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A Bustle & Sew Publication Copyright Š Bustle & Sew Limited 2013 The right of Helen Dickson 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 2013 by: Bustle & Sew Coombe Leigh Chillington Kingsbridge Devon TQ7 2LE UK www.bustleandsew.com
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Hello, And welcome to the thirty-third(!) issue of the Bustle & Sew Magazine. I hope you’ll find lots to enjoy inside - I know I have really enjoyed putting this month’s issue together, with projects including both my first-ever Nativity set as well as my Winter’s Comfort Quilt. I love this time of year, as the countryside all around me adopts its mantle of autumn colour, a final vivid display of golden leaves, scarlet rosehips and purple berries before the year slips into the monochrome palette of winter and brilliant colour becomes a rare sight in the countryside. Soon the fields around our village will be ploughed and bare, while birds squirrels and other wildlife are making the most of the wild harvest - particularly abundant this year - before winter finally sets in and we stitchers settle down to long cosy evenings with our work - with perhaps a mug of cocoa and a pet snoring gently at our feet. The lull before the storm - or the calm before the excitement of Christmas preparations really takes hold! Happy October everyone!
Notes from a Devon Village
Page 4
Felt Fox Head
Page 6
A Journey through Colour: Blue & Green
Page 9
Forest Friends Display Pegs
Page 12
Scattered like Snowflakes
Page 15
Winter’s Comfort Quilt
Page 18
Recipe Corner
Page 23
Night Flight!
Page 26
Working with Wool
Page 28
Autumn Hedgerows Cardigan
Page 30
Pippy the Puppy
Page 33
Blackberry Days
Page 36
Nativity Set Part One: The Stable
Page 40
And finally … Making Binding
Page 46
Templates
Page 47
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Notes from a Devon Village
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sufficient for the jams, pickles and chutneys you’re planning to make, it’s certain that you’ll never have enough. I always make a beeline for my lovely next-door neighbour Julie, who always manages to find a few empty jars at the back of her cupboard. These are all rinsed and sterilised in the bottom oven This time of year is full of the enjoyment of the of my Aga ready for use. harvest - though the farmers finished cutting wheat and barley some weeks ago, tractors buzz up and down the lanes with trailer loads of potatoes, cauliflowers and cabbages. More than once I have found a cauliflower or a few potatoes sitting forlornly by the roadside, having fallen from their load, and brought them home for soup or lovely crunchy skinned, fluffy inside jacket potatoes - the sort my Aga does best! utumn is generally considered to be the most mellow of all seasons, as what we lose in terms of flowers and greenery, we more than gain in fruits, berries and the glowing colours of foliage all around us.
This has been a fantastic year for fruit of all kinds - I have never seen so many dark purplish blackberries festooning the hedgerows, along with hips, haws and other seeds - including those of the wild clematis - or Old Man’s Beard as it’s commonly known - you can see why in the picture above! Daisy feeling very hot and tired CLICK HERE for a short clip of how she and Ben wore themselves out! All around the village people are seeking glass jars - whether to borrow or keep, because no matter how many you’ve saved - which you’re certain will be 4
Felt Fox Head No foxes were harmed in the making of this trophy head - honestly! Mounted on an 8� hoop, this cheerful-looking little fox head measures around 9� tall with lovely floppy whiskers created from strong thread (easy!) and a cute black button nose. Every home should have one!
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A Journey through Colour: Green and Blue “It’s not easy being green!” Quote from Kermit of The Muppets
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“gaudy green” and was very expensive to produce. We can only assume that Robin chose to wear it to show how effectively he was stealing from the rich to clothe the poor.
rior to the mid-nineteenth century, green had never been an easy colour for dyers to achieve. It had always been a two stage process requiring them to dip their cloth into two vats - a blue and then a yellow one. Together with the problem of adding mordants (fixatives) and getting the right temperatures and concentrations, this complicated procedure meant that the chances of achieving colour consistency were extremely low.
But in 1845 all this changed when a French trading delegation returned from China with some pots of green mud called “Lo Kao” or Chinese Green - the first single stage natural green dye. With Lo Kao it was so simple to make a good green cloth. The procedure was … put mud in pot. Boil. Add cloth to pot. Robin Hood and his band of merry men were Wash and dry. Easy peasy lemon squeezy! famous for wearing Lincoln green - but this (as Rosie used to say). wasn’t, as you might think, a camouflage green, but a bright cheerful colour made to But what wasn’t so easy and simple was the show off. This green cloth was the pride of process of manufacturing Lo Kao itself. It was derived from the bark of two Chinese varieties of buckthorn trees - boiled for several days after which a length of cloth was added to the mixture. Several days later, by which time the cloth was brown, it was removed and left to dry in the sunshine the next morning. At midday it was brought inside and in those places where the sun had touched it, it was green. The cloth was then boiled again until this green pigment soaked off into the water. The sediment was collected, dried, exported Lincoln, made of woad (a blue plant) and and sold for amazingly high prices. weld (a yellow one). It was also called 9 6
Forest Friends Display Pegs This autumn is all about woodland flora and fauna so these display pegs are right on trend! Backed with ordinary wooden spring clip clothes pegs they’re great to display children’s artwork, photographs, postcards and greetings cards or simply to keep appointments, reminders and other important scraps of paper safe! Pegs measure approx 3 ½” tall
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Scattered like Snowflakes Across the newspaper columns of depression-era America - quilting clubs and columns ….
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t the start of the 20th century quilting wasn’t a very popular pastime in the USA. Quilts were of course being stitched, but they tended to be utilitarian, with dull fabric colours and basic workmanship. The boom period of the 1920s did nothing to encourage quilt-making at home – there had been an explosion in consumer goods available to homemakers – refrigerators, washing machines and vacuum cleaners were all much more reliable – and affordable than they had been in the past. The same was true of textiles, and housewives were much more likely to purchase a blanket from a store than spend hours stitching their own homemade quilt.
But behind the scenes a quiet revolution had been taking place. Women had achieved the vote, and jobs outside the home were becoming acceptable. As well as taking jobs with existing businesses, women also began their own enterprises, many of which were quilt-related, supplying quilt patterns and kits. Interestingly, many of the well-known quilting names of the time, such as Grandma Dexter and Aunt Martha weren’t real at all, but were dreamed up by large corporations who wanted to compete with these new businesses.
Detail of vintage double wedding ring quilt
During the late 1920s and 1930s newspapers and magazines became increasingly keen to take advantage of the renewed interest in quilting. Syndicated newspaper quilting columns were extremely popular, with many women creating scrapbook collections of the pattern blocks which were normally printed weekly. The flip side of this commercialisation was that so many quilts of this era were much of a muchness – using the same pattern if not the same colour scheme and layout. Grandmother’s Flower Garden, Sunbonnet Sue, Dresden Plate and Double Wedding Ring were some of the most popular.
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Winter’s Comfort Quilt At last … a winter-themed quilt that isn’t Christmassy! Inspired by a charm pack of Winter’s Lane fabric, and lines from Edith Sitwell this quilt combines embroidered snowflakes and patchwork blocks to evoke frosty winter days and snuggly evenings in front of the fire! Finished quilt measures 42” x 58” (approx)
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Autumn is one of the most exciting times in the kitchen - at least I think so - with the abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables from garden and orchard available at harvest time. It’s fun as well forage along hedgerows and bring home nature’s bounty too.
Pumpkin:
This is possibly the best-known
winter squash, with its bright orange skin and sweet, almost honey-flavoured flesh. Choose small pumpkins as they have the most flesh and are best for eating - the large ones can be tasteless and woolly and are best kept for carving at Pumpkins, with their pleasingly dumpy shapes Halloween. Cut into chunks for easier peeling. and vibrant colour are particularly cheerful to bring indoors at this time of year. They’re perhaps most familiar when carved into lanterns, to brighten doorsteps with their spooky faces, but are also delicious, nourishing and easy to cook too! Baked slowly in the oven, their hard rind will soften and their interiors transform into a buttery mash. No need to boil - just scoop out the seeds and discard them. Season the flesh with salt and freshly ground black pepper, put a large knob of butter in each and sprinkle over some freshly grated nutmeg. Delish - as Rosie says!
Know your Squashes Pumpkins and squashes are abundant at this time of year and their colourful and varied shapes truly evoke the autumn season. Winter squash have thick skins and denser flesh than the summer ones such as marrow and courgette (zucchini). Most squash and pumpkins are interchangeable in recipes - apart from spaghetti squash - so experimenting with unfamiliar varieties is fun! 23 10
Butternut Squash: This bell-shape squash has creamy, sweet flesh. Its skin is edible when cooked, so no need to peel it - just roast whole a medium sized one will take about an hour to cook. Onion Squash:
Bright orange and - yes -
onion-shaped(!) this has soft flesh best used in soups or risottos.
Night Flight! These little kittens are off to make mischief at Halloween perched on a flying broomstick! Really easy stitching - and lovely to frame in a hoop or mount in a card - a gift for a special friend perhaps? Shown mounted n a 7� hoop.
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Before I go off to put my mince pies in the oven (!) , I just wanted to tell you a little bit about my Bustle & Sew Magazine - positively the nicest and best way to build your collection of Bustle & Sew patterns.
The Bustle & Sew magazine is a monthly e-magazine delivered direct to your email in-box on the last Thursday of each month ready to read in 2 formats … firstly on Issuu.com – which lets you read the magazine on your computer screen and also as a normal pdf file – which is quick and easy to download and print. So if you’re like me and have a stash of irresistible fabrics, just waiting for you to find the perfect project to show them off in all their glory, I’m sure you’ll enjoy my magazine. You can try it for an initial payment of just $1 - and receive my full-length e-book “The Stitcher’s Companion” absolutely free. And what’s more this is a genuine no-risk offer. If for any reason, or no reason at all, you decide not to continue with your subscription, then all you need to do is drop me an email to cancel. That’s it - no penalties and no tie-in period.
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And it’s great value too - every month you’ll discover five or six original Bustle & Sew designs, for all levels of stitchers, not all of which will be made available later for individual purchase. Techniques include… Ÿ Hand and freestyle machine embroidery Ÿ Quilting Ÿ Applique Ÿ Softies Ÿ Bags And many other projects for your home and family. The magazine also offers vintage patterns, projects from guest designers, features and articles about all the topics as well as extra information to help you with your own projects. You can learn more about the magazine and subscribe on the Bustle & Sew website. But I believe that there’s no substitute to seeing something for yourself, so you below there’s a link to another selection of pages, this time from my February 2013 issue. .
Just click here to download And if you like it, then please do visit my site to learn more and subscribe www.bustleandsew.com
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Working with Wool Wool is a great fibre to work with - though there are one or two things that it’s both nice to know and important to remember before you get started…
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id you know there are two kinds of wool fabrics, both of which are suitable to use for applique, though my personal preference is for the first kind woollens which are made with loosely spun short fibres. These tend to be soft, with a fuzzy texture and have little or no sheen. Worsteds have a smoother surface and are often glossy or shiny and are usually a lighter weight than woollens. They are made from longer fibres that are combed and straightened before they’re spun into fabric. Then of course, there’s the perennial favourite - felt. Felt isn’t a woven fabric, rather it’s a dense sheet of matted fibres that have been bonded together by the application of heat, pressure and moisture. Felt comes in many different weights, colours and mixtures of fibres. Wool felt tends to be thicker and have a more substantial feel to it - and is also available in softer more natural looking colours. Wool blend felt is also fine to use for appliquing your knitwear, and is available in a positive rainbow of colours. Steer clear of cheap synthetic craft felts though - they won’t wash well and feel harsh to the touch., If you want to recycle an old jumper that isn’t quite firm or strong enough to use as an applique fabric as it is, then you can easily turn it into your own unique felt by compressing the fibres - I’m sure that, like me, you’ve probably accidentally felted a woollen sweater before now! But just in case not - here’s how you do it…
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Autumn Hedgerows Cardigan This project is a great way to jazz up a plain shop-bought cardigan (or even one you’ve knitted yourself of course) and turn it into an expensive designer-looking wear. Everyone will want to know where you purchased it!
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Pippy the Puppy Pippy is a vintage crochet pattern - I’m not sure how old he actually is, but certainly a lot older than me! I discovered him in my grandma’s pattern stash and shared him - oh probably a couple of years ago now. As crochet is so popular again, and I think he’d make a great Christmas gift for a very lucky small person, I thought I’d share him again in this issue. Please excuse the not very brilliant copy of the pattern - it’s the best I could do and I think it is quite legible.
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Blackberry Day ……
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eptember can sometimes bring wonderful warm days of mellow golden sunshine - and last weekend brought just such a day here in South Devon. A perfect day, I thought, to forage for blackberries in the hedgerows around Snapes Point. This is a beautiful headland, just a little way up the estuary from Salcombe with a lovely circular walk and lots of lovely old-fashioned hedgerows, just right for collecting those juicy purple berries!
Flapdoodledesigns
Snapes Point is about 20 minutes from home and when we arrived Daisy was (of course) the first to leap out and stretch her paws. Luckily there were no sheep in the fields, so I was able to let them run freely.
After some confusion, and a great deal of excitement, the Newfies were loaded into the back of my car ready for our expedition. Everything looks peaceful and under control in this photo, but Daisy had jumped in and out three times while I was filling their water bottle so Ben decided there was only one way to curb her excess enthusiasm. He’s actually manoeuvring her into the corner ready to SQUASH her!
Snapes Point is a lovely peaceful walk, with gentle gradients, that winds around the creeks and headlands of the estuary, with pastures and wheatfields that run down to the water’s edge. As the wheat had all be harvested, and the stubble not yet ploughed in, we were able to leave the path and roam around the hedgerows looking for the best and most juiciest blackberries. I am sorry to say though, that my furry friends did not altogether approve of our slow progress, as they were anxious to run ahead to discover what exciting adventures there might be just around the next corner!
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Nativity Set One: The Stable First ever Nativity from Bustle & Sew - starting this month with “The Stable” November will bring the arrival of the shepherds with their sheep and other animals too, whilst in December the Kings or Magi will put in an appearance. Figures measure 4 ¼” tall approx
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And finally …..
Making Binding You’ve finished cutting, stitching, piecing, backing and quilting - your project looks wonderful - apart from those pesky unfinished edges …. Binding is of course the fabric that's used to cover and hold together the raw edges of the quilt sandwich (top, batting and backing) after the quilt is quilted. If borders are used on a quilt's outer edges, then the width of your binding can be narrow or wide, depending on the look you're trying to achieve. But if the outer edge of the quilt is made up of quilt blocks, the finished binding width shouldn’t really be any wider than about ¼” as you’ll begin to cover up the design of your outer blocks. You can purchase commercial bias binding, but it’s really easy to make your own, which of course has the bonus that it will match or complement your project perfectly. ……..
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