Feathers and Finery

Despite the sunshine I'm feeling sad today. As I sat eating my breakfast a dog came tearing into my back garden in hot pursuit of one of my chickens. All I could see was a mass of feathers amidst squeals and a lot of squawking. By the time I had run into the garden there was no sign of the chicken and the dog was circling like a mad thing. I opened the back gate to shoo it out to find the owner strolling along quite oblivious to the mayhem going on. When I told her that I thought her dog had killed one of my chickens her reaction was "Well have you got a gap in your fence?"... Oh... my fault then that your dog is not under control! I'm afraid I was left speechless and slammed the back gate on her while I tried to see if I could find the chicken. But there is no sign of her. Feathers everywhere but no chicken to be found in the garden or down the road. And our one remaining chicken (we lost two last year) is quite distraught! And to think we've been worried about foxes lately!

 

 

So what was meant to be a post to show you some of the brilliant work achieved in just two hours in my workshops at Textiles in Focus on Friday has turned into a bit of a rant... sorry! But back to the workshops... as you can see there were some lovely results to my "Weave it, Wear it" brooch making workshops.

 

There was a touch of scepticism that these would be finished in just two hours but several of the ladies wore their brooches at the end of the class.

 

Not all were finished and not all came out well in the photos but this is a selection from the twenty five brooches that were started.

 

I had four very young attendees too and the pink brooch above was made by one of the young girls... so I'm now thinking this might be a good project for my Young Embroiderers to tackle.

Well done to everyone who came to my workshops, young and old... you did brilliantly!

 

Textiles in Focus was an excellent show as usual with some fabulous exhibitions, displays and shopping opportunities.

 

Although with teaching a class in the morning and another in the afternoon as well as fitting in a quick lunch with friends, I didn't get as much time as I would have liked for looking around.

 

Especially as soon as I finished on Friday afternoon it was a quick dash home before packing a bag and heading off to Dundee. We arrived at 1 am, straight to bed, then spent Saturday celebrating Stewart's Mum's 80th birthday with a super high tea with all the family. Sunday it was back down the A1 and home again... a bit of a whirlwind weekend.

 

Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to see if the chicken can be found anywhere, but I'm not too hopeful.

Digging

After spending four days (very enjoyable days) indoors during what has been the warmest, sunniest week this year it was a joy to get out in the garden all day yesterday.

There was much digging, weeding and tidying up to be done and I was assisted by my feathery friends.

Although they didn't always dig where I wanted them to...

in fact these very naughty girls kept digging up things I had just planted!

Barley kept a watchful eye, supervising us all...

But soon got bored!

After eight hours working, I knew I was getting tired and it was time to stop when I put both feet on the spade at the same time and managed to fall off, much to everyone's (well Stewart's) amusement... absolutely nothing to do with our afternoon refreshments of course!

This morning I woke up aching all over but I'm off now to speak to the Chiltern's Textile and Embroidery group... so at least no gardening for me today.

Okay, Own Up...

Which one of you girls is responsible for this?

I suppose you think it was funny?

Patchwork.

Whilst I enjoy the creative process that produces work with depth and meaning (see last post!) there are other days when I just want to make something... anything! Yesterday was one of those days so I decided to try a patchwork chicken from instructions sent to me by Angela.

I fell at the first step. Requirements: Two log cabin squares (instructions not included)
Now if I'm honest (and I could upset a lot of people reading this) I've never felt I liked patchwork quilts much so I've never bothered to learn the techniques. And the thought of all that measuring and cutting just makes me want to lie down. But then if I really think about it, I do like them quite a lot but I just don't like them on walls. I love the colour and I love the pattern but I like them on beds, thrown over sofas, wrapped around people... anywhere in fact except hanging on walls! And I do own this one and only patchwork book... which I love! Such glorious colour combinations.

So I carefully read the instructions for paper foundation piecing... and wow... it worked! I was very excited let me tell you. I couldn't believe how simple and yet how clever this method is. (I know all you quilting types probably wonder what all the fuss is about.)

I was very thrilled indeed with my first ever log cabin square. Okay it might have been sensible to iron the fabrics first.... and to be a bit more careful to stitch straight lines... but details, details!

I obviously got too carried away with my success and my second square didn't quite work... I'd stitched the pieces in the wrong order in my over excitement. But hey... it was only for a chicken...

Which I have to say... I was rather pleased with!

And although I know nothing about patchwork I do know about prairie points. For some obscure reason not known by me, prairie points are are on the machine embroidery City & Guilds syllabus! So my chicken has a prairie point tail!

Totally carried away, I made a second version... this time using "courthouse steps". Have I told you how excited this has made me... I'm completely hooked!

Now I want to make quilts but I obviously don't have enough fabrics in my stash so it's a good job I'm going to the Festival of Quilts on Friday. Any else going one fancy meeting me for a cuppa... and to stop me spending too much?

***

For those of you who asked about the bag and mitts pattern from a couple of post ago: The patterns were by Amanda Crawford and they featured in issue 3 of "Knitter Magazine"

Ouch!

Oooh err missus! I bet that hurt!

Have a good weekend!

Turned Out Fine

The hen house has been sprayed and it looks as though we have the red mite problem under control... for now, at least. The girls have started laying during my absence from blogging and we get three eggs most days (not sure which one of them is slacking!) but as you can see the quality control is a bit random! The large ones all have had double yolks so far though.

I managed to tackle some of my vegetable glut. Several dishes of courgette and tomato bake were made for the freezer, a large courgette frittata was made to take to our picnic and I even made a courgette and lettuce soup for lunch which used four large Cos lettuces!

To make the soup... slice and saute several spring onions in some olive oil and butter. (The onions were from the garden too and were starting to look like leeks!)

Add some sliced courgettes... and because I happened to have them, a handful of peas. Saute for about 5 mins until cooked. Add lots and lots of chopped lettuce - I used four plus some sorrell just because I had it! Stir until wilted and add about a litre and a half of good vegetable stock. Bring to a simmer and then take off the heat and liquidise. Forgot to say that I added lots of fresh mint before I liquidised!

Return to the pan and warm through with a couple of tablespoons of creme fraiche. Serve with a good helping of grated parmesan cheese. A lovely summery soup using vegetables from my garden!

It turned into a beautiful summer evening... perfect for our picnic concert as you can see (Don't understand why my glass is empty)

We were treated to a spectacular display by a Spitfire accompanied by the National Symphony Orchestra playing the theme from The Dambusters.

And then we listened to the wonderful singing of Katherine Jenkins, who was in fine voice. This is about as close as we got but close enough to see she had many different beautiful frocks!

All the usual Last Night of Proms tunes were played and the evening finished with fireworks that looked as though they were coming out from Audley End house.

All in all the day turned out fine... if it wasn't for the hour and a quarter it took us to get out of the car park!

Let me introduce you

...to my girls. As you might imagine there was much discussion over names which involved ruling out the likes of "Tandoori" and "Tikka Masala" (Ha! Like no-one ever thought of those before!) Jacob wanted to name one Yoda... but Yoda is definitely a boy so sticking with the Star Wars theme he came up with Princess Leia. This caused much hilarity (Leia... Layer...eggs...) but it stuck so this is Princess Leia.

A beautiful red/brown hen with white feathers.... very much the Princess!

Another beautiful red/brown hen but with black tail feathers is Betty

Boudicca (named by Sam) is black with a beautiful green sheen to her feathers.

She also has a lovely copper colour around her neck.

And last but not least is Dorothy... a lovely Speckeldy Hen, who won't stay still long enough for a decent photo!

I promise not to keep boring you with my chickens... well at least not until we get our first egg! Off to fetch a tired and muddy Joe from the station.*

*He just called... his train is delayed and won't be in until half past midnight! Yawn!

Monsters and Girls

Today was our last Young Embroiderers meeting before the summer break and I thought it would be fun to make some sock monsters. Given the age range in the group and the fact there was only me and one helper I think they did brilliantly. Not all of them were quite finished... Molly and Danijella have taken theirs home to finish off.

but they were all looking fantastic... and all very different. Alexija's is very quirky!

We had three visitors join us for the day, all of whom said they want to come back in September which is great news. Phoebe made this monster

and Rachel and Freya made these two, which they named Trinny and Suzannah!

This last one was made by Nikki. Didn't they do well!

On a completely different subject... did I show you our new house? A very stylish little cottage made by Diana's nephew Ben. Ben is only nineteen and has his own business making these little homes, which really are beautifully crafted. And the reason for our new house...

... are these girls! Having shared my home exclusively with men for the past 30 years I'm very excited to have some female company! They are a little camera shy at the moment but I'm sure I'll be introducing you soon.

I could sit and watch them for hours they are so entertaining... like I need another distraction! But they are rather gorgeous.