A couple of days ago I embroidered another piece of the border for my Woodland Spring Wreath quilt, this is a BOM from Raggedy Ruff Designs, I’ve just got one more month to stitch and it’s finished.
This month I tackled half the borders, there’s four swags of flowers and foliage around the quilt to give the impression of a wreath. I showed you the makings of the first swag a few days ago…
Before any of the stitching there were five 4″ strips of border patchwork to stitch, some of these could be attached straight away, others are to be put to one side for next month.. It’s lovely to see the stars taking shape around the edges.
The second swag is smaller, with just clematis and blossom to stitch. It didn’t take too long to put together and stitch. This one lies just above the squirrel and the owl, at the top of the quilt.
Once it was complete I pulled out all my blocks and started arranging them on my design wall.. I’m so pleased with this quilt, I think it’s beautiful, I’m even more amazed that I managed to do free machine embroidery! The final pack arrived yesterday, so I can crack on and finish it, I’ve then to decide how to quilt it!
Wild Daffodil is organising a photo challenge this year when each month the subject is windows. It does mean I keep my eyes open during the month for possible photo opportunities.
Last week I walked over the moors from Wharfedale to Wensleydale, it was a stunning walk which I will share with you in the next few days. It finished in a little village called Worton.
Just on the main road is a beautiful old farmhouse, I seem to remember the date above the door was about 1729, so it’s nearly 300 years old. This isn’t actually that old in this village, Worton Hall dates back to 1600. I’ve since found out it’s called Summer Tree House.
I loved the stone mullioned windows, even the barn is a nice old stone building. It’s interesting to see how there is only a stone lintel between the barn door and the access door above.
At the side of the house there were two small windows, one was half blocked off by a stone plinth with the inscription ‘Michael Smith Mechanick but he that built all things is God. Heb 3 ‘ It’s interesting how big the surround is, it looks out of proportion for the size of the window.
I haven’t been able to find out anything about Michael Smith, however MS are the initials above the door with the date, so I presume he built the house or his ancestor did. It’s a Grade 2 listed building which means the outside is protected against unsympathetic development.
The other window on the side, again was only small, it’s an old sash window and through it you could see traditional English shutters. I always wanted a house with proper shutters! Here the shutters are always on the inside, closed on a night like curtains. A friend of mine lives in an old vicarage and she has shutters. It was amazing how much light they blocked out!
I’ll keep looking for more interesting windows this month, in the meantime why not pop over to Wild Daffodil to see more windows.
I nearly didn’t write this post as it’s been raining since mid afternoon, but after tea it was more of a light drizzle so I popped out to take some photos. It’s amazing how much everything has greened up over the last couple of weeks with a bit of rain.
I spent several hours in the garden today before the rain came, mainly trying to clear weeds from the front garden. I started my weedkiller spray regime, every three weeks, though after rain this afternoon today’s effort may be somewhat ineffective! I’m hoping this will beat the marestail and bindweed in particular. I’m planning to clear as much weed from here as possible before putting two layers of membrane down and a bark mulch on top, I’ll then plant shrubs and roses through the membrane, anything else which appears will get zapped! I made reasonable progress today – it’s quite a big area.
The hostas are all unfurling their leaves and looking glorious. The ones round the pond usually fare OK, but this one down by the garage gets eaten alive. It was only when I enlarged the photo on the computer that I spotted the snail sitting there bold as brass! I’ve just popped back outside and he is now residing on the back lane, where hopefully a thrush or a blackbird will have him for tea!
This hosta is next to the pond, it’s leaves seem yellow even next to the primulas.
Hubert the heron is on the other side of the pond, he is already disappearing behind Solomons seal and cammassias.
I’ve got quite a few clumps of cammassia now, they seem to like my soil, I love the way this clump mingles with a purple leafed honesty. You may recall I was trying to identify a plant about a month ago, well it’s this honesty!
Yesterday I was weeding down by the conservatory, it’s quite scary how fast the weeds appear, they’re setting seed before you know it! I’m going to have a bit of a move round in this bed as there is a very pretty hydrangea in the middle which is going to be moved. I say it’s pretty, it was beautiful when I bought it about five years ago at the Harrogate Show, one of those plants that people OOh at when you walk past! It hasn’t flowered since,not once! This is the second position I’ve tried, I’ve bought specialist feed…I’m going to try it in a large pot, I’ve been out and bought some lovely compost for it, fingers crossed!
The roses are all leafing up nicely. This one is Lady Emma Hamilton, it has the most beautiful copper orange blooms with a strong perfume. The leaves are tinged with a pretty shade of red.
This is my favourite view of the garden at the moment, out of the kitchen window, the white and blue border just in front is coming together nicely. The lilac just behind our garden is just coming into flower too. We get lots of birds visiting the feeders, they sit on the arch and then pop down for something to eat. This month we were really pleased to see a woodpecker on the nuts, we used to get one visiting the garden a few years ago, but we had to move the feeder nearer the house and we hadn’t seen (or heard) him since. They are very shy, we used to see him flying in from cover to cover, always positioning himself on the opposite side of the tree or the feeder from the house. We’ve also had a jay visit, I’ve seen them on the back lane but this was a first in the garden.
I’ve just been down to the garden centre and bought three wire obelisks, so hopefully next week I’ll be able to show you photos of them in position!
It’s three weeks ago since I last shared my Down the Rabbit Hole quilt, I was feeling a bit down-hearted about how long it was taking and my slow progress generally with the project. This is where I was up to…
The general consensus was that I need to try and stitch a little everyday, a bit like my 10 minutes in the garden, it all adds up. Kate Chiconi suggested 3 lengths of thread per day, we met in the middle with 2 per day!! I can’t say I managed it every evening, but I did manage quite a lot of late evening quilting and I’ve made progress!! I also managed to buy a second-hand lap quilting hoop on the UK quilters facebook page and I find it much better for my shoulder as I’m not trying to hold it all as much to keep it at the right angle.
Whilst it’s not happy dance time it is hop, skip and a jump time as I’ve finished another border, the one with the sunflower corners and dresden flowers. At a later date I’ll probably go back and add a little more around the Dresden flowers, but for now it is done!
It made me feel much happier today when I tried to take a photo of the area I’ve quilted, I had to use our kingsize bed and it covers the top, that’s quite a big area!!
The backing is a softly patterned mid shade of purple, it’s perfect for a newbie quilter as it hides a multitude of sins! It still has that nice soft hand-quilted feel about it though.
Hopefully next time I’ll have cracked on with the next narrow border, though I still haven’t quite decided how to quilt it.
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’ve just started the border of my Woodland Spring Wreath quilt, this is a BOM by Andrea Walpole of Raggedy Ruff Designs, it’s quite exciting as it’s all starting to come together. There’s several short lengths of patchwork and two lengths of applique and free machine embroidery to do this month. I’ve stitched the short lengths and I’ve just finished one of the appliqued areas.
I’ve actually remembered to take photos through the different stages so you can see the picture taking shape. The background is a beautiful muted patchwork of stars and little diamond pops of colour…
Once the background is complete, the next stage is to trace the design elements onto freezer paper, this is then ironed onto the appropriate colour so the shapes can be cut out accurately. Freezer paper is great as it sticks to fabric when ironed, but it’s easily pulled off and can be repositioned or re-used as often as you want. Some of the pieces are pretty tiny and fiddly, especially the flower buds!
Once they’re all cut out they can be laid on in their correct position. Stabiliser is placed underneath to support the fabric.
Next is the only bit where I depart from Andrea’s instructions. Each piece is stitched round with a basic taupe thread. Andrea just holds them all in place and stitches them, I really don’t know how she manages it, mine would move all over the place! I put a tiny blob of fabric glue on each piece, just to hold it secure-ish whilst I stitch round everything. Even with the glue I find tiddly bits move, especially thin branches!
Once everything is stitched down it’s a matter of going back to each piece and machine embroidering some detail. I used a lot of variegated threads, I bought a couple of packs from Andrea early one in the quilt. There’s a lot of thread changes doing this, in this piece alone there were thirteen, just the butterfly had three or four!
If you look at it closely, you can see that nothing is perfect, lines are wobbly, missing edges, but somehow it doesn’t matter as it’s the overall effect you see, it’ s a very forgiving sort of embroidery! I remember my mum saying years ago when I was trying to draw, if you make several lines on a shape, the eye will see the right one, I think that’s what happens here too!
I love the detail in Andrea’s designs, I think that’s what makes them special, little extras like the seeds floating off the dandelion head, even those have two colour changes! I just need to stitch one more slightly smaller border and then wait for the final pack to arrive.
It’s May already, this year seems to be flying by, or am I just getting older! With a new month comes a fresh display of cross-stitch smalls, I rather enjoy choosing designs appropriate for the time of year. This is my May display…
The May small is one from the Snowflower Diaries SAL called Joyful World, I stitched three-quarters of them last year, I really need to get on and stitch the last three as October will be here before we know it!
As there is a cat on the May small, I decided to add another cat, this is an embroidery I stitched many, many years ago, it wasn’t quite square so it sat unfinished in my workbox until last year when I finally made it into something.
The cute rabbit is one of this years finishes, it’s a design by Dany Chevallier, there’s another one I want to do with a rabbit and a daffodil too. This one was on display for April as well, Easter Bunny and all that. I’ve included it again as I love seeing rabbits hopping about the fields and the verges so it was very sad on our walk over the moors this week to see that myxomatosis is clearly raising it’s ugly head again.
On a more positive note we also saw lots of tiny ducklings on the river, cheeping for their mum, this is one of the recycled cross-stitches I made earlier in the year, it used to be a nappy pin cushion many moons ago.
There’s still lots of little lambs to watch in the fields, I love how they spring about and play. This blackwork one was a practice piece for one to go on a joint piece of work with my Embroiderers Guild in Skipton, you can see the finished embroidery here. Mine does seem to stick out a bit but they did want modern styles as well and as the name Skipton means Sheep Town, I thought there ought to be a sheep on it!
The Spring small is another one of this years finishes, it’s from a website called Il Est Cinq Heures. It’s stitched over one thread so it took longer than I anticipated to make!
The forget-me-nots are just coming into flower in the garden. I stitched this decades ago, it’s another one that sat in my workbox waiting to be finished for far too long!
On the first photo you can just see the bottom of my Tall Year Square etui box, with the Spring side facing outwards of course!
Last Tuesday my walking buddy and I walked another section of the Lady Anne Way. The walk goes from Skipton to Penrith in Cumbria, about 100 miles, we’re doing it in lots of little sections!The week before we’d walked from Skipton to Barden, so this section was from Barden to Grassington, about 8 miles, so a nice distance.
The weather was a bit cooler, which was better for walking but not so good for photos!
Our first point of interest was Barden Towers, most of it’s in ruins now, though the smaller building on the right side is a restored bit with a restaurant and tithe barn. It was originally a hunting lodge in the 15th and 16th century. Just below the tower we crossed the river on a pretty stone bridge and followed the path along the river bank as far as Burnsall.
This is the River Wharfe, which later passes through Otley and then Wetherby before joining the Ouse near York. It’s a nice gentle walk along the river bank, watching the dippers and the ducks with their ducklings.
These old field walls interested us, we couldn’t work out what the holes were for. Our only thought was flood defences, it looked like it was on a bit of a flood plain, maybe the holes allowed the water to drain away without damaging the wall.
The bluebells are flowering already, they’re very early this year. The blue haze under the trees is amazing to see, and the scent travels quite a long way.
We skirted round the edge of the village of Burnsall, not actually crossing it’s five arched bridge. We followed the river for a short distance before taking a sharp right up a steep hill. You see the bank to the right of the river, that’s where we turned and that’s pretty much how steep it was!!
We had lots of rests to admire the view over the village!
Once we reached the top we had a good walk across pasture, lots of cute lambing getting all springy!
The next village was Hebden, this was originally a mining village and it’s a lovely higgledy-piggledy sort of village with little rows of cottages tucked everywhere.
Just out of Hebden there’s an old track which we followed across the farmland to Grassington. We were quite high up (relatively speaking!) so we had some lovely views. On the other side of the valley the field patterns looked beautiful in the soft light.
We passed a small field with some heritage sheep breeds. There is a concerted effort now to save the old farm animal breeds. I think the ones with two sets of horns are Manx Loaghton, otherwise I haven’t a clue, I love the curly horns!
We finished our walk in the busy village of Grassington, we had 1 1/2 hours to wait for a bus,plenty of time for a cup of tea and a peruse round an embroidery shop that sells lots of cross-stitch kits, of course I came away with one, well you have to support these shops!
Today we’re walking the next section, Grassington to Starbotton I think, so watch this space!
My friend and I went to Harrogate Flower Show on Thursday, we had a great time, perusing all the plant stalls and making a purchase or two…or more! There’s always a plant creche at the show, for £1 or so you can leave your plants there until it’s home time. It’s a great idea, but it’s not good for the purses – having arms full of bags is a fair indicator of how much you’ve spent, leave them all in the creche and you suddenly have empty hands to fill again!
The problem then comes at home time when we realised we probably had getting on for twenty plants to carry between us! We used a tried and tested method which always causes great hilarity as people see us walking past…I had bought three 6′ metal stakes which were bound up together, my friend held one end whilst I threaded the bags onto the stakes, we could then carry the plants between us swinging gently from the stakes!
So what did I buy – two beautiful clematis to grow up my new arbour, some very pretty variegated irises, a geum, a very pretty aquilegia (I can never resist an aquilegia!) a purple lupin and a few others besides! Here they all our, tucked around some pots by the back door…
Over the weekend the weather suddenly dried up a bit – we had thunderstorms and hail on Thursday! I decided to take the opportunity to paint my arbour. I had just enough soft green left from other projects to give it two coats. I’m still chuffed to bits with my arbour!
My bench is from Skipton market, it looks like it’s been made using various recycled bits of chairs, so it’s got curved arms, turned legs and a carving bit on the back. It was either distressed or painted to look as if it was distressed. Either way although I thought it look pretty (My OH clearly wasn’t quite so keen!) I felt it needed painting to weather proof it. I didn’t have any green left but I did have a full tin of cream which I was originally going to paint the inside of the summerhouse with. Perfect I thought.
It took two coats to get a reasonable cover, it was pretty fiddly to paint. Unfortunately I’m really not sure about it, it looks awfully bright! I’m hoping a couple of months in the sunshine will tone it down a bit, otherwise I might just repaint it in the summer, maybe a heathery colour or a soft grey…or even green! Luckily I still love the concept of the arbour and the bench, I think it’s gone together really well, I can’t wait for the clematis to start covering it.
I managed to plant most of my purchases today, I’ve put a clematis up either side of the arbour. A few plants went in the bed by the conservatory door, I’m aiming to have this bed soft blues and creamy whites, so I’ve got a cream standard rose, purple sage, a gorgeous cream broom which was an impulse buy at last year’s show, I’ve added today a very pretty blue and white aquilegia, some soft blue irises which have beautiful variegated leaves and I also moved a veronica to make way for a clematis. I need a couple more soft foliage plants I think to bring it all together.
My pond area is one of my favourite areas at the moment, the solomons seal are standing tall and starting to flower, blue cammassia are flowering too. The foliage is all starting to unfurl, hostas, irises, dog toothed violets, primulas, it’s all fresh and changing every day.
We finally had a good amount of rain this week, so the weeds are shooting up as well as the plants, I’ve been busy weeding today but I’ve still a long way to go. There’s lots of dandelions flowering but we’re advised now not to spray dandelions until the brambles are flowering as they are such an important source of nectar for bees at this time of year and we need to look after the bees!
It’s three weeks since I last showed you my Finery of Nature cross-stitch, it’s a Dimensions kit which I’ve changed a little as I’m stitching it onto duck egg blue linen, rather than the black aida provided. This has meant a few more changes than I anticipated!
Three weeks ago I was steadily stitching the first quarter, having decided to ignore the god highlights on the pattern…
I think I’ve actually managed to do a respectable amount these last few weeks. I think the knack is that when I take it out to say Embroiderers Guild, I need to unpack my bag afterwards and put it back by my chair in the dining room, my sit and have a cup of coffee chair, or sit and have a sherry whilst tea is cooking chair!
The chickadee quarter is pretty much complete, I’ve added the forget-me-nots, a strawberry and some bluebells. I’m just working my way round the cornerof the top border, this has proved trickier than I anticipated, as I’ve had to unpick about three times! I got there in the end!
I’ve decided to leave off the gold highlights, with having a light background they didn’t add anything. I’m still undecided about the vein down the border swirls, though probabnly leaning more towards a dark teal. My latest conundrum is to do with French knots scattered throughout the design, a sort of background filler, they’re stitched in a gold coloured DMC thread mixed with a metalic gold. I did actually try the gold DMC but it didn’t do anything. At the moment I’m wondering about a variegated green DMC thread or a darker duck egg. I think I need to play, maybe next time…
This stitch-a-long is organised by Avis, we share our progress on our projects every three weeks, it’s a great motivator! If you would like to join us please send a message to Avis. For lots of stitching inspriration please follow the links below…
I’m trying to reduce the number of quilts I’m working on at the moment, having finished one fairly recently I still have six at various stages of construction!! Some just need quilting (hand or machine!) others need piecing and some are longer term projects such as QAL’s, waiting for the pattern to be released each month.
I was just about to start another QAL which had taken my fancy, when for once I had my sensible head on, just wait til there’s a few more finished!
I’ve two quilts waiting to be quilted, but as I’m having shoulder problems at the moment, they are just on hold at the moment, I don’t want to push it too far!
Two QAL’s are within sight of the end, so I’m concentrating on these whilst trying to keep up with my two Sarah Fielke quilts, one being pieced and one hand quilted. I’ve just two more sections to work on with my Spring Wreath quilt and my Splendid Sampler quilt also just needs a bit of a kick to get to the finish. This is where I was last time I showed you my SS quilt…
Over the lat week I decided to work on my Splendid Sampler 2 quilt. This is a QAL organised by Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson, about 80 designers have each contributed one block, so there’s all sorts of styles. This time (as opposed to the first SS) a book was released for the last 80 blocks. It has meant I’m tending to do the ones I like (and don’t look too tricky!) rather than tackling them all. This time I’m aiming for a smaller quilt, maybe 49 blocks, to make a throw, rather than a king size quilt. I’m trying to mainly make blocks which mean something to me, this time I’ve chosen music, gardening, architecture and birds.
The first block I tackled looked easier than it was, it’s called Twice as Much, by Shruti Dandekar, it’s all about scale, I presumed when I first looked at it that it would be made from ever decreasing triangles, whereas the triangles are made from a square and two triangles. I made it slightly more difficult for my self by using different fabrics for the triangles, I liked the idea of having the same plant design in different scales on each fabric! In the end it came out OK, though it could have done with a bit more contrast.
The second block was called My Little Corner by Shannon Gilman Orr, it supposed to be a little quilting cabin or studio, as I’d just got some rather pretty bird fabric I turned mine into a bird box. This was paper pieced, it went together fairly well. I was originally thinking of missing off the hexagons, but as my bottom line didn’t come out too straight I thought it could hide a multitude of sins…this only works if you don’t cover it with more sins! My hexagons leave much to be desired but in the great scheme of things it doesn’t matter!
I cut out two blocks to be embroidered, thinking I could stitch them when visiting my mum. This afternoon however I just thought I’d do a little bit whilst I had a cup of coffee…and ended up stitching both of them. The musical note one is called Quilting Music by Jane Davidson, it’s bondawebbed and then blanket-stitched by hand. The stave is just a simple running stitch. The gardening block called Snail and Pail by Wendy Shepperd, it’s bondawebbed and then machine appliqued, I then hand stitched the ground and the flowers and of course the antenna on the snail.
This evening I stitched another block, Precious Things by Patrina Jahnke, this one is foundation paper pieced. As it had so many pieces I decided to try and use all my fabrics in it. I arranged them all in colours and tones and then worked my way out. I didn’t want too may light ones in the middle so I left them til the end and used them for the corners. The heart was bondawebbed and blanket stitched on by hand.
I’m pretty pleased with these blocks, I just need to finish sashing them and quilt them as I’m doing Quilt-as-you-go. I think I’ve made thirty blocks now.
I’ll be linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday, so follow the link to see more inspiring hand-stitching.
thecraftycreek 