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