Anthea Calendar SAL

Posted on August 29, 2020 by craftycreeky

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!

Posted in embroidery, Serendipity, Stitch-a-long, Textile Books | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Walking up Sharp Haw

Posted on August 25, 2020 by craftycreeky

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 🙂

Posted in Walking | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Weaving In and Out

Posted on August 24, 2020 by craftycreeky

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.

Posted in Textile Books, The Stitchbook Collective | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Bethlehem Embroidery SAL

Posted on August 23, 2020 by craftycreeky

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…

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Sue, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Deborah, Mary Margaret, Renee, Carmela, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie, AJ, Jenny, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Helen

Posted in embroidery, Stitch-a-long, Workshops | Tagged , , | 22 Comments

Playing with Circles

Posted on August 18, 2020 by craftycreeky

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…

Posted in embroidery, Quilting, Sewing, Workshops | Tagged , , , | 13 Comments

Foot Square Freestyle

Posted on August 17, 2020 by craftycreeky

This year I’m taking part in Foot Square Freestyle (F2F) which is a monthly block swop organised by Kate of Tall Tales from Chiconia. We make three blocks each month for someone in their chosen colour scheme with the idea that everyone will have enough blocks to make one or two quilts by the end of the year. It does push you out of your comfort zone colourwise sometimes.

In July we made blocks for Robin, her colours were blue and yellow, we could use any shade or tone of the colours. I rummaged in my stash found some nice cheerful bee fabric with pretty sunflowers on. I used that as my base and then added some more yellows, a paisley blue print and a couple more blue flowery ones. For someone who doesn’t particularly use yellow, I was surprised how much I had!

The patterns came from my Block-a-Day book, I have a love hate relationship with this book as it does have lots of different 12″ blocks (365 of them!) but I don’t like the instructions, so I make the ones I can work out without following the instructions! The big flower below is meant to be in red as a poppy, I thought it could look like a big sunflower in yellow – the block for the petals is basically a simple house block turned sideways.

I managed to fussy-cut two sunflower blocks for the last one, cutting four would have been very wasteful with the fabric, so the opposite blocks have honey and bees on them instead.

At the moment we’re holding on to our blocks until it’s safe to post them, then there will be lots of squishy parcels winging their way around the world. Do have a look at the F2F website, everyones colours and blocks are on there. This month we’re making them for Kate in pale greys and a bright colour, time for another stash rummage!

Posted in F2F, Quilting | Tagged , | 10 Comments

Dilly Dilly or Dilly Dally

Posted on August 16, 2020 by craftycreeky

I finally finished my July wordplay to go with the Anthea Calender SAL this evening. The Anthea Calendar is a monthly stitch-a-long by Faby Reilly with a seasonal flower design for each month, I’m going to make mine into a textile book so I’m doing a wordplay to go on the facing page about what I’ve been doing or my memories of the month. I’m trying to keep it positive and covid-free, but it’s not always easy, especially this month, hence I dilly-dallied a bit, I think I needed to distance myself from the month a bit in order to remember the positives!!

July’s design is very pretty with bunches of lavender and butterflies, Lavender is one of those plants I’ve never had any success with in the garden, I always blamed my clay soil, but plants didn’t fare any better in pots, and our neighbours have a lovely lavender hedge! I think I’ll stick to embroidering it…

As soon as I saw the lavender design I knew what verse I would be embroidering. I used to sing Lavender’s blue dilly dilly as a lullaby to my kids when they were babies (and bigger!) I liked the gentle rhythmic tune.

My friend and I finally got some days walking together, we’re concentrating on local walks which we just haven’t quite got round to before, so Almscliffe crags and Thruscross reservoir provided good 6-7 mile walks.

Almscliffe Crags

July was also the month I finally got my haircut, I was lucky in having had it cut early just before lockdown started, so it was only four months and not six!

We used to have a woodpecker visiting our feeders a few years ago, he was very shy, staying on the side of the feeder away from the house. When we moved the feeders to nearer the house we didn’t see him again…until this year. My OH saw him a couple of times first, but I always just missed him. In July I finally saw him on the sunflower heart feeder.

The geraniums in the garden have been flowering their socks off, especially the big magenta one called Ann Folkard. It needs cutting back hard really as it’s getting a bit rampant- my chicken wire goose has all but disappeared!

In mid July we sadly lost my dear mother in law, Ann, very suddenly and unexpectedly really, though we could take solace from the fact that she was still able to live in her own home right up to the end. However to add to our grief soon after we had to make the awful decision that Rosie, our golden retriever, was struggling too much, whilst we didn’t take her to the vets til the beginning of August, the two events did cast a big black cloud over the end of the month.

So, here’s my wordplay for July. I added the butterfly and some of the extra stitches from the SAL to tie it all in. I’m pretty pleased with it, hopefully August won’t be quite so hard! It’s stitched on a soft grey green linen called French Lace.

Posted in embroidery, Serendipity, Stitch-a-long, Textile Books | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

Crags and Reservoirs

Posted on August 14, 2020 by craftycreeky

My friend and I usually go away for a week in June or July to complete a long distance walk, we’ve done quite a few now, they’re usually around 80 to 100 miles so we aim for 12 to 12 miles a day. It usually takes quite a few practice walks in the spring to get our fitness back up again. This year we were meant to be walking the Lady Anne Way from Skipton to Penrith…it will have to wait for another year.

We were both shielding in the spring, but last month we finally managed to get out and do some walks – during the week we were meant to be walking Lady Anne’s Way. We needed a route a bit shorter and fairly local. We decided on Arncliffe Crags for the first trip out.

I can see Arncliffe Crags from my garden, a shapely little crag on the horizon, one of those that entices you to walk up it, but until last month we had never visited the crags! We parked at the village pub of North Rigton, from there it’s a fairly short pull up to the crags.

There’s a bit of a scramble to reach the top, but plenty of room for a coffee break with amazing views. I think in clear weather you would be able to see York Minster, especially if you knew where to look! Even with overcast weather it was lovely up there. I think this is looking over towards Otley – somewhere over there is our house!!

There were lots of names carved into the rocks up there, interestingly it was mainly from around the time of WW1, it struck me as the sort of place locals would go before they were called up.

The rock formations were interesting, similar to Brimham Rocks in Nidderdale, just a bit further north…

From the crags we walked around the aptly named Round Hill and Gravelly Hill, before finishing the walk via Weeton and then back to the Square and Compass pub in North Rigton for a very welcome cup of tea. On route we saw an amazing insect hotel, it was huge, made from a stack of wooden pallets with a whole array of things stuffed into the gaps, such as pinecones, twigs, bark, airbricks…

Altogether we walked around 7.5 miles that day and the following day we managed another walk…

Near Otley is the Washburn Valley, it’s a pretty valley which now has four reservoirs with lots of paths for walking round them. Swinsty and Fewston are very popular with families as the paths are easily passable with pushchairs. We’ve walked them several times, both as part of a long distance walk or just as a gentle walk.

Thruscross reservoir is the highest one, we’d skimmed the edge of it when we did our first long walk, the Six Dales walk, but we had never actually walked round it. We approached from below the dam from the lower reservoir that time, it was actually quite unnerving as they were obviously opening the sluice gates to fill Swinsty and the little babbling stream which connects the two was a raging torrent! The dam itself is huge and quite awe-inspiring, it makes you feel very small!

This time we parked at the top of the dam and walked around the reservoir, about 6 miles altogether.

We loved it, it is so different to the other reservoir walks, it’s a ‘proper’ walk, with lots of variety – a wooded bit, a moorland stretch, rivers and the reservoir itself. Unfortunately I have only one photo as I was travelling light with just my phone and it decided to die on me!!! There’s some interesting ruins around the reservoir – it was the last one to be built, from memory it was about 1965, whereas the others are from the 1800’s. We found a ruin right on the waters edge which we deduced to be a mill of some kind, a quick google when I got home confirmed it was a flax mill. There was a lovely old house in ruins too – as my father would say, ripe for renovation!!

We took our time walking round, noting the flowers and foliage around, listening to the buzzards mewing overhead. It’s definitely a walk to return to, we decided it would be great to walk there in the autumn, or even the winter with a crisp covering of frost…

Posted in Walking | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Pretty Pincushion

Posted on August 13, 2020 by craftycreeky

For several years in July I went to the Tea and Tents unofficial WI camping festival, they were brilliant, 600 ladies from all over the country sharing skills, ideas and friendship. It was all done on a voluntary basis, everyone did their bit at either holding a workshop or activity or helping with the running of the camp. It was sadly a victim of it’s own success as it became too much like hard work for the organisers and the last one was a couple of years ago…

…until this year! It was decided that due to the current climate, we all needed a bit of cheering up, so a virtual Tea and Tents was held on zoom. Many ladies set up camp in their back garden – or their living room! There were talks and workshops on zoom throughout the weekend. It was lovely to see old friends again.

I booked onto a course held by Paula who I met several times over the years. She was demonstrating an embroidered pincushion. The design was by Corrine Lapierre, she kindly made the pincushion pattern and a needlecase available on the WI website, but kits are available on her website, she does have some very cute felt kits.

I rummaged in my stash and found some lavender and peach felt, I then just chose a selection of DMC threads to co-ordinate.

Paula talked us through some suggested embroidery stitches and the making of the pincushion. It’s just made with two strips of felt for the sides and three circles for the top and bottom. The instructions are actually really clear and easy to follow, it was just nice having the social side of a zoom stitch-a-long!

The workshop was just for an hour, which wasn’t long enough to complete the pincushion, but by that evening it was finished. I used lazy-daisy, french knots, pistil, fly stitch and some straight stitch vaiations.

I stuffed it with a little bag of crushed cockle shells at the base – otherwise known here as pigeon grit – cheap and easily obtained at a petshop! It’s not too coarse but gives a bit of weight to the pincushion to help it stay stood up.

It was a lovely relaxing afternoon stitching with virtual friends, with a very cute pincushion made a long the way, felt is so forgiving for embroidery, it was a perfect project for an afternoon with friends.

Posted in Crafts, embroidery, Women's Institute | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

Change of Plan!

Posted on August 9, 2020 by craftycreeky

I’m having a bit of a break from my vintage quilt, I’m just not feeling it at the moment – we’re having a bit of a rubbish time at home at the moment and I just need projects I can stitch and enjoy without too much concentration – there were too many important decisions with that one!!

Instead I’ve started a new quilt, it’s one I’ve been planning for a while – I bought some fabric for it at the Knitting and Stitching show last year but I wanted to get a few other quilts finished before I started this one.

The quilt is called the Cottage Garden Quilt. It’s in a book of the same name by Katherine Whittington. Kathryn does the quilting classes at Fabbadashery in Halifax, as soon as I saw the photos of the quilt on facebook I ordered the book. It’s gorgeous. It has lots of hand-embroidered panels of garden scenes. The instructions are for hand-piecing, sorry but mine will be hand-embroidered but machine pieced. I still haven’t decided on the quilting yet – that’s a long way off!

I decided to do the chicken panel first, it’s very cute! I used bondaweb to attach the applique shapes and I’ve now started blanket-stitching around them. I then need to add beak and legs and some flowers and grass for them to stand on.

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, Tracy, Deb, Susan,  Nanette,  Edith, Sharon, Karrin, Gretchen, Kathi, Daisy, Connie, Monica and Sherrie

I’l also be linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday, please follow the link for more hand-stitching.

Posted in embroidery, Quilt-a-long, Quilting | Tagged , , | 19 Comments