Don't tidy up too much!

This isn't the best photo, but can you make out some of the dozen or more stripy caterpillars that were demolishing this once flourishing weed? One day they'll hopefully, almost magically, turn into beautiful Cinnabar Moths. Which is proof that you shouldn't be too tidy when it comes to your garden or allotment. Within reason, let the weeds grow, and rewards will come.

The Marjoram's flowering, a real bee magnet. They love it.

Same goes for the Borage. Bees love it, and apparently it constantly refills with nectar, so if a pollinator feeds, within minutes the Borage has replenished its supply.

I may need to learn how to cook gooseberries. Perhaps in a fruit crumble? Mmmm, crumble and custard, that sounds good.

The blackcurrants are enjoying the sunshine, and ripening up nicely.

Hollyhocks are a classic cottage garden plant, aren't they? They've tended to succumb to disfiguring rust on the allotment, but are much healthier so far this year.

On to crafty things, I haven't been especially productive today when it comes to sewing. I'd had an idea the other day about getting blank greeting cards, and making mini sized scrappy patchwork quilts to attach to the front of the cards. As a quirky kind of alternative to an illustration, you see.

I cut out strips of material, about an inch wide, sewed them together into blocks, and then chopped each block into thirds, mixing the stripes up to add interest to the overall look. I'm not sure whether this idea's going to work, but this evening I'm adding wadding, binding, and basic quilting stitches. After all, it is a Slow Stitch Sunday.

These various blocks might end up being sewn together to make a cushion cover, or I may buy some blank cards and try the mini quilts idea after all. Not sure yet.

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Threads of Freedom and charity shop bargains

It's Saturday afternoon, and I haven't done half the things I'd meant to. Partly because I spent most of this morning messing about with paints, stencils and the gell plate. Never mind, everything on today's 'To Do' list will join tomorrow's 'To Do' list ... it's hardly life or death if I don't haul the hoover around the room or pull up weeds in the front garden. I thought I'd show you what I made on Wednesday. I'd gone to my monthly StitchArt group, and this time we did something a little different. There's a project called 'Threads of Freedom' which is working with various community groups across the city. It's about creating little stitched pieces, some of which will be included in a textile panel to go on display at Leeds art gallery. There was lots of fabric we could choose from to sew with, and I picked this vintage tray cloth with the roses embroidery. My own embroidery's not a patch on those flo...

Sari scraps, PVA, a couple of books and a necklace

I'm typing this as snow's falling, and has been steadily all day. It's not settling to any great extent, though I bet by tomorrow morning the paths will be slippery with ice. Which always makes me paranoid about falling over and at the very least looking undignified, but at worst breaking a bone or twisting an ankle. Oh well, it's ideal weather to stay inside and craft, isn't it? I finally got around to listing packs of sari scraps on Etsy this morning. I only made up six bundles as I've no clue whether they'll sell or if I've set a reasonable enough price point. Time will tell. This is a link to the listing, if you're interested. This vaguely pink fabric isn't from one of my Etsy packs. It's from a bit of experimenting I was doing yesterday. I'd seen a post on Instagram showing how a DIY version of batik could be done without using hot wax. The Instagrammer used PVA instead, and I wanted to try this out....

Another week's flown by ...

Saturday's rolled around again, and it's not been the most eventful of days. Cleaning and hoovering, a walk to the shops to buy groceries, an hour on the allotment, then home to do some odd tasks in the garden. The strawberry plants are sending out runners, so I've been dealing with those, plus deadheading the perennial sunflowers, and cutting back the gone-over flowers on the sage and marjoram. I'm sad to see those blooms gone as the bees loved them. This afternoon I spent a few hours finishing 'Dawnlands' by Philippa Gregory. It's a really good book, a page turner where you care about the characters and want to be reassured everything's going to work out well for them. Plus you become enraged about the corruption of the so-called justice system at the time of the Stuart kings and queens, about transportation of prisoners to the West Indies, and about the vile nature of the sugar trade in the 1600s and the vast profits made from it....

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