Normal service will be resumed shortly… I hope!

I thought that I would just do a quick post to let you know that I have not fallen off the edge of anything.

I have had a lovely month visiting friends and family. I have just got back to Spain, ready to catch up on the rest of the posts from Cordoba before my travels start again, to find that my internet is broken!

I do have data on my phone, which I am using for this post with the app, but really need the computer to edit the Cordoba pictures.

Although it was wet a lot of the time I was in Yorkshire I did have a few sunny walks admiring the spring flowers.

I also met my sister’s new dog, Ryan, and went for some walks with him in the woods.

I have also been doing quite a bit of knitting, trying to remember how to knit in the round. I did pretty well with this hat.

It is possible that the internet will be fixed soon, however I leave again in 6 days on my return journey with Katy.

I will be able to do some quick posts from the road and am very excited to be spending 12 days, mainly in France. I am also doing some camping in the UK, and will share that with you all before I return to Spain in mid May.

I will also be updating my Instagram @katykangoo if you want to follow me there.

In the meantime have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Repeating myself

I have found that the last few months of crafting have been very much about making the same sorts of things that I’ve done before, so much so that almost a year to the day that I was putting together some knitted reindeers for a friend, Facebook reminded me that I had made the same things in 2023.

There is a certain comfort in doing the same types of things, and some of it is utility. This year’s Christmas fundraiser was another knitted animal, as I knew that I had some mouse parts in stash that I had knitted a while ago, so thought a knitted ‘Chrismouse’ would be good for the ‘guess the name’ at our craft fair. Turns out that although that I had most of a mouse knitted, there was no head, and I hadn’t got any of the same wool! So all except the ears and tail were knitted again.

She turned out very well though, and with a Christmas dress, and a selection of pretty dresses, spare shoes and a bag, raised 100 euros for our food bank charity in Spain.

She was won by one of our sewing group members who has an eighteen month old grand daughter, so Christina, as I called her, has gone off to live in the USA where she has been made very welcome.

I have also just finished the unicorns, for babies that friends are having, meet Alexander and George.

These are my first unicorns, and they were great to do, the horns were a little tricky as they are a twisted i-cord, and I had to re-do them twice in better yarn, but got them finished over the weekend.

Both of these patterns are by the wonderfully talented Julie of Little Cotton Rabbits. Not only is she a knitting genius but very generous as well. She has just upgraded her removable shoes pattern to include three new styles of boots. That will be brilliant for future knits. The shoes for Christina are the first pairs of removable ones that I have made, even though I bought the pattern some years ago.

I wanted to do some different knitting while here at Ellen’s, so have made myself a hat and wrist warmers. Both are free patterns from Ravelry. The hat yarn is left over from the rabbit I knitted last year for my great niece, Willow, and is from The Range. It is so soft and comfy to wear.

I have really enjoyed this knitting, and they make great travelling and van projects, so have decided to make more for this year’s charity craft fair. Although I have lots of plain toy yarn, I have little of other types, but found a great wool shop in Chesterfield where I bought this beautiful yarn. I love knitting with variegated yarn so am looking forward to casting this on and seeing how it knits up.

I want to develop my skills at using circular needles as well so have got some new ones, as all my old ones went in the great de stash of 2021!

I have also stitched lots of Christmas ornaments, as in previous years, and again these have all been from JBW designs. There were a total of 10 this year, all from the same JBW design booklet that I mentioned in this post. I made these for friends in Yorkshire. They thankfully arrived in time this year, last year they were affected by postal strikes, so I finished them all by September and left them with Ellen to post.

These were the ones for my aunt and cousins.

This cute little mitten was for my Mum, and I’m planning to do more of these, and some snowflakes for the Yorkshire ones this year. I’ve already stitched two.

We had an embroidery workshop part two at sewing group, where I taught people how to use applique before embroidering. These are all patterns by the very creative Jenny of Elefantz.

I love her work, and need to find more things to do with the finished products, sadly Katy now has all the hanging hoops she has space for!

Gale did a workshop the following week and taught us all macramé. I was very pleased with the two little key rings that I made, and have plans to make a hanging tray for Katy that I saw on someone’s Instagram, when I get back in April.

In terms of quilting I extended one of the log cabin blocks that I made in 2020 to make a new cushion for Katy, which I absolutely love.

The applique cushion that I made last year got a bit damaged, so I’ve repurposed it. It will be a craft storage bag once it’s completed, which I’ll keep in the van.

As well as the new small van I showed you a few posts ago, I also got another storage tin for Katy, this was from Aldi and came with free biscuits so that was a win!

I have wanted to try and improve my crochet skills for a while. I have a great book, 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet by Lesley Stanfield that I’ve owned for years. I took it away with me this summer in the van, but just spent the time staring miserably at the instructions, and being baffled by the diagrams.

Luckily when Ellen came to stay in Spain we had a masterclass, and I very pleased to be able to to learn to make all these on the left below, as well as a few more of the large lilac design. Ellen made all the ones on the right and now I have enough for some bunting for Katy!

I finally found a frame for the black work I did last year, based on a tile at the Alhambra in Granada. I had been hunting for ages, but needed a 3 inch square one, and remembered I’d given Ellen some from my old stash. She was very kind and gave it back to me, and it is perfect for the design. I think my next design I need to find the frame first!

In terms of other projects for 2024 I will be mainly looking for small portable ones. I am travelling for nearly 8 months this year, so will be away from the sewing machine, and the stash, for most of the time.

I want to do some different things as well, so will be looking for things that extend my skills. It is lovely to stay in your comfort zone, but I am looking forward to more crochet, and possibly some English Paper Piecing. I love that, but haven’t done any for so long, and that is a great small project as well.

I also have some possible cross stitch patterns that I want to do, there are so many cute caravan designs available! This is one of my favourite, by the same designer as the original caravan hoops I did, Flamingo Toes.

If you have any ideas of good small useful things I can crochet, please let me know. I also need somewhere for things to go, so any suggestions of charities that need things please let me know.

I’ll be packing up ready to leave Ellen’s tomorrow, so will see you all again as soon as I can from my next adventure. This trip will definitely be an exercise in self restraint, as I’m going somewhere with amazing textiles. I am planning to take a very small bag with me, to avoid temptation, but will take lots of pictures!

See you all soon. Until then have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

I do love a good social history museum!

Although I spend a large amount of my time visiting historic houses, full of very grand furniture and amazing portraiture, I equally love museums that capture ordinary life. I feel that it is a vital part of what museums are there for, not only ordinary life 500 years ago, but also 50 years ago. This vital role means that the visitors can connect with what they say, older people like me recalling childhood experiences, and younger ones appreciating how much life has changed.

I had been really looking forward to visiting Norwich, some years ago I went to a fantastic conference at Leeds University, full of presentations about medieval life, several of which were about places in Norwich. This was in 2019, before the world stopped for so long, and I have been meaning to visit ever since. When I met up with Jules at Sheringham, the van lifer who I first met in the Peak District last year, who has an identical van to mine, she had some great tips for me as well.

The first day I went to the castle museum. Most of this is a traditional museum with lots of glass cases full of stuffed animals, and archaeological finds, although they also had some themed galleries. It was amazing to see the finds from the Snettisham Hoard. To think that they were made about 2000 thousand years ago is incredible, and the craftsmanship is beautiful.

The museum also had some good decorative arts galleries with textile treasures in. I particularly love this Tudor embroidered sleeve.

There were several samplers, and this one was unusual, as it is a darning stitches sampler. Most are representing a variety of stitches but this is the first darning one I have seen.

There were some great needlework tools on display, including this beautiful case with mother of pearl thread winders. I love to think of the owner sitting stitching using this and wonder where the other pieces ended up. The knitting needle holders were also really interesting, they are designed to be attached to a belt.

The second museum was the excellent Museum of Norwich, housed in the centre of the city in the Bridewell, a building which has had many uses including workhouse and prison. What I particularly loved about this museum was the themed rooms and the displays. This one below shows a fabric shop from the late 1700s. The original sample books are in the display room, and outside there is a reproduction one , (last photo), that you can study in depth. Absolutely fascinating for a textile nerd like me!

They also had some dressmakers and haberdashery shops set up. The bottom right picture shows the, ‘change card’, from a local department store, that was given in the form of safety pins, rather than coins. An interesting take on the phrase, ‘pin money’.

The grocery shop was fascinating, not least to see how much, or how little the packaging had changed for things. They also had a display of pre-decimalisation coins, which I remember very well from my childhood. I used to get sixpence a week pocket money, thruppence to spend on sweets and the rest to save for my annual seaside holiday.

They also had a whole pharmacy set up. This collection was made by a practising pharmacist, John Newstead, over a number of years, as he wanted to preserve the wonderful things such as the jars and drawer labels as shops were modernised from the 1960s. It is accompanied by a really interesting video about how pharmacists would make medicine for people pre the NHS. It is interesting to reflect that pharmacies now have a much wider role, more like they did originally, in healthcare, rather than just dispensing medicine.

The final section had some great reminders of childhood for me. I used to help my Mum mince meat using a Spong mincer like the one on the right in this first photo, and remember my family allocating money for each aspect of savings, I am not sure we had a tin like this but I’m sure we had something. This must be fascinating for the school children that visit who possibly rarely see cash being used in this way anymore.

There was also a lovely display of sewing related items, I particularly liked the embroidery set in the first case. So many great gifts for future home makers 😉 and a very good summary of what interests were meant to be for girls in the 1950s and 60s.

My third museum was Strangers’ Hall, so named as many refugees lived in the area at one time. This building dates from the 1320s and is now the museum of domestic life. Each of the rooms has a different historical era, and as expected a wealth of wonderful textiles.

The first part of the house is the Great Hall, with some gorgeous costume portraits.

I was particularly impressed with the level of care taken in the interpretation and reproduction of the textile displays, as in this 17th century bedroom, where reproduction bed hangings and a redwork pillowcase complement the historic pieces.

I had a very interesting talk with the head curator at the end of my visit, and she showed me the detailed files of research they have on everything they do. I think what makes this museum so fascinating is that as you move through the different rooms you get a real sense of how people lived in them. The contrast between the dark wood and table carpets of the Jacobean era, and the Georgian decor is really evident.

It reminds me of when IKEA stores first opened in the UK and we were all encouraged to ,’chuck out our chintz’, and go for the very simple clean lines of Scandi style. I did have a house that was almost completely furnished by IKEA at one point, before I went back to my love of colour and lots of different textures.

My favourite room was the Victorian parlour, partly because of the sheer amount of needlepoint in there 🙂 So many wonderful pieces all crammed together. I particularly loved the embroidered book covers. I can just imagine groups of stitchers sitting around a table like this, sharing needlepoint patterns and deciding on their next projects.

I appreciate why some things have to be kept in glass cases, it must be a conservation nightmare to cope with all the dust in these rooms, but it so nice to see things in situ and get a sense of people’s lives with these objects. As proved in my previous post, there is no guarantee that the glass case is going to be safe from things like pesky wasps anyway!

I stayed at the Norwich Caravan and Camping Club site, partly chosen as it was within walking distance of a bus stop into the city. By coincidence, as I drove into the site, I spotted another almost identical van to mine, and the owner Terri, came to say hello the next day and gave me a quick tour of her van. She has a modified boot jump and uses curtains so it was very interesting to see her set up. Her van is on the right below.

I am starting to finalise my plans for next year’s travel. I am leaving Spain in 5 weeks, and am going to be doing a combination of UK visiting friends and family and warmer weather destinations. One of the things that I have just booked though is a ticket for another van life show, next September. I couldn’t make it this year, but am really looking forward to meeting many more micro camper owners and sharing designs and stories. I have had such an amazing year of travel, and meeting lots of different people in all types of vans, tents and caravans. It has been brilliant, everything I dreamed of for my retirement. I am so lucky to be able to have this life.

I have also made a list of all of the blog posts I am going to do about the summer’s adventures and there are another 19 to go. That should take me nicely up to when my adventures start again! Thanks to everyone who follows me, likes, and comments, it is very, very much appreciated.

Although I have missed the date, (again!), I have just had my 16th blogaversay. It is appropriate that my very first post, as to be expected from the 2nd Dec 2007 was about Christmas ornaments, as that is what I am going to be stitching this afternoon, before going on a coach trip to see the Christmas lights in Alicante. I now have around 1700 visitors every month and 437 subscribers! This is my 938th post, so we will have to have a big celebration when I get to 1000 sometime next year.

Meanwhile I hope that you are all well and enjoying life, whatever you are doing have fun, take care, stay safe, and thanks a million for visiting!

More Jacobean splendour, and a crafting update

There are many houses that I have visited that look very similar to each other. Sometimes, as with Hardwick and Wollaton Hall, as well as Gawthorpe, it is because they were designed by the same architect, Smythson. Others are similar as they were built in a style that was fashionable at the time.

To me, Felbrigg Hall, near Norwich, looks very similar to Hardwick, particularly the top of the original façade.

You may notice, if you are familiar with Latin, that the carving on the top of the hall reads differently to how you might expect it to. We are familiar with, ‘Gloria in Excelsis Deo’, partly from the hymn of that name. The phrase means, ‘Glory to God in the highest’. The carving at the top of the house reads, ‘Gloria Deo in Excelsis’. I am not sure why this is, and neither was the guide. it may be that was a more familiar phrase when the house was built.

The hall was extended, so it has a very different feel at the rear, far more Baroque in style. The original part of the hall was my favourite, partly due to the stunning ceilings again. I am not sure if this one was originally Jacobean, or from the remodel they had later but it it very beautiful.

The hall was full of books, and beautiful works of art, collected by the family on their travels, and they had remodelled rooms to display their collections of stained glass and art, as in this room, specifically decorated to look like an art gallery.

The last squire of Felbrigg, Robert Wyndham Ketton-Cremer was a keen historian, and I thought that one of the loveliest things in the house was his desk.

I particularly love that book with the beautiful cover. I have visited so many fantastic places this summer, but have had to stop myself from buying notebooks at every one, I already have too many unused, but I do love a gorgeous notebook. I can just imaging him sitting in his sunny study writing using that gorgeous inkwell.

I love the human touches in these houses. More than the grand paintings, or the splendid architecture, the thought of someone sitting in the rooms, and appreciating them, is wonderful. As Robert had no heirs, and his younger brother died in WW2, he made sure that the house was safe by passing it on to the Trust in 1941. There are also gorgeous gardens, including a very colourful kitchen garden.

As for textile treasures, I think the prize has to go to these two lovely fire screens in one of the library areas, now sadly faded, but what hours of work must have gone into these.

They look like the sort of thing that would have been bought in kit form, possibly late 1800s, but I am guessing as there was no provenance. They have a look of the kind of paintings people saw on their Grand Tours, then replicated for use in their houses.

I had an amazing time in Cordoba last week, so many things to show you, but I must stick with the timeline and finish the UK posts before I even get to the wonders of France and Spain. It is now probably only little day trips in Katy until end of Jan, so I will have plenty of time for updates on a more regular basis. Katy is loving being in the sunshine, and driving around La Marina, and I am loving the freedom to travel to all those places that are too far for my bike.

I have been busy with some finishes. I have finally put together a set of reindeer for a friend who really loved the ones I did for the fundraiser last year. These I have named Rudy and Ruby.

This year’s fundraiser will be a knitted mouse, I have been knitting dresses while I have been away, so just some shoes to finish and the making up to do.

It has been great to be back at my knitting and sewing groups and catching up with everyone, and practising my Spanish again! We have had the first of a few workshops that we are having this ‘term’, a ribbon embroidery one led by Vivien. I didn’t get it finished, but am pleased with what I did.

I am running another embroidery workshop next week, this time with added bits of fabric applique. The lovely thing is that a couple of people who have never embroidered before the last one really enjoyed it, and have been doing lots more over the summer. These are Lynne’s mandala designs which are fantastic, especially as she had never stitched before. She has used children’s colouring books and traced the designs, as they are a great source of inspiration.

It is still sunny and warm here as well, unseasonably so as it has been around 24 degrees this week. Apologies to all my UK friends and family who are freezing, damp and cold!

I had a very nice, and unexpected visitor last week before going to Cordoba, a fellow van owner, and solo traveller, Debbie, who I met in the summer at a festival in Worcester. She was in my area, on her way to Morocco, so she spent a few days parked up at my house, enjoying, and hiding from, the 29 degrees we had that week. It was brilliant to see her, and I am following her adventures now, as she has just arrived in Morocco. That has been one of the very best things about my travels this summer, meeting so many other people who enjoy van life as I do. Being at home is great, but I still have very itchy feet 😉

I need to stay in one place for a while though, if only to have time to plan the next trips! I will be back soon with more of my textile related adventures in Norfolk. Hope you are all having a good time, wherever you are. Have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Busy doing something, working the whole day through…..

I have been getting on really well with the list of things that I have to do before I leave for the UK, so much so that I managed to sneak another thing on to the crafting list.

I was getting some new stickers sorted for Katy, as she is going to be at various festivals and in the display field at one of them, and I saw this lovely slogan that I thought that I would adapt. I have various hoop embroideries featuring caravans in Katy, so thought that a Renault Kangoo would be good, in case she starts suffering an identity crisis 😉

The plan is to chain stitch around the outlines and backstitch the lettering, and add some stars stitched in metallic thread.

I have been really enjoying doing the hoop embroidery with my friends from sewing group so wanted to do some more myself. They have all been very inspired, there were lots of finishes in beautiful colours last week, and some very good works in progress.

Lynne was extremely inspired and has started a sampler of different stitches.

I have done well with the new dress for re-enactment, the dreaded holes have come out fine and I am now on the tidying up all of the seams, which involves lots of nice hand stitching while binge watching on Netflix 😉

I have also finished this cute little cross stitch, that I started last year. This will go in the front of the van when I am at meet ups with one of the van life Facebook groups that I am a member of, so people will know it is me. The slogan of the group is , ‘carpe diem’, which means, ‘seize the day’ . The pattern is an adaptation of one from a cross stitch magazine, not sure which one now.

I have backed it with some of the lovely van fabric that I also used for the other cushions in the camper.

I will also need to sort out the summer crafting projects. I will be taking some cross stitch Christmas ornaments, as I have another 8 to stitch. I will also knit at least one of the unicorns from the latest Little Cotton Rabbits’ pattern.

I will also be making some more of the Textured Dresses as they are so useful for both the knitted animals, Barbies and the Rainbow Rascals dolls that I have been knitting for Christmas boxes this year.

I have only finished Poppy so far, Violet is still in bits in the cupboard!

I have also packed my flower book as I am determined to learn to crochet flowers for a garland for Katy this summer.

They are all great projects for doing in the small space of the van. I am so excited about the summer ahead, I have 4 months on the road and can’t wait to share all of my adventures with you. Last summer I was looking forward to it, but this year I am even more excited as I know how very much I loved it last year 🙂

I will hopefully have chance for a couple more blog posts before I go. Until then have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Everyday life in Spain, cockroach wars, the beach and lots of embroidery!

This is a catch up post with lots of things to show you. Life here continues to be wonderful, the weather is still very good and I had my first sea swim this week which was brilliant. However I am having a constant battle with cockroaches!

In Spain they are as common as spiders and I know that they are often associated with dirty conditions but I do clean a lot, honestly! However, despite my best efforts, at least once a night one of the dastardly little creatures strolls by, while I am sitting on my sofa. They then then stop and glare at me, as if to say, ‘what are you doing here?’ I have taken to trying to catch them and remove them to a garden of an empty house across the road but often they are too fast for me. This week’s score is about 5-2 to the roaches. I love the fact that I have geckos and flamingos in my life, but not the roaches 😦

As well as the beach visit on Sunday we had lunch there on Saturday, to celebrate National Knit in Public Day in the UK. We had a lovely time, didn’t get much knitting done, but one set of the reindeer legs are almost complete now.

I have also finished the bear that I made from the Moses Basket cover for my great niece. This was a free pattern from here. The original was designed to be made from fur fabric, but it worked well from the jersey.

I added interfacing first, which I then zig zag stitched for extra stability. I decided to hand sew as the pieces were small and jersey is very mobile!

I am pleased with the end result, I am calling him Bertie for now. He has a slightly padded muzzle, and his eyes and nose are made from wool felt from a scarf.

Hopefully Willow will really love him and remember the hedgehog fabric. Apparently she used to ‘talk’ to the hedgehogs when she was in the basket so hopefully Bertie will be a great friend for her.

The Liberty lap quilt is now all hand quilted, that was two afternoons of binge watching Netflix, including the wonderful ‘Queen Charlotte’, an excellent Bridgerton prequel. I just did some very simply running stitch following the seams.

My plan for this week is to get the backing on this, and to machine sew the seams on my new peasant dress for Tewkesbury Medieval Festival. Then it is just the dreaded holes for the lacing and some nice relaxing hemming and seam tidying up to do! I am on a countdown as I leave for the UK in 3 weeks 🙂

The embroidery workshop went really well. I shared my selection of the wonderful Jenny of Elefantz’s patterns for this and also directed people to her website as there were quite a few who said they would like to do more things after their hoops. These are some of the previous ones that I have made that people were doing.

The aim was for everyone to stitch a small motif in a hanging hoop, and most people have already finished their hoops.

I always ask my friends for permission to share their photos on my blog and Brenda, who is in the photo on the right above was keen that I should tell you that she found the stitching fine even with her compression bandage.

I always aim to make workshops as accessible as possible so it was great that everyone could achieve what they wanted and found it relaxing. I love doing hand embroidery. I haven’t done any for a while as I have a large pile of finished things that have no current homes to go to, so need to find someone who wants a wool basket, hanging or pouch.

We are doing another session on how to finish the hoops with different types of backings this week. I have added Liberty and lace to my three small van embroidery hoops, and some ombre fabric and lace to the mandala embroidery, as I realised that the felt backing that I had looked very plain from the back when the hoops are hanging in the van.

So I have a busy few weeks ahead as I also have to finish sorting all of my bookings for the summer and my route through France and Spain back here in the autumn. I can’t tell you how excited I am about all of the wonderful things I have planned for next few months 😉

I hope that you are all having a good time as well, and whatever you are doing have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Precision cutting …. and sewing and pressing!

There is nothing like working on your quilt block skills to really develop your attention to detail. Never has the phrase, ‘measure twice, cut once’, been more appropriate.

As I mentioned in my last post I have set various targets for myself for this 90 day period in Spain, and I am thankfully ahead of myself so far. I am just waiting for some wadding for my lap quilt, then I can start on the hand quilting, so thought that I would spend a little more time making blocks for a future quilt.

I still had 8 blocks left from 2020, when I did the Riley Blake block a week challenge, so I have gone back to the site and am making additional ones, using both the designs that I have already made, and some new ones.

It is brilliant that the resource is still available, as are the challenges from 2021 and 2022. Thanks to all the designers that host the tutorials on their blogs, the help is much appreciated!

I first made some scrappy Churn Dash blocks as I have so many small scraps of Liberty left from other projects. I also love making this block and it is really easy to turn it into a scrappy one. I first tried this after seeing a tutorial from Crazy Mom Quilts and it is so effective.

The second block made this weekend is the Sawtooth Star Block, I used this really clear tutorial from Amy Smart from Diary of a Quilter. She has a really helpful printable chart showing how to make the block in multiple sizes as well. I have made this one before as well, but have no idea where these blocks went, they may well turn up sometime!

This time at least, my points were fairly accurate so I am very pleased. I really love these blocks, they are just so pretty!

I have now got 12 blocks made, my aim is 42 for quilt topper for my double bed. I am putting no time limit on this, I will just make blocks as and when I have the time and the inclination. The plan will be to sash them all with Liberty, thus using up more of my scraps.

I am very proud of myself for making these, at one time I never thought that I would be able to make, and actually enjoy the process of making, anything as complex as these.

After my friends have gone I will be getting on with the last two things on the list, the medieval dress, and a bear and blanket made from the Moses basket cover I made for my great niece, Willow, who celebrated her first birthday last weekend.

I also have a pair of knitted reindeer nearly finished, for a friend here who didn’t win the ones I made at Christmas. Then it will be time to set some new goals for my summer crafting! This will include at least one of Julie of Little Cotton Rabbit’s new pattern, which is a horse with a unicorn option, so excited!

I will see you all again in a couple of weeks, until then have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Small Spring fashions

Twice a year our local foodbank charity here in Spain has a fashion show using the clothes that they have had donated to the shop. They always have a fantastic selection of clothes and the show is brilliant. Last year the bridal section had some wonderful things, with some beautiful vintage pieces from the 1980s and 90s. I think people probably declutter once they move here so they get rid of things they have been hanging onto for a while.

I decided that I would do a Barbie clothes fundraiser this time, previous ones have been a Luna rabbit for the Jubilee last year, and a pair of reindeer for the Christmas Craft Fair at the charity.

The doll that I have used for this set of clothes is one that I got in a bundle from Etsy. I wanted a more Spanish looking doll, and so I was lucky enough to win a bundle with this doll and four others, including another darker skinned one.

Here she is in her basket with five extra outfits.

I was originally going to do just do fabric clothes, however I did a lot of knitting of little dresses while I was away, and when I tried them on the doll thought that they looked really cute. I also thought that they would be easier to get on and off for small fingers.

The knitted dresses are from my favourite Little Cotton Rabbits, Julie is an amazing designer and I particularly love these dresses. I have knitted nearly all of them now and they are so easy to do. The pattern is the Textured Dresses one and can be found here. I have also got a few more in stock now for future knitted animals.

I did add an extra four rows after the textured section to make them long enough in the body, but otherwise just followed the pattern. The dresses are knitted from the bottom up so it is easy to alter the length.

I think they look brilliant and love the colours together. The textures make them extra special and are really simple to do.

They are just sewn up at the back to just above waist height and fastened with a button. The rest of the outfits have velcro as well for ease.

I decided to make fabric dresses in the same colours as the knitted ones as I already had the pink one above made. This one is made from a charity shop skirt for the bottom half, and stash fabric for the bodice. I love collecting small scale prints from charity shop stock and have lots in the stash for future outfits.

I also had this turquoise one made but redid the skirt as I wanted things in varying lengths. The bottom of the dress was part of an old skirt of mine so I could use the tiers and the hem. This was a really quick make.

The lilac one took the longest, mainly because of the need to fit the dress. This is a pattern that I have made many times before. It is a vintage Barbie one from GailsDollEPatterns on Etsy. She has a fantastic selection for all types of dolls, and this one is a vintage Simplicity Pattern from the 1960s.

The doll is one of the diversity range, with wider hips and a smaller chest, hence the fiddly fitting, as the vintage patterns were designed for the original dolls. The thing I have found is that even the non- diverse dolls vary so much in their shapes that it is definitely not one size fits all.

I am very pleased with the overall set and hopefully they will find a happy home next week. Then it will be continuing with more couture outfits, inspired by all of the wonderful blogs and Instagram posts that I have seen over the years.

I have just made the swing coat pictured on the pattern in a dark jade green silk with some of the ribbon stash from New York, and am also making another version of this dress in the green silk and cream brocade.

I will be using some more of the New York stash, here is a peak at three of the bundles that I got while I was away, including some beautiful stitching threads from Japan. I have the middle fabric and tulle in a lilac and a pink colourway.

I also need to work on the Liberty lap quilt, I have to take that back with me in July, along with a gift for Willow and hopefully a new peasant dress for re-enactment, (that I only started about 5 years ago!). I just couldn’t find my mojo during the Covid years when there were no events and last year was too busy finishing a Steampunk jacket and hat. You never know it might get done for this year 😉

I hope that you all have a lovely weekend ahead and enjoy the extra Bank Holiday if you are in the UK. I will be back next week with more of Japan. Have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

A little rest stop

I am currently enjoying a longer than planned visit to my old home village of Marsden. I spent a week at my sister’s getting Katy sorted, and then had a wonderful drive to Ellen’s. It was brilliant to be back driving Katy after 5 months away. At Ellen’s I was able to volunteer at the food bank for a day.

They have so many new projects starting. They have recently set up a mobile supermarket for rural areas. They are also planting an allotment and orchard, and have plans for fixing donated white goods, such as washing machines and fridges, to donate to families in need. Although it is not good that they are still so needed, it is brilliant to see everything that they do.

I drove over to Kerry’s last weekend, and we went to Hardwick for a research visit. I have written most of one character timeline for my first novel, and am now starting on the other, which is set in the 1940s. I wanted to see what interpretation they have for Evelyn, the last owner of the house.

There were some really interesting display boards referring to the notebooks she kept when she started conserving the textiles. I am going to contact Chatsworth, where the archives are held, to see if I can visit in the summer to look at these.

One of my favourite displays was of Evelyn’s reproduction of one of Hardwick’s most famous pieces of embroidery. The original has ES in the centre, for Elizabeth Shrewsbury, Bess’s last married name. Evelyn’s had ED, for Evelyn Devonshire.

What was even more exciting than seeing that piece, was seeing her sewing bag. It is often these little human touches that mean the most when looking at textiles, and that is really what the novel is about. I have always been interested in the people behind the textiles, whose stories are often lost.

The plan was then to do a short tour of friends in Yorkshire before heading off to Derbyshire camping, but snow has altered that somewhat.

My lovely friends had all offered me accommodation for my stays, but when I got to Marsden on Monday it was clear that the forecast was not good for the rest of the week.

Two days of snow later and we were digging the cars out of 14 inches of it. In the picture below you can just see Katy buried in the snow!

So I am still at my friend Jane’s house, where I am house sitting for the weekend, and looking after her lovely Frankie, who is not very impressed by the snow as it is so deep. We have been cuddling up on the sofa in fleecy blankets.

Jane managed to get away to see her family by train, but was delayed by 24 hours. The snow has caused a lot of problems here with road closures, as the village is surrounded by moorland.

This has meant though that I have had chance to catch up with everyone here, and go to the new knitting group, which is located at the new wool shop in the village.

Woolly Tap is a gorgeous place, and they have knitting and crochet groups three times a week. If you are in the area do call in, they have so many beautiful things, including accessories and very cute bags.

The wool shop is located in one of the old mill buildings, very near these original tenter posts in the photo above, which were used to stretch the cloth as it dried. This is the origin of the phrase ‘on tenterhooks ‘ as the woollen cloth was hooked between the posts.

I am currently working on a little dress to go with the rainbow dolls that I shared with you a while ago. This yarn is from a friend and is a lovely variegated denim colour. As I will now be here until next week I am hoping to get the last bits of the other set of reindeer knitted, just the feet to go.

I am still hoping to do one week of camping, further south, weather permitting. I will then be back a Ellen’s for a while so can post the last pictures from Paphos then.

It will not be long until I am back in Spain, where it is currently 24 degrees, rather than 1, but I have really enjoyed being back here for a bit.

I hope you have all had a good few weeks, and have coped with any strange weather. Have a good week ahead, and see you all soon. Have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Making very good progress!

I am very pleased to report that the last few weeks have been very productive. After finishing off the Luna rabbit and the reindeer that I showed you in my previous post , I moved on to the rest of the wish list that I talked about here.

I have really enjoyed working on the lap quilt to use in Katy, partly as it involved lots and lots of hours choosing Liberty fabrics while watching sewing vlogs! I can’t think of a much happier way to spend my afternoons.

Katy needs to look as pretty as possible as she is going to be in the show field at one of the van life festivals that I am going to next year, as an example of a no-build micro camper, so I am planning to take this back to the UK once it is all quilted up.

I had debated taking it as a quilt top and then buying wadding and putting on the backing there, but think that it will be easier just to return with it in July as I will have little else in the bag at that point. This will be hand quilted using perle thread so will be a job to do first thing when I return in April before it gets too hot!

I chose to use 6 of my existing blocks, made during lockdown when I was doing the Riley Blake block of the week challenge. I then added 6 new log cabin ones from the vintage tablecloth stash.

I am so pleased with how these turned out, they are so pretty and the colours of the fabric go so well with the Liberty.

I have chosen to sash the blocks in white. I will just have to be careful not to get it dirty, but nothing else looked as good. I have bought a lilac sheet from the charity shop for the backing ,and the border will be Liberty as well.

I have also added to the diamond in a square blocks as they were slightly smaller, and I thought they needed a border similar to the others.

I have made really good progress with my blackwork design . This is based on one of the plasterwork designs from the Alhambra in Granada, and can be seen at the bottom of the panel below.

This was very quick to stitch as it is very small. It only measures 24 stitches and so is only about 2 and 1/2 inches in total. The border will take longer, and I still have to do the gold thread details and the beading.

I am modifying the pattern as I go along, it is too small a scale to do some of the things I drafted, so I am making alterations and will re draw the design once I am finished. I am really enjoying my first attempt at pattern design and am very pleased with the outcome.

I am thinking of gold thread stars in the ‘petal shapes’ rather than black boxes as they didn’t look right.

The last project I have been working on is the Rainbow Rascal dolls. The pattern can be found here at Dollytime on Etsy.

This is such a quick and easy knit as the jumper is knitted as part of the body. The head and legs are also included in this piece. The shoes are knitted separately but then sewn on.

I love the clothes, especially the cute little waistcoat. I had the perfect tiny heart buttons in stash for that.

This is Poppy, and Violet is about halfway done, so she will be coming with me to the UK to finish off, along with some wool to make more reindeer for someone who didn’t win them this time.

I am hoping to use some of the Little Cotton Rabbits patterns to add extra outfits and make smaller versions of the very cute rucksack these animals have. Here is one I made a while ago for a bear. I think I might need to make some donuts as well!

I am leaving for England next week and have some very exciting adventures planned for the next few months. I don’t want to jinx anything by saying too much but fingers crossed we may get to do some of the postponed trips, and some extra European loveliness before being back in Katy on tour in March.

I have missed her, and my adventures in her so much, so although it will be sad to leave everyone here, much excitement, and catching up with friends and family awaits 🙂

I feel so very, very blessed to be looking forward to 2023 with all of the things that I have ever dreamed of. I am so happy in my new life and so looking forward to planning and doing lots of new things.

So I leave will leave you with my very best wishes for a Happy New Year. I will be celebrating with our now traditional evening at the Chinese restaurant here on La Marina, with lots of fireworks which I love. I hope you have a very good time and a brilliant start to 2023. I will see you again soon, hopefully with much loveliness to look at. Until then, have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.