The Chelsea Flower Show was amazing

Yesterday I went for my first every trip to the Chelsea Flower Show it was amazing. I loved every minute, it was so exciting. 

The secret sewing I've been working on over the last few weeks can now be revealed. I made this jacket using a cacti print for my friend Vicky. We found the fabric in February and thought it would be perfect for her Chelsea outfit this year. She is co owner of Craig House Cacti with Stan her partner, who are exhibiting at the show. 

Their display was awarded another Gold Medal, their fifth at Chelsea.  It was a great display, as usual.  They were very busy while I was there with a lot of people stopping to admire their stand and to buy cacti and seeds from them.

  
Stan has a waistcoat in the same fabric.  It was a challenge to work on because the pattern repeat was so big, getting all the pattern pieces from the fabric we bought was difficult.  But I think they both look very grand and complimented their beautiful plants very well. 

The rest of the show

There was so much to see, all the show gardens were wonderful.  Here are some of my photos, I took over 50, so I will just show a few.

The Massachusetts Garden caught my eye because of the leather appliqué, it was beautiful, such a great combination of artistry in this garden, it is very inspiring.

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The garden I liked the most was the RBC Blue Water Roof Garden. Which is a vision for an urban rooftop garden.  It was full of good ideas and biodiversity.

I just loved the living wall and the clever use of shapes in the design.

As well as the way the circular shapes for the natural habitat feature was constructed.

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Finally the photo I took which I liked the most was this one of the M & G Centenary Garden, there is something about this picture that makes me pleased it is my photo.

A day out at Rockingham Castle

Our friend is visiting us from Germany, yesterday we went for a day trip to Rockingham Castle. It was a great day out.

Rockingham is a wonderful castle, still lived in by the family who owns it, but is open to the public.  It's well worth a visit.  The castle if full of amazing things, there are beautiful glass chandeliers and wall lights in one room that are stunning.

The local Embroider's Guild have restored some exquisite embroideries in another room, they look beautiful now they are complete.  The wood work is outstanding, carved pieces and lots of marquetry  It was a pity photography was not allowed inside the castle. I would have liked to photograph the embroideries in particular.  But outside I make up for it.

A view from the castle grounds.

We climbed to the top of this tower to enjoy the panorama.

At the top we could see for miles

 During my visit I found lots of inspiration for my sewing work, designs and ideas from the natural environment at the castle inspired me. I could not resist taking the following pictures.

Growing on the walls the moss and ivy looked lovely in the sunshine.

The textures in this photo just want to be transformed into an embroidery! 

The patterns, shapes and colours of the bricks are so varied here. More inspiration.

I can't help but be amazed at nature, roots above ground make a wonderful pattern.

Even when nature takes over, this branch still looks good, what an amazing texture the tree now has. 

Oh! yes, I have been sewing, a lot recently, but I could not blog about it as what I've been doing is a secret at the moment still.   Over the last three weeks I have been making an outfit for a lady who is going to a wedding, a lovely green dress and jacket.  And also I've made something special for my friends to wear to the Chelsea Flower Show, but the photos of that will be in my next blog

A great day out at the Quilt & Stitch Show in Uttoxeter

On Sunday I travelled to Uttoxeter to attend my first Quilt and Stitch show, it was excellent.   There were lots of great store holders, who all had some good products for sale.

I stopped and spoke to lots of lovely ladies and their husbands, who complimented me on my patchwork jacket.  It was good to meet you all and to learn about what you are sewing.  It quite made my day meeting so many really great people who just loved to talk about sewing.  I can't wait until  the next Quilt show to meet some of you again. The Quilts on display were amazing so much hard work goes into them, it's a pity everyone can't win a prize!

This is the African Fabric Shop stand, where I'd previously bought the blue fabric for my waistcoat last year.  I stopped by to show Magie my finished waistcoat and to enquire about getting some fabric to make a matching pair of trousers.  www.africanfabrics.co.uk   for details of the wonderful fabrics  they sell.

These two enthusiastic ladies are from ZigZags a company offering workshops and courses for Creative Textiles, their web site is well worth a visit, they supply all kinds of lovely art items as well are running courses. www.zigzagonline.co.uk 

This is Hany AbdelKader, he came over from Cairo, Egypt especially to demonstrate his skills at the show.  The quality of his work is excellent, the applique wall-hangings he stitches are wonderful. 

He has just opened his own shop and is now developing his own personal designs.  The tiny stitches he does are almost invisible and the speed he sews at, is quite remarkable.  For more information about his work explore www.khayamiya.com 

Yes, I did buy something, I have just designed a new patchwork jacket, that I want to work on over the summer months. The fabric I found to make the jacket is perfect, just what I was looking for.

This came from Castle Court Quilters in Oswestry. 

Finally the  two books I bought are wonderful, really pleased with them from Kaleidoscope Books, full of interesting projects and ideas to develop over the coming months.  www.kalquilts.com

         The Complete Photo Guilde to Textile Art by Susan Stein
          The Art of Manipulating Fabric by Colette Wolff

I think I might be very busy for a while now!

My new Cosmo bag

I've been making myself a new bag all week.  I need a roomy bag that I can take out with me that doubles as a handbag and holds all the 'junk!' I need to carry everywhere I go.  At the same time I need it for the odd bit of shopping and the impulse purchases (mostly fabric and gardening items).  Also my lunch from time to time, and my sewing bits and pieces, when I go to classes or go out to visit my clients.

The fabric was left over from the waistcoat I made last autumn and I bought some red to do the contrasting handles, side pockets and the lining. I got the pattern from one of Amy Butler's books, she calls it the 'roomy and super-easy-to-make bag for today's runabout'. Which was just what I wanted. Well roomy it certainly is, it will hold all the normal things, like purse, keys, phone, water bottle etc.  And there is enough space to add things when I'm out and about.  However, the easy bit I did not agree with.

Like last time I found the instructions difficult to understand (I've made another bag from this book already), so had to make it up as I went along.  I did some minor adjustments too; I made pockets inside for the things I want to take out regularly with me. Like my hand sanitiser, my glasses, a pocket the correct size for my purse and another for my note book.

 The stiffening that is needed to make this bag is difficult to stitch and work with.  The bag was a challenge to do and I spent a lot of time working on it, perfecting it to my standard of workmanship.  Otherwise it is great, just what I wanted. I really like it, and can't wait to go out with it and give it a test run.

I used my new gadget for the first time as well this week.  I found these silicone finger covers that help when pressing, they worked a treat pressing the side seams open.  I bought them because I find I burn my fingers a lot when pressing the seams during tailoring projects, but now I know they work and I am sure they will be very useful. 

Local Quilters Meeting was Brilliant

On Tuesday evening I attended my first meeting of a local quilters group.  It was excellent.  I was made very welcome by the members and enjoyed it so much I shall certainly attend next month, and most probably join them as a member.

The speaker of the evening could not have been more appropriate, it was Magie the lady who runs the African Fabric Shop www.africanfabric.co.uk.  She explained all about the use of  indigo dyes in the fabrics she buys. How they are produced and the facts we need to know when working with them. She showed slides from here visits to Africa where she has seen first hand how the fabrics are produced.  She brought along some of her wonderful printed fabrics too that  helped illustrate her talk. Many of processes used to finish the fabrics were also illustrated. We learnt how the many different dying effects are achieved, it was a very interesting evening.  Anyone wanting to find out more should explore the web site, it's well worth it.


I knew about her after buying some of these lovely fabrics last August, at the Quilting Show at the NEC here in Birmingham. Which I made up into a waistcoat for my City and Guilds.

My fabrics were indigo dyed, I used four different fabrics to create this waistcoat.

It was lovely to work with these fabrics, the African designs and colours are wonderful, I intend to buy some more for another project soon.

Happy Easter

My cake may not be perfect to look at, but I did my best, not quite enough marzipan to put on the 11 Disciples, that are the traditional topping.  Instead I topped it off with a nest of eggs. Which is quite appropriate for someone who loves birds.

The recipe I saw Mary Berry do on TV earlier in the week, I found it on the BBC website.  The birds nest is my own addition, 2 shredded wheat broken up and then mixed into 25 grams of butter and 75 grams of good quality chocolate that was gently melted over a pan of warm water. The eggs came out of a packet, I did not make those. But the marzipan is home made, far nicer than shop bought. 

Just had a piece for lunch and it was lovely. 

A week of making patterns

It's been busy here this week, everything but sewing.  Having a new boiler installed did not run smoothly and stress levels in the household rose somewhat!!

But I did find time to make some patterns for some new clothes.  A dress and jacket for a lady client has been drawn up ready to test out in calico.  And a casual jacket for a gentleman client. 

Watch this space to see the patterns develop.