Autumn

Autumn is not my favourite time of year.  Seeing everything die back and the days get shorter makes me feel a little sad, I much prefer the spring.  For some reason, this year I’ve been feeling more lacklustre than normal, hence my lack of posts this month.  

Yesterday I took my camera with me on our walk with the intention of capturing and enjoying the rich autumn colour.

It was one of those misty damp mornings, which eventually turned into a beautiful warm mellow sunny afternoon.

The leaves are beginning to change colour, and the oaks are heavy with plump ripening acorns.

The dew was thick and coated everything with a scattering of sparkling diamonds.  I was hoping to find a beautiful big dewy spiders web to photograph – this one hanging on the fence was the best I could find.

At this time of year we have some wonderfully dramatic sunsets.

Most of the plants in the garden might be dying back for the winter, but some are just appearing for the winter season.  Silk tassel bush (Garrya elliptica) and arum Italicum.

Some of the plants in the garden are still going strong, including these cornflowers, which have been a delight all summer.

I was able to find a bouquet of late blooms.

We both enjoyed our walk, and the sun broke through as we made our way back, and in a few weeks I will be able to enjoy one of my favourite autumn past times – kicking through drifts of autumn leaves.

Is it really that long ….

Has it been nearly two weeks since my last post?

So what have we been up to here at Donut Towers?  Well …

…  there’s been a bit of knitting of Ringwood gloves, this is the first glove and I’m up to the thumb.  Terribly fiddly knitting on several DP needles, and I’m sure it’s only going to get worse as I start on fingers!

We’ve marvelled at the different varieties of thistles on our daily walk on the hill.

admired the wild flowers and enjoyed the smell of new mown hay

and sat in the welcome shade of our favourite tree as we contemplated life, and watched the world go by.

And enjoyed some welcome shade in the garden as we’ve enjoyed tea and cake breaks in between watching Olympian feats on TV.  (Hasn’t the coverage been great?).

Of course, we’re enjoying picking bouquets of summer flowers for the house …

…. and peas from the veggie plot – believe me they taste much better fresh from the pod!

And we’re back to trying some of this!  I’m feeling a bit blah about this toile – sack of potatoes springs to mind.  I look at this and see only my negative hangups about my body shape.  Is this a good fit, or do I look like a sack of potatoes?  You can be honest, I won’t get upset, really.  Where do I go from here?  Please ignore the jagged neck, we’ll pretend it’s a design feature, it was me couldn’t be bothered to unpin it and take it off to free the neck line so I did some neat contortions and hacked away!  (The red marks are the tailor tacks.)  I wanted to see if it would fall off my shoulders like this does.

If you remember, I made this back in early January as a working toile.  I’ve worn it a lot around the house, and it’s nice and cool to wear on a hot day, but it has the annoying habit of slipping backwards, and I’m constantly tugging it forwards again.  From my fitting books this suggests that the shoulder seam needs bringing forward.  I would also not bother with a facing again as it shifts about all the time, I shall bind the neckline edge instead.

But back to my current toile …

look where the shoulder line is.  This looks too far back to me, and the biro mark is where I think I might bring the shoulder forward to.  The reason for the hack job was to see if it would slip backwards and it didn’t.  So should I leave it alone, or try moving the shoulder seam forward?  Otherwise the fit is quite good through the shoulders, I think.

I’ve made this toile using the Pattern Drafter from Maria Opresnik, which seems to have addressed things like having the darts in the right place (no fba yay) and my narrow sloping shoulders, but I’m not sure about this shoulder seam placement, and the rest of the toile.  What do you think dear readers?

I’ve also just seen this book on Amazon - it looks very useful, but I’ll leave it on the wish list for a while, and peruse the fitting books I already have.

Jane & Daisy xx

A very happy occasion …

 Beloved and I – Tuesday 10th July 2012.

Gown designed by Claire Mischevani.  Ruched and draped bodice over full circle skirt of 2 layers of silk chiffon and underlined with silk haboti

Flowers supplied from my neighbours, my brother’s and my gardens and arranged by me.

Beloved’s gift – a vintage luckenbooth brooch

A “borrowed” silver jag, complete with “borrowed” vintage silk ribbons for the cars

A beautiful wedding cake made and iced by our wonderfully talented friend E.

Paper confetti cones made from old book pages, stamped with a blue or silver heart and filled with rose petals from the garden.

Sumptuous wedding lunch at Upper Rectory.