Coming Home from Holiday

Posted on July 3, 2019 by craftycreeky

As well as taking my Zoe box to stitch on holiday, I also took my Coming Home quilt, well part of it! This is a BOM by Sarah Fielke and I’d got a bit behind with it as there was quite a lot of piecing and applique to do. I shared it with you just before I went on holiday, I ‘just’ had the applique to do…

Coming Home quilt

I started with the suns and then moved onto appliqueing the clouds and birds, I was finding the birds a little fiddly when I realised from a comment on facebook that I’d got a bit muddled with the templates, I thought they included the seam allowance, but they didn’t. As I was away from home and all set up to sew, I decided to carry on regardless, my birds are just a bit smaller than most peoples!

The stars were pretty fiddly too, some points are better than others. The fabric I’ve used for the stars has little dots on and it does actually gently glow in the dark!! I was hoping to use this fabric for the background of the border before, but it was the wrong shade of green to have on mass. I love it for the stars though! It’s not easy to photograph but here goes…

Coming Home quilt

The kites are meant to have appliqued bows on their streamers, but they were just too tiny, I decided to embroider them with some variegated DMC thread. I was a bit concerned that it may look funny to have just one bit of embroidery, but the tail is meant to be embroidered anyway and now it’s stitched I really like them.

Coming Home quilt

I’ve just a couple more doors and windows to do (haven’t quite decided how many yet!) and then just the moon and a couple of stars for the other two corner blocks. I can then stitch this border to the main quilt…

Coming Home quilt

…and start this months sewing – trees for the next border.

Posted in Coming Home Quilt, Quilt-a-long, Quilting | Tagged , , | 10 Comments

Windows Past and Present

Posted on July 2, 2019 by craftycreeky

It’s the first Tuesday of the month which traditionally is the day to share photos of windows for Wild Daffodil’s photo challenge, though officially it lasts all month.

Whilst I was walking 80 miles of the Cleveland Way last month I kept my eye open for possible subjects…

Yorkshire

The walk starts in the market town of Helmsley, we had plenty of time on the first day so we did a bit of a detour to Rievaulx Abbey, one of the many abbey’s left a shell in 1538 by Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries. The building of Rievaulx started in 1130, it always astounds me to see these beautiful buildings, still standing, which were built totally by hand, left to rack and ruin for 400 years and they still look beautiful. Just imagine how it would look with all the stained glass in…

Yorkshire

A week later and we were walking through the pretty coastal village of Staithes, like most of the villages along the Yorkshire coast, it’s a complete hotch-potch of cottages, all jumbled together, for centuries it was a fishing village, perched on the steep sides of a ravine. Just recently it has managed to revitalise itsself with an active arts and crafts scene. If ever you are passing through I can recommend Dotty’s Teashop with it’s fine china cups and vintage feel. I’ve always yearned for a house with an arched window, and here there are three…

Yorkshire

The following day we had lunch at Sandsend, another pretty coastal village. Just down on the front there’s a lovely row of interesting cottages…

Yorkshire

…I love the windows on the middle cottage with the fancy bits on the top. Nextdoor is a thatched cottage, there aren’t that many thatched cottages around in Yorkshire, though we saw two that day.

If you would like to see lots more interesting and varied windows, follow the link to Wild Daffodil to see what everyone else is sharing.

Posted in Photo Challenge, Serendipity | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

Zoe Goes on Holiday!

Posted on July 2, 2019 by craftycreeky

It’s a few weeks since I last shared my Zoe box with you, it’s a stitch-a-long by Faby Reilly and I got a little bit behind, so it was one of the projects I took on holiday with me when I went on the Cleveland Way. The patterns are released every two weeks, at the moment we are working on the side of the box.

This time I’ve been working on the ‘summer’ side. Whilst I was away I managed to more or less complete the cross-stitch part, I say more or less as I forgot one of the floss colours! Anyway, shortly after my return it looked like this…

Zoe SAL

I must admit at this point I thought it was another bird in the top corner, however last Monday the next pattern was released with all the top-stitching and extra stitches and decorative embellishments.

It’s a butterfly!

I love all the extra stitches that Faby uses in her designs, here I’ve stitched french knots, spiders web stitch, rice stitch and Algerian eyelet stitch, embellished with sequins and beads.

We’ve completed three sides so far, so the project so far looks like this…

Zoe SAL

One more week until the next pattern release!

Posted in Crafts, embroidery, Stitch-a-long | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

Monday’s Meander Round the Garden

Posted on July 1, 2019 by craftycreeky

I haven’t had much chance over the last couple of weeks to get into the garden to work, what with holidays, conferences, workshops and visitors. Today I made a start, it was a bit blustery and overcast this morning, here in UK we haven’t had the sweltering heat that’s hit most of Europe, thank goodness, just the occasional sunny and hot day.

The roses are all starting to bloom, though they have been somewhat battered by the wind and rain. The most eagerly awaited one this year was my Claire Austin standard rose, it was only planted in the autumn and I have a handful of beautiful creamy-white roses.

Claire Austin

My favourite rose in the garden, Lady Emma Hamilton, is also making a good display, it’s evened out the balance a bit in the Amber & Amethyst garden…

Lady Emma Hamilton

A couple of weeks ago it was looking very pinky-purple. A dark blue veronica is in flower, together with lots of self-seeded purple poppies and foxgloves. The bright purple flower at the front is a perennial cornflower, it does tend to spread somewhat so I try and keep it under control-ish! The seed heads of the honesty are a lovely deep shade of purple-grey.

Amber & Amethyst garden

The purple poppies are all self-seeded, they’re so pretty and delicate and all shades of purple from almost white to a rich mid purple. They’re quite tall (about 24″) and statuesque. They’re popping up all over the place, though I think I did help the seeds to spread last year as I really like them.

poppies

I had a good weed in the autumn bed today, I got three trugs full from this area and there’s still a few to pull, mainly nettles as I didn’t have the right gloves on. In some ways I find the annual weeds easier to pull once they’ve got to a decent size, they’re easier to identify for one thing!

Autumn garden

The foxtail lillies are looking stunning as the flowers gradually open up the stem.

On the back fence the rosa rugosa hedge on the left is looking really good this year. This is the first year without being within a hen run and boy can you see the diffence. It’s only just starting to flower but it’s so bushy!! Under the bushes is also looking pretty with geraniums, astrantias and alchemilla mollis. The clematis montana I trained up the arch just this spring is taking off nicely.

rose hedge

The wide bed infront of the big fence is filling up nicely, I’ve mainly planted shrubs but there’s a few perennials to add some extra colour, astrantias again and the roses are starting to flower, you can just see a purple clematis which has lost it’s obelisk so it is happily meandering through the shrubs!.

Summer garden

I think it’s a little while since I took an overhead photo of the garden, so this is what it looks like this evening…

Summer garden

It’s less than four weeks to our open garden weekend, so I better pull my finger out!

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The Finery of Nature

Posted on June 30, 2019 by craftycreeky

It’s three weeks since I last showed you my Finery of Nature cross-stitch, considering I’ve been away for most of two weeks, I thinks I’ve done pretty well! Three weeks ago I’d just started the nest on the second quarter…

The Finery of Nature

Three weeks later and the nest is almost finished, just a bit more on the right hand side but I kept losing my place so I decided to do the dragon fly. There’s still a lot of back-stitch to do on the nest but I’ll wait until the dragon fly is finished.

The half cross-stitch works pretty well for the soft inside of the nest. The eggs were meant to be stitched with three strands instead of two, but I decided that was because it’s meant to be stitched on black aida, which would take a lot more covering.

The Finery of Nature

I love the colours of the dragonfly, one wing to go. He’s meant to have great big legs too, but they look too big and almost scary to me, so I’m going to leave them off!

This quarter hasn’t got as many flowers round, so hopefully it won’t take too long, then I’ve just got the border to stitch. I think it will really make a difference when the back-stitching is finished.

The Finery of Nature

This stitch-a-long is organised by Avis, we all choose our own project and just share our progress every three weeks, it’s a great motivator! If you would like to join us just send a message to Avis. Please follow the links to see lots more inspiring stitching.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Sue, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Helen, Linda, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Deborah, Clare, Mary Margaret, Renee, Jenny, Carmela, Jocelyn, Sharon

I’ll also be linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday, please follow the link for lots of hand-stitching, both quilting and embroidery.

Posted in embroidery, Stitch-a-long | Tagged , | 30 Comments

Two Bee or not Two Bee

Posted on June 26, 2019 by craftycreeky

Apologies for the title, I couldn’t resist it!

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.

bumble bee cross-stitch

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!

bumble bee cross-stitch

I’m getting a bit of a collection of bee smalls now, but I think this is my favourite at the moment.

Posted in embroidery | Tagged , | 17 Comments

Monday’s Meander Round the Garden

Posted on June 24, 2019 by craftycreeky

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.

June English garden

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.

June English garden

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.

astrantia

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

June English garden

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.

June English garden

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.

Posted in Garden | Tagged , , , | 16 Comments

Coming Home is Going Away!

Posted on June 19, 2019 by craftycreeky

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.

Coming Home quilt

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.

Coming Home quilt

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!

Coming Home quilt

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!

Coming Home quilt

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.

Posted in Coming Home Quilt, Quilt-a-long, Quilting | Tagged , , , | 17 Comments

Monday’s Meander Round the Garden

Posted on June 17, 2019 by craftycreeky

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…

June Garden

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.

Iris

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!

June Garden

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.

June Garden

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!

Clematis

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.

Cotinnus

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!

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Inching Down the Rabbit Hole

Posted on June 16, 2019 by craftycreeky

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…

Down the Rabbit Hole quilt

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!

Down the Rabbit hole quilt

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.

Kathy, Margaret, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Susan,  Nanette,  Edith, Sharon, Karrin, Gretchen and Kathi

Posted in Down The Rabbit Hole, Quilt-a-long, Quilting | Tagged , | 19 Comments