Creative home life

Well, it's the end of my two weeks holiday from work and the time has just flown. I feel ok about going back even though it's unlikely I'll be getting any proper time off until Christmas. No, I'm not at all depressed about that!!

Still, I've had a lovely relaxing time off. There are days out to tell you about but I thought I'd show you some of the more domestic and creative things I've been up to first. So, the last two weeks, I've been:

Embroidering: working on my bird embroidery (pattern from Stitch magazine). This is a slow burner to pick up as and when.

Planning: do you remember the slow stitch book in my last Year in Books post? It gave me an idea for circles of colour to remind me of our time in Northumberland. I got out my Anchor colour chart and started playing around with skeins of thread. Not sure if the idea will go anywhere but it whiled away a pleasant hour or so.

Quilting: I've finally started quilting my latest quilt after leaving it lying around for probably a year. Much dithering has taken place in the interim trying to decide on a pattern. In the end, Jackie from my quilt group suggested circles and showed me how she'd used them: I was sold. I'm using iron-on wadding which is supposed to mean you don't have to tack before machining. Well, I gave it a go but have gone back to the tried and tested tacking method. And done a lot less unpicking as a result.

Crocheting: Another slow burner but less so since Chickpea asked me to make her a blanket. She's picked out a pattern, we've chosen the yarn and she'd like to put it on her bed in winter. Ha ha! Luckily she didn't specify which winter! Now I'm under pressure to get this one finished and have fallen back in love with crochet. It's just so easy to pick up in the evening.

Jam-making: the ingredients had been lying at the bottom of the freezer since last autumn and I'd just used up my last jar so it was time to make more. This is blackberry, elderberry and crab apple. I've never had such a struggle making jam. Three times I had to boil it. Three times!!! It usually works first time without fail so goodness knows what went wrong. All's well that ends well though as it's delicious.

Baking: banana and walnut pie - recipe from Tamsin Day-Lewis. This was another attempt to use up freezer ingredients ie all those bananas which had started to go brown but I couldn't bear to throw away. Needed more of them to be honest. The filling is a bit like a cheesecake and is a really unattractive beige colour - probably the reason for putting a nice golden sugary crust on top!

Jigsawing: I do love a jigsaw and always have one on the go. A friend of my Mum's loaned me this and it was a lovely one.

Gardening: lots and lots of gardening. I decided to clear this border which was overrun with bamboo and crocosmia plus a conifer and other ragged shrubs. Much of it had to be done on hands and knees because of the tangle of tree roots. There's something so soothing about getting your hands in the dirt.

A nice, newly cleared space needs some pretty plants to fill it. These are courtesy of a garden centre voucher my lovely friend gave me for my birthday.

I also bought some candy-stripe tulip bulbs to put in the spaces.

Mowing: I've enjoyed the no-mow area on the lawn which I created for 30 Days Wild. Sadly the wildflower seeds never germinated but it still looked pretty with the tall grasses and our handmade teepees. Gone now though. I decided to mow it away today to give the lawn some time to recover before the winter. I'll have another go at a wildflower patch next year though.

Harvesting: this is the sum total of our blueberry harvest! The plant clearly doesn't like it much here so it will be relocated to Dad's. The rampant gooseberry and rosemary bushes probably overshadowed it.

Hope you all had a lovely long weekend. Only 4 days to the next! Back soon. xx

Spring at last?

Today it really felt like spring has finally arrived. The temperature gauge in my car this afternoon said it was a balmy 15 degrees! I know better than to trust the fickle British weather but it was nice to enjoy it while it lasts.

I sat outside to eat my breakfast. With my eyes closed, my face turned up towards the sun and the seagulls calling overhead, it could have been mid-summer by the sea*. How my spirits soared! It really is miraculous how much happier and more energised the sun makes you feel.

* we're actually about 30-40 miles from the sea as a seagull flies but they're attracted here by the local lake.

I'm hoping the energy from the sun persuades the purple-sprouting broccoli to put in an appearance. The plants were decimated by caterpillars but it turns out they're pretty resilient. I left them in the ground over the winter and they've started to grow. No sign of edible shoots yet but you never know.

The sun has definitely energised the birds as they were chirping their hearts out and getting frisky. This male sparrow seems to have claimed the nest box on my neighbour's wall and was doing his best to entice the ladies. (Sorry for the rubbish picture but it was right at the edge of my zoom)

In my garden, the magpies are gathering nesting material. They could make life easy for themselves and scoop up any number of twigs littering the ground but, no, they're trying to pull fresh ones directly off the tree.

Overhead, four Canada geese were floating down to land and the vibration of the air through their feathers made it sound like they were on a zip wire.

I was also observing birds in the latest issue of Stitch magazine. I actually bought it for another pattern but this one caught my eye too and there are more gorgeous designs inside. They're by Chloe Redfern and there are other bird patterns on her website.

This weekend we've also been enjoying films. Last night we watched Lady in the Van and really enjoyed it, though anything with Maggie Smith is a pretty sure thing. She was brilliant at playing the eccentric Miss Shepherd.

Today we went to see Allegiant, the latest in the Divergent series. It had been universally panned in the reviews (probably written by people who aren't the target audience) but we thought it was great. Not as good as the previous two films though.

I've also been cooking and made some fava to go with lamb chops. It was one of our favourite recipes during my cookery challenge and was just as tasty this time. I loved the pattern the reflection of the peas made in my metal dish.

And, of course, I've been continuing with the kirigami. I think the flowers and leaves design was my favourite. This week also saw the introduction of the weaving technique, which you can see in the bottom two designs.

I wonder what next week will bring? x

Little house

First a quick thank you for all the kind get well wishes after my last post - you really are a lovely lot :) I'm feeling much better now. The last germs are still hanging on in there but I finally feel more like my usual active, restless self. Hurrah!

And now to my first ta-dah of the new year! Yes, it's only halfway through January and I already have a finished project to show you! I started my little house embroidery in November and it would have been completed a lot sooner if it hadn't fallen by the wayside in my enthusiasm for the crochet blanket.

The pattern is 'A Winter House' by Belinda Downes and is from an old (2002) issue of Stitch magazine. I'd completely forgotten I even had any copies of the magazine until I came across it while rummaging in the attic for something else.

As soon as I saw the pattern though, I had to make it. It has a lovely naive country style which I really love.

The picture is built up in layers. For the base, I used the same navy blue fabric, using the right side to create a frame and the reverse of it for the background.

The rest of the background is made up of small squares of transparent fabrics. Luckily these came on small rolls which meant I didn't need to buy large quantities - I think I paid less than £2 for several pieces.

As it was going to be a winter scene, I chose all those which had any kind of sparkle or glitter. The squares are held down with just a few stitches to anchor them for the other layers.

Next I embroidered waves and swirls to suggest falling, windswept snow. This was all from pure imagination (and the pattern) as we are still to see more than a few flakes here :(

The third part was to attach the pieces of fabric for the house and garden. All the fabrics are from my stash which never seems to go down no matter how much I take out of it! I swear it's breeding!

Anyway, this is where the picture lost some of its sparkle. The fabrics are attached with bondaweb and have to be ironed in place. Unfortunately I was a bit heavy-handed with the iron and some of the silvery bits melted. Be that a lesson to you all - cover delicate fabrics with a cloth before ironing them!

The final part was to add all the little details with more stitching. Apart from the French knot for the door knob, it's all done with just running or stab stitch so couldn't be simpler. And, because it's meant to be naive, you don't have to be particularly neat either!

With the stitching completed, it's time for the final reveal...

Ta-dah!

I'm sooo happy with it! Embroidery is not something I've done much of but I really enjoyed making this picture. The pattern suggested doing different versions for each season and I'm very tempted, particularly after seeing Gillian's lovely four seasons embroideries. However, I still have lots of the transparent fabrics so another winter embroidery seems more appropriate. For now though, I just need to get this one framed.

By coincidence it felt quite wintry this morning. We did have a light sprinkling of flakes and it was very cold and foggy until lunchtime but the white was more frost than snow. The seagulls seemed less than impressed. They cheered up this afternoon though when the day brightened to sunshine and blue skies.

Hope you've all had a lovely weekend. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday. x