Flowers, flowers and more flowers. Oh, and rain. Plenty of rain.

My first visit to Tatton Park Flower Show was on Saturday, and it was a great day out. Despite at times heavy rain and mud underfoot. There were plenty of clued up people at the show who'd arrived prepared, presumably having visited before, and I envied their sensible wellies and waterproofs. But it didn't matter as there were lots of floral displays undercover to admire and covet.

The show cemented in my mind how much I love the English cottage garden look, a seemingly artless but actually highly accomplished mix of colours and scents. Lots of white, pink, pale purples. Tall salvias and exuberant echinacea. Eye catching eremurus, the perfect spheres of aliums.

I tried to concentrate on taking pictures of what I liked and what I intend to grow myself, though didn't always manage to get the label with the plant's name included in the shot.

If I'd money to spare I'd have bought masses of plants. As it was I'm making plans in my head for elaborate, well planned flower borders for next summer. That's the joy of gardening, isn't you? There's always another year in which to get things right!

Yes, I absolutely love echinacea. I've learnt that it's so important for the pollinators to have different shapes of flowers to feed from. These open daisy shapes, the bell-like flowers of foxgloves and hollyhocks, the intricacies of verbena bonariensis and the up-turned umbrella shapes of yarrow and fennel.

When we weren't admiring the plant display and show gardens, we were sitting down to a very fancy afternoon tea. Scones with cream and jam, posh cakes and delicious sandwiches, plus a couple of glasses of champagne. Who needs sunshine when you've a classic cream tea?

Though I may need to lose a few pounds before my weigh-in at slimming club on Thursday! Anyway, today - an equally rainy Sunday - was spent recovering from all that scoffing and walking. I recently treated myself to a gelli plate, brayer and some acrylic paints. Which means I'm listening to podcasts and doodling nature inspired motifs, so I can experiment with hand printing. I want to make some cards, maybe gift wrap, and - if I buy fabric paint - to print on plain fabric and hem that to make tea towels. I've got a copy of Lotta Jandotter's 'Lotta Prints' book to give me ideas and practical info on how to print successfully. Perhaps I'll get stuck into that tomorrow.

Well, that's the last of the photos. Hope you liked them. I'd absolutely recommend a visit to Tatton Park, though take my advice. Wellies and waterproofs! You know it makes sense.

Comments

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....

What are you watching? Part One

Another cold, bright day, and I spent the morning indoors, reluctantly dragging a vacuum cleaner around before getting down to the nicer task of adding wadding to the back of this patchwork. Backing fabric's now tacked on, and it's ready to be stitched. I also squeezed in some reading. I'm currently immersed in 'Transcription' by ever-excellent Kate Atkinson, who can be relied upon for a well-written book. The book I recently finished - hmm, not so good. I'd fancied a lightweight cosy crime, something easy, quick to read, and picked 'A Pen dipped in Poison' by J.M. Hall. Oh my, I've never come across a story in which so many people sigh. Characters sighing all over the place! There's a fair amount of frowning too, and one character is constantly depicted as stirring a cup of coffee, supposedly to indicate thoughtfulness. Seriously, if I was in a coffee shop with her I'd be snatching that spoon out of her hand and yelling 'For g...

HOW TO MAKE: these decorative birds

I suggested yesterday that I'd run through how to make a fabric bird wall or window hanging (can't think of a snappier title for it than that!) so here goes. I'll start with the first decorative hanging I made. It's something you could make in any colour combination you want, and would look good hanging at a window with translucent beads that'd catch the light I used five birds for this, but you could make it longer if you prefer. (Incidentally, if you're wondering about what's hanging off the bottom on this, it's a metal Christmas decoration, shaped like a lantern. For some reason I thought it looked appropriate to leave it there, looped over the end.) WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO GATHER TOGETHER: Assorted scraps of fabric for the front of the birds - aim for a mix of colours and textures. Silk looks good, as does anything with embroidery or intricate patterns. You might aim for a hippy-ish boho look, or maybe you're ...

rubykittyruby

Search This Blog