The Allotment Garden August ATCs

How lovely are these? I say this every time a new collection is put together and photographed but they aren't going to be any less than lovely really are they? So much time and work and thought and inspiration has gone into each one and they are stunning individually as their own characters, and amazing as a collection with all of their friends. 

This part of the swap is always exciting for me. I love getting the packages in the post with 'Stitchscape Swap' written on the front, there's a little thrill and a small dance as I rip open the seal to see what loveliness lies within (depending on who I'm with there will also be an investigative show and tell), but one of the best bits is the first time I get all of the cards out together and lay them down for their big photoshoot. 

It's always fascinating to see the interpretations of the themes. I do give hints and ideas on my handouts and on my website in case anyone gets stuck for a starting point but usually everyone is pretty good at coming up with their own ideas. Sometimes people from either end of the country, who've never met or spoken to each other, can be on the exact same wavelength and create something quite similar, or have a similar motif, or they could all come from a different interpretive place entirely. 

In this collection we have several cutting flower allotments, a couple of individually plucked fruits/veggies, a scarecrow, birds-eye-view layouts of an allotment and little sheds or greenhouses. It fully covers what an allotment means. The only thing missing is the gentleman with a kerchief on his head sitting in a camping chair with a newspaper and radio 2 on in the background. 

There's also a surprising amount of purple in this collection I think. Several cards have got purplish tints in them which is really interesting. I wonder what order/quantity the colours would be in if we put the images into one of those colour detector apps. There's certainly not as much green as I was expecting. Hold on....let's have a go now....

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So the above is what a random colour generator app I found online thinks are the strongest and most dominant overall palette colours. Would you automatically associated those colours with an allotment? How interesting! I would disagree on one point as I think there is more of a dark emerald green in there but I suppose it's all relative really. 

I've just tested a different palette picker website and it has a range of different palettes that do also include green. If you're interested the pictured palette was generated through Image Color Picker, but I've also found this Coolors one which gives you options that's quite fun - could come in handy for some projects. 

I love how the rows have been created in Sophie's piece above, little stripes of tape, ribbon, lace or yarn laid down and then embroidered veggies over the top. Those carrot tops are so sweet don't you think?

Sandra's one below is very interesting. If you look at it closely, the lighter patches are printed music sheets which have been used as the base for her planting beds. I had initially thought that she'd painted or coloured in the fabric and deliberately left plain material behind but, as with all of these pieces, there are often so many layers you have to look beyond what you see at first glance and in this case she appears to have used the fabric pattern to her advantage. 

The scarecrow is very snazzy - I love his holiday shirt with the floral print, it's enough to scare the birds away on its own! I wish I had taken a more focused photograph of him so you could see his facial features but you can zoom in and have a look at other photos, or check out the individual photo of this card on the ATC website. The cabbages/lettuces are very cool with the texture that has been created by layering up lots of fabric pieces. It looks like at the centre of each is a small piece of felt and a darker patterned fabric to give it a deeper coloured centre but also hold it all together. 

Woven wheel stitches have been used really effectively here as peas!! I would never have thought of that, what a brilliant idea. So simple and effective. 

It took a while for these cards to be swapped round as the deadline was around a bank holiday and it always scuppers up the post. I'm not convinced that we actually get a delivery every day, possibly we have an alternative day route? 

When I swap them round I consult my spreadsheet of names which has a chart showing who has been given cards from whom in this year's swap so that I don't duplicate them with someone they already have had artwork from. It's a case of starting with the first person on the screen and picking up cards from the pile until I get a card from someone they haven't had, writing it into the spreadsheet and plopping the card on the envelope. Usually it works out well although I do have to do a bit of jiggery-pokery nearer to the end of the list. 

Sometimes I'll take photographs to share on the Facebook page to show the members that I am about to send them their cards back and this month it turned out that they all play a little game of 'Guess the Envelope' to see if they can guess whose card they're getting. Those that have slightly different shaped or coloured envelopes get it easy of course. I wonder if this month I'll get some slightly more varied self addressed envelopes through!

Creative Stitchscape Workshop

 

I was very pleased to be back at Made and Making for a Creative Stitchscapes workshop last week. Creative Stitchscapes is pretty much code for, you make what you want, and everyone comes out with something totally different. I never know quite where a workshop will take us, what the focus will be, what skill levels I'm working with... it's a challenge and I love it. 

Sometimes I get repeat customers which is always lovely, but this time it was six total newbies, all very keen, who gelled together nicely and we had some great conversations and sharing of ideas. It's nice when strangers in a class have something in common because they all encourage each other and chivvy each other along which just makes the day so lovely. 

The workshops are never long enough to finish a piece - they aren't really long enough to get properly started but, in the time we have, the goal is to get your fabrics all chosen, cut out and tacked before lunch time, then spend the rest of the afternoon playing with stitches and talking through plans for how to finish the hoop. I will demonstrate the same stitch as many times as required and sit on the floor next to someone to talk them through a bullion knot or similar for as long as they need (as long as there isn't a queue of questions from the others). 

It would be lovely to have a Stitchscape retreat and spend a couple of days working on a piece in a beautiful location. 

By lunch this is where some of the ladies had got to (sadly I wasn't able to photograph all of them). Interesting mixes of cotton fabrics, felt and hessian in a couple of them, two sheep themed pieces, a seaside piece, a very bright contrasting coloured hoop - and the one I didn't photograph was a volcano! The first volcano in a Stitchscape. 

Attendees approach these days differently, they either just want to get out of the house and play around with something creative whilst chatting and drinking tea and having some 'me' time or. they really want to focus and learn and get the most out of the day, extracting as much information from me as possible and trying every stitch in the book! Rather than working methodically through the layers like you would normally do, it's often quite sporadic, adding different stitches here and there to get the feel of them before moving on - and actually that's the beauty of the Stitchscapes, it doesn't matter where you start or how long you work on a section, it's not going anywhere and there isn't a specific order. There is no right or wrong (which is pretty much my mantra). 

The above piece was lovely - you wouldn't know by looking at it but there was a lot of emotion being stitched into this. The trees in particular hold a special meaning for the lady who was stitching it which makes it all the more beautiful. You can stitch anything you like into these pieces, physical pieces of a memory or a holiday souvenir, or more ethereal thoughts and feelings that only you would know the meaning behind. It's up to you whether you share that or keep it to yourself. 

I love the seed stitch at the top of this hoop, all those different colours, it's delightful! There's gorgeous movement through the layers as well, you can follow them like a little ball rolling down them all. 

This is the first time I have suggested Suffolk puffs to be made and stitched onto a Stitchscape. I'm not quite sure why they popped into my head but we were talking about some kind of rock fall or jetty or harbour wall or something coming in to the side of the hoop and piles of fabric yo-yos (Suffolk Puffs) kind of came to light, especially with the lovely small pieces of batik fabric where the colours really bring together the yellow and blue of sand and sea from the layers above. I'd be really intrigued to see this piece finished!

We had a quiet doer in the class too, someone who gets on with lots of stitches to try them out and in this one I can see rows of back stitch, fly stitch, blanket stitch, woven wheel stitch, chain stitch, french knots and bullion knots! There's possibly a go at stem stitch too but it's slightly difficult to tell on that one. I love the colour combinations, it's really bright and bold!

Sadly the others escaped before I had a chance to photograph their work. The end of a class can be a strangely abrupt time where, as you are talking to one person, the rest pack up and try to sneak off with their work hidden in the bag! If I can't catch them they just - poof! - disappear on me with a smile and wave and a "thank you for the lovely day" wafting back through the door. 

Llansannan Holiday Days 6 to 8

Day Six:: 

We love an unusual mode of transport to get somewhere, especially when it's going somewhere interesting. I can't remember who suggested the Great Orme Tramway but it starts at Llandudno and travels up a fairly steep hill, to the most amazing views at the top of the summit. 

It's actually two trams, there's a break in the middle where you have to alight and walk through a station to the next tram, presumably because it's cable hauled and there is a limit to how far one cable can travel. 

You can tell it's a Victorian tramway because the tramcar seats are very narrow - it's sort of a modern person-and-a-half wide per wooden bench. Or an adult and child. It's good fun though! As you leave the first station you are actually on the modern road which apparently is the only cable hauled tramway in Britain to be on the road. Then after a short while you are off through the countryside and, for those riding backwards (facing the way you've come) the most amazing view of the seafront unfolds in front of you. 

We had chosen the hottest day of the holiday to do this so it was all a bit sweaty and hot for a while. At the top there is a restaurant place but you are either crammed inside with everyone else or outside in the blazing sunshine so we grabbed some food to wolf down and went off to have a look around and keep moving. Aren't these views amazing?

As we were sitting down on some grass to let the little ones roam around, my sister and partner and nephew took the cable cars down the hill but we had got return tickets so we were getting the tram back down again after watching some impressive clouds work their way toward us. I love cloud formations, they're so interesting! The one below looks like spokes from a cartwheel. 

By the time we got back down into Llandudno town, it was boiling hot again. Baby F was very irritable having not napped and the seafront and pier were absolutely stuffed to the gills with tourists (like us) and thronging with people. We split up by accident again and then there was no signal to contact each other so for a while we were just roaming around looking for ice cream to try and cool down with a slightly screamy and very hot baby. Not the best experience!! The only option was to get back to the car and encourage a travel nap to calm things down. 

Little trouble was fine by the time we got back to our holiday haven, happy enough to baaah at the sheep (a new noise for him at the time that he was chuffed with). 

Day Seven::

This was a slightly odd day, we had hoped to start it at Conwy Water Gardens and Dutch Pancake house, which we did but, to be honest, it was a major let down. The gardens you just kind of wander into and there were four or so chickens, a terrapin, lots of empty looking overgrown pens, some pens with ducks in and a pond with a half finished nature walk? The advertisement for it had been laminated in the holiday home and promised otters but the tiny pen which had a small written bit about otters appeared empty and there wasn't anyone around to ask. It was all a bit strange and unkempt, like they'd forgotten about it but hadn't bothered closing it. There was a small play area which was 'closed for refurbishment' but looked like it had been that way for a while with no work happening. 

So we thought we'd have brunch at the pancake house instead but apparently you have to pre-book and you can't just turn up on the day. And, aside from a slightly strange and scruffy fish shop (which to be honest was the most interesting bit) that was it! The website and advertisement for it looks significantly different to the actual place itself!

We very quickly moved on to try and find something else to look at, had a quick stop off at Trefriw Woollen Mills, which had a little museum and lovely shop, and then ended up at Betws-y-coed which is basically just a nice looking village with a bridge and some quirky shops and lots of scenic walkways. 

This is where the parents had come after our morning at Rhyl, and they'd spotted some interesting looking eateries for us to go back to for lunch so we returned en-masse for stone baked pizza. 

It was a quirky collection of things together, one of them being a main train line which had a brilliant display of recycled animal sculptures on the platform. They were really cool! The rhino in particular had been set up so that you could donate your bottle tops until it was full so it was slightly interactive with the public. 

If you crossed the bridge over the main track there was a little train museum and miniature railway. I did pop over and have a look but the train was broken and there were lots of people sat on the carriages waiting to go whilst the driver went off to fetch another mini train to pull them along. It seemed to be a bit of a one man band so it was taking a while. All in all it was a funny end to a funny day. 

We drove the scenic way home (not hard in this neck of the woods, it's all scenic), pausing by some reservoirs to take photos and chat to the sheep. They weren't that interested in answering back. You could literally drive for miles and not meet anyone coming the other way at all other than sheep, it was so remote!! Thank goodness we didn't have any car trouble because we would not have been able to explain where we were. 

It's beautiful though, especially in the sunshine. When it's grey and raining and misty it probably feels a very different place - and I'm glad we never had to drive through it in the dark!! 

Day Eight::

Home time!! As always the holiday had whizzed past and, just as you get used to the quirks of a new house - like the incredibly creaky floorboards upstairs and where to tread to make the least amount of noise - it's time to go again. Our lovely landlady came to say goodbye and thanked us for coming bless her, and we drove up the incredibly steep and stony track for the last time. Reece definitely breathed a sigh of relief at the top because he had been worried about the car making it up the hill with all of our luggage in. 

We had a special destination for the way home... Cadbury World! Highlights for this particular place have to be meeting and having a photograph with Freddo the frog, the little Cadabra ride through a town of cocoa beans, the cup of melted chocolate with chosen toppings (Baby F is particularly partial to Bournville chocolate buttons it turns out) and all of the interactive things you can do whilst walking around like writing in chocolate and having a go at tempering. 

Our tummies and shopping bags full of chocolate we headed home with one stop-off at a service station to stretch our legs and eat some tea, not bad going with a 15 month old! He did so well on this holiday and aside from a couple of stressy moments, was a delight to be with and to watch experience all of these new things. It was a lovely holiday!