Beautiful bobbins

Pictured above are some of the vintage embroidery and crochet yarns I've been adding to my stash lately.  I did buy/collect them with the intention of actually stitching and hooking with them - but its oh so hard.  With new yarn its easy - you use it and if you love it you buy some more, but these bobbins are at least 60 years old and are not easy to find.

Lots of them are silk or artificial silk and I also like yarns labelled rayon, which I was pleased to find is made from cellulose fibre and not completely created by some industrial process.  The colours are soft and beautiful and have a lovely sheen.

However its daft to have them just sitting there, looking beautiful but gathering dust.  So I'm using them sparingly in my crocheted garlands and hopefully they will last out until I find some more.  The little crochet motifs have plain crochet cotton centres and vintage yarn petals.  I make them into a garland by crocheting a chain and attaching them as I go along, spacing them out with natural beechwood beads.  If you want to try something similar don't forget to thread the beads onto the yarn before you start hooking your chain.

Here's the pattern for the motifs - you can of course make them in a single colour.  (UK crochet terms)

Chain 6 and join into a ring with a slip stitch

Chain 1 for first double crochet and then 14 double crochet into the ring.  Join with a slip stitch to first double crochet.

Chain 1 for double crochet, *4 chain, miss 2 chain, double crochet into next stitch.  Repeat from * around and slip stitch into first chain (5 chain spaces created)

Fasten off yarn here if changing colours (or carry on if making a single colour motif).

Attach new colour to a chain space and 7 double crochet into same space.  Slip stitch into double crochet.  *7 double crochet into chain space.  Slip stitch into double crochet.  Repeat from * around and fasten off.

Little pictures and a garden update

This week I've been able to get a bit done in the garden but I couldn't resist a bit of crafty fiddling yesterday when this pretty frame die from Marianne Creatables arrived in the post.  Its cut from my favourite recycled tomato paste tube (the insides of course!).  I added a scrap of linen, a die cut, a tiny bit of embroidery and stamping.

There's still loads to do in the garden but I always say the best bits of my large plot are the bits that do it themselves.  The fruit trees put on their show with me doing nothing (I do know I should prune and care for them a bit but I choose to ignore that job), daffodil and tulip bulbs come up year after year on their own........
 

and the front garden under the oak tree has put on a wonderful show this year with garden bluebells and purple honesty flowering in profusion.

Although very pretty, these aren't our native bluebells - those that carpet woods and verges with a blue sheen.  These are a hybrid of the wild and Spanish bluebells that have taken over in our gardens.  They are still very pretty of course and in my garden have mixed themselves up to produce not only blue but pinky lilac and also white versions.  There's a nice video explaining the differences between wild, Spanish and hybrid bluebells here.

But enough of this - I don't have time to lie around on the wet grass like Kyffin, there's still lots and lots of digging, weeding and planting undone!

Bits and pieces

As I'm sure you are aware, crafters just hate to throw anything away and I'm no exception - as a single glance into my craft space will confirm.  I keep the teeny tiniest scraps of fabric and felt - especially the left over bits of the old embroidered linens I have been turning into scented sachets for my craft fairs.  I've been experimenting with the tiny embroideries as brooches and made this little collection over the last couple of days. 

And these little peace brooches are a perfect use for those tiny bits of vintage printed fabric I hoard too.  I often browse through the dies sections in my favourite on-line shops for inspiration and thought this set of two peace signs from MFT Die-namics would be useful.  The smaller of the two dies makes a sweet little brooch.

Thank you all for continuing to visit and your lovely comments.  They really do encourage me in my crafty endeavours!

Happy May Day

A happy May Day to all who read this!  Its a beautiful sunny day here with only that persistent chilliness in the shade to keep one from casting a clout!  This pretty illustration is by Dorothy Heather and you'll find it in Enid Blyton's Twelfth Holiday Book published in 1957. 

Putting together my month remembered page today its hard to imagine how we started April under a thick blanket of snow.  But here are the photos to prove it!  Hope its spring-like where you are.