Gone To Earth

Inspiration...

I've been catching up with my blog reading this week and I've seen so many pretty and inspiring things that I now have a great longing to sit and sew a while.

I've been catching up on Indigo Blue's , block making. I love the pinwheel and the log cabin style block with the different width 'logs'

I also came across this wonderful tutorial by SewChistine for baby slippers, aren't they adorable but I've noone to make those for.

Then there was this, a quilt that Helen (Anharad Handmade) has made for her son. I really love it. I can completely identify with the sentiment she expresses... there really is something special about a house when you've put such a stamp of yourself on it. Your own handmade, handcrafted bits and pieces are what make it home.

I think that's what I need at the moment to spend some time creating something for home. My attraction to Helens quilt and to Indigo's blocks has been so strong I think it's going to have to be a quilt or a quilted cushion cover at the very least.

Having got that far in the ideas process I need to decide exactly what. Getting down to specifics is never something I'm not good at...

Last week however, seemed to be full of conversations and blog related e-mails about charm squares and jelly rolls. Charm squares, jelly rolls and what to do with them.

It has all set me thinking....

It's possible to make some of my favourite blocks with charm squares and jelly rolls but I've been just a little slow in grasping just how useful they can be. I mean you can create all kinds of four patch and nine patch blocks without thinking too hard and then there's the disappearing nine patch block. (One of my favourites!) Then you can start cutting them into triangles and combing squares and triangles.... even more possibility - endless possibility and I intend to start exploring some of them.

I've had these Moda Charm squares in the shop for a while....Twiggy and '9' both designed by Sanae

But Rowan don't do pre-cuts of my favourite fabrics so I'm guessing that'll have to carry on doing them myself.

So, I'm cutting some 5 inch charm squares out of these;

...pretty fabrics from Amy Butler's Daisy Chain fabric - the Aquatic palette....

..... and my take on a 'jelly roll' out of these.... (Jelly rolls are a Moda product - pre-cut 2 1/2 inch fabric strips cut widthways across the bolt.)

....fabrics from Anna Maria Horners - Garden Party collection - I love the bright. bold colours and patterns in these.

Just a thought but have you ever looked at Moda Bakeshop blog. There's a wealth of interesting patchwork projects on there, not just quilts but bags, purses, skirts, pincushions, journal covers all kinds of pretty things. If the projects use any of their jelly rolls, layer cakes, charm squares or any the other bakery related named pre-cut fabrics, the dimensions of each are given in the sidebar. So you can cut your own if you wish and use up some of that 'stash'.

Now, I need to make something out of these, just to get to understand their potential a little better . Have you ever used fabric pre-cuts and 'cos I'm nosy inquisitive what kind of things are you made out of them?

The growing season...

I know that I wrote ages ago about the fact that we'd finally gotten ourselves somewhere to grow 'stuff' and I haven't really mentioned it since.

...This was the state it was in when we began to make plans.....

.... that's an old pig hut right at the back - that was in amongst the dead apple trees and brambles...

O.K. I've posted a few photographs on flickr but that's because it's just such a good way of sharing phtographs with people that you can't drag entice take over to our corner of a field.

We've had our successes and our failures and we've still loads to learn, perfect and get right. But, then this was always intended as a way of getting some perfect 'downtime', when your mind isn't buzzing with 'work' and all the other traumas of life.

We struggled to get some beds sorted out in time to grow anything this year and we made a decision not to define all the beds with boards or edging or to do anything about creating proper pathways until we discovered whether we'd put the beds in the best places. Whether the beds were too long, too narrow, too wide, in the best places to make the most use of the light .....

...does it look like a geological dig to you...? So, that's all to do beginning this autumn and next spirng.

We don't have any of the really nasty weeds such as mares tail but do have a great deal of this;

.... and nettles and something called fat hen. Now, I'm told that you can eat both of these..... ummmmm! Well, the nettles I'm prepared to give some space to around the edges 'cos they're good for all kind of wildlife and that's fine with me. The fat hen is probably good for wildlife, certainly the ladybird larvae seem to love it. But, in salads.... me? 'Fraid not - I can't get away from the fact that they're weeds not food.... I used to feed them to hens as a child, but maybe you've tried them?

I've planted these around the perimeter;

...and these amongst my broad beans...

... I'm experimenting with a bit of companion planting.

Despite my resistance to neetle and fat hen eating, I have cooked and tried turnip tops, which I confess was completely new to me. They're delicious! Someone's been keeping secrets! Admittedly, you start off with a cauldron of greens, a bit like spinach and once you've cooked/wilted it, you end up with something that wouldn't fill an egg cup but my goodness! with a little bit of seasoning and a dribble of olive oil they were gorgeous! Even my daughter ate them and that is saying something.

We've had radishes, turnips, potatoes (We're pretty much self-sufficient in potatoes at the moment. We thought they'd help work the soil as this is its first year growing anything other than nettles and brambles in at least 50 years.). We've beetroot, which just melt in your mouth. Broad beans....

....peas

We've courgettes, pumpkins and butternut squashes to look forward to as well as sweetcorn, garlic, onions, and chard. There's jerusalem artichokes, salsify, kohlrabi, broccolli, runner beans, dwarf beans ..... all kinds. (We were sad enough to cut our first runner bean into quarters the other night - well we all had to try it.) When it comes to actually eating some of them I'm going to have to consult a cookery book. Sad but true. It's a fascinating journey.

Our biggest failure or mistake was to feel that our cabbages grown so beautifully from seed would be o.k. There don't seem to be any rabbits, probably due to the fact that a lady runs a fox sanctuary nearby. But, they obviously don't hunt pigeons (Probably too full of rabbit!) ..... they wreaked death, destruction and complete havoc upon our beautiful cabbages. We tried to rescue them but it was no good and we've had to rootle them out again.

We've probably gone a little bit mad with some things and not sewn enough of others. We've a lot more to learn about 'succession', and potential yields per plant, but my neighbours are happy helping out with our 'gluts' . If all the leeks and celeriac we have growing succeed, we'll be living on various vegetable soups and stews all winter but hey, next year we'll understand so much more. It's all lovely and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

So, this is the good thing that the happened last week. The arrival of our hens. We've three of them. Dahlia, Henoria and Masie.

...Masie....

...the delightful and haughty Henoria...

I'm afraid that Dahlia will never stand still enough for a photograph.. but I'll get her soon. They're still behind bars at the moment, but the plan is that once they've settled and I think they are pretty settled, then they can venture into the garden. (I'm just a bit terrified of this - their wings are clipped but even so....)

We've had them just five days and Henoria has just laid her first egg ...

... those are big hands by the way....

My son's face when he found it was an absolute 'beaming' picture full of pride... Aw! Rosie sits out on the grass talking to them and they both sit out on the grass feeding them - grapes ! Yes, I did say grapes.

Getting them in the first evening was entertaining but now they trot off to bed at dusk and it's a very easy task. More than can be said of our children. Obviously we're better 'chicken parents' than parents. Oh well!

I hope you've survived all those pictures....

Last week...

Last week was the most appalling week.

But, I'm not going to launch into one almighty rant... I need to fight the urge to stamp, scream and shout. (It would look rather silly!) Nor am I going to describe how it felt to arrive at my children's school on Friday afternoon to find Fire engines everywhere..... I'm just going to move onto more pleasant things - the 'giveaway'. With everything 'computery' that was going on I wasn't able to post any results. The server where both the shop and my blog are hosted kept crashing, so for huge chunks of time I couldn't see orders, process orders, see or post to my blog.... It is indescribably frustrating when everything is completely out of your hands like that.

So I'm moving on from all that anguish into a new week and with hopefully some postive high spots. (There were some nice bits last week but I'll show you some pictures of those soon.)

Thank you to everyone who joined in with the 'Giveaway'.

....remember these... pretties

So, I wonder what number is going to 'come' out of the Random Number Generator thingy. It's always hard isn't it - all that anticipation....

...and number 20 refers to;

VintageViolet

All rather appropriate seeing as how Vintage has just had a birthday! So, if you'd like to e-mail me your address I'll send these pretty little fabrics off to you. I'm sure you'll find something lovely to do with them.