The Blue Bird Of Happiness

In 1908, the Belgian writer Maurice Maeterlinck wrote a story called The Blue Bird about two children, brother and sister, named Tyltyl and Mytyl. It is a fairy story [not specifically for children - synopsis here] but in the tale, the fairy gives them a magic diamond which will reveal truth to them. Mytyl wants to find happiness, and they seek everywhere for the mystical Blue Bird which will grant this. In the end, they go home, and there all along is a cage containing a blue bird. Tyltyl gives this to his sister. That's sort of where this happy blue bird idea started [why did he give the children such odd names though?] And in 1939 Judy sang about bluebirds over the rainbow, and soon after Vera added the bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover.
But what are these bluebirds? Here's the thing - in the USA a bluebird is one of three species of thrush [Easterm, Western, and Mountain Thrushes] with vibrant blue and reddish brown plumage. But we don't get them in Europe...

The writer of the 1941 song was from the US, and never even visited Dover till long after the war. He was unaware we didn't have bluebirds here! So people have made various suggestions

• that blue birds' represented the RAF pilots in their blue uniforms
• that they were the peregrine falcons with blue feathers in their backs - flying over the Channel, trained to intercept German carrier pigeons.
• that the swallows arriving each summer had a blue sheen to their plumage, and that return brought hope.
• they could be the Eurasian Jay which has a bright blue flash on its wing
• they could be blue tits... feeble claim, these are tiny garden birds, and unlikely to be seen soaring over Kent!

Sorry if that burst your bubble...

But do have a look at my bluebird which has just flown in to Cornerstones. A tiny little amigurami crochet blue tit. It was a gift on Monday when I delivered a pair of memory bears. My friend's mother died recently - she was a very colourful lady, 89 years old, and fond of brightly coloured dresses.

I made two identical bears, for my friend and her sister. They have blue bows at the neck and personalised backpacks. And the 'pads' are made from her Mum's fleecy dressing gown - which she wore all the time in the last few weeks of her life. I used the dg to make two bags for the bears to travel in
My friend was thrilled [I may have to include packs of tissues next time I deliver bears] and said she couldn't sew. I admired the crochet items in her lounge, saying that I struggle with crochet. She immediately gave me a tiny bluebird!
Currently he is sitting with the orchids - but I may add a hanging ribbon and put him in the Xmas Tree box.

Can you crochet?

 Have you ever made amigurami birds or animals?

One Step At A Time

This month's calendar picture seems good advice in this very hot weather.  It reminded me of the reworking of Psalm 23, published back in the 1960s and written by the Japanese poet Toki Miyashina...

The Lord is my pacesetter, I shall not rush.
he makes me stop and rest for quiet intervals.
He provides me with images of stillness
which restore my serenity.
He leads me in ways of efficiency,
through calmness of mind, and his guidance is peace.
Even though I have a great many things to
accomplish this day,
I will not fret, for his presence is here.
His timelessness, His all-importance,
Will keep me in balance.
He prepares refreshment and renewal
in the midst of my activity
by anointing my head with the oil of tranquility.
My cup of joyous energy overflows.
Surely harmony and effectiveness
shall be the fruits of my hours,
for I shall walk in the pace of my Lord,
and dwell in His house forever.

It's Too Darn Hot!

 I am up to my eyes in making bears, with frequent breaks to wash my hands and rehydrate. The neighbourhood cats are sheltering in their homes, avoiding all hot roofs [tin or otherwise] The solar panels are quietly generating lots of energy. 

Here's a brief excerpt from Kiss Me Kate. 

I am left with two questions...

1. If it was that hot, why were they all leaping about so much?
2. Have I left it too late to take up tap dancing?

One Step At A Time..

 
Not sure they are appropriately dressed for climbing a snowcapped mountain, but I like the sentiment. It reminds me of the 'Serenity Prayer', which was written almost a century ago by the German-American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. 

This little token is one produced by Alcoholics Anonymous, who adopted the prayer as their own in the 1940s, to help those struggling to reach sobriety and restoration.

Hope, Courage, Serenity. and Wisdom - all good virtues to which we should aspire!

Blooming Lovely!

Looking back over seven decades, I can see there is much truth in this statement. But [now I am a gardener!] I have to remind myself that sometimes it takes a long time for a seed to germinate, grow, and bear fruit.
Right now, there are signs all around the village of harvest, and gardens are full of beautiful flowers. This is a good month to remind ourselves that many seeds have to endure the winter weather and spring frosts. 

When life is tough, do not be despondent -there is light at the end of the tunnel - but some tunnels are incredibly long. And never be afraid to admit you are finding life difficult - there are people out there who care, and will stick with you on the journey.

Bits And Pieces

Just when I thought I was coming to the end of sewing tasks, a request for a school play costume, and another for a memory bear arrived over the weekend. But the weekend was Hot Hot Hot and I decided to chill out and have a go at a jigsaw instead. I got this one three weeks ago - and it seemed appropriate as we had old friends visiting on Sunday, on their way home to Leicestershire after a trip to Norwich on Saturday. I decided to time myself. It took 5 hours

I spent 10 minutes sorting the edge pieces, and another 30 assembling the edge. Then we had tea. I faffed around for a bit trying to sort out a strategy, and finally concluded I would have to find the street names and put them in their approximate locations, and built up the city round that framework.

I discovered that my geographical knowledge of the city of Norwich is not as good as I thought. Finally I finished just after 11pm, with one piece missing. It was under the table! The map is slightly strange,  it marks some car parks and bus stops [but not all] The colour palette is quite limited

It was a fun challenge. I shall keep this one and do it again sometime. It measure 47x32 cm, quite small.  Now it is midnight and I need my sleep!

Here Is Bear Number Thirty

On Monday I mentioned a funeral, weddings, and birthdays. After Barbara's funeral I had two sewing tasks to complete. Shortening a dress for a friend to wear at her grandson's wedding - and making another Memory Bear. I think this one is my thirtieth! Two years ago, my friend lost her partner very suddenly after twenty years. His daughter - her step-daughter - gets married today. She and my friend are very close - and I was asked if I could make a Memory Bear as a surprise for the bride - a way of remembering her precious Dad at the wedding. I had a lovely morning at F's cottage, looking through his shirts, and we talked about him.  I selected four which I felt would make a good bear, but there were a couple of special things to include - firstly his pride in his Scottish Heritage, and secondly, his love of Short Mat Bowls,

So this little chap has the family tartan on his paws and ribbon - and the bowls club badge on his side. But please could I do something with his Clan Teeshirt?

That is always a challenge, because teeshirt fabric is stretchy, and has to be stabilised if it is for a bear - and it is not wise to mix woven and stretch fabrics. I suggested making the teeshirt into a tote bag for the bear to travel in!

Oops, just spotted the thread on the badge in the photo. I assure you that is not there on the bear!

In side the backpack flap are embroidered the details of H's Dad. I do this for all my bears, usually following the same formula 

In memory of  

xxxx  

Years of Birth and Death

Made with love

for yyyy

It is so much more special if there is some sort of personalisation I think, and I hope it brings comfort. My friend was pleased with the result. I hope to see wedding photos soon.

The three birthdays - one is another good friend from church, who asked me to shorten a jumpsuit she had bought to wear at her birthday event. She has recently started using her sewing machine, and said "I ought to be able to do this for myself" I did her jumpsuit, but gave her a careful set of instructions about shortening trousers. I was so thrilled when she turned up at church, with pictures, of the second pair which she had managed to fix by herself, following my notes. "Now I won't need to ask you anymore, now you have taught me." A very good result all round. 

Tomorrow, we are going off to Nottingham to join a couple celebrating their 70th&80th birthdays. A happy family event - but also en route, we will call in at the nearby IKEA. I need a new waste bin to go under the sink in my new kitchen!

Just Ten Weeks...

I do not bother to get so organised about Christmas these days. Fifteen years ago, our family Christmas and the church calendar was utterly manic. I made Bob a special tee shirt listing all the events.

Retirement has many blessings - and one of them is having time just to enjoy the season.

I don't really need to add to my seasonal decorations - and certainly I decluttered lots of stuff in the Autumn before retirement. We have no need of a staircase garland when you live in a bungalow, or the shelf with stocking hooks when there is no mantelpiece.

But I did succumb this week, and spent £2.50 on Charity shop bargains.

The needle-felted dog on his sled, and that red love-joy-peace mug really needed to come home with me!

I did not succumb to the Musketeer Bear. There were at least 60 bears from this collection in a bin in the CS**, at £1 each. At their original prices, that would have cost someone over £300. Cute though they were, I did not fall for the charms of Caesar the Roman bear,nor Vik the Viking, nor Giorgio the Gondolier. But a serious arctophile like Gyles Brandreth would find lots of bargains here [**the new PACT charity shop in Dereham] 

Have you started 'Christmas Planning' yet?

Sew Peaceful

Yesterday was Dereham Day. The Town Museum were featuring John Craske, and his pictures of peace. They had invited people to produce a picture [6“x 8“] representing "the place where I feel at peace." I decided to do a piece of textile art representing my love of sewing. After all, Craske lived embroidery too. I'd handed in my entry at the end of March [they stressed it was a exhibition NOT a competition] I went along yesterday to view the "Picturing Peace" display. Katie, the guide, was really pleased someone had gone in specifically for it, and I said I'd submitted a picture. When I said my name, she beamed "Oh I'm so glad. Yours was the first entry and I love it" We went to the room full of pictures. "Tell me about it..." 

It was a piece of green felt on which I had stitched different aspects of my needlework. I showed her the button and tape measure [dressmaking] and the patchwork sample[quilting, recycling] , and the embroidered pink scrap [embroidery - especially my collaboration with Kirsten] threads and fastenings [repairing] needles and fancy gold braid [costumes, and memory bears] and cross stitch [pictures and greetings cards] and I pointed out the dove and Shalom, symbols of my Christian faith - which underpins my joy in creativity, especially in sewing for others [just realised the pun there, sorry] 

I hadn't realised I there was another woman behind us till she said “Oh that's lovely - there should be a card explaining all that " They had around 90 pieces, there wouldn't be room for everyone's story. 

But I was so glad to look at all the different pictures and see their cornfields,seascapes family scenes, pets, gardens and more - using all sorts of media - each representing a different, personal aspect of peace 

Where do you find moments of peace in the noisy, busy world? 

Think Before You Speak...

I am a bit late posting the April calendar picture. A good reminder for all of us who write blogs. Perhaps I shouldn't have ranted quite so much recently!

Well Run Steph

Time, four hours forty eight minutes. That's two minutes faster than 2015! And yesterday was Gaz and Steph's wedding anniversary too. 

I was so busy at the Repair Cafe yesterday I never took pictures! But here are some taken when we were setting up. We displayed things we had recycled/up cycled. I took my dining chair, and a Memory Bear [kindly lent by Amanda] Bob had a great time promoting the Shed Project. 

I've developed a really sore throat, and can barely speak this morning. So Monday will be a Quiet Sabbath  Rest Day. Thank you all for the lovely comments yesterday. 

2. 5 K from the end of the Marathon, Gaz and the boys were there to cheer Steph on. I'm sure it was a great encouragement 

 

Once Upon A Time...

... there were three bears. They were made from shirts patterned in red, white and blue

 They had little green backpacks

And on the sole of the right foot, each one had the logo of JD Home&Garden Services.

These fabrics all came from shirts belonging to our dear friend Jason who died in December. His daughters particularly wanted the logo from his green workshirts incorporated somehow, and this worked well. 

I used the green shirts to make the backpacks [the fabric was too stretchy to use for the bodies of the bears. Each backpack has a personalised label inside the flap. Special gifts for three friends - in memory of a wonderful man. 

Sew Far, Sew Good

I have been very slow at posting about our latest collaborative stitching. We have both been busy with other projects. But here are our Jan-Feb pieces

I love snowdrops and this is a beautiful piece of stitching, my photo does not do it justice

My piece was our names done in hieroglyphics in a sort of Egyptian cartouche. I only discovered afterwards that the horizontal line at the bottom and the crossed lines indicate that this means a Royal Personage!

I have yet to work out what my final section will be. I had a really good idea in the middle of the night on Saturday, but I have been struggling to remember what it was since I woke up on Sunday morning. Hopefully it will come back to me soon.

I have been working really hard on three memory bears. They do look sad and floppy when they are half-stuffed!

 

Why, Oh Y?

 I had all these plans for the week just gone

• Monday - do nothing, just recover from the busy coronation weekend
• Tuesday - morning at Craft Group, afternoon visiting a friend, evening putting away coronation stuff. And Bob would put up the new bedroom blinds.
• Wednesday - making two memory bears, sorting out packing
• Thursday - generally getting the house straight, ready to leave - and maybe going into Norwich when Bob went to the Hospice, to choose more library books.
• Friday - off to Scotland after an early breakfast

This did not work out quite as planned.

Monday - late, lazy breakfast, and as the sun was shining I washed the coronation robes, and got them [plus a second washload] outside to dry. Then we heard from Bob's sister- she and her husband were in Norfolk visiting her MIL, could we meet up. That was lovely - we drove across the county and had a great time, tea, cakes and family catch up. It was a great way of relaxing. But the blinds did not get put up.

Tuesday - the old vertical blind had come down the week before, and made very successful crowns. But we felt a bit exposed when we opened the curtains and everyone could see straight into the bedroom. Just before the weekend I'd blu-tacked a spare flag across the large window. It was translucent, so we got the light but also privacy. But I had to take that down after the celebrations. Bob was not feeling brilliant, and spent the day resting. Covid test negative. While I was out, he realised the mat in the Futility Room was rather wet. The dishwasher and washing machine were moved out from under the worktop. The wall was really wet - but we could not see where the leak was coming from. We turned everything off.

Wednesday -  Bob shone a torch into the damp space - and saw the tiniest jet of water was coming from the top of the Y-connector which supplies water to the the two machines whenever either was switched on. He dismantled everything and removed the Y-piece. There was a hole, but it was microscopic - but when the water was under pressure, it squirted up the wall and then over the floor. The extra laundry and dishwashing had meant there was more water than usual. Everything had to be moved, and dried off, and the Y-piece replaced [a metal one this time!].The bears got cut out, but not sewn up. 

Thursday -  Other urgent household tasks cropped up needing immediate attention. The mobile library van came at 10.10 and I dashed up the road to change books, encountering a very chatty friend.  I didn't sit down at the sewing machine till 11am. By 5pm I had finished my sewing tasks, the bears are ready to go with us [and be delivered to Steph in Manchester to pass on to her friend]   Bob had cancelled his Hospice visit and spent most of the day on admin. I fetched the cases from the loft - and at 8pm I finally started packing. 

Why Oh Why is it so often like this? I get to midnight the night before the holiday and wonder if it is worth it! But I am grateful for an opportunity to get away, rest and recharge. 

The King and Queen have come up to Norfolk for some R&R at Sandringham this week. I hope the weather improves for them. We've had a lot of flooding round here. .....

However I typed all that on Thursday night. It is now 7pm Friday and we are settling in at our beautiful cottage after a long and interesting journey. We passed a field of camels 🐪 near Penrith

We had lunch in The Ancient Unicorn at Bowes. This is where Dickens stayed whilst writing Nicholas Nickleby.

I am hesitant to give a negative review, but let us just say our dining experience was very disappointing on many counts! 

But this hideaway is fabulous, very "country living" in style. I feel rather spoilt... Thankyou all for the brilliant suggestions for places to go. I may just stay in the cottage with my knitting!!

Bearing Gifts

Off to Manchester for the weekend - Steph and Gaz have an important family party to attend [for G's aunt] so we are going to look after the boys.

I have a few bits and pieces in my bag for them

That bizarre penguin [we will immerse it and see if it grows at all over the weekend] An Orchard Toys matching game for George, and treats from the Kinnerton Factory Shop in Fakenham.

The KFS** sells random chocolate related items at silly prices. I got some NOMO bars [NO Missing Out] for my lactose-intolerant SIL, and two little bowls for George and Jacob [Paddington and Paw Patrol] 

I've also got a jumper I knitted for Jacob, some books for George and Steph and a few other bits and pieces. And a memory bear for Steph - but slightly different from the previous ones I have made.

This bear is to remind Steph of the time when her boys were babies. I have use dall their first size babygros. The face, paws and ears are done with the "Sloth" pattern babygro, which was first worn by George, and then by Jacob, on the days they came home from hospital, within hours of birth. Other fabrics have dino, camo and bats patterns! 

Inside the backpack is a tag with the names, birth dates and birthweights of my two darling grandsons.

I do not plan to make any more of these - stretchy babygros are a nightmare to work with! The garments' component pieces are very small, so I had to make a patchwork panel for the back. And every part of the bear had to be stabilised with interfacing because it stretched and distorted so much. But it will be a lovely memory for Steph to keep. 

 **NOMO bars are vegan, and so completely dairy free. Bob bought himself a huge bag of chocolate pieces [aka broken Easter Eggs] for £2- dark chocolate with caramelized salted peanut pieces and pretzel pieces. I decanted it into a 2litre ice-cream tub, and we are rationing ourselves to a few shards each evening! I am thinking that if we go to Fakenham again I should buy another bag, and melt it gently and reset into my proper silicone chocolate moulds.

It will be good to take these little presentsfor the family - but imho, the greatest gift is that of having time together.

Postcard #2

This is the final Postcard Project posts This is the piece which Kirsten will be keeping. I think if you click on the image, you should be able to see more details

On the right, the name, blog address, and postmark - plus British stamp. Plus the two royal cyphers marking the death of the Queen and accession of the King. And my William Morris tile.

On the left, reading from top corner

The Cat behind the Tulips, K 's cute pet

A wonderful tree of life, in Spanish Work [aka blackwork - but K chose green!]

A Delft Tile, after another of K's NT visits

A Celtic circle of flowers by K

A traditional English folk song - by music teacher K

The Magi worship the hope of the World - my Christmas piece

Cake! K celebrated a birthday in November with a cross stitch pattern

A  Patchwork Teddy, acknowledging that I spend time making memory bears for friends

A miniature square of knitting - another of my favourite relaxation pastimes

Palm leaves, the Cross, the resurrection sunrise. A Easter Celebration

Down the centre The Postcard Project. conceived, delivered, dated and signed by us both

As you can see, we used lots of different techniques over the two panels

cross stitch, back stitch, blackwork, waste canvas work, Dorset Buttons, knitting, appliqué, beadwork, boro, and a huge variety of embroidery stitches... and we worked round the panels in quite random ways. Having agreed to 'take September off', the death of the Queen meant a special royal announcement needed to be recorded on both pieces.

People have been so kind in comments, and suggestions. We hope it may have inspired some of you to work on collaborative stitching, It has certainly developed our stitching skills, and deepened our friendship.

I never dreamed I would gain so much when I began this exciting journey of discovery

We're On The Trail

This should have been posted a couple of weeks ago! During half term we went over to Rockland St Mary, a little village South East of Norwich, to see their Scarecrow Trail. This was definitely a ***** experience. It's an annual event arranged by friends of the village school. This year they wanted to raise money to rejuvenate the school library. Maps were £2 from the village shop, and the Community Café was open, offering drinks, cakes and light snacks. We arrived early and had a great time wandering round. The theme was Children's Storybook Characters, and it was so lovely to hear Rosie and other children calling out when they'd identified a scarecrow, and talking about World Book Day, and generally enthusing about favourite stories. RSM has an unusual two-sided sign, reflecting the agricultural history and its proximity to the Broads. The BFG was far and away the tallest model
Here are some of my pictures - sadly they did not all come out!

I liked "Greta Thunberg - Little People, Big Dreams" [In fact Rosie actuallysaid 'this will be your favourite, Grandma"] but she loved Shaun the Sheep. There were a number of Meg&Mog and Room on The Broom Witches [it was the week before Halloween] and seven Hungry Caterpillars. Mary Poppins had a very realistic face, and the Tiger Who Came To Tea was beautifully made. 

Hairy Maclary was very convincing. Where's Wally? outside the village shop, obviously. Alice was disappearing rapidly down her rabbit hole [so no need to create hands of face - very clever!] Quite a few Stick Men marched through gardens, and all sorts of Mr Men.

Liz and I were both very impressed- it was a free event, lots to see, well organised - and clearly aimed at Primary School children who could engage with the scarecrows. Rosie did not recognise Worzel Gummidge [this is just an ordinary scarecrow, Grandma, she told me - not a book person!] but she knew all the others.

The café staff were friendly, and had a play area set up at one end for the children. We ate our picnic lunch at the parish church.

There were over 50 gardens with a display - pretty impressive in a village of just over 300 homes - that means one in six households took part [take note Swanton Morley - RSM less half the size produced 5 times as many scarecrows as our village]

There were lots of families doing the trail when we went on the Saturday Morning - and the total amount raised was juts over £2000, which should go a long way towards the library refurb. This will definitely be an event on my calendar for next Autumn Half Term!

We had a good discussion afterwards about 'if you had to make a character, who would you choose?' [Greta Thunberg's head is still in my loft, should anyone want to borrow her!]

I think Mrs Pepperpot would be fun to recreate- a smale scale woman in a large scale setting...

In Which Ang Becomes A Stripper

The latest Memory Bear has just been completed - this time with only three shirts, not the usual four. It is for the mother of a young man who died too soon - and lived mostly in teeshirts and jeans. So I used some denim to make the backpack. I always ask if the family would like any leftover fabric returned - they usually say "No, you can keep it"

So I have a bag of shirt bits in the loft. I got it down this week, and sorted and ironed everything. Buttons [and interesting labels] were removed and stored - and then I cut off cuffs and collars, and separated the pieces into fronts, backs, sleeves and yokes. 

I cut every piece into a rectangle, and put large trimmings into a rag bag for Bob's workshop, small pieces into the bin. I ironed all the rectangles, and got out my BigShot Die Cutter, and my fancy new dies.

The instructions say you can cut up to eight 

layers - and if you fold the fabric carefully, make strips 5 yards long!

However my strips are mostly around 24" long, which is the length of the die - and about the length of a shirt back. It did not take me very long to produce hundreds of neat strips 2½" wide.

I have another carrier bag of shirt bits to 'strip', and then I am going to start planning my quilt. I borrowed this book from the library for inspiration.

It is full of quilts made using Moda 'Jelly Roll' packs, but I want to create my quilt using Memory Bear Strips. Once I have all my strips, I shall play around with them, and see what ideas I come up with.

But Kirsten has just sent me a package- so the next instalment of The Postcard Project has to be done first.

To Die For?

One thing on my "retirement-to-do-list" was to make a quilt. There are loads of boxes of fabric in the loft, despite giving away more than my own body weight in stuff before the move. Earlier in the year we were in a CS in Norwich and Bob pointed out some boxes of Quilting Dies. "Are they any good to you?" he said. They were new and unopened 

They were for the Accuquilt system, and although two sets were for a 12" machine, I knew one box of shapes would work in my 6" Sissix Big Shot. 

I splashed out £10 on this set which would prepare shapes quickly and easily. The following day my dear friend Val and her husband visited us - they were on holiday in Norfolk. She told me she'd bought herself an Accuquilt cutter when she retired. It had a few dies, and the strip cutter was really useful. But she said the dies were so expensive!**

I was in Norwich again a couple of days later - they'd still got the two 12" sets, but had reduced them to half price, £20 each. They were soon sent off to Kent! "oh I'm so glad to get rid of them" said the Manager "they've hung about for months and I was going to bin them"

I was busy with memory bears, and grandchildren, and other stuff. Quilting plans postponed... Then in July our local wool and fabric shop in Dereham closed down. They had a pack of Sissix dies to cut 2.5“ strips, along with the cutting pads reduced to less than half price. Yippee! 

I borrowed lots of books from the library, and trawled the Net looking for ideas. I made two quilts in 2010 which are in the back bedroom, but I want to do something different this time. 

And my plans are starting to come together, watch this space...

**I've since discovered that the total cost of these three Accuquilt sets would be in excess of £700!

The Animals Went In, Two By Two

Last week, another 'nibling', my niece's son Arthur celebrated his first birthday. We gave him a Noah's Ark with all the animals - and I made a bag to keep everything in. I used a square of blue fabric, and appliqued a corner with grass, plus fishes, rocks and plants, and used the sewing machine to stitch 'waves' on the water. I backed this with a square of waterproof 'fishy' fabric.

Then I put velcro on the edges, and rainbow loops on the corners. So Arthur has a double sided playmat, which folds up into a storage bag. The embroidery machine came in useful for producing a name tag. 

Here's Arthur's Ark. I hope he has lots of fun with it

IMPORTANT UPDATE I've finally got my Memory Bear' hints and tips' typed up properly, and have emailed them to C and SA, but I am sure somebody else asked and |I cannot find their details. Sorry If you would like a set of notes, then please email me [address on my profile page] or send me your address in a comment with the words DO NOT PUBLISH and I will reply as soon as possible.