The joy of undemanding November days ...

 

My Instagram feed is filling up with images of Christmas decorating already.  There seems to be a trend to hurry through each month, each season, each occasion without slowing down to enjoy each for what they are. 

I love the undemanding time of November - it carries none of the expectations of December where lists, plans, gifts & shopping dominates. 

November is a welcome sigh, to feel the earth settle, to enjoy the colours of nature as the leaves drift underfoot in a thick spongy carpet.  The morning mists bring a mysteriousness to the day, sounds are muffled, shapes are half hidden & everything feels different, yet the same. 

November has not given way to harsh winter frosts, the biting cold, the icy grip of deep winter. It might be muddy & murky but it has charming colours, yet too few enjoy it fully. 

I enjoy the slowness of it, the busy festive season will be here soon enough, November days are to be savoured for the richness they bring to the year.

I used to do this poem with my younger students & it captures this time simply, but well. 

November comes 

And November goes, 

With the last red berries

And the first white snows.

With night coming early,

And dawn coming late, 

With ice in the bucket

And frost by the gate.

The fires burn

And the kettles sing,

And earth sinks to rest

Until next Spring.

By Elizabeth Coatsworth.

Advent begins at the end of November, I like hold off putting up a tree till mid December because it stays up until Epiphany or Twelfth Night in January. I do not hurry Christmas either.

Slow down,  write your cards intentionally, & enjoy November as the welcome pause ... 

Thank you for stopping by, it is always appreciated. 

Dee 🍁🍂🪾

Remembering with a poppy heart ...

 

A part of my tutoring time that I found inspiring was passing on the importance of Remembrance Sunday & the history behind it. 

There is so much history around the wars but war poetry was popular with my students, especially Shropshire born Wilfred Owen. I wrote about him last year in this blog post. 

The two minute silence has a strong South African connection, having been recommended by Sir Percy Fitzpatrick. 

I will visit Shrewsbury Abbey later in the week & will update on their tremendous effort ahead of Remembrance Sunday. 

I have had it in mind to sew a poppy heart & today while out & about, I paged through a vintage book & saw some phrases that inspired me. 

While on our recent Gentlework sewing day, several people added written words from a vintage book Christine had & it really added to their work. 

The vintage book I found today is printed on heavy card so perfect to use as an additional bit to my stitching.  It was a mere 50p, & I know I will use it for more words in future projects. 

I drew a heart shape on a fabric base, added various fabrics from my stash to it, mindful that the rough brown fabric resembled the conditions many encountered on the battlefield. I added in various stitches & then cut red fabric circles to use as poppies. 

These were doubled up & attached with just a single French knot in the centre of each. 

I stitched some red French knots in other places, it was one of those makes that comes easily & in no time I was happy to trim the edges, then use a sturdy mercer thread to sew up the edges with blanket stitch. The thread blended well, not distracting from it at all. 

I added in a fabric loop, and stuffed it gently when I was almost back at my starting point. 

I turned it over & cut out a few phrases & words from the vintage book. I had to use an all purpose glue to stick them down. 

I am pleased with the impromptu make;  it is appropriate ahead of the services this weekend & a timely reminder to honour the service of those who paid the ultimate price on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month. 

Thank you for stopping by, it is always appreciated. 

Dee ♥️

Imperfect …

 

Imperfect - flawed,  damaged, defective; the concept so many of us work to overcome. 

It is the one word that brings angst, the feeling that we must try harder to work on our flaws, limitations & mistakes. What if imperfections are the authentic parts of us, the parts that do not demand perfection? 

Perfection is unrealistic, unattainable & it hinders creative thinking that you should only do something if it can be done perfectly. It overlooks the process of learning something new. 

At our  sewing day, Christine said she had a dish of ‘imperfect buttons’ that she was gifted. 

They are buttons that are badly formed, poorly cut - imperfect examples. She invited us to take some & use them. I picked up a few. Some had a lovely smooth feel, others were more rough, all different. Some had bits missing, others imperfect holes.

Today I glimpsed them in the little envelope from our day & an idea came to mind immediately- to celebrate their imperfections. 

I decided to machine sew a tag for it. My sewing machine does lettering, the size is fixed & the results are often … imperfect. 

The imperfects joined each other on a small padded sewing make. 

I will keep it near to where I work as a reminder that imperfect can be fine …

Thank you for stopping by, I always appreciate it. 

Dee 🧵🪡🖼️📍✂️

Pancakes with a hint of ginger ...

We do love a treat of fruit, pancakes, yoghurt & coffee, especially on slow weekends. 

I opened a jar of syrupy stem ginger last week to use when I baked an apple & ginger loaf. 

I still had a few stem ginger balls so I cut one of them up finely to add to my pancake batter - which is this very simple recipe that my mother had always used. 

It can be made thinner with more liquid for larger pancakes, we like the little ones with fruit.

For about 8 small pancakes - 

1 cup of self raising flour 

5/8th cup of milk (about 175ml milk)

1 egg

A slither of butter mixed in (about 20-30g, I never measure)

Mix it all together with a hand whisk, the slither of butter gives the pancakes a nice colour. I added in 1 stem ginger ball, cut very fine. 

Drop several large spoonfuls on a pan to cook, flip over when the bottom side is cooked (it takes less than a minute each side). 

Serve with cut fresh fruit, yoghurt, maple syrup if liked & coffee or tea.

The stem ginger gave a very subtle taste that went well with the fresh fruit. Variations are good & the above recipe is a great standard one that can be made up in minutes. I never add sugar to my mixture because we have them with sweet fruit. 

I hope you have time to make some too. Thanks for stopping by, 

Dee 

My Nature Finds Gentlework keeper

 

I shared some of the lovely Gentlework treasures in this previous post. 

I opted to do a Nature finds keeper, one of the larger makes because I am often out in nature or our local woods.

 I always come home with some bits I have picked up.

These are in my conservatory at the moment. The leaves & twigs often end up in the garden later on, the stones often in the top of pot plants where they are seen. 

My late Mother was a great letter writer & her letters often had something inside so I had to open them very carefully.

Sometimes it was a newspaper cutting she thought I would enjoy, sometimes a special card, often on printed paper - To a special daughter - & quite often there was a guinea fowl feather inside because she knew how much I loved them. My love of picking up things came from my parents. 

These precious letters are kept upstairs in my little desk, along with the fabric letter keepers I made separately for my parents letters. 

This was Christine’s beautiful one, her distinct style so recognisable. 

I love the natural colours & precise stitching but I'm sure it took her hours & hours to do it. 

I am a bit impatient & wanted to have something done in my allotted time. 

Lettering is slow for me, not always neat but it is something I have been working on. 

However, I often find that the letters are not clear so I made mine larger - with hindsight I think they would have been better smaller but .... 

I folded a piece of linen in half, used a heat erasable Frixion pen to write FINDS then used 2 threads of variegated thread to stitch the lettering. 

It was not as clear as I wanted so I whipped the stitches with the same thread. I have been working on my letter stitching but it is not there yet. 

I love seed stitching, the randomness of it appeals to me so that was added to the top.

I like pockets so there is a double front pocket & 3 vintage buttons & added stems & leaves to.

Place for several pockets in the double inside - 2 on the left for little treasures & a larger one on the right, with vintage buttons I added at home from Olive's button tin. 

The back was initially plain which I did not like so I made a double pocket at home with fabrics I had & stitched them on carefully because the holder was already blanket stitched around the edges. However, the thin blanket lining between the front & back layers meant that I could ease my needle between them to add this additional pocket on. 

I like it much better now - there was a moment when  I thought it was ok, not my best effort but once the additional stitching was done, it was better. I added a feather from letters from my mother, then some leaves that were on the conservatory table. 

Much better & a sweet little holder that will change regularly.  The iridescent honesty pods are perfectly at home in the little pockets. 

I remind myself that Christine's exquisite examples are just a suggestion,  & mine is my own effort. It is easy to judge your own against those examples ... 

Thank you for stopping by, it is always appreciated

Dee 📍🪡🧵🖼️🍂🍁