A Truly Handcrafted Wedding

You may be forgiven for believing that I had dropped off the planet, but in truth, I have just been having a wonderful time with my family. 

Now though, my son's wedding is over, the family over from Canada have returned home and it is time to reflect and smile at all the wonderful things we achieved and enjoyed together.

This was always going to be a handcrafted wedding, but I think they truly surpassed all expectations.

My main jobs were to make the bunting, the table runners and part of the wedding cake.

You can see the table runners here. They were fringed hessian with lace sewn along the middle. Quick and easy (and messy!) to make. 

I hope you've also spotted the bunting - that was really fun to make, and it will be kept to bring out at family events in the future.

Mike & Laura made the table numbers and the favours (potted succulents for the girls, homemade chilli sauce for the boys).

They also painted directional signs to the venue and with the remaining wood made wonderful hand painted quotes like this one to dot around the reception area

It was a barn wedding and this wonderful room is where the ceremony was held.

It was the perfect size for the number of guests (and yes, that's me at the front!)

It was the small touches that made this day so special.......the photo gallery to include our loved ones who had passed way too soon.

And the handmade cones of real petals for confetti.

Laura is a silversmith who graduated from the prestigious Birmingham University Jewellery School and she made personalised cufflinks for all the groomsmen.

and a necklace and earrings for all the bridesmaids and both Mums. This is mine. The stone is citrine to match the lemon in my outfit.

But the most talked about item was definitely the cake.

Two of the layers were an un-iced traditional fruit cake made by Laura's Mum which was always a regular cake in Laura's household. The other two were Rice Krispie cake, made by me, which was always what my boys had as their birthday cake. The making of this caused a little angst. My previous  Rice Krispie cakes were never the same twice! Sometimes they crumbled on your plate, sometimes you needed a pick axe to get into them! This time it not only had to be edible, but the lowest tier had to support three other cakes! Were still weren't sure it was going to work until the day came to put to together. Thankfully it held up and was a big hit. Laura crocheted the hearts and added the explanation notes as to why they had this cake. Do you see the cake topper?

Laura made this too! They are wooden pegs that she has painted and dressed. Mike has a suit made from felt, with the correct colour tie. Laura's dress is scraps that I had left over from making the table runners, and who is that at the front? Why, it's their little Jack Russell, Bruce! complete with his favourite red ball. No wonder this was such a talking point at the reception!

So the event that we planned and busily crafted for the best part of the last 8 months is now over. It was a wonderful day, a day to treasure and smile about. Whilst they were on honeymoon I've had my family from Canada here and we've busied ourselves with day trips and long walks, enjoying the English summer........more memories to treasure.

Now it's time to think forward again, and with a little excitement, too.  I'll have time to get back to my knitting and quilt making, and plans for new projects are starting to take shape. Just as it's almost time for a new term for school children, I feel like it's new term for me too. Although I dislike the longer hours of darkness that autumn brings, it does mean more time for quiet crafts, and hopefully for blogging, too!

Summer Days

Don't you just love long summer days? I know we all moaned about the cold winter, the late spring (did we actually get one?!) and the fact that we thought summer would never ever arrive, but now it's here I'm enjoying every single moment of it.

I have spent so much time outdoors and eaten such extravagant portions of home grown fruit over the last few weeks that my vitamin intake must surely be super high at the moment.

I love being in the garden, tending my little veggie plot (all organic of course!)

Harvesting the crops is a major daily job at the moment.

I have eaten a lot of freshly picked produce for the last few weeks and my neighbours and family are probably getting a little tired of being offered what I can't eat or freeze. First it was the raspberries, now it's the mange tout.

and next week I think it will be the redcurrants and the courgettes.

With the slowing of pace that hot sunny days bring, not a lot of sewing or knitting is getting done.

I'm looking after this little guy again for my son and his fiancee whilst they are away, too.

By the time we've been for our morning walk a long cool rest is needed (well actually it's only me that needs the rest. He's ready for more action!

But I am managing a little sewing, sitting under the patio umbrella. It's not what you would expect.....

I'm using felt, and wadding, and pelmet vilene and embroidery thread.....

Can you guess what it is ? I do hope so, because I haven't got time to start over!

It's pizza! Felt pizza! It's not finished yet, I'm going to add toppings of course - mushrooms, peppers, maybe even a few olives. Mmmmmn, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

And why am I making felt pizza?

My daughter-in-law gets to teach a new year group next term - kindergarten. That's reception to us Brits. Unlike in this country, schools in Toronto don't provide as much classroom equipment. The teachers have to get their own, and as she is changing year group she will need a lot of new stuff.

I have a loads of felt stashed away, so I'm putting it to good use. Felt pizzas will be a fun way to introduce simple fractions, and will double up as an imaginative play prop at the same time.

I bought the pattern on Etsy and hopefully when it's finished it might look something like this, minus the board, cutter and accoutrements.

Finished photos next week hopefully. Enjoy the sun whilst it lasts!

Looking Back, Looking Forward 2012-2013

 

We might be a whole week into the New Year, but I'm still very much in a reviewing and sorting mode. My son and his wife returned to Canada on Friday after having spent a wonderful 10 days with me over Christmas and as I've been taking down the decorations and putting the house straight I've been thinking about the highlights of 2012 and making plans in my head for 2013.
So, the highlights of last year:
1. Top of the list has to be our family get togethers - both the Christmas just gone and our summer break in Devon, pictured above.
2. The quilts I managed to finish (I'm not even thinking about the ones I've started but haven't finished!):

 

 

 





 

 3. The gifts I made for family and friends (these were fun to make):

 

 

 

 

4. Then there was the UR Priceless blog challenge I took part in, Again great fun, but it started a problem with spam comments on my blog, which i just don't seem to be able to get rid of, so I'm not sure if I'll partake in any more :(

 

5. And finally, I have to include reaching 2000 sales in my LoveFibres Etsy shop. Thank you so much to everyone who bought a pattern!

 

 

So, on to 2013 and my challenges for myself are as follows:

 

1. Grow more of my own food, and incorporate more wholefood into my diet. I have already been out working on my veg plot as we've had an incredibly mild week and I have planted some (actually, rather a lot!!) of garlic and planted out some kale plants that were growing in pots in the greenhouse.

 

2. Get used to living on my own, as the one son who still lives at home with me is aiming to buy his own place some time this year. I can't be really be sad about this, as I only wish the best for him, for I really do love having a house full of young people!

 

3. Bust my stash - both yarn and fabric!! I may have placed this third, but I think it should have been at the top of the list, as I'm sure it's going to take the most time. Whilst I firmly believe that a critical amount of yarn or fabric is necessary to bring out the best creativity in someone (well, that is what I tell myself every time I get the urge to buy something!!) I find that as I get older I feel the need to free myself of un-needed possessions. Does anyone else feel this way? I remember that my Mum did. Whenever I asked what she wanted for birthday or Christmas, she used to say "anything as long as I can eat it, drink it or throw it away"-  meaning that she didn't need or want any more possessions - that happiness came from time well spent, not from materialism. So this is my year of de-cluttering. I have a lot of yarn and fabric - all oddments left over from past projects, and I have set myself a rather daunting challenge of using up as much of it as I can in the next year.

 

I will tell you more about this challenge in my next post.

I hope everyone is having a happy start to their New Year!



 

 

Enjoying Autumn

So, I've decided this BlogtoberFest is not for me. I enjoy blogging, it keeps me focused, but I don't enjoy blogging every day, just for the sake of it. I was beginning to fall out of friends with my blog. It was getting in the way of life (or was life getting in the way of the blog?) so posts will revert to the normal amount from now on.
Autumn days have to be grabbed with both hands when they are dry, and especially if they are sunny.
There are a lot of grey skies, and dark afternoons to endure over the next few months, so I intend to enjoy every moment of autumn whilst I can.
The leaves are just beginning to turn here in Middle England. The trees are still holding most of their leaves, but the veggie growing season has almost ended. I picked sweetcorn this afternoon, and still have a few tomatoes ripening on the vines, but most of the veg plot was dug over this weekend, ready to earn its rest over the winter.
I also have a new quilt I'm working on (you didn't really expect me to finish one before I started the next did you?), but I'm keeping it under wraps for now, and I still have the final post on organic fabrics and yarns to write - I'm keeping that for a rainy day - it will be a good thing to do when the weather keeps me inside.
I hope you are enjoying autumn, if it is autumn (or fall) for you. If it's spring where you live, then lucky you!

Compton Verney

 

No rotary cutting tiny 2 1/2" squares or even decorating for me today. I had a glorious day out with a good friend to Compton Verney in Warwickshire. We were so lucky with the weather and were able to enjoy beautiful autumnal sunshine all day long. Compton Verney is an art gallery housed in what was until relatively recently a derelict historical mansion.The house has been in existance for over 500 years. What we see of it today was designed by a famous Scottish architect, Robert Adam, and the grounds were laid out by Capability Brown.
When we arrived, we happened to notice that there was a guided tour of the grounds about to take place, so we abandoned our plans to browse the gallery and joined the tour instead.

The tour went at a leisurely pace and it was so very pleasant standing in the autumnal sunshine listening to the history of the grounds.

The sun shone on the lake, and we appreciated it all the more knowing that days like this are surely at their end for this year, and that the next time we visit it is likely to be a lot colder and grey skied.

We learned about the restoration of the Ice House, which is in effect a large covered pit . In winter ice would be taken from the lake and stored in the ice house, where it stayed frozen ready for use in the kitchens during the summer before the days of the modern fridge!

The ice house is no longer used to store ice, but looks wonderful with a new thatched roof, and has a new purpose as it has become the home to a few bats.

All in all, it was a lovely day out, a well needed break from the sewing and decorating and a memorable way of saying goodbye to summer



Some Amazing Fabric Birds

Hi. I had hoped to be showing you my latest new knitting pattern today, but it still isn't quite finished. It's a new design of baby booties. The booties are all knit up, in all sizes, photos all taken, but I'm still checking and re-checking what I've written. Does it make sense? are there any typos? etc.
You would be amazed at how long it takes me to be happy with a pattern, so you are going to have  to wait a little while longer...No, not even a sneaky photo today!
Instead, I have to show you an Etsy seller that is so talented it's just mind-blowing.
Oh, how I wish I was able to make something like this!!

Or this!!

They are made by Etsy seller Emma Verner-Webb of The Cotton Potter
She uses a variety of incredibly well chosen fabrics and facial details are carefully handpainted.
They have  glass  eyes and a  polymer clay beak.
The legs are made from painted wire and the birds are filled with wool stuffing.
The blue tit and goldfinch above and the woodpecker below are all favourite British birds (she has many others on her site too) 
and have been handcrafted with such attention to detail that they are instantly recognisable.

 In fact they are so life like that I think my cats would be trying to chase them!
Speaking of which - one of my cats, Ruby, spent yesterday afternoon asleep on the birdtable.
Hopefully, she wasn't taking an after-dinner nap!

The sights, scents and stitches of summer

Yay!! Summer has finally arrived in the UK and in a big way here in the Midlands.
Finally I can sit in the sun and sew!
I can look fondly at all the plants I grew from seed earlier in the year.

I can sit in a chair on the lawn enjoying the feel of grass on my bare feet and stitch happily away on the latest quilt. Until that is..... I drop my needle!
Now this is problematic on two fronts:
First -  As you may know, not all needles are made equal. They may all look the same in the pack, but some become favourites, they just feel a little bit special... you know which one you like using best (or is this just me??), so it wasn't just any old needle I'd lost in the grass - it was my special needle!
Second - the perceptive amongst you will have guessed... remember I said I liked the feel of grass on my bare feet? Yep! No shoes....
So, you get the picture? I'm on my knees, nose 6" away from the grass, brushing my hands gently through it for what seemed like forever! What my neighbours imagined I was doing, goodness only knows.
I didn't find that needle. I had to tread very carefully all day long and I had to choose a new and "oh so not nearly as nice! needle to work with.

Still, I shouldn't really complain. The sun still shone. I still sat sewing (over the table this time!!), enjoying the fragrance from some freshly picked sweet peas and a refreshingly cool drink.... and my feet are still unharmed! What's not to love!



Sewing Through the Rain

I'm sure you are probably fed up with UK bloggers moaning about the rain by now, so I decided to come up with my own reasons why I'm staying positive through the rain.
I tried to come up with 10 .... errr, bit of a push that, but I did come up with quite a few!

1. It's sale time in the shops!!!! I'm not a great lover of traipsing round the shops, but its an OK activity when its raining. John Lewis has its usual awesome sale and I got all this Amy Butler fabric at half price!!!

2. I did manage to get the lawns mowed during a brief dry spell, and a nicely mowed lawn makes me feel good, even in the rain.

3.Somehow the roses have not been too spoilt by the rain, and seem to be enjoying it... there are plenty of buds still to open.

4. I still have some veggies in the greenhouse that haven't been decimated by slugs in the way all those in the ground have. Maybe a bumper crop of cucumber and butternut squash is awaiting me later in the year.

5. The rain has swelled all the berries and we have a daily feast of strawbewerries, rasperries, tayberries and blackcurrants (provided I don my wellies and raincoat to go and pick them!!)

6. My final positive, I'm afraid, but it's big enough for four!! If you can't get outside, you don't feel guilty about spending loads of time sewing!!!!
I have two aprons to make as presents for two little girls who are expecting a baby brother or sister at the end of July. As baby arrivals are by nature unpredictable I really ought to be prepared, so i've been concentrating on getting these made this week. Roslyn loves purple. The first fabric I bought wasn't purple enough, so I went all out with solid purple and brightened it up with an appliqued flower and ric rac.

The second one is still a work in progress.I'm re-thinking it. I trimmed the pocket in solid pink as I intented to applique the name in pink, but I don't think it will stand out enough. The pocket isn't attached yet, so I think I'm going to re-do it and use turquoise for the contrast and applique instead.
I've made up the pattern as I went along in the hope of being able to share it with you all... just depends whether my IT skills are great enough to be able to convert a drawn pattern to a PDF or not.
We shall see.
In the meantime, if you are having day after day of summer rain too, look for the positives! I'd love to know what your are!!!

Aspirations

As this is a new blog, I was going to write about me today, telling you all the little details that would take up to much room in the bio.......and then, I went on Facebook and found this poem that a friend had posted:


THE INVITATION by Oriah

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing

It doesn’t interest me how old you are
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love
... for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon.
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow,
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or,
have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own,
if you can dance with wilderness and let the ecstasy fill you
to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be
careful, realistic, or to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you’re telling is true
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself,
if you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul

I want to know if you can be faithful, and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty
even when it’s not pretty every day,
and if you can source your life from God’s presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine,
and still stand on the edge of a lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon, “yes!”

It doesn’t interest me to know where you live,
or how much money you have.

I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone,
and do what needs to be done for the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you are, how you came to be here,
I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have
studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself,
and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.


Having read this, the little snippets of info about me seem irrelevant. This poem moved me, and I thought that if I posted it I would be showing you what I aspire to be.... I fail every moment of every day, but it's the trying that counts.
I hope you liked the poem too, and if you share this blog journey with me, you'll get to know the little details about me as we go along......and it will be far more fun that way :)

The photo at the top, by the way, is the clematis montana rubens which is at its most glorious at the moment at the bottom of my garden, scrambling along the fence and right up to the top of my neighbour's 15ft high conifers!!!