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A Bustle & Sew Publication Copyright Š Bustle & Sew Limited 2018 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 2018 by: Bustle & Sew The Cottage Oakhill Radstock BA3 5HT UK www.bustleandsew.com
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Welcome to the September Magazine I do hope you’ll enjoy this month’s edition, and just a quick reminder that the October issue (will be published, as always, on the last Thursday of the month - in this case Thursday 27 September. So if you’re a subscriber watch out for it arriving in your inbox then! Until then, I hope you have a wonderful month!
Helen xx
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Tip for Stitchers A good length for your thread is the distance between your wrist and elbow - though a little longer is fine. But don’t cut your thread too long as it may twist, knot and/or fray. I usually start my work with a few small stitches, leaving the end of the thread at the front, within the space on the fabric I’m going to be covering with stitches. After the thread is covered, then I snip off the length at the front. That’s just for the first thread, after that I simply run the thread under a few stitches at the back of my work before I start to stitch.
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Between this month’s covers … Tips for Stitchers
Page 4
A (very) little guide to embroidery threads
Page 51
September Almanac
Page 6
Lovely Idea: Apple & Walnut Bread
Page 52
Two Cactus Hoops
Page 8
The Joy of Alpaca
Page 53
Faces of the Sun
Page 11
Llama Clock
Page 55
Some Common Embroidery Stitches
Page 12
Blast from the Past: Applique Alpaca
Page 58
Caring for your Work
Page 20
Nature Notes: The Wasp
Page 61
Lovely Idea: Pumpkin Soap
Page 21
Little Giraffe Softie
Page 62
Looking After Your Sewing Machine
Page 22
Sweet Pea Journal Cover
Page 26
Home Comforts
Page 65
Poetry Corner
Page 29
In the Kitchen: Conversion Tables
Page 66
Lovely Scented Linens
Page 30
Templates
Page 67
Meet the Maker: Moloney Makes
Page 31
Harvest Moon
Page 33
Fox Applique Cushion Cover
Page 34
Tastes of the Season: Blackberries
Page 37
Rosie’s Recipes
Page 38
Tastes of the Season: Heather Honey
Page 46
Christmas Garland Hoop
Page 48
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September There’s something about the month of September - although it brings the end of summer, in other ways it feels much more like the month of new beginnings - a feeling that it’s time to put sleepy summer days behind us and get down to work. This feeling is deep-rooted in all our histories, as in earlier times too, the safe gathering in of the harvest, heralding the advent of colder, shorter darker days brought with it all kinds of feasts, festivals and new beginnings. The academic year begins in September and, living as I do, just up the hill from our village school, there comes one morning early in the month when gaggles of excited children, with crisp white shirts, polished shoes and brandnew pencil cases file through the playground gate, ready to renew old friendships, form new ones, and discover what the autumn term will bring. September is the first month of meteorological autumn and the
days begin to shorten rapidly following the autumnal equinox, which this year falls on the twentythird. But September is often the most beautiful, golden, mellow month - though nights are long
“Apples and hops make Kent’s clean autumn wine, Orchard and garden, loaded, looped with swags, Scarlet and green, on bough and bine; Heavy as apples say we, light as hops Where the leafy awning sags, And weighted boughs are cruched to forked props.”
enough now for mists to form, particularly as the month progresses, and the first gales and storms of autumn will arrive towards the end of the month - the
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remnants of Atlantic and Caribbean hurricanes. The word “autumn” comes from the Latin and its use in the English language dates back to the fourteenth century. On this side of the Atlantic we prefer the term autumn, but in the US, is preferred. The latter appears in sixteenth century texts in the longer phrase “the fall of the leaf” but by the second half of the seventeenth century the shorter was certainly in common use. The Anglo-Saxons called September Haligmonath, that is to say Holy Month, or the Month of Offerings to give thanks for the harvest. In the Middle Ages the celebration of the harvest was linked to the social structure of the time - many workers employed (or in earlier times serfs) by a single landowning farmer who would provide a celebration feast for his workers as an expression of gratitude for their hard work in
bringing in the harvest. There would have been an immense sense of relief from tension and worry after the harvest was safely gathered (after all in those days, this would have meant the difference between surviving through the winter or death by starvation if the food ran out). So Harvest feasts or suppers were inevitably joyous celebrations, accompanied by feats of excessive drinking, games and songs. The modern Harvest Festival (held on or near the harvest moon - the full moon in September) owes its origin to the Victorians. The celebration of harvest by bringing produce to the church and giving thanks with prayers and hymns was seen as a much more appropriate Christian celebration than the drunkenness and general overindulgence associated with the farm-based Harvest Suppers of earlier times. The Islamic New Year, Muharram begins in September. Some Muslims celebrate it on the tenth every year, whilst others when it is ushered in by the new moon, which this year falls on the twelfth. In the Jewish faith Rosh Hashanah, which this year falls on September 10, is the new year for people, animals and legal contracts. As well as being the beginning of the new economic year (also probably
tied to the end of the harvest in earlier times) it also involves a more spiritual kind of account. On Rosh Hashanah God is believed to open the Book of Life and the Book of the Dead, followed by 10 days of prayers and repentance, and then on Yom Kippur judgement is handed down.
“Yellow the bracken, Golden the sheaves, Rosy the apples, Crimson the leaves; Mist on the hillside, Clouds grey and white. Autumn, good morning! Summer, good night!”
The Great Fire of London in September 1666 was perhaps the most destructive event in the city’s history. The diarist John Evelyn wrote “God grant my eyes may never behold the like, now seeing above 10,000 houses all in one flame; the noise and cracking and thunder of the impetuous flames, ye shrieking of women and children… London was, but is no more!” Though the death toll was in the single figures, many thousands were made homeless. The city’s reconstruction however, allowed improvements to be made in its structure and layout straightening streets and replacing
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timber with brick, as well as the building of the new St Paul’s Cathedral with its famous dome that survived the horrors of the Blitz during the Second World War. A happier date in September is that of the sixteenth, as upon that date in 1620, the Mayflower set sail from Plymouth in south west England, bound for North America. Its 102 passengers were the Pilgrim Fathers, a group of Puritans who had broken away from the Church of England and suffered persecution under King James I. After a nine week passage the ship arrived at Cape Cod, with an extra passenger on board. One of the women had given birth at sea, to a son she named Oceanus. They finally landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in December where they established the first settlement in what was to become known as New England. My final memorable date this month is the twenty-fourth. On this day in 1940, the George Cross was instituted by King George VI to provide a means of recognising civilian acts of bravery that would be equivalent in status to the Victoria Cross, which is restricted to military personnel. The first recipient was Thomas H Alderson, an ARP warden in Yorkshire who rescued a number of people trapped under the wreckage of demolished houses during the Blitz.
Faces of the Sun Beloved by small children for their cheerful faces, and easy flower well into the growing, sunflowers ( autumn months. No flower can lift someone’s spirits quite like sunflowers. They are bright and cheery, and as warm and inviting as the summer sun. Sunflowers come in a number of varieties—ranging from small to very large, with petals of every colour along the spectrum from brightest yellow to a deep rusty red. Cutting stems of different varieties creates a vibrant bouquet guaranteed to bring a smile to the recipient’s face. Once picked, cutting the bottom inch off the stem at an angle will allow for better water uptake that will keep the bloom looking fresher for longer. Shorter stems will also allow more water to reach the flowers themselves.
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Some Common Stitches and How to Work Them
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Caring for your Work You will have spent time and effort creating a beautiful piece of work that is unique to you and you shouldn’t be afraid to use and enjoy it. If you’ve secured all the ends well, and chosen the right fabric then there shouldn’t be any reason for it to be damaged through normal everyday use. Dust and strong sunlight are the main enemies that may attack your work. These days good quality threads such as DMC or Anchor are colourfast, and may be machine washed at high temperatures, but nevertheless strong sunlight will eventually bleach out some of the colour whilst dust will rot the threads. It’s really important therefore that you keep your embroidered work clean. Don’t tumble dry your work though as the crinkles may never come out - just smooth it out and hang it up to dry. Press your work while it’s still just damp, placing it face down on a folded towel to prevent the stitches from flattening. You may find that the embroidery threads don’t dry as quickly as the fabric, so lay it flat after pressing and leave until completely dry. The best way to store embroidered items that aren’t being used is to lay it flat in a drawer, wrapped in acid-free tissue paper. Don’t use plastic bags as they attract dust and the textiles won’t be able to “breathe.”
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Taste of the Season: Blackberries Blackberries can be found in abundance all along our hedgerows at this time of year, though you should be careful not to gather any from the roadside where they might have been polluted by traffic fumes. Blackberries should be firm when you pick them with a lovely glossy sheen. Pick the higher up berries as these are always the juiciest (although hardest to reach of course!). Make sure you’re wearing a long-sleeved top when you go blackberry picking and it’s advisable to wear gloves too if you don’t want purple-stained and scratched fingers (yes, this is the voice of experience!). Be sure also to take a sturdy container to store your collected berries on your expedition - you don’t want to find yourself carrying a bag of mush at the end of your foraging trip. Always wash your blackberries before you eat them. The best way to do this is to place them in a colander, rise under cold water and pat dry with a towel. My mum always used to sprinkle our foraged berries with salt first to bring out any grubs and other insects, if you do this, then do be sure to rinse extra well before eating or using in recipes. Don’t leave the salt on too long either as it will draw out the juice from your berries. As well as tasting delicious, blackberries contain a wide range of nutrients, including flavonoids, which have powerful anti-inflammatory and immune system benefits and also give blackberries their deep purple colour. Eating around ten blackberries will count towards one of your five-a-day too!
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Rosie’s Recipes: Season of Plenty Making chutneys and pickles is a simple, but totally delicious way to preserve the autumn bounty of fruit and vegetables, meaning we can enjoy their flavours and remember those summer days for months to come‌
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Chutneys and pickles are an ideal way to use up a glut of seasonal produce, whether from the garden or available cheaply from greengrocers and supermarkets across the land. The longer you allow your jars to mature, the better the flavours will become. Sealed jars will keep for up to six months, though once opened they should be stored in the fridge and eaten within a month. Both chutneys and pickles are cooked in a basic mixture of vinegar and sugar. The difference is that pickles are designed to keep the shape and appearance of the main ingredients, whilst in chutney the solid ingredients are finely cut up. The flavour depends upon long slow cooking.
Apple & Marrow Chutney (makes about 6 lbs) Ingredients ● 1.8 kg vegetable marrow, peeled and chopped ● 75 g salt
● 1 level teaspoon ground ginger ● 15 g pickling spice
Method
● 900 g cooking apples, cored and finely chopped
● Put the marrow pieces into a large bowl in layers with the salt and leave overnight. The next day drain off the water and put the marrow pieces into a pan.
● 450 g shallots or onions, skinned and chopped
● Add the shallots or onions, apples, sugar, vinegar and spice (if using whole spices put them into a muslin bag).
● 450 g brown sugar
● Cook gently but steadily, uncovered, for about two hours or until the chutney becomes thick, stirring from time to time.
● 1.2 litres vinegar
● Put into jars while still warm and seal.
Taste of the Season: The Heather Honey Harvest This “Taste of the Season” is a little different, being an extract from a vintage collection of stories and essays, in this case a short essay written by F Austin Hyde - about whom I’ve only been able to discover that he lived in Yorkshire in the 1930’s…. “September days are harvest time for those North Country beekeepers who have the good fortune to live within the distance of heather-covered moorlands where the hives have stood on the Yorkshire Moors, the bees fighting a gallant battle against varied weather conditions - high winds, low cloud, beating rain. Purple has given way to brown on the moorland. There’s no nectar left in the tiny flowers. Bees loiter lazily around the hive fronts. It’s time to come back from the moor. We wait until nightfall brings home the last stragglers, fasten up the hive fronts, lift hives onto waiting lorries and then, down to the home apiary where, in the moonlight, hives are replaced on their old stands. Next morning comes the work of taking off our harvest - a tricky business when every bee is prepared to sting in defence of its hard-won stores - even to its own destruction for when a bee stings it dies. How would you tackle the 50,000 guards? We’ve quite a simple way, not widely known, but very effective. We put them to sleep.
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The Joys of Alpaca
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Home Comforts Celebrate autumn’s bounty with a walk through the woods as summer gives way to autumn in a blaze of glorious colour. There are sloes and damsons, crab apples and blackberries to gather, as well as clusters of hazelnuts to be pulled down with a stout stick. For cheerful colour around the house bring back sprays of rosehips and haws, two tone spindle berries and skeins of Old Man’s Beard (wild clematis) with its soft, fluffy seedheads. You may find wild hop bines tangled through the hedges too - these can be carefully unravelled and brought home to garland a mantlepiece, lintel or beam. Their heady scent will permeate the house and, according to plant lore, ensure that everyone will sleep soundly.
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