Apologies for being so quiet on here, our building work still isn’t finished, though yesterday we had our first bath and cooked a roast dinner in the new oven…so things are moving forward! Any spare time I have had has been spent stitching entries for the Otley Show next week – I rashly entered ten different classes, I’ve just one left to make which may or may not get made!
So, my butterfly alphabet, I have made a little progress, just a little, but as I always say, progress is progress!
Three weeks ago I had just finished the first row, letters A to G…
I’ve started the letter H, just not quite finished it! My satin stitch doesn’t seem to be improving much, it’s a good job this isn’t for a competition! I’m enjoying stitching it and that’s what matters.
Hopefully next time I’ll have made a bit more progress, and I’ll have told you what I have been making over the last month.
Avis organises this stitch-a-long, we post our progress every three weeks, hopefully everyone else has made better progress than me, please follow the links to see what everyone has been stitching.
Happy Easter everyone! We had a family meal yesterday, so today was spent undercoating and gloss painting in the kitchen before the units go in. I hate gloss painting, probably because I don’t think I’m very good at it, but it needed doing.
I’ve made a little progress on my butterfly alphabet kit. Three weeks ago I was half way through ‘F’…
I worked on it for a few evenings and finished F and G, I’ve just started H. More importantly I’ve just finished the first row. Hopefully I’ll have done a couple more letters by the next post, then I’ll be over a quarter of the way.
This SAL is organised by Avis from Stitching by the Sea, please follow the links to see what everyone else has been stitching.
I’ve started constructing my Birds and Blooms book, this book is a mixture of new cross-stitch birds and ones I made over the last few years as mini cushions. I’ve interspersed them with a handful of cross-stitch flowers to fill it out a bit.
I posted the page with the long tailed tit last week…
I backed each page with iron on buckram, stitched it to the next page before ironing the two pages together. It does give a nice crisp page. The pages are 5.75″ square.
Once I have two sets of pages I stitch the pair together to make a double page spread. The next page is actually a cross-stitch I did probably about forty years ago, I made it into a bell pull, it’s been in my sewing room on my pegboard for the last couple of years. I decided to use it for my book. I trimmed about the bottom inch of stitching, added two long borders, a length of tape and some feather stitch. The page opposite is some quilting fabric I picked up at the Spring Quilt Show last weekend.
The next double page spread (still to be attached down the spine) has some forget-me-knots I made into a mini cushion many years ago and a kookaburra I stitched a couple of years ago when I was making lots of mini-cross-stitches. It’s another Fido Stitch Studio kit.
After the kookaburra is a blackbird print from some dress-making fabric I’ve earmarked for a shirt which colour-wise picked up the colours of the cross-stitch nuthatch nicely. This one is also a former mini-cushion…
After the nuthatch is a new cross-stitch, this is a bluetit, all the birds (apart from the bellpull one) are designs from the same company, Fido Stitch Studio, I like the detail in their designs. I usually prefer to buy a pattern rather than a kit but to be honest, they use so many different colours (in Anchor too) it’s better to get the kit. To give you an idea, the bluetit uses nineteen colours!! Opposite it will be a colourful quilting fabric that has bluetits on.
I’ve about another eight pages to stitch together, then just a front and back page to create. I think I should get it finished in time for the local show in May!
Each year my friend and I try and do a long distance walk, last year we did the Yorkshire Wolds Way, this year we have decided to do the Swale Way which follows the River Swale from it’s end where it joins the Ure near Boroughbridge to it’s source up at the top end of Swaledale above Keld. Altogether it’s about 80 miles, we’ll take quite a few days to walk it as we don’t like doing more than 10 or 12 miles in a day.
We’re completing the first few miles as day walks, part of our practise regime to get out stamina up! Yesterday we had a good start to the walk, the weather was perfect, much better than we expected from the weather forecast, sunny but not too hot. and more importantly, no rain!
We started at Boroughbridge, a small town on the edge of the Vale of York. We started our walk with our traditional sausage roll and a view of the weir. You can just see the heron hoping for some breakfast on the rocks in the middle.
This is actually the River Ure, the one which flows down Wensleydale, most of the Yorkshire Dales are named after the river, Wensleydale is the exception, Wensley is now a small village but used to be the most important town in the dale until it was decimated in medieval times by the Black Death. We followed the River Ure for a couple of miles to the confluence with the Swale.
This is the point where the Swale finishes, the Swale is coming down from the left, joining the Ure coming from the right. We celebrated with a coffee break…
We walked along a levee as far as Myton bridge before turning off into the village. Levees are naturally formed when a river floods, depositing a mound of silt along it’s banks, however this one was rather tall so I suspect it was substantially added to to prevent flooding many years ago. We then had a fair bit of road walking, albeit quiet roads, until we reached the villages of Helperby and Brafferton. The two villages merge into each other, so I’m not sure where one finishes and the next starts. I think this is the Brafferton end!
There were some interesting old houses to study as we walked through. We did have a giggle as we saw a sign outside a rather large mansion, it said ‘No parking tanks below’ I must have had my military daughter on my mind as I understood it to mean the army couldn’t park their tanks there!! It was only when we got home and I showed it to my OH and he pointed out that it meant no parking as there were tanks under the pavements!!
We decided Brafferton was far enough for our first day, we had walked about 7 miles, so we got a taxi back to Boroughbridge. The next walk won’t be for a couple of weeks, then the big walk is in June.
Over the last few days I’ve been painting our new kitchen diner so it feels like we’ve made progress even though we still have no kitchen or downstairs bathroom, I’ve managed a little quilting in the evenings on my Owl and Hare Hollow quilt…just a little!
Three weeks ago I was still quilting the 33rd block…
I’ve now finished that one and also completed two, so I’m just about to start the 36th out of 49 blocks, just 14 blocks to go – at the current rate that will take me another three months!
I’m just about to start the windmill block, I’ll be quilting the usual outer circle. I’m then thinking of quilting a small circle around the sails of the windmill and maybe another that encircles the whole windmill.
Hand Quilt-a-long
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.
Please visit the rest of our group and see what they are up to:
It’s Otley Show soon and I’ve entered several handicraft classes including cross-stitch. I decided to make another fabric book using various cross-stitch birds and flowers I’ve stitched over the years plus a few new ones.
We regularly get long-tail tits on the bird feeders in our garden. They’re cute little birds, very small bodies and long tails, they fly around in gregarious groups, flitting from tree to tree until they reach our feeders. I love watching them so I wanted to include them in my bird and bloom book.
This is another kit from Fido Stitch Studio, I’ve stitched several of their kits, they only do a full kit, not a pdf pattern, and actually when you see how many different shades they use, it’s probably wise! I’ve swopped the aida provided with an even-weave linen from my stash, the charts are nice and clear, my only grump would be that the pattern lines of the back-stitch have to be taken as a approximate position as they’re not necessarily feasible in reality. The detail does ‘make’ the design though.
The kits take me about a week to stitch, here’s my long tailed tit…
I’m aiming for the finished book pages to be about 6″ square, so the bare minimum of stitched piece is 6.5″, I’m therefore adding borders and embellishments to enlarge it a little and make it look pretty! I found some floral cotton which co-ordinated perfectly. I covered one seam with cream ric-rac, I did regret half way through stitching it on with a fly and chain stitch combination, it seemed to take ages! The feather stitch coming down the other seam is in a soft variegated DMC thread. The purple lines (in case you’re wondering!) are just Frixion pen markings of where the edge of the page will be.
I’m also recycling some cross-stitch birds I stitched earlier and turned into mini pillows, I’ve unpicked three sides, added extra fabric where needed and made another page. Here’s the nuthatch one.
I’m thinking of typing (on an old-fashioned typewriter) some information about the bird on some cotton paper which I bought at Sostrene Grene which I can then stitch on the fabric above the bird.
Hopefully I’ll have time to make them into a book for the middle of May…together with all the other entries I need to make!
Where did the last three weeks go, probably in a blur of wall paper stripping and now painting! I have made a bit of progress, but not a lot!
Happy Mothers Day to mums all over the world, I’ve spent today with my daughter…painting…walls, not pretty watercolours 🙂
Three weeks ago I was embroidering the letter E…
Well the letter E is now finished and I’m half way through F, so not a lot of progress, but I’ll get there one stitch at a time!
I’ve been spending what stitching time I have mainly making things for Otley Show which is in May. This year for the first time they have a needlework class and the cross-stitch class doesn’t have any limitations on it, so I’m entering lots of things most of which I haven’t finished yet. I’ll try and share some of my things this week.
After the show life should have settled down a bit so I’ll have more time for stitching…hopefully!
Stitch-a-long
This SAL is organised by Avis, please follow the links to see what everyone else has been stitching.
It’s a while since I’ve had a meander round the garden, mainly because it’s been more reminiscent of a building site…but I finally think I’m winning!
In our quest to future proof our house and garden, I decided the top part of the garden needed a rethink, both to make it lower maintenance and also safer for me to work in. Beautiful as it was, it was just too much work for us, especially to also have time to enjoy it. I worked out a design that managed to keep all my favourite shrubs in situ, so things like the standard rose, eunonymous elata and the acer have not been touched.
We got a landscape gardener in to carry out the hard landscaping, so we’ve taken up the log-roll edging and replaced it with stone, making the beds a bit smaller at the same time, re-working the left hand side of the garden and the pond area.
Late winter was theoretically a good time to do the hard landscaping as I could move all the plants I wanted to keep during their dormant stage, unfortunately we also got snow, hard frosts, ice…so my plants were out for probably a couple of months, but I think most of them look like they have survived. It hasn’t helped having the kitchen and bathroom redone at the same time!!
Once the hard landscaping was done we had a ton of top soil and a ton of compost delivered to help top up the new beds, all of which needed carrying up our steep drive and up the garden, my OH was a star at moving it all! I’ve rotavated most of the beds and recently been replanting everything, together with a few new plants!
Today I’ve been out in the garden most of the day, I’ve got to the stage where I’m just putting plants in anywhere as I got a bit overwhelmed with it all, I can’t see the bigger picture at the moment and imagine what it will all look like in the summer. It doesn’t help that I’m struggling to identify some of the perennials as they haven’t started to put out any spring growth yet, so I’m sure there will be lots to move over the coming months.
This morning I was mainly working in the raised bed by the patio, another area I’d cleared to put flowering shrubs in, I’ve planted a hardy fuchsia, an azalea and a cistus (rock rose) with a few perennials in spots I can reach without climbing on the bed. I’ve probably planted them a little close together but I’ll see what it looks like in the summer.
On a positive note, there’s lots of buds on my magnolia stellata, so that should look good in a couple of weeks time.
To give you a better idea of the changes, here’s a photo from April 2023…
…and this is now;
We’ve chairs and table to get yet but I think it will work. I love the trellis, it’s high and sturdy enough to stop me falling over the edge but it’s not visually overpowering. Hopefully as the spring growth starts to appear it will look a bit more like a garden! Watch this space as they say!
When I started the 2025 declutter challenge (almost finished it!!) I chose this panel kit by Raggedy Ruff Designs as my reward, so I could do a bit of sorting and then a bit of sewing. I think last time I shared it with you I’d just stitched the backing. I love the way Andrea designs the background for her quilts, full of interest…
…that was back in January, then it got put on one side for a bit.
The next stage was to cut out all the applique bits, there’s lots of pieces, the nest did cause some confusion but I think I got there in the end. Andrea just holds the pieces in places whilst she stitches them down, I like to use a dab of fabric glue, just a little one.
The next stage is to just go round everything a couple of times, adding a little detail as you go. It’s all free motion embroidery, so some bits are better than others, but hopefully the eye sees the correct line! This is just done with a soft brown thread.
Finally you get to add all the detail, this is where there are multiple thread changes as there are several different colours needed. I’ve got a reasonable range of machine embroidery threads now but there are still a few gaps where my threads are not such a perfect match but I’m pretty happy with it.
I love the detail of Andreas quilts and once you realise that wobbly lines aren’t so noticeable, they’re enjoyable to do too. This is the first half of the panel, the left hand panel has a robin on it. When it’s finished I’m going to hang it in my sewing room.
I’m so far behind with both reading and writing blogs, we’re having the kitchen and dining room knocked into one and a bathroom redesigned at the same time…seemed a good idea at the time!! We currently have no kitchen and no downstairs bathroom and we’ll be like this for most of April, whilst my sewing room has been my haven, I’ve spent evenings and weekends stripping wallpaper ready for the plasterer. The plasterer has now started so we do feel we’re past the worst!
Where do I start with catch-up blogs…Bobbin along seems a good place as any, it’s a weekly stitch-a-long by Anne Brooke. She gives us a word as a starting point for a little stitching, she’s doing one big embroidery on a hoop, I’ve enough pictures so I’m adapting it into a book.
Last time I shared it with you I had just stitched slit and hummock…
The following week was ‘dotty’, so I stitched a circle of seed stitches on the same page – I’m keeping a loose theme of circles throughout the book. I overlapped it with the circle above and left an empty circle in the middle. I think this page is now complete!
The following week the prompt word was ‘hidden’, stitching a shape of felt under a piece of fabric. I decide to start a new page as it was nicely giving me a starting point for a blank page. I used the heavier cotton which was the original starting point for my colour scheme. I cut a circle of cotton and under it I hid a circle of felt with a cut-out and stitched round so just the shape can be seen.
The next word was ‘meander’, couching a thick thread or cord round with a few bands of different threads. I drew a nice curvy meander around the ‘hidden’ circle and then across the double page spread, incorporating another circle as I went. I didn’t have any wool or suitable cord to use for the meander so I used my cord-maker to make a length using a soft teal and a blue DMC wool. It didn’t come out as nice as I hoped but you can’t see much of it anyway!
‘Jump’ was the next word, using short lengths of beads to ‘jump’ across the meandering thread. Luckily I managed not to put any beads where the centre fold will be!
Last week the work was ‘holey’, so I went back to my page with the interlocking arcs on and stitched some Algerian stars in the overlapping area. It was nice to have the opportunity to use the awl in a beautiful wooden handled stitch-ripper I got at a craft fair last year. I might do a few more later one, when I know how space is going.
I’m enjoying this stitch-a-long, it does push me to think and adapt ideas to work for me. This weeks word is ‘running, so I’ve a band of running stitch to fit in somewhere.
thecraftycreek 