Thursday 30 June 2011

Work in Progress Wednesday - and a confession.

Okay.  I'll get it over with straight away.  The confession, I mean.  

I am a cheat!

When I decided to make my Wednesdays the day to finish off things from the pile of 
half-finished projects, little did I know that it could spawn 
a whole new problem.  

Tuesday evenings, if last night is anything to go by, is now going to be a time of feverish activity as I begin new things ready to finish the next day.  I think this is probably cheating. (Hangs head in shame...)  

In mitigation, Saturday is The Malting Market and I had a few things I wanted to get made for my stall.  Tuesday evening therefore saw me busy with some old tray cloths and an embroidered runner, all of which had seen better days.  Next, I delved into my stash of fabric for small pieces in complementary colours.

Here's what I made...


A trio of purses, almost entirely from salvaged materials.
This one's my favourite...



The reverse sides...


And insides...




Anyway, next week (and Wednesdays thereafter) I promise faithfully to return to finishing the 
long-abandoned projects.
Not that it really matters to any of you out there in blogland, but I am now relying on this blogging lark to become the 'Jiminy Cricket' voice in my head, reminding me of my promise!

Wednesday 29 June 2011

Buckram - my new best friend

Today I finally got round to making those scissor cases I'd been thinking about last week.

First I had to nip out and buy some buckram.  At £1.60 for a metre (which will make ten of these), at least it didn't break the bank!

I made a pattern based round my embroidery scissors - one arrowhead shape and one cone shape with a rounded top.


I then selected my fabric.  For this one, I decided to use part of a very holey mantelpiece drape that I got from a vide-grenier last year.  The bits I needed were only small, so I was able to use parts that were
hole-free.


I bonded the buckram (it was iron-on - result!) onto my selected bits of fabric and trimmed them, leaving a 1cm allowance on the 'v' part of the arrowhead shape.


Next I chose a scrap of felt large enough for the other side of the cone-shaped piece.


I used a sparing amount of fabric glue to stick the felt to the back of the cone shape, and to stick down the seam allowance of the 'v' onto the back of the buckram.


Here are the pieces ready to put together.  I will trim the bottom edges a little later.


I used blanket stitch on the 'v' edge first, before placing the two pieces together, pinning and blanket stitching down one side.  I trimmed the bottom edge to make it blunt rather than pointy as I thought this would be more robust. It has to be said that hand-stitching through buckram is a job best done with a thimble, but it does get easier as you go along!


 I blanket stitched all the way round and then over the domed edge.   I added a few extra stitches where the 'v' and the dome meet to make it stronger.  You could call it a day at that...


 ...or add a short length of ribbon and a snap fastener to keep the scissors extra secure.  I didn't like the stitching of the snap fastener showing, so added a felt flower embellishment.


I made these three in the space of a short afternoon, so not a time consuming make at all!



Tuesday 28 June 2011

Chawton, up close

Winding back through the weekend, on Saturday Mr U-t-B and I went for a pootle around the lanes of the bit of Hampshire known as 'Jane Austen Country'.  

We had started off in Alton, as it was Regency Week and there were various things going on to celebrate.  Sadly, we arrived in Alton a little late in the day, and as the weather was not the pleasantest, the things that had been going on seemed mostly to have got up and gone!  

Undeterred, we decided to head off towards Chawton, where Miss Austen lived from 1809 till 1817, the year of her death. I took the wrong road out of Alton, so we had a mini tour of some of the pretty villages and rural scenery of northern Hampshire.


Eventually, we found our way back to Chawton.  
Its pretty cottages are definitely worth a snap or two, even if I did have the wrong lense on so could only do close-ups!   

Windows nestled into thatched eaves...


Woodwork in the prettiest shade of palest duck-egg...


Rambling roses running free...


Cottage gardens full of foxgloves, hollyhocks and other spire-y beauties...


And this is one of the doorways into Jane Austen's home...




The tea shop was open but heaving with visitors, so we decided to go back one day soon to savour its delights.  When we do, I'll make sure to take a different camera lense, so you can see some whole buildings!

Monday 27 June 2011

Sunshiney Day

Yesterday was 'Open Gardens' in the village where my parents live.  So we hopped in the car and drove down to help, as their garden was one of the ones that was open to visitors.

It's a beautiful garden, so I'll take you on a tour!

First, head through the gate...


...past the hollyhocks in the front garden (where they were planted)...


...and down the side of the house (where they have self-seeded).


Go through the gate into the little courtyard...


Between the house and the granny flat a pretty lady gazes demurely to the side...


There's a pretty old sink that came from the yard in my first house in Cheshire...


...and a very large snail!  (Don't worry - he's polite enough to leave the hostas alone!)

Walk between the granny flat and the hayloft...



...past the fernery...


...and stop awhile under the copper beech. 
Here, you can always find a refreshing breeze.  No matter how sultry the day, there's respite to be had beneath its enormous span.



Step into the sun again and admire the waterlilies...



A rather stern heron reigns over this bit of the garden, though the pond has no fish these days.

Walk beneath the fragrant arch...


...past the old greenhouse and down to the 'tennis court' beyond.  No-one's played tennis here for many a long year (when we were young we'd try, but the lawn was full of moss in those days and no self-respecting ball would bounce on it!)  My Dad does an 'ace' job with the stripes though!


Turn around and you'll see my favourite climbing tree, an ancient apple tree.



It's a fair few years since I shinned up that one though!
There's a row of topiary where the end of the greenhouse used to be...


There are a few nice places to sit. Here's just one.


If you look amidst the foliage you may see Venus rising from a shell...


There are flowers aplenty.
Towers of sweet peas that fill me with nostalgia - it was always my job to pick these when I was young...


Poppies...


Spikes of bright pink and lavender...


(You probably guessed,  I don't know what this is called!)


My parents have lived in the house for thirty-six years, and during that time, my Mum (Head Gardener), ably assisted by my Dad (Assistant Gardener), has transformed the garden from a neglected wilderness to the beauty it is today.







In the 1920s a Miss Dugan (who lived in the house along with her sister and brother) had the garden laid out, spending a vast £500 on the job.  The long, thinnish plot was separated into a series of different garden 'rooms'.  Most of these divisions remain, creating varied areas, each with its own individual look.

I think my Mum has done a great job of taming the garden, whilst keeping to the design so thoughtfully planned out all those years ago.

Here's one of the bits from the original garden we'd like to reinstate...


The old summerhouse, that used to sit just above the tennis court.  A particularly fierce wind put paid to it sometime in the early 1980s   : (    
Maybe if I practised my woodwork a bit more, I could re-build it!!!