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 🙂
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…
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.
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.
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.
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.
And now for something completely different…
I am Malala byMalala 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?
I forgot to mention some extra garden visitors we’ve had in my usual Monday garden post, so I thought I’d give them their own post!
In our garden, just by the conservatory, we have a bird feeder, one of those that has four hangers on it so we can offer a variety to our feathered friends, such as sunflower seeds, peanuts,fat balls and a mixed seed. It’s a great time waster, I can spend hours just sitting and watching them flit in and out.
Our regular visitors include bullfinch, goldfinch and greenfinch, four different types of tits as well as the usual blackbirds, robins and sparrows. During an unexpected snowfall a few weeks ago when the roads ground to a halt, I spotted another little visitor, a tiny field mouse, scurrying around picking up all the dropped seeds. There’s always plenty on the floor as the finches in particular are either very fussy or very messy eaters – they seem to drop more then they eat!
I deduced that they live in the old, rotten raised bed by the wall under a heap of geraniums and clematis. Of course we soon also deduced there were two! They’re very sweet, scampering about the foliage.
Well at the weekend I was watching for birds when I saw one of them scaling the honeysuckle next to the feeders. He tried to get across on on tiny thin twig, it was quite amusing to see his tail waving madly as he tried to keep his balance. He obviously decided that wasn’t going to work and tried a higher branch which got him neatly onto the peanut feeder.
I watched him for a while, then I had time to go up stairs, find my camera, change the lens, come back down and still had time to take lots of photos – he must have been there at least ten minutes! Isn’t he cute! I like seeing little mice around the garden, though anything bigger is to be discouraged!!
Yesterday we were sat out enjoying the sunshine and a butterfly came and landed on me. I think it’s a comma butterfly – I even saw the tiny white marking on the underneath of it’s wings which give it it’s name! He would stay for a few minutes, sitting on my arm or my finger, flutter off for a minute, then come back again. He spent the best part of half an hour with me. He is beautiful, it was nice seeing it so close too, his body is an emerald green colour in part!
This is the silver lining to my social isolation – I’ve got time to sit and watch and enjoy the garden visitors! Hope you’re all keeping safe.
The lovely spring weather continues in this little part of Yorkshire, sunny and warm for the time of year. I’ve managed to continue my big tidy up of the garden, almost finishing the back, almost but not quite! I’ve had to take it a little easier this week as after last weeks work I was heading rapidly towards a repetitive strain injury, so I’m being careful how I do things like weeding…and alternating it with sewing!
The garden looked lovely just after breakfast in the fresh morning light, especially the magnolia stellata covered in white blooms, the scent is gorgeous too when we walk up the path …
The patio area is as tidy as it’s going to get, it always amazes me at this time of year when I remember that probably in less than two months, these two walls will be invisible, totally covered by foliage. When I started planning this garden one of my aims was that this would look like a 10′ bank of plants, with the two beds and the roses above, it probably took about 10 years, but I’ve finally got there!
The camellias are starting to flower, the deep pink one by the conservatory is covered in flowers at the moment. There’s a little one in a pot with a single beautiful flower of the palest pink. Unfortunately it’s already tinged with brown from a coldnight, when I see another perfect one I’ll show you!
At the base of the camellia is a brunnera called Jack Frost, I bought it a few years ago at the Harrogate show, I love it, at this time of year it’s covered in intense blue flowers, a bit like forget-me-nots, they last for ages, and underneath is a bed of variegated leaves…and it likes my clay soil!
I’ve been weeding and tidying the big rose border by the summerhouse over the last couple of days. Weeds are a big problem in this bed, especially bind weed, so I’ve been digging up routes as much as I can, I’m hoping to be more methodical with the weedkiller this year to hopefully get on top of it. Growing up the big fence which the neighbours put up a couple of years ago, I’ve got several clematis, a wisteria and a climbing rose, hoping to gradually cover it.
The Pasque flowers are looking pretty at the moment, just in time for Easter. I’ve got a few of them around one side of the patio, I like them as not only are their flowers pretty, their seed heads are lovely too, like fluffy cotton heads, on top of some nice foliage…and they’re pretty undemanding too!
So this week I need to finish off the pond area and also work on the wild corner behind the summerhouse! Then I think I might actually have caught up in the back garden…then onto the front!
I’ve actually made pretty good progress over the last three weeks, I found the hand quilting was a great thing to do whilst watching Bluprint classes! Bluprint (the old and well loved Craftsy) has all classes for free at the moment, I think it’s til 9th April, so far I’ve watched one on sewing sheer fabrics and I’ve almost finished a bra making one, they’ve both been very good and I’ve picked up lots of tips…whilst cracking on with my quilt.
Three weeks ago I was still sewing the first corner of the big border with it’s bird and vine, I still had five leaves to stitch and the actual vine…
Well I finally finished cutting out all eighty leaves, which was a mammoth task in itsself, I’ve got everything glued onto the corners so I don’t lose any of those pesky leaves and I’m working my way round.
You’ll have to excuse the scrunchieness of the quilt at the moment, it is tending to be heaped up and scrunched up as I work round.
I’ve stitched all the birds on, I have a bluebird, a peach bird, a purple one and a brown one. The bluebird corner is now finished apart from the vine which I’m going to do last…
I stitched all the peach drops on next. This is the peach bird corner which is finished apart from two sets of leaves I seem to have missed!
I stitched all the blue dots on in the corners. On the purple bird corner I’ve just started the leaves…
…and the brown bird corner leaves have still to be started!
So in terms of the whole corner blocks, I’m getting there, four birds stitched, four dots and drops stitched, just got the pesky leaves to finish! There’s eighty of them altogether, yes, EIGHTY!!! I’m exactly half way with those. Once the leaves are on I can make the bias binding for the vine and stitch it on and another border will be finished.
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 changed all my cross-stitch smalls over today, I’ve got all my spring and Easter ones out, it almost doesn’t seem real that it’s nearly Easter already, but next weekend it’ll be here! It was nice to rummage through my box of smalls and find all the ones with cute bunnies on (of which there’s quite a few!!) and pretty spring ones.
Firstly I made sure my two cross-stitch boxes had the right seasonal side on display, one is a Betsy Morgan etui box, the other is the Zoe box by Faby Reilly. The two great tits I stitched for a wedding anniversary card last year complete the back shelf.
I then arranged my other smalls on the wooden dish in front…
The four blue ones at the front of geese and ducks are pretty old, they were actually bibs and nappy pin holders from when my children were babies – so that’s about 25 years old! A couple of years ago I decided to cut up the bibs and enjoy them as smalls.
The cute rabbit holding a daisy is by Dany Chevallier, it’s called Ambience Printemps, there’s another one in the series which is on my to do list. April is from the Joyful World SAL by the Snowflake Diaries and the Hello Spring one is by Il Est Cinq Heures.
There’s quite a fluffle of bunnies there, I count six rabbits and five geese!
This year my Embroiderers Guild are doing travelling sketchbooks again, it’ll be the third time I’ve done it I think, I find it really pushes me creative-wise as I have to think up my own design. January was spent starting a new book, as I was sending last years book round again (on the theme of Christmas) I didn’t have to do anything. Our February meeting was the first swop of books.
I had to do an embroidery on the theme of globes and spheres, only I remembered the theme as including circles, so I later had to work out how my idea of circles could fit into the right theme!
Someone on facebook had been stitching some beautiful inchies,very pretty and delicate. I thought I could make four inchies, each on the theme of circles, but with a big circle running through them.
I found some silk noile which has a nice texture to it, I cut four squares and then used a simple running stitch to attach each one to a backing of calico to give a bit of support. I drew a circle with a silver gel pen to give me just a faint outline before again using a running stitch of silver lame thread to form the circle.
My original plan was to just stitch different types of circles, this was the point at which I realised it was meant to be globes and spheres, so I had to think quickly how my ideas could still be interpreted as that!! Hoar frost….
…I remembered the morning earlier this year when we had a very heavy hoar frost, I’ve never seen it quite like it was, the iris leaves had a line of dew drops (spheres!!) along each thin leaf, roses had a drop on every serated edge of their leaves, the old allium heads were like silver tracery balls, every blade of grass was coated in tiny silver beads…
So the silver circle became an iris leaf with beads along it, I cut a hole and blanket-stitched round with a sparkly bead on every stitch, just like the leaves…
I stitched another square with different types of circles, such as couched, woven, sequins, these are like the little mounds of moss we have on the walls – they look like mini hedgehogs in the frost!
For another inchie I used the silver thread again, just one thread, to make fly-stitches in a circle like an allium head…
For the final inchie I thought of all the stars in the night sky which appear on such cold nights…
The stitchbook collective proved very useful for this one, I drew a lot of ideas from the texture pieces we stitched at the beginning. Considering what was going on in my life at the time, I was pretty pleased with this one. I think I just about got away with spheres and globes – the lady whose book it is seemed very happy anyway! We managed to swop books again just before the lockdown, so now I’ve to think of something on the theme of King Arthur and the Round Table!
thecraftycreek 