New to my craft room in July

This month I’ve been to the Festival of Quilts at Birmingham’s NEC and despite thinking I didn’t need or want much, my heart said otherwise when I got there in person. It’s the leading quilt show in the UK, perhaps Europe and happens once a year so while there’s lots to see quilts-wise, there’s also plenty of vendors.

I went along armed with a list of potential purchases, some for me and some requests for mum. Of those I was only successful on one, and probably the one I least expected to be, but let’s start with my purchases from the show.

It was the Bauhaus inspired fabric on the right that broke my resolve, which to be fair was early on in the day so it hadn’t had much to resist. But I fell for the fabric immediately, I was only walking past and it was just discarded on the top of the various rolls of fabric. It was the type of love at first sight that you just had to keep hold of the fabric even though I had no idea what I’d make with it. It’s a very light lawn material (think the same weight as the Liberty tana lawn fabrics) and so will drape fantastically. While pondering what I could make - a dress, but goodness knows what style, and how much I’d need - hard to judge when you have no plans I saw the olive green and ecru material too. I knew I was done for, and so ended up with 4 metres of the Bauhaus fabric, and 2.5 metres of the other - as I think this will make some fantastic summer trousers and will match a plain olive top I’ve bought recently.

I’ve still no idea what I’ll make with the Bauhaus fabric or what style it will be, but it’s a gorgeous fabric - and slightly weirdly reminded me of my favourite secondary school teacher, music teacher Miss Smith!

I was keen to look at patterns at the show as trying to wing it entirely making clothes isn’t always the way to go. The dress pattern I have in mind for some fabric I already have, but the trousers pattern is for that olive and ecru material. The Sew Different ladies are very clever as not only do they have their pattern designs made up so you can see what they’ll look like (or what they’re supposed to look like!) they also wear their designs - and one of them had the trousers and cami combo on and it looked great.

The Alice Caroline bee pattern appealed too - there were kits available, but it was just the pattern and know how that I needed, I have plenty of material to source my own bee colour ways. But I did pick up some Liberty scraps while I was there, mainly because these too are hard to resist.

The labels are pretty cute too, the Sarah Hearts ones say “Thanks I made this” and I think should really go on the outside of the garment; the others say ‘You can’t buy this’ which made me smile.

I had taken with me the pack of hand dyed fabric which I had for my birthday in May, as I now have a plan in mind for how to use them and wanted to get something that goes with them to extend what I already have, as I think I need a few more squares. I bought the bundle of fat quarters for that project and was happy that I could make them work.

However less than ten minutes later I stumbled upon the Whole Cloth Studio stand (the makers of the hand dyed fabric) which was both fortuitous as I didn’t know they were going to be there, and expensive because they were there! As I approached the stall I pulled my existing pack of fabrics out of my bag and immediately struck up a conversation with the vendor and other customers, who praised MOH’s foresight for such a wonderful present. It is of course a wonderful present, but he did have great guidance!! And so the small bundle of purple fabrics, which match perfectly was now added to the day’s purchases, and I’m very happy about that. I think I will still use the bundle of fat quarters (or at least some of them) on this project but just not in the way I first thought I would.

It was quite a show, and quite a day - and now I need to find time to put all my plans into action (as always!)

As you know I’m also a sucker for a stash sale and via my Patchwork Group I’ve been party to one of the largest ones yet, and once again I’m very happy. I’ve had my eye on these Bias Tape Makers for a while now, mostly through a saved search on eBay as they are no longer in production. The ones on eBay go for quite ridiculous sums though, and I’ve never managed to purchase one, so when this one turned up on our WhatsApp group I hesitated briefly, then jumped at the chance as not only was it something on my list, but it was also a bargain.

I also picked up the three threads after a rummage in the box, and the navy and white spotted fabric - which on a quick measure is way over the three meres I thought, so for £9 it was another complete bargain. I thought I’d used this to make a sundress, but now I’ve felt the material I’ve another project in mind, which is to use it for a toile for a more structured linen dress I have the pattern (and aspirations) for.

A visit to mum’s craft room provided the contents of the next few pictures, and there’s some gems, some gadgets and plenty of material which I can use in my charity quilts. The fern fabric below is just gorgeous, and it’s the trimmings of a quilt mum made when they returned from a holiday in New Zealand, and where mum had bought fabric. I’ve yet to unroll it fully but I’m intrigued to see what other prints I’ll find.

I also left with a healthy amount of calico which I didn’t want to pass on, and a mix of Hardanger and Aida fabrics for hand embroidery and some useful looking gadgets. The magnetic window markers in the image below I know I’ll use on my intermittent cross stitch project, which has been out again infrequently already this year. It gets put away as I think I spend more time finding my place in the pattern than actually cross stitching, so hopefully these will help.

Mum gave me her tatting shuttle a while back and I’ve not yet even tried to figure it out. It looks a totally alien craft to me, though much like crochet did before I really got the hang of it. As primarily a knitter at first I couldn’t get my head around how such yarn magic could be produced with a single stick (aka hook), but now I totally get it.

Though I’m not sure my crochet skills will ever be as exquisite as this next item mum wanted me to have. It’s a crocheted pin cushion which easily fits into the palm of my hand, isn’t it gorgeous? What’s more it was made by one of mum’s friends, I’m in total awe and I’m planning to include it in my ‘take to’ supply kit, though I need to get myself organised to start that too.

This next purchase is from a local craft shop in Framlingham, Suffolk where we spent a few days after MOH did the mammoth East London to Dunwich overnight cycle this month. The fabric was in the window and initially I thought it was the same as our garden scatter cushions, and I teased MOH that he could have a shirt to match. On closer inspection though, yes of course we went into the shop, it was more of a velveteen finish and not something you’d really want to wear, though maybe as a jacket…

Anyway, the shop had a bag made up using this fabric and these tortoiseshell handles - the bag itself cost £39, but the materials cost about a third less - and while it’s another project, it’s going to be beautiful.

The shop owner generously showed me her hand drawn pattern and gave me tips for attaching the handles, now I just need to talk myself into making it happen. These handles though, they reminded me of a patchwork bag mum had (and possibly still does somewhere), which was also velvet which I remember her making when I was a child. In fact I made myself a patchwork bag - long since gone I’m sure (sadly) - at the same time, but my handles were more rounded and a lighter wood coloured plastic.

Ah the memories, I’ll have to ask mum if she still has that bag.

And finally I’ll share a bit more about my latest crochet project, which the neon green yarn is new this month. My crochet group are one of the local community groups in a nearby village who are ‘dressing a tree’ in the village orchard this November. As a group we’ve decided to ‘throw colour at the tree’ and this is my first garland for that - I’m sure there’ll be more to come, and I’ve already a plan to make a garland of something that was traditionally kept in orchards, but more on that another day.

So that’s another month in my craft room, check out my previous updates for earlier additions, and remember to let me know below what you’ve added to your craft supplies this month.

Two bouillons and some extra glamour

Having two nights in Paris on our trip gave us the perfect opportunity to revisit our favourite restaurant in the city, although we saw from our pre-trip research that the restaurant in Montparnasse had changed hands. We could also see that it had lost none of its charm, in fact its story had taken a remarkable turn and so it was definitely somewhere we planned to eat.

As our onward train left from Montparnasse we stayed close to the station that evening, which gave us the perfect opportunity to head along to the Bouillon Chartier and once again embrace the beautiful interiors, and hopefully some really good food.

A bouillon, we learnt, is more than just a name and stands for traditional, simple and hearty cuisine that’s affordable, generous and unpretentious - and yes, it was good. And the surroundings were just as we remembered them, though in previous visits I’m sure we’ve spent a pretty Franc and a pretty Euro more!

This bouillon opened it’s Art Nouveau decor doors in 1903, with ceramic wall tiles by Louise Trézel which were added to France’s cultural heritage registry in 1984. Remarkably these, and many other features including the ornate carved wood mirrors, had been kept in place and preserved over the years, and so when this restaurant reopened under its original name in 2019 it was able to have its same splendour once again.

While admiring the surroundings we feasted on really good food with MOH opted to start with snails which are definitely not for me, the celeriac remoulade was much more my thing, followed by the roasted chicken and fries and finishing with a Rum Baba - they’re classic menu choices and I’m happy with them, even if MOH can predict what I’ll choose!

But I promised you two bouillons, and here’s the second. We had another night in Paris before our return journey to the UK and similarly stayed close to our departing station - I reckoned that no one needed the stress of crossing Paris with a deadline, and so by staying within walking distance to our departing stations we would have a less stressful start to our travel day.

Following the success of our visit to the Bouillon Chartier at Montparnasse MOH, my long term restaurant finder came up trumps and found another one close to our hotel between Gare du Nord and Gare de l’Ouest. Like last time we hadn’t got a booking, but we weren’t as lucky with our timing, and so needed to queue for a table. We queued less than half an hour, and were soon ushered into the restaurant when I suspect as people who’d booked didn’t show up in their timeslot. Their loss, our gain!

As you can see from the mosaic doorstep Bouillon Julien was founded in 1906, and its founder Edouard Fournier proclaimed that ‘here, everything is beautiful, good, inexpensive’ - and it was.

That chap Louis Trezel appears in this building’s history too creating nymphs symbolising the four seasons represented in four glass panels. It seems this bouillon wasn’t quite so lucky in keeping its original features as in 2018 the restoration started with the sole aim of seeking authenticity. An early discovery revealed that the walls weren’t beige as everyone though, but instead a ‘Céladon’ green and it’s a beautiful pale and calming colour that works really well here.

As we were sitting almost in the window at the front of the restaurant, on the ruse of ‘popping to the loo’ I went to see more - I did find the loos, but unusually it was the restaurant’s decor that I photographed.

Here MOH didn’t have snails, but instead the terrine and I veered away from my usual choices by opting for the leek vinaigrette with hazelnuts, which was so good that I’ve been looking at recipes to recreate this at home. It looks easy enough, I just haven’t got around to it yet.

The food here was equally as good, and the wine glasses were as equally as small - and the surroundings, well you can see for yourself they are equally as stunning.

And the glamour?

We stumbled upon this shimmer of extra glamour in Angers completely by chance. We’d visited the Jardin des Plantes and was meandering back towards the centre of town, without following stringent directions, as you do when you’re on holiday (but not when you’re on a walking holiday!)

It looked like a shower might be on its way, and sure enough it was. Rather than dig out our waterproofs as it didn’t look like the shower would last long, we ducked into a department store. It turned out to be the old Galeries Lafayette department store, now renamed BHV Angers.

It’s safe to say we didn’t expect to see this.

We’d wandered up to the home department to prolong our visit, and because I like to see shops in other countries and found ourselves staring and admiring the glass ceiling above us. It was here that I found some bedding by Le Redoute, which I hadn’t realised was part of this chain, and which was 35% off.

But there was no way I was carrying that home if I didn’t have to, so later that evening I checked out what they had online - it was there, and with the same reduction and no restrictions on shipping to the UK, so it was a matter of biding my time to place my order. I got that just about right, it was delivered the day we got home, but a few hours before we arrived, and I love it just as much. It no longer appears to be on their site, and I hadn’t shopped with Le Redoute for a very long time, but they have some lovely bedding so they’re back on my radar.

Originally the site was the Grand Hotel, and then in 1901 the hotel was transformed into a department store designed by architect Auguste Martin to emulate high-end Parisian shops, so my bet is that they were even more amazing.

So there you have two bouillons and some extra glamour, which we discovered in the most surprising way. If you’re in Paris, they’re specifically a Parisian thing, then do consider trying out a bouillon (or two!)

This July...

It’s been a busy July, and time has flown by and felt in short supply. So much so that I’m writing this post a day later than I usually would, but sometimes life just happens doesn’t it?

This month we’ve celebrated three years in our new home, and that too has just flown by. I’ve spent a week cat sitting for our neighbour’s two beautiful kitties who rather obligingly made themselves available for tickles, conversations and extra treats every time I visited, which was much appreciated.

It’s continued to be hot - parts of the UK are on its fourth heatwave, but it’s just three for us - and that’s three too many in my book. Watering the pots in the garden has become a nightly thing, and I’m now resolved more than ever to get things out of pots and into the ground - but of course it’s still too hot, and the ground too hard, to dig any new beds so my genius plan, hatched way back in May is still on hold. But I am starting to harvest a some tomatoes, with more to come and a few strawberries too so it’s not all bad.

We’ve celebrated MOH’s birthday and this year he chose to cook picanha steak (also known as top or rump cap) on the barbecue. Our favourite farm shop butchered the steak for him and we knew it’d be good, and it was. Sadly though the gas on the barbecue ran out just as MOH started cooking, so everything had to move indoors instead. New gas was bought very soon afterwards too!

We’ve been watching the World Cup - I’d say we enjoyed England’s last game against France but perhaps that’s not quite the word, it was definitely nail biting and probably the best game of the competition, and at least we ended up on the right side of the unusually high 6-4 scoreline.

July is also the month of the Tour de France and so that’s also been on our screens, sometimes during the day when we’ve been avoiding the high temperatures outside. In cycling news closer to home MOH is back cycling with his club after his recent health scare and he achieved his next target on his personal recovery plan to complete the annual London to Dunwich overnight cycle, which at just over a hundred miles is no mean feat.

And with it being July, there was another update to dad’s birthday bunting - he had the best birthday present ever he told me, along with his drill and new shirts, and that was me taking him to the tip so he could get rid of the glass from the greenhouse which he’d removed after we’d been encouraging him not to use it anymore. It’s the small things, it seems.

At the start of the month even I dusted off my bike and we cycled to two nearby villages. In Elston we had a look around the allotments at their open day, and then we cycled onto nearby Sibthorpe for the last weekend in their open gardens series raising money for the church bells. They’d opened every month for five months, and it’s been great to see how their gardens progressed over the month, and quite honestly to see in some local back gardens. There’s a lot to be said of learning from your neighbours, especially which plants work well and it’s been great to meet the villagers opening up their gardens too. And there was huge slices of cake available in the church too, well, it would have been rude not to.

ON THE PLOT AT ELSTON

SIBTHORPE OPEN GARDENS

The logistics for MOH’s epic cycle ride were obviously more tricky than when we lived in London, and so we combined it a few nights in Suffolk, staying in Framlingham which is a pretty little town, and probably most well known for its famous resident, Ed Sheeran. So while we were there we took a stroll to see the infamous ‘castle on the hill’ but opted not to go in, and instead visited Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh and on the way home Ickworth House.

THE CASTLE ON THE HILL, FRAMLINGTON

SNAPE MALTINGS

We hadn’t been to Snape Maltings for a while - since 2014 it turned out - and it was good to revisit to see what was new, and like the sculpture above what remained in place. We stopped at Ickworth House on our journey home, which appeared to break our journey into two equal sections, it too was a place we’d been before on a couple of occasions, the last time though was in 2017 when I expect the gardens, the grass especially, were a lot greener than on this visit.

ICKWORTH HOUSE

At my various sewing group meetings this month I’ve spent some time ‘playing’ with some of the pre-cut squares and sewn flying geese I picked up from someone else’s stash - though still need to finish those, and I’ve added to the number of completed houses for my villages, so village quilts 2 and 3 should be completed soon I hope. My aim is to finish them by the Linus Project sewing day at the start of September, so that they too can be donated with the more slowly growing this year pile of charity quilts that I have. It was great to take mum along with me to the Saturday morning sewing group, and even better when she offered to iron my blocks - she knows I’m not an ironing fan.

To end the month I spent the day at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham with my SIL and we saw so many beautiful quilts, more than I could photograph to be honest. But so much inspiration and talent on show, and of course there were a few purchases made throughout the day, as well as the workshop to create our own appliquéd guinea fowl.

Mine still has a way to go before it remotely resembles the gaggle of guinea fowl it’s supposed to, but with two irons between around twenty of us there was always going to be a queue. But I’ve relearnt and refreshed the technique from my rustic barn at a previous craft show, and so it’s something that I’ll finish at home.

NOT QUITE A GAGGLE OF GUINEA FOWL YET

Soon hopefully - and before I lose all the beaks!

And maybe time might slow down a little in August to give me a fighting chance…