Hello Friends and Happy Tuesday!
Hope you are well and having a good start to the week. Monday was a holiday here so I had a long weekend. As usual on these holiday weekends, it rained! It was good for the garden though as you will see below…
today’s art . . .
Today’s art, if we can call it that, is some patchwork I put together using one of my favourite materials – Harris Tweed – and used it to cover some chairs. The photo below is after I sewed it together but before it was ironed so it is looking a bit wonky.
Last year I mentioned that I really wanted to make a big patchwork throw from all my Harris Tweed scraps to keep us warm over the winter, but it didn’t happen and all the scraps are still sitting around in boxes… until now that is. Here’s a photo of a possible colour combination for the chair seats. I used a big cushion of roughly the same size of the chair pad and laid out all the tweed pieces, and knew if I covered that area in tweed pieces it would be about the right size for the chair seats I wanted to cover. Absolutely nothing was measured and none of the pieces are remotely the same size lol. I just picked out the colours I liked and tried to put them next to other colours where they looked good together, plus trying to alternate the brighter colours with the darker colours.
This is what I ended up with once they were sewn together. I have two chairs that I wanted to re-cover so I was trying to make them as similar as possible so when I was laying out the tweed above, I was making sure I doubled up every piece. When I was in Harris last time, I learned that there are over 600 different tweed patterns and over 150 different yarn colours available for the weavers to choose from, so this is just a very small sample of what is available, but they are some of my favourites.
These are the chairs in question. They are folding chairs that are used around the house whenever extra chairs are needed otherwise I use them in the craft room/studio. Miss Lily is observing the proceedings from her bench behind the chairs.
And here’s what the chairs look like after they have been covered with the Harris Tweed. So a bit of simple upholstery in that the patchwork pieces are stapled onto the chair seats, rather than making cushions to sit on top, if you know what I mean.
I still need to tighten them up a little bit so they are straighter but it was getting dark and I wanted to stop for tea.
So maybe now that I have completed this little project I can crack on with the much larger project of the Harris Tweed throw that I didn’t get started on last year as intended. The sewing machine is still on the dining table and the boxes of scraps are still on the floor after all lol. Oh and if you want to see what else I do with tweed, check out my journal page which is an Isle of Harris scene using tweed scraps for rocks and beaches.
garden update . . .
We’ve been having a bit of rain and so the garden is happy. I have my first tulip of the year…
This particular tulip is called Beauty of Apeldoorn and they are a golden orange flower but there seems to be some variance across them so it will be interesting to see the rest when they flower. The height is supposed to be between 50-60cm (20-24 inches) but it’s not anywhere near that height yet so I was surprised that it had already produced a flower. This is the first time I have planted this variety and what drew me to it was the fact that it said it was sturdy and could withstand wind and rain because we do get a lot of both around here lol. It also makes an excellent cut flower and that’s what I plan to do with them once there are a few more. Not to be outdone, the strawberries have also started to flower, which of course means lots of lovely strawberries soon…
And in just a couple of days, the potatoes have shot up and will need to be earthed up inside their bags. That caught me by surprise as I checked them on Saturday and they weren’t near as high. There are two ways to grow them in bags, the first being that you put the potatoes at the bottom and then fill the bag to the top with compost. The second way is how I do it and that is to put them at the bottom with just enough compost to cover them, wait for the leaves to poke through, then cover them again, rinse and repeat till the bag is full of compost and the leaves are growing out the top of the bag. I think that you get more potatoes this way.
kitties . . .
I’ve been growing wheat grass in a little container for the Miss Lily and Mr G since they are not outside to help themselves to the real thing. I have to be really careful giving them grass as it can make them vomit, especially with Mr G and his problems, but he has been doing so well lately that I thought he deserved some fresh grass – just a little bit, though they would eat this whole thing if I let them, so I have to hide it somewhere where they can’t see it or sniff it out.
I have a new rug in the studio and here is Miss Lily testing it out – is it scratch resistant she asks? Why yes it is, I love these type of rugs for that very reason. They are great for cats to scratch on but seem to be indestructible.
t stands for . . .
Thanks to everyone to commented on how lovely my peonies were last week but I do have to tell you that they are not real peonies, but faux! My real peonies are growing but are not showing any buds yet, but I do have these lovely faux peonies to keep me going until the real ones flower.
While I was tidying up in the studio, I was finally able to unpack my birthday present from my friend and put things away – everything was in such disarray before there was no point in trying to add more stuff to the mess, so I kept it all in the box until now. My birthday was in March, it’s now May lol. Here’s what she sent me…
A box of 40 different metallic watercolours, some cute little rubber stamps, and an assortment of lovely napkins! There are also some lovely bird stamps on the envelope…
And on the subject of happy mail, I also received a couple of postcards this week…
And finally for tea, here is a photo of some of my bookshelves after I moved them to the other side of the room recently. There is still some tidying up to do especially on those lower shelves where the books are doubled up, but if you look closely, you will see at least three mugs on the shelves! If you are having trouble seeing them amidst all the clutter, they are on the far left, fourth shelf down, the middle, also fourth shelf down, and the right, third shelf down.
Happy T Day! As always, thanks for reading, and have a great week!
Ingredients
Harris Tweed,
Challenges
Altered Book Lover – T Stands for
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Hi I tried sending you an email through your contact form and kept telling me there was an error-I filled out everything and answered two different questions-verifying the answers with google haha all I got was error-sigh
I wanted to let you know I received your slow mail package today and Love everything so much!! I appreciated what you chose for me very much hugs Kathy
Wonderful post. Those chairs turned out excellently. I am happy to see your garden too. Have a lovely day.
Re-covering chairs is impressive. I tried to do it once but my hands weren’t strong enough to stretch the fabric properly around the forms. Your patchwork is very nice.
best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
I love those tweeds. At first I thought you were making a journal cover. I was really surprised to read you were covering your chair bottoms. They will be lovely when you are finished.
One year I bought something called “cat grass.” Looked a bit like the wheat grass you have for your kitties. I bought and grew catnip, but the cats don’t seem too care for it. I might see if I can find wheat grass. It looks and sounds like yours sure like it.
I’ve been known to not open my gifts for awhile, but you waited longer than even I would have! You got some lovely gifts, too.
I found the mugs and two others, too. Thanks for sharing your tweed coverings, your garden, your darling kitties, and your mugs with us for T this Tuesday, dear Elle.
I love how you did your chairs. The patchwork colors are pretty! Great work. Happy T Day.
Those Harris Tweed chair covers look amazing and fantastic on those chairs Elle. You have some great color scraps. And I have those same Billy bookcases. I love seeing how your books are organized by color. I have lots of doubled up books, so they don’t look messy to me. and I see your mugs. I hope it was a happy T day and have a great week ahead. hugs-Erika
I love love ,ove your bookshelves – there is so much to see. Those orange ones are Penguin books I assume? I’m drooling over those metallic watercolors, what fun! Your chair seat cushions look great, I like that they are not 100% the same, but are very harmonious next to each other. I always enjoy seeing your cats.
Thank you again for the lovely package (I hope you received my message)!
Loved seeing your sewing project Elle! All those different pieces look great together! Everytime i see your kitties my heart skips a beat as they look so much like my Jinx who passed away a few years ago.. What a wonderful Birthday present! Happy T day! Hugs! deb
I loved seeing your bookcases. They look lovely all color coordinated. I would love to do that but I have a thing for having all books by the same author together. Maybe someday I will try this.
Your chairs looks great!
Loved reading about the potatoes. I am going to try this in a trash can this year!
Happy Tea Day,
Kate
Wow to the chairs!
My strawberries start blooming, too, and hi to your lovely cats.
Happy, late T-day! Hugs.