A Trip Down Memory Lane

I'm afraid I have to do a rather major catch up as I have neglected to update my blog for over five weeks!!! Everything has concentrated so much on churning out little pieces to sell and add to the display at the Wealden Times Midwinter Fair just gone, that many other things got set aside. Hopefully it will settle down now and I can get back to blogging and other fun stuff.
I've turned to my phone for these images as it's so easy to snap an image with it whilst out and about, especially as my big camera is so bulky I don't carry it around with me. The quality of these images isn't fantastic and, since the clocks have changed during this time period (from about the 10th October), the lighting isn't always great either so I am very sorry about that! A lot of my sewing is done in the evenings by the glow of my daylight lamp which reminds me a little bit of a dentist's treatment room, bright and blue.
So, let the catch up commence!!

❤ I managed to make about 19 of these little 10cm Christmas hoops, all different and unique, with sparkles and metallic threads. It turns out that I have more fabrics in my Christmas stash than I realised so it was great to be able to really mix things up. They are relatively quick to make as they are little with only four fabric layers but so festive! I had photo shoots at the studio, trying to think of ways to display these little pieces at the Wealden Times show. My white Hobbycraft tree comes in super handy and I'm wondering whether or not to get another one so that I can spread the hoops out a bit more. Something to ponder on.

❤ We carved pumpkins for Halloween. Quite a few pumpkins in the end actually and we still have one left over because The Mother has a thing about pumpkin muffins so kept bringing pumpkins home as a subtle hint. I also made a few apple loaf cakes as she brought home two bags of the most enormous apples I have ever seen! We had so much crumble, stewed apple and apple cake!! (My diet is going super well!)

❤ I went into mass kit-making overdrive! Stocks of The Naked Stitchscape Kit, Stitchscape Pebble Kit, Summer Sweet Kit and the Christmas Decoration Kit were replenished, and sheep appeared in the packs of mixed fabrics as it was so requested at my last big event. I have yet to update my Etsy shop with these new fabric collections but it is on my list. Cutting the threads take the longest time and I was taking boxes of threads, a ruler and a pair of scissors on the bus with me to cut them to length during my commute to work and in my lunch breaks, then threading them onto the cards in the evenings and on Dotty Textiles work days.
I was very pleased to have a request come through from the-stitchery in Lewes, to say that they had completely sold out of both the Orange Sunset and Spring Ladybug kits and could they have some more?!! Unfortunately there isn't enough fabric for more of the sunset kits and I am working on getting some replacement fabrics sorted for that but, as of last week, there are five more ladybug kits now for sale in store. These are designs exclusive to the-stitchery (you will find them no where else in the entire world!) and they can only be purchased in the shop, but if you are out of town just give them a call for other solutions. Click on the link to their shop for their details.
To add to my own collection of kits, I am super thrilled to say that my Button Mountain Felt kit for young stitchers is now ready to go!! You can find it in my Etsy shop, here, if you would like to encourage your budding embroiderer to have a go. These kits are very colourful with lots of texture and only three simple stitches. I have suggested them for children aged 8 and up but do recommend adult supervision for the younger ages. These would make fantastic stocking fillers- all you need is a 15cm hoop and your own needles, and you are away!

❤ I also managed to update my sketchbooks with some new photos as they were quickly getting behind. It's very soothing to organise the pages and play with washi tape. These are a great teaching tool for me as it helps to inspire my students with composition and colours, and is something that I can refer back to when I'm trying to explain a technique used so it's worth my while keeping it as up-to-date as possible. They aren't sketchbooks as such as there are no sketches, it's more like a photo album of past work and work in progress- my Instagram account in print.

❤ Whilst printing my new sketchbook images, I also put together and printed some little books titled, The Little Book of Stitchscapes. These are based on a printed book that I put together for personal use last year but it got so much attention by those I was showing that I made up some slightly different, versions for sale. They are only tiny little things, full of images of my Stitchscapes but have been purchased for inspiration by parents of children working on their GCSE Textile exams and those who want it as a quick reference book once they start their own Stitchscaping journey so I am really chuffed with where these books have been going to. It is very humbling to be a source of inspiration to others and I hope that I can live up to it!

❤ I went slightly overboard with purchasing these little miniature hoops. I think it's because they take so long to arrive, most of them coming from China, that I get bored of waiting for them and start looking at others so the parcels just kept coming and I ended up with all sorts of shapes and sizes, trying different eBay and Amazon sellers. I haven't managed to fill all of the hoops yet but gave it a jolly good go, and am really pleased with these floral lovelies. Several of them have already sold and now live in America, and others went to their new homes at the WT show. It's interesting hearing people's plans for them- some were going to keep them on the ribbon I'd threaded through the ring at the top, others were going to change to a chain and wear it, some securing a safety pin and wearing it as a brooch, and one was going to frame it in a box frame!
It is easier to embroider multiples of these at a time so the hoop was also coming with me on the bus to work (my poor colleagues have had to put up with all sorts of strange stitchy activities during the lunch break) and anywhere else I went. I draw around the inner wooden shapes onto the back of the fabric, making sure to leave a couple of centimetres between the shapes so that I have a seam allowance to draw up the fabric to enclose the wooden shape. They really are super sweet little things- the smallest being only 2.5cm in diametre! I've now started having a go at some Christmas holly themed ones, but have realised that there is no space for a ring to attached to the screw so they are just little random hoops. They will probably end up as magnets I think.

❤ The cat has been doing his regular cat-like things. His mood is linked to the weather so we are noticing a distinct change in his demeanour, lots of moaning and winging and turning his nose up at the food we offer him because it's less sunny and warm these days. He leaps at every change to bask in the sunshine, getting comfy in all sorts of sheltered sun traps to improve his mood. We barely see him during the summer, then in Autumn he starts hovering around a bit more demanding evening cuddles, and then in Winter he's constantly underfoot wanting snuggles all day long. It's very sweet but can get frustrating when you have plans!

❤ I have been hugely inspired by recent visits to National Trust properties. In one day, a friend and I visited Sheffield Park & Garden (above), Wakehurst Place (below) and Nymans Garden (bottom). The colours in these lovely places were amazing! Sheffield in particular was stuffed with artists and photographers all trying to capture the essence and colours of the autumnal trees and scenery. As it has been so mild recently there were also still quite a few late summer flowers in bloom, like Cosmos, Dog Roses and Dahlias which only added to the colour and beauty of the gardens. We are very lucky to live near these big open breathing spaces.

❤ These colours appear a lot in my little framed pieces that have been worked on since our National Trust visits. Lots of oranges, reds, yellows, maroon, ochre, gold.... I really enjoy making these little frames, and because I tend to use such deep concentrations of colour, they form a colour burst collection, and the three black framed pieces look particularly powerful together in a row! I've been experimenting with some new stitches in these as I have recently followed a new account on Instagram called @moony.crafts who collect really interesting images and videos posted by other embroiderers on Instagram, and re-posts them so you can see all of these amazing images in one place or trace them back to the original poster. In particular, the cacti in the bottom right image above are a new stitch to me and I have no idea what it is called. You wrap thread multiple times around the needle whilst it is tucked into the fabric and then pull through, securing both the top and the bottom of the loops. It uses a lot of thread in one go but looks really cool! And the really puffy firework-esque flowers in the middle left image are also from this account where you trap wrapped threads, over sew at the bottom then cut the loops. It's so effective!

❤ In the studio I have been experimenting with a new way of framing the #inthehoop stitchscapes to try and make them more accessible to punters. They make such an impact framed this way I think, although they are devilishly fiddly to attach to the mountboard as I have been stitching them on rather than gluing in the hopes that it will make them more secure. I have bought special circular mounts to help bed the hoops in and I really love them! Only a few have been framed so far but I have more mounts and frames to be able to work my way through them and do some more. What do you think?

❤ We have recently had our Remembrance Day parade and I had to take time out of sewing to attach together all of these bottle poppies, which had been made by my Guides, into a wreath to display in the church. It's a very clever idea (thank you Pinterest) where you take big plastic bottles, cut the bottom part off and cut petal shapes at the edge, make a hole in the bottom and paint the inside red, then use the rest of the bottle to cut big leaf shapes to be painted green and a circle to be painted black. You thread them all together onto wire and then melt them with a heat gun so that they look more natural. Somehow I volunteered to then wire them onto a big wreath ring and our girls paraded with it up the highstreet with the rest of the Remembrance Day parade, and laid it right a the front of the church. Well worth taking the time to do.

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I have more to catch you up on with the Wealden Times show but I think this post is long enough and you will all be dying to put the kettle on for a cup of tea by now! I hope you enjoyed the trip down my memory lane, and see you soon!

Falling Seasons

We are due for a cold snap this week so the hat, scarf and gloves are out ready and waiting. Dad brought in a load of our pot plants to the greenhouse to protect them from the imminent frosts and we have all been enjoying the last few days of sunshine, dragging out the last of the summer vibes. The trees are mid-way through turning, their beautiful shades of orange, yellow and burnt umber mingling together, looking especially beautiful in late evenings when the sun begins to drop down behind the horizon.

Our garden is starting to die away now, with only a few hardy Geraniums and Nasturtiums still flaunting their colours. We have laid out the Sunflower heads for the birds and squirrels to nibble on and perhaps we will have a few self sown Sunflowers next year too.

A couple of weeks ago we had a caterpillar invasion on our Nasturtiums. We don't mind them living in that particular flower bed as Nasturtiums are so prolific and grow like mad, but at one point the caterpillars were migrating across the path towards the house, probably looking for somewhere to hole up and turn into butterflies. They were walking over the stone slabs and climbing up the walls of the house- we did have a moment where they were coming through the open sitting room window and I had to get my spoon and pot ready to catch them and take them back outside- but they have all disappeared now into little hidey holes.

The cat is being very demanding. He is a summer loving cat, and hates the thought of the cold wintry days ahead so spends a lot of the Autumn moaning about it and following people around meowing his disapproval of the weather. I suppose he thinks we can do something about it?

This week of course is Halloween, and although we aren't the sort of family that goes all out with dressing up and parties, we do like to dress the Kitchen with decorations, and fill a cauldron with chocolates just in case. Happily we don't get many trick-or-treaters so most of the chocolate we can eat ourselves.

The Mother has bought a couple of different buntings this year which make the dining area very spooky looking, and I have had the annual task of carving the pumpkin. What do you think?

I don't like to waste the insides so usually try to make something seasonal with them. This year The Mother requested a repeat of my pumpkin muffins which are quite easy and use up 200g of pumpkin flesh at a time. On average I can get four batches of 12 muffins out of one medium pumpkin so that's not bad. They contain lots of ginger, nutmeg, all spice and cloves, and the smell is delicious as they bake! The taste isn't bad either.

So all of our bunting is up, the pumpkins carved and ready, the cauldron filled, and my vase of un-dead flowers (seed heads sourced from the garden) beautifying the table. We are ready for Halloween!

Halloween Weekend

Happy Nearly Halloween!!! It feels a bit strange that actual Halloween isn't until Monday, it feels like it should be tomorrow (Sunday) so that people can really party I have spent most of the day getting spooky in the kitchen, setting up a scary tableau on the table, carving pumpkins and making pumpkin muffins!

It is suitably Autumnal outside which is good as British summertime officially ends tomorrow. Kids are rustling around in the leaves and it is getting chilly my friends!! These Crocuses are a little confused though (above), and are flowering already. Hopefully they won't all flower otherwise we won't know when Spring has arrived.

This morning I popped to the shops for some provisions. A Halloween themed bunch of beautiful flowers, and some treats to fill our cauldron. It is becoming something of a tradition to decorate the end of the dining table. We don't get many trick or treaters our way and The Parents tend to turn the lights off and hide under the table in fear of being called upon anyway, but we decorate the kitchen just for ourselves.

These flowers are absolutely beautiful!! Such gorgeous orange and purple flowers. I added a few bits of my own from the garden; some extra purple leafy foliage, Fennel flower heads and the dried seed heads, I think these perfectly compliment the boldness of the cabbage and Dahlia.

We bought our pumpkins last weekend in case they ran out by the time we wanted them (although we needn't have feared, there were enormous cases of them in our local supermarket when we popped in earlier) and I heaved them out of the bag to begin the squelchy, smelly and slimy job of scooping out the insides and scraping away some of the flesh.

Meet Bertie and Theopopolis Jr.!!! I really like traditional pumpkins (although some of the scenes people carve out can be quite astounding can't they?!) so mine are usually quite simple scary faces. I'm looking forwards to seeing them staring in from outside in the dark later on.

Every year there is the debate on what to do with those scraped out pumpkin inners? Should it be soup, pie, cake, bread, cookies, chutney.... I decided to have a go at Pumpkin muffins and trawled the internet for a simple recipe (which I have now written down and can't find the original website it came from!).

The ingredients include fresh and ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and of course, pumpkin, so the scent when these are cooking is divine!! Although they are moist and tasty, I think when I make them again (which is highly likely looking at the amount of flesh left in the bowl), I wouldn't use the cloves, or at least not nearly as much as the recipe calls for, they leave a funny aftertaste. Dad is also very keen to try making some of it into a chutney so I will probably have a go at that as well.

So as the evening draws in, it's time to light the candles and watch the Pumpkins glow!!! One of the best bits about Halloween.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

Ooooo.....scary.

All Hallows Autumn

Yesterday afternoon I popped in to town to have a quick nosey around the shops. Where do all of the Pumpkins go? The day before there were hundreds still in the supermarkets and yesterday there were none at all, not even empty boxes where they used to be. I wonder what happens to the leftover pumpkins? Anyway, I digress. Whilst wandering through the alleys and along the river to the town I indulged in my love of autumnal leaves against a bright blue sky. It has to be one of the best things about Autumn, looking up and seeing the brilliant contrast of bright oranges and acidic yellows against the crisp blue. I can't help but photograph it over and over again.

At home my Christmas Cactus has gone completely bonkers and is flowering left, right and centre. I really don't think it has had so many flowers on it before!!!

And a little present to myself from my shopping trip was this bunch of Autumnal looking flowers- complete with a cabbage!!! I probably shouldn't get so excited about having a cabbage in a floral display but I am.Very excited. The vase didn't look quite complete with the bought flowers on their own so I nipped into the garden and picked some pretty dried seed heads and some fading lavender. The purple and dried plants make it look more Halloweeny I think.

Aaah, got to love that cabbage!

The Mother just about finished her Bucilla Witches Brew Wreath. She's got a bit of a thing for Bucilla kits- I think it's the sequins- and we have lots of different wreaths around the house with even more in production!

Kit is very chuffed that he has made it onto one of her wreaths.

In the evening it was all relaxed and cosy. Candles were lit and the White Cat was cuddled up on the chair- legs neatly tucked together. I hope you all enjoyed a lovely Halloween!