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I have finally taken a photo of my detached chain sample, when I had finished it I thought it was much too bright so I lay some chiffons over it to see what colour to wash over it but decided I liked the black chiffon so fused that on instead,

I have had plumbers in the house all week and haven’t even looked to see what the next stitch is yet, will do after I post this now I have caught up I want to stay caught up,

The weather has been dry and sunny the last 2 days so I have been in the garden all day, everything is growing especially the weeds! I took this photo last week but never got to post it, I wanted an area that was a sort of mini flowering meadow but all the gardening books and programmes said you need poor soil, preferably alkaline and dryish, then I found a book which had all different types of flowering meadows and one was a damp acid meadow, yeah that what I need and I was surprised to see plants I think of as garden flowers but apparently they grow wild in other countries and it had lots of lovely lupines, so I put the rather ‘over productive for the little front garden’ ones into the meadow area and they love it the pink one and one of the blues are self seeded, they have even held their own when the wind or rather gales hit,

also in the photo flowering butter cups and clover, in leaf day lilies, loosestrife, tansy and a few others including a white flower that was already here, I don’t know what it is so I will post a photo when it flowers and perhaps some of you clever people will know,
have a nice weekend,

the fourth stitch is cretan stitch, I decided to look this stitch up as I thought I knew how it was done but there was that tiny wee bit of doubt I may have remembered wrong, I hadn’t it is a flatter less loopy feather stitch or feather stitch is a loopy version of cretan stitch, here are some online links for those who are interested, and , I looked in my books Mrs Archibald Christy has 3 variations two working the stitch close to form leaf shapes and one using cretan stitch as a composite stitch worked over 2 long stitches, Jan Beaney and Val Campbell-Harding using it mostly like long straight stitches close and overlapping with various threads which creates interesting textural effects.

as I said with my first stitch I am using embroidery cotton, I have most times split it to 3 threads, I have also tended to use one colour in different shades and tints, most of these threads were given to me by my uncle (my mum’s little brother) after the death of his wife, they are her threads, I knew this aunt more than other aunts as my uncle lived with us before he married, so I first met my aunt when she came to tea to meet her boyfriends family I must have been about six at the time but can remember it well it is strange the things we remember and those we forget, using these threads now is rekindling memories, sorry I’ve gone on and off what I meant to write, well the threads all arrived wrapped in bundles according to colour which gave me the idea to use a single colour and the same thread so my only variable is ‘the stitch’ large or small, close or spaced, single or overlapped, etc.


I am not a pink person but there are lots of pink threads and I wanted to use this piece of handmade paper, I love the colour of this paper it was dyed with the roots of bell heather and no I am not digging up bell heather (which I think is protected) from the moor, the roots came from heather that was dug up in my garden on Scalpay, in a book I have on Scottish natural dyes bell heather roots were used to make purple tweed, I believe this as there is very little bell heather on the moors which is a shame as I think it is one of the prettiest heathers and flowers for a long time, the paper in real life is a delicate lavender and the pink threads looked best against it, I have not used cretan stitch much but I think this could be the start of my using it more frequently,

I had to look at the ‘for this stitch when I saw how to do it I have seen it before but had no memory of it’s name, not an exciting stitch to me, a bit ridged, working it in honeycomb fashion reminded me of the creels use to trap lobster here, I preferred it worked wave fashion and quiet liked it as a couching stitch, I did manage to finish my sample Thursday evening but didn’t get time to post it Friday and now as I write this Saturday I know you won’t get to see it until Monday when the beeb blogs are posted,


there is a range of gold/terracotta threads among my aunts collection so I used them on blue paper for this sample, the paper is made from all those white envelopes with blue linings we used to get, I wonder why they stopped using blue linings, I had sprinkled some manmade fibres I had at the time over it but they never firmly stuck, so as chevron stitch works as a couching stitch I thought it would help hold the fibre in place and it has worked quiet well,

sorry if non stitching people are getting bored with all this stitch I promise the next post will be about gardening, I have a question to ask,

this flower was here in the large area of the garden when I moved to the house and I have no idea what it is, I have asked many people but no one knows for sure lots of could be’s though,

it flowers prolifically and spreads rapidly by suckering,

close up,

it has 2 leaves, these are the first leaves when it first emerges in spring,

these are the leaves that appear on the flowering stems,

the stems of the flowers are red, if anyone has any idea what it is or might be I would love to know, thanks in advance,

the unknown flower is now a known flower it is a sidalcea, my art, quilting and gardening friend came to lunch today and she said it looked like a pink flower she has, so she took a flowering stem with leaves home with her, shortly after she e mailed to say it is the same as her pink one and the name is sidalcea, I’ve never heard of this family but then I haven’t heard of lots of plants families,

I did a search and guess what dear ole auntie beeb has it in the ……but it’s the pink version, I then found this wonderful which shows them in pinks, white and reds, as you might guess most of the websites coming up are for nurseries selling the plant, I have not yet found my actual version of the plant, I did find an interesting website about that included sidalcea,


Harris tweed
I don’t know if you may have seen it but just incase you haven’t I thought I would write here, Cate has left a message on the previous post asking for help in the preparation of fleece for weaving on the islands in bygone days, I do not know a lot so am going to contact people who may be able to help but if anyone reading can help with this please leave a comment with the info, thanks in advance,

I was awake too, too early this morning so here is a photo of just before sunrise about five thirtish,


when I was gardening yesterday this beautiful ugh was walking across the front step, sorry didn’t do the mm thing of laying something beside it so you can see the size, it is about 3 inches long, in new money I think that’s about 7 – 8 centimetres, lovely markings but I am not a lover of caterpillars, if anyone knows what it will turn into I would love to know, thanks in advance,


the olearia fc’s fpu sent me is growing nicely as you can see,


if I can find it there will be a link to the photo I took when I planted it and another photo here with the large pebbles around it for size comparison,




right this is the third time I have tried to write and publish this post, I want to be out in the garden......no....it is not auntie beeb......it is internet explore cutting out due to 'runtime error' .....fingers crossed......

This is last weeks stitch and I enjoyed working with it, it looks like lots of stars and a nice decorative way of holding down beads and sequins, when I was working on this paper the triangle shapes started to pop off and I was going to stick them down but changed my mind (a woman’s prerogative) as I thought they looked more interesting slightly loose, this is a fourth week so no stitch this week,

Message and warning, this morning I was rushing for the noon bus but wanted to download e mails so I could skim them before I went out and read when I came home without the bother of having to go online again, well it was nearly time for the bus so I closed everything real quick, imagine my horror when I got home and found the messages were not in outlook or on my web server, I’d lost them in my haste and typically I had several as I had not had time to collect messages on Monday, so if you e mailed me between noon Sunday and noon today (tues) then I have not got your e mail please resend, thanks, and to everyone do not copy me and do webby things in haste!!!!

I have a few roses in my garden, I had bought some when I lived on Scalpay from a well known magazine, as I moved here in winter I dug them up and brought them with me but only half survived, they were not doing too well either so last year I moved them to near where some roses that were in the garden already grow, they seem to be happier in their new home and last week when I was working in the garden I saw they have rewarded me with a beautiful bloom, I hope they keep growing,

Chinatown, this is one I thought I had lost so I am so pleased to see it growing,

Lili Marlene, this too I thought was gone forever so I am thrilled to see it growing,

Queen Elizabeth, this has grown all along but it not as robust as the experts say,

Rosa rugosa alba, this one came from a well know chain store and was also brought from Scalpay, it’s doing great,

Dog rose, there were three in the garden when I moved here, they were all very overgrown and straggly, showed signs of having been blown down then continuing to grown from where they had fallen, I cut back but kept some of the longer stems for the height but in the gale of Jan 2005 they were really knocked down so I cut them down quite a lot, two of them are in the privet hedge so I have been cutting them back and weaving new growth into the privet either side as I thought this might help support them in the winter gales, this year things are finally coming together and they look like part of the hedge, they are flowering their best ever too, the third is in the garden with the other flowers and it is taking off like a rocket this year,


Last but by no mind least is this beautiful rose that was in the garden when I moved here and so I have no idea what it is, it flowers prolifically and has a beautiful but gentle perfume, so my blogging mates has anyone any idea what it might be, oophs just remembered blooms are about 4 inches (10cm) across,


thanks and I hope your day is rose tinted,

what do you think?

Yesterday I posted photos and asked if anyone knew the name of a beautiful rose that was in my garden when I moved here, thought it might be an Alba rose as it looks like the Celeste Alba rose, I thought it could be an Alba rose at first because it matched so well the description of Alba roses, I also thought maybe not Celeste as it is more of a peach pink, when I was in the garden this afternoon I looked closely at my rose and now I think it could be Alba Celeste rose as it is more pink than I realised, I took another photo of a group of flowers what do you think? I also posted this photo on my photo blog which has a click through link to a ,


Here is a link to a photo of a ,

Now the other thing I am not sure of is that they say Alba roses have grey leaves, but how grey? grey/green or grey/grey, this rose has what I would describe as blue/green leaves, they are though green,

.....I see the devil in my garden




a word of warning if you create a garden in a rural area, even if there are no problems with rabbits or stock when you are first there make your first job putting in a rabbit and stock proof fence, my neighbours and I are learning by experiece!

Stornoway ferry terminal has had a revamp inside and the Stornoway quilt group was commissioned to make a quilt, so when in town today I went over to the ferry terminal to see it, it’s beautiful I like it very much,

I love the little stone house and man fishing on the loch shore, the rolling mountains are more Harris than Lewis, someone has embroidered the Harris tweed symbol and I love that underneath they have reminded us that Harris tweed is made in Lewis too…. I like the quilts clarity and simplicity, it lets the tweed shine through.


The other art work in the ferry terminal is all mosaics and I love them, using slips and pieces of stone to create a picture is not a long way from using pieces of fabric, my favourite is the Herring Girls, I apologise but I do not know who created them if you do please leave a comment saying,









So if you visit Stornoway by ferry please don’t just rush through the ferry terminal and miss these art works, if you are in a vehicle then pull in or come back before you leave, if you fly in them when in Stornoway take a little extra time to visit the ferry terminal, they have a good café too.