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