Daffy Down Dilly: Golden Spring Sunshine! Tips for Craft Fair Success, and a look at Pricing A Little Look at Embroidery Hoops Sewing without Pain Plus: March Almanac, Poetry Corner, Lovely Ideas, The Mad March Hare, Home Comforts and more 1
A Bustle & Sew Publication Copyright Š Bustle & Sew Limited 2020 The right of Helen Challenor to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form, or by any means, without the prior written permission of the author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Every effort has been made to ensure that all the information in this book is accurate. However, due to differing conditions, tools and individual skills, the publisher cannot be responsible for any injuries, losses and other damages that may result from the use of the information in this book.
First published 2019 by: Bustle & Sew Station House West Cranmore Shepton Mallet BA4 4QP www.bustleandsew.com
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Welcome to the March Magazine Hello everyone! And here we are again, poised on the cusp of the changing seasons as winter (hopefully!) Begins to give way to spring. March is the first of the spring months, and for me is characterised by the colour yellow - cowslips, daffodils, primroses, buttercups, and hopefully some lovely spring sunshine too. It’s time to open those doors and windows and let a little fresh air into the house, to potter in the garden and enjoy stitching by daylight rather than huddling by the neon light of a work lamp. I do hope you’ll enjoy this month’s issue - we seem to have packed more between the covers than ever so there’s plenty to keep you occupied over the weeks ahead. We have hand embroidery, applique, a little badger softie and some great spring recipes to try Remember though, the days are growing longer now and spring is around the corner! Next month is super-exciting for me as the Engineer and I will be marrying in our village church - I promise to share some photos after the day. But until then… Happy stitching! Best wishes
Helen XX
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Between this month’s covers … March Almanac
Page 5
Potted Plant Applique
Page 54
A Little History of Simnel Cake
Page 7
Lovely Idea: Spring Gift Wrap
Page 57
Two Floral Hoops
Page 9
Mad as a March Hare
Page 58
Egg-straordinary Eggs!
Page 14
A (very) Little Guide to Embroidery Hoop
Page 61
Transferring your Pattern
Page 15
Auricula Cushion
Page 62
A (very) Little Guide to Pain Free Sewing
Page 21
The Auricula Theatre…. A Brief History
Page 65
Felt and Floral Badger
Page 23
Poetry Corner
Page 68
Lovely Idea: Spring Printable
Page 26
Home Comforts
Page 69
Tips for Craft Fair Success
Page 27
Embroidery Stitch Guide
Page 70
Pussy Willow
Page 30
In the Kitchen: Conversion Tables
Page 71
Pussy Willow Hoop
Page 31
Templates
Page 72
Very British Food: Custard
Page 34
In Season Now: Sweet Potatoes
Page 36
Tastes of the Season: March
Page 37
In Season Now: Spring Onions
Page 43
Daffy Down Dilly: Glorious Daffodils
Page 44
Ladybird Purse
Page 46
Our Feathered Friends
Page 50
Egg-stra Uses for Egg Shells
Page 51
Spring in the Pond
Page 53
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March March weather can be blustery and cold. Storms are a frequent occurrence and the nights are often frosty. But these frosty nights are often followed by glorious sunny days when air temperatures climb dramatically and puffy white clouds scurry across clear blue skies. The spring equinox, when days and nights are of equal length, falls on the twenty-first and often sets the pattern for spring. Even Easter, that most moveable of feasts, is calculated from this immutable astronomical event, and spring is set to follow. An old English word for spring was “Lenct”, a Norse term which has survived as “Lent”, the forty days running up to Easter when the days noticeably “lengthen.” Throughout much of the UK the earliest harbinger of the coming season was the “Lenct” or “Lent” lily known to us today as the wild daffodil. Writers from Elizabethan times describe how it grew in great profusion in damp open woodland,
heathland and meadows. In March, country women would come to the heart of London selling armfuls of the blooms, bringing a
“I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.”
glorious splash of spring colour to city lives. Then, mysteriously, towards the end of the nineteenth century, the flower immortalized by
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Wordsworth declined, particularly in central and eastern England. The cultivated daffodil varieties that arrive in florists as early as February come mainly from the Isles of Scilly where they flourish on specially prepared soils and are stimulated to bloom by the mildness of the islands’ winters. Yellow is the prevailing colour of early spring. Its vivid hue catches the eye, especially on sunny days, while the yellow part of the spectrum seems to attract insects on the wing this early in the year. The first of the month brings St David’s Day - the patron saint of Wales of course. Little is known for certain about his life, though there are several recorded instances in the seventeenth century of members of the royal court, including the monarch himself, wearing leeks on St David’s Day. The connection between St David’s Day and the leek has never been satisfactorily explained, though the most
frequently quoted story is that St David prompted his countrymen to wear the plant in their hats while in battle with the invading Saxons, in order to distinguish themselves from the enemy. The only other relatively widespread English tradition about St David’s Day, reported from late Victorian times, was the warning that this was the day that fleas appeared, to plague humans for the rest of the year, as in the following example from Devon around 1890:
March 17 brings St Patrick’s Day - the patron saint of Ireland, whose day is enthusiastically celebrated wherever Irish people have settled. He is famous for bringing Christianity to Ireland, though the heroic, almost single-handed nature of his ministry has been greatly exaggerated, and his two most famous exploits - banning all snakes from Ireland and using the shamrock to explain the doctrine of the Trinity to doubting heathens are much later additions to his legend. Mothering Sunday occurs on the fourth Sunday in Lent and it can fall
anywhere between 1 March and 4 April. On this day young people (usually women) who were working away from home would try to return to visit their families, bringing presents and sharing a meal with their loved ones.
“March borrowed of April Three days and they were ill The one was sleet, the other was snow The third was the worst that e’er did blow.”
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sheltered valleys and along south facing hedgerows, the fresh bright green of new leaves can be seen by the middle of the month - and the sound of birdsong grows ever stronger. Blown in by March winds, migrant birds and butterflies from the south begin to make landfall along the English coast. The Isles of Scilly are famous for the early sightings made by dedicated bird watchers who flock to the island of St Mary’s at the first sign of spring. More than fifty low islands and islets make up the archipelago that forms the most southerly tip of Britain, some 30 miles west of Land’s End. Buffeted
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by the Atlantic Ocean they act as a beacon to migrant birds coming up from the Bay of Biscay. Some years Easter falls in March, though not this year when Easter Day is 12 April. A complicated ecclesiastical formula directs that Easter Day itself should be celebrated on the Sunday immediately following the first full moon after the spring equinox unless that day itself is a Sunday which delays Easter by another week. The earliest that Easter Day can fall is 22 March, whilst the latest is more than a month later on 25 April. Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter marks the beginning of Holy Week. It is so named because it commemorates the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem, his path strewn with palm branches. Since the Middle Ages, churchgoers have had “palm” crosses (made from any suitable plant, such as willow or yew) blessed by their priest on this day. Each year the arrival of Easter seems to take us all by surprise and further confuses the threshold of spring. For us English, preoccupied with talk of seasons and the weather, the real day to celebrate this month is the days the clocks go forward. Overnight the winter gloom seems to vanish and there is an instant feeling of wellbeing.
A Little History of Simnel Cake Mothering Sunday (as opposed to the more recently introduced Mother’s Day) occurs on the fourth Sunday in Lent, which this year falls on 22 March. The custom of young people working away returning to visit their families on this day was already well established in the midseventeenth century - the diary of Richard Symonds, published in 1644 tells us that:
of spices), but by far the most common delicacy was simnel cake, first mentioned in 1648. Unfortunately nobody seems able to agree on what constitutes a simnel cake and various different towns each claim to have the one. Shrewsbury’s Simnel cakes were described in 1853 as being:
Various special foods have been recorded as traditional to Mothering Sunday, including veal, rice pudding and frumenty (a kind of porridge made of wheat boiled in milk with the addition
The folklorist, Charlotte Burne, printed her grandmother’s recipes for Bury simnels in the journal “Folk Lore” in 1909:
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Hand embroidery patterns from Bustle & Sew
Pussy Willow I sometimes think the Pussy-Willows grey Are Angel Kittens who have lost their way, And every Bulrush on the river bank A Cat-Tail from some lovely Cat astray. Sometimes I think perchance that Allah may, When he created Cats, have thrown away The Tails He marred in making, and they grew To Cat-Tails and to Pussy-Willows grey.
Oliver Herford (1860-1935)
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According to an old Polish legend, one day a mother cat was found crying by the side of a river into which her kittens had fallen and were now drowning. The willows growing at the water’s edges longed to help her so they swept their long graceful branches into the waters to rescue the tiny fluffy kittens who had fallen in while they were chasing butterflies. The kittens clung tightly to their branches and so were safely brought back to the bank where their mother was anxiously waiting. Each springtime since then, so the legend goes, the willow branches sprout soft and fluffy fur like buds at their tips where once those tiny kittens clung.
Pussy Willow Hoop
March is the first real month of spring - the first time we can truly feel that winter is loosening its grip (though there may still be cold days to come, and even snow). But the daylight hours are longer now, and the tree in the village playing field is covered with these fluffy creamy and grey buds, that will soon shed their yellow pollen to be carried away by the breeze. This little hoop uses only a couple of stitches - ghiordes or turkey stitch knot and long and short stitch. Shown mounted in 5� hoop.
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Tastes of the Season: March
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Daffy-down-Dilly: Golden Spring Sunshine! 14
Spring in the Pond This account of pond life was written ninety years ago - today we would not remove and bring home frog spawn to watch it develop, though I remember doing so in my own childhood during the 1960’s and 70’s. In early spring, before there is much spreading of leaf or opening of flower in the woods and lanes, there is a good deal to be seen in and around an old pond. By pond I mean one that I have known for years: one that does not dry up in summer; though it may then have less water and a broader shore. Today it is very full, owing to the snow and rain of winter; but the water is very clear, for the leaves that almost filled it in autumn have all decayed and gone to form that fine mud at the bottom in which so many small living things find food and a home.
The great screen of reeds at one end of the pond, that keeps up a steady rustle as the wind shakes it, is showing little sign of life; but if you look down among the dead stems you will see many new green shoots showing in the shallow water. The reed is the largest of all the British grasses; it has a way of sending out shoots into the water from which new stems arise; and after a time the pond will get filled up by it, and we shall have to look for a fresh hunting place. The big blackish bird with the red forehead that has rushed out from among the reeds with a loud cry of “cur-ruk” is the Moorhen. Probably there is a nest hidden there.
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Mad as a March Hare?
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Spring Bunny Wreath
An old favourite - my Spring Bunny wreath - or maybe it’s a hare - just look at those ears! But whether rabbit or hare, just CLICK HERE to download the pattern.
A (very) little guide to the Embroidery Hoop Although some stitchers prefer to hold their work “in the hand” and stitch without a hoop or other device to keep their fabric taut, they are very much in the minority as most of us do seem to prefer to stitch with a hoop.
other. The hoop doesn’t have to enclose the entire design, but do remove it from your project between stitching sessions as you don’t want to leave a permanent mark on your fabric.
Embroidery hoops come in two parts - the outer ring which has a spring or screw to tighten it, and an inner ring that fits snugly inside it. Round hoops are most popular and are commonly available in diameters ranging from 3” to 14”. The right size hoop depends on the size of your project. There needs to be enough fabric to lay on top of the hoop with an overhang of at least 2” to allow for it to be securely held when the outer ring is tightened. The fabric needs to lay taut within the hoop, but not so tight that it puckers.
Embroidery hoops made from wood or plastic have a smooth inner ring. If you find your material is slipping then bind this ring with twill tape for a snugger fit. Quality matters when it comes to wooden hoops - if you buy the cheapest the hoops may not fit together perfectly allowing your fabric to slip unevenly while stitching and it may also crack while you’re stitching.
Choose a hoop that you are comfortable to hold in one hand whilst stitching with the
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Plastic hoops are not as nice to hold, but their advantage is that they often have a groove or lip on the inside where the two hoops lock together. This makes for a nice snug fit.
A Change in the Year It is the first mild day of March: Each minute sweeter than before, The redbreast sings from the tall larch That stands beside our door. There is a blessing in the air, Which seems a sense of joy to yield To the bare trees, and mountains bare; And grass in the green field
William Wordsworth 19
Home Comforts At this time of year the first daffodils are beginning to burst into bloom bringing a splash of bright yellow sunshiny flowers along hedgerows, garden paths and all kinds of unexpected places. They’re a sign that winter really is coming to an end, even though it may not feel that way. Bring a few inside and display in a variety of containers to brighten your home and bring a touch of spring indoors.
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