Fourth Project Finally Finished

Kirsten and I began this collaboration at Lammas and we have managed to finish during Lent in the run up to Easter. Each month we each made two patches [hence 'two by two'] and kept one, swapped one, until we had twelve each. These were 7.5cm square. What a diversity of pieces

1. A printed Noah's Ark scrap, cut in half [she got the ark, I got the rainbow] over stitched with running, back, and chain stitches, plus French knots
2. An autumnal piece on rich brown fabric, with tumbling leaves
3. A darned patch done on evenweave fabric using the speedweve darner
4. A sparkly snowflake with silver threads, beads and sequins on midnight blue satin
5. A nine-patch created from different fabrics used in previous collaborations
6. A red and black poppy for remembrance
7. A representation of the ironwork on the great door of Norwich Castle Keep
8. A landscape of sea and sky in shades of blue 
9. A crochet Granny Square 
10. A Manchester bee, on a honeycomb of Manchester spun cotton
11. A sampler on the fabric from the Shed aprons, with a coded message
12. A Christmas fabric overstitched with running, back and satin stich to give texture

What to do with them? K suggested making a pouch. I had some soft grey woollen cloth, and some cheerful red viscose in my stash so sent her some. I opted for a largish rectangular pouch with 8 patches on the back, 4 on the front. I mounted them on the grey wool, and put a layer of curtain interlining next to give some strength. Then the red viscose, having first pleated a pocket to go inside. I cut a very long strip of spare viscose and made binding to hold all three layers together and added magnetic catches.

We each stitched a rubric on cotton tape, with our names and dates. It is so important to do this, so that in the future we can work our when we did it! And now my pouch is finished and already being used to keep my next little project tidy [no more bits and pieces scattered all over the coffee table!]

A huge Thank You to all of you who have encouraged us with this one [special shout to Annie, for suggesting that there should be some clear division between the patches. I added a row of dense blue chain, which made all the difference!]

So that's it for now, Kirsten will post pictures of her piece too. A very different interpretation! 
We have decided on a hiatus for a while, we both want to pursue some different sewing techniques. We are still very good friends and I am sure that before long we will come up with another idea we can collaborate on. I would really recommend working together like this it has so many benefits!

I Spy...

Two SpecSavers Home Visit Vehicles outside two adjacent properties. Is this a case of Double Vision?

Yesterday was very busy, lots happening on the craft front. One thing I hadn't done for ages...

French Knitting.

I bought this little knitting doll in Flying Tiger a couple of summers ago, and meant to teach Rosie but then forgot.

Now I have a genuine reason for wanting to make some cords myself, so I sat and had a practice after lunch.

I will explain later! 

The 2x2 project is progressing slowly. K and I are exchanging a lot of WhatsApp messages. I will be glad when the weather brightens up, it's cold and damp found here! 

Twelve By Two

 Post came bright and early on Thursday. with K's final patch

As well as the patch and notes, I discovered some lovely knitting stitch markers, and cute erasers in the small flat box. When I was wrestling with my knot ideas, I had told myself that if that failed, I would just do a miniature ninepatch piece. But I did accomplish the knot - and lo and behold, Kirsten has sent me a gorgeous little square, using scraps from other collaborations, and charm sqaures- and a postage stamp fabric to celebrate our cross country collaboration.

We are both itching to sew our dozen pieces together now. Arranging them is fun...

I'd started sewing mine on Monday at Craft Group, but the newest patch cannot go in that space, it is too similar to the one beside it.
Meanwhile Kirsten laid hers out, and felt that maybe some of them [like the darned square] need a bit of a border

I can see how that edging helps soften the bright white evenweave. We are both working on the design of our finished pouches, and plans for the embroidered 'rubric' tape.

Do you like the soft grey woollen fabric which we are using to back our pieces? Suitably neutral I think. 
I was given a length of red viscose last month, which I am planning to use for a lining. I have sent some of it to K too. Seven weeks till Easter, and we hope to be done and dusted by then...

I'm A Frayed Knot!

It is just 6 months since Norwich Castle re-opened after the multimillion£££ restoration. We were delighted to have early view tickets, because we hold annual passes. I was blown away by everything there was- not just the phenomenal embroideries, but also the bright colours, and the wooden furniture, and the ironwork on the doors. I knew that I wanted to represent this project on one of my two-by-two patches. It has taken me till now, the very last patch, to actually do it. I have been planning this for weeks and weeks...

Historians discovered that the medieval castle builders used lots of bright colours, and although we are used to dark oak church doors, when first installed they would likely have been glorious primary hues, with black ironwork. This new door was designed by a Norfolk company, and the ironwork created in the forge at Holkham. 

It is the Bigod Door, named after Baron Bigod, first Norman Earl of Norfolk in the 12^th C, when the castle was built. This door is oak, covered in gloriously bright blue leather. I was amazed by the way that strips of metal were twisted and knotted, similar to Celtic knots and then riveted to the wood. The metal work forms hinges, handles, and general decoration.

I copied one particular knot last autumn and decided to recreate it with fabric and thread. It proved quite a challenge. I abandoned the idea of satin stitch, then thought about couching down some cord. Perhaps a black shoelace on blue fabric? It didn’t look right. I did have a book of small linen samples. I opted to use a neutral colour for the patch, with the knot in a bright blue cord.

Having worked out the knot – under/over/under/ over I pinned it to a piece of corrugated card and adjusted the loops as best I could, then transferred cord carefully to fabric and stitched it down[blanket stitch] with two strands of floss [blue/ lilac/ purple random dye]
Then I added NORWICH CASTLE, REBORN 2025 in back stitch in plain purple floss.

The first one, on darker linen, had the ends of cord going over the edge, and the lettering was perhaps a little too close to the fold. And in the wrong light, you couldn’t read it anyway! There were problems with the cord ends fraying too. So Kirsten is getting the lighter one  which I consider to be better of the two!

This knot was hard enough to create with cord, I am in awe of a blacksmith who can make such a knot with hot twisted metal – whether in 1100 or 2020!   

Notes:

• The knot is the one at the top of the vertical decoration which runs up the centre of the door.
• Baron Bigod is now remembered in the wonderful Brie style artisanal cheese, made at the Fen Farm Dairy in Suffolk
• This is my last patch. Kirsten's should arrive very soon and we will get on with stitching the 'rubric' and making up the project. Hoping to be done by Easter.
• I'm becoming quietly obsessed with ancient needlework, but equally fascinated by the technological developments which mean my new sewing machine can do so much more than any I have ever used before...It's all about finding the best in both disciplines I think.

Sew Christmassy, Sew Sparkly...

 

This is Kirsten's December patch. She used a piece of Christmas print fabric [I am sure I had a scrap like this, years ago] 
Each little rectangle has been overstitched with backstitch, running stitch, satin stitch etc. It has given this small square a wonderful dimensional quality, it is like a miniature quilt!
Wisely she avoided trying to stitch metallic threads, and worked around the parts of the design printed in gold, which emphasises their sheen. 
Having made so many attempts with metallic thread on my snowflakes, I think that was sensible. It does twist and knot alarmingly.
It is very Christmassy, what with the star, the tree, the gifts, a snowy windowpane and the conifers - as well as the hints of snowflakes, holly, a cracker, a crown, bunting and an elf's hat. So much detail in a piece no bigger than the palm of my hand. 

My flat gift for December was a lovely rust silhouette which may be hung in the greenhouse pro tem whilst I consider a permanent home for it
This is about 15cm high. It reminded me of the wonderful art work of Rob Ryan, which often features birds. 
Rob has recently published a book about his work, entitled "I thought about it in my head, and I felt it in my heart, but I made it with my hands" which ought to be a motto for handcrafters everywhere! 

Here's a lovely Rob bird design for Kirsten as we work at our collaborative stitching.
We are both late finishing the December piece- so our next 'swap date' will be Valentine's day. But I am not doing anything 'hearty' I have another idea which I need to work on...

Winter Wonderland

Just after Christmas, I was going out in my car. It was completely frosted up. I sat in the driver's seat, and marvelled at the morning sun shining through the patterns on the windscreen. Isn't this lovely? I cleared it all away, then drove safely to the Supermarket. I decided my much delayed December TwoByTwo should be a snowflake pattern. I had some lovely deep blue satiny lining fabric on hand [I'd made Nick a Magician's Waistcoat] So I found some silver thread - thick and thin, beads and sequins, and some ice-blue embroidery floss.
I couched the thick threads into a 6 pointed star then added other stitches plus beads and sequins to give sparkle.
There are many types of snowflakes - mine are stellar dendrites, which means they are star shaped with tree like branches. 

I had started working on them before the snow came at the weekend. I went out to the bin on Monday and realised how cute my footprints were. I stomped around for a while making pretty patterns.

How crazy am I? But sometimes nature is amazing, isn't it? 
I could have used my embroidery machine, as I bought a set of snowflake patterns when I made my neighbour's Elsa dress three years ago ... The snowflake shapes were machined, but then over three hundred beads and sequins stitched on.  
But our TwoByTwo is strictly a hand sewn 'slow stitching' enterprise.
And as we are producing the patches two at a time, we will be finished double-quick!

Two-By-Two-By-Tuesday

So here we are, almost at the end of the month, and I've only just made a start on the December 2x2 patch. Fortunately Kirsten is equally behind, so we have allowed ourselves another week.  Today will be a good day to sew as we don't have any family activities. 

In the previous nine days we have seen Steph and family in Manchester, my bro and his wife [who live in the village], and also Julian, who came up from Romford on Saturday for three days [he went back last night, it's his 40th birthday today] Tomorrow we'll see Bob's sister and her husband, then Liz and family will be in Norfolk over New Year. It has been lots of fun...but you can understand why my stitching has foundered, unattended, on the top of the chest of drawers. 

Today there are just the two of us, and Bob has succumbed to The Cold which seems to be doing the rounds.

So a quiet day, and time for gentle sewing. And perhaps a day for listing. 

Listing in the sense of 'making a list',  not 'leaning over' - although if I lack energy, there maybe some lying down later!

Welcome To Wisteria Cottage!

Here is  my latest cross stitch project. A kit which came with Cross Stitcher magazine, and I found it in a CS. I thought it could be a FlatGift to go to Kirsten with one of my TwoByTwo patches. However, it was just the threads, felt and evenweave fabric - no stitching chart. I thought "This isn't fair - I can't send her half a kit" I managed to track down the pattern online. And concluded it would be nicer to make it up for her as a Christmas gift.
I tweaked the pattern - adding some coloured beads [lilacs for the wisteria, and other beads to the flowers on the shrubs and in the tubs - and a black bead doorknob. I added a button on the top. On one side there are two tubs, on the other a pink bench and a tub - and lots of wisteria, and bits of brickwork.[and signed it AA2025]

It's about 8cm in diameter, and 12cm high. The base and removable roof are felt - I lined the inside with cotton fabric- I didn't want the back of my stitching showing!
"What can I put in this?" I asked Bob. It is a bit too small for chocolates, perhaps some haberdashery notions? He suggested I should select an assortment of my vintage buttons. So that's what I did. The buttons date between 1930 and 2000, and range in size from 8mm to 25mm, and are different colours, and some interesting shapes.
It was an interesting  and enjoyable project to make, and now I have the chart, I may make another one for someone else.

I wonder how many of these little magazine kits get put away and never made up? Now I have realised you can find the charts online, I may look for some more in CS. I wonder if K will keep the buttons in it, or use it for something else...

Dots And Dashes Deciphered

I struggled for inspiration for my November TwoByTwo patch. I seemed to be so busy doing other sewing jobs - chiefly the Shed aprons. It was satisfying to work on this ZeroWaste project, using up the offcuts from Mandi's company. But even though I worked out a very efficient way of interlocking and cutting the pieces, I had quite a few rectangles left, sort of A5 size. Too big to discard, but what to do with them?
Pencil cases or make up bags seemed a good idea [for after Christmas] Then I decided I could use one to make a couple of 'stitch sampler' patches.

Using the white stripes I worked different embroidery stitches across the piece, working with two strands of DMC embroidery floss in shades of blue.

• blanket
• herringbone
• feather
• open cretan
• running stitch/French Knot
• laced running
• wheatear
• cross
• split stitch [two colours]

I wanted to acknowledge that this was something I had done for the Shed Project - but I didn't want to add lettering - doing Quarry Bank in September had been difficult. Then it occurred to me, I did not need to add lettering as such. On Remembrance Day I had been thinking of Mum and her codebreaking at Bletchley Park. So I chose a contrast red thread [to match the tags on the aprons] and using running stitch and French knots, I stitched

-  .... .  ... .... . -..  which is T H E  S H E D in Morse code!
As far as the Christmas patch goes, at the moment I am stuck, so saying

... --- ...  [S O S] 

Both Good And Difficult Memories

November is a month full of remembering -

On the 1st it is All Saints Day - remembering the saints who have died

The 2nd is All Souls Day - remembering all others who have died

The 11th -Remembrance/Armistice Day for those who died in wars

And for me personally, cousin Gill born 8.11.56, died 14.11.21

Her Mum, Auntie Peggy had her birthday on 17th

Kirsten described it as 'good and difficult memories all mixed together'

She is absolutely right. Here is her November 2x2 patch

Stitched on a blue cotton print is a red felt poppy. The centre is black satin stitch with black pistils around it. And the edge is cleverly defined by two lines of black stem stitch which make the flower stand out. 

My flower has a circle of stem stitch and a second of chain to define its place on the blue field of daisies.

The combination of the bright red for blood, the black for sorrow made these flowers of Flanders Field a good symbol of remembrance

But in these cold winter months there is warmth and brightness to lift our spirits. This is already one of my favourite patches. Two colours of thread, two different fabrics - so simple yet so effective when put together like this.

My patch will be appearing tomorrow

Autumn Leaves

🍁🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂🍁

First of all, thank you everyone for the kind wishes you've sent for Bob's birthday. He is having a great week [as am I] More on that later...

🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂

Among all the post for him was a small envelope for me. My October 2x2 patch from Kirsten. As often happens, we have been thinking along similar lines. As I was making autumn leaves for a cake, she was stitching them.

Inspired by some leaves stitched by Karen Turner, Kirsten did this piece.

What a diverse collection of stitches: backstitch, seed, stem, split, chain and satin. And among the regular stranded floss,  some rainbow glittering thread to catch the light.

So charming!

And my flat gift was  a stack of little origami envelopes each contains a folded sheet of paper [15x15cm] These will make lovely gift tags, or little notelets to tuck inside a greetings card. UPDATE See Kirsten's comment below about notelets

    🍁🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂

Such lovely colours, a joyful,celebration of the season. Maybe you can describe being in our 70s as "the autumn of our lives" - but that is no reason for the days to be dull and colourless and lacking in beauty and happiness...

   🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂🍁

Cut To The C[h]ase

Did you know the phrase "Cut to the chase" is a century old? It comes from the early days of silent cinema, in the USA. Film makers shot lots of film, but it was hard to make dialogue interesting. The rapid chase scenes were exciting however, so superfluous footage was excised- the editors phrase was "Cut to the chase". Now the phrase means "forget the trivia, get to the point"

The point of this post is a case. Specifically, a case to help you cut. I recently purchased some folding scissors, and was intrigued to realise they would fit perfectly into a square case - the same size as our TwoByTwo patches. I decorated two squares of lilac felt. One side with three Boteh motifs, and the other with a letter K [for Kirsten] The crimson K is decorated with running stitch and coloured seed beads - the other side has sparkly sequin embellishments. The squares are attached on three sides, open at the base. I threaded a ribbon through the scissors and then through a hole in the top corner of the case. And attached a pair of buttons at the top.

When folded, the scissors are inside the case. But they can be pulled out, unfolded and used. The little buttons retain the ribbon. 

This should fit tidily in a sewing bag, and when folded, all the sharp points are safely enclosed. 

I included this as Kirsten's "Flat Gift"

I am becoming quite fascinated by the constraint of having to work on these little squares each month! 

Working At Warp Speed?

James Doohan, who played"Scotty" in Star Trek, was the grandson of a Scottish weaver. It is said that he suggested "Warp Speed" for the extremely high speeds reached by the Starship Enterprise, as a reference to the flying shuttles he had watched in his childhood. I was pondering  on my October Two-By-Two patches, and realised I'd done a fair bit of mending and fixing for friends and family recently. So I thought I would decorate this months patches with darns.

I dug out my Speedweve darner. I picked some Autumnal colours, and used some white Aida even weave cloth to keep things neater. Here are my two patches

You start by threading the WARP using the hooks to make a tidy top edge. Then you WEAVE THE WEFT from side to side. It's fiddly but fun. I like the way the colours blend and remind me of the falling leaves.

In the way these things turn out, Kirsten sent me a link [after I had begun working on the idea] to the website of Jessie Mordine Young, who had an exhibition of her 'woven year' based on a collection of daily pieces created on a small loom.

K. had no idea what my October patch would be about - but I am fascinated by the way similar ideas come to us as we are planning...
By the way 'Speedweve' is a bit of misnomer. This one took ages - and these are patches #3 and #4, as the first two just weren't up to snuff!

As The Needle Dances On The Cloth...

The other day a friend came round for coffee - she brought with her a quilt to show me. A beautiful piece of collaborative stitching. Following an accident, her husband had to spend some months in hospital in Yorkshire. Friends from their church made a quilt for his bed - lots of individual patches to remind him of those who were praying for him, thinking of him - and special embroidered motifs and stitched Bible verses symbolising memories and friendships. It was truly special, and I felt so privileged to have the opportunity to look at it and examine the details and the careful work involved in a true labour of love.
Yesterday I spent the entire day making another batch of Shed Aprons. I bought a trolley-bag for my latest machine in Lidl a couple of days ago. It's a lightweight one, just to make it easier to wheel my bag from room to room [I store it in the back bedroom, but usually work at the dining table] Bob took the day very easy, lots of resting [and I had my earplugs in as I worked, listening to vintage crime dramas on radio 4 extra]

Here's a lovely poem called October Quilts. I will make another quilt sometime. But right now in between Apron Sewing all I can manage is a couple of small squares each month for the TwoByTwo project. But as the poem says "Each square holds a story sublime"

OCTOBER QUILTS

In the midst of fall's warm colours
Lies a craft, tender and bold
A tapestry of memories, stitched together
Stories in threads, yet to be told
October quilts, with each block pieced
Breathe life into the autumn air
A symphony of textures and hues
That only the heart can truly share
With every stitch, a moment captured
A memory woven in time
From golden leaves to crisp apples
Each square holds a story sublime
The scent of pumpkin and cinnamon
Infused in the fabric's embrace
As the needle dances on the cloth
A masterpiece takes shape with grace
Squares of flannel, denim, and silk
Layers of warmth and comfort entwine
A labour of love, each quilt unique
A treasure that will forever shine
October quilts, a soothing refuge
For chilly nights and cosy days
A work of art, handcrafted with love
A symbol of autumn's peaceful ways
So let us gather 'round the fire
Wrapped in these quilts, so dear
As we revel in the joys of fall
October quilts, we hold them near.

by Dashaun Rashod Snipes

A Square Granny?

I do hope I am not one of these- but I do love a neat Granny Square. Kirsten has niftily incorporated her crochet skills [way better than mine] into her patch for this month's TwoByTwo. One advantage of this latest collaboration is that we only need to exchange small envelopes each month, saving quite a lot of postage costs! Mine arrived on Tuesday, containing this set of treasures

• An English Heritage postcard - vintage picture of a horse being shod. I love that old word shod!
• One of K's handpainted watercolour bookmarks, 
• A very beautiful 'art' tin, with a sliding lid containing peppermints. Yes I know they look like aspirin. They aren't!
• The patch for the month

It is a lovely piece of purple linen [beautiful quality - I keep stroking it!] K tells me it is from a fabric sample, just large enough to do the two patches [perfect!]
The square is crocheted in leftover random dye sock yarn, with a very fine hook [previously used by her Godmother with perlé cotton to make table runners]
There is running stitch round the outer edge holding the chains in place, and in each cluster of triples, an extra stitch to hold it to the backing.
My two squares thus far have involved adding stitches to embellish printed fabric. Now I am thinking about some sort of appliqué work.
Another bonus of this project I have just learned another keyboard shortcut - if you type Alt0233 you get an accented é like this. This will prove a useful timesaver for typing French words. 

Once again, thanks Kirsten!

More Busy Bees

In September we were in Manchester looking after the grandchildren. I love that the emblem of Manchester is a bee, representing industry and community. For our second collaboration, when Kirsten and I worked on evenweave Aida cloth, I sewed a bee on a golden honeycomb of Spanish work [aka blackwork] 

As we visited Quarry Bank Mill, in Styal, this time round, I bought a Fat ¼ of cotton fabric, printed all over with bees.

I used 2 strands of brown, charcoal grey and yellow DMC floss to cover the printed bee, in backstitch, satin stitch and French knots. 

With iridescent Guterman Sulky, I did backstitch wings.With a reddish brown DMC I outlined some honeycomb in double running stitch.
Using the waste canvas technique I stitched "Quarry Bank" in dark brown. Then I cut the fabric and made up the two squares 

You cannot see it on the photo, but when you move the patches, those wings really sparkle and catch the light. 

I am rather pleased with this month's squares. But it is not straightforward...
In Victorian times, Manchester was known as Cottonopolis, because so much of the UK's supply fabric was woven in the city.
This is a difficult subject for me - I really struggle with the fact that the wealth of so many was built on the labours of slaves - both the unemancipated black workers across the Atlantic, and the poor white men, women and children working long hours in dangerous conditions in the mills like Quarry Bank. Even philanthropists like John Rylands, whose money paid for libraries, public baths, schools, chapels and more, and who offered "Free grown Cotton"  and showed some support for the Abolitionists, still made so much of their wealth on the backs of the poor.
We cannot rewrite history, and it is hard at this distance, to understand the actions of others. Did they know all that was happening out on the plantations, but choose to ignore it? How could the owner of Quarry Bank Mill live right next door with his young family, at a time when children were being injured, mutilated and killed by the unsafe looms? 
But we can make an impact now by thinking about where and how our clothes are produced today, and asking the difficult questions about fair wages and safe working conditions. My little squares are a reminder of our responsibility in this.

How Did THAT Happen?

"Has the 2by2 square arrived?" I asked Kirsten, and she replied "Yes, but mine is bigger than yours, it's 7cm², yours is 6.5cm²" I was baffled - all our precut paper templates were the same, cut on my die cut machine. 

Then hers arrived. I lined up my rainbow, my Practice Patch and her square. How odd...

The last two [I've blurred her stitching]were the same size, 7cm² - but the rainbow one was smaller. Somehow I'd stitched those two ark-themed pieces using smaller papers.  How did I do that, where did I find the wrong sized squares? ? I have unpicked mine, pressed it, and restitched to the correct size.  Thank you Kirsten for correcting the error on the square I sent you. Not a very auspicious start. Here are our two squares

My rainbow, and her seascape. Kirsten used the swirling blue and green  waves of a Hannah Dunnett picture, plus her own drawings of the sea and the South Downs to create this lovely piece. A very different patch from mine. 

Find Kirsten's full explanation on her blog. 

I think we are both already aware of the constraints of a smaller area to work on. Not much room for intricate detail.

Do you like Hannah Dunnett's pictures? She and her husband Ben are very gifted people.

The Animals Went In...

 ...Two By Two

Below are my first two squares for our latest collaboration. In my stash I found a cushion panel for a Noah’s Ark, about 15" square, with a border strip along the bottom. The animals went in Two-By-Two, so this seemed very appropriate for the first patches.

I cut off the strip and took two squares from it  [a] the ark & 2 giraffes [b] - the rainbow and 2 lions - and embellished them with herringbone, running stitch, chain and French knots. The ark was home for the animals for 40 days, A is for Kirsten [Letter From Home] and that left B for me [Tracing Rainbows]

O Joy that seekest me thru' pain, 
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow thru' the rain
And feel the promise is not vain
That morn shall tearless be.
Noah's story is about God’s faithfulness and provision, even when there are storms outside – and the rainbow promise that while the earth remains, the seasons will roll round each year, and He will always be with us.
Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love

The large square remains. It would make a lovely cushion or picture for a child's nursery. Is there anyone out there who would like it?
I have no use for it, and would love to pass it on to somebody who could find it a home. It is quite attractive as it is, but would benefit from some stitching and embellishment. Please leave a comment below. Update - it is going to a special little boy in Dorset.