Another week has flown by and it’s already Sunday afternoon – do you ever want a pause button just to stop the world for a moment or two? We’ve had such a busy week in our household this week and I could do with another weekend to catch my breath and take stock (you can probably appreciate the state of mild chaos I find myself in if you noticed that my previous post was published almost a month early by accident – so far, last week’s photo challenge photo is as yet untaken!).
Anyway without further ado, here’s this week’s edition of Sunday Sevens….
Another Sunday, another beachy crochet pic…
Last Sunday was another glorious autumnal day, perfect for heading down to the beach again, crochet hook in hand. I’m busy working on a Christmas gift, but time’s running away with me already and I’m really not as far along as I would’ve liked to be by this point….
Monday morning Med Steps
The lovely weather continued into the start of the week and I had a lovely trip up the Med Steps again on Monday. I glanced up at one point and saw the Europa Point Lighthouse framed beautifully by the branches of a tree.
Technicolor Tuesday sewing
In my Dressmaking class on Tuesday I started working on the sleeves of my blouse. The photo shows the slit at the cuff of my sleeve which is just waiting for a cuff to be added.
Misty Med Steps
Wednesday began rather murky and misty. I really enjoyed my walk back down the Rock from the summit of the Med Steps. Looking out to sea from the road, there was nothing but mist and cloud, it was as if I was on the edge of an abyss. I love it when it’s like this, it’s so atmospheric and magical looking.
Light show
After the mist cleared on Wednesday, we had a scorching hot afternoon. Standing outside school waiting for the Little Postcards, I could feel the sun burning my back through my shirt. By dinner time however, the clouds had rolled in and we were treated to a fab lightning storm and then rain shower. Talk about four seasons in one day.
Sunset skies in watercolour
I’ve been working on sunset skies at watercolour class… this is about the third attempt. Mixing that correct shade of orange has proved tricky…
Mini Olympiad
Yesterday, hundreds of middle school children from across Gibraltar came together to participate in the annual Mini Olympiad. Organised by the Royal Gibraltar Police, the event is aimed at introducing young people to the joys of sport as a way of avoiding bad life choices later on (ie drugs).
The Olympiad began with a congregation in the Piazza with an address from the Head of Police, Mayor and a priest’s blessing before a parade through town to the Victoria Stadium. The Parade was led by the drums and bagpipes of the Sea Scout band and the members of the historical re-enactment society and their very loud cannon.
After an opening ceremony and the firing of the cannon, the sports began. It was a great event and was enjoyed by us, although a certain young man was feeling rather achey and tired today after his exertions yesterday!
(Thank you to my friend Sarah for taking this photo for me – I managed to leave home without my phone, but she saved the day!)
I’m linking with Natalie of Threads & Bobbins for this weekly blog series.
Good morning, I hope you are having a good weekend. This week has seen a return to my watercolour class after a very long summer haiatus. It was so nice to be back…
Sunday afternoon on the beach
Sandy Bay
Last Sunday we did something rather out of character — we went to the beach. We aren’t huge beach goers normally as we don’t enjoy the crowds or the heat at the height of summer. We do, though, rather like sneaking down there out of season.
As you can see from the photo above, we weren’t alone, but there was loads of open space where we could sit, chat, splash and dig without upsetting anyone else.
My neighbours may not agree with me but I really do try to keep a lid on the level of noise coming from our apartment (I don’t think I’ll ever get used to living so close to other people). Being somewhere where the Little Postcards can scream and shout without upsetting anyone is a very valuable space for me.
Oh, and I got a bit of crochet done too…
Monday Med Steps
Last week on one of my Med Steps trips I was surrounded by a pack (troop?) of apes, on Monday it was Barbary Partridge bingo! There were loads about. This pair were very tame and I got very close before they scarpered.
Dressmaking whoops
Don’t you just hate it when that happens? I was making great strides with attaching my collar to my blouse at Dressmaking class when I managed to accidentally sew my underarm seam to the collar by accident – whoops!
Med stepping into the Levanter
These two photos were taken about 20 minutes apart. One below the cloud in bright (and rather hot) sunshine. The other at the top of the Rock and slap bang in the middle of the Levanter cloud.
I started Wednesday morning’s walk in hot sun but was relieved to hit the cool, damp Levanter near the top. I almost took an amazing photo at the top… as I gazed up at the misty summit, on that low bit of wall to the right of the fence was the silhouette of a mother ape with a baby on her back. By the time I’d got my phone camera on, they’d vanished into the mist. Never mind…
Watercolour refresher
Thursday morning saw my return to watercolour class. I didn’t realise how much I’d missed it over the summer. Our teacher began the new term with a refresher lesson on washes. It came just in time for me to get back to a picture I was working on before summer which had a very dodgy wash for the sky. My new aim for this term is to be less wishy washy with my colours – I need to embrace BOLD!
Beautiful Botanic Gardens
You may have noticed that my excercise levels have gone up in recent weeks. After a rather sedentary summer I have a good few kilos which I need to shed. On Friday I took a trip into town and on the way home I opted to walk rather than catching the bus. I was rewarded by with a walk through the beautiful Alameda Botanical Gardens.
Autumnal WIP-along
On Instagram recently I have noticed lots of crafty people publishing photos of the WIPs (work in progress) they have completed as part of a WIP-along with Gosling & Plumb. Check out the blog post in the link above to find out more about it.
When I finished my last crochet project (Jenny’s Mandala from Little Box of Crochet) I almost started something new but I could hear some of my many WIPs calling me from carrier bags hidden in my secret hidey hole. So far I have worked on three; circles in granny squares (see beach crochet photo), a green granny square blanket and a cute crochet cactus pin cushion from a Simply Crochet Magazine kit.
Thanks so much for stopping by for a read about my week. It’s been lovely to have your company.
I’m linking with Natalie of Threads & Bobbins for the Weekly Sunday Sevens series.
In my Sunday Sevens over the past few months I have alluded to the fact that I was working on a special secret sewing project. I can now reveal what I was making was a wedding gift which was given last month. You have probably guessed by now from the title that it was a quilt…
It isn’t my first attempt at making a quilt, that happened when Eldest was about 6 months old. Coping with being a new parent, selling a house and moving to a new area, I fancied an additional challenge. I decided to make a quilt for his pram and as my sewing machine was well and truly buried under boxes of junk, I sewed it completely by hand. Using paper hexagons and some fabric I had bought on the local market I set to work, much to the bemusement of those around me.
It was rather a long winded affair but I managed to complete it while he was still young enough to need it in his pram! It lasted well, despite my hand stitching, and was used by both of his brothers.
I started and failed to finish a much larger quilt for a double bed after that, it still languishes in a box somewhere in the back of beyond I’m ashamed to say… My next attempt was completed using scraps of material I had in my stash; from new pieces of cotton and a few fat quarters bought many moons ago to salvageable parts of Mr Postcard’s old work shirts and even a pair of my Dad’s old pyjama bottoms!
I made this one especially for Mr Postcard to bring in his suitcase to Gibraltar when he moved here on his own a few months before we came to join him. It was a thin summery quilt and meant that he didn’t have to rush out and buy a whole load of new bedding in the interim before we arrived with the furniture van several months later.
Next was this starry affair for the astronomy fan in the family. Made using a large central panel featuring the solar system this was a quick make over a weekend and a perfect birthday present for a young man who still uses it 6 years on.
And that is where my quilt making endeavours end until my recent make, well apart from another unfinished project – my only other attempt at paper piecing aside from my first ever quilt. I am embarrassed to admit I started this for Middle Postcard when he was still small enough to like sea creatures (well he still does to be honest) and most specifically the Octonauts programme on CBeebies. Then I had another burst of activity when Littlest came along and when he had an interest in pirates and sea creatures. Then I ran out of steam…. Perhaps I will have a grandson one day who might like it?!
Now to the present day and the latest quilt. It was for a very special couple who like the colour green and the great outdoors. With those criteria in mind I ordered some fabric.
It’s so difficult to order fabric online I find, especially if you want different fabrics to sit closely together – you could end up with something which looks good on the computer screen but in reality clashes hideously. I took a gamble and it paid off, the different fabrics looked just dandy next to each other. (It arrived the same day as a Little Box of Crochet- hence the photo).
So the fabric had arrived, but what to do with it? I had all sorts of grand plans for patterns, log cabins etc but thankfully common sense prevailed before I got scissor happy. I opted for the most straight forward design I could think of – squares. Don’t be fooled by squares though – I have discovered to my cost over the years that squares can be tricky little blighters especially if their corners don’t behave and join up with their neighbours in the right way.
I spent a very happy day planning and cutting. I had an unusually free day with absolutely nothing to do whist the Little Postcards were at school (well apart from the usual housework but that can wait). I had such fun listening to podcasts while I worked, it felt like bliss!
I even managed to get some sewing done as I made up the horizontal rows of the quilt. I worked right down to the bell and had to clear everything up as quick as a flash and run to school in time for pick up time.
A week or so later I had the chance to get my machine out again and get the rows finished and then join them. I am so pleased with how they went together, clearly my almost two years of dressmaking classes with a very exacting teacher who has taught me the merits of careful measuring and 1cm seam allowances have paid off! Just look at the corners on THAT!
The quilt top then had to be put away for a while as things got too busy. In the meantime I bought a good quality king size white sheet for the backing of the quilt and ordered some nice cotton batting to go in the middle of the quilt sandwich. And finally the time came for me to make that sandwich. I had kind of been dreading it, thinking that this could be the point when I finally make a mess of the good work I had done patching the top together.
I was so so careful laying the three different layers out onto the lounge floor, trying my utmost to make sure there were no lumps, bumps or bulges anywhere. I carefully pinned all the layers together before tacking them all together both horizontally and vertically along all the seams. Perhaps this was a bit belt and braces and over the top but I didn’t want to come a cropper when it was time to machine quilt it and it all go wonky.
I machine quilted in the joins between the squares and held my breath for much of it. I have learned from experience that what looks good on the top of the quilt may look dreadful underneath. It worked though!
Next up, binding. I bought a fifth fabric at the same time as I chose the fabric for the top of the quilt. I had intended to use it in the pattern, but the dark grey looked too much of a contrast with the pale grey and acid green of the other patterns so I held on to it and decided to use it to bind the quilt together.
I have never made my own bias binding before but as a habitual reader of craft books over the years I had a pretty good idea of how to go about it. With a protractor to get my angles right I set about marking out the strips ready to be cut.
The whole process was really easy, the only problem I had with the whole thing came when I discovered that my iron shoots out steam horizontally and as I was holding the folds into place before steaming them my fingers got a bit sore!
The binding went on fine as well, although at times I found it a bit tricky to try and pick up all the fabric on the back of the quilt as well so a little hand stitching had to be done to make sure everything was neat and tidy.
And so it was done. Would you like to see it in all it’s glory?
I am really pleased with how it all turned out. What’s most important is that the recipients of the quilt liked it too. (And when I took it to my dressmaking teacher to show her – she said it was worth a gold star, so that was a real seal of approval 😊).
For interest I bought all of the quilting fabric for this project and the batting from Quilt Room. The staff were really helpful especially when I was slightly dim and did something daft at the online checkout – thank you ladies!
Happy Mother’s Day to all you lovely Mums, Grandmas and everyone else too.
Here’s the gorgeous Mother’s Day window at Originarta shop which featured in my post on Upcycling recently in my Creative Gibraltar series.
Now to the rest of week’s edition of Sunday Sevens…
Cheerful blooms
I had the excuse to buy some flowers this week for somebody and thought these yellow gerberas were just lovely. Such sunny flowers!
Company at the top
I made my first trip up the Med Steps for this week on Wednesday. It was so warm. Although it was cool to start with, once we’d climbed round to the eastern side of the Rock, it was in direct sunshine and sheltered from the wind.
In spite of the heat, my friend and I managed it in under thirty minutes for the first time this year. We have talked about doing the Med Steps 5 Challenge again this year, but by this time last year we had done it at least twice round if not three times round in our training… I’m not sure whether we’ll (read I’ll) be ready to do 5 times round this time.
The start of another painting
There’s not much to show for this week’s watercolour class as there was a lot of planning (and quite a lot of chatting) but I have started a new painting. I have fancied having at go at trying to paint a section of the Med Steps seeing as I’m such a frequent visitor these days.
I have hundreds and hundreds of photos of the Steps, wildflowers and views on my phone that it was quite hard to make decision which one to go for. We’ll see how this one turns out….
Friday Steps
It was a beautifully clear morning on Friday, when I made a solo trip up the Steps. I had toyed with the idea of making my first ‘twice round’ trip, but alas no. There just wasn’t enough in the tank, so I headed home after the first circuit and used my time sewing! I’m working on a secret project which I can’t share yet, but I promise I will as soon as I can.
In the meantime just check out how clear the mountains across the Strait were on Friday. There are times when you almost feel like you can reach out and touch Morocco – it’s so close and clear!
A few hours later…
We had a very heavy hailstone shower just a few hours later after lunch! The spring weather is a bit unpredictable at the moment… four seasons in one day!
Furry friend
Bunnies and crochet don’t mix, or so I learned this week. Every evening we get Diamond out to have a run around the lounge. He loves the freedom and bunny hops his way from one end to the other and tries to fit into holes he really shouldn’t be able to fit into (if the laws of physics have anything to do with it).
One evening I was sitting with my crochet and I hadn’t realised the ball of yarn had rolled off the sofa and onto the floor. All of a sudden I felt a tugging on the other end of the yarn and I found this tinker all tangled up! He was none the worse for his ordeal, but I learned that trying to hold a fidgeting rabbit and trying to untangle him from a length of yarn at the same time is harder than you think!
That’s all for Sunday Sevens for this week, however you’re spending your day I hope you have a good one. Thanks so much for stopping by!
Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series created by Natalie at Threads & Bobbins blog.
From making clothes for her Pippa doll out of scraps of discarded fabric, to creating the dress worn by Miss Gibraltar the night she became Miss World and setting dozens of sewing students off on their own making and designing careers, Dorcas Hammond tells me how she turned her passion into a creative business.
Christened with the name of a seamstress from the Old Testament, it would seem that Dorcas Hammond was born to sew. Her father, who Dorcas describes as a very religious man, had liked the name and as his wife was a keen seamstress herself, he thought it appropriate to name his second daughter Dorcas. Little did he know at that time, what an accomplished designer and dressmaker, she would later become.
Dorcas began sewing at a very young age. Her mother made curtains at home and she picked up the remnants of curtain fabric and hand sewed them to make dolls clothes. By the age of six, she was using her mother’s sewing machine in secret with the help of her older sister, Ingrid. “When my mother was out, my sister helped me get the sewing machine to work” she told me. The pair would operate the tredle-powered machine until Dorcas was able to manage on her own using her tip-toes to reach the pedal.
Her secret was only discovered when “the ironing lady (who came to the house) said she needed two sheets sewing together but as my mother wasn’t there it couldn’t be done. I told her I would do it and machined them together for her … the ironing lady told my mother that it was me who had done the sewing”. After being rumbled for using the sewing machine, Dorcas’s mum put her to work doing embroidery but she hated it, “I remember embroidering this bird and it was rubbish, I just wanted to sew”.
Later on in childhood, she would make simple clothes using Burda and Simplicity patterns and experiment with her cousin. They would lock themselves into a bedroom and measure, sew and fit the clothes. No one was allowed to see what they had done until they were completely happy with the finished result.
Dorcas’s passion for sewing continued into her teens, she began making clothes for clients at the age of 18 while working in a cosmetics shop on Main Street. Each lunchtime she would rush home at 1 o’clock, her mother would have her lunch prepared for her and she’d spend her lunch break sewing garments for clients before returning to work at 3pm for the second half of her shift.
In the evening, Dorcas would begin her sewing work again with the help of her mum. “My mother would go to bed when she got tired, but I would carry on until I’d finished. I couldn’t sleep until the garment was on the hanger – sometimes I’d sew until 2am”.
Sewing has run in Dorcas’ family for generations. Her grandmother had a workshop with her own mother making clothes. When Dorcas told her mum that she would like a workshop like her grandmother’s (at a time when no one else had one in Gibraltar), her mother said she was crazy and said she was to keep working at her job in the shop.
It wasn’t until the age of 26, when she’d been married and had her two sons and “had a load of problems that I decided it was the time to do it”. The ICC shopping centre had just opened in town and she opened her first shop there.
At that time, Dorcas created her garments using manufactured patterns but soon discovered that they didn’t always work well for her clients. “Someone would want a dress with a sleeve from this pattern, the skirt from another pattern and a top from the other pattern”. Dorcas then had to decipher how she was going to join all the elements together.
She’d had no formal training but was given a book of instructions on how to cut your own patterns by one of the ladies who did sewing for her. “I still have that book to this day” she says, “it was very old but I went through it and as I have always had a good eye, I knew some parts were wrong for what I was making. It was the first steps to the pattern cutting system I use and teach now”.
The first made-to-measure garments Dorcas created (using her own patterns) were for her mum before implementing the method in her shop. Because she’d not been formally taught how to make the patterns properly, Dorcas says she was always scared that she wouldn’t have enough fabric to fit the garments properly. As a consequence, she cut huge seam allowances. It wasn’t until she went to a crash course in pattern cutting in Madrid in 2000, that she learned the seam allowances only need to be 1 or 2cms.
While in Madrid, she was asked by one of the teachers why she had come to the course as Dorcas had created the best sample jacket sleeve the teacher had ever seen. It was thanks to this compliment that Dorcas left filled with the confidence to truly believe in her designing and dressmaking capabilities. That was almost seventeen years ago and since then her business has gone from strength to strength.
Alongside her dressmaking and designing business, Dorcas inadvertantly ended up teaching the skills she’d developed over the years to others. During the time she had run her shop, people had occasionally asked her to teach them dressmaking. She also took on interns every now and then from University, however it was an ecclesiastical request which set her on the road to teaching properly.
“I was at a song contest and Father Caruana asked me if I would teach some of his social cases. By the time I said yes, a room had already been set aside at Nazareth House and six sewing machines had been bought”. Dorcas spent several years volunteering at Nazareth House teaching not just sewing but life skills to the young women who attended the classes. She says “we discussed things like what you should wear to go to a job interview and how to behave” a bit like a mother or big sister might.
The lessons came to an end when Father Caruana died, but there were still a few students who wanted to carry on being taught. Eventually, Dorcas needed to find new premises for the lessons and converted the rear of her workshop into a classroom and began the Dorcas Hammond Fashion Academy. After perfecting her own method of pattern cutting, she compiled all her notes into a four year course to teach dressmaking, from beginners through to tailoring and wedding dress design.
Dorcas says she has had many highs throughout her career including fashion shows in London, Marbella, Morocco, Madrid and Portugal. She designed and created the Gibraltar National Costume worn by the Miss Gibraltar contestants when they attend pageants, and is most famous for creating the dress worn by the 2009 winner of Miss World, Gibraltar’s Kaiane Aldorino.
Kaiane Aldorino wearing Dorcas’s National costume
Dorcas says she still gets a thrill out of making dresses “I love what I do… I get butterflies in my stomach when it looks good”. The biggest highlight for her though, is seeing her students go out from her Academy and make the most of their great potential. So far she has seen former students go on to study fashion at University, get PGCEs and go into teaching themselves and one has opened her own fashion boutique. “I want them to achieve what I haven’t and fulfill their dreams” she says.
So what does the future hold for Dorcas? “Well I’m a chicken” she says. “If I haven’t done more things it’s because I take a long time thinking about doing them. When I was young I just jumped into things, but not so much now”. Her small alterations and dressmaking shop developed into a fashion design business and academy and the next step will see her selling her fashion designs online. “Some days I wake up and I say who will buy my clothes? But then I think if other people can do it why can’t I?”
Dorcas is currently working on her first online collection and is looking forward to launching it later on in 2017. You can find Dorcas at her shop on Governor’s Street and on Facebook and Twitter as Dorcas Hammond Fashion Design.
‘Materials’
Over on Instagram I’m taking part in a 30 day long photo challenge (#30daysofcraftiness). On Monday the theme was ‘materials’. It was such a gloomy, wet & windy day I chose rainbow bright yarn, fabric, paints and buttons to cheer myself up. I thought I’d share them with you!
Home furnishings WARNING: bland photo alert!
Monday also meant the start of a new course for me. Home furnishings this time. We’re learning to make curtains and cushions (the proper way – rather than making it up as I go along!). This photo shows the mess I made of my side seams on my sample curtain – turns out I’d sewn the top and bottom by accident and I had to unpick them and start again! Such a shame as they were rather neat…
Med steps training I’ve only managed one trip up the steps so far this week, I’m hoping to fit another one in this afternoon. Thursday was a stunningly beautiful day and as I set off at 10am the sun was already rather hot making it harder work than my previous recent attempts. These seagulls were taking in the view of the Bay on my descent.
Dozing apes
On my way back down from the top of the Rock I spotted these two large apes having a snooze on the bonnet of a car. I felt like having a lie down myself after that big climb! Watercolour class Oh how I have missed my painting these last few weeks over the Christmas break. My class restarted this week and my word it was utterly fantastic to sit down and get totally immersed in something calming and peaceful. It’s been a bit hectic for us lately and my head has been so busy with lots of thoughts about what I need to do and where I need to be etc etc. I really loved it! The above painting will hopefully resemble a doorway once it’s finished. The cling film on the wet paint should create a stripy effect on the door. I’m following a technique in a Jean Haines book (which my teacher has) to create a very loose impressionistic style. Time will tell if I achieve it!
Tulips I treated myself to a bunch of these beauties this week at the supermarket- aren’t they gorgeous?
New flower Out on our balcony yesterday afternoon I was having a bit of a potter and I lifted a leaf to find this lovely surprise hiding underneath. I do love these lilies, they were a gift from a friend who lives across the border in Spain. I have tried growing them several times from the corm or bulb but with limited success. This Spanish clump though has never let me down.
I hope you have had a good week, thank you for stopping by to visit 🙂 . Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series created by Natalie at Threads & Bobbins.
Apologies if this is a little samey as last week’s post but I fear, dear reader, that my love of routine will be a theme with my Sunday Sevens posts. My weeks are a little predictable with kids and school and everything that goes on around here. Predictability is good though in my opinion, as without routine, I may lose my marbles!
1 Watercolour class
This week we continued our theme of practicing painting flowers, I only finished a couple of small pictures this week and both were of alliums. I normally like to paint more precisely when doing flowers but was persuaded to be a bit more experimental this week letting the colours run and leaving negative space for the stems rather than painting them in. I’m not sure about the background colour on this one, and the flower heads aren’t exactly spherical as they should be but it was fun to be a bit freer and experiment a bit.
2 Dressmaking class
Do you see that? It’s a zip and I inserted it! I’m so chuffed with it. It almost looks professional. I have now officially finished my sample top of a skirt with darts, facing and a hook and eye. I also did this sample zip, which means…. I have now got to start on the real thing and in theory make a proper skirt that I could wear (chews fingernails in nervous anticipation). It was so straight forward cutting and making up the samples, but when my teacher told me to go ahead and cut the material for my skirt I lost all my confidence. I’ll keep you posted on my progress…
3 Powercut
Wednesday morning meant most of Gibraltar woke to a very gloomy wet day and no electricity. Power cuts seem to be a regular fixture these days unfortunately. Gibraltar generates all its own power by burning oil at a handful of power stations. Over the past few years old age and a large fire in one have restricted the capacity the electricity board has for generating electricity. Political wrangling has delayed the building of a new gas-powered power station. Gibraltar is in the Med, it has a lot of sunshine, it is surrounded on almost all sides by the sea, it is also close to the Atlantic Ocean and all the wind that it cares to send this way. Why then, do we not harness these amazing natural resources and generate our electricity this way? Surely Gibraltar could be a world leader in green energy with all these resources, but instead we burn oil and are planning to burn gas as our next method of generating power. But what do I know?
In the meantime we are left with rather annoying and at times, rather long power cuts. This one lasted five hours. Thank goodness Marks & Spencer had a back-up generator so my morning coffee could be replaced with a croissant and fizzy energy drink. Walking along Main Street that morning was like being on the set of a zombie movie as people trudged slowly and miserably to work and school with bleary eyes. Obviously it wasn’t just me suffering from a lack of caffeine!
4 A sunny autumn walk up the Rock
If you have seen my last post you will know that I had a rather lovely walk up the Mediterranean Steps this week. It was stunning, hot and I’m still aching a bit but I really enjoyed having a bit of time to myself and being able to take in all the tranquility and beauty the Upper Rock Nature Reserve has to offer.
5 Knitting
My knitting has continued and developed from last week, from green to rust and cream intarsia. This was my first attempt at the method. For those of you who have no idea what I’m on about, it’s a method you can use when changing colours several times in the one row. Instead of stretching the yarn you are not using across the back of the work and reintroducing it later (which can make your finished piece look bumpy and out of shape) you use several smaller balls of wool with a separate length of yarn for each part of the pattern. Have I lost you yet?! Anyway, it means lots of little bits of dangly wool which can get very easily tangled, especially when you are interrupted many times in the process. Not sure it’s something I’ll attempt again in a hurry, but it’s a lot neater than the alternative.
6 New School
Back in September two new schools opened their doors to pupils for the first time in Gibraltar, St Bernard’s First & Middle Schools. Yesterday they had an open day when the public was able to go in and have a snoop about. They are really amazing. This photo is of the atrium of the Middle School, the class rooms lead off each floor to the sides and to the front the library and art room have the most amazing views out across town and into the bay. The glass roof above opens and closes to allow for natural ventilation. The schools have been built in the old St Bernard’s Hospital building which has lain empty for several years since it moved to new premises down beside Morrisons. I was pleased to see that some of the original features were kept during the renovation work like archways, the staircases and a lot of the facade of the building. What an inspiring place to be able to go to school!
7 Sunday morning relaxation
Mr Postcard has gone on football duty this morning so I have a few minutes peace and quiet to myself. Happy Sunday everyone!
When my first son was born, I was given a wonderful gift by a work colleague and fellow cross stitcher, a baby sampler. As I had previously made similar things for friends of mine when they’d had babies, I was incredibly touched by the gesture. I know at first hand the time and love which go into making such an item:
It was treasured and hung in No 1 son’s nursery. It has moved with us from house to house over the years and now hangs in a corridor near the boys’ bedrooms.
Fast forward a few years and No 2 son put in an appearance. In an attempt to be fair and make sure each child has the same treatment, I set about making a cross stitch sampler to mark his birth too. However, having moved countries (England to Gibraltar) and juggling two young children, time wasn’t on my side so at the ripe old age of 2 years old I began his sampler. As he was now officially a toddler rather than a baby, I chose a slightly more ‘grown up’ design than teddy bears opting for jungle animal name plate kit from Daisy Designs.
It took about a year to complete and eventually both he and I were pleased with the results. Once framed, it hung on his bedroom wall, where it remains to this day.
Fast forward another few years and No 3 son arrived. I’m afraid that for quite a while, crafting took a back seat and although I always meant to get around to doing a cross stitch picture for him, it just didn’t happen until he was … 3!
I struggled to find a kit I liked at first and considered using my many cross stitch books to create a unique one just for him, but I just didn’t have the time or the creative inspiration I needed to hit upon the right thing. Then I saw this:
The kit by Bothy threads, although quite ‘baby-ish’ for a 3 year old had a very important feature; a giraffe! My LO has a very special friend in the shape of a cuddly giraffe very similar to the one in this pattern – decision made!
And so, just over a year ago, I began. It started on our summer holiday in England last year. I made great headway, then stalled…. for most of the year. You may remember seeing this photo featured in my post WIP Mountain!
It spent an awful lot of time at the bottom of my pile of projects to complete, but I think writing about them all spurred me back into action and so, instead of embarking upon another new project (which I am supremely good at) I decided to make this summer a time to complete one or more of my old ones!
While in England this year, I finished the animals and began the shelf they were sitting on.
Fueled by gorgeous homemade strawberry smoothie, Operation Cross Stitch continued in Portugal!
Then that magic moment came when you stop cross stitching and start working on the outline/accents – my favorite bit!
I love the way that the outline and details transform blocks of colour into little creatures with personality!
Just look at how this little blue rabbit comes to life with a few stitches.
I think he’s really rather sweet!
So at long last, I’m very pleased to say I’m almost finished. It’s just waiting for the name and birth date to be added then it’s off to the framers. Very soon, my conscience will be cleared and my youngest won’t be the only child NOT to have a cross stitch picture. He’s not that interested in it right now to be honest, but perhaps one day when he’s older and has children of his own he might be glad I made this for him.
