BATTLE OF THE SOMME 97 years ago.

Some years ago I took a writing course and although I sold non fiction articles I never managed to get fiction published, though I did win a couple of competitions. Since this story concerns 1 July 1916, however light it is, you might be interested to read it.

QUILTS AND HAND SEWING

At last I've finished a quilt I began last year and left over the winter. There are 480 2" squares all together with as many different materials as I could find. Inevitably some are used more than once.
I didn't want to use any pale colours in it so I've called it 'Darks and Brights' because that's what they are. I framed the multi-coloured patch with cream and then added a border of the material I used to back the last (handmade) quilt I finished. There are still scraps left over so they'll turn up in other quilts from time to time.

There are materials which have already been used in other quilts such as this flying lion but there are others which I haven't used before.There's still a pin in some photos holding the layers together before I Tacked it.

Other pieces are'fussy cut' like this shell,( and joined so well, as you can see!) or I've used up the last scraps so couldn't be too picky about the appearance.

 Teddy in a beret...

A Christmas cat...

A penny farthing cyclist piece which came from a long-time friend...the paisley piece above it I used in a Trip Round the World quillow in 1995.

 And these dalmatians are the last piece left over from a dress I made my almost 40 year old granddaughter when she was very much younger.

The backing is a new sheet bought a few weeks ago at a car boot; very expensive at 50p! The camera hasn't really captured the colour because it's  purple. I didn't quilt it so did Mennonite Tacking instead, which holds the layers together just as well, only differently. There are tiny pink stitches which show in the square below the red, the dark green starry and in the  pink square below that. (These photos all get taken as the quilt's on the line and moving in the breeze... )

 This is how the reverse looks with just these small stitches visible.

 I used cotton perle No.8 for the Mennonite Tacking and a sashiko needle because of the thickness of the cotton. Good old Hobbycraft!

I didn't put on a separate binding but turned the sheet to the front and stitched it with multi-coloured cotton in colours which related to the border.

And last of all, the all important label.

Another quilt to pack away...

I've got some handsewing on the go, too, just a little bit at a time, something else which I began while Kath was still in Stoke, I think, so several years 'old'. These Grandmother's Garden pieces aren't meant to go together, it's just that I make handsewn quilts in small sections so that I don't have to cope with the weight for a long time. The exciting part will be when I play at laying out other sections, when they're made, and work out how wide the finished quilt will be, then I can really get going on it.

I've also got some machined patches stuck on the grandly named Design Wall, which is an absolute must as far as I'm concerned and since it's my house I can do what I like. When I first came here this was another of the First Things I did - sticking sheets of polystyrene on the spare bedroom wall and stapling a winceyette sheet to them. Then drawing felt tip lines horizontally and vertically to give me a line to which I can butt up patches and keep them level. The snag now is, I can't reach the top line as I've shrunk in the last several years. Ho hum...

I saw a strippy quilt heading to Briony's blog and liked it so decided to use some scraps which seem to keep piling up and make one for myself. Picking my way through my UFO box I found some patches which I'd make so long ago I can't remember when, though they are larger than Briony's. So I decided to carry on with those. The larger squares mean longer strips which then means cutting more strips and so we go on... I try to do a couple of squares a day after breakfast and before I do anything else. Well, that's the idea. I made the last two on this row this morning before coming downstairs and carrying on with this blog, begun yesterday.

Just as a tail-ender - I threw out some old bread for the badgers last night (that's extras), opened the Top Shed door to get the three usual handfuls of peanuts and found the field mouse sitting on top of the plastic bin containing the peanuts. So I left four or five nuts for it... Years ago I had left the lid off an empty bin and in the morning there was a dead mouse in the bottom. It must have fallen in and then couldn't get out so I make sure lids are on tempting 'smelly' bins.

HOT AIR BALLOON

When I was going to bed last night I saw a glowing light in the sky not too far away. I turned off all the lights and tried to make out what was going on. The flickering light gradually faded until all was dark.
This morning, these remains are hooked onto the cropped walnut tree. Looks to me as if it's one of those Chinese hot air lanterns and, caught in the tree, it burned itself out.

What do you think?

FLOWERS IN THE GARDEN, early June 2013

 A couple of days ago I took some photos of the garden but, looking through my saved photos, I found I'd posted them in other years so have only picked a few. It was a sunny day, at the time, now quite cloudy... The flowers above are camassia. They've been flowering well this year but going over now.

 The first two poppies this year. Such a lovely colour in the garden  and by accident more than design planted them near to wolfsbane (Aconitum) and alliums. Orange and purple. Plenty of poppy buds, if the rain doesn't spoil them.

 Welsh poppies, ajuga (aka bugle) which is good ground cover, some of the aquilegia which has sprung up all round the garden in plenty of unexpected colours.

 Forgetmenots are always welcome when they first appear but then, they seed everywhere, ready for next year. It'll be one of my jobs today when Gillian comes to garden - shortly.

 At the end of the garden, behind the bottom shed there's this hawthorn tree which I included in my garden as I didn't want it to be destroyed when the developer cleared the scrub several years ago.  So much top soil was dumped that the level of the ground rose considerably. There's a robin nesting box in there which was used the first year but not since.

 Photinias always give a good show of colour, too, with new leaves showing this bright red. Well, it is a variety called Red Robin.

Plenty of flowers on the rowan.

Alliums and wolfsbane by the poppies and (below) a little group of alliums. The badgers ate one group of bulbs...

Gillian's here so I'm off to work. If my new specs are OK (collecting Friday) I'll probably change the font size back to this but at the moment I can hardly see it!!! There's no size in between...

THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN HERE ON 8TH MAY!

I intended to post this photo on VE Day, 8th May, but could I find it? Of course not.
But I've just discovered it while I was looking through my Family Photos file so here it is, a bit late...

 You couldn't do this nowadays, you'd have to get Police permission to close the road, a Council OK and probably lots of other 'Permissions' as well. I expect we'd had the bonfire in the road by then...
This is obviously a commercial photo and would have been 'all' the children who lived in the road, the photo taken from an upstairs window. I'm sitting at the table next to my ginger-haired friend who's wearing a paper hat and we're facing the camera; looking from the left there are two ladies standing then two seated children in front of them - that's us! I have my skimpy plaits which probably pleased me no end...
I thought that, now the war had ended, I could go on the bus into Croydon and buy some red, white and blue ribbon...some hopes. The first time I heard a works siren for dinnertime break shook me a bit, why was the siren sounding???  Isn't it odd, the things that remain with you?

IS THERE A CATERPILLAR IN THE HOUSE?

When I'd pegged out all these socks this morning I wondered if I had an Alice in Wonderland kind of caterpillar tucked away somewhere indoors!

 As you've probably guessed from my quilts I do like bright colours - and the same goes for socks. Some of these are English, most of the plain ones were bought in C& A in Holland. They're generous enough for my big feet, unlike a lot of the English socks.
The clothes prop on the extreme left is holding up next door's fence panel - again...

 

MY COMPOST HEAP

 I thought I'd show you my compost heap(s) as they are looking particularly nice this year; the snow seems to have worked wonders on them. My main shed is on the left, anything on the right belongs to my nice next door neighbour. Gillian and I mean to cut down this ankle damping greenery but invariably time runs out before we get very far. There are forgetmenots on the left, a lovely tall bunch of grass on the right and the foliage beyond the grass seems to be  a weed, sorry, wildflower, called avens which is related to the cultivated geum. It's time some nettles turned up here, as well.

The honesty has done its own thing from plants which were pulled up and thrown on the compost. Aren't they nice? And all without any effort on our part! There used to be a sycamore tree here, just in front of the honesty, and a hawthorn which was sheltering in its shadow has made giant strides,too. The fence at the back is 'mine', put up to enclose the dark tree, a hawthorn, which I wanted to keep when the developer was tidying the field and cutting down everything. I 'stole' 18" of his field...he told another neighbour on the 'other' side of me. This compost heap is the second heap I made but it's now out of commission.

 This is the currently used compost container, built by the people who lived in this house before I arrived. I tried to take it apart many years ago but now I'm glad it's there!

Another lovely weed crop, this time of Goosegrass or Cleavers. It cleaves to you if you try to detach it from your clothes or fingers!
 My Book of the British Countryside by the AA also gives Sticky Billy and Hug Me Close as alternative names. It was formerly fed to newly hatched goslings, it seems.

 Here's something else which has done well this year - Garlic Mustard or Jack in the Hedge. It's everywhere! These plants are on the site of Compost Heap No.1, or rather the site of three wooden compost containers which worked well, making very good compost, but it was too compacted for us to be able to turn. I gave up watching gardening programmes which assumed everyone was male, young to middleaged and in good health!

Here's another view of the honesty  and next door's shed.

Clambering across on this piece of parcel string is a self sown honeysuckle which used to twine round the sycamore. After that was cut down I had to find another support for it and this idea worked out all right last year. Hopefully it will end up covering the shed roof. I bought a roll of this string more than 20 years ago at Wycombe Car Boot and it's still going strong - there's a fair amount left. It's a soft, fluffy string which is strong - and blue tits like it for pulling apart as nest building material. Tugging on an end the little bird  will stand on tiptoe as it leans backwards, trying to detach a piece of soft lining. Not one has fallen over yet!!

ANOTHER QUILT, TINY TEDS AND MORE CAT BLANKETS

Well, another quilt finished at last. I began it about this time last year but I don't machine or quilt during the dark months, my eyesight just isn't good enough to see accurately. I began it again perhaps six or seven weeks ago. I quilted it diagonally on the premise that by starting across the centre and working down to the corner I would feel that it was moving on quite quickly. Each pale green square (would you believe) in the centres has either a heart, star or flower quilted in each of them.

These are some of the patches which show the details of the material I used - these dandelions were brought back from the US y-e-a-r-s ago by a friend.

 Dragonflies came in a set of fat quarters given to me by Sarah when she was at Uni.

 More material given by a friend but this was a dress length. I shouldn't have used it, really, as it's too pale but seen at close quarters it looked OK. Never mind.

I can't remember whether I bought this at a tabletop sale or whether the seller brought it in a dustbin liner some days later with other pieces and yardages. It goes on and on but I expect to finish it one of these days. Weird and wonderful creatures...

 The only bit of cat related material and that's a scrap I saved...

 Another piece given to me which seems to go on for ever...

 This is the back of the quilt. The backing material came from the same shop - Fabric Land - where the dragonflies originated. I do like a black background with bright colours for backings or borders. I can't be subtle! The binding is made from a piece of purple/mauve material bought - New!! - from a website; the text on the selvedge indicates that it's copyright to the V & A, Sold for Noncommercial Home Use Only and not to be used for children's sleepwear.

These two views are closeups of the backing and you can just see the quilting symbols, too.

It's so important that whatever you make is named and dated and possibly a title, too. I took this photo as the quilt flapped to and fro on the line. Since I've looked at so many Records of Baps, Marriages and Burials plus Census records I find the different styles of handwriting are interesting. Victorian writing isn't all Copperplate by any means. That's the reason why I handwrite my name though I must admit it's rather stylised, It's not usually that legible.

   

 Can you guess what this is? Kath got it in one!
It's my Granny's lump of beeswax discoloured by smoky coal fires and since she used candles for light that must have contributed. I don't use it but don't want to throw it away. That's for someone else to decide on in due course when they don't recognise it!

This is something else I'm doing in my 'spare time'... In October there will be another craft fair in Haddenham and since every time I take Tiny Teds out to sell they all go, though this is putting the mockers on it, saying that. The teddy 'skin' takes about 1hr 50 mins to make (I'm getting quicker) and because I know the pattern by heart I can make them at the new Knit and Natter group which has started recently in Haddenham library, which is now run by volunteers. I try to keep up a production line for the various stages then I don't get tired of doing just one operation. This is the first batch of finished Teds.

I haven't managed so many cat blankets recently, just these three on the line on a dull day. I bought a book a year ago of 'Ripple' patterns and these zigzag patterns are one way of trying something new but not t-o-o huge! I forget that these patterns tend to pull in the work so that it's not as wide as you think it will be; I added pink garter stitch borders to the one on the left, not totally successful but I don't expect a cat will bother too much that it's now a bowed shape!

Talking of cats, Stuart's stable cat, Tigs, had to be put to sleep a week or so ago. She had recently- diagnosed diabetes and was not happy. The photo was of her two years ago when she was well, looking just like the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland. She's on top of the hay bales, out of the way of everyone. Now she's buried in the field beside the dog, Keira, who died a couple of years ago.

More mundane matters - I've been let off paying my parking fine by a letter which told me the fine has been waived - on this occasion. Hmmm.

Do you think our weather will ever settle down this summer???