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.
Chaos continues with our kitchen refiguration, the wall is down between the kitchen and the dining room and some of the adjoining bathroom, we have no electrics in any of those rooms or the conservatory, so we are eating by candlelight and we have extension leads for essentials like the fridge and the dishwasher!! The dust is everywhere!!!
…so I haven’t done much quilting!! Three weeks ago I had completed 33 blocks…
Last night I made a concerted effort to at least make a start on another block and I almost finished it, I’ve just got about half of the sashing circle to do. So that’s nearly 34 blocks out of 49 complete, I’m getting there slowly.
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 chaos at home at the moment, chaotic and very dusty! This week builders have started on our kitchen/dining room so walls have been knocked down, steel joists put up…you get the picture! The dust gets everywhere!! I know I’ve been very quiet on here, I have been stitching a lot, but even my computer has been under dust sheets! I’ll do a few catch up posts over the next couple of weeks!
I hid my butterfly embroidery away so it wouldn’t get dusty too but last night I decided it was safe to get it out again!
Three weeks ago I’d just started this DMC kit…
I did manage to do a couple more letters before the building work started and last night I started the letter E…
I’m really enjoying stitching this piece, it’s pretty and delicate but not too complex to do.
This stitch-a-long is organised by Avis of Stitching by the Sea, we post our progress on a piece every three weeks, just enough to keep motivated! Please follow the links to see what everyone else is stitching.
I always said I liked feisty little girls and Helen was definitely a feisty little girl! They grow up into feisty young women and the world needs feisty women!
I think I’m making slow but steady progress on my Owl and Hare Hollow quilt at the moment, I’ve currently a lot of other projects vying for my attention and not just sewing either…
As well as trying to sort the top of the garden out after the redevelopment, we’re also about to embark on major building work! We’re knocking the kitchen through to the dining room in order to make the bathroom next to it big enough for a walk in shower. It’s all about future proofing our house for growing old gracefully (or not!) ! I’m not looking forward to the chaos of having both new kitchen and bathroom done at the same time! It’s not due to start until 3rd March but in the meantime I need to empty all three rooms and strip the dining room of wallpaper! I think my sewing room will be my refuge!!
Three weeks ago I was quilting the 30th block, celebrating passing the half-way mark…
I’ve only quilted another three full blocks, but that pushes me to the grand total of 33 blocks which is just over 2/3rds completed. You have to enjoy these mini happy dances as they come along!
The little dots you can see round the quilting are the Frixion pen marks I use to draw the circles. Frixion pen comes off with heat such as a tumble dryer or an iron. I try not to push my luck with it causing issues by just doing dots.
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.
Having finished my Bee book I have just this week started a new project. It’s a kit that’s been in my stash for some time, gradually creeping up the to do list, I’m pretty sure I bought it for about £10 on a facebook destash site. It’s a DMC kit called Butterfly Alphabet and I think it is very pretty.
It’s pre-printed linen and uses about ten DMC threads. The instructions are nice and clear, there’s one code for the threads and another for the stitch, it’s all straight forward stitches too like stem stitch, French knots and chain stitch.
So far I’ve stitched A and I’m half way through B…
I’m doing a back-stitch round the large leaves to try and keep my satin stitch neat. So far I’m enjoying stitching this one, I’ll probably frame it for the guest bedroom afterwards.
Time to link up today with fellow SAL members for our 3-weekly update and see what everyone else has been stitching.
I caught up with the Anne Brooke Bobbin Along challenge last night. Each week she adds a little more stitching to a piece to represent a word, we’ve had layers, rolls. hummock…and a couple of weeks ago it was wrinkle.
Anne gathered up fairly narrow lengths of cotton to make a wrinkly ruff or circle. I tried a couple of different cottons for my piece but they looked too heavy, so I tried organza ribbon and that worked much better for me. I initially also tried placing it round the hummock, but I just couldn’t get it to look right. I then had the idea of stitching it along one of the arcs of rolled fabric and that worked much better. This is going to be a double page spread in my textile book.
Last week the word was Slit, cutting a slit in the fabric, folding the sides back a bit like Cathedral Windows in patchwork, revealing another fabric underneath. I wasn’t sure how a straight slit was going to work in my book of circles, obviously I couldn’t do a curved slit as it would distort the fabric too much. I then had the idea to turn it into a slitty eye, a bit like an owl’s eye, or a reptile. I decided to make it next to the hummock with the two circles slightly overlapping each other.
I used a straight stitch to catch the turnings down and stitch the backing fabric in place at the same time using a subtly variegated quilting cotton. I could then use a blue thread to do two running stitch circles round the slit…
…and I couldn’t resist having a little bee peeping out of the slit 🙂
thecraftycreek 