In the mornings I’m up early with the kids, who leave for the train at the crack of dawn. While they’re all showering, breakfasting and getting their things together I love to sit out on the patio in my nightie with a cup of tea and breathe in the fresh morning air. This morning I noticed how dark it still was at 6.30, how there was a faint mistiness in the air and the first signs of autumn.

The summer seems to have rushed by this year and because our heat came so late, during the day the weather is still glorious and still fills me with the ridiculous feeling that summer will last for ever. This morning told me otherwise. In a week or two, it will cool down, the garden will stop growing so insanely vigorously and the first frosts may even stop my early morning outside musings.

It rather brought me up short and I had to laugh at how predictable my reaction was. the nesting instinct came on strong and by 8 I was in the garden, picking blackberries to freeze, harvesting onions, kohl rabi and the last of the rhubarb. Then I ran off to the farm shop and bought kilos and kilos of the plums and apricots that are now coming to an end and spent the rest of the morning blanching and stewing and generally filling the freezer ready for the winter.

Bonkers really, but at the same time incredibly satisfying! I think I’ve got enough fruit frozen to keep us in crumbles and pies all winter long!

After lunch I worked a little on the rag rug, which is progressing steadily. I love planning the colour scheme and seeing the demise of so much hideous fabric and all the novelty prints that I bought but never used when the children were little. The amazing thing is how the ugly fabric stops being ugly when you put it into a rug. It merely becomes small spots of colour and all the circus animals, clowns, teapots and hideous batiks fit in wonderfully and are unrecognizable as their former selves.

It’s positively cathartic!

Give it a go!

Helen

So many of you have asked for some instructions on making rag rugs – so here for your edification is my very first tutorial!

The first thing you need to do is make a frame. I used the instructions in this book – or at least my husband and son did! My frame is about 3’x4′, but your frame can actually be any size. Mine makes a rug which is a bit larger than you probably want in an average bathroom. The book provides very good detailed instructions on the whole process from beginning to end, and I would highly recommend it!

The frame needs to be solid and have the part with the nails in raised higher than the sides. The nails are about one inch apart. Down the sides there are two removable metal rods which run through metal rings – don’t miss these out, they are critical!

Then cut 2″ fabric strips to make the base strips and weave them up and down the frame to make the base for you to weave your strips on. Just tie a loose loop to start with and to finish off. Leave at least a 2″ tail – this will be woven in so don’t worry if it looks a bit messy at this stage. You can use almost any fabric for this – I used plain loose weave muslin, but you could use old sheets and some people even use heavier leftover fabrics.

The fabric can be joined together in which ever way you like best. The lazy way (my way!) is just to join them with a sling knot – or you can sew the ends together (which will give you a smoother finish).

It will then look like this:

As you can see I have tied an elastic around the end, to make sure that the fabric doesn’t ride up.

And then you’re ready to go!

Cut lots and lots of 2″ strips. I use a serrated blade for my rotary cutter and this stops some of the fraying, but not all. In total a rug of the size I’m making will take about 15m of fabric – which makes it just about the best stash buster around for old and ugly fabric!

Start by joining two different strips of fabric. Wrap the fabric round the metal frame to start off (avoiding the join) and then start to weave the fabric in front of and behind the vertical strips. It should look like this:

At each end the strips must pass over or under the metal rods as you turn. This keeps the rug perfectly square.

Once you have a few inches established on one end, start the weaving in the same way from the other end. The aim is to meet very tightly at the middle. It would be impossible to get this tight finish if it was at one end of the frame rather than in the middle.

Now get weaving! In part two I will show you how to finish the rug off!

Helen

The temperature has dropped a little and there’s just the hint of a breeze, which makes my sewing room hot but just about habitable, at least early this morning.

I have a stack of WIP boxes full of things that I should be getting on with, but feeling rash I decided to make a start on some quick projects that I’ve wanted to get started for ages.

First up was a rag rug….I got the frame strung, hauled some suitable scraps from the scrap basket, cut some 2″ strips with my lovely new zigzag rotary cutter blade (thanks to the lovely Di, who sent it last time I was making a rug) and got myself started.

Then I cut out the main pieces for a toweling bathrobe using two old and unusably ginormous bath towels that had been sitting on the sewing room floor (in the way) since forever. I’m planning on trimming and interfacing this with Liberty odds and ends…I’m a woman with a plan!

Finally I cut out the pieces for a new dress… Peony by Colette patterns. I know the fabric is by a well-known designer, but can’t for the life of me remember who! Maybe one of you can help!

Things are moving round here and there’s a huge mess in the sewing room, but it’s great to be back doing things again!

I’ll keep you posted with how I get on!

Helen

or an Italian, or a Turk or a North African. Not that I have anything at all against such chaps per se you understand…not to mention the fact that I’m very happy with my Swiss-German husband.

It’s the heat. I just can’t be doing with it. My Northern English body doesn’t do well in the heat – and Switzerland is currently having a record-breaking heat wave. It’s killing me. Most of the time I feel like a puddle on the living room floor,  sapped of all energy and glowing gently.

The schools went back yesterday. Under normal circumstances that would be the biggest signal of the year for me to spring into action, full of new resolutions and energy, raring to go. I love the start of the school year – it’s even better than New Year for turning my life around and taking part in ventures new. I was all set with sewing projects, plans to increase my (currently very low) running milage – I was going to be supermom, supersewer, superfit….you name it, I was there in my head.

And then it got hot.

And I ground to a halt.

Sport is out of the question (I would die)

Sewing is a no-no as my sewing room in the roof of the house is a million degree sauna.

Cleaning the house is iffy because I’m lathered with sweat in a nanosecond. I have however made a modicum of progress in the rather deliciously cool and very messy cellar 🙂

Don’t even think about asking me to cook anything – my Aga is warming the kitchen nicely and it’s 40 degrees in there.

Most of the time I’m just a slug on the sofa. Even reading is too much effort….laziness and inertia pervade.

But all is not lost….I did do a little knitting…something that’s been waiting to be knitted for a while. And it’s turquoise. My favourite summer colour.

Soay by the Shetland Trader (aka Gudrun Johnston) in Zara merino extra by Filatura di Crosa. It’s a lovely pattern – I made it in purple last year.

Now I’m off to do a very sedate rain dance in the hope that that might cool things down a bit here….

Roll on the autumn….

Phew!

Helen

It’s somewhere in the mid-30’s….far too hot to do anything sensible….other than head to the lake of Zürich…and lunch on the Insel Ufenau….

Mmmm yummy Fischknusperli (deep-fried perch, fresh from the lake)

Helen