I have a catalogue of a nursery which does collections for small ponds, I’m tempted – once I’ve cleaned it out.

The Solomon’s Seal is starting to push it’s tall stems up, that’s one that really needs clearing as it’s encroaching in quite a large area, I’ll probably move a bit to where it’s got room to spread. There’s also a crocosmia Lucifer that’s just getting too big, the problem I have there is that it’s intermingled a bit with some irises which I want to keep and the strappy leaves all look very similar!

The log roll edging is finally rotting away. On Sunday afternoon we dug out the straight section next to the path, I had to clear lots of snowdrops, at the moment I’ve a big bag ready to transplant or give my daughter, luckily ‘in the green’ is the best way to move snowdrops. These are a bit precious to us as they came from my mum’s garden. We replaced the log roll with a straight plank of wood which will hopefully weather fairly quickly. I’ve replanted lots of snowdrops in a strip along the edge of the path so they can gradually spread inwards a bit whilst leaving me room to plant other things.

Over in the Amber and Amethyst garden there’s a lovely little area just by the path as you walk up to the back lane. This is my favourite hellebore, it’s a beautiful wine red colour. It just seems to pick out the soft shade of the hebe next to it and contrasts nicely with the golden leaves of the berberis behind. The perennial wall flower is just starting to flower too.

Down by the patio I had a good tidy-up last week, the pottery still need a a bit of refreshing, but it’s looking a lot better than it did. The pink camellia has been lovely this year, adding a much needed bit of early colour. There’s a little blue clematis just starting to flower next to the arbour too. I’ve a few gaps in the borders here as I moved a couple of shrubs which were getting a bit big. They’re at the side of the house now and looking very happy there, I’ll show you them another week as Bella decided to pose on the patio…

As I said to my friend the other day, the garden looks nice,,,from a distance, so you can’t see the weeds and the jobs that need doing! The magnolia stellata is still looking glorious, at dusk it almost seems to glow, it’s one of my favourite trees in the garden.

Hopefully we’ll now have some decent gardening weather and I can catch up a bit.

Posted in Garden | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Owl and Hare Hollow HQAL

Posted on March 24, 2024 by craftycreeky

I’m so nearly there, but not quite! I’ve a few sewing projects on at the moment which are vying for my attention, some of which have deadlines, like Easter sewing for the grandkids, so they have to take priority. Added to this Bella the dog needs walking and the garden is desperate for a tidy. However I have made some progress, three weeks ago I’d just finished off several blocks, like these two embroidered ones…

Over the last three weeks I’ve embroidered the final block of the pattern. It’s a very pretty block with a gardening theme. I just need to finish stitching the ring of hexie on (I’ve stitched round the outside edges and just started on the inside) then I have to choose a circle of fabric to go in the middle.

That’s all the official pattern blocks done, however I’m doing one extra so I have 49 blocks so I can make it a 7×7 block quilt, rather than an 8×6.

I found an embroidery pattern on Etsy, it’s a company called MiNiceStitch, they do all sorts of little embroidery designs and what is particularly good is that they provide several different sizes for different sized embroidery hoops.

I chose a sewing thremed wreath which my plan is to then embroider the name of the quilt , year and my initials in the middle, like a label on the front. Here’s what I’ve done so far…not a lot!

Hopefully during the Easter break I can start to square up my blocks and work out the sashing. I have some thoughts on the sashing but I need a play.

Hand Quilt Along Links

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, Margaret, Deb, Nanette, Sharon, Karrin, Daisy, and Connie

I’ll also be linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday, so please follow the lnks to see what everyone has been stitching.

Posted in embroidery, Owl and Hare Hollow BOM, Quilt-a-long, Quilting | Tagged , , , , | 21 Comments

Scrunchies

Posted on March 21, 2024 by craftycreeky

My eldest granddaughter is now thirteen, when I asked her mum if she would like a dress again this Easter she told me she’s going through a leggings and t-shirt stage so please don’t waste my time and money making her something nice that will just hang in the wardrobe. I appreciated her honesty! She suggested some hair scrunchies instead.

Whilst my daughter was at uni she had quite a good little business going making hair scrunchies so whilst she was up last weekend I got her to teach me how to make them…and it really is as quick and easy as she said!

This afternoon I made a handful for Pip, she’s still into neutral colours but also like electric blue! I raided my fat quarter drawers and came up with these. Some of them are left from the quilt I made her a couple of months back.

Hopefully these will get used and in time she will like dresses or tops again 🙂

Posted in grandchildren, Sewing for Grandchildren | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Waves and Wild Heyday Dungarees

Posted on March 21, 2024 by craftycreeky

I’ve been busy this week sewing for grandchildren, I’ve started making them something for Easter, rather than give chocolate. It’s what I did for my kids as they got so many Easter eggs from other people and at least one child didn’t actually like chocolate very much. This year I’m making dungarees for Hugo, my grandson. My daughter was up last weekend making some for her god-daughter and they looked very cute and fairly quick to make.

The pattern is from Waves and Wild, it’s called Heyday dungarees, it’s a pdf pattern which for children’s stuff I like, I can cope with sticking all the pages together when they’re only little and at least you can print a bigger size the following year. This time I even managed to surpass myself by working out how to only print the size I wanted!

The fabric is a denim look babycord, I bought it at Boyes in Ilkley last week, at first I presumed ‘denim look’ referred to the colour, however on closer inspection when I got home, I think it’s also the cut, the cord is cut pretty short and seems to have a wider trough than usual, making it look a bit like denim, but it feels soft like corduroy. I wanted some contrasting pockets and I found this chicken fabric in my stash which goes well enough. It’s not perfect but to be honest at this age (he’s not yet two) they often hardly wear stuff before they grow out of it so I really didn’t want to spend another £4 on a perfectly matching fat quarter. I felt self pockets could have got a bit bulky.

The pattern is designed to secure the bib by tying the strap in a knot, that seemed a lot of hassle so (with mum’s agreement!) I chopped three inches off and used buttons instead. The only bit I faffed about a bit with was the buttonholes, I hate unpicking buttonholes but I unpicked three altogether! The first one went too low off the facing, then I stitched two but realised when I put the straps next to them that I’d put them too far out as I’d made the straps slightly wider! In order to move them I also had to unpick and lower the bib pocket! I took advantage of this to cut a new pocket as typically, although the chickens go in all directions on the fabric, they were all upside down on the original pocket. Thankfully the fabric is pretty forgiving of all this unpicking!

As you can see, I had the same issue with the back pockets but decided they could stay!

There is plenty of growing room lengthwise as the bottoms are rolled up and there’s lots of strap beyond the button, so hopefully he will get lots of play time in them.

I do like stitching the ‘Made with love by Grandma’ label on!

Posted in Dressmaking, grandchildren, Sewing, Sewing for Grandchildren | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Stitching my Garden SAL

Posted on March 17, 2024 by craftycreeky

I’ve been quite productive over the last three weeks with my embroidered garden book, I think now I’m nearing the end I just want to wrap it up. I’ve been stitching what I call filler pages, not a huge amount of embroidery on them, but will hopefully help the book to flow.

Three weeks ago I was stitching the map of the garden…

I added numbers to the key features, cut it out and stitched it to a plain background with a compass point in the corner.

I then obviously needed a key, I decided the easiest and clearest way would be on evenweave linen. I used the alphabet that is in the Strawberry Sampler book I’m also stitching at the moment. It’s the smallest counted thread alphabet I know and to say it’s based on just two cross-stitch squares per lower case letter, I think it’s a really pretty alphabet.

Even with such a small alphabet, I only just fitted it on the linen. I was originally planning to add trims such as lace to the page but it all looked too much and with the green leafy background, I think it’s enough.

I then decided it would be good to do a ‘title’ page for each of the big garden embroideries, they’re so busy that I thought having one of the crazy patchwork ones opposite them might detract somewhat. I could also use up a couple of mini embroideries I had done earlier.

The first one was the patio area…

I decided to use the same green evenweave and font, to give a bit of continuity. I used a technique I saw in a book by Tilly Rose, she does lovely vintage style stitchings. She made a hexagonal patchwork piece by folding the backing fabric over to the front to make a mock binding. I stitched the lettering first, worked out a hexagon size and then made another using an embroidery by Sookie Soo. A third one is just a pretty quilting cotton. I continued the shapes with a running stitch to complete the page. I also made a new name for the bed that is just full of potted plants of various sizes…the pottery!

I am currently stitching the summerhouse area facing page…

I’m using up all the mini hexagons I had left from the Owl and Hare Hollow quilt, I ummed and arred over how to arrange them, flowers, border round the words, hexagon… in the end I’ve gone for a block, sort of like a flower bed. I’ve the last three to stitch on, then I just need to decide on background. I’m dithering between a beige with ditsy flowers on or an ivory with ivory flowers…

I had a good lightbulb moment last night when I realised I didn’t need to remove all the backing papers from the hexagons (not my favourite job!) as they’re going to be on a stiffened page anyway!

Just one more facing page to do for the Amber and Amethyst garden and then maybe a title page for the book…I’ll see how the page layouts work out. I’m nearly there!

This SAL is organised by Avis from Stitching by the Sea, please follow the links to see what everyone else is stitching.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Jackie, 

Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, Cathie, 

Linda, Helen, MaryMargaret, Cindy

Posted in embroidery, Garden, Stitch-a-long, Stitching my Garden, Textile Books | Tagged , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Vogue 9326 in Sage Satin

Posted on March 16, 2024 by craftycreeky

I bought this pattern quite a while ago, 2020 I think, it’s a Very Easy Vogue pattern and although it’s a wrap dress (which I have a love hate relationship with!) I rather liked the collar and the full drapy skirt. I don’t think I realised initially just how fabric hungry this pattern is, it takes over 5m of fabric! So it was a while before I found a suitable fabric at a reasonable price so I could afford to buy 5m!

I bought the fabric on line (back in 2020) from Fabrics for All which has sadly since closed. Its a dark sage satin with a leaf design in a silver grey. It’s a really soft satin with not too much sheen too it, it feels really nice and soft. I think I bought it thinking it would be rather nice for Christmas, but pre-Christmas I was always too busy to make it…

Last weekend a friend was having a retirement come birthday party, so I decided to make myself a new dress. In an attempt to reduce my stash a little I decided to go for a fabric hungry dress and out came this pattern.

I’d forgotten what a nightmare satin can be to cut out! It didn’t help that a lot of the pieces had to be cut out one by one, not two at a time on the fold. It always makes me nervous cutting out like this as I always think I’m going to run out of fabric! The fabric moved a fair bit, I didn’t realise how much until things didn’t match up when I was sewing.

At first the seams were a little lumpy, I then tried stitching them with a stretch stitch and it did seem much better. I overlocked all the seams as it does fray pretty easily.

Last time I made a Vogue pattern dress I followed the measurements, cut out a size 14 and it was HUGE. This time the pattern said it was loose fitting so I decided to cut out a 12. I had checked the actual garment measurement round the bust, that gave me about 5″ ease…I didn’t notice that the waist was -1″!!When I first tried the top on the waist was decidedly snug and also seemed to point too far down. I decided as there were pleats front and back, I could let a bit out there without being too noticeable.

There were no pleats in the skirt so I just stitched all the seams with a 1cm seam instead of 1.5cm, which as there were seven seams, gave me a vital extra 3.5cm! I also realised just how much the front edge of the top had stretched on cutting, this is why the ends seem to point too far down. I also discovered the neck facing which comes all the way down the front didn’t reach the end of the front piece, it just about reached the end of the collar. I deduced that maybe if I attached the skirt to finish at the facing, it would work…and it did. The wide elastic belt I bought to wear with it also helped to cover up all the fiddling!

The final task was the hem. It’s a very long, curved narrow hem…not a great thing to stitch in satin! The pattern recommended using a gathering thread close to the edge to ease the fold in, but mine gathered too much as I was stitching it. My hem is a bit of a dogs dinner, but luckily it’s fairly long so not too noticeable.

I wore it last Saturday and it does feel lovely to wear, I love the collar, it feels almost snuggly. The wrap skirt hung beautifully and I didn’t have any wardrobe malfuctions with it but I didn’t wear it outside! My only misgiving is with my choice of fabric, it’s a printed satin so it’s white inside, so on the odd occasion when the skirt flapped, it was very noticeable. I can see why now on another wrap dress pattern I have, the front edge piece is self-lined. Despite this I did get lots of compliments and it did feel lovely to wear. I love the shawl collar and the deeper cuffs. If I can find some more reasonably priced fabric I might even make it again.

Posted in Dressmaking, Serendipity, Sewing | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

Owl and Hare Hollow HQAL

Posted on March 3, 2024 by craftycreeky

I’ve managed to get a fair bit done on my Owl and Hare Hollow quilt over the last couple of weeks, some blocks just needed finishing, others needed starting. Three weeks ago I had finished my windmill embroidery, it just needed the hexagons…

I had a big hexie making session, making enough for the last four embroidered blocks, that’s 76 hexies! I strung them together so they’re all ready to be stitched on. I stitched them round the bird block I made last month and then last night I stitched them round the windmill block.

I made four churn dash blocks which were then made into circles by gathering them round a template. Some fabric choices have worked better than others, I think the green and purple one is my favourite.

I made a cute appliqued house surrounded by a ring made from ten paper-pieced arcs and also some flowers in a teapot with a matching surround. I’ve used bondaweb for the applique designs rather than needle-turn as they’re such little fiddly pieces.

So I’ve just got two embroidered blocks to make now. Officially it’s just one, but rather than an 8×6 quilt design which has 48 blocks, I’ve decided to make mine 7×7 so I need one extra block. I’ve found a lovely circular sewing design in which I can incorporate the name of the quilt, date and my initials, a label within a block.

I still need to choose fabric for the sashing, I’m aiming for 1″ sashing with cornerstones, I just need to lay a few blocks out and have a play.

Hand Quilt Along Links

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, Margaret, Deb, Nanette, Sharon, Karrin, Daisy, and Connie

I’ll also be linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday, please follow all the links to see what everyone has been stitching.

Posted in Owl and Hare Hollow BOM, Quilt-a-long, Quilting | Tagged , , , , | 11 Comments

Stitching my Garden SAL

Posted on February 25, 2024 by craftycreeky

Well I never did find the original design for this final piece for my garden book, it’ll turn up one day…in the meantime I redrew the map of our garden. I used Google maps as a basis of relative sizes within the area. It’s not perfectly accurate or properly to scale, but it gives the idea of where each area or feature lies in relation to the other areas.

It took me a while to work out how I was going to create this piece, I wanted it to be fairly clear and not too labour intensive. I decided on a four-patch pieced backing with applique shapes applied using bondaweb. Once I’ve finished the embroidery I’ll cut it out and mount it on a plain fabric page. This is where I’m at so far…

As you can see I’ve just done back-stitch round the applique and chain stitch where the walls are. I’ve just got the conservatory to stitch round, then I’m thinking of adding straight stitches where the steps are and a little symbol where the arches are.

I’m then planning to stitch numbers on each area or feature and then on the page opposite I’ll have the key.

Once I’ve cut the garden out and stitched it on to the page, I’ll probably do some minimal back stitch to indicate the road and the back lane.

After this page I’ve just three fairly simple pages to do and then I’ll start putting it all together, At the moment I’m thinking of a fairly stiff interfacing and then using a pretty binding to cover the outer edges. It will be a little bulky at the edges but that might be an advantage in protecting the raised stitches. Another idea (which I’ve just this second had!) would be to cut the back page a quarter inch bigger than the front page, I can then fold the extra over the edge and blanket-stitch down…that idea is growing on me!

I’ve a bit of time before I need to decide on my method, any thoughts welcome.

This stitch-a-long is organised by Avis, from stitching by the sea, please follow the links to see what every one else is stitching.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, 

Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, 

Daisy, Cathie, Linda, Helen, MaryMargaret, Cindy

Posted in embroidery, Garden, Stitch-a-long, Stitching my Garden | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Sewing Room Declutter; Organising Threads

Posted on February 13, 2024 by craftycreeky

Day 9 of the Sewing Room Declutter 2024 is threads, a huge area. I did a lot of organising and sorting last year, but my machine embroidery threads were just jumbled in a box, inevitably getting tangled. I’ve got quite a few now with making the Ragged Ruff quilts and they definitely needed sorting.

As you can see I have them all in one of those pretty boxes you can get from TK MAXX, it’s a shoe box size , which they don’t do very often but I really like. Last year I had an idea of how to easily make a try to go inside the box. Luckily I had written my idea down on a post last February!

I have some Pellon in my stash which is like a really thick interfacing, like 1-2mm thick, it’s adhesive on one side too. My idea was to cover the pellon a bit like you can bind a quilt, by double folding the fabric over the edge. I had some fat quarters in my stash that I thought would work well, with the added bonus that I couldn’t see me using them in a quilt.

I ironed the pellon to the backing, which was cut 1″ bigger all round. I used 505 spray adhesive to secure the top fabric, this had the added bonus that some 505 inevitably went on the borders which made them more controllably when I was double folding the edges under. I stitched them om my sewing machine with the walking foot. Here’s the sides half made…

I hand-stitched the sides to the base, neatening up the mitred corners as I went along. I added tabs to the short sides – I did this on the machine too as with the sides being made of pellon and not card, I could bend them under the sewing machine!

Having made one, I realised I needed another, I had to make it slightly shallower so I made the sides with one deeper piece of fabric – fiddly but it worked. I also added a central divider, again I machine stitched it in place, just hand-stitching the ends. This doesn’t only keep the spools neat, it also adds support for the tray underneath.

I’m really please with them, they’re not perfectly made, but they’re functional and don’t my threads look neat in them!

And I’ve used another three fat quarters from my stash! Win, Win!!

Posted in sewing room | Tagged , , | 20 Comments