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.

Autumn wreaths and eco bundles

Selection of paper and fabric

This week I have played with natural materials, leaves, berries and twigs, on a couple of different projects. The first was a socially distanced making of autumn wreaths with a couple of friends. Thank you for hosting Sue. It was supposed to be just one wreath really, but I’d finished and there were still bits left over. I’d worked on the more is more principle, and couldn’t fit anything else on until Penny turned up with a dried sunflower head which just had to be included.

I’d had a quick chop around the garden, already running late, my sense of time has disappeared since lockdown! I found some whippy wisteria lengths with leaves still attached, two different ivies, the common dark green one, and paddy’s pride, a large green and yellow leafed one, some of the stems having flowers; jasmine, the leaves a mixture of greens, bronzes, and yellows; some newish growth from the rosemary, and some sage.

I started with wisteria twisting a long bendy piece into a ring about 25cm diameter, wrapping around itself, then squishing it a bit to make it round. I added more wisteria, keeping some of the leaves sticking into the middle of the ring and some sticking outwards. They will shrivel and fall off over time, but will dry and curl first. Then I started adding the ivy, trying to keep the big leaves on the outside of the ring. I mainly used the stems to hold it together, but some of the ivy flowers, the jasmine, rosemary and sage needed a bit of wire to hold them where I wanted them; the green wire was lost amongst the greens of the plant material.

I’d more or less finished it when Penny arrived with things from her garden, saying to help ourselves to a completely different range of things from our garden, although some were things I just knew by different names. Two I’d heard of but didn’t know what they were: St John’s Wort, I’ve always called it hypericum, and her wreath was already beautifully twisted from woodbine known by me as honeysuckle. When I’ve read woodbine in novels I’d often wondered what it was, but as I do most of my reading last thing at night or in the bath, and my walking dictionary (Colin) didn’t know it either, my ignorance had remained. It makes perfect sense having on many occasions seen deep grooves in branches from honeysuckle strangling a stem, lovely for walking-sticks etc.

I added some rough string to hang it with, and a hessian ribbon (thanks, Sue) tied into a bow at the bottom. I couldn’t resist the dried sunflower head (to the left of hessian bow) to finish off my wreath. Thanks, Penny.

Finished wreath, rather busy, but bits will dry and fall off, so it might mean it lasts a bit longer.

Testing how it will hang.

The second one is much smaller, only about 15cm across. I was just using up the bits I’d got left. I’d not picked berries from our garden, all too Christmassy looking (holly and cotoneaster), and it was meant to be autumn wreaths that we were making. But Penny’s rose-hips (ours have been frozen to make jelly with) and black berries from the St John’s Wort don’t make it look Christmassy.

Last bits of wisteria, jasmine, rosemary, finished with Penny’s rose-hips
and St John’s Wort berries.

Sue had dipped leaves in wax, which she glued on to her simple, circular ring. Very minimalist, very elegant. There were loads of leaves but I was feeling too impatient to wait for glue to dry, and they were too fragile to wire.

Penny’s wreath had lots of lovely autumn colours, and many different textures.

They all looked very different, but all lovely. The photograph doesn’t do them justice, but with social distancing ourselves, and the pouring rain so we couldn’t take them outside, it was difficult to move them around.

Penny’s wreathon the left, my little one, Sue’s waxed leaves and my big one.

I’ve hung mine on the fence opposite the kitchen window, above the pots With things that are beginning to go over. It was very windy after we’d done them and they tend to bang on the door, but barely anyone comes to the door so I thought they might as well hang so that we can enjoy them while washing up or peeling veg. The rain is keeping them green.

I have also done some eco bundles this week, well, one in the end. It’s something that I’ve wanted to try for ages, and I’d been reading a blog by Evelyn Flint which reminded me about them.

So on a beautiful sunny morning I gathered a few leaves, eucalyptus, rowan, peony, wild rose, granny’s bonnet leaves (wonderful plummy colours), ‘strawberries’ from the strawberry tree (squashy red berries that are orange inside), and the last of the blackberries, again squashy and sad looking, not good to eat like the earlier ones.

Eucalyptus, rowan, peony, wild rose, granny’s bonnets,
‘strawberries’ from the strawberry tree (middle right)

I gathered up fabric, cotton, silk, calico, threads, paper and card, and rusty nails, bolts and bits of metal that have come out of the wood burner, and tea bags. I started layering them up with the leaves and berries. It’s a very hit and miss process, there are so many variables, the weather as well as objects placed in the bundles. I realised I’d not added any vinegar or tea when I’d nearly finished the layering, so just splashed some vinegar on each bundle. I was going to do several separate bundles, but in the end wrapped all the smaller ones in a large flour bag. I then wound some bendy metal about 2.5 cm wide around the whole thing, and some coarse string, and have hung it in the plum-tree to expose it to the elements. I pushed a bit of cut cherry(?) wood we cut earlier in the year inside and one is sitting on top. We have had plenty of rain this week, and wind so it’s dried out, and some sunshine, and more rain. I now have to be patient for weeks (6?) or months maybe, depending on the weather.

Fabrics, threads, leaves, teabags

Layers of paper, leaves, fabric

Various bundles, ready for wrapping in the 10 kilo flour bag
from early in lockdown.

Hanging in the plum tree

Added a few chunks of wood, one stuffed inside and one on top