The Gathering Season.

It must be Autumn creeping in around the doors, like a little field~mouse seeking warmth,  a cosy sun spot inside, out of the wind. Windows are no longer left open all day, the last of the summer's roses tapping at the glass, nodding their fading heads, sighing in sadness.

Now we find, before we venture out into the day, we rummage for socks, for errant shoes hiding way back among the dust and forgotten winter raiment, delve into drawers for something a little warmer to buffer the slight chill that sneaks up, kisses our skin.

Along the laneway the blackberries are promising to make up for our paltry tomato harvest,  the first fallen leaves follow us, swirl in lazy dust devils at our heels, and the wires are lined with fat little starlings arriving for the winter, the air thronging with swallows, terns, and birds of all kinds readying themselves for the coming journey. And some days guns crack and echo out in the marsh, startling the trees that shake themselves, sending reams of birds into the grey air.

This morning, facebook kindly reminded me of my status this day last year: "All day the house was filled with butterflies, wandering inquisitively in open windows and doors, their curious dance arresting our gaze. And now they sleep, lining the walls of the rooms with their dusty dreams. I love this time of year."  It made me realise, in contrast to last years garden, this year there seems to be a dearth of butterflies and sadly, moths too, though the season for them is still young enough, I hope.

And yes, it must be Autumn, for beside my bed is a gathering of another kind, an assemblage of books and magazines that are all about inspiration and making, for my fingers have begun to itch, to twitch and itch and long for thread, for wool and the deftness of needles and pins, the snip, snip of tiny scissors.

That longing that seems to migrate every Summer like a fickle bird, to leave me, to inexplicably leave all conscious parts of my brain that instead fill with picnics and sunshine and sand. And while I hope we do get our quota of September beach days, they will be beach days with cardigans pulled on, and were you to peep into my sewing tin when I get home, you may just see an outstanding collection of fine, golden sand amongst the haberdashery there.

And so, woven tightly in with my back-to-school lament that I will spare you with here, is one tiny shiny thread of solace. More time. For making, stitching, writing. (And I may yet finish this small piece in the continuing Redwork Tale)

And as the green sinks back down into the earth again, and everything outside my window falls into a restfulness, except perhaps the sea, I will be sweeping away the dust that found it's way in through the open Summer doors, shaking out the creases, and with a sigh I shall seat myself down and close my eyes and listen.

And as the tingle and twitch my fingertips grows, I will not turn when the door behind me gently creaks open for a moment, and Autumn, my muse, slips in on a chilly wind and sets down her bags.

Photos 1, 2, and 3 taken in Anna's Lovely Garden.

Safely Found And Homeward Bound, At Last.

And so, the latest episode in this little Redwork story is finally finished. Nothing like a looming deadline such as Christmas to give you a little push, is there? This was very slow in the making due to my limited free time to stitch, (with even reading still on the long finger). But it has been finished, at last.

My very patient Mum finally gets a piece! And now that Christmas Day is past I can share it with you.

And as always, the minute I finish one I am keen to start the next. Hopefully it will be slightly quicker in the making than this one was. But I do believe I say that every time...

I still have no real idea where this little story is going or how I will present it in the end, especially as I keep giving away these little stitcheries. But there is something here, I believe. And I have no doubt I will know what it is when I am finished.

Home, At Last.

It's so wonderful to see the children outside again. Yes, it's still freezing, but the sun is shining so they don't care. They come in with pink cheeks and frozen fingers, eyes bright as buttons, and a certain spring in their step.

The mid-term break is coming to a close now, and school lurks just around the corner, much to everyone's disappointment. But as each morning dawns that little bit earlier and that little bit brighter, we know longer days will also become warmer days, so we'll bide our time with patience, for there is still much to occupy our hands.

And so at last I have more or less finished this little piece of Redwork which will be winging it's way to Stephanie in a day or two, once I have edged and hung it.

There is always a hundred and one things pulling at my time, and in some ways I have got good at whittling them down to what works for me, and what fits in to my busy days. Do I get a bit of this done? Or maybe I'll re-line that bag I love? Or will I get some writing done before this story explodes out of my head? And what about some crafting with the kids? That has been neglected of late. Oh...I make myself dizzy. And all this aside from the practical chaos of running a household of six! (I won't even begin. And I certainly won't mention the laundry..!)

 So there is a definite satisfaction to finishing something like this!

As I said before, what I love about this method of work is how portable it is, and how I can literally make it one stitch at a time as I sit in my car waiting for the school bell, waiting for the oven timer to go, in the evening on the couch with one eye on on the tv. It's something I can manage. Nicely.

And the kiddie crafting sometimes just sorts itself out. The Little One now has his own wee tin with all he needs, and like his Mama he carries it with him wherever he goes and a stitch at a time he is making tiny pictures that tell a tale.

And I just have to remember to remember not to worry, and not to feel anxious, and not to berate myself, because it all evens out in the end. And we are all happy. And we will always create, because that is what humans do.

And we are all happy.

We are blessed.

And The Winner Is...

Stephanie!

from Stephanie Says is the name that came out of the hat!

The new piece has been started, and I hope to have it for you in the next couple of weeks. I'll keep you posted on progress.

So in the meantime, please email your details to me, Stephanie!

The Wanderer's Rest.

A while back I wrote about this little piece~in~the~making. And so, it is finished. It was a slow creation, in part because I did practically nothing over the summer. Yes, that's how long it took. I actually started it last May! (Shame!)

But, yes, now it is finished. And it is now hanging on the wall of my friend Joan's house, just up the Sea Road.

'And there in the quiet valley they spied the little house,

lights all atwinkle in the dusk...'

There is a story somewhere in all this. I'm just having to figure it all out as I go. But I have never done anything so satisfying before. I think it's the smallness. And the simplicity. And I am ready to start the next one.

So, an idea has been brewing in my busy head.

A give~away is overdue, methinks. I never did one for Milkmoon's second birthday last October, though I had intended to. And now, this little blog of mine has hit 1000 followers! Something which I am endlessly incredulous and awed and so, so humbled by.

And grateful.

So. I propose the next piece will be for one of you lovely people. It will be small. Otherwise I may be old and grey before I finish it! I estimate 12cm x 8cm. And as I have a notebook of idea's ready to go it will be started tomorrow, and a regular update will be posted, I promise.

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment below. Most of you know the drill. And on Friday we'll pull a name out of the hat.

And meanwhile I'm finishing up a little something that's been forlornly waiting to be finished for a while now so I can donate it to CraftHope for Haiti., which is an Etsy shop which is sending all it's proceeds to Doctors Without Borders.

Do check it out if you are looking for a way to donate towards Haiti.

Edit: Okaaay! So we dropped a couple of followers, but the giveaway still stands lol! :-)

Some Small Quiet Things.

So, the last few days have been quiet, and this has allowed us to find a bit more time to sit around and occupy our hands with small things.

For me this has been an opportunity to catch up on some needlework which was abandoned back at the beginning of the summer! And although I tend to get these made in my car while waiting for the school bell to ring, a stitch here, a stitch there, I hadn't really got back into it yet so this was exactly what I needed.

It's a work in progress as you can see, and for those of you who are new here you can have a look here to see previous ones I've made. Not nearly as many as I'd like to of course, but it's slowly adding up.

There's something about lighting the fire that inspires me to just fall back into the couch and not budge for the evening, my thought's wandering as these miniature spectacles are conjured beneath my fingers, almost with a life of their own, and I merely their medium.

And each time I start a new one I wonder to what little world I shall be taken?

And as the little voices whisper, guiding my stitches in tiny increments, like footprints in my hazy childhood memory, as they tell their story, I wonder and marvel at the muse that is my children.

And I feel blessed.

For when I have an Alice moment, and I pause in my busy day, and I creep down onto bended knee to peer and listen at the tiny doors my children hold, I remember I am blessed. To have these little keyholes to a world that I can no longer truly live in, a means to steal a secret peep, to breathe it in and for the briefest moment really feel it again.

Where The North Wind Did Blow Me.

I spent this morning on the couch with a poorly babe watching Thomas the Tank Engine on loop, and finishing this little piece.

I'm still enchanted with a craft so small and tidy and portable that it gets made in my car and whilst snuggled up with my babies on the couch.

I will soon have to tell you the little story that is growing with these small pieces.

But for now I hope you like the latest installment.

Dancing Tonight

Here is something I was working on over Christmas and didn't want to post a picture of until I had actually given to the little man it was made for.
It's called Dancing Tonight, and it's for my little nephew Thomas, for his first Christmas. You can still see the Moomin influence like in the last piece I made.







I am deeply enjoying the process of working like this. I have a little tin I carry around with me that contains all I need. Scissors, thread and needle. And whatever little piece of blanket I am working on. I do a few stitches here and few stitches there. Sitting in my car waiting for the school bell to ring, or on the couch at the end of the day. Little by little they add up, to this. Eventually.

And my notebook is bursting with ideas for more...

Moomin-Stitches.

Well, I received a lovely email from Rima, so it arrived safe and sound before they took to the road.
So, here it is. My first attempt at Redwork. Not traditional I know. Red thread on a piece of softest wool blanket. I took my inspiration from Tove Jansson's Moomintroll. Somehow these little creatures just scuttled into my head and would not hear of leaving. Persistent I think was the word I used.

(Apologies for the dodgey quality of the photos. Cliona? Jeannie? We need to talk!)



I can safely say, I am a convert. At any given moment of non-activity I am rummaging in my enormous and bottomless bag for my little tin and away I go, needle creeping in and out, slowly making a new little world,



Last night Jay stopped and looked at me curled up on the red couch, stitching away on the next piece under the light of the lamp, a big blanket over my legs.
He said: I love the way you are sewing what is covering you!
Yes, there, at the end of the blanket, a big gaping square has been cut out!



And then I remembered. The five of us fighting over who got to sit on the couch with Mum, snuggled under whatever quilt she was working on. And the groan's and mutterings when we had to move it as she stitched her way around it...

Something Lovely.

I'd like to share with you my latest favourite obsession. Something I'm amazed I haven't discovered before now. Ok, I've seen it but it didn't enter my conscious brain, if you know what I mean. And now, I have dragged myself away from my couch and the complete addiction that is Redwork. I'm sure a good number of you are familiar with it, but I will be forever grateful to my friend Joan who casually mentioned it to me the last week whilst looking at something I am working on. It was like someone handing me a very large light and saying 'Here! Look where you're going!'
Magic. That's all I can say. When I googled it later I nearly fell off my chair with excitement. You know that feeling? This is what I was looking for and didn't know it!
The best description of it is that it is a form of embroidery that uses only red thread. For a potted history of it, look here.
There is some incredible stuff to be found on the internet, and on Flickr, and I particularly love the vintage pieces. Just look at these.






Isn't this last one adorable?

I do find a lot of the contemporary work is very traditional, and I'd love to see people who are being a bit more adventurous with it. I have so far completed one little piece which I will show in a day or two when the person I've made it for receives it, and then I will have to warn my family to all stop checking in to Milkmoon until Christmas day...!

Edit: I pulled theses images from the internet, or Flickr maybe, and I can't remember where exactly. I'll keep looking to see where so I can properly credit them.