It Started With A .......

Tweet.  This tweet actually.

I'd spied two key words - 'free' and 'multiyork'.  I had a multiyork sofa in my previous house and I loved it. Sadly it wouldn't fit in this house so I had to get rid of it.  I still miss it and in a few years time I plan to buy another, but having owned it I knew that multiyork are a:  built to last, and b: have removable and replaceable covers. So after a few more tweets I set off to Nicola's (only about 40 mins away) and returned home with the chair.

After a run through the washing machine (yes they said 'dry clean only' but I took a risk) and a few days drying, the chair was given the feline seal of approval before it had even got into the lounge!

It's now in residence in the lounge, covered in a throw whilst I decide what fabric to get new covers in, and looking very 'right' for the room :-)

But this meant that I had to find a home for the other (cheap, temporary) chair that had been there in the lounge for the last 5 years.  In my brain a plan was hatching - in the dining room there's a space under the stairs,  which had always been home to the stereo (rarely used now thanks to itunes) and the shoe basket etc.

After a little re-arranging of the dining room furniture the oak coffer is now in situ on the other side of the room and this is what the space under the stairs now looks like

Somewhere snuggly to sit and read.

Thanks Nicola for the chair - and good luck with the shop move in the new year.

No More Burnt Hands

A little while ago I was given a very cute little enamel saucepan with a metal handle - cue lots of 'ouching' as the handle gets very hot and using a tea towel to hold it is a bit risky as it tends to catch in the gas!

So at the weekend I had a lovely few hours sifting through fabric scraps to and sewing them together to make a pot holder.

A mix of vintage and new,

quilted, backed and edged.

No more burnt hands

and it looks rather nice hanging up too.

I also made this card for my Dad's birthday, from silk tops and threads worked together on the embellisher with beads and wire hand stitched on.

I hope he likes it as the beads made it too thick for a standard stamp and it cost me a fortune to post it!

Autumn's March.

My garden is quite sheltered and, although we've had some over night frost on the cars, the garden seems to have escaped so far.  It is however full of the berries, hips and seed heads that signify that autumn is well and truly marching on.

The rose hips are wonderful colours and shapes,

The miscanthus grass seed heads are being pecked at daily by the birds 

and I love the wackiness of the clematis seed heads,  a cross between a bad hair day and a tutu!

The detail in the monarda seed heads is amazing if you look carefully

and the bright orange berries from the Iris Foetidissima (Stinking Iris) are wonderfully bright.

The viberunum is flowering and the scent wafts up the garden as I approach the greenhouse

and the berries of the honeysuckle

and the ampelopsis look almost good enough to eat! (I think the birds have already eaten lots of these blue ampelopsis berries already as there aren't many left)

But then there are some oddities too.  There are bedding fuchsias still flowering

and roses too.

It's as if they are trying to cling on to summer and resist the march of autumn.  I wonder how long they'll manage it for.

After the Storm

Yesterday's storm passed through here with very little immediate effect - a few branches down in the street and that was about it.  But a 5 min walk to the river Stour today showed just what power it had.

Willows have been cracked and snapped.

Some have already been cleared from the path and cut up - left for wildlife to snuggle down in during winter I hope.

But it wasn't just willows that were damaged, across on the other bank a broader leaved tree (an alder I think) has had a limb snapped and is resting in the river.

I was pleased to see that the swan family were ok, although there was only 1 adult around today (if you enlarge the picture you might be able to see the now rather large cygnets in the background).

Today everything had returned to a restful calm.

The trains are still not running and there was no sign of anyone clearing the branches up from the line (I guess as a single track branch line we don't have priority) - I wonder how long it will be before they're back?

I hope you all survived the storm ok.

Apple Days

I don't have any apple trees in my garden but the house next door but one does.  When I moved here an elderly gentleman called Arthur lived there, he'd planted the trees many years ago. Arthur died a few years ago and his house is now rented to a very pleasant young couple who have absolutely no interest in their garden at all so they let my neighbour and I pick as many apples as we like.

Yesterday, mindful of an approaching storm, we picked the final ones.  

One of the trees we think is an egremont russet

One is possibly a cox

And one is totally unidentified; a redish, very juicy eater

But the best of all are the cookers.  

They are much sweeter than normal cookers and hardly need any sugar at all but we have no idea which variety they are.  They're the size of a bramley but yellower in colour - anyone know what variety they could be?

I made chutney from some of the windfalls

And will freeze some of the other cookers for use over the winter, but I'll keep some to bake later, filled with some dried fruit and brandy - yum!

And the Winner Is...

It's been a bit of a busy week and I'd meant to draw the winner of the needle case on Wed but, better late than never, tonight I drew the winning name out of the cup.

Cathy Daniel of Potter Jotter is the winner.  Cathy, if you email me your address I'll get it into the post for you.

A Trip To The Ally Pally

This is the time of year when Fran and I make our annual 'pilgrimage' to the Knitting and Stitching Show at the Ally Pally.  I think this was our 4th visit and, as ever, it didn't disappoint.

Although there were many lovely galleries of work, these were my two favourites; the first by Mandy Pattullo who re-fashions old quilts and fabrics into new patchworks and textile art.   

I particularly loved her use of colour.  There are lots more photos of the work in this exhibition on her blog.

The other gallery that really took our eye was the one entitled "Our World of Make Believe' - a wonderfully imaginative display of free form crochet and knitting by Mitsuko Tonouchi and Sonomi Tanimoto. 

I also really loved this work in the graduate showcase by artist Faith Wray.  

You can't see it from my poor photo but she'd taken photos of old buildings, and created panels using various mixed media, textiles and other materials based on the textures and colours. 

Of course I also did a fair amount of shopping; some alpaca and silk lace weight yarn from Eden Cottage Yarns ,

a rainbow of naturally dyed blue faced leicester yarn from The Natural Dye Studio (I plan to make a crocheted scarf)

and some other bits, mainly for using with the embellisher, including a lovely dark blue based silk brick from Oliver Twists and some fancy threads from Stef Francis.

It was a great day, one of the highlights of my year, and I'll definitely be back for more next year!

I'll leave you with the yarn bombed taxi that was outside

and a reminder that if you want a chance to win the needle-case made from Celia's fabric then pop over to this post and leave a comment, I'll be drawing the name on Wednesday.