Earlier this year I made my mum a cross-stitch small with a bee on it. We used to keep bees so it was a bit of a memory jogger too. She loved it, the bumble bee is a beautiful design by Robyn’s Nest on Etsy. I surrounded it with cheerful bee fabric in sunny yellows.
I think the bumble bee is just gorgeous, in fact I loved it so much that I’ve stitched it again for myself – there’s not many designs I’ve made twice!
I wanted to finish it a bit differently, for a start I wanted more of a rectangular finish, my mums turned out a bit bigger than what I wanted for my cross-stitch smalls display and I find the longer shape quite useful when arranging them.
I’ve managed to get a bit of a collection of bee fabrics, I had a play and decided on a more understated one with bees on an allium. I pulled out my trimmings drawer and eventually picked some bee ribbon and a length of mini pompoms in cream. It was a bit fiddly stitching the pompoms under the ribbon but after a couple of sessions with the seam ripper I got it neat enough to be happy.
I felt it needed a little something more so I added three mother of pearl buttons, I think these are 6mm ones. I just had to decide on the edging, I felt it needed something but with the pompoms I didn’t think mu usual twisted cord would work. In the end I used some narrow ric-rac in a soft green and stitched it on with gold beads. I’m not sure about the gold beads, they could be a bit too much, but they’re not coming off. If anyone asks, they represent the sacs of pollen and nectar the bees collect on their legs!
I’m getting a bit of a collection of bee smalls now, but I think this is my favourite at the moment.
After a week away walking the Cleveland Way I had just one night at home to pack a suitcase for a two day conference in Sheffield with work! I managed a little wander round the garden though to see what changes have happened over the week…
Everything is looking taller and fuller! The patio is looking pretty colourful with geranium Ann Folkard with it’s majenta flowers, it seems to be spreading somewhat so I thinking I may have to take it in hand at the end of the season! The dutch irises are making a good display too, they came from my mums garden quite a few years ago.
The roses over the arch are starting to flower, this is a David Austin rose called Teasing Georgia. Looking through the arch you can see alchemilla mollis, another geranium, two astrantias – there’s a large creamy one on the corner and also a pink one on the bed above the irises. The black sambuscus is still looking pretty with it’s creamy-pink flowers and it nicely hides the biggest part of the fence.
I’ve got several astrantias now, all different colours, they seem to like my clay soil. As well as the two above I’ve a deep red one in my Amber & Amethyst garden and a dark pink one in amongst the roses near the summer house. I’ve also got this one which I took from my mum’s garden before we sold her house, it’s still in a pot whilst I decide where to put it. I like it’s ‘petals’, they’re actually leaf bracts, but they’re a bit bigger than many astrantias and look almost papery.
Up in the Amber and Amthyst garden I’ve two tall flower spikes, I think this one is called erasmus, the geum behind it has been flowering it’s socks off for weeks now with it’s deep orange flowers. The Port Sunlight rose has just started to flower and the purple foliage around this bed is looking pretty ‘amber & amethyst’-ish
Over on the other side of the AA garden it’s looking very pretty, but decided more pink than amber & Amethyst! The rose at the back is covering the obelisk, the blooms start a soft amber colour but quickly seem to fade to a creamy white. There’s lots of self seeded foxgloves and poppies around it’s base. You can also see the dark red astrantia next to the arch. In the forground are perenial cornflowers, erysimums and a very pink blousy peony! Soon my favourite rose, Lady Emma Hamilton will start flowering, balancing the border a bit with it’s gorgeous coppery orange blooms.
We’re opening our garden for the last weekend in July, putting on a little quilt and needlework exhibition too, trying to raise money for the soldiers charity. I’ve got a month to try and get on top of the weeds! Mind you, having visited a garden in Helmsley last week which was full of weeds, I feel much better about mine! If anyone is nearby and fancies coming along, leave a message and I’ll send you my address.
During last week I was concentrating on my Coming Home quilt, it’s a BOM by Sarah Fielke and I was already a month behind, if I waited until after my holiday I would be nearly two months behind!
I’d made three house blocks for each side during the previous month. This time we had four more houses (sixteen!)and all the roofs (32!!) and the sky to stitch. On the whole the houses were fairly quick to do, being simple blocks, there was one pieced block with little half square triangles. The roofs were all paper pieced and once they were stitched on the rest of the sky could be added.
I bought three lengths of fabric for this border!! I was originally going to use a green colourway of the tree fabric which is by the stars, when I was originally planning it I was thinking of a row of houses in front of a wooded hill. As soon as I saw all the paper piecing I knew it wasn’t going to work, or if it did it would be very wasteful of fabric. I was in Fabbadashery for a workshop last weekend and I saw some lightish green fabric with little white dots on, it looked a similar shade to the green tree fabric. I was slightly put off when the assistant said it was glow in the dark fabric, then I thought, actually it would look like twinkly stars, so I bought some. There was still a niggle in my mind so I also bought some Lewis and Irene Bumbleberry fabric in a soft grey/green.
When I got home the twinkling fabric just looked too bright, so I used the bumbleberry one instead. I’m pretty happy with it so far.
Having completed last months stitching I went straight on to this month. I stitched the corner blocks which have a curved seam in the fabric for the next border. Sarah’s instructions made this come out pretty well – I’ve always avoided curved seams before!
My next task is lots and lots of applique, suns, moons, lots of stars (in the twinkling fabric which doesn’t look bright at all now!!) birds, kites and clouds, together with the doors and windows. They are meant to all have arched doors and square windows, but I’ve always wanted a house with an arched window, so now I’ve got four!
I’ve cut them all out and I’m taking it on holiday with me to stitch in the evenings. The only one I’ll probably change is the moon as it’s just too pale to stand out, so that one can wait until I return. Some of these are pretty fiddly, so we’ll just have to see how they turn out, so long as it’s recognisable! Hopefully as you read this I’m cracking on nicely with my stitching.
I’m writing this on Friday night before I set off on my walk on Saturday, hoping the weather starts to improve pretty darn quickly. It’s been cold, wet and miserable for the last couple of weeks, in fact it was so cold we put the central heating back on again!! Looking at photos on facebook of the garden over the last few years, the plants are couple of weeks behind at the moment, I think they’ve gone on strike with the cold!
Having said all that, when the sun does come out, the garden is starting to look really pretty, there’s lots of little spots of colour, rather than big splashes. This is the patio area. There’s iris, erysimum, astrantis, lupin, foxgloves, geranium…
The iris round the bird bath are beautiful, it’s gradually become a huge clump, it really needs dividing but the soil is so awful there it’s hard to get anything out. The flowers are stunning, they have a delicate silver edge to them.
According to my OH, my mum’s dog, Lucy, who now lives with us, was refusing to go into the patio area as she couldn’t get through the foliage. I thought he was exaggerating or little Lucy was being fussy, but maybe she has a point! The alchemilla mollis had completely flopped over with the rain and as a little bichon frise, she’s only got little legs!
Up in the Amber & Amethyst garden the obelisk is pretty much smothered with rose and clematis, I can just see the top peaking out and a little bit of the side. The whole bed is filling up nicely with a rather pink peony, a luscious poppy, foxgloves, cornflower and a lovely deep red astrantia.
Over by the big fence there’s a clematis I planted a few years ago to grow up another obelisk with a rose, the rose refused to have anything to do with an obelisk so I pruned it back to a bush. The clematis has great fun now just meandering where it wants. I am tempted though to build another obelisk, maybe next year!
In the front garden one of my favourite shrubs is looking beautiful at the moment. It’s a cotinus coggygria, a golden leafed version. The purple version is seen a lot, I’ve got two myself, but I think this version deserves to be grown more often. It’s a lovely shape and size and it brightens up the front garden. I planted one in the back last year to held screen the compost heap, though it’s only little at the moment. Unfortunately in this shot you can also see the extent of the problem with weeds I have in the front! Due to all the rain we’ve been having my weedkiller plan isn’t working very well, but I’ll persevere! Once I get on top of the weeds I’ll put some membrane down and a mulch.
I’ve a lot of work to do before our open garden weekend at the end of July – I’ll have to hit the road running when I get back from my walk!
Slowly but surely I’m am making progress on hand quilting my Down the Rabbit Hole quilt. As I keep telling other, progress is progress! It’s three weeks since I last showed you my quilt, I had just started the rope border and was hoping to romp round it…
It’s fairly quick to stitch when I get going as it’s all in the same direction, I just have two threads going at any one time. I’ve got a lap stand ring now too and I am finding it much easier, it holds the quilt in a better position for me and keeps the area behind clear for me to work in. I just hadn’t quite appreciated that each of these rope borders is 64″ long! That’s a lot of border!
Hence I’m still on the rope border, making progress but not as quickly as I would like, I’m just over half way round. Once I’ve finished this border I think I’ll have a good session taking out the basting threads so the lines start to fade as I move onto the rabbits. Stitching this border has giving me plenty of time to ponder over how to quilt the next one, the rabbits and vines, I’ve got some ideas mulling about!
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.
Last week my walking buddy and I had our last practise walk, ready for our big challenge which starts tomorrow, walking the Cleveland Way as far as Whitby. We’ve been walking sections of the Lady Anne Way as practises, not necessarily in order, and this time we walked from Grassington to Kettlewell.
There’s several routes between these two villages, a couple of years ago we followed the Dales Way route which goes along the edge of the tops with amazing panoramic views up and down Wharfedale. This route is slightly higher it doesn’t have quite the same amazing views but it’s a great walk with no road walking except in the actual villages, always a bonus!
We drove to Kettlewell, parked the car and took the bus back to Grassington. It’s only about a two hourly bus service, so this way once we finished the walk we could jump straight into the car and set off home. As we parked, three gypsy caravans parked up too, it was Appleby Horse Fair last weekend so in the weeks running up to it there are always lots of horse drawn carriages on the road as they make their way up to Appleby. They’re lovely to look at but there’s always trouble at the horse fair!
Back in Grassington we made our way up through the village and quite quickly made good height onto the moors. We were pleased as we’re obviously a lot fitter than we were at the beginning of the year! The paths were good which does make progress a lot easier.
On the whole these long distance paths that we walk are well sign-posted. The little yellow roundel has the symbol for the Lady Anne’s Way on it, we like these stickers!
The lambs up here are still fairly young, they lamb later to give them a better chance against bad weather. These are a hardy moorland breed called herdwicks (I think!)
Although we didn’t have the views up and down Wharfedale that the lower path has, we had some amazing long distance views, this is classic limestone country…
Most of the paths and tracks up here have been here for centuries, this drovers road is called Bycliffe Road
As we started to descend along a grassy path the undulations of the fields in front fascinated me, accentuated by the patchwork of stone walls. We had a great talk at my WI last night from a lady dry stone waller, she was a wonderful lady, full of enthusiasm for dry stone walls, she had been all over the world building walls, each area has their own style. She explained that walls are twice as thick at the bottom as they are at the top to give them some stability, they are basically two walls joined every yard with a long stone across. There’s dry stone walling courses in Otley – I’m tempted!
I think the grassy path above is Coniston Turf Road. The next photo brings back lots of memories. The farmhouse you can just see below the horizon is called Hag Dyke. It’s owned by the Scout Association. When I was 13 years old I stayed there for a week with school. It is a one mile walk up the hill from Kettlewell to get there, there’s no proper road, in those days it was lit with gas mantles and it’s reputedly haunted by three monks. We were sleeping on bunk beds in dorms and on the first night we were so scared we pushed two together and slept five on the top and five on the bottom! I went back with a Rotaract group in my twenties but by then there was a generator fitted for power, it had definitely lost some of it’s atmosphere and quirkiness!
The path down into Kettlewell followed the contours gently down, which made for a very winding track…
The blossom here is quite a bit behind everywhere else as it’s that much colder
This is the final descent into Kettlewell by Parkrash. Parkrash is the start of an amazing road which goes over the tops from Kettlewell to Horshouse and Melmerby in Coverdale, if you like driving on winding country lanes I can highly recommend it!
Kettlewell is a very pretty village, much bigger than it looks if you stick to the main road and just drive over the bridge between the two pubs. We had a lovely walk, it was nice to do another route out of Grassington – I think we counted four or five routes we’ve walked in and out of Grassington, three of them up and over the moors. I think altogether we walked about 9 miles and still had a bit of energy at the end, so it’s looking good for our 10-12 mile days next week.
Last week I stitched a piece for a travelling sketchbook from my Embroiderers Guild. The theme of the book was windows, I had my usual perusal through Pinterest and saw a couple of embroideries of stained glass windows. I love looking at stained glass, when we go on walks through the Dales we often call in at the little country churches that we pass, they often have beautiful stained glass. This is a window in the church at Kirby Lonsdale.
I decided to make it using free machine embroidery. I have to say that before I tackled Andrea Walpoles Woodland Spring Wreath quilt, I would never have had the confidence to do this!
I drew an arched window, divided it into two main panes and added a fancy bit at the top – I can’t remember what you call that shape!
I found a batik fabric which was perfect for the stone surround of the window. I used bondaweb, so I could sketch on one side, iron it to the fabric and then cut out the shapes. It was a bit fiddly but doable.
I played around with several fabrics for the actual window but eventually settled on this multicoloured one, I’m not sure if it’s batik or tie-die, it’s a bit of an odd one but actually with the white and yellow splashes amongst the bright colours, it worked very well.
I ironed the window onto the ‘glass’ and then used 505 spray to stick it to the background, this meant I didn’t have too much thickness to try and embroider.
I went round all the edges first with a mid taupe colour. I then had a rummage in my variegated threads box and found a lovely one which had tints of golden brown, grey and purple. It worked really well.
I used the coloured thread to add texture to the frame and then to make some stonework round the window. I then got a bit brave and added patterns on the window panes in the same thread.
I edged the embroidery with a buttonhole stitch on the machine, using the variegated thread again. I’m really pleased with this one, it was pretty quick to do but I think it’s effective, hopefully the owner of the sketchbook will like it too!
Last week I decided to catch up on some time-limited projects, I’d been concentrating on finishing my first quilt for care-leavers, but it meant I was a bit behind on other things, some of which had a date on them! They may only be little things, a couple of evenings, but they needed stitching and ticking off my to do list!
The first one I chose was two blocks for Kate’s Scinteallate quilt. Kate regularly makes quilts to auction for ovarian cancer charities, they always have a teal theme in the name as teal is the colour for ovarian cancer, much as pink is the colour for breast cancer charities.
I promised Kate I would make two blocks for the quilt. The quilt is called Scinteallate and it’s all going to be star blocks, teal stars of all sorts of designs on a cream background.
I bought a book recently called A Block A Day by Lucinda Ganderton. It’s got 365 different quilting blocks, all 12″ square, perfect for this sort of project. As an aside, Lucinda gave all the sample blocks she made to the quilts for care-leavers project, they’re in lovely crisp modern colours and they’ve made quite a few fabulous quilts.
There are several stars in the book but I chose a couple called a two way star and a scrappy star. I searched round in my scrap box and amongst the fat quarters and found these left over from stitching hummingbirds, hopefully they are teal enough!
I stitched the scrappy star first, with a pinwheel in the middle and then half triangles around it. It came together pretty easily and I think it’s quite effective. I had a bit of a panic when I first made it that it wasn’t quite 12.5″, but actually it just needed a good press, it’s amazing the difference it makes!
The Two Way star is my favourite I think, I like the way it has little stars going in opposite directions to make a bigger star! It sort of gives it a feeling of movement.
These two blocks are now winging their way over to Australia for Kate to work her magic and make into another amazing quilt.
It’s three weeks since I shared my Finery of Nature cross-stitch, I’d just done a mini happy dance having completed the first quarter…
As you can see I had just started the second quarter with a lily of the valley. This is a kit by Dimensions, though it’s meant to be on black aida, I’ve changed to duck-egg blue linen as it’s so much easier on the eyes! It has meant a couple of colour changes though.
The second quarter has a birds nest with three eggs and a huge beautiful dragonfly which looks like it’s about to eat said eggs!! I’ve managed to get a fair bit done over the last couple of weeks.
I started on the nest, it’s one of those where you can get all of one colour stitched before you move onto the next colour – I find that quite satisfying! It’s a bit yellowy at the moment, I’m hoping the remaining colours and the back-stitching will tone it down a bit. The inside of the nest is stitched with half cross-stitch, I’m never sure about mixing the two, I always feel the half cross-stitch should be in the same direction as the upper cross-stitch, but instructions always have it the other way – I double checked!
I’m hoping this quarter will move on fairly quickly as there isn’t so many individual flowers as there was round the bird.
This stitch-a-long is organised by Avis from Sewing by the Sea. We choose our own project and post every three weeks, it’s a great incentive and motivator! Please follow the links to see lots of inspiring embroidery.
This month is flying by so I thought I’d better post an update for May before it’s too late!
1 scrap quilt; I’m trying to get a couple of finishes before I start another quilt! I’ve got all my scraps sorted and ready to go though.
2 Tutorials; still none, but I’m thinking of writing one in preparation for my workshop at the end of the month.
3 Sessions a week in the Garden; The plants and weeds are coming up thick and fast, so I’m needing my three sessions to try and vaguely keep up. The garden is starting to colour up nicely.
4 workshops; I’ve three embroidery and one gardening workshop booked this year. I’ve just had my first one today stitching Harold the Hare, I’ll do a proper post soon but here’s a sneak preview of progress so far…
5 Presents; This remains at three, though I’ve another one planned for after my holiday.
6 quilts; I made two quilts last month, so pretty productive, I finished a quilt for care leavers last month and I also made a jelly roll cot quilt as a sample for my workshop at the end of the month, making a total of four so far this year. I’ve just got five on the go, some nearer than others to finishing!
7 New Patterns; I made some Tania cullottes last month, but I can’t share them til next month when they appear on the Minerva website, so at the moment my tally remains at just 1
8 kits; my little embroideries have many been from printed patterns recently, rather than kits, though my pile of kits seems to be getting bigger! My total remains at two, I think I need to look at my kits instead of the internet!!
9 Mini Embroideries; I stitched stitched one last week, but that will come under June’s tally, so it remains at three.
10 things; There’s so many things I need to make, like a new handbag, a purse, wallet, boxes for my sewing room…I’m hoping now I’ve caught up a bit with deadlines I’ll be able to do a bit more for me.
11 cross-stitch smalls; I finished another one in May, it a pretty one with lavender and bees. I’ve made 10 so far this year! I’ve almost finished another one too so hopefully by next month I might have cracked this challenge!
12 pages on my book; I’ve still not started this one, I think once I get going I’ll crack on fairly quickly.
13 Clothes made; I finally feel I’ve made reasonable progress on this one. I made a broderie anglais top which I’ve worn several times already, and I also made some culottes which you can have a sneak preview of! My tally is still only 2 going on 3, but that’s 100% more than last month!
14 drawers organised; I don’t think I did any sorting last month, I need to re-sort my floss box and I need a big sort out of my patterns, maybe next month! My total is a respectable 8, so doing OK here.
15 minutes tidy up at end of sewing session; I need to get stricter with this one, I am better at clearing up at the end of a project though.
16 books; I’m pleased with how much I’m managing to read now, finding slots in my usual routine was key. I’m also really enjoying the genre of books I’m reading, ones about walking and nature in general. I finished three books last month, Simon Ingram’s Between the Sunset and the Sea, which is the one that started it all, The Salt Path and The Wild Places. I’ve even managed to persuade my OH to read Eleanore Oliphant is Absoluetly Fine, it’s not his type of book at all but as he is starting a mental health awareness course I told him it would be good background reading.
17 blogs a month; I wrote 20 posts in May.
18 walks; I’ve managed three walks this month, I went up Pen-y-ghent again, this time with a group from work, I finished the Welcome Way with my walking buddy and we also walked another section of the Lady Anne Way. We start our big walk next Saturday, so that will be eight days walking, so by the end of June I should have cracked this one! I’ve done nine walks so far.
19 Splendid Sampler Blocks; this one has gone on the back burner a bit whilst I try and catch up with other projects. I’ve managed to make 14 so far this year.
So with five months gone, I’m not doing bad, but it does help to show which challenges I need to concentrate a bit more on!
thecraftycreek 