Bare Rabbit

 Time for a new challenge! 

This autumn, I'm having a go at improving  my sewing skills. Mostly, the machine only gets used to zigzag round applique, and, in fact, is working overtime on the Fairy Tale Quilt at the moment. But I found this book on the second hand market, and decided it would be a good project to make the rabbit and all her clothes. Some of the outfits are quite advanced (for me), featuring sleeves, buttonholes, pintucks and gathering, all on a small scale. The advantages are that I won't waste a lot of precious time and fabric if it goes wrong.

 

The book seems perfect for me - very clear instructions with lots of diagrams, full size pattern pieces and some handy sewing tips. 

The first job was to make the rabbit. She is mostly felt, with scraps of fabric for the ears and feet. I aim not to buy anything new for this project, so she is a patchwork of grey scraps. The eyes are tiny black pompoms and the nose is pink knitting wool, which was thick enough to give a good coverage. Her arms are held on by buttons, sewn right through the body so that they move. In fact, most of the sewing was by hand, with the felt seams whip stitched together. With ears up, she is about 48 cm tall, a bit larger than I expected, and which might lead to some strange coloured clothes as I attempt to use only fabrics I have. 

Hopefully the rabbit won't be bare for too long!

Part of the challenge of making the clothes will be following instructions and being precise. My natural inclination is to cut scraps freehand and sew haphazardly together. So I've got a lazy evening project on the go, making a tiny book. As usual, I've gone for a fairy tale theme. This cottage in the woods is one of the double page spreads, measuring about 13cm by 6cm. All the scraps are raw edged, and held on by seed stitching. I find old, worn clothing is lovely to stitch through, and the frayed edges fit the theme. This page features scraps from a shirt, a skirt, offcuts from someone's wedding dress and an ill-advised garment from a trip to Disneyland, which I never wore, but has provided a wealth of cloth to use. I've used a single strand of embroidery thread and metallic machine thread for the stitching. 

Once Upon A Time

I have always wanted to make a fairy tale quilt, and this year I got stuck in, after finding the perfect background material in Hobbycraft. So far, most of the big pieces are appliqued on, mostly by machine, but a few fiddly bits by hand. I made the decision to only do animal characters (not counting the troll, who has had his arms trimmed since this photo was taken). There are a few more buildings and trees to add, and then the details which will hopefully make it come to life. I will be much happier when the characters all have their eyes!

Our Garden

 Here are some pictures of our garden.

Early days, since this photo was taken the 2 shrubs either side of the spiky plant on the left have been cut down and I've cleared out some of the borders. 

This is the new border area, planted with perennials and some seeds to encourage wildlife, slugs are invited to their own parties in the beer traps.  The plant on the right is a wood aven which I mistook for a geum, I realised the error when they started growing rather prolifically and a lot of them have now come out.     

 

The alligator end, this border was overgrown and has been planted up in a joint effort.

This area is a bit sad but I am hoping for great things.  It is on a steep slope alongside our jetty which is on the right of the photo.  The peonies had a brief spell of glory and the slugs are gradually diminishing as they discover the delights of beer.  The area was overcast by the shrubs on the left which I cut back before planting it up.  I've sewn some californian poppies, english marigolds and nasturtiums in here.

Some of the baskets and tubs Rob and I planted up last week.  

 

The community herb garden, anyone can help themselves.

One of the lovely white nigellas

The Gingerbread Man

This is a little playmat to tell the story of the Gingerbread Man. He can run out of the baker's shop and down the path until he gets to the river. There the hungry fox is waiting in his cave. I like to think, in a moment of kindness, this time the fox will help the Gingerbread Man get over the river to safety.

The mat is felt appliqued onto whatever came to hand for backing and wadding (a piece of an old duvet cover, a bit of old shirt and some left over curtain material). The stable door and the gate can both be opened, and I pondered making the house doors open too, but I wanted to keep it simple for play purposes. However, I couldn't resist adding a bit of embroidery on the houses, a rabbit with a pompom tail, and a tiny horse in the stable. As you can see, there was absolutely no consideration given to keeping things to scale! 

The Gingerbread Man and the Fox are both made of felt and stuffed very slightly. The fox's tail and face had a bit of white wool needle felted in to add the detail, and the eyes and buttons are tiny beads, sewn on very securely. The finished mat measures 13 by 10 inches, and the Gingerbread Man is about 2 inches high.

Winter Photos

 Here are some frosty photos taken this morning. 

The triangle of land we walk round in the morning.  The bamboo stakes are positioned for tree planting.

Frost on brambles

Frost on seed heads

A robin watching us

And from a couple of days ago, possibly the same robin!

December Stitching

 This month I finished the December bookmark to complete the collection. The tree is metallic thread couched with invisible thread.  

My second piece this month stitched up very quickly although it was started from the idea of slow stitching where there isn't a lot of planning.  There was some planning in mine but I did basically make it up as I went along which is a very different way of working for me.  

The rows of running stitches are a feature of slow stitching and I found them quite satisfying to do.  I'll be having another go in this style in the new year.  

October Bookmark

Here is the October Bookmark, stitched in a variegated thread in the colours of autumn.