May has been a long old month here as our building work dragged into a 13th week, but the project is FINALLY finished! I’ve spent a lot of time retreating to my studio to sew and knit through the stress, so I have lots of things to share with you.
The month started off brilliantly with a birthday stay at Romney Marsh Shepherd’s Huts and a trip to Merchant and Mills. I was hoping to get to meet some lambs, and I was not disappointed! We had lovely weather and I got to wear my finished Sewing Therapy Tie dress, which was so lovely to swish around in.
We also took a trip to Water Lane for their Spring Market over the long weekend and I wore my finished Papercut Ashling dress. I’m still not sure about this make, but I’ve decided it’s definitely more of a winter garment, so I’m looking forward to wearing it again later in the year and styling it with tights and boots.
I’ve only sewn one garment this month, but it’s an absolute winner and I’ve hardly taken it off! I’ve made quite a few patterns by the designer French Navy and I’ve always been really pleased with them – their new Atlas Overshirt was no exception. I had a 1.3m remnant of this lovely chestnut chambray from Merchant and Mills and I bought another 1m and some matching buttons so I could use it for this project. I really enjoyed the construction, especially the placket and those big pockets!
The backdrop of this photo is our now finished kitchen/dining room, and boy am I glad the last of our building work is over! 13 weeks with no kitchen (and I do mean no kitchen – zero electrics or plumbing until the final day) has been pretty exhausting. We spent 2 days over the bank holiday cleaning, unpacking and food shopping and things are finally back to normal! Of course, I took the opportunity to add some home sewn elements to the new space and it’s been so lovely to install and admire them.
As soon as Merchant and Mills released their Pomegranate Lampshade pattern I decided to include them in the project, installing two pendant lights over our dining room table especially. I took my School House quilt to the shop to choose the fabric and it’s the most perfect match! I bought enough to make a pair of curtains for the kitchen window too and they just tie everything together so nicely – I’m delighted!
I’ve done quite a bit of knitting this month with a few train trips and our shepherd’s hut stay. I whipped up a pair of Basic Mohair Mittens in some gorgeous Kaos Merino/Alpaca that I bought from Tangled Yarn and I had enough to make a matching Sophie Scarf!
On my needles at the moment is the Simon Shawl by Twinset & Purl. I bought the yarn for this at Unravel last year, but there wasn’t enough contrast between the brown and teal that I chose so I put the project to one side. I bought the coral yarn at Unravel this year to give the shawl another go, and it’s going great now!
I didn’t think I was going to be able to achieve my reading target this month, but then a book I pre-ordered dropped through the letter box and I devoured it in a couple of days! Carolyn Forster is a fellow Kent quilter, teacher and feedsack fabric fan, so I was super excited to learn that she was releasing a book about 1930s quilts! It’s every bit as beautiful and informative as I had imagined, and I know it will be a great source of inspiration in my studio.
I have one last little project to share with you this month – a cake! The ‘bake’ element of my @stitch_make_bake Instagram handle has been pretty redundant since we moved, as the kitchen was so awful I couldn’t bear to spend any more time in there than was absolutely necessary. Expect that to change now I have a shiny new kitchen, a ‘slide and hide’ oven (just like the ones they use on The Great British Bake Off) and not one, but two dedicated baking cupboards!
My lovely mum is coming to stay for a couple of days to help me finish cleaning the house from top to bottom in the aftermath of the building work, so I wanted to bake her something to say thank you. This is a citrus poppy seed cake, and I’m looking forward to tucking into it together when she arrives this afternoon!