“Moving on”

We have had another “Move it on” session at S.E.A.T.A. today, but I started by default earlier in the week at “In the stitch zone” when I discovered I’d picked up the wrong bag and hadn’t got my bigger piece of felt with me. The previous week I’d gone without my sewing kit, though this was soon remedied by borrowing a needle and scissors.

Fortunately, I’d got several unfinished pieces (works in progress) in my bag, so made a start on the felt (Karen Lane) that I’m making into a hair slide piece. First I did a tiny bit of weaving, one of the prompts from the “Springboard Project” that we have done this term with Alex. I decided I’d try and get all ten prompts on this piece, but I’m not sure if I’ve really managed it; some are a little tenuous but certainly have layer, knot, scrunch, wrap, cut …..

I reached the stage where I was ready to assemble it, but with trying it out, and in consultation with Alex, decided it needed another layer of pelmet vilene which was also at home. Then a bit of a shock, I’d hadn’t realised how grey my hair is at the back.

First job this morning was to cut another piece of pelmet vilene, then to gather with running stitches around the backing fabric, but the piece of green that I intended to use was slightly too small to overlap enough to make it strong enough not to fray, (another prompt, but not one I want to happen on the construction). The only suitable piece of cotton fabric that I had with me was the background fabric from the vegetable garden, the perfect colour of silk I had would just slide too much.

I managed to get it smoother and flatter on the back than I expected only to discover I’d put it on the wrong side of the pelmet vilene – it would have been against the felt leaving the back as pelmet vilene with the extra fabric on the back. This was soon remedied by putting another layer of fabric to hide the raw edges and it’s reinforced the ends of the hole where the metal goes through under my hair. The raw edges are all going to be hidden inside.

I’ve button-hole stitched the five layers together on the centre hole ….

…. and around the edge.

So it’s finally finished….

…. and the back is neat too.

I’ve also finished the holly and ivy bauble with five tiny red glass beads, and neatened the top and the bottom.

The holly and the ivy

I’ve more or less managed to ignore Christmas until the last few weeks. I have done a little Christmas stitching, one an Allsorts project that Sally showed us over two sessions, based on a bauble from Inspirations. Circles of commercial felt were layered up into two domes (first session), and homework to stitch a design on to a circle of fabric ready for the second construction session.

I wanted to do my own design, and ended up picking a tiny sprig of ivy from the garden and doodling until I got small enough leaves to work in the 5.5cm inner circle, which I then traced first on to paper and then on to a piece of ivory silk with the light box. The holly leaves were more stylised.

I used the shiny green stranded thread (Anchor Marlitt) for the outline of the leaves and the stems on both the holly and the ivy. The veins on ivy are lighter than the leaves, so a single strand of silver was stitched at the session before starting the assembling.

Sally had brought a selection of velvet ribbon and braids to use to decorate over the join. I picked a slightly lighter green, which in fact hides a multitude of sins (and gathers), with a cord of the shiny thread to make a hanging loop going down the centre of the velvet ribbon and a tassle for the bottom. The extra strands had some tiny red beads knotted into the tassle.

I just need to add some red beads to the holly (where that bobbly bit of thread is), but I ran out of time at Lorna’s stitching group today. I hung it on the tree when I got home, right at the centre front, so it will prod me every time I sit down until I get it done. At the moment it stands out, as the only other bauble is the one from the swap that we do at the Christmas session of Lorna’s group.

I put the tree up and the lights on last night before I ran out of steam, but I also wanted to check that it will work in daylight on the table rather than the floor, before I put the decorations on.

At the November session, Lorna brings an idea / technique and / or materials for us all to make a decoration for our little tree at the December meeting. They each have a number attached, and we draw out a ticket to take somebody else’s home for our own tree. This year it was a polystrene ball with instructions of marking into segments, cutting into it and pushing fabric into the cut. I decided to do eight segments rather than the four on Lorna’s example.

This was not a good move, as the fabric didn’t want to stay in the groove on the second one, so I did a quarter section, 2 more eighths and another quarter. It still wasn’t looking very good, so I made a cord to go down each segment, a loop and a tassly bottom, and added a few beads. The cord did a very good job of keeping the fabric in place.

I wasn’t the only one to struggle with the technique; a few did something else entirely, but the tree looked very pretty.

I was the first one to draw a ticket and got my own! Laura very kindly offered to swap with me, so now I have Jean’s…..

….. which is on the tree, waiting for companionship.

Christmas Eve

Much to our delight and relief, our son Miles and his wife Lera have recovered from Covid and have done two negative lateral flow tests, so can come for Christmas. They are on their way.

I ended up making the Christmas cake on my own. Miles has helped with it since he was tiny, and when he was away studying I would make it with him in the background on Skype or latterly on Messenger. It seemed a bit strange not having him here helping, eating the fruit as he was chopping it, scraping the bowl and nicking the marzipan as I was trying to roll it and put it in the cake.

I’ve done the same Delia Smith Creole Christmas cake since I first saw it on the telly in the late 80’s. It’s done in two stages: the fruit prepared and gently heated with 3 tablespoons each of rum, brandy, port and cherry brandy (some years I’ve substituted different booze); it also has a small amount of Angostura Bitters, which gives it its distinctive flavour. This is then cooled and kept in a jar for a week (or two, or three, once six) but the time doesn’t seem to change it much.

I woke on Wednesday morning thinking it would make a change to make a wreath-shaped cake instead of the usual square, so used two pans without bottoms that my mum had in graduated sizes. Would it work to use the biggest one on the base of the square (again my mum’s), and grease the smallest one both sides really well, fill the big ring and then push the small one in the centre?

Only one way to find out. Yes, it does. I gave the small one a good wiggle almost as soon as it came out of the oven, it all seemed loose; a quick lift on to another cooling rack, and magically two cakes!

There was one slight problem: I couldn’t think how to make one piece of marzipan do the inside of the ring as well as the outside. Colin reckoned I needed to do a separate strip for the inside, so that’s what I did. It looks slightly messy, but I couldn’t think of any other way of doing it, and it works.

I cut some holly leaves from the marzipan and rolled some holly berries, then used a cook’s blow-torch to scorch the leaves a little to make them stand out more.

It’s a sewing friend’s birthday today, so yesterday’s usual stitching round the kitchen table and pot luck lunch became afternoon tea for her birthday, everyone contributing part of it.

I laid a beautiful charity-shop-find tablecloth with drawn threadwork and filet crochet round the edge, a little Christmas cloth that had been my mum’s, and my great grandma’s tea service. The plate that looks like ice is an old microwave turntable. The cake was cut yesterday for the birthday tea, but as I went to cover it, I realised I could curve it round a little more, and almost make it look whole again!

The little cake from the middle has had marzipan stars on the top, again toasted. No doubt Miles and Lera will take half of what is left back home with them (both cakes, depending how long they stay).