Roses, Gingham and Vintage Damask

Roses

Freshly cut this evening with the rain droplets still on the petals.

Just one stem of this lovely pale creamy white climbing rose, delicately scented, so as to see the rest of the blooms flowering above and peeping through the large dark green laurel at the bottom of the garden.

This time of year my garden has pockets of beauty and colour, but doesn't look as good over all as it does in late Spring with all the bright azaleas and rhodedendrons flowering profusely - I need to work on putting more in for this time of year, plugging the gaps, buying flowers and plants in flower so I can see what looks good where. Each year I add a few more.

Last year I added a couple of new roses to the front garden from a local nursery.

One was "Blue for You", a beautiful lilacy blue floribunda rose.

Here it is a week or so later, some blooms past their best but still beautiful.....more faded....the light must have been different too as it looks much more lilacy here.

The other was this gorgeous David Austin rose "Noble Anthony". Its only just started to flower so not many photos yet, but it is rather gorgeous.

More photos of what's flowering in the front garden, taken over the last couple of weeks......

I always love these Rose "Ballerina" - I had them in my last garden and was so pleased to find them here too. Above, a couple of weeks a go - below, a day or too ago, so now in full bloom.

The deep crimson peonies are over now, and they have been glorious this year, but once the rain and wind comes they suddenly drop all their petals

  

  

A couple of years ago I planted two Cistus. I can't remember which variety, but I have always had these in my gardens as I just love the bright pink papery flowers, that only last a day or so, against the soft greyish green foliage.

Campanula Glomerata - another usually reliable favourite of mine, although the one's in the back garden have not appeared this year - maybe overzealous weeding at some point? 

Will have to move some back round from the front garden.

Gingham

Regular visitors to my blog will know that I have been dabbling with a type of embroidery on gingham called Chicken Scratch  (see this post and my last post here ).............

..............which is a form of embroidery on gingham practised by women in America earlier in the 20th century.

At the flea market last week I came across some examples of the English version of embroidery on gingham in the earlier half of the 20th century.

Much simpler but still decorative in a different way.

Both these are worked in quite large stitches on large squared gingham,( 1/2" squares).

I like this hemming stitch below - might have a go at this. But it seems, from these examples, that the English version uses ordinary embroidery stitches whereas the American version seems to have its own named stitches for embroidering on gingham.

But I have only briefly looked into this, using only two or three sources, and when I have time I will look into it more.

Both of these pieces are small square tablecloths for tea, and are rather sweet.

Apart from the odd gingham apron, these are the first examples I have found since I have been buying vintage fabrics. I shall keep a look out now for more examples.

Vintage Damask

On the cushion front, I have finished off two more works-in-progress.

The cushion above I started a year or so ago, after finding this lovely vintage print. I teamed it with a lovely delicate and timeworn beautiful damask, and then came to a halt as I got caught up in the next thing I had an urge to make.

But the fabric is so pretty, and I have wanted to finish it so today I did. I lined the front then added a back of more vintage white damask, and trimmed it with a beautiful wide edge of fine vintage crochet.

It has an Oxford edge with two rows of stitching for added detail (not that you can see it in the photos!)

Also a few days ago I finished off this vintage sheet cushion by adding an Oxford edge, again with the double row of stitches in a contrast pink on the natural linen. Again you can't see this in the photos, but I like to add small details and finishing touches like this that show when you see it in person.

Both of these cushions are now available here in my shop.

Thank you all for your lovely comments on my last post. As you can probably tell, I'm on a bit of a roll with the cushion making at the moment so I'm sorry you've had to see even more today, and no doubt there'll be more to come! 

I'm pleased to say (well truthfully I'm a little sad to see it go! ) that the recycled work shirts patchwork and quilted cushion shown in my last post is now winging its way across the ocean to its new home in the United States.

Lastly, just before I go and whilst we're on the subject of patchwork, Bella and I have been playing around with patchwork of a different kind today - let me show you a quick peek.

 We used old Boden and Next catalogues to cut up pictures of fabrics to decoupage a useful shoe box, so no costly special decoupage papers, just some thrifty recycling!

Hope you all have a great week wherever you are!