Autumn Cottage Diarist

The Dark Side of Life in an Old Cottage

Most of you who have read Autumn Cottage Diarist for a few years will know that the cottage is some three hundred years old. This brings the great pleasures of living in a character home - but it also has its downside..old house equates with old window styles, and although the window in the photograph is a 1960's addition, because we are a historic 'listed' building we are required to make sure that all additions are 'in keeping' with the original house.

Though this window has an aluminium metal frame, (not much of that around in the 1700's!), the person who installed it did follow tradition in keeping to 'leaded lights' - small window panes linked and held together by lead 'cames' - strips with channels on both sides to hold the glass, similar to the much older windows we have at the front of the house.

The result of all this is that indoors can be particularly dark in most of the house - which is why the wall colour most of the way through is a buttery creamy yellow, and the new curtains are of a gauzy, transparent texture. I think they work well, though the fabric - a very open, almost net-like linen, was the very devil to work with.

The next curtains to be finished will be the much-nicer-to-sew glazed cotton for my sitting/TV room (see my last 'Snip, Snip' post) ...though since the garden is yelling for attention particularly loudly at the moment, goodness knows when they will be finished. They sit - and wait - and look pretty doing so - but there is a certain amount of reproach in their presence.

Have you got anything waiting to be finished that sits and reproaches you from the sidelines - and - the garden is my (feeble) excuse...what's yours ??  :-))

Snip, Stitch, Clickety Clack!

It started for me when I was five...when I took apart the drapes on the doll cot that my grandmother had laboriously made for me for Christmas. I was severely reprimanded and told how 'destructive' I was (the first of the litany of reprimands with which my childhood was littered) - when my intention was only to see how it had been constructed.

I have always been entranced by fabrics - textiles of any sort - woven, embroidered, printed, felted...stitched into garments or soft-furnishings, decorated, embellished, and then used for more of the same, making my (or others') interior environment just that little bit more beautiful, enticing, welcoming. (Is there some genetic memory passed down from my ancestor - a merchant in the textile-trading part of London in the 1770's? I like to imagine there is....)

But for easily the last ten years, my sewing machine and embroidery threads have been tucked away, as I have engaged in and been distracted by other ups and downs in life, and more cerebral activities have taken the place of the work of head, heart and hands combined.

Pressing in between stitching...much more patience to do this these days - one of the benefits of being older?

Until last week, when I needed to amend the length of a pair of curtains, just to add the finishing touches to the interior painting and decorating done by my son. Out came the (possibly rusty) sewing machine, threaded up (with the aid of a little bit of black paper so I can see the hole in the needle these days!!) And tested...in with the fabric, down on the foot pedal and wheeee.....away we went, and back came rushing all the joys of creativity with fabric and thread that I had forgotten I loved so much.

Yes - the old machine does need a bit of oil, and my technique needs brushing up - but it is not being packed away again...but installed in the sunroom, I think in pride of place (everyone else probably thinks 'in the way!' :-)) - and all the stitching (and mending!) that has been ignored and neglected for the last decade is being brought out and enjoyed once more - alongside that ignored part of myself that - I now realise - also needs to come out to play. I write and I think and I discuss, yes - and I RELISH those activities...but I
also garden, and cook, and stitch, and paint. ALL components are necessary for me to fully live - as I believe they are for us all.

What do YOU need to live your fullest life? Is there any languishing creative pleasure back in the recesses of your own memory that could be brought out again to play?

The next project already waiting - curtains for the little sitting room

What do your Present Cushions Look Like?

Tapestry covers taken from medieval wall hangings.

One of this blog's readers - Brigitte - asked me this a few days ago. No plumping or poshifying - here is a quick ramble through my big sitting room with my camera to show what cushions (pillows) I have there right now. Nothing very special - just indulgence of my love of textiles. Enjoy!

Blue and white cotton panel, taken from an oriental B&W plate, & a Bargello needlepoint cushion.

Fanciful gentlemen...

... and ladies a-playin' of the croquet - more tapestry panels (purchased at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire).

Two woven panels on a papier mache chair (yes - they ARE both upside-down - just noticed!!) - the chair rescued from a skip a few years ago :-)

Antique embroidered and beaded cushions & a devore panel from Venice over the back of the sofa

My favourite latest acquisition - especially awaiting my writing workshop attendees.

Further to our Previous Conversation...

Look what I've found while clearing out the drawers in my office. A lovely piece of drawn-thread whitework on fine muslin, which I bought, apparently, in Dinan in 1994! About 30 cm square - and all embroidered by hand. Isn't it lovely? Click on the picture below to see the detail.

It will make a lovely bed cover in one of the dolls houses - needs to be a special one, I think!