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