The garden is still looking full at the moment but autumn is clearly on it’s way, I’ll have to start the big tidy-up soon. There’s not a huge amount of flowers, but there’s a few…
Down by the conservatory door I have silver leafed shrub which goes by the wonderful name of perovskia, otherwise known as Russian sage, I always think it looks like it wouldn’t like my soil but it’s been there quite a few years now, it has lovely intense blue flowers, a bit like a mixture between lavender and catnip…
Up in the autumn border the rose called Lark Ascending is doing it’s best to flower, the clematis has also produced some last minute blooms and the rudbekia is brightening up the bed with it’s deep yellow flowers.
The foliage is starting to take over from the flowers for interest in the garden. The clematis which climbs up the arbour is a lovely lime green at the moment…
…and the cotinus cogghria is a lovely wine red. I can never get a photo which really shows what a gorgeous colour this shrub is, it always seems to look a little dull, so you’ll just have to take my word for it, just think of a glass of claret!
Further along the same bed is a pheasant berry, or leycesteria. It’s quite a spreading shrub which does need taking in hand occasionally, but in the autumn it has these gorgeous purple bracts dangling down.
Even further round the lawn, in between the roses, is a wiegela and a spirea, for most of the year they play second fiddle to the roses, but as the roses fade they provide a bit of interest with variegated leaves and pink flowers.
Yesterday we finally interred my mum’s ashes in the Garden of Rest at her church, I picked some roses from the garden and found just enough to make a pretty bunch, though really they were getting past it – I did feel a bit like a bridesmaid shedding petals where ever I went! The smaller tangerine coloured rose in the middle is called Port Sunlight, it’s from a rose bush I found unplanted in her garden when she went into a care home. I added a few geums and a bit of foliage, the roses smelled lovely. My mum would have loved them, in fact she would have got her paints out straight away and painted them!
Yesterday I finished the wordplay for my Anthea Calendar fabric book for August – just in time as the new design for September is due to be released tomorrow! This is the SAL by Faby Reilly, each month there is a seasonal flower design and then I’m doing a wordplay about that month to go with it. It was meant to be a record of the things I’ve done and events of the year – what a year to choose!
Augusts design is very pretty, it’s lisianthus and hydrangea…
The first half of August wasn’t good, but things settled and this is the wordplay I’ve just stitched…
1st August is Yorkshire Day when we celebrate all things Yorkshire! I often think Yorkshire is one of the most patriotic counties in England, though patriotic may not be quite the right word – we are very proud of our county and of being from Yorkshire.
Sadly 1st August was also when we lost our beautiful golden retriever, Rosie. She was 13 years old and we felt life had become too much of a struggle for her.
It hit us particularly hard as it came just a couple of weeks after losing my mother in law. The quote at the top is from a poem by Elizabeth Frye called ‘Do not stand at my grave and weep’. It’s a beautiful poem which was read at my mother-in-law’s funeral.
Having got the sad bit’s over, the month improved!!!
It was my birthday on the 28th, I had a lovely day – I had my hair done, and did some sewing, my daughter was up for the weekend and my son popped in too. I got some lovely presents, including an A2 olfa cutting mat for my sewing room and a special pair of scissors which are hopefully on their way, some dress-making scissors hand-made in Sheffield here in Yorkshire. On the 31st my children took me to Betty’s for breakfast. Betty’s is a group of very nice cafe’s here in Yorkshire which are well known for their cakes and pastries – especially their Fat Rascals! We’ve got one in Ilkley, my daughter used to work there for a Saturday job so she know what to order! Birthday breakfast’s at Betty’s has become a bit of a tradition!
Lisianthus is the pretty pink flower in the design, I’ve got a cream hydrangea which has been flowering beautifully and a soft blue one which resolutely refuses to flower!!
Petrichor, I love that word! Petrichor is the wonderful smell of rain on a hot day, it’s such an evocative smell. Apparently it isn’t the cool rain on the hot earth (as I always thought), it’s actually the oils the earth gives off in anticipation of the rain. MY OH says it’s one smell that takes him straight back to his childhood in Australia – the other being the smell of mosquito coils!!!
We often see red kites circling around, they’re stunning birds with 5′ wing spans. They were heading for extinction when a breeding program was set up in Harewood, just down the road from here. It was so successful they have gradually spread up the dale. They’re fairly common round here now but we still say ‘Ooh look, there’s a red kite’ every time we see one, a bit like seeing rainbows!
In August it was the Yorkshire Festival of Story, it’s usually a live event up in the pretty town of Settle in North Yorkshire. Due to the pandemic they went on line instead. I really enjoyed it, I listened to several talks, each was an hour long. I listened to talks about trees, about Anne Bronte, Tracy Chevalier talked about her book on the people who embroidered kneelers for Winchester cathedral, I listened to the Yorkshire Shepherdess…there was all sorts to listen to. I thought it was particularly good that they offered them free but asked for a donation, so you could give what you could afford. I’m hoping next year they will have an on line presence again as Settle is too far to travel for a one hour talk.
When I showed you ‘August’ a couple of weeks ago I was trying to decide how to make it up into a book, really I just didn’t fancy a small back-stitch edge round every page. Well, I gave myself a bit of a talking to and started edging them. I’ve made it a little easier for myself as I’m stitch the back-stitch over four threads instead of two, it made it a lot quicker and I’m hoping it will still give that nice crisp finish I got with my stitch sample book a couple of years ago. The back-stitch is used to whip-stitch the pages together. I’ve cracked on nicely with just three pages left to do before I’m up to date.
I did discover a bit of a bloop with August – though the way my brain was I’m amazed it came out at all!! When I came to stitch round it wasn’t measuring up right, I realised it’s stitched on 28 count instead of 32, so it’s a little bigger, probably not noticeably as the months aren’t going to be seen next to each other. However, it will cause a bit of an issue when I come to stitch the pages together as there’s one less stitch on each side. They may sound insignificant, but when I’m planning to line up the stitches for whip-stitching…well put it this way, there will be a lot of fudging!!
It was June when I last showed you my seasonal display of cross-stitch smalls, I know because June’s smalls were still out a week ago! July and August went by in a bit of a blur with things going on at home, changing my smalls seemed the least of my problems!!! Luckily with the new month and new season my brain fog has lifted and I feel more my usual self…so here’s September’s smalls!
I’ve put all my autumn ones out – goodness knows what I’ll put out in October and November! I turned the two cross-stitch boxes round to their autumn side, the one on the left with a very cute squirrel is the Zoe box, a SAL by Faby Reilly a couple of years ago, the one on the right is a Betsy Morgan design I did about three years ago.
The pretty autumn wreath is another Faby Reilly design, it was a freebie a couple of years ago, the other autumn one with the blackbird on was a SAL on Thea Dueck’s facebook page. The pretty daisy pillow was a kit I was given a few years back.
The September pillow is from the Snowflower Diaries Joy to the World SAL, I stitched most of these a couple of years ago but I still have November and December to stitch! The jug of flowers was a mini kit I bought at Bonds, which used to be a lovely old-fashioned, rummagy sort of haberdashers in Farsley, sadly it’s now closed.
Hopefully I’m now back on track with my seasonal smalls- it’s just been one of those years!
In August I finally finished the last workshop in the Stitchbook Collective series by Helen Bellingham of Untangled Threads. It’s been a great experience and a huge learning curve as I tried techniques and products I’d never even heard of! We made several samples each month and I chose two (usually!!) to go in my final sample book, so I had twenty four samples on thirteen pages…all I had to do was make it into a book…
Helen provides calico pages to stitch the samples on which have five little tabs down one side for binding, it’s a lovely technique, I watched her video on how to do it, but first I needed to make covers and add something for the front and back page – I’d stitched my samples in so they were opposite each other.
I played around with various left over samples but I was finding it difficult to suss out the size I needed at the same time. In the end I decided to make a pair of calico covers first which I could then decorate and pop a stiffener inside. I found some lovely buttermilk coloured calico in my stash which was perfect. I made a simple sleeve just a little bigger than the sample ones. Initially I just left a hole for turning, but I soon realised if I was going to add a stiffener I would need one side open, so out came the seam ripper!
With the size determined for the covers it was much easier to work something out. On the front I used a sample of faux chenille stitched onto two pieces of hand-dyed calico. I just used simple running stitch and cross-stitch…
On the inside cover I simply added a label. These were made by my friend – she has a little business on facebook called Quirky Birds. This was one of 25 labels on a mixture of fabrics, printed with random quotes, all for £6, a bargain! I thought this one was quite apt…
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
I decided to use what I think is called Bosal to stiffen the covers, it’s a bit like a very firm, thick interfacing, one side is fusible, it’s used in bag-making. I cut a piece to size, slotted it in so the fused side was on the inside and iron it. It’s worked very well I think, all I had to do then was slip stitch the top together.
The first page uses a sample of gel plate printing, I titivated it with some tulle ribbon, blue lace, some buttons and a bit of stitching. Initially I was just going to include one of my labels, but I decided I really ought to initial and date it, just for the record!!
For the back cover I used another label “Out of limitations comes creativity” together with some more hand-dyed fabric and a bit of running stitch….
On the inside I used two samples from the rust-dying experiment,the buttons are little mother of pearl ones stitched upside down. The back page has a joomchi sample with just a circle of running stitch.
With everything stitched I just had to put it together. The idea behind the tabs is that a spacer is used inbetween each one such as a bead or a pretty felt ball. I had some fairly small wooden beads which I had earmarked for the job but when I tried them it would have been two bulky – bearing in mind that I have a thrirteen pages plus the covers, even taking into account the bulkiness of some samples. I started rummaging through my bead box and found some small very pale mauve beads, they work perfectly. I used some beading thread and a very long needle which Helen had provided in a kit I bought previously. On the front and back I decided to use little mother of pearl buttons to start and end each row of beads. I love the effect of the beads as you’re leafing through the book.
I’ve put together a bit of a slide show of the various pages and samples in my book, if you want any more detail click on the tab to the right which says ‘Stitchbook Collective’ and all the posts should come up.
I can highly recommend the Stitchbook Collective, the workshops are still available and I think she is planning a new series next year. It certainly pushed me well and truly out of my comfort zone – I was definitely a neat and tidy embroiderer before, not a raw edge in sight!! Whilst I still enjoy the neat and tidy way, I also enjoy the more free and easy style as well now!
Three weeks ago I’d just started a new project, my vintage quilt has been put to one side for the time being as I wanted something fresh and easy to sew. I spotted the Cottage Garden Quilt book on facebook before it was even published. I ordered my copy in advance through Fabadashery in Halifax, it was there that the author, Kathryn Whittingham, ran quilting workshops and included was a quilt-a-long for this quilt. It’s beautiful!
Three weeks ago I’d just started an embroidered block of three chickens…
Well I finished stitching round the chucks and added flowers and grass, it looks really cute. There will be another narrow border round thisblock, then it’s finished. The instructions are to actually hand-stitch the whole quilt, apologies but I’ll hand-embroider, I might even hand quilt, but I’m machine piecing it!
Enthused with how this one turned out, I cracked on with the quilt…
First I stitched a little daisy, I love this one, it’s so fresh and pretty. It’s going to be in the middle of a star block, it’s only little, about 2×3″. I’ve used the tiniest scraps for some pieces – the yellow centre is a scrap from a sunflower on some bee fabric. It’s just stitched with back-stitch, french knots and stem stitch.
Next I stitched a tulip which will also be in a star block. I wasn’t sure about edging with back-stitch at first – I’ve always used blanket stitch with raw edge applique, but I reasoned with myself that it was no different to using the machine to embroider on a block, the fabric was already secured with bondaweb.
Finally I stitched a pretty heart, this will be on a 2.5″ square in the centre of a log cabin block…
I’ve pulled a selection of pretty floral fabrics from my stash – I bought a lovely set of fat eighths a few years ago for a different project which never happened, at the Harrogate show last autumn. I added to it with this quilt in mind, so I have a nice selection of soft reds, pinks, blues and greens,hopefully it will make a very pretty quilt.
I’ve almost finished another block, then I need to make the blocks up and embroider another couple of blocks and the first row will be complete.
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.
I’ve just finished the August design for the Anthea Calendar SAL, this is the year long SAL by Faby Reilly with a suitable flower themed design for each month. They’re all beautiful!
This month the flowers are lisianthus and hydrangeas. It’s a design which is based on the Lizzy needlecase design which I stitched as a SAL a couple of years or so ago…
…oops, more like 2017!!
I’ve got hydrangeas in the garden, a beautiful white one which I’ve had a couple of years, and also what would be a beautiful soft blue one if it ever decides to flower!!! I’ve had it probably over five years, tried different positions, it still refuses to flower!!
Anyway, this months square is really pretty. I particularly like the part border with the eyelet stitch and beads, however it did cause me issues…
Having completed the main cross-stitch at the bottom I didn’t fancy my odds at trying to count the linen threads to stitch ‘August’, so I stitched the eyelet border next up the right hand side…only I miss counted on of the gaps!!! I didn’t realise until I’d almost finished the whole design when I stitched the left hand border and it stopped one stitch out!! As the offending stitching was the second one up I could undo it and move it down one, it’s still in the wrong place but at least it looks like it’s in the right place!!
I’ve just got my wordplay to stitch now, hopefully it won’t take too long this month.
I’m making these into a textile book, my original plan was to stitch it together a bit like my stitch sample book…
…however it has crossed my mind that this book is going to be a lot thicker, with twelve double page spreads rather than seven or eight. The pages will only be about 6″ square so it might end almost a cube! I am wondering about framing each design with a pretty floral cotton to make it 8″ square, this would have a couple of other advantages as it would save me having to back-stitch round 24 pages in order to stitch them together neatly, it would also lose the issue that I found before that with even weave linen the count on the weft is not exactly the same as the count on the warp, this causes problem when you come to stitch the pages together. It would also be a lot quicker as I could stitch a lot of it on the machine…I’m still mulling it over, any thoughts welcome!
My walking buddy and I are managing to get out walking most weeks at the moment – weather permitting of course! We’re doing all the local walks which we never quite got round to doing before, one of these was Sharp Haw, pronounced sharper. Sharp Haw is a shapely little fell just above Skipton, it has quite a distictive shape, this is a view from the hill on the other side of the valley, Sharp Haw is the pointy one to the left on the horizon…
We walked up from Skipton but back along to Embsay along the edges of those three large fields of golden corn you can see on the photo.
It’s quite a steep climb out of Skipton, but we were soon on the approach to the summit, through a field of cows and calves, so we were careful to give them a wide berth…we were also glad we didn’t spot the huge bull in amongst them until we after we passed through the field on the way back!
There’s a very comfortable seat just below the summit too which is perfect for coffee and sticky buns! The hazy photo below is the view from the seat, looking back along the path we’d just climbed and beyond to Rombolds Moor in the distance
Sharp Haw has a neat little summit with a trig point on the top. The heather was in flower too so it looked very pretty.
The views from the top were lovely, it was a little hazy but we spent ages eating our sandwiches and working out what we could see…
One side overlooks Gargrave where my friends family farm is, we spent an age trying to spot the farm, she did laugh when I pointed out that she had lived there for all her childhood, maybe she should know where it is!
We descended Sharp Haw the same way but then took the path across the fields to Embsay where we could have a welcome cup of coffee in my friends garden.
I think altogether we walked about 7.5 miles, so a nice distance, far enough to feel you’ve done a walk, short enough to have time to enjoy it 🙂
Over the weekend I finished the final workbox for the Stitchbook Collective. This one was on weaving. I remember weaving as a child – my Dad made us rectangular wooden frames with lots of nails in and we would sit and weave random lengths of wool! This time Helen Bellingham (from Untangled Threads) had rather cleverly thought that the postal box could be used as a frame, we simply cut the lid off, made some indents with a knife along the top and bottom, and wrapped some lovely thick linen thread round to make the warp. Wooden coffee stirrers were ideal for pushing the threads down!
Helen showed us the basics of weaving – tips to help keep the sides straight, how to join to blocks together etc. I decided rather than do anything fancy I would concentrate on colour and texture.
Helen had included a variety of threads, shiny ones, bobbly ones, fabric strips and wool rovings in blues, greens and turquoise. I added a few threads from my stash too, a strip of organza and some Wensleydale sheep wool. Wensleydale sheep have amazing fleeces in like long ringlets, I bought a small bag years ago, I use it for things like a Father Christmas beard!! As it’s in long ringlets it actually was quite easy to weave – much easier than the rovings. I added some beads in the middle too.
Once I felt it was finished I cut it off the loom and then had to decide how to finish the ends. I looked at macrame knots on the internet but I couldn’t see one that had the effect I wanted. In the end I just threaded a bead and made up a knot – I’m sure it has a name but I didn’t follow any instructions for it! I’m pretty pleased with this, I like the way the textures and colours have worked out.
The second sample was made by inserting pins round a shape on corrugated card (I did mine on my wool pressing mat which was nice and stable) thread was then wrapped round the pins to make the warp. This was a lot more fiddly, mainly because it was small, the warp threads were close together and the pins got in the way. Having said that, I like the end result…
I decided to do a circle in silvery grey sort of colours. I also decided to have all the loose ends at the same side, thinking moonlit etc! I found a mixed bag of silvery threads in my stash, some more Wensleydale wool and some silvery organza.
Once my circle was complete I did have a bit of a worry about taking all the pins out. I realised that when the instructions said secure the warp thread, I just knotted it round the pin, so once I took the pins out there would be nothing to stop it unravelling!! I very gingerly took the pins out and carefully laid it on some dark grey felt, I could then stitch the warp thread ends through the felt to secure them…phew! To finish securing the weaving I stitched beads on all the warp thread points, together with a few extra to make the circle. Although I wanted the long threads at one end I did feel they needed a little controlling, so I stitched a few down with the tiny beads, adding a few twists and turns.
I’m really pleased with both my pieces this month, my stitch book is going to be quite a fat book!! All I need to do now it make some book covers and then bind it all together. I’ve really enjoyed this series of workshops, it’s certainly pushed me out of my comfort zone, it’s given me the opportunity to try all sorts of different textiles and techniques such as joomchi, printing, tyvek, some I think I’m unlikely to try again, others I’ve really enjoyed and already used the technique or style in other pieces. If any one fancies having a go, I think Helen is planning another series of workshops next year, I would certainly recommend them.
It’s three weeks since I last showed you my Bethlehem embroidery, this is the Palestinian style piece I started at a workshop by Deborah Mullins last year. Three weeks ago I had just started the Chevron stitch border which will enclose the stitching…
It takes a while to make much progress with this stitch as it’s such a dense stitch – I seem to remember the central shape of chevron stitch taking hours at the workshop and this line is probably three times as long!
Anyway, I have made progress, not a huge amount, but reasonable, I’m still working my way round, but it has given me a little thinking time regarding how I’m going to fill in the areas in between the spirals. I feel I need shapes and colours that won’t detract from the outer spirals in particular, I don’t want to lose them in a melee of colour. I have a few thoughts but I probably need to draw my spirals onto paper to then have a play in the space I’ve got left.
Hopefully in three weeks time when I next share this, I’ll have finished with the chevrons and have a few more concrete thoughts about the rest of it!
In the meantime, please follow the links below to see everyone’s progress with their hand stitching…
I was meant to be walking from Addingham to Skipton today with my walking buddy, along the route of a Roman road. However it’s persisting heavily, we’re fair weather walkers and setting off in heavy rain with no respite in sight for several hours is not our idea of fun. So what is a girl meant to do but retreat into the sewing room…
At the end of July it should have been the Festival of Quilts, a huge show down in Birmingham, I went a couple of years ago for the first time and loved it. Obviously this year the actual show was cancelled but the organisers have done their best to make an on-line event. I was particularly interested in the workshops, I signed up for two on line workshops, one with Wendy Dolan and one with Jenny Rayment. Although they were live we got a link so we could watch it any time until the end of August.
I watched Jenny’s workshop live, it was called Folding Circles, a Floral Fascination. I really enjoyed it, she came across as really friendly and approachable, keen to share her skills. She goes at quite a pace, so I’d be very surprised if anyone managed to keep up, but as you could re-watch it as many times as you want this month, it really didn’t matter. In the end I just enjoyed the demonstration and stitched afterwards…
We started off with six squares of one fabric and three squares of two others. I chose three batiks from my stash. Basically we stitched them together and cut into circles so we had one colour on the back and half and half on the front. We used a 60′ triangle to mark the stitching lines and stitched them together into a circle. Then it was a matter of ‘playing with fabric’ as Jenny puts it, stitching points on the circle to get the flower effect. This was my circle as I stitched the first set of points together…
Having stitched my flower I felt it was calling out for a bit of embroidery and embellishment…
I blanket stitched round the petal edges, added beads to the stitched points and then started adding sequins and pearls, together with embroidery using fly, chain and feather stitch. The centre looked a bit messy, it needed something adding, so I rummaged in my bead box and stitched a cluster of beads over the middle where everything joined up.
I was pretty pleased with my flower and decided to make it into a cushion. I found a Voyager fabric remnant (our curtain shop in Otley has some good sales!!) which went perfectly colourwise. I’m still not 100% sure the style goes but it will suffice! I used a simple running stitch around the flower and then echoed it with a second row on the background…
…and there it sat, waiting to be finished until this morning. I squared it up, cut an overlapping backing and stitched it together. I’ve used a pretty ribbon for the ties, it’s really a Christmas one as it has mistletoe on it but I decided the colour went well and it wasn’t blatently Christmas!
I’m getting quite a collection of cushions in my conservatory now.
I really enjoyed Jenny’s workshop, the circles are one of the projects in her recent book ‘Material Magic’ too. I might even be tempted to attend one of her retreats at Quilt Sandwich in Bridlington, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen her name on their website.
In the meantime I need to watch Wendy Dolan’s workshop…
thecraftycreek 