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