Happy Tartan Day!

The Fashion History Museum‘s monthly newsletter landed in my In-Box this morning and first item of business was announcing today is National Tartan Day. As Wiki has it,

“Tartan Day is a North American celebration of Scottish heritage on 6 April, the date on which the Declaration of Arbroath was signed in 1320. It originated in Canada in the mid-1980s. It spread to other communities of the Scottish diaspora in the 1990s. In Australia, a similar International Tartan Day is held on 1 July, the anniversary of the repeal of the 1747 Act of Proscription that banned the wearing of tartan.”

Thought I’d pass that along in case anyone has some tartan in their closet. 😉 But if not . . . . .

Image from Great Scot https://greatscotscotland.com/

You may have already seen this on other social media sites, but if not, check out Great Scot, the company that’s made a new plaid in honor of Ukraine, and is busy weaving more yardage for all the orders they’re getting. From their home page:

“With every single Ukraine Forever tartan item we make, sell and ship we will donate funds to the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal, run by the UK’s Disasters Emergency Committee.

“We also have a donation option on our checkout page; we will match the value of any donation made up to £20.

Thank you.”

The new tartan has been named the Ukraine Forever Tartan, and it’s beautiful! Click over to the company for a video to see it being woven.

Now back to the Cambridge, Ontario Fashion History Museum…

They’re a lovely smallish museum housed in an old post office building, and have some interesting things to exhibit. (Ever heard of bead strings? 😲 Me neither. Imagine all those antique beeeeads. . . .)

Today’s addition to their YouTube collection gave me several new ideas for some of my own pieces – more repair/recycle/up-cycle! All I need is time to get to them all! If you’re curious, look for the 38 minute interview with Carol Campbell.

Psss . . . . . just in case you’re wondering about that pile of giant paper. It’s been reduced to 5 neat piles of pattern pieces, scraps tossed, and planning begun. 😅

Yes, I know there are only 4 piles. The 5th got cut out after this piccie. Reeeally!

🌻 💕 🇺🇦 💕 🌻

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silly saturday

From chaos to . . .

Order!

changing seasons

We’re having a slight taste of Fall today, but my enthusiasm’s tempered by the knowledge that we’re back to the 80’s by end of week. Heigh-ho.

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Sewing is a bit up in the air, too. Have had another New Look 6871 cut out, with some lining basted in place to avoid the neckline stretching out, but it’s been sitting for several weeks.

What I have been doing is crocheting up the leftovers from other projects. Here are 2 examples, the first one (cream & multi) is still in progress.

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  Using cream at ends…

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  …with this in the middle. Am on the last cream section!

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  Impossible to show glittering gold thread!

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  One more neck warmer completed !

Am currently reading The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles and enjoying it. (That’s in between listening a second time to whatever Louise Penny is available via the library app Libby.)

Incidentally, Libby includes magazines, so I’m keeping current with Country Living UK (always fascinated by the glimpses from Lucy’s Attic24 blog). Also Simply Sewing and Simply Crochet (both are UK publications), Peppermint magazine (Australian), Scotland magazine (mum used to get it), and Sew News (U.S.). Very sadly, Threads magazine isn’t available.

But special thanks go to Lizzie over at The Vintage Traveler, for mentioning PieceWork, which is available on Libby. Some really fascinating articles about all sorts of “things made by hand and the history behind them.”

Has anyone been reading Lucy’s Blogtober postings over at Attic 24? For those not in the know, Lucy — considered by many to be Crochet Queen, as well as living in possibly the most charming spot for photographing (Skipton, Yorkshire, U.K.) — writes a daily post during October and I’m thoroughly enjoying them.

Last but not least, here’s a second prototype of the soap sack, using more leftover yarn. It’s been in use and nothing’s fallen out this time, so it might be a working model.

It’s just a rectangle of (U.S.) single crochet, folded in half, with three sides stitched together, and a 3-strand yarn braid woven around the top (4th side) for a gathered closure. Be sure to leave a bit of room at the top of the rectangle for slightly larger soap bits!

I remembered to do that because I’m struggling with how to fix the too small pockets I put on my last denim dress-to-skirt conversion. But that’s for another time, after I’ve tried out an idea that came whilst I sorted through the jumble of assorted to-be-ironed items thrown laying on top of the ironing board.

Trying to convince myself to at least iron the pillowcases and napkins and leave the rest for later, I sat down to check email. . . and here we are. Well, I’m sure you never have days like this, do you? 🤣 😆 🤪 Aaagghhh!

👻 It’s C🎃ming! 👻

Season of Light

Finding sewing friends online has brought me great inspiration and joy for which I am eternally grateful.

An additional pleasure has been learning more about customs in other parts of the world, and one of them is the Winter Solstice.

This year I remembered and made up my own little solstice wreath. No log fire to curl up in front of, and I don’t generally do a tree, but candle light is always magical for me.  Which reminds me ~

Thursday at 10 A.M. (U.S. East Coast time) I’ll be listening to the annual Kings’ College (Cambridge) Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols.

Another shared custom that will be a bit different this year, but still wonderful to hear.

“One feature of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols that is especially important to the College has always been the participation of the congregation of College members and members of the public. We regret to say that this year we are not able to have a congregation in the Chapel.

“We are sorry to disappoint those who were thinking that they might like to attend. We hope that you will be able to enjoy the broadcast and to assist with this we will be publishing the order of service on this website.”

Stephen Cherry
Dean of Chapel
26 November 2020

I generally listen online via BBC World. All the details are in the link above.

Borrowing a tradition and adding an American twist – An old theatre buff and friend from Washington (D.C.) sent me a link to an hour-long radio-style rendering of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

It’s from the historic Ford’s Theatre downtown. (Yes, that Ford’s Theatre, as in Lincoln’s … you know.) I thought some of you might be interested.

Fair Warning: It’s only available through 1st of January 2021. Scroll down for a 6-minute description of how they made the program, and  several downloadable colouring pages.

Wishing you all a wealth of Happiness

Filled with Love & Joy & Light

xx❤️xx❤️xx❤️xx❤️xx❤️xx❤️xx

Macro Monday

A few close-ups to keep up my interest for the next phase of the French connection soft furnishings project. . . .

. . . . whilst awaiting squidgy package .   .   .   .   😬

 

silly saturday ~ soft furnishings

The fronts

A minor achievement this week: 2 small pillows stuffed, sewn up and completed.

Ta-dah ! ! !

These are the fronts.

Love that hat, but ain’t too keen on the corset. But it’s red, so that’s okay.

A bit of searching round t’internet and I found this panel is actually part of an entire quilting series.   Hmmm .   .   .    .     .       🤔

A bit more thinking about it, as we know we do with something we really want to enjoy to its’ fullest potential  .   .   .    .     .       🤨

Taking a deep breath, ignoring my fierce promise-to-self not to buy any more fabric, I decided to acquire just a teeny bit more.

But only so’s the whole rest of the original purchase could be used and enjoyed to the full, instead of always regretting I hadn’t used x or y instead — y’know what I mean?   🙄

Next week a small squidgy package is due .   .   .    .     .

 There’s more to come, Lovelies!  🤣   😆   🤣

Textile Tuesday

the pile of sweaters, clean & ready for… storage/re-design/trash??

lighter weight green merino. definitely a tee, but with how much ease? still deciding……

yummy, fuzzy red merino

the big pillow fabrics

(The above piccies are repeated here from a 2015 post that is referenced below.)

Linking up with Wild Daffodil’s Textile Tuesday post. She’s unearthed some fabulous fabrics, and I’ve linked her to a 2015 post of my own. (And copied the photos from that post above.)

In the 2015 post I was mumbling on about swapping out winter clothing for spring, and showed some of the sweaters and fabrics involved in my musings.  (See above.)

Below is a photo taken just now, showing how I combined the green corduroy and the upholstery fabric into two 20″ pillows.

I could have done one all-green fabric and one all-upholstery fabric, but chose to make them identical, so half-and-half they had to be. Now they match.

I generally show the green in summer and as they’re corduroy, have the nap going down so the shading matches. The upholstery pattern side I use in winter.

That reminds me… still have some of that green cord . . . 🤔

 

november windows

Joining in with Wild Daffodil’s monthly photo challenge, here are some windows from the Chicago archives. Hope you enjoy❣️

can’t imagine why…

… but about 10 days ago I started replaying my box set of BBC’s The Good Life (1975-1978), aka Good Neighbours.

It’s still as delightful as it was when I first saw it (the 90’s), plus the fashions and hair-do’s Margo (Penelope Keith) wears are classic 1970’s. It’s been fun crocheting and pausing to watch, and a much needed respite.

What I haven’t mastered is sewing and telly. But when sewing came up in one of the episodes, I took a screen pic to show that altering was commonplace then, even for Margo Leadbetter.

barbara (felicity kendal) helping fit margo’s over-sized chorale costume

that gorgeous animal print caftan

Also had to include one of her Jungle January outfits – a glorious caftan that must have been silk because it swished so beautifully.

That mysterious blue crochet became a hat that got finished, along with another beanie-style. (Directions are here.)  It had to be a beanie because I ran out of the blue, and used some cream to complete. Both are on their way across the pond and might be worn for the March NHS event, provided they fit.

this is double crochet , as an experiment

quite like the way it turned out

this is the beanie, done in single crochet

the needed addition

Hope everyone has a grand week!

coaster-size

oops ~ they multiplied!

 

no, they will never find the microfilm!

And I shall not reveal my secret

even to you,

handsome colonel,

until we are safely

back in the jungle.

 

Hat and scarf sewn particularly for Pretty Grievance’s Jungle January.

Hat pattern from Folkwear.

sunday sevens #39

curried pork & wild rice

Golly, another week is gone! Hols are starting to creep closer… And my Sunday Sevens are mounting up. Would never have thought I’d still be doing them. If you’d like to join, wander over to Natalie’s explanation, and have a go!

This past week has been a bit hectic over on this side the pond, but nicely so. If you’re hungry, have a snack before viewing as there are several food photos. Just a suggestion . . . 😉

Monday I was off to get hair done, but forgot the camera. Everyone in the salon crochets, so I took a recent magazine along for them to look at.

My lovely stylist and I discussed knitting. She was intrigued by arm knitting, which I’d never heard of, so she located a video on her phone for us to watch & discuss. We decided it looked too much like having both arms tied by heavy, hot, thick yarn.

Next thing I spy is Ali, aka Thimberlina, arm knitted a prezzie Saturday in 30 minutes, and it looked great! Click the link to see her Sunday Sevens, which have all the deets – thank you, Lovely! 😘 Hope she includes some deets, as I can’t figure out what sort of yarn she was using!

Tuesday I made a lovely curried pork recipe mum used to make. I used uncooked wild rice, lots of candied ginger, cubed apple and raisins, and chicken stock. After browning the chop on both sides I dumped everything into a glass dish and popped it into the oven at about 350℉ with a sheet of foil laid over top so rice wouldn’t dry out.

happy hallowe’en!

The rest of the week sort of whizzed by whilst I tried to ignore the heavy politics. Early voting began Thursday and lines were around the block all over the state. Is that unusual? Sorry, haven’t a clue.

Here’s another favourite Hallowe’en card, framed and on bath counter (hence the mirror).

Did sit down over several days and do some decorative stitch discovering. I took several doubled pieces of a cotton/linen blend and started numerically and have gone through almost all of the stitches.

It’s proving several things – that I do have a proper chart (thanks to Rainbow Junkie), and this exercise is helpful because sometimes the chart only shows 1 of the pattern. That 1 can be a bit enigmatic if there’s just the one. If I can begin concentrating on purchasing solid colour fabrics for basics, these samples will come in quite handy.

stitches 23 to 41

stitches 39 to 49

stitches 50 to 59

Taking it easier on Saturday, had take away delivered from the local pizza place – manicotti and salad. Yum!

And Sunday have popped another batch of double chocolate bran muffins in the oven. When I made the last batch I measured out for 2, and left the leavening out of the second batch. Then I put the second batch (dry ingredients only) into a bag and popped it into the freezer until needed. A quick mix of the wet ingredients, plus baking powder, and into the oven. Now I’m supplied for another few weeks. 😀

double chocolate bran muffins

hmm . . . which button to use on my Folkwear middy jacket?? https://curlsnskirls.wordpress.com/2013/07/09/indy-pattern-challenge-metro-middy-blouse/

yummy manicotti!

It’s finally turned a bit cooler here, with temps in the 60-70℉ range instead of 70-90℉. However, leaves aren’t changing yet, so I’ve switched my computer desktop photo and this blog background to photos from last November. Guess it’ll be closer to Thanksgiving before we see colour around here. Please keep taking those luscious piccies of the glorious colours elsewhere, Lovelies!

The buttons? Oh, Am spending time staring at them, deciding which one to add to the very top of my Folkwear Middy jacket, in cotton & linen, which is now in season. Pattern is here, and super easy to construct.

May your week bring delightful surprises and happy sewing!

a bit o’ vintage

(Written Thursday & scheduled to post Sunday, just in case 😉)

Took time a week ago to visit some antique shops in a nearby town, and spied a few interesting items… presenting them in keeping with Wild Daffodil’s photo challenge.

(click any pic to go to captions)

always think one of these would be grand to lounge on & read

could use several of these bookcases!

nice dark headboard… bet the quilt isn’t vintage, but it’s a nice green… mostly!