September

I love September it gives me a sense of connection at no other time of year, although it heralds the start of Autumn for me it is all about new beginnings.

I remember that excitement of walking to school again after the long summer holidays with a spring in my step the anticipation of a new class teacher or that sense of excitement when you step over the threshold of your senior school for the first time. I only have to close my eyes and I am walking through the piles of crunchy leaves smelling the crisp fresh air of September as I tread the path to school. September was a time when you were given new fresh exercise books and also where you were determined to 'write neatly' to preserve the beauty of the notebooks. I am sure the sheer delight I have in buying a vast and wide selection of notebooks harps back to this.

The other joy of this time of year is jam making and blackberry picking. We used to blackberry pick as children, enjoying the free food harvest and my mother would appreciate us bringing back plastic boxes laden with fruit to be made into blackberry and apple crumble. It was while I was out one day I came across an extraordinary woman, who I think influenced me more than any other. She took us back to her small victorian cottage where in her pieced together kitchen, a far cry from my Mother's immaculate but hardly used fitted one, she taught us things like jam making, candid peel and cordials. Her garden was full of vegetables waiting to be picked sitting on her threadbare chaise long one afternoon after stirring the Christmas pudding, I think I decided this was how I wanted to live my life. It was a taste of domestic bliss. I knew she wasn't as rich as we were as a family, her house was small and scruffy whereas ours was pristine and glossy, yet, I would have done anything to live in that small house with her. I think she was my inspiration and I do feel connected with her every time I make jam or bake a cake but especially when I pick blackberries because that was how we met.

I made both jam and raspberry syrup with my hoard, this jam is a pot full of memories spending a lovely warm sunny afternoon picking the raspberries chatting to my friend Trish. We were inspired by the talk by Rosemary Moon gave at the Blakes Belles the previous Monday. Rosemary made a couple of pounds of jam as well as apple curd and pickles within the space of an hour or so. She also told us about the Apple Festival coming up at West Dean I am really looking forward to going, not only do they do some wonderful courses, but they have the most beautiful grounds I have been told. Rosemary Moon's website is a sheer delight and if you are looking for recipes that really do work well then I can recommend it. She really does know her stuff, and had us all giggling. I love it when we can be inspired by others.

The other joy of September is that I feel the excitement building for Christmas, I love planning and cooking and making things for the Celebration and it is a wonderful three months, but then that is another post.

Happy jam making!

Naughty but nice - Applique

There are times when I am rushing through a project and my sewing machine is going great guns  it is all about getting the project done but hand sewing seems to be the opposite. It means that you have to take your time, enjoy the process of creation one stitch at a time. I made this project one sunny afternoon in our little caravan, the appliqué is entirely hand stitched right down to the beads and ribbon bow, but the bag itself is machine stitched.  I use it to keep all my tights handy as they seem to end up all over the place. It is unashamedly girlie but then I am a girl after all. 

Roses and tea

I find that wool shops can be like stepping into an artists palette, the colours and hues really do excite me. There seems to be an endless variety of textures as well as colours and after years of seeing haberdasheries and wool shops disappearing, the new wave of knitters and hookers has seen an upsurge in new wool varieties, merino and alpaca as well as denim, but I have a liking for cotton type wool and this is called baby bamboo.

Choosing colour is difficult for some people they are daunted by the sheer magnitude but I find if you look at a range you will find that the shades and colours have a harmony. Such was the case with this, there were a beautiful palette of the baby colours, blues, yellows as well as greens. The pink has come out in this picture a lot brighter than it is naturally it is lovely. Very soft to work with and gentle on the hands.

I have a sweet little tea pot, from Whittards, its lovely blue and white but was being swamped under tea cosies made for stouter pots! I felt it was small enough to practise on!

I wanted to learn to crochet but I have a terrible problem understanding practical things from books,  I wish I had let my Nan show me when she wanted to, she made the most wonderful bed covers using the granny square!

Since she could not show me, I did the next best thing and I took myself off to a local WI where a lovely lady kindly showed me the basics. I was then able to decipher the books and learn new stitches, but I still struggle to follow patterns!

So this is my little journey into playing with various stitches, made from two straight easy pieces of plain crochet and some practice frills. The roses were great fun, as usual I went off the pattern to create my own rose  but I was pleased with the results.

Crochet is so much more free form than knitting, you can make holes, add frills or simply pull and it will all come undone and you can start again. It really is the most forgiving wonderful craft.

A little Geisha

Just look what I found in a charity shop, a pretty little dollie from Monsoon. It looks as if someone had a go at making her but lost interest just the sort of project I love. 

Now I don't really need a doll, but I thought she would make a lovely doorstop. I used the soap powder bottle as a way of giving her a bit of stability and filled it with salt to add weight to so she can hold the door open. It was such a lovely little project to work on and she does do a grand job, don't you think?

Beautiful and functional!

I think I must have been a magpie in an earlier life, for I am always picking up pretty little things, I think the place you create is just as important as what you create. I love to have things around me that are not just pretty but functional these two lovely dishes make the perfect place to keep pins and sequins while I am working.

I made the pin cushion I could not resist the fabric when I spotted it in a patchwork shop in Romsey. The felt centre is part of a dying phase I went through a couple of summers ago. I would collect old blankets and dye them beautiful colours, a much cheaper way of getting felt. The centre button is vintage reminding me of the hours of joy I had playing with my Nan's button tin. I love the heart shaped pins they as so pretty but impractical they are too thick!

I also pick up paperweights they make it so much easier to lay out patterns and you can adjust and measure much easier when trying to measure the straight of grain. 

Ribbon does look lovely when it is all rolled up, they look like little peg dolls!

If you are going to have storage, then I think it should look pretty, these little jars and bottles make finding things just that little bit easier, and they are inspiring for projects. 

Tea Tales in Winchester

It is difficult to get the real size of this cup, but it was as high as my waist! 

I had to visit Winchester for business, it was not the happiest of visits, but when I came out my mood was lifted when I discovered that Winchester Library had an exhibition on Tea, celebrating the Great British Love for the amber nectar! (Ok I know that phase is Aussie, but it sounds good!)

I used to visit the library years ago and the building was impressive but it was the epitome of libraries in the 1980's full of very dusty books and prim librarians. What a change!
The Winchester Discovery Centre is a fantastic library certainly the way ahead, full of interactive displays computers and books! they have a permanent display space that can host exhibitions for local groups as well as their own.

This is one of the earliest 'teas made' dating to the 1950's. I had one when the children were small and they are excellent.





The tea cosy has a little china doll figure at the top, my Nan had one very similar. They were so pretty those days I remember I was not allowed to play with it. I have been thinking of doing a similar type of tea cosy, but have yet to find the right doll!


The pincer things are for breaking up the sugar into cubes! and I did love the pretty victorian china cup beside it.

Some of the signs really were beautifully done, I can just about remember liptons

And Lyons tea, but I have never heard of Nectar tea or County tea. 

This lovely picnic basket was complete with its flasks and tea cups, imagine lugging that around today? The little tin was a pretty sleigh design, I love the pretty design of the cake stand, reminiscent of the 1950's as it formed part of the celebrations for the Queen's Coronation. 

It was the Duchess of Devonshire who set the trend for Afternoon tea, to bridge the long gap between luncheon and Dinner, which in the 17th Century was often as late as 8pm. In those days the lady of the house would have a little water urn and make the tea for her guests, so there were lots of silver urns made in that period. Tea was a very expensive luxury, and tea caddies were often locked. 

The tradition about wether or not the milk goes first came about during this period, china manufacturing was in its infancy and therefore only the most expensive porcelain could withstand the heat of the tea without cracking, hence by putting in the milk after the tea shows the quality of the service and the wealth of the hostess. 

This tea urn is Russian, they are also a nation of  black tea drinkers  however, it is usually served very sweet and black.

It was a great exhibition and totally free! Which is always a great thing.

Skirting around the issue

 I love the feel of cord, it is such a lovely soft fabric and it feels better as it ages. It is one of those comforting fabrics that you put on during the first chills of Autumn.

I discovered this little skirt in one of my regular haunts; I often look at the shape of something rather than the colour, I simply have never been a beige kind of person, but it was a very lovely skirt and it called to be given a new identity.

A line is such a flattering shape so I decided that I would change the colour and see what happened. The problem is that there are so few dye colours about, I had the choice of purple or fushia pink, (among others but not half as exciting!).

Since cord is mostly cotton it took well but the ribbon had changed colour and was rather insipid. Just when I was trying to think about what to do next I spotted a flower design on someone's skirt. It gave me an idea.

I never tire of looking at other people's clothes and have been known to admire the pleats in someone's skirt or the detail on the sleeve. Most people find it odd when I complement them in that detail as most people simply say I like your skirt but then I have never been ordinary.

Sometimes that is how a project goes, I get so far and then I am not sure what to do next, but by sheer chance I had been invited to meet the editor of Sewing world. I had to come up with a number of ideas, and I had taken the skirt along together with an idea of my version of the flower. It was my first commissioned article and it did prove to be quite a challenge, my advice is to stick with your first idea!  Some would say, it is more my colour, some would say they could never wear something that bright, but I love it. More importantly, it is unique, recycled and feels so lovely and warm.