Early morning baking - date, banana & cranberry muffins ...

 Hi there, 

Do you find that yourself doing some baking on the spur of the moment? I stopped off at our local farm shop & they have a policy of 'War on Waste' so fresh items are regularly put in the basket when the shelves are restocked. I often pick up a bag of local apples that are reduced to share with our many blackbirds in the garden. That is their absolute favourite snack. 

Today there was 2 bags of lovely bananas, the one bag just getting dark spots on the skins & I knew they were perfect for date & banana bread.  I knew I had everything else so it was a good find. 

The pack of dates was leftover from Christmas, the cranberries & blueberry mix is from the health shop grape tree - it is a lovely combination to keep at home. 

I have shared the recipe I use before  for banana bread  / date, cranberry & banana bread - I always pop a few muffins in the freezer for when we want something. 

The spices can be what you life - cinnamon, mixed spice etc I use less sugar when adding dates or cranberries as they are sweet. It is a favourite in our home & perfect for using up soft bananas or random bits.  

I hope you are inspired to bake some too, let me know if you do, 

Dee 💕

Completing my mixed media creative challenge ...

 I recently posted my efforts with a mixed media creative challenge. 

The workshop, which I did on previously when it was run (free) involves mark making with 2 colours - one set of marks very densely, the other with more negative spaces. They are then cut up & reassembled before being stitched to unify them in to anything you like. 

I decided to make mine in to a long scroll & there were moments when it just didn't work, when my blending stitches to blur the boundaries literally just blended & all the work could not be seen.

However, it is always useful to think of what you can do & I decided to couch a long, gold cord across the 140cm work. It followed the curves & patterns made by the paint marks & then there was a way forward again. 

Because the green & gold was so similar, I brought in red threads, stitches & fabric to lift it. I had to do a lot more stitching to make it all flow but it worked. 

Finally after almost 2 weeks on this project, I pressed it (face down on a towel so the stitches were not flattened) then made a cotton  backing part  to attach the scroll to.   

The finished length was then attached to the wooden reel with some stitches at the end to hold it all together. I had sewn two long lengths of the same couched gold cord to the end so it could be wrapped around it all to hold it as a scroll. These were decorated with large pearly beads to add weight to it. 

I am pleased with the finished result & being a nice compact scroll means it is easy to keep. 

Have you taken on a   challenge that is out of your comfort zone? Tell all. 

Thank you for stopping by, for reading, subscribing & sharing ... 

 Dee 💕

Two different hand stitched letter holders ...

 I gave you a glimpse of the letter holder I have been busy making since I got home from South Africa late November. I asked for one of my late Dad's shirts to be kept for me so I could use it in a sewing item & I had it in my mind to make a complimentary letter holder with it. 

I made a letter holder to keep my Mothers letters & cards in nearly a decade ago when she passed I used a vintage cloth that belonged to my grandmother, then used by my Mother as the base for her hand sewn holder.  This is her letter holder  - very feminine & in the colours she loved. The little crochet work was some of my grandmothers & I used them on this work. 

For my Dad's, I used the shirt as the main part with the button flap visible. I had bought some fabrics with a milagro heart print on it in black, red & gold. Dad was spiritual rather than religious so this fitted well as it is a sign of love for humanity, the flame reaching out of the heart with a cross evident.  I have a large gold milagro heart at home & I like the symbolism  of it. 

This was some of my standby fabric in case I did not have a shirt to work with. I also bought some fabric with inspirational words that fitted & knew it was dependent on the shirt colours & patterns. 

My Dad loved the comfort of denim & he wore it so well with his tall, lanky frame so I always knew some additional denim would be needed. The round patch on the front of the holder was one from the shirt sleeve, the sort of elbow patches we had on our high school blazers & it was a perfect shape for the front.  I used the epaulets from the shoulder in the inside as flaps - I had no pattern, it just flowed as I sewed  & cut. 

I made a second, more flat letter holder with various fabrics layered over it - stitching heals the heart for me; this is backed with denim again & is a perfect size to slip the old photos & documents in. 

These two masculine letter holders join my journals & my Mothers letters on my desk upstairs - within easy reach to re-read the news but safely kept together. 

It is a relief to have completed something tangible but useful - it really is the small things that matter in how we remember people & keep memories safe. Have you done anything similar? Please share ... 

Thank you for stopping by & taking the time to read, 

 Dee 💕

It is not about the length of life but the depth of it ...

My regular readers know of the loss of my beloved Father to Covid in January 2021. This past November, I did the last thing asked of me as a daughter when I saw that my Fathers ashes were interred with my forever young brother & Mother. 

Two years on - we never know (thankfully) when it will be our last conversation with someone. If we did, we would not want it to end, we would want to say more, to say everything ... 

There are three deaths 

The day your body ceases to function, 

The day you are buried / interred, 

The time in the future when your name is no longer spoken.  

Nothing can prepare you to no longer be anyone's child, no 'dearest daughter' card will ever drop through the door again, you are effectively orphaned.  It is sobering & a final line in the sand of life that no one will ever ask something of you as a parent to a child. 

Losing both your parents means you lose the connection to your own childhood because they were the keeper of your earliest memories, of your past & no one has that special connection again.  

Material things do not matter at the end of it all; they are for the living to squabble over; legacies need only memories, love & dedication.  I honour my parents by remembering their best qualities - like all parents, they were growing up at the same time as we were.  We are truly adults when we accept our own shortcomings & those of our parents. 

While I live, the names of my dearly departed ones will be spoken because their genes are my genes. 

I sometimes catch a glimpse of them in my mirror - their eyes, their hair, their cleft chin, their broad forehead, their mannerisms ...  

I brought back one of my Fathers shirts from South Africa & have been making it in to a special letter holder for the precious letters written in his neat copperplate script.  I made one for my Mother's letters some years back with special cloths from her. Dad's one is very much his colours, his style, immediately recognisable as him ... 

They are not forgotten until there is no one left to remember, and when there is no one left to remember, we will all be together again. 

 Dee 💕

Mixed media creative workshop ...

 Hi everyone, 

This week we have had snow in Shropshire so no lessons for me. However, it is the third year I have signed up for an online mixed media sewing course. 

 

It is led by a well known textile artist & is broken down in to daily activities which makes it manageable. I browsed one of Gwen Hedley's books I own for inspiration & made two air drying clay blocks which I thought I might use to print with but did not use them in the end. 

The first day is using watered down acrylic paint to mark 2 cloths - one with dense marks in two colours, the other with less marks to create the contrast in the same colours. 

The next day the two cloths are cut up - deconstructed - then pieced together to form a new pattern using existing marks to make connections between the sections. 

They are then enhanced with stiches using various weights of threads etc. 

Because I did this workshop last year, I had an idea of the process & choose green & gold / brown paints as my two colours. However,  I was once again not too happy with how the paints came out so late evening did another cloth with just the gold marks (the colour I thought came out least well). 

While the paints were out, I did a different cloth with green & blues that I will use later. 

I decided to go with the gold & greens as a challenge to see if I could stitch my way to something I liked. I love hand stitching so it is hardly a hardship & I have lots of threads to choose from in my stash. 

I decided to put the cut up sections together in a long scroll shape as I have a wooden thread reel that came from a mill.

Some connections were easy across the fabrics, other sections will need a lot of stitching to look cohesive but it is workable. 

This is my progress with the last day tomorrow when we will look at backing it. My stitching will continue for a while longer & that is fine because it is very relaxing to just choose some threads & stitch away. 

The light in the conservatory is perfect for stitching (even if it is a little chilly this time of the year.) The red needle threader was in great demand to get the embroidery thread through the eye of the needle. 

Who else uses one of these basic (but essential) needle threaders? 

There is no rush to finish within the 5 course days so it is very relaxing to go where the stitching takes me. The stiches I am using are very basic ones that need little thought so the process can flow:

Satin, running & back stitch (normal & detached), seed stitch (my favourite) french knots, & whipped running stich. 

Thank you for stopping by, do you have a project? I love how artists share their skill & knowledge to inspire us to try something different ... 

 Dee 💕

Twelfth night ends the festivities ...

 Twelfth Night marks the journey of the 3 wise men to Bethlehem & it marks the time when all decorations should be down & packed away for another year. 

Mine came down & it all looks rather sparse again - a welcome change in many respects. 

The front door garland / wreath is always a fresh one & it is the last thing to come down. It has been repurposed to hang on our patio chimnea where the birds are often seen rummaging about. I always take off all the decorations first so it is a return to the greening of the house. 

The pretty festive china has not been used as much this year because the household was struck down by flu after Christmas so we were a rather sorry lot who were not up to too much festive gaiety. 

I love the rich berry colours of Christmas & decided to stick to those for a while so I changed the sideboard to Old Country Roses pattern by Royal Albert. I have owned this set for decades & love the classic style. I do not use it often enough because it needs handwashing & is not really child friendly as it is an expensive set.

However, with it out, we might just have a few special times with it. It might even stay up for ages to take in valentines day (that we don't celebrate) 

The candle holder with the heart insert is by Rosenthal  & is again a piece I have owned for years. 

It is a change & always nice to have favourite bits about.

Are your decorations down & have you managed to ease yourself in to 2023? 

Thank you for stopping by, you are always welcome, 

 Dee 💕