Something Bugging Me!

We have had, for some time now, a major problem with carpet beetle.

Not moths......oh no......not weak little teeny tiny, "can't be doin' with all this spraying and gassing- I'm off" moths. Those are the bluetits of the pest world. We have carpet beetles. They are the Pterodactyl of the pest world!
SQUAWK!

And they look SO HARMLESS. They haven't even eaten the carpets!!
I sometimes think it would be easier to move house than to eradicate these little bug ( g***!)
Except I might be taking them with me?

We moved in 2007. The house isn't old but it hadn't really been looked after and so when we got it we had to make sure of a few essential maintenances.....like the roof! Although the roof is good - there were tiles missing, about which the previous occupant had neglected to tell us. So had the surveyor - but that's another story. < ahem>.

As there was a great gaping hole in the roof we got Jackdaws nesting. I'm fond of birds but I don't want to share my inside living space with them.
And where there are Jackdaws, there are nests.
And where there are nests there are carpet beetles.

They feed on the detritus in discarded nests ( lovely little creatures ) and so we had very quickly to get rid of them. We then had two years of relative peace. As far as beetles are concerned.
CUE.. < JAWS MUSIC >
Then, 'as if from a long sleep' ( as the author has it ) they emerged from their hidey holes and proceeded to chomp their way through my cashmere.( They should be called Cashmere beetles, THEY ARE SO FOND OF IT!)
I'm fond of my cashmere. I'm also fond of the price I paid for it!

Now I have not one piece ( yeah I do....just one new piece I had for Christmas - and I quake every time I take it out ), which hasn't been ventilated.

It's heartbreaking.

Get rid of the little bugg ers...I hear you cry. Fumigate, spray, shake powder, chase, squash and thoroughly exterminate!

But hold your horses!
WE HAVE.

We have been trying for three years to eradicate them. Yes we are winning. They are smaller, weaker and less of them.
But they are still there. And it only takes one little caterpillar ( no I shan't dignify it with a word as nice as that,)  MAGGOT, to eat through yer best cardy!

Ah well.....keep fumigating. And Fulminating.

The point of this little diatribe on a mostly flowery crafty blog?

I simply couldn't bring myself to get rid of my cardys. So this is what I have done with the first of them...
Every hole- no matter where ( and they are never organised in their nibbling - wouldn't be so bad if they were, ) I've darned with embroidery wool and added a bead. Yes...it'll do.

My yellow shrug, they have comprehensively banqueted.
So a little yellow silk and a few flowers later...I might just be able to resurrect it. Watch this space.

ALSO, watch the space in your loft. If you get them, check for nests and remove. Clean everything scrupulously. Cover everything edible ( all natural fibres ) in cling film to store. Then get a fumigating can and go out for the afternoon.
Then do it again...
and again.....




and again.
And cross your fingers.

OR...don't buy any cashmere! :)

Teacup Tuesday

Now Spring has finally, I think, sprung, I seem to be getting in the mood for decorating. Not the usual stuff I do but a 'Spring clean' type of decorating.

I have seen so many inspiring pictures on Facebook lately, of pastel coloured rooms with oodles of vases filled with beautiful Spring flowers, of teacups with little posies of wild blooms. Or candles.

Photo courtesy Miss Rose, Sister Violet

And since it's Teacup Tuesday I thought I'd share a photo with you.
I know, I know, they aren't teacups. They are chocolate cups.

In days of yore when knights were bold,
And chocolate was served a lot
Piping hot, served warm, not cold
In a pretty little lidded  pot.

I have three pretty late 18th century Limoges chocolate pots with lids, which sit by my mid 19th century clock on a special little shelf made by my husband Stephen. The diamond shelf is painted the same colour as the walls and blends in nicely. ( A grey blue ).

But I digress.

For some reason, living where we do, we get quite a bit of pollution which settles as a grey sticky deposit on anything plastic, painted or fabric.
I did put it down to the proximity of the road ( never having lived near a road before, albeit a road that doesn't get much traffic ). Until recently I thought it was car fumes that were turning my pretty kitchen walls from a delightful pale violet colour, into a mucky grey.

I've changed my mind.
I think it's the plastics factory down the road. A long way down the road but in direct line for the south westerlies to bring it to my door....and window...and curtains...and delicately shaded walls.
So I'm hoping this bank holiday weekend to do some re-decorating of walls. Not before we get out the good old sugar soap and give them a good scrub.

I like decorating but I hate cleaning walls. Anyone like to come and help?

No, I didn' think I'd get any takers. ;)

So when I next post. I'll have a beautifully clean kitchen, filled with lovely shiny crockery and bright dust free fabrics.
I'll post some pictures when it's done.

Meanwhile here ARE some teacups...
My 1901 Hammersley hand painted set...every piece is different, too pretty to hide away!

And yes...I have to wash every piece by hand, because they too get grey with pollution. <Sigh>

Whatever you are doing this bank holiday, be it decorating the walls or filling vases with flowers, make it special.

A Pinch and a Punch

April is with us. It may not seem like it. But here, it is.
 I've been very busy with The Medlar House Mice and so haven't had much time to post on GYR.
However I've kept the Facebook page of GYR going.

There have been some pretty things which have taken my eye. I think that we needed some heart warming imagery when the weather has been so horrible. They lift the spirits, don't you think?

I just loved this flower arrangement for the colours..

Making flowers always lifts my spirits. Over on BoxCleva I have a tutorial about how to make flowers which are made from mulberry paper. The blanks can be bought almost anywhere and of course you can punch out your own blanks if you have some flower punches.

I have dozens of flower punches but opted for bought in mulberry paper ones, for my projects, so that I could try them out for my readers who may not have a lot of punches, nor indeed any.
Prima flowers
They have so many applications, not least decorating the boxes for which BoxCleva is named and for beautifying the little box stands which I like to use to elevate the Medlar House Mice, from the surface of the display table, when I go to craft fairs.

I went to one on Saturday with the mice, with my Gather Ye Rosebud silk flowers, with decorated boxes of course and with a new idea of mine..pretty decorated houses which light up.

We tried a few of these glittery houses at Christmas and I wanted to make them all year, so made them rather Eastery to begin with. They are also on BoxCleva.
Here are some links for them.

A re-flowering

And for those on Facebook...

Houses
Naturally, they too are festooned with flowers.

So I called this post and Pinch and a Punch, because flowers were punched out and I've pinched my own posts from Facebook.

Happy April.

Hearts and Flowers

I haven't written anything on here since January for which I apologise.

Heartfelt and particularly, The Medlar House Mice have been taking up all my time.
Did I tell you I have resurrected my old mice which I made over 15 years ago? Well I have given them a twist and I now think they are a bit more 21st century.

They have been on Facebook for a while but I have now started a blog for them.
http://medlarhousemice.blogspot.co.uk/

If you click the link and scroll down you can see all about them and how they came to be the way they are....no clues.

Why have I suddenly started this?

Well, I got a bit fed up ( as you know ) with paper. I do love it but there is no point labouring over something which others can make by machine at the touch of a button. Handmade? No but nevertheless...anyone can do it. So I no longer want to make flowers or bags or boxes. These machines, Silhouette Cameos for one, will even make you a dolls house like I make so there is no point in me playing with those either except for my own fun.

So I started Heartfelt - all about felt shapes made entirely by hand and embroidered and made with Vintage lace, ribbons and sequins and beads.

One thing's led to another and I've been drawn back to the three D soft sculptures I used to make years ago.
You can read about them http://pastmastery.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/2-pounds-for-your-thoughts.html
here.

I had no idea if people were going to like the or not. SO I made a few and took them to a couple of shows.
They LOVED them.
So I shall be making some more. No two will be the same. They are OOAK...one of a kind. Even if I replicate a theme it will be different as the items used will not be the same.
For example...I made this little white mouse...

You all thought that in Alice in Wonderland..there was a White Rabbit..well no...it was a mouse ;)

I made him with some tiny playing cards which I got in a cracker at Christmas. I shall make another as he sold immediately he was put out on the stand. He won't be the same though...he will be white but not like this one...so there we are OOAK.

I hope you will follow the mice in their antics.I shall write a blog about most of them as I make them, on Medlar House Tails.
And pictures will appear on Gather Ye Rosebuds too.

Many of them wear hats filled with flowers and some of them hold or are embroidered with flowers.
I think that counts don't you?

A Very Special Gift.

Mother's Day will come round before we know it.

Here in the UK it's on the 10th of March.

I had an idea for a boot as a gift for Mothering Sunday.

Building on my success with stitching card to felt, I added a very pretty image of a Flower seller to my cut out felt shape. I printed a Vintage image onto linen weave card and cut close enough to the edge to be able to stich it onto the backing felt.

I'm now waiting for the last order of tiny silk 4mm ribbon to completely finish her, as I want to add some tiny flowers to her tray and her hair.

Apart from that she is done.

She was stitched to pink half wool, half acrylic felt as I thought this might keep the shape better than  all wool felt, once paper was added to it.

Then it was a matter of adding the Edwardian lace panel to the top to form the cuff of the boot. I cut a small heart in white felt and covered that too, in the dark ecru lace and this was added to the toe of the boot and padded. Before all this my signature diaper pattern was stitched in back stitch to the boot surface in a lovely hand dyed variegated thread, tones of blue through green to pink and lavender. At every join there is a lovely modern 'mucky green' star sequin with an old pearl seed bead in the centre.

The word Mother was then embroidered by hand on the toe in soft pink.

I cut out lots of green leaves and embroidered the veins with a soft but dark green thread. These form the basis for the flower arrangements, all three, on the surface of the boot.

Hand made felt flowers in white, cream, pink and peach are clustered in bunches to which are added silk ones in a silver threaded pink and a plain cream. Both of these have the edges pulled to fray them

 I cut pieces of the Edwardian lace and curled it into flowers and added a pearl bead in soft shades of green to the middles. Very effective. It just ties in the lace theme a bit further.
Then the tiny silk ribbon, of which I took delivery last week, was made into minute flower clusters and sewn at the base of the flowers.


Then dozens of tiny bead and sequins were dotted here and there. All round the edge of the boot and over the surface.There are bugle beads( long ones ) in real Mother of Pearl which were once on a jumper I picked up at a jumble sale in the 70's. The blue sequins, however are very special. And I only have a few.

Those who follow this blog will know that my friend Vivienne, who died on her 40th birthday when I was only in my twenties, left me her life's collection of lace, trims beads, sequins and wotnots in her will. I am now using a lot of these treasures. I haven't really had the projects or time before now, to do so and besides, the Vintage movement has given me the spur hasn't it?

She catalogued every little piece - where she bought it, how much she paid for it and what exactly it was ( she was a bit of an expert on haberdashery.) This was in the days when no one wanted these things. She frequented jumble sales, auctions houses, flea markets and what we used to call second hand shops. There were no charity shops in those days. People cleared houses and either threw these beautiful things away or they went for a song, to someone like my friend Vivienne, who knew their true worth.

So these little blue sequins ( I also have green and silver ) are early pieces...who really knows how old? Vivienne catalogued them as mica sequins 19th century. Now Mica is a naturally formed organic rock which shales easily and it was often used as glass in early dolls houses, as water on early embroideries, such as Stumpwork caskets and on beautiful evening dresses of the Victorian/ Edwardian era. I'm sure she thought these had once adorned such a dress.

Now they are adorning my creation.

I'm sure some well thought of Mother would love to receive this as a gift on Mother's Day.

And thank you Vivienne, for your gift too. A very special gift.

Coming Round Again.

We all know that there has been a resurgence in the arts of the Vintage era... from the late 1800's to the 30's and beyond with Retro to the 80's.
I've tried my hand at something which my Mother made when she was a lass of 6!It all comes round again.

There was, for quite a while, a fashion for ladies in crinolines in flower gardens, on tea cloths, chair backs, table cloths and the such. Patterns for these appear in those lovely old magazines you can pick up for a song in antique and curio shops. You also find the real thing in the form of second hand tea cloths and the like in Vintage shops and at fairs. Most of the stitchery is fairly easy...lazy daisy stitch seems to prevail and there is a plethora of Hollyhocks, Delphiniums and Lupins.

This is part of the pattern my Mum had. It comes from a magazine called the Home Journal from 1934 - May the 12th to be precise.

I took this and made it into a design for a Flower Garden Hearfelt heart.

The basic design is there though I did add a little cottage once I had begun to stitch. I thought it needed it.

The lady was made in pink and buff felt in several pieces which were then all cobbled together with a slip stitch. Beads were added to the flowers on her dress and to the underskirt. Then the whole thing was padded lightly. Her bonnet is padded too.

Real silk ribbon hangs free as her bonnet strings blow in the breeze. The flowers are embroidered and beads are added to make them stand out. The gravel path on which the lady stands are tiny seed beads and French knots. The white felt heart was embroidered by hand with a back stitch in green, in a diaper pattern ( fast becoming a signature of my felt work I think ) and at the crossings tiny sequins with a sparkly bead were added to each.
The cottage was cut out of several coloured felts and all were pieced together with slip stitch and were embroidered over to give a three D appearance. Needless to say, that too was padded and beads added to provide us with roses round the door and a border of little flowers in front.

Lastly a little bird was created. I decided that he had to be a male Linnet as they are very Victorian birds and they were often kept in cages at this time as the male of the species sings so beautifully.

He is flying over head with a small flower in his beak. I like my birds free ( as you can tell from the side bar ;)  )
He was made from several pieces of buff and grey felt and his feather were stitched in long stitch, in the appropriate colours of embroidery threads.
Then he too was padded ready to be added to the background, the first heart shape when the whole things has been surrounded with a frill of lace.

Once the lace had been gathered onto the edge of the white heart, a slightly bigger one of pink felt was stitched to the back and the pre- made felt flowers stitched to the edge.
I had made these flowers, with bead centres, and set them aside for the last phase. I cut them out on the Bigshot and layered them in pinks and white to echo the colour of the bird and the lady's crinoline.
The little bird was attached and the stem of the flower embroidered. All that had to happen now was the white background, which stiffens the whole thing, had to be stitched on and the ribbon hanger attached.

So, a 2013 take on a 1930's take on a Victorian flower garden.

How everything comes round if you wait long enough.

Round and Round in Circles

I have been sorting the study.
Not an easy task.
But I have achieved some sort of order after the Christmas chaos.

I've also found a huge amount of 'stuff' which I had forgotten all about. With sighs of " Oh that's where you went " and exclamations of " Ooohh I remember that," I have been on a journey of discovery through bits and pieces. <3

It's very good for the imagination, excellent inspiration but it doesn't get the kitchen cupboards cleaned out does it....which was also my intention this week.

I've also come to a decision.
I think that paper is rather passé. Ideas just seems to go round and round in circles. No...perhaps not the way I work paper on BoxCleva, which is, I have to say rather unique, but boxes and bags I think, as a topic have had their day. So I am going to sell off a lot of my paper working things and concentrate on the flowers I make here and on the work I am developing on Heartfelt, my latest idea and that which I was promising you on my last post. At the moment it's only available on Facebook but we'll see....

When I began my paper journey, there were few boxes or bags about. Now they are everywhere. Thanks to the television and to all those magazines and not least, to these machines which cut everything at the touch of a button. Now, I can't compete with those. I do most of my stuff by hand. I like to do most of it by hand. The only thing I might use to help me is a BigShot machine and some dies and of course, some punches.

SO the Tapestry Stamps stay, so do most of the punches and many of the flower dies. I have already sold off most of my other dies. Other things will go as time allows.

The other thing I have been doing of course is making silk flowers and those will stay on here, on Gather Ye Rosebuds.....along with the projects they decorate.
Experimentation has been going on in this field too, over the Christmas break and shortly after. ( Remember for me, Christmas lasts twelve days!). I've been playing with felt and trying to make different shapes of three dimensional flowers with it. The same techniques which are used for paper can be adapted for felt, I've found. Let's go round and round in circles here too.

The circular rose, which I taught you all to make on BoxCleva can be made in felt. Go here for he tutorial. Wars of the Roses
If you crimp the edge with a pair of deckle scissors or pinking shears, you get a frilly rose.

If you snip into the cut circle every so often, you get a flatter flower with distinct petals.

If you cut scallops, the result is more like a tulip.
This is a scallop cutter which will do it for you should you like to buy it.I have to say it's not an easy shape to achieve by hand but it can be done with pinking shears and small sharp scissors.

Go here to buy.
Oyster Stamps.co.uk

 

If you cut the circle with a pair of pinking shears and then every second point snip into the piece  at an angle, you will get a very pretty little lotus type flower.

I'll pass on more of my experimentation to you later on.


Now for those cupboards....I can hear them calling to me.........