A little while back I had a vision. It wasn’t spiritual or enlightening, I just had a picture in my head I wanted to put in to fabric. A picture of a tree on a hillside in rich autumnal colours. This was the result:
I have now sold this piece and the lovely lady who bought it commissioned me to make the other three seasons. It has been an absolute delight making these fabric pictures. Have a look at the rest of the year…
I hardly think I need to tell you that I enjoy photography as well as needlework – every holiday and day trip results in a mass of photos that sneak in to my craft posts! This morning the sun was breaking through the early morning mist and I decided to try out a set of macro filters I treated myself to…so much cheaper than a proper macro lens (as in less than £10 rather than over £400).
Maybe it’s the effect of a wet, grey day or two, but I have been feeling a little old this last week. Old dodgy knees (to be fair they have been dodgy since I was six years old, so I cannot entirely blame old age), tinnitus that had me saying “pardon” every couple of minutes at the Bath WI wine tasting and an inability to sleep beyond 04.00 have worked together to make me feel 40 years older than I am. I’m actually not feeling terribly sad about it all, just…pensive. As I tidied up the flowers Mark bought me a week or so back, it struck me that some people are like roses – glamorous and showy when young but quick to fade and wilt, and soon on their way to the green recycling bin.
Perhaps others are more like the ornamental cabbage – rather homely but with a delicate beauty as they grow older. Well I know I was never a rose, but maybe, just maybe, I’m a cabbage!
Even my once fierce pumpkin…
…has become old and gummy. Ah well, at least I’m not mouldy!
These cooler Autumn days I do have to hold on to a little ferocity though, or lose my work chair to the cats…well fierce isn’t so much my thing…and the wooden dining chairs are not so uncomfortable. Would you have the heart to move them???
While the cats don’t want to move much at all, George the spaniel from down the road gets quite huffity with me if I hold him up on his walk to take a photo. Although, he may just have the cafe in the park in his sights – he always pulls to go in.
Ah well, had a lovely family lunch yesterday – laughing so much my face hurt. I have the best sister! Mum seemed to have a good time too as she modeled her new scarf.
I suppose I should include some craft – it is supposed to be a craft blog – so here is the birthday card I made Mum. It was quite a change to make a card that was not Christmassy – I am so hooked on free motion machine sewing, and will be making a load more this afternoon. I have an idea of a snow globe…!
I have been very bad about keeping everyone updated – lots of sewing, lots of trying to get organised. I have had a load of custom orders and need to be very sure the requested fabric doesn’t get used for any other projects.
current custom orders:
As if this is not enough to keep me out of trouble, my favourite season is starting to take hold and I am loving the colours and that hint of chill in the air. To celebrate I have been making Cinderella pumpkin pincushions (also perfect for Halloween) with cloves tucked in the stuffing and cinnamon stick stems: available in my shop
The house smells delicious – I am just going to have to make some more!
Of course no Cinderella can carry out her housework duties without a good apron! I am hooked on these little cool and contemporary ones, and they really show off some of the lovely fabric in my fabric stash. My only problem is that it would be nice to include a photo of them being modeled when I put them in my shop and me standing on a chair taking a photo in my workroom mirror just does not cut the mustard…I am going to have to rope in friends and neighbours!
The aprons are fully lined – thank goodness for the fab fabric shop on Green Street in Bath (Fashion Fabrics) as I am getting through quite a bit of fabric.
My non-sewing activities have been taken up with the lovely crab apple tree in our front garden. Last year there were so few apples we left them all for the birds, but this year it has more than I have ever seen. I have already had 5kg and there is still plenty left for both us and the birds.
I am a big fan of cookery books but when it comes to jams and preserves I always come back to Gloria Nicol’s Fruits of the Earth; I do like to tweak recipes though and add cinnamon and cloves and ginger to the fruit when I boil it up before straining.
To finish, I have to share another photo. I just popped outside to photograph the crab apple tree and Rio the cat was in his favourite position on the door mat…he’s even there if you look at our house on google maps street view (not going to put my address here, you’ll just have to take my word for it!)
