Hand Dyeing beautiful old linens and slow, gentle stitches on a project close to my heart.

 

Spring unlocks the flowers to paint the laughing soil.

Bishop Reginald Heber

Well hello and welcome, I am glad you can join me today.  Spring is in full bloom however there is still a chill in the air so please find a cosy chair and get a warm drink and spend time with me on my slow stitching blog, I hope you enjoy my vintage ramble.

It has been busy here at Thimble Cottage but lots of fun as well, so let me me begin my ramble.

Well firstly, as you know if you are a regular here that I have been making changes to my Studio and giving it a good clean, change around and a general take stock of things.  I love having cut flowers in

there when I am working and the days are getting longer and warmer and the promise of Summer days are creeping in.  It makes me happy, content and productive.

The first mowing of the grass has happened as well and my most beautiful coloured tulips are up in full bloom  and bobbing gently in the sunshine and soft breeze it is so joyful to see and enjoy some warmth of the sun.

I have been sitting in my dinning room stitching as it is a conservatory and the sun has had a warmth to it in there and I look out on my garden, Here in Dorset it is not quite warm enough outside yet to sit in the garden and stitch but my dinning area is good enough and it is so wonderful to look up and see bees stirring and looking for pollen in the sun shine. A few years ago I purchased some bee cups.  They are ceramic and look like flowers.  You place them in your borders and you can fill each one with a tiny bit of water.  Bees can sit on them and drink water without the fear of drowning ( this happens a lot apparently as they try to drink from ponds and bird baths, they get thirsty too) They are using them and I am so very happy with that purchase.  I have sewn lots of wild flower seeds this year and in large pots as well as one border.  I hope they all grow and I can watch the bees gather pollen happily.

Also I have been experimenting with hand dyeing with madder powder and have had so much fun and with some great results too. I have dyed some antique French linen pieces and also some untreated
thread which has taken on a great colour too. This was my first attempt at natural dyeing and the results are fabulous.  I learnt you have to be patient with soaking the thread and linen over night and then it needs a good mordant, again over night then a rinse and the preparation of the madder powder, which was suggested made into a paste and left a good few hours or again over night and then of course it is the soft gentle simmer for hours ( no boiling of it turns brown) and again I turned it off the heat and left it to sit for 24 hours .... It is days but oh was I pleased with the results my patience paid off for sure.  That deep beautiful and rich colour that madder gives up is stunning and I now have a little pile from which to create happily for a while, it is tied together after a press with ribbon awaiting a suitable project and it wont be long ...

I have a few projects on the go right now and I continue on my quest of English paper piecing with little hexies and I just can not stop, I have to do an hour a day on them, even if its in the evening whilst listening to a pod cast maybe, It helps that it is not longer dark at 5pm and the sun does not set until after 8pm now, that last hour of light is a happy tine with either stitching the fabric around a pile of hexagon card or indeed cutting out a pile of fabrics to stitch around .

The other thing that I love to do with scraps of beautiful fabrics is make wonky log cabin squares and memory rolls at the moment, it is easy mindful hand sewing and it just makes me relax at the end of the day with that.  I keeps scraps in colour co ordinate bags to be able to just pop my hand in and pull out some beautiful piece of vintage fabric and stitch away.

The big project at the moment is my Quilts story in stitches and I have been plotting, deciding, writing and generally over thinking it.  You may remember over a year ago now I bought a antique quilt and was deciding to add to its history, that all those years ago someone stitched little pieces of beautiful fabrics together to make a quilt, a quilt of comfort and love.  I found the quilt and apparently it was a red cross quilt ( the label has been removed or indeed fell off but there is a little mark so I believe it to be true)  Did I leave the quilt as is with a few holes and worn bits or did I add to it with honest pretty mends and other slow stitchery.  

I would get it out and pop it over my bed and stare at it.  It would get worse with use, I knew that but

did I wrap it in acid free tissue paper and keep it in a cupboard ... NO I thought that would be sad, but what to do and now it has firmly been decided  so I am going to upload bits on my You Tube Chanel that I started but haven't really used.  I thought some of you might like to follow its journey on there.

After Easter I will start to up load bits for you to see and hopefully comment and join in with constructive ideas, I hope you will share in its journey.  My You Tube channel is Threads of time studio and if you would like to subscribe and follow ( it is free by the way and no ads) you will get notified when I begin to upload regular updates and progress ... Hope you will join this incredible quilts journey like no other 85 year old quilt has undertaken before.

I have been researching and I have been collecting bits, designing and writing a journal on it so I hope you will come along on the journey too and if you do subscribe you will know every time I up load some more progress or to ask what you think along the way.

Then if all of the above is not enough I have been working on a few more stitchery projects, it really is lovely to be able to pick up  daily one project and work for a while on then go on to another.  Especially the quilt project sometime I like to do a little something or design on paper something and walk away for a while and ponder over it.  What seems like a good idea one moment may change when you go back for another little look.

Slow stitching to me is about slowing down and focusing on the art of mindful hand sewing and with creative freedom so nothing really has a time limit on it.  That said I love to finish pieces but I want it right in my mind and to thoroughly enjoy the whole process of Idea, jot down in journal, sketch ideas, gather the beautiful fabrics, threads and sometime buttons.  Then begin slowly and carefully to watch the piece grow and add a story to beautiful fabrics and linens and of course now The Quilt..

I hope over your drink and spending time here with me today you can see in your minds eye the beauty of slowing down and the excitement of making a quilts story in stitches a most beautiful and interesting  project to follow this year.  I wish you could touch its worn and soft fabrics and appreciate the joy in bringing something so beautiful to life again and make it useable and lovely to look at for at least another 85 years or so.

Well thank you all for dropping by and I hope you have enjoyed my ramble for today,  I hope you all have a beautiful weekend and the sun is shinning where you are.

Take great care and of course Happy Stitching!

Sarah XX

PS .. I have jumped back on here for a quick update on my YouTube Chanel I have uploaded some photos of the quilt and I have written a little about it in the description. Prehaps go over and have a peak and maybe write your initial thoughts in the comments? Then every 2 weeks I will be uploading more and discussing any comments. 

I hope you will join me on this most beautiful quilts journey xx 

Your creative work will tell your story, through design and stitches.

 

The hum of bees is the voice of the garden.

Welcome, you are most welcome please find a cosy spot to snuggle up with a warm drink and join me for a vintage and stitchery ramble.

The weather seems to be improving some what, well it is now March.  There are still so many snowdrops around all the little country lanes it is really breath taking and then you have crocuses as well along with tulips and daffodils appearing, it is becoming Spring and to be honest this year I am so ready for it.  For England at least it has been a long and very cold Winter.  The Frosts have been harsh as has the frozen rain and snow.  There have been floods down by the River Stour and so walking along the river banks have not been possible.  I have missed wandering along and I have worried about the wildlife along there too.

I take inspiration for my designs from nature and wonder at its resilience and beauty.  It will not be long now and an abundance of cow parsley will line the country lanes and the river banks and the little hum of bees dancing from one flower to the next collecting the pollen, yes this year I am so ready for some warmth.

My studio once again will be where I work frequently with the stable door open and the air with the beautiful scent of roses once again fills the Summer breezes with beautiful floral scents.  In December through till March I have stitched by my log burner to be cosy and warm.  The log burner is still being used of an evening because we still have frosty nights at the moment but the days are becoming warmer and the sun has been out.. what a joy!

I have, as always started new journals for the year and they are starting to fill with ideas, quotes, sayings and little sketches and patterns for my projects.  

Plant dreams, pull weeds and grow a happy life.

Old plant and flower books are a great way to look in detail for wild flowers and garden plants. 
Foxgloves are not out yet but I can study them in detail from my ever growing collection of old gardening books.  I have found some beauties in my time and I continue to look in every charity shop I find for ones I have yet to give a home to.

Books are a passion of mine and I know they take up room ( I do dream of having a room dedicated to them like a snug come library) but the smell of the pages and what you find in some, little treasures like hand written notes on some pages or pressed flowers and I have found a very old letter in one and it still lives in that book today, in my little collection every little bit of treasure stays with the book that I find it in. 

As most of you know I moved house five years ago and the one thing I could not take with me was a very tame lady blackbird and I named her Miss Muddy Beak and I miss her so and wonder about her especially this time of year when nest building starts.  I would put out the tiny scraps of fabrics, usually old paisley and she would collect it and I joked she had the best decorated nest in Dorset! she always had a muddy beak from foraging and that is how she came to be named Miss Muddy Beak.  I really hope she is ok. her partner used to sit in my pear tree and sing every evening and a black birds song is beautiful.  There are a pair of blackbirds that frequent Thimble Cottage garden but they are not as tame but they do sing and chirp for food.  I so wish though I could have said to my gorgeous tame pair, I am moving, are you coming?

This week I am busy in the studio, still cleaning and moving things about.  Making fabric bundles and
getting project baskets made up.  It pleased me in vintage wicker baskets I have notes, fabric and thread bundles and a sketch in there to pick up and stitch and I like to do two along side what I am working on.  It does not strangely make me panic but encourages me to work well on what I am stitching and look forward to the next.  I write down in one of my journals ideas for things when I think of them and then they are ready there to sketch.

Life goes so fast it seems to me now, can you believe it is March already and I do not wish it away but this year I have wished for better weather and feel the sun on my face and the garden to spring back into life.  I have missed the scent of lavender and roses and the hum of the bees this year more than usual.

I went to the re-claimed fair on the 1st of March and caught up with friends had a lovely piece of cake
and coffee, laughed and had long chats with friends and strangely they were all in agreement that this Winter has been a long one. I bought some beautiful fabrics for my collection and use and that means I will do a little sale soon to pass on some bits of antique fabrics that I have enjoyed and used in my work.  I always keep little bits to remember the beauty and feel of them. I have added two photos of my treasure.

Threads of time studio is going to be moved around a bit and I have got some help coming to help me move some heavier pieces ... not everything can me moved where I might like because of windows but it is time for a little change about.  I will give me a chance to vacuum behind and under things that I can not usually get to, a Spring clean and a little face lift is just the thing. A little change around will do me and the studio some good I believe ..

Designing things to stitch is another part of what I do and I have found when I draw something, I then trace it so I always have a copy of the exact piece to reproduce it if I need to and to date it, I keep them in files so that I can always have my original sketch and a copy always of the design before it is stitched.

Also I have been sourcing things to hand dye with madder and dye some fabric ( antique French linen) I am after that deep red that madder produces I have some designs in mind and so I can not wait to get started.  It can take days to produce with mordanting the fabric and then dyeing it and leaving over night etc so thought to be able to be patient with it I would throw myself into that along side the make over in my studio and then I am not tempted to not wait.... Its important to me to get it right.

Lists have been made of things to do and what I would like to achieve along side some things I need to do at Thimble cottage.  Getting ready for Summer in the studio and garden as well, it is a busy time of year along side designing and stitching

Well thank you all for joining me today and I hope you have enjoyed our little catch up.

As always take great care and Happy Stitching until the next time.

Sarah XX

 

Spools of threads, ribbons and a tidy Studio.

 

Creativity is the thread that stitches

 joy to the fabric of life.

Welcome I am so happy you are here, get cosy in your favourite chair and snuggle up with a warm drink, its my vintage ramble time.  Lets spend some time together talking all things vintage and stitchery.

The weather has improved over the last few days and I thought it was time for me to Spring clean my Threads of time studio.  Dust, vacum and change a few bits around and of course check on my stash of beautiful fabrics and make sure no damp has managed to get into the boxes and cabinets over the worst of the Winter.  There is heat out there that stays at a constant temprature so all should be well, and it was... phew!

I have recently purchased a few antique bobbins and wooden pegs and wanted to spend a few hours winding on any vintage threads and wools I have purchased over the last few months.  I find it a really great way to not only display them but it works so well when you are in a middle of a project, you can get your chosen thread or ribbons and just cut the length you require and there are not tangles or knots to contend with.  It works well for me having them in the middle of my large table out in the studio and in a old drawer.  They snuggle up together and make me smile when I am out there and it is such a practical way to store them for constant use.

Just as you unreel the thread from a spool, I want the past to become the present. In her mind the past became alive and was the present.

Shunryu Suzuki

I felt so much better when I took time out of my stitching day and had a good few hours to sort out the studio ready for the warmer days when I will stitch there daily with the stable door open to hear the birds and watch the beautiful fox gloves out of the window. 

The next thing was checking on my jars of mother of pearl buttons and of course my very precious rare carved ones but they winter inside my cottage in my little office.

All in all it has been a really productive day and a real treat to go through gorgeous treasures that over the years I have hunted and truffled for.  

Always on the look out for any old working mill spools, shuttles and that sort of thing especially when in Cheshire as there is the working mill there called Quarry Bank and I have spoken to you about it before .. It is looked after by the National Trust and is still producing fabrics to sell there on the hundreds of year old looms.  It also sells on occasions antique bobbins and spools and I always go there to check.  I am a member of the National Trust which means I can go to their sites as many times as I like with out paying an admission fee, its just my yearly membership.  This
means I can go in for a coffee and a quick look and go or stay longer ... 

If I only have a little length of vintage ribbon these go on old wooden pegs, again keeping them neat and tidy for use.  As I think you all know that is what I do with my threads as well, they are all wound round old clothes pegs as well.  I purchase pegs

when I see them and the antique ones generally are cheaper than new ones which makes me really very happy indeed.

Whilst I was in this mood for organising I looked through my fabric scraps.  I have a basket for the larger pieces but I also look into the smaller bits and cut out hearts of various sizes for my jar of hearts and then there is a large jar with the tiniest of bits that I can hand stitch onto projects and memory rolls as well.  I use every last precious piece and with hand stitches you can invisible baste these little bits of fabric treasure and they look so wonderful.

When I can I like to find antique kilner/mason jars and I make a pretty pin cushion top on them all and then use them for all the above stitchery items.  It makes me really happy that these incredibly old jars, no longer suitable for food storage get a second life to look pretty and be so very useful to me.  I have a large dresser in my studio and there they sit in all their beauty with treasure kept safe within.  No moths can get to the precious contents.  

In the  Spring through to the Autumn/ Fall I always have fresh flowers in my studio it somehow makes it all come alive and feel so cosy and homely and has that hygee feel

to it some how.  There are always throws and quilts over chairs and Lloyd loom chairs because its England here and Summer does not always mean hot weather!  I have my Cath Kidston radio in there for a little background music on occasions as well.   

My studio is my happy place and it feels very homely the only thing I wish is it had a toilet down there but I guess it makes me get up from stitching and wander up the garden path to the cottage and I can also get lunch or drinks because I would stitch probably and not get up to do that.. which is not good for anyone is it?

In addition to all of the above it is a chance to stock take and make room for other goodies that will be found at vintage fairs this year. I can not wait for the re-claimed fair in March which is not long now, this weekend coming in fact and it will be lovely to catch up with friends and hear all the news and listen to all the laughter.  Coffee and cake will be had and of course a really good truffle around as well, I am really looking forward to it.  

It seems to have been a really long and hard winter this year and I have hibernated  really it has been freezing weather with snow, hail, thunder and rain.  Open fires and staying in the warm so I am hoping it will be a warmer day as it will be the beginning of March  and that weekend would have been my dear Mums Birthday and I do get a bit sad she is not with us anymore, that a Mothers Day continues to be hard for me ( it has only been a year and half I suppose but it will do me good to be out and about that is for sure.

Anyway thank you all for stopping by I am grateful to you all and I hope you have enjoyed our catch up.  Until the next time take great care and as always....

HAPPY STITCHING1

Sarah XX

The tales that cloth can tell, take the Jane Austen coverlet?

 

I love history and vintage is my vocabulary

Welcome to my vintage ramble, join me.  You are so welcome, make a warm drink and cosy down in your favourite chair, it is so lovely that you have joined me here for a catch up. Enjoy.

Fabrics such as old linens and cottons really do develop their own softness and character over the decades.  For me, at least there is nothing like them and I really love to go on the hunt for beautiful pieces to use in my designs.  Even the tiniest of scraps are welcome for me and I keep every tiny little scrap when I cut into them.  So many projects can be made from a little bit of beautiful fabric or indeed little bits can be joined up with tiny stitches to make a little patchwork of beauty to use in all sorts of designs.

As you know I always go on about the stories contained within and this sets my imagination on the go and I imagine what some of the stories might be. 

When I went to Jane Austen's cottage in Hampshire  last year, one of the loveliest of things was a quilt or coverlet as there is no wadding between the two layers, that Jane and her sister  Cassandra and their mother made together.   There are surviving letters that speak of the quilt making and reminding one another about finding fabrics from old clothing to be able to continue with the making of this so beautiful of quilts.  I stood there staring at it behind the glass and my mind wondered what stories this beauty had contained within in its weave.  The gossiping and laughter these fabrics were a party to.  The joys and sorrows and dreams of two young woman when at that time their options were limited.  Can you imagine the conversations each little piece of fabric over heard, it fascinates me.

The coverlet/quilt measures approximately  262cm X 232cm  and has a patchwork top and a cotton backing. It has a central panel as a diamond with birds and basket of flowers and the out edge is made of over 2500 tiny diamonds and at least 64 different fabrics. It is said to have been made in C1810/C1811.

We do not know exactly when this patchwork was made, but we do know that the Austen women were working on a quilt in May 1811 as Jane wrote in a letter to her sister, Cassandra, “Have you remembered to collect pieces  for the patchwork – we are at a standstill”. 

 So as you can see every scrap of fabric is useful and every piece has a story ...

I have started a few little fabric scrap tins from the tiniest of pieces to even, as you know, if you have been here with me for a while now my jar of hearts.  The heart jar has some beautiful pieces of fabrics cut into hearts for my work.  Some of which I will probably never come across again.  It is like a time capsule of antique fabrics through the decades and believe me if there was a fire that jar would be rescued and come with me.  A fabric history jar of beauty ..

Sometimes I have been lucky enough to pick up little packs at vintage fairs of tiny pieces of delicate and beautiful antique fabrics.  The joy I feel and the happiness it brings when I pick one or two to add to a project or memory roll. Adding layers and adding to history and I imagine in a 100 years from now who will be wondering about things that I have made or the sewing journals I have penned , will people be wondering like I do? who knows.. only time will tell.

For now I am happy in truffling and bundling fabrics to use.  Cutting little hearts from pieces of fabrics and of course creating and imagining along with designing and sewing.  The mindfulness of every stitch and the food for my soul, it makes me happy and content and brings joy to my life here in Dorset.  Nature here is abundant and so much inspires my everyday. 

It is not too far to go to the beaches.  Sandbanks is only around 12 miles away and Lyme Regis is under an hour for me to get my fix of breathing in the beautiful salty air and beach combing to find gorgeous seaweeds to press which I consider precious gifts the sea gives up to us on occasions.

The weather here has turned really very cold again with hard frost and some flurries of snow, so the log burner is lit and the candles and fairy lights are aglow.  I am working

in my favourite cosy chair and not in my studio.  Watching the flames dance and listening to a podcast or audio book whilst I stitch.  I know Spring is not that far away but for now working from Thimble Cottage is my preferred place to create.

I have been sat sketching designs whilst they are fresh in my mind and to be honest I love the process from drawing to stitching and seeing how my design unfolds.  I love the hand stitching of projects and sorting through any threads and fabrics that I wish to use in my designs.  

French knots are one of my favourite things to embroider, not to everyone's liking I know but what you can achieve by lots of little knots is really quiet amazing I think.

In addition I am loving the running stitch or Kantha stitch as well, it adds depth and texture to a piece and it is so simply to do when you get into the rhythm and flow of it and then the even and slow rocking of the needle and thread makes for a productive method in slow stitch. 

As you all know if you have been with me here of my stitchery journey for a while now, I am an avid journal keeper and especially of my sewing.  I like to document threads, fabrics and some methods and I even note if I have put something into a piece and do not like it.  I try not to have to unpick any work.  On antique fabrics that can be very delicate it can leave marks which I really do not like to do.  I write things down to document my ideas, likes and mistakes that I feel that I have made in a piece that I have stitched.  Little sketches of things and I have a journal purely for quotes or words to use in my work; I enjoy writing and so it adds to my enjoyment of each day.

On a personal level I have started writing out my family history in a journal and hand writing census and family members through through the decades.  My family history on my Fathers bloodline is where I have been researching for years now.  I would love to do my Nonna;s side ( his mum) but she came from an Italian Mum and so it is proving a lot more difficult I must say...  Although my Great Grandmother who was Italian married here in England at a private church on the Cricket St Thomas estate.  I was really amazed at that.  My imagination runs wild over how did they ever meet.  No one left to ask in the family from that era so it will probably remain a mystery ..

Since my last blog I have had a trip to Cheshire as my lovely friend who went back to Oz flew from Manchester Airport so I have been seeing friends up there.  I managed a

little truffling around the area and of course it is old mill country so able to find very old bobbins and some lovely spools of thread and lots of very old pegs to wind some of my beautiful embroidery threads around.  I managed to purchase a very old piece of cotton sheet that was really thin and delicate, to my delight and is easy to tear so that the edges are lightly frayed which I love to use in my work.  In antique shops around there you get a few very old loom shuttles and industrial things like that, I am yet to find old bits of fabrics that I love to use in my stitching but I probably am not looking in the right place ..

I have noticed this week that the days are getting longer and I am so happy with that, it is around 6pm that the sun sets and soon enough the clocks will change and it will be much longer days and night will be shorter which suits me ... my stitching days will be longer and some sewing in the garden listening to the birds will be here.  

On that happy note I will leave you now and thank you all for popping by I appreciate each and every one of you.

Until next time take care and of course HAPPY STITCHING!

Sarah XXX

 

Gathering beautiful fabrics, threads and thoughts ...

 

My cosy place is under a antique quilt wrapped up in love, warmth and history.

Hello and welcome to my vintage ramble, please make yourself cosy with a warm drink and curl up in your favourite chair and  have a read along with me today, I am so happy you are here you are most welcome.  

Jack Frost is still visiting here in beautiful Dorset, We have days where it is warmer but still he is out in the early hours of the morning with his paint brush and glittery paint. It is so beautiful to see however cold it is.  I am happy in my work and designs and more often than not I choose to be by my log burner in Thimble cottage to stitch rather than my studio right now.  My studio is warm but there is something about looking up from the gorgeous cloth and threads and seeing flames dance and the candles lightly scenting the room.  My stairs always have fairy lights on them and with the darker, shorter days right now it brings light and warmth.  it is a happy and cosy space to create on these darker Winter days for sure.

Wisdom comes with Winters

Oscar Wilde.

So there it is I am busy creating and photographing at the moment.  The floods have gone down but has left everything boggy and wet and although I love, even on cold winter days to go walking by our river it really is not terribly safe or pleasant slipping around, even in walking boots.  The banks need to dry out a bit before I venture there. I
am a member of the National Trust so I have been going to places under their care for my walks and went with my sister and her gorgeous dog several times and oh my the snowdrops through the woods have been so very beautiful a sea of white and green with their little delicate white flower heads bobbing in the breeze, truly I love seeing them it is hope that Spring will not be that far away.

The bed of flowers Loosens amain, The beauteous snowdrops Droop o'er the plain.

The crocus opens Its glowing bud, Like emeralds others,

Others, like blood.

With saucy gesture Primroses flare, And roguish violets,

Hidden with care;

And whatsoever

There stirs and strives, The Spring's contented, If works and thrives.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Of late I have been waking earlier and it is morning but still very dark.  I have been taking my first coffee back to bed and planning my day.  Then it is down stairs on go the fairy lights and the candles are lit whilst I go through beautiful little piles of vintage fabrics to create with.  I find this start to my day really mindful and cosy and I am trying to embrace our Winter months in the Hygge way to keep happy and busy.  I am looking forward to warmer days again because this Winter has been particularly soggy and cold.

Eagerly I have been designing things I would like to make for patterns and happily

starting to stitch some to see if my own instructions make some sense and finding different ways to stitch them  It is February but my new journal is starting to have lots of ideas and words ...I found a project that I started sometime ago for me and have finished.  It was antique quilt panels and I have added sayings and some beautiful antique carved mother of pearl buttons to them and now they are ready to be framed I am pleased to say.  I feel the weathered and worn texture,  the history contained within and being preloved makes them so special.  Adding more history to them for others to look at and not be in a drawer befits them some how.

I think side by side framed and hung will be just the right way to display them and befits their age and beauty. I know have to try and find old frames for them or at the

very least get the frames made with non reflective glass so that the fabric does not fade.  It would be such a shame after being made over 100 years ago and some squares been saved as clearly the quilt must have been unable to be used on a bed for which its purpose was intended, to end up in a frame to fade all of its original and beautiful fabrics would be a disaster in my humble opinion.

Vintage fairs about to start in earnest and I really can not wait to go truffling around, I am always on the look out for beautiful old fabrics and of course meeting up with friends and catching up over a coffee.  The laughter and chatter does everyone some good after the hibernation of January and into February, it has been so cold and icy and the other day, in Dorset we had thunder and lightning, frost, hail stones and eventually about 4 inches of snow!  It was quiet amazing really but not inviting to wander out any where.

My lovely friend went back to OZ at the begining of this month and I do really miss her.  For one when she is there my Brita water jug takes on the magic power of always full ready for the next warm drink (grin) and just the little things of the laughter all day and discussing things and our memories that are special to us.  I am hoping she will fly back very soon.  She loves vintage fairs too and last year she went to several with me.  I must admit not much sewing went on but hey we had such fun.

I have been sorting piles of beautiful fabrics with reds.  Red is my favourite colour as you probably guessed but I have some ideas going on and I wanted some sort of grab bundles and I have tied them with old French laundry labels and they are so beautiful I think I will struggle to untie them and use them !!

The other thing that kept me out of mischief this week was getting my antique typewriter out and popping in some old French linen in the roller and typing some words and sayings for a project I have in mind.  It was so much fun to do.  Typing on a laptop spoils you a little and I had forgotten how hard you need to press the keys but the old look on fabric does look really quirky and pretty to me and it was a hour of such fun.

Another change I have made this year is reading.  I have not been giving myself time to read books.  One of my favourite writes is Meg Morton and I have her latest book that came out in 2023 ( can you believe) anyway I have decided that each day I need to read at least two chapters a day.  Some of her chapters can be 14 pages and I am pleased to announce this is working well.  The reading kind of stopped when my dear Mum was so ill.  I would read and then think 'what did i just read then?' it was terrible my mind was so scrambled and when she passed away in October 23 I just did not pick up a book.... until this year and it is such a joy everyday and hour reading and I look forward to it daily.  

Well that is enough rambling for today, I must not keep you all too long.  Thank you all for popping in and sharing your time and warm drink with me.  I promise it will be not as long until next time.

I wish you all Happy Stitching time and a Happy Valentines day this coming weekend.  I hope you will join me again soon.

Sarah XX

Story telling through fabric art.

 

Winter is the time to cherish a cosy chair with slow stitching and a warm drink.

Hello and welcome to a long overdue blog update please make yourself a warm drink and cosy up in your favourite spot and settle down for a vintage update, so pleased you can join me.

I am so sorry it has been so long coming, what with life and Christmas I honestly do not know where the weeks have gone to turn into months.  Welcome to you all and I wish you a very happy and healthy New Year.  Lots of exciting things are  hopefully happening this year and so It would be so helpful to connect to my other apps if you can.  You Tube and Instagram. Instagram is one.tiny.stitch and You Tube is Threads of time studio.  I would be so grateful to you all if that is possible and you would like to keep up to date with me.

So I have to say that not a needle was picked up in December with all the things going on and having a friend stay from Australia until the end of this month.  However I do need to and she fully understands that so I am here firstly on a catch up.

Well in November here at Thimble Cottage we had lots of snow at the end of November, I remember waking and opening my bedroom curtains and all was normal and it was 7am.  I had packed my cases to make the drive up to near Manchester where a friend lives and from staying there for a while I was to pick up my friend from Manchester airport.  I had planned to leave at 9.30am after all the work traffic
for my five and a half hour journey including one stop only.

I brought down my cases and of course a basket of stitching and my book to read.  I did all the normal things that we do before going away, shower, breakfast, making bed and checking windows etc.  As I got ready to go to the car to pack it I could not believe my eyes.  Large flakes of snow were falling my black car was now white and I could not see my path from the garden!!   I went outside and my lovely neighbour said to me " Oh you are not driving in this surely?" I however assured her I was but should the journey become difficult after say 25 miles or so I would turn back.

I loaded my car and tried to clear my screens which was almost in impossible as the snow was just falling from the sky.

Anyway I got my 25 miles with nothing on the road but snow and decided with the heated windows on and my seat warmer and provisions I was doing ok and to continue. What was so funny is I reached the beautiful town of Bradford upon Avon and there was NO SNOW..... people were pointing and staring at my car which by now had on the roof and bonnet at least eight inches on it.  Children were pointing and the confusion on faces was comical..... Just outside this beautiful town I joined the M4 to go to M5 and M6 and towards Manchester with no snow at all.

In the fields when I came off of the M6 there were signs of snow but that was it.  It was an exciting journey I can tell you.

What I will just tell you is, is that my friend brings me coffee and it is wonderful, what will I do when working when she goes back home!!!

As you know I love to design and write down in my journals ideas for future stitchery projects and of course I have a journal for sayings and quotes as I love adding words to my work or even one word only which can evoke all sorts to our imagination.

Journal keeping is very much part of my life and is very important to me and I have enjoyed this morning  threading needles and getting ready with new designs. 

 One of the things I had for Christmas from my Sister is a jar of old spools of thread, the excitement when I opened it ... later that day she said I hope you like it, I bought it in a charity shop and I didn't even try to knock them down on the price!! It made me laugh as my sister is not a stitcher but finally she gets me!!! 

I also had packs of tulip make needles which are my absolute favourite things and not cheap but so worth the money.  They keep razer sharp for much longer and are happy to be sharpened in a needle sharpener too.  All in all it turns out to be cheaper than purchasing cheap ones that really do not last at all.

So I am going to be adding to my designs and to my journal of quotes.  Sorting through my beautiful fabrics and laces, threads and projects and enjoy slow little stitches.  As I said above some exciting things are in the pipeline and I would love to take you on this slow stitch journey with me.

The cosiness of lighting candles and the fire and sitting with the thread pulling through fabric is almost hypnotic  and with the weather at the moment too.  We have had more snow this last week and floods by the river which has turned to ice with minus 7 degrees at night.  With the wind chill factor just going out to fill the log basket makes my hands so very cold, so thawing by the fire with journals and stitchery is a real treat and productive too.

Story telling through fabric and words and working on antique and vintage fabrics with all the history they contain is such a wonderful thing.  Designing and making things of beauty and adding to its story
is a delight.  I am so happy to be back and creating.  

One thing I found in a charity shop in Cheshire was this incredible tin and I keep my orts in it ( little bits of threads to long to discard but to little to put back on a spool or skein of thread.  I love this little tin of possibilities. It is so much fun sorting through for a little red, green or neutral thread for the tiniest of stitches to finish something.

In addition to that I found some wonderful green velvet ribbon too and I know it with be stitched with love on something.  I can not believe that 20p would buy this treasure.  wrapped up in tissue now and in my ribbon drawer and labelled waiting for its turn to be used and loved and repurposed.  

Truffling for treasure remains a favourite pass time of mine and still amazes me what some discard as not useful amazes me but oh so glad they do.  

I am still keeping on with my little English paper piecing and I am really looking forward to making some pin cushions to sell.  I have made mine and I love it as it is filled with crushed walnuts that smell of lavender.  It evokes Summer and the beautiful heady smell of warmer times to come.  It helps sharpen pins and needles and is all hand sewn.  Its a labour of love and with precious antique paisley fabrics back and front.

If anyone reading this is interested please let me know I will be making only 8 of them.  They are fiddley and time consuming but oh so worth it and would be a wonderful gift to your sewing basket or as a handmade gift for someone.

I hope where ever you are you are safe and cosy, certainly in England with our winter we are having right now.

Getting on with creating and sharing more tales from Thimble and the tales from the cloths that I am creating with. See you here soon.

Happy Stitching!!

Sarah XX