Old cloth and soulful stitches.

 

Old cloth with new purpose, mending my soul with each stitch.

  My memories carefully added to the heart of my creations. Stitch by soulful stitch.

Sarah Hawkings 2024

When sorting through precious bits of gorgeous antique linens and cloth it is almost meditative and the feel and touch of each piece brings my imagination to go really quiet wild.  Who touched this, who stitched this by candlelight or if the piece is a little later say through the Great War and was the lady thinking of her husband or beau and of their safety and well being, trying to keep busy through the uncertainty ... I make up all these stitchery tales in my mind.

A pile of beauty sat in front of me with tales of all sorts held within and there I am lucky enough to be
sorting through each piece and putting it in a little bundle to go into a project basket for me to add to its story and repurpose lovingly to once again be treasured and loved.  As I said in my last post I am not looking forward to Summer ending this year and so a positive on it is to get ready projects for Autumn and Winter and Christmas (sorry for using this C word in August) and then positive baskets of projects await me to stitch away my Winter blues.  I think partly that this October will be a year since my Mum passed away and every first hurts so much.  I therefore have decided to be very organised.  I do not want to not know what to stitch and go into a little depression over it.  It will be a case of thinking what project today to stitch because I am getting 6 ready to do and not including my hexagon obsession!!

August is like the Sunday of Summer.

unknown.

In addition I have as I said, purchased  a cross stitch pattern and really beautiful threads so I have that and I have purchased a few books for these up and coming two seasons.  I will do a YouTube on these I think so that you can actually see what I have purchased for my cosy down Autumn and Winter.  Pictures are great but to watch a flick through is better in my humble opinion.  Will let you know when I film it and it is up and running.

As you can see it's all in the preparation this year.  I am looking forward to Autumn walks with leaves crunching under foot and I do love Autumn as you all know who are regulars here.  I love the food of Autumn, cinnamon, pumpkin pie and soup.  Apples tarts and all hearty soups and one pot meals and I have a slow cooker so I can prep casseroles and soups in the morning and be out all day and come home to a warm meal.

One thing though is there are a few more Vintage Fairs coming up so I am going to go to as many as possible and meet up with my friends and like minded people, stock up on beautiful fabrics and have a thoroughly great day out.  Them come back home and lovingly sort through the fabrics and pop them away for future projects ...  I happily drive up to a few hours away there and back to get to one of the bigger ones and of course the Vintage Bazaar which is held in Frome which is only an hour from me. By November they have stopped and there is no more until the Spring so I have decided to go to every one that I possibly can.

August rain the best of the Summer gone and the new Autumn not yet born.

Sylvia Plath

Whilst the Summer days are still with us I am going to sketch and muse for further ideas for projects and capture the smells and warmth that Summer brings.  I am lucky enough that where I live there is a beautiful river and the wild life and wild patches of flowers and cow parsley grow and to sit there with my sketch book and picnic lunch is a happy thing to do.  People stop and chat and doggies come up and say hello.

I do spend time in Cheshire as well and I have found the most wonderful coffee shop, only its more than that its a hub for like minded people who write or create and I have made some really lovely new

friends.  I have found inspiration there and love my time there a few times a year.

I am thinking of curating a few little inspiration packs to sell for people who slow stitch or would indeed like to start.  I think with bits of delicious fabrics some linen for the foundation with snippets of lace and a few mop buttons and some threads. Anybody think this might be interesting to you or as a gift for someone you know please let me know on here or on one of my sites (facebook or instagram) Thinking it would be a lovely thing to do and sell.  Maybe you could stitch a picture, needle case or a old fashion housewif?  Make a patch to stitch on to a dress, skirt or jumper?

Anyway these are my ramblings for this week I hope you have enjoyed your cosy read and that you will leave some comments and let me know about the little slow stitch kits.  

Take care of you and as always  HAPPY STITCHING!

Sarah XX

Summer mindful sewing joy.

 

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows. Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows. Quiet over canopied with luscious woodbine with sweet musk roses with eglantine.

William Shakespeare - Midsummers Night Dream.

Mindful quiet sewing being done on these beautiful Summer days really is a joy.  Often when I stitch in the garden my mind wanders to my dear Mum.  I keep thinking she would have loved Thimble Cottage and being in my studio.  My Mum loved ironing ( yes I know, I did not take after her unless its beautiful fabrics!!) and because my Mum had alzheimer's she never saw the cottage.  She lived literally 9 miles away from and she would have turned up for coffee here and would have happily stood and ironed for me .. not only fabrics but any domestic ironing that I may have had.   My sister and I called her Mrs Tiggy, after Beatrix Potters Mrs Tiggy-Winkle.

 I try very hard to just remember her before her illness and the good times and laughs we had.  She would have come over with her little doggy who now lives with her Sister and they would have stayed a few nights a week for sure. Now though I smile at my peaceful memories whilst listening to the birds sing and the beautiful smells of a Summer garden and the sound that a needle and thread makes when pulling through beautiful linens and fabrics.

I have to report I am still obsessed with hexagon making and there will definitely be a hexagon wall hanging I just can not stop at the moment, the trick is that I do have to stitch them together at some point ( I give a little hysterical laugh to myself) the antique paisley fabrics are so very beautiful and that is what I am using.  My collection is being finally used in a wonderful way and not just neatly stacked in a drawer and stroked weekly!

We might think we are nurturing our garden,

 but of course it's our garden that is really nurturing us.

jenny Uglow

 A planned day to go to the Jurassic coast to go rock pooling for more seaweed after the bank holiday
weekend is now in my diary.  I will go and enjoy the fresh air and try hard to find a particular seaweed I would love to press and any sea glass that may have washed up.  Apparently a few years ago there was a
cliff landslide, not really bad but it unearthed a Victorian rubbish dump basically and there is treasure in them there hills!!  It went into the sea when the tide was in so it has been happily giving treasure for us hunters for a while now. I will go a little more prepared this time having bought the press and the book.

I am hunting for a particular seaweed and have smallish lock and clip box to safely transport the treasure that I find.  Sea glass is always a joy to find and a few years ago now I found a red piece in the shape of a heart.  This little piece of antique glass still gives me enormous pleasure and I think I might have it made into a necklace or a ring in silver setting .... It will be enjoyed so much more this way. It is a precious stone to me ..

Several projects on the go right now and some taping for my YouTube channel is keeping me so busy. My head is full of new projects to so I have been writing down my ideas frantically in my notes so that I remember everything and can transfer to my design book for later this year,  some Autumn sewing projects to curl up with in maybe October.

Also I have been writing quotes and sayings in my special journal for those.  If I am looking for words for a piece of my stitchery then I have a look through that and it is a time thief sometimes as I read them all and smile. Sometimes with a slow stitch project a lovely quote or even a word with evoke something and make that piece of fabric art a little bit more special I find.

Sorting through my projects I have been doing project bags and baskets so that everything I believe is needed to start and finish each one is contained and ready to just pick up.

In addition I have treated myself to a cross stitch chart, linen and all the threads which are hand dyed.  It is a beautiful Autumn one with a gorgeous crow at the centre of it.  If you have been a reader of this blog then you will know that I moved home 4 years ago and I had to leave behind my very tame Lady blackbird who I called Miss Muddy Beak and it really did make my heart ache, if only I could have take her with me ...

Well since being in my cottage I feed a crow who was just an abandoned baby crow I believe.  Now fully grown and with a partner now comes every day and calls me from the top of my Studio for some

food.  I love him and have named him Russell ... yes I know Russell Crow but hey! His feathers were all white and lacking food and how to hunt for it.  I am now proud to say he is very black and shiny and he does hunt but does come daily for some food before roosting time and he chatters away at me.

So when I saw this wonderful cross stitch pattern I just fell in love with it.  I had to order it from America and the pattern was in a booklet with other patterns so I was thrilled.  I also purchased some beautiful linen to stitch on it and all the hand dyed threads that go with it.  It is so beautiful and this Winter this is my personal project and would love it finished and framed by next Autumn/Fall.

I would also like to do a fabric art one to go with it and maybe a crow sat on a pumpkin with be just the thing. Now after 4 years my crow comes into the little garden and drinks from the bird bath and he also has a bath ( only just fits too)  We have mutual trust in one another and find its so wonderful when nature trusts a human.  I worry if I am not there but have great neighbours who feed him for me and although he keeps his distance he will come down to eat.  I can literally be home all of 10 minutes and he comes down and calls to me, he knows my car !

I have so many plans to take me through the Winter months this year, I am  though, somehow not ready

for it to happen. Normally I look forward to my Seasons and love the cosy of open fires and candles everywhere but I just wish Summer would keep going a few more months but hey I am determined to stitch my way through it.  I think its the long dark nights and tiny stitches are more difficult in artificial light I find.

Well its not yet so I must just enjoy it to the full for now.  Getting dark around 9pm so its still good really.

Well that is me all caught up with my ramblings,  So for now take care of you and of course as always ..

HAPPY STITCHING!

Sarah XX

Hand stitching, wild flowers and seaweed.

 

May your life be like a wildflower growing 

freely in the beauty and joy of each day.

Native American proverb.

We here in England and especially along the Jurassic coast line near where I live have had some really stunning Summer days and really hot for here some 30 degrees on some days and then the next day it
can be rainy, cold and almost Winter and well that is England.  On the cold days I will put candles on
and fairy lights and cosy down with my hand sewing and on the really beautiful Summer days I can be found either sat in my little garden or wandering down by the river with my camera and sketch book looking for inspiration for my sewing in nature. I have seen lots of kingfisher birds this year diving in the river for fish and nesting along the banks but as yet I have not seen the otters this year and hope they are all doing well.

There are lots of patches of wild flowers along the banks that are kept wild for wildlife and it looks beautiful.  It is so peaceful wandering along and sometimes I take a little picnic with me for my lunch.

Like wild flowers you must allow yourself to grow

 in all the places people thought you never would.

I am still loving my hexagon making I have become a little obsessed with it I think and they look so

beautiful when you stitch them together in little flower patches, well that is what I have named them anyway. I am going to make some pin cushions as I have said before but I still cannot stop making these hexagons and feel I might end up making a wall hanging with some.  I have a small quilt hanger in my sitting room and change them over seasonally.  I think a small wall hanging made from these really beautiful fabrics will be really stunning and they will look like flowers if I do some antique French linen ones in there too.  A great project for Autumn I believe to hang next Spring/Summer.

In addition to that you that know me well will know my favourite animal is a
hare, I just find them magical, whimsical creatures and I have been designing some textile and embroidery pictures with them and wild flowers and that has been incredibly joyful.  I love designing new things to stitch and with scruffy king of hares in embroidery as well pleases me.  I am doing one for me as well, it has to be done!

The other thing that I have started to do is press seaweed.  I have bought a seaweed press and I set off to the Jurassic coast and waited for the tide to go out and leave wonderful rock pools.

With not much planning as this is the day I picked up my press I scoured round for a few pretty seaweeds.  All I had was my keep cup and so I wandered around looking for a few seaweeds.

It was a wonderful hour and it was just exploring really so that I could decide what I needed to do this.

You obviously have to have your tide times not to get caught out but wandering around and picking up pretty shells and beautiful sea weed I was very happy indeed. I also sadly found plastics and so with a bag I picked up all I found and then put in a recycle bin it is part of my nature to always have a bag for rubbish be it at the seaside or a walk along a river or country lane.

Taking my spoils home and reading a book I purchased about seaweeds to I set about setting up my press and managed to put three seaweeds into my press. The one thing you have to remember is that seaweed takes a few weeks to properly dry and you have to open up the press and add more paper to make sure it all dries other wise they may go mouldy. The photos of the seaweed are my attempts to make pictures and I am really very pleased with the results.

A beach is not only a sweep of sand, but shells

 of sea creatures,  the sea glass, the seaweed, the incongruous objects washed up by the Ocean.

Henry Grunwald

To say I am thrilled with the results is an understatement, although tricky it really has captured my heart and it can be done all the year round if you do not mind a crisp winters day.  Just keep an eye on the tide times as I said.  I paddled in bare feet as it was a really beautiful Summers day but in the Winter wellie boots will be the order of the day.

With this new found interest I have decided to incorporate it into my slow stitching as well I think some hand embroidered seaweed will be on the cards.  I do not like it around my feet when swimming but I am happy with the beauty of it stitched or pressed and on a wall to admire the outstanding colours patterns and beauty of how nature can really take your breath away.

So I am going to go back in the next few weeks and collect more, I have some gorgeous old frames that are made from old chipped wood and feel that framed in those it will give a nod to driftwood and when I have a little collection of my own I will sell some.

August is now coming to half way and soon enough September will be here and Autumn will be upon us, now as you know if you are a regular here you will know it is my favourite season but I am not ready for it this year just yet.  I can not comprehend where the last few months have gone and how can Summer nearly be over and the long dark nights not far away.. this year I could do with a few more months for sure.   

My camera is busy capturing everything that I can with wild flowers, beautiful sunsets and warm Summer evening sat either in my little cottage garden or by the river bank watching the bees dance from one wild flower to another with sweet smelling nectar on there toes busy and happy.

I have designed some flower pictures and and am busy with stitching those right now as well taking the

opportunity of the light evenings that are now dusk at 9pm here...with a glass of wine in the garden with
my evening meal and then when the light fades its hexagon binding time ....

Life has been busy and I am in Cheshire every few months and have lots of friends there so I can go for a few weeks and take my laptop and stitching with me.  I am visiting different places, meeting new people and enjoying being between two homes affectively and loving this Summer so much.

Well I have have caught up on things for now, I hope you are all having a great Summer and enjoying the lovely weather and stitching.

Take care of you and as always thank you for reading my rambling and Happy Stitching!

Sarah XX

Textile travels their tales and tales of Beatrix Potter at Hill Top Farm.

 

The wonder of textile travel amazes me.  I have purchased before now, pieces of very beautiful old linen from France or other European countries from a vintage fair all over our English counties salvaged, sorted and saved by others.

Pieces of quilts that have been stitched here in England and ended up in Canada or America possibly brought over to other countries on large ships when pilgrims landed on other shores, only to come back again to their country of origin and being sold here a hundred or so years later.

In my imagination they have gathered memories and stories along the way.  If they are in good

condition I could never cut them up but they are very weathered and worn to be salvaged and cut up and create something beautiful and framed with added little stitches and words in another century and to be seen, loved and cherished by others it can only be a good thing.

I marvel at the beauty and resilience and the fact that someone all those years ago sat and patiently by hand and with none of the tools that we have today (cutting mat and rotary cutters with quilting rulers) did tiny little stitches and put together some incredibly beautiful quilts.  I have to say that to me they are so much better than the ones today in my eyes... these are too perfect for me, I love the wonky of the antique ones and I can sit for literally hours going over a antique quilt looking at the fabrics and the stitching and look at the clock and wonder at where the time has gone and oh so quickly too.

Talking about time, I have not been here for months and I do apologise. For a few months I have not really picked up a needle with mourning my Mum that has been a tough time but I have found my peace with it now.  I have been gardening and putting new things in my little cottage garden ... lots of wild flowers for the bees to play in and gather the pollen and I have delighted on warm days sitting there and watching them.

However I have been designing and also I have been attending to my YouTube channel and have been filming for that to launch this September so that not only can I write on here but you can watch some videos about my quest for the quilt in stitches story as well.  I will pop details on here and on my Facebook site for you.  Hoping that you will like and follow as I chatter away.

In addition to this my Threads of time studio has had a long over due Spring clean and sorted all my beautiful precious fabrics have been lovingly folded and put away.  I also did a fabric sale over on my  other Facebook page so I have sold bits that I decided I wouldn't be using in my creating and getting money together to take with me to a few vintage fairs that are coming up in the next few months ..

The other thing I would love to share with you all is that I visited Hill Top Farm which was Beatrix

Potters home and was the first of 14 she bought with hundreds of acres of land.  She actually saved this beautiful countryside from developers and it is stunning.

The farm house and gardens are really beautiful and have all her precious things still in there.  As you walk in there is  room with a fire place which was actually lit and welcoming and along side that there is a dresser full of beautiful china and plates. 

Down stairs also has a cosy sitting room and the kitchen and store cupboard.  Upstairs there are four further rooms including bathroom.

There is a quilt on the four poster bed and sewing things in the cosy sitting room.

As you probably all know Beatrix was engaged to be married to Norman Warne who helped her publish her first book Peter Rabbit along with others.  Unfortunately he died before they married and it broke her
heart.  She later found love with William Heelis and they married in 1913 until her death.

In one of the rooms upstairs there is a dolls house and contained in there is miniature food and and furniture bought for her by Norman Warne to inspire The Tale of Two Bad Mice.  These items held huge significance to her and she kept them safe.

The beautiful gardens of Hill Top are wonderful and I had such a wonderful few hours there, it has been

on my bucket list for forever and now I have been and its a beautiful memory for the memory bank that I can draw upon on days I need a little more inspiration of one of my heroines who achieved so much in a time when women were not allowed to have property and money of their own ....

I am so looking forward to doing lots of stitchery and I am moving forward with doing lots of hexagons in the beautiful paisley fabrics that I have collected over the years.  There is something about sitting there and cutting them all out in little piles and then later sat either in the garden if weather permits or in my cosy place in the lounge and basting them.

Thinking that I may make some gorgeous pin cushions to sell with walnut shell stuffing that now smells of beautiful English lavender.  The ground shells will keep your pins and needles sharp and they are so pretty to look at I think.  I love mine and have become addicted to fabric cover hexagons.

I have started another meditation roll too that I am picking up and working on.  Its deliciously long and there is a way to go yet but its easy to stitch at the end of the day watching a film or listening to a podcast.

There a lots of snippets from cutting one inch hexagons and I lovingly gather them up and pop them in my jar named snippets for mice.  This is a quote from Beatrix Potters Taylor of Gloucester and I stitched a label with this on to tie on an old mason jar ..

I just cannot throw them out and you will be surprised how many times I go to that jar and root around and find the right piece for a little something to applique on to something or other.

Another jar is my jar of hearts and if there is a snippet for mice that I can cut a heart out of that is done and popped in the appropriate jar and on the dresser in my Threads of time studio.

Well this is it for today and I promise not to be such a stranger.  I hope you will visit me in September on my YouTube channel .

I will let you know about the pin cushions when they are ready and will keep you up to date on my days at Thimble.  

As always take care of you and Happy Stitching!

Sarah XX