one of my favourite places to be is with the wonderful community at farnham local food
as soon as i reach the field i feel calmer and more grounded.
i love it here!
Today was the first harvest of the season.
spinach leaves were destalked
the cob oven was fired up ready to bake pizzas.
and tasty crops were harvested.
tea was drunk
the sun came,
the rain came.
an impromptu shelter was made
and the harvest shared out
a good day!
the scarecrows had a good time too : )
today i spent the entire day in the garden;
digging, weeding, sowing, planting and observing.
i watched bumblebees enjoying the chive flowers.
tomorrow i shall ache.
on the last full moon at the beginning of the half term holiday i made a full moon board. It is the first one i have made. some of my favourite artists and creatives use them and something pulled me this month to finally create one for myself. each full moon has a name and meaning. May's full moon is called the 'Flower Moon'.
last term's workload was heavy so a weeks rest and quiet is just what i needed. i think it shows up here in my board.
things are changing for me at the moment too. patterns that had become familiar have shifted and change is certain. at first this unsettled me but i am now welcoming the chance to review and refresh things.
this past week's resting time was crucial; a pause, a recharging my energies and precious time spent with loved ones.
i feel ready to make a new board now, one filled with uplifting energy to aid my focus and to support me through the activities and decisions this month will bring.
x
there is something magical about macro photos. they allow an opportunity to view minute details that the naked eye cannot see.
towards the end of last year i noticed a caterpillar was starting to form a chrysalis high up in a corner of my dining room. i waited and watched and waited some more.
to my delight, yesterday i discovered that a butterfly had emerged, and was sitting close to it's winter sleeping place.
this morning, on my eldest daughter's 15 birthday i noticed my butterfly just a foot off the floor on the glass pane of the patio door. i could clearly see that she was a beautiful cabbage white.
fearful that the cat may discover her resting place, i gently helped her onto my hand and away from danger. after a few gentle flutters around the room, she finally fully opened her wings to reveal her painted black spots and then flew off towards the light.
my daughter still needs me but she too is spreading her wings and is becoming more independant. we will be thinking about colleges soon and before i know it she too will be off.
am liking the parallels and it seems fitting that the butterfly chose today to venture out. it reminds me that time with my girl is precious and that the cycle of life continues. change is inevitable and my time being a mother and nuturing is all working towards the point when my daughter is confident, content and able to venture out alone to follow her own future path. i know this time is getting closer for us both and soon those apron strings that i tightly reel in close to my side will need to be finally cut.
Happy Birthday Beautiful Girl xx
last november i joined the Love what you wear project.
there are quite a few of us now committed to not buying any new clothes for a whole year.
i have suceeded so far and i plan to make a few items and refashion some others, although since i started i have sewn a lot for others but not yet for myself.
Morwhenna has started a virtual sew along on a tuesday between 7 and 9 pm so we can share what we are working on and also ask the group for advice. this is a great idea and as i still haven't started on a project for me i thought i would tackle the large repair on my guys linen jeans that i had been putting off as i wondered whether they could even be repaired!
take a look
the fabric has worn so thin over the holes and it is a pretty lightweight linen anyway. here's a close up.
Jen wanted to know how to patch. i have patched many denim jeans before and these were a little different but essentially most of the process was the same. so here is what i did for these;
first i looked in my stash for a good colour match. normally i would use a similar weight but i wanted greater stability so i decided not to use linen or cotton but i found a lovely soft wool. now i knew wool may not be great from a laundering point of view but as i plan to cool wash or hand wash these i'm happy that this will avoid any shrinkage.
Next i cut a piece of wool to cover the holes and the area where the fabric was thinning. I placed the trousers inside out over the end of my ironing board and pinned the patch on from the inside first.
then i turned over to work from the right side and re-pinned from the front (i then took the pins at the back out). It is really important to get everything flat. The wool fabric is now creating a new fabric behind the holes. please note that the holes cannot be pulled together as you risk getting an unsightly pucker and altering the drape of the garment.
with a matching sewing thread and taking small stitches i stitched around the whole area to secure the wool patch. i then took further small stitches, about 1cm apart around the holes to keep the fabric flat. you may be able to see a few hand stitched areas on the next photo.
when i was happy that the patch was secure i threaded up my sewing machine thread in a close colour match. Many people now use contrast threads and funk it up but as these are his 'posh' summer trousers i thought i would go subtle.
as i was going to 'darn' over the patch i needed to drop the feed dogs on my machine. Feed dogs are the rough teeth that sit under your presser foot and move the fabric along as you sew. on some machines you can drop the teeth and on others you cover them with a clear plastic cover. I then attached my darning foot, which is also the embroidery foot. The process is the same as with free machine embroidery (think poppy treffry). with freehand and darning you move the fabric independently to create the stitches.
i set the stitch length and width to zero for darning and then placed the fabric under the foot ready to sew. i stitched lines up and down over the patching with just a few stitches across at the top and bottom to flow one line into the next.
with darning the fabric stays facing the same way and is not turned as this can cause the needle to break. when i had finished my up and down stitches i stopped, took the fabric out and turned it 90 degrees, replaced it under the foot and stitched over the first lines up and down again to create a 'weave'.
can you see?
and another detail
so here they are finished and not a hole in sight!
i also had to neaten up and restitch the fell seam too as some of the threads where coming away.
i don't know how long they will last but hopefully most of the summer, when it finally arrives.
the final thing i did was trim back the wool patch on the inside to remove any excess fabric. usually i would turn a hem and stitch this in but as the wool is thick i haven't bothered. it's pretty secure and looks ok from the inside too. this next photo is before i trimmed it back close to the stitching, but it gives you an idea of how the inside looks.
well i hope you held with me there on this very long post and that the photos are clear enough ( i took them with my phone camera in very poor light).
i do hope that this will be of interest to those of you who wish to have a go at patching. this method is, i think is a fairly traditional one but there are also many other methods, so if you don't fancy this one, google 'patching' and i'm sure there will be lots of alternatives.
happy mending!
Gx
happy new year to you! i hope you are having a good 2013 so far x
the few weeks off over the festive holiday were very welcome for me as I had been working very hard. It was so good to have some time to relax and reflect.
2012 was both busy and fulfilling. i faced a few fears, applied myself to tasks which at times where difficult and was pleased for the first time in my life to have fairly successfully managed to balance all the different areas of my life.
a few things i was proud of in 2012 were,
although my youngest prefers to wear hers!
So 2012 was a good year. I ate better than ever and returned to my yoga practice, which felt like coming home. i have realised how i need to have that space and me time and how my body needs to stretch. yoga grounds me, brings me into the moment and helps me to feel positive and energised. so more of this in 2013!!!
Since the new year has arrived, it's all been about decluttering. Even the family have got involved. decluttering years of stuff is an ongoing process but it is all moving in the right direction.
and we have made some family plans;
My personal aim is to 'Keep it Simple', which is my mantra for the year and i am going to follow my interests and continue to live lightly.
This is my 2013 vision board.
what are you inviting into your life this year? how do you want to feel in the months ahead?
wishing you every happiness for a wonderful 2013
Gx
an upcycled tie snake
after having seen a few of these snakes on Pinterest i decided to make one for Rufus who is just 4.
i searched the charity shops for a suitably patterned tie to stuff and found one in our local heart foundation shop for £2.50
I thought it would be a simple case of just stuffing the tie, sewing on the eyes and adding a forked tongue but the back seam on the tie i had chosen was catch stitched through all the layers to keep everything in place. When i undid this so i could stuff the tie the seam unravelled making it a bigger job than first thought.
I checked online to see if other folks had mentioned how they had made their snakes but no one had so i will tell you how i made Rufus's.
1. First unpick any stitches along the back seam which hold all the layers of the tie together until you have a tube to stuff.
2. If the seam unravels as it did in my case then carefully pin the two back edges together and sew with a small slip stitch or overstitch making sure you don't sew through all the layers. I kept about 10cms open at the wide end.
3. Take some stuffing, (kapok/polyester hollowfibre from a cushion pad or pillow/or chop up old tights) and gently push the stuffing in from the small end. Do this in small bits to avoid any lumps. I used a long wooden ruler but a pencil would work.
4. I stuffed half from the narrow end then the remainder from the wide end.
At each end of a tie you will find a small facing, usually in a polyester lining fabric. This can be lifed out and the stuffing can be placed behind it. It can then be folded back, pinned in place and sewn to the main tie fabric. I hope this picture shows what i mean.
5. Once your snake is stuffed and sewn up, cut out and sew on a forked tongue in red felt and sew on some button eyes.
and there you have it, one snake for a 4 year old to play with (or whack his brothers with which i expect may be more likely, hence using stuffing and not rice!)
Hurrah, another present crossed off the list G x
Morsbags
Have you heard of Morsbags?
Morsbags is a not for profit organisation set up in 2007 by Claire Morsman who was so shocked by the devastating effect plastic bags have on marine wildlife that she decided to promote the making and giving away free of reusable cotton bags to show that there really is an alternative to plastic.
I first learned about Morsbags through Emma and Rachel at That little bit greener and in 2009 made my first Morsbag. I wrote about it here and i gave some away on my blog. i also made some for my family as Christmas gifts.
They are really so easy to make and the Morsbags site even has a great animated tutorial to show you how.
If you get addicted to making them you can even join together with friends and set up a pod to create and distrubute them within your community. Many pictures of bags created at pods can be seen here.
i shall be making and gifting some more bags to friends as gifts this year. (best get to it though as it's only 5 weeks till Christmas.. eek!)
Home made preserves
I am very lucky to have a man who makes jam. we have enjoyed many different jams from blackcurrant to gooseberry made by his fair butch hands over the years.
one year we gave some strawberry jam to family as presents. I found a gorgeous tutorial by Amy from Lucy Kate Crafts for this felt strawberry pot cover so made a few up for our gifts. Amy has some great free tutorials on her blog as well as patterns for sale too so it's well worth a visit.
We coupled the pot of jam for my sister with the River cottage preserves book. Simple useful and edible. The kind of gifts we love : )
As strawberry jam is out of season now to make, it got me thinking. Perhaps some apple jam or apple sauce would be nice with the cover adapted and finished with tiny apples? Or maybe an apple chutney. This recipe from one of my new favourite blogs looks delicious. One year my OH made cranberry sauce to take over to family at christmas too, not sure if a cranberry would translate but if he wants to do this again maybe a plain hand written label and simple hessian fabric cover tied with twine would suffice?
Have you ever made or received preserves as a gift? I'd love to hear your preserve gift giving ideas
Gx
