Tuesday’s Totter Round the Garden

Posted on April 21, 2020 by craftycreeky

Our lovely spring weather continues here in Yorkshire – I’ve even had to start watering plants, especially those which only went in this month!

My OH commented yesterday what a colour corner we have next to the conservatory, I think the daffodils are late because I was late planting them, so they’ve joined in with the blue brunnera and the pink camellia behind.

Opposite is my pots border – the soil here was awful, so I flattened it, put down some membrane and pebbles, and covered it with pots, I have a bit of a blue theme running through the pots too which adds a nice splash of colour in the winter. I also find having all the pots together seems to create a bit of a microclimate – I rarely water these, even though they’re in pots. Having said that I gave them a good drenching yesterday, we’ve not had rain for weeks! The acer is over 25 years old – I bought it when my son was born.

Plants seem to be sprouting up daily, these erythroniums are beautiful with their nodding pale yellow flowers, I think they’re called pagoda. The tall stems behind have appeared this week, it’s Solomons Seal, it’s getting a bit rampant really, but it’s not that easy to dig up! All the hostas are starting to unfurl their leaves too so hopefully soon the pond area will look verdant and lush!

I’ve been working on the front garden again this week, it’s a huge task, we’ve got three tiers, two narrow ones and one deep one. I’m pretty much clearing the top one at the moment, just leaving my favourite shrubs in. The marestail and bindweed has gone rampant here, so I’m trying to remove as much weed roots as I can before I cover it in membrane and the then weedkiller anything that comes through! I did this on the lower tier and it certainly helped. My problem now is that the top tier is probably 8-10 foot wide and 25 feet across at least, a big area to clear, so I’m tackling it bit by bit…

I’ve a purple magnolia in this area, it flowers quite well, but I have to say I’ve always been a bit disappointed with the blooms, they’re a bit of a muddy purple, I think maybe magnolias are one shrub when it’s best to stick to the original!

On one of the lower tiers I’ve an eschordia, The Bride, it’s in flower at the moment and it’s beautiful…

I took a photo from upstairs the other morning and the camera just caught a shaft of light coming down, it looked beautiful and not at all what I say through the viewfinder!

Hopefully next week they’ll be more progree on the front garden 🙂

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Harold the Hare SAL

Posted on April 19, 2020 by craftycreeky

It’s three weeks since I last showed you Harold and I have to say I’m quite amazed at the progress this time! I was getting to the point of thinking I’ll just get his head and shoulders done and frame it smaller…

Three weeks ago I’d just sorted out his nose!

I tackled his left ear first (as you look at it!) it was a bit ‘blocky’, I know that’s the techniques the designer uses, like a cross-hatching of stitches, but it is somewhat out of my comfort zone! I started adding some finer stitches to blend everything in a bit, most of the embroidery is stitched with three strands, I started over stitching with one or two threads, it seemed to work. Of course it would have been better if I’d done a little on one ear, then the same on the other, as it was by the time I came to do the right ear I had no idea which colours I’d used! Close up it looks a bit messy, but from a distance it looks OK.

I added some fine eyelashes, stitched in the highlight in his eye, whiskers will wait until I’ve finished the background…

There seemed to be an awful lot of stitching left on the main body. The original pattern only uses about 5 colours on a range – I think it was DMC 004 to 008, I started adding some warmer browns when I was stitching his face. I ended up with about ten different DMC threads in use, I also found a variegated one, not DMC, which is warm greys, browns, verging on purple. It helped to fill in a lot of the body fairly quickly as I got the colour change without changing my thread. Whilst this style of stitching is still out of my comfort zone, I do like the effect, a sort of ruffled fur look, in the close up you can see all the different colours, but they all come together nicely. The colour on the photo has come out more grey than brown, but you get the idea.

So Harold himself is now finished, though he does look like he’s hurt his paw, I’m not sure how that’s happened! I just need to do the background now, I’m thinking of a few grasses and tiny flowers around his feet. I think this is one of those projects when half the problem is knowing when to stop!

This stitch-a-long is organised by Avis, we share our progress every three weeks, please follow the links to see lots more stitching inspiration.

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

Linking up with Kathys Quilts too for Slow Stitching Sunday

Posted in embroidery, Stitch-a-long, Workshops | Tagged , , | 21 Comments

Anthea SAL

Posted on April 18, 2020 by craftycreeky

I’ve just finished the April cross-stitch for the Anthea SAL by Faby Reilly. This is the one where each month has a flower design, I’m making it into a textile book with a page opposite of a wordplay based on the month. I haven’t done Aprils wordplay yet, but I have finished the flower.

This month it’s violets, one of my favourite flowers, we have wild violets self seeding all over the garden, I always feel a bit guilty if I have to pull them up as they are so pretty. At the moment there’s a lovely little clump in flower as we go up the wooden steps onto the back lane.

I would have finished it a week ago but I realised at the last minute that I didn’t have the deep purple for the back-stitching, I did look in my stash for something similar but there wasn’t another one of the same intensity. Of course my delivery got delayed with all the bank holidays over Easter, never mind everything else going on, but it was worth waiting for as the colour is just perfect.

The fabric is a permin evenweave linen, 32 count, it’s a lovely soft purple colour, perfect for this. I used some gold beads from my stash which aren’t too shiny, I’ve decided I prefer the more matt or satin finish to beads. It’s a gorgeous design, the delicate back-stitching make these designs something special. I shall try and incorporate one of the violets and maybe a flurry of french knots into the wordplay.

Here’s the other pages I’ve stitched so far…

Posted in embroidery, Stitch-a-long, Textile Books | Tagged , , , | 14 Comments

Staying Home Quilt

Posted on April 16, 2020 by craftycreeky

I’ve stitched another two blocks from the Love & Hugs SAL on facebook, there’s a 6″ block being released every day, so I’m just printing off the patterns and stitching when I can. I’ve discovered there will be sixteen patterns all together, I’m not planning at the moment to make all of them, but we will see.

I’m using colours which will go with my Coming Home Quilt, the idea being that I can use all my leftover fabric (of which I seem to have quite a lot, I’ve only one border left to do!!) to make a scrap quilt. One idea I have at the moment is to make a number of 6″ pieced house blocks, these could then alternate with the embroidered blocks to make a reasonable sized throw with some sashing and borders. Hence the potential name of Staying Home quilt, I thought it was rather apt!

Anyway, back to the stitching…

The next one to be stitched was one by Gail Pan, I’ve admired her designs for a while, in fact I have one of her books on my shelf, waiting for me to stitch something. It’s a very pretty design with bees and flowers. The beehive and the box are done in chain stitch, the rest is just back-stitch, lazy daisy’s and straight stitches, oh and a bit of satin stitch too. I changed the colours as I was going as the box seemed too dominant at first – not that it was going to get unpicked!! I changed the colour of the running stitch to a mid shade, rather than a light one, which helped to tone down the dark blue a bit.

The background fabric is actually a warm white with a delicate grey tracery of leaves and stems, it looks lovely but it’s a so and so to trace over, as I couldn’t tell what was fabric and what was design lines, even with a homemade light box!

The second block is by Jenelle Kent of Pieces to Treasure, it’s a lovely elegant block with twining leaves and a dragonfly. I enjoyed stitching this one, it’s mainly back-stitch and french knots…

I’ve already traced off the next one, I’ll probably end up stitching about twelve of these designs, then with house blocks I could have a good sized quilt. This is the four of them together…

Posted in Coming Home Quilt, embroidery, Stitch-a-long | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Extremes of Sewing AKA The 39 Steps!

Posted on April 15, 2020 by craftycreeky

Last week I made two skirts, very simple jersey ones, just two side seams and a waistband. This week I’ve gone to the other extreme and made a denim skirt with 39 steps in it!!

I’ve made this one before, it’s called the Clementine, it’s by Merchant and Mills in their denim range of patterns. It’s actually fairly straight forward, you just have to take your time and go step by step. Luckily all the fiddly bits like fly zips and pockets are stitched whilst the pieces are still fairly flat. The instructions are pretty clear, there’s only one bit that I had to read about three times, but I got there in the end.

I used a black denim from my stash, I bought it last year sometime at Fabworks in Dewsbury – £5 for 1.5 metres, a bargain! It’s quite a firm denim with a little bit of stretch. I nearly did all the top stitching in black but at the last minute I decided to use a variegated quilting thread in pinks and purples. It’s quite bright at the moment, but I’m anticipating that after a few washes with all the dark clothes, it will tone down a bit. The pockets are lined with a sewing themed fabric, I used the same fabric to line the waistband too so I didn’t have two layers of denim to contend with. Last time I made this skirt exactly to the pattern, I love wearing it but I always wish it was just a bit longer, so this time I added 6″ onto the length, I anticipated cutting it back once it was made, but I liked the long length, so I just did the usual jeans hem on it.

The pocket top-stitching is the first step in the whole procedure. Of course this means you have to decide what to put on the pockets. I ummed and arred for a while, last time I put an ECG on the pockets, but I couldn’t decide what rhythm to do – it’s got to be accurate when you’re a cardiac nurse!! The one provided in the pattern was a bit like an M, I decided to stylize it a bit and then had the idea of having my initials on the back pockets, M and C. I was pretty pleased with how they came out – my C could have done with being a bit lower, but it was OK. Then my OH looked at it, couldn’t see that it was M and C and thought it odd that they weren’t the same…well they’re staying!

The zip fly came out OK, I was a bit annoyed with my top-stitching as I thought I’d done it wrong at the bottom, catching in the zip, undid it and restitched it, only to realise it was right the first time, so I had to undo it again!!

As soon as I stitched the side seams up I tried it on and as expected (from last time I made it) it was too big on the waist but OK on the hips, I took in about 3/4″ on each side, tapering it off to the hips.

I had taken the precaution of not cutting out the waistband until I knew how much I was taking in. The waists are funny on jeans, there’s a left and a right, not a front and back, so I pinched a similar amount in the middle of each pattern, double checked the pattern was the right way up, cut it out and it fitted perfectly -phew!!

The only steps I haven’t done is the belt loops, they were to be added right at the end, I still might add them, but I knew I’d never use them and most of my tops cover the waistband anyway!

I tried to play thread chicken at the end and lost big time, with 5″ to go of the hem not only did my top thread run out, my bottom thread ran out too, I thought some thread had got stuck underneath so I had to take the needle plate off…only it’s the first time I’ve done this on my new machine, I ended up getting the instruction manual out to discover a weird piece of metal is actually a (not very easy to use) screwdriver!! Half an hour later…

Until the last half hour I was really please with my new machine, it coped with all the thicknesses of denim, made a very nice button hole too. I got the hang of using various settings for edge-stitching and top stitching. I set up my overlocker next to it so I could switch between the two machines and it worked really well, though in a perfect world you would have one machine set up with top stitching thread and another with sewing thread – there’s an awful lot of changing threads, I was so glad of the easy threading and automatic needle threader!

I’m really pleased with my new skirt, I really must crack on and make some jeans now!

Posted in Dressmaking, Serendipity | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

2020 Vision

Posted on April 14, 2020 by craftycreeky

2020 Vision is the twenty goals I set myself at the beginning of the year, things I hoped to make. I missed the report at the beginning of March for obvious reasons, and I’m a bit late now, but better late than never! So this is a report for the first three months of the year, how have I done so far…

Clothes; I finally made a pair of trousers, I’ve found they’re not the most comfortable pair I’ve ever worn, so I’ll try a different pattern next time. I watched a Bluprint class on sewing sheers, so hopefully I will pluck up the courage to make a shirt, looking at my stash I seem to have fallen for a few sheers! I’ve also yesterday just finished a jeans skirt, so hopefully I’ll pluck up the courage to make a pair of jeans soon. I keep looking at my coat and jacket patterns, thinking this is a good time…so, I’ve made one out of five so far.

Quilts; I made a baby quilt earlier in the year and I’ve finally got my Coming Home quilt back out, so I’m making good progress on that now. So I’m on my way to two, though I’ve also got a quilt I’ve made for care-leavers which doesn’t need a lot to finish it, so I think I’ll put that on my to do list this month.

Projects; I’ve done pretty well here, with two finishes and three on the way. I finally finished my Finery of Nature cross-stitch, I still love it!

Another project which was important to me to finish was mum’s memory book, all her unfinished or smaller needlework projects put together in one textile book.

I’m making better progress on my hare, the Anthea SAL is ongoing and I’m managing to keep up, I’m a bit behind on the Stitchbook collective, like I’ve three boxes waiting to be investigated!.

Things; Of the things I listed I’ve made zilch, they’re all still on my to do list – slippers, wallet, lampshade, jellyroll rug and a Luna Lapin for me! Maybe better progress next time!

I’ve just had a count up and actually I don’t think four out of twenty is bad, it’s surprising how many people are saying with all this time off it’s so difficult to motivate, I’ve certainly not done as much stitching as I anticipated so far, but then I have cracked the back garden 🙂

Posted in 2020 Vision, Coming Home Quilt, Dressmaking, embroidery | Tagged | 4 Comments

Monday’s Meander Round the Garden

Posted on April 13, 2020 by craftycreeky

Over the last two or three weeks I’ve worked hard in the garden, trying to catch up from earlier in the year when it was very wet and cold. I finally feel I’ve got somewhere as I have finished tidying up the back garden – well apart from the compost heap, which will wait a little longer!

Everything is starting to green up, you can see from this photo of the summerhouse in the morning sunshine, the trees behind are peppered with bright green buds, there’s still a good display of daffs too, these are the later flowering ones which grow a bit taller…

My magnolia stellata is still looking gorgeous and smelling wonderful too. The patio area gets the morning sun, so this is where I sit for my morning coffee when it’s warm. The birds will still often visit the feeders even when we’re close, especially the robin and the bluetits.

Last week I promised a photo of my palest pink camelia, well it’s produced another flower – it’s only a little bush so I haven’t got many, but isn’t it beautiful…

I finally got round to sorting out the climbing rose on my obelisk. The long branches have to be tied round so it covers the frame, rather than just growing upwards, the idea is that the branches spiral round – that’s the theory anyway!

The Amber & Amethyst garden, AKA the gravel garden! is where the sun goes in the afternoon and evening, it used to be all flower beds with no where to sit, but I realised that was the best spot for the afternoon cup of tea, so I dug up the flower beds and built a new garden last year. It’s coming on nicely…

Down the drive I have lots of shrubs, at the bottom there’s an amelanchier just coming into blossom, it’s very pretty and delicate. The leaves start off a bronze sort of colour, before greening up for the summer and then turning orange in the autumn.

The front garden is my next big task, there’s a lot of pruning needs doing and ALOT of weeding. We have a big mares tail problem in the front – nextdoor was so fed of of his he hard surfaced the whole lot! I have another tactic this year, recommended by a friend who got rid of it in her garden. I’m going to paint it with neat weedkiller! I’m hoping having this time off work will help me be more organised with this particular battle!

My plan is to weed this lot, dig out what roots I can before I cover it with membrane and plant shrub roses through it. Anything that comes through the membrane will be zapped! I need to get a move on as my children each bought me a rose for mothers day so I need to get them planted. As you can see have still have a lot to do…

Keep safe everyone.

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

Silver Lining

Posted on April 11, 2020 by craftycreeky

It’s always worth looking for the silver lining when you’re in a cloud! Whilst so many of us are in a lockdown situation there are others who are designing things for us to stitch, keeping our hands and our minds occupied!

Over in Australia Natalie Bird of The Birdhouse has organised lots of her quilt designing friends to each design a 6″ embroidered or appliqued block, there’s one being released each day! I hesitated for a few days but there’s some gorgeous designs so I’ve succumbed! I’ll probably not do all of them, but I decided to print them all off and see how I go.

I realised some time ago that despite almost finishing my Coming Home quilt, I still had an awful lot of fabric left in the project box. I had already thought about maybe doing a scrap quilt from the leftovers, whilst they’re still all together. I’ve decided to choose a floss palette which will tone in with the Coming Home quilt, so I have a ready made group of fabrics to finish it!

I’ve stitched two so far – I can just about manage one a day, but to the exclusion of other hand-stitching, so I’ll just take my time and do the ones which take my fancy to my own timescale.

Natalie herself designed the first block…

I love the way the colours are working out, I laid it next to my Coming Home quilt and the colours do seem to work perfectly, I’ve chosen three shades each of purple, teal, blue, peach and brown.

The second one I’ve stitched is by Leanne Knell of Petals and Patches, there was a lot of stitching on this one, I’m hoping there aren’t many so detailed!

Of course there’s a facebook page called Love and Hugs from Australia for everyone to share their stitching, I love seeing all the different colourways and techniques, some are coloring them in with inktense pencils, others use applique. If you fancy joining in just follow the links.

I’ll also be linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday, please follow the link for lots of hand stitched inspiration.

Posted in embroidery, Stitch-a-long | Tagged , , | 17 Comments

Sewing for Spring

Posted on April 11, 2020 by craftycreeky

A couple of months back I deduced that half of my issue with dress-making at the moment, was my choice of patterns. I have a large stash of fabric, most of which I still love, but every time I went to a pattern, there would be a crucial bit missing, or I no longer fitted the size cut or I just couldn’t see what I want wanted. Most of my patterns were pretty old, some 20 years or more, mostly well used. I decided I needed some new ones, so every time a make was advertised at half price, I perused through and bought a few, trying to get a better mix of everyday wear, rather than just smart stuff. I now have quite a collection to try!

One of my purchases was Simplicity 8474, at first glance I thought it was just a simple skirt, but I loved the drape of it, so I bought it. It’s designed for stretch fabrics only and it is such a simple make I love it!

I used some fabric from my stash that I actually bought last year with the idea of making my mum some simple jersey dresses. One was a big floral, I think it might be a Lady McElroy fabric, but I’m not sure. It’s not the sort of thing I’d choose for myself usually but having made it up I like it.

It was a so and so to cut out!! Trying to get it to lie flat was impossible, mainly because the two layers seemed to stick to each other. In the end I did my best and went for it, luckily there’s only a front, a back and two deep waist bands so I got away with it.

I pulled out my overlocker, which I’m still getting to grips with but I managed to get a good stitch so I made almost all of it on the overlocker. I did a sample stitch too and pinned it in a notebook with the settings that worked!

It went together so easily, there’s only the two side seams and then you’re stitching the waistband on. I opted to stitch some elastic in too, just as back up!! The ‘waistband’ is about 6″ deep, which I think makes it fairly flattering!

It then had to hang for 24 hours before hemming, let the fabric settle…so I made another one!

This time I used a slightly heavier jersey, I think it’s possibly a cotton ponte, it feels nice and has a good drape to it. It was also much easier to cut out! I love the teal colour, it was another one bought for my mum and not used. The basic skirt can literally be made in a couple of hours, it’s great!

Of course I then got distracted by the garden so they hung, waiting to be hemmed for a week. This afternoon I finally got round to it. I played with a few stitches on my machine. I overlocked the edge first, pressed it up, I then used a triple zig-zag on the floral one and an wavy line on the teal one.

They are so comfortable, they are lovely to wear with a nice swish! The fabrics feel lovely too, they’ll be great for warmer spring days. I do like a swishy skirt!! I can see this being a well used pattern.

Posted in Dressmaking, Serendipity | Tagged , , | 17 Comments

Early Spring Books

Posted on April 10, 2020 by craftycreeky

I’ve read quite a mix of books this time, still mainly non-fiction, but as I’ve almost finished my library book pile it may be a bit different next time as I start to work my way through my own bookshelves!

A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult; I have mixed feelings about this book, Jodi has tackled a sensitive and very personal topic in a well researched book about a siege in an abortion clinic in America. Of course you get the complete mix of hostages, from the young girl who wants contraception to the older lady wanting to talk through an ovarian cancer diagnosis, an activist, as well as someone who’s just had an abortion and the staff who work there. It did make me realise how lucky we are here in the UK that within strict guidelines it is the woman’s choice. I like Jody Picoult’s style of writing but I found this one confusing as she started almost at the end of the seige and worked backwards, one chapter on each hour. I kept getting confused as to what happened next, I never did work out why one lady was shot! Some of the coincidences in the storyline were just a bit too far-fetched too.

The Language of Kindness by Christie Watson; Christie was a nurse for 20 years, this is her story of what it’s like and what it takes out of you to be a nurse, the good times and the bad times. Having been a nurse myself for well over 30 years, so much of it rang true, it made me smile and it made me cry. I really liked it, I’m tempted to look out her other books too. Interestingly it’s my daughter’s book , she’s 22 and has just qualified as a nurse, she got bored half way through, but I think she was expecting a nurses version of the Adam Kay books. I read this before the current crisis started, with all the press about frontline nurses, some of them giving their lives, it would be quite a poignant read now.

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Yes that’s me as a newly qualified nurse, receiving my certificate from the Duchess of Gloucester! I trained at a hospital that still wore starched linen aprons and caps made from a square of linen (round a shortbread tin!!) in the 1980’s.

Bred of Heaven by Jasper Rees; Jasper always wanted to be Welsh, he had Welsh grandparents, but that’s where it stopped, he is English through and through. He set out to achieve his goal by learning to sing, play (rugby) work (mines and sheep!) worship and the big one, to speak like a Welshman. Welsh is a notoriously difficult language to learn. He meets all sorts of Welsh people along the way, it’s amusing, entertaining and informative too as he brings Welsh history and culture into it as well. I did laugh at his account of walking Offa’s Dyke, a long distance walk, so much of it rang true from my own experience of walking these paths, especially the comment that any tourist place more than a metre off the path was not going to get visited! He has a similar style to Bill Bryson I think, an enjoyable and easy read.

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And now for something completely different…

I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai. I should think everyone has heard of Malala, the young girl shot by the Taliban for standing up for a girl’s right to an education. This is an inspiring book, she describes her childhood but weaves into it Pakistan’s unsettled history. I also found her father to be a very brave and inspiring person, he was prepared to stand up and be counted, risking both his livelihood (he started up and ran schools) and his life for his beliefs that everyone should be able to have an education. Malala grew up being encouraged to question and speak out, she became a spokesperson under a pseudonym for the press, talking about how life was for a young girl under the Taliban, though I didn’t feel she was ever under pressure from her father to speak out. It is a fascinating book, it’s one of those books that everyone should read, if only to realise that one voice can make a difference and how lucky we are to leave in a democracy.

My Outdoor Life by Ray Mears; Ray has a passion for bushcraft, how to survive outdoors with minimal equipment, using what nature provides. He has presented several survival TV programs where he visits people living in extreme environments, learning from them about both their way of life and their culture, from the Arctic, to Africa and Australia, he loves working and living with native communities, gaining their respect and discovering their traditional ways. It’s an interesting read, if not the most gripping, his personal ethics and ethos come through strongly, as one of the reviews says ‘the qualities he admires in others: fortitude, understatedness, loyalty, above all stoicism, are the same ones we admire in him’. Interesting his other passion is martial arts, he talks about Kingsley Hopkins and the Budokwai judo club in London, this is the second, if not third book I’ve read which has mentioned Kingsley and the club as being a huge influence in their life.

Are you managing to get much reading done in this difficult time, escaping into books?

Posted in Books, Serendipity | 15 Comments