House Sitting

 

We've been house sitting for the past week and a half for my Grandmother. She's off on a cruise around Spain and wherever else they end up (a three part Italian section of the journey was cancelled just before they left as the Italian ports have been closed due to increased COVID-19). Oddly enough, the last time we house sat for her was the two weeks before the initial lockdown in March 2020. She was on a different cruise which ended a day early and then a couple of days after her return we went into immediate lockdown for several months so we're hoping that things don't repeat themselves as she's got a week to go on her trip and COVID cases are sneaking up again now so many restrictions have been lifted. 

I am really enjoying house sitting though, especially because at the moment my partner and I are in the process of buying a house and living with my parents so, with a new baby due in the next two weeks, it's nice to have some time just to ourselves! Now I'm on holiday/maternity leave I've also got more time to sit and enjoy her garden (in the glorious unseasonal sunshine we've had so much of recently) and sit and stitch!

I am working several months ahead of the Stitchscape swap I'm hosting, mainly because I'm concerned I won't have time with a new baby - or I just won't feel like it because I'll be in a baby bubble and exhausted - so I'm trying to future proof myself for any stress. I'm not worried about being the host, I love seeing the cards come in the post (I've had a gorgeous one for the March swap in already!) and it's easy to swap them around and send them out, but actually embroidering them can be quite time consuming and I don't want to do a rubbish job on one. Plus I'm making extra in case there are any issues with the swaps so that I have back ups. 

This afternoon I finished off the June, By or Under the Ocean, cards - other than stitching the backs on. I've gone with more of a by-the-ocean theme with my little beach huts as I have the most perfect striped fabric which screams beach hut! The fabric itself has several sets of colour stripes so all of these huts came from the one piece of fabric, isn't that brilliant? I'll go into more details about how each month's design has been made when they are all cut out and properly photographed, I just love seeing them all in the hoop together like this. 

It's much easier to have several in one hoop at a time. It's less fiddly than holding a small hoop and less wasteful too as I can draw around the cards closer together and not waste so much backing fabric. I admit those middle ATCs can be tricky to stitch though - especially with a huge baby bump at the moment, it keeps getting in the way so I have struggled slightly to reach in places and it's been a bit awkward. 

I keep trying to remind myself not to get too carried away as well - and that they've got to fit in a regular letter with a standard stamp so can't be too bulky. I've spent so much time recently making my stitches and designs come out from the hoop in as many different sticky-out techniques as I can think of, that trying to keep things as flat as possible is almost as much of a challenge now as making things three dimensional! Even the beads I use can't be too bulky, and I'm not sure about the big french knots I've made on the Bluebell cards as they are thick-ish through the use of knitting yarn. 

Luckily I've got a nifty gadget which I use for my orders which tells me whether something can fit as a regular letter or if it has to go as a large letter. If they are too thick I guess I'll just have to re-make them! I have plenty of time after all. Or up the postage on the envelopes that mine get swapped out in.

I'm already thinking up themes I could use potentially if there's interest in a 2023 ATC swap - as we go through the months now there are lots of ideas that we could use - Blossom is one I sort of wish I'd gone for but trying to think of varied themes in dull, dismal February wasn't very inspiring. Now the sun is out and the flowers are all bursting with life I've got lots of ideas for themes! Just looking around the garden gives several ideas - Blossom Trees (as mentioned), Tulips, Morning Chorus (listening to the birds in the garden is something I'm really enjoying - especially now it's warm enough to have the back door open all day), Morning Dew or Morning Frosts....

I was wandering around the garden with my camera a couple of days ago and snapped some quick photos of the variety of floral life in the garden. It was a bit windy though so many of the flowers didn't stand still enough to have their photos taken - there are also Cyclamen, Crocuses, Magnolias, several varieties of Daffodil and even more that I don't know the names of. We've even been harvesting some purple sprouting broccoli from the vegetable patch! 

Do you have lots of flowers bursting forth in your gardens?