Bustle & Sew Magazine Issue 130 November 2021 Preview

Meet the Maker: Kris of Wild Ona Discover our Magnificent Horse Chestnut Trees Travel along the Silk Road to China Learn the secrets of perfect Seams Plus: November Almanac, Cold Weather Recipes, A little look at Chain 1 Stitch, Poetry Corner, Tips for Stitchers and much more besides

A Bustle & Sew Publication Copyright © Bustle & Sew Limited 2021 The right of Helen Grimes to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form, or by any means, without the prior written permission of the author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Every effort has been made to ensure that all the information in this book is accurate. However, due to differing conditions, tools and individual skills, the publisher cannot be responsible for any injuries, losses and other damages that may result from the use of the information in this book.

First published 2021 by: Bustle & Sew Station House West Cranmore Shepton Mallet BA4 4QP www.bustleandsew.com

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Welcome to the November Magazine Hello everyone!

So here we all are on the countdown to Christmas - one which hopefully this year will feel a lot more like normal and that we’ll be able to spend with family and friends. We have two Christmas patterns in this month’s edition - including the cutest little deer who I must admit is one of my favourite little softies ever - it took me ages to get the tilt of his head just right.

As well as patterns we have lots more to enjoy - put your feet up and read all about our magnificent horse chestnut trees and the real Mrs Tiggywinkle, feel inspired by our interview with the very talented Kris pf Wild Ona and if you should catch a cold (there seem to be some nasty ones around right now, then we can even suggest some natural remedies for you!)

I hope you enjoy this issue and the December Magazine will be published on Thursday 25 November.

Until then I hope you have a lovely month, with lots of time for stitching!

Very best wishes

Helen xx

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Between this month’s covers …

November Almanac

Page 5

Digging

Page 57

Don’t Worry Hoop

Page 7

Poetry Corner

Page 58

The Magnificent Horse Chestnut

Page 11

Natural Remedies

Page 59

Along the Silk Road

Page 14

Christmas Deer Ornament

Page 60

Tips for Stitchers

Page 17

Embroidery Stitch Guide

Page 64

Winter Wreath Hot Water Bottle Cosy

Page 18

In the Kitchen: Conversion Tables

Page 65

Behind the Scenes

Page 22

Templates

Page 66

Things we love about November

Page 24

A (very) Little Look at Seams

Page 26

Meet the Maker: Wild Ona

Page 28

Perfect Match Hoop

Page 30

The Real Mrs Tiggywinkle

Page 34

A Little Look at Chain Stitch

Page 37

Lovely Idea: Cushion Covers

Page 40

Dove of Peace Hoop

Page 41

Cold Weather Comfort

Page 45

Carrots Don’t have to be Orange

Page 54

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November At the beginning of the month you can still see the last green leaves among the reds, golds and oranges of the trees, but by the end of the month strong winds will have stripped most of the remaining foliage leaving the branches stark and bare.

As the year progresses towards its final month, the colour in the countryside will drain away so that even on the sunniest days the landscape is a mixture of sombre greys, browns and ochres, highlighted by the brilliant white of frost on the coldest, clearest days.

Yet even these more subtle colours are beautiful too, and the small splashes of vivid colour that remain stand out even more vibrantly - the scarlet and crimson of bryony, dog rose and hawthorn berries.

It’s interesting that today we are much less likely to experience foggy Novembers than in Victorian times. Since the late nineteenth century the number of sunshine hours in November has steadily increased, partly due to the

decrease in the burning of carbon - and hence smog-forming - fuels, but also because the pattern of November winds has gradually shifted from a tendency for cloudy southerlies to more clear and cold northerlies.

“No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease, No comfortable feel in any member No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees, No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds November!”

“No” Thomas Hood, 1844 November nights may still be foggy however, especially in the countryside, where the mixture of bonfire smoke and spent cordite hangs on the damp autumn air as we return from our village bonfire party. But they are just as likely to

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be crystal clear and the sky as high as the moon. If I walk down to the end of our garden, as we live quite someway outside the village and there is no light pollution here, then I can see that the star constellations are bitingly bright while the air carries the first taste of frost. After nights like this, the mornings can be magical as the frost and fog combine to cast a spell across the valleys. Then … almost reluctantly it seems … the late rising sun burns off the remnants of the night and the rich colours of any remaining autumn foliage flare in the hedgerows. But still, November is a darkening month - during its course day length decreases by approximately one and three-quarter hours and in London we experience only 8 hours and 13 minutes daylight out of the 24.

It makes perfect sense then that November is also the month when mankind has always tried to push back the ever-encroaching darkness with artificial light.

Festivals this month include Guy

Fawkes or Bonfire Night, Samhain and Diwali, all festivals centred around light and fire - and all of which have a secondary focus on sweet treats - Bonfire Night parkin, cinder toffee and toffee apples, soul cakes at Samhain and Diwali sweets - perhaps we have more in common with our ancestors than we might think as clearly they too believed that the best way to make it through the cold dark months of winter is by comfort eating!

And of course, as well as chocolate, we need a good book to see us through those dark evenings which makes it rather apt that DH Lawrence’s (1885 - 1930) novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover was first published in its entirety in the UK on 10 November 1960, and the first run of 200,000 copies had sold out by the end of the day.

First printed in Florence, Italy in 1928, the unexpurgated version of the novel had been banned in the UK because of its explicit content.

It deals with the passionate, adulterous relationship of Lady Constance Chatterley and her gamekeeper Oliver Mellors and describes their erotic assignations in what was then considered highly explicit detail.

Here in England, November 5th brings Bonfire Night, eagerly anticipated by children up and down the land. On this day in

1605 the conspirator Guy Fawkes was arrested following his unsuccessful attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament during the state opening ceremony attended by the King. This was intended to be the beginning of a Catholic uprising. It failed as one of the conspirators wrote to his brotherin-law warning him not to attend that day. The government were

The night is freezing fast, To-morrow comes December; And winterfalls of old Are with me from the past; And chiefly I remember How Dick would hate the cold …”

A E Housman (18591936) alerted and troops were lying in wait for the hapless conspirators when they returned to the vaults below the Houses of Parliament to light the fuse. Today the air is filled with the sound, smell and light of fireworks - from humble sparklers and bangers in back gardens to spectacular, colourful displays at official events - throughout the evening of 5 November. I am lucky

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in that the Newfies really don’t mind the noise, but I know it can be an anxious time for those with more nervous animals.

Finally, as November comes to a close, we are all very excitedly looking forward to Christmas. In our family the build up always begins with Stir Up Sunday - the last Sunday before Advent. This tradition dates back to Victorian times when the family would gather together to stir the Christmas pudding five weeks before Christmas.

The opening words of the Book of Common Prayer read on this Sunday before Advent at church are ‘Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord’, and so the tradition is that this is the day to get stirring! But did you know that Christmas pudding traditionally contains 13 ingredients to represent Jesus and his disciples. It is traditionally stirred (while making a wish) by each member of the family from East to West, to remember the Wise Men that visited Jesus in the Nativity Story.

This year Stir Up Sunday falls on Sunday 21st, so it’s time to put on your apron and gather family or friends to make your Christmas puddings. It's the day when wishes are said to come true, so get stirring!

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Bullion Stitch…

Bullion stitch is also known as Caterpillar or worm stitch and as well as making very effective bugs(!) it’s also great for creating lovely coiled roses, seen so often in vintage work.

Whilst not complicated in itself, bullion stitch is a little tricky to work successfully. I would highly recommend practising on some scrap fabric first - but it is such an attractive stitch it’s well worth spending a little time to get it right.

Bring your needle through your fabric at the point indicated by the arrow on the diagram above.

Insert your needle back through your fabric at the required length of the stitch and bring it out exactly at the arrow again.

Don’t pull your needle right through, but leave it lying in the material as in the diagram and twist your thread around it close up to the emerging point. Six or seven twists are an average number, but this can be varied according to the length of stitch you want to make.

Place your left thumb upon the twists and pull your needle and thread through your fabric and also the twists as carefully as possible. Now pull your needle and thread away in the opposite direction. This movement will force your little coil of thread to lie flat in the right place. Tighten it up by pulling your working thread, then reinsert your needle at A. This should also be the end of your bullion knot if you’ve chosen the correct number of twists to fill the space.

You may find it easiest to use quite a heavy needle with a small eye so that it will pass easily through your twisted thread and practise with a thicker thread before trying to use a finer one.

The diagrams at B and C show bullion knots used to form petals and rosebuds - a very pretty effect!

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The Magnificent Horse Chestnut Tree 9

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The horse chestnut feels as though it’s always been part of the British landscape, but that isn’t true at all.

Its original home was in the Balkan peninsula and it’s only been growing in this country for around four centuries. It is known that a horse chestnut tree was growing in London in 1633 and in the Scottish Borders a tree called the Union of the Crowns Horse Chestnut is said to have been planted to mark the coronation of James VI of Scotland as King of England in 1603 (remarkably this tree was standing until the early twentieth century!)

In spring the tips of the branches swell to form large sticky brown buds (1) from which the huge (up to 18” across) leaves emerge around the end of March/early April. At first they are limp, (2) but as their veins fill with fluid they will lift themselves towards the sun and their wonderful bright fresh green is a welcome harbinger of the new season. Their flowers emerge in May and June (3) and are generally pinkish white (though there is a reddish variety). They stand upright and so give rise to the colloquial name of “candle tree.”

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Mature trees can grow up to 120-150 feet tall and live for up to three hundred years.

With their impressive size, massive five-lobed leaves and wonderfully flamboyant flowers horse chestnuts proved to be perfect for the seventeenth century’s ambitious landscaping schemes and soon were being planted all over country estates. In 1699 Sir Christopher Wren designed a mile long avenue at Bushy Park north of Hampton Court. When Queen Victoria opened the park to the public, hoards of visitors would gather every year on “Chestnut Sunday” to promenade and picnic beneath the trees. Not everyone, however appreciated the charms of the horse chestnut….

Along the Silk Road … the world’s oldest fabric Silk is one of the oldest known fibres and, according to Chinese legend, was accidentally discovered by Empress Hsi Ling Shi, wife of Emperor Huang Ti (also called the Yellow Emperor).

One day when the Empress was sipping her tea beneath a mulberry tree, a cocoon fell into her cup and began to unravel. The Empress

Colours of the Season

was so enamoured with the shimmering threads she took the trouble to find out more and learned that their creator was the silkworm Bombyx mori found in the white mulberry. She oversaw the earliest development of sericulture (the cultivation of silkworms and production of silk) and invented the reel and loom, so

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beginning the history of silk.

Whether this legend is true or not, the earliest surviving references to silk history and production place its origins in China, and for nearly three millennia the Chinese had a global monopoly on silk production.

Tips for Stitchers When choosing the right needle for your work, an easy rule of thumb is that the thickness of your needle should match the thickness of your thread.

If you’re using stranded embroidery floss, then this can be split. The number of strands of floss you use will depend upon the fineness and detail of the stitching in your project. When you’re deciding how many strands of floss you need (if your pattern doesn’t tell you) then a simple rule is never to use a thread which is thinner than the thread of the material – it will look insignificant and puny against the background. My mum taught me this simple rule of thumb and it works in 99% of cases – the exception being if you’re working very fine detail in a small area of your work.

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A Peep Behind the Scenes season, but wouldn’t be limited to those few weeks. So rather than the classic red and cool blue-green combo, I used warm greens with a lot of yellow, pinks, purples and golds. I wanted to keep the stitching simple, this piece only uses satin stitch and stem stitch and is embroidered on a lovely thick pure wool natural coloured felt….

I love visiting Instagram and scrolling through lots of beautiful images of completed embroidery projects – and the Bustle & Sew Instagram account features many of my completed designs. But this of course isn’t the full story – there’s a lot happening behind the scenes before the finished work is ready to present to the world, and so I thought it would be fun to show you a little of what happens during the course of stitching a project - in this case the Winter Garland embroidery...

Now, as I am sure many other stitches would agree, stitching can be VERY thirsty work, requiring numerous cups of tea and other beverages.

Sometimes others can be induced/persuaded to provide refreshments, but sometimes you just have to leave your stitching spot to fetch your own refreshments. This is when BAD things can happen. I remembered to place my work out of reach and tiptoed to the kitchen to put the kettle on. But I made a basic rookie error - I failed to put my sewing tin on the spot where I had been sitting and so I returned to this….

I wanted to produce an item that would look lovely at Christmas and make a great gift, but one that wouldn’t look out of place throughout the colder months. So I drew out a garland of leaves and berries, with the text “stay warm” at its centre and printed it onto Sulky Sticky Fabri Solvy, resizing it to ensure it would look right on the front of my cosy.

Then I selected my floss colours. Again, I wanted colours that would reflect the Christmas

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Anyway, a few days later the work was finished Sulky Sticky Fabri Solvy is great for stitching on thick fabrics, or fabrics where you can only use a cool iron, such as this wool felt, but has to be soaked away very carefully in this case in case of shrinkage. I kept a close eye on it, and after about 10-15 minutes it was ready. A quick rinse and then I hung it on my washing line to drip dry, after which I made it up into the cosy…

Yes, a pesky Labrador named Rufus had made himself very much at home in my spot. And as anyone who owns a dog knows, when they don’t want to be moved they suddenly and mysteriously become very heavy indeed.

Something to do with distribution of body weight I believe.

Still, that is not the worst of my stitching with dog problems - the main difficulty for me is Newfie fur.

Yes, those two large creatures are covered from nose to paw in fine black fluffy fur that floats through the air and covers every surface in dog hair. This is especially annoying when, as with the hot water bottle cosy, I am stitching on textured fabric such as felt as this seems to “grab” the fur. No matter how careful I am there are always a few hairs to remove from my finished work!

But back to the task in hand - finishing that hot water bottle cosy embroidery. Rufus and I entered into long negotiations and the end result was that I retained a small space at one end of the sofa and he and Daisy stretched out on the remaining 99.5% of the cushions. This was not entirely satisfactory from my point of view, but seemed to be the best offer available….

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November Pleasures 1. To give plum jam a sophisticated hint of almond, crack open the stones when you halve the plums and add the kernels along with the flesh.

Or use the cracked stones to make an almond-flavoured French liqueur. Simply put the cracked stones into a preserving jar, cover with vodka or eau de vie and leave in a cool dark cupboard for at least three months.

2. When sweet chestnuts are ready to eat, the spiny case conveniently splits open. Collect on country walks, then take them home to roast in the fire for a special autumn tea (remember to pierce the shells first or rather than nicely roasted nuts you’ll have a series of explosions and bits of chestnut everywhere!). Traditional iron shovels for holding them in the fire usually feature a pierced design to let the heat through.

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1. To give plum jam a sophisticated hint of almond, crack open the stones when you halve the plums and add the kernels along with the flesh. Or use the cracked stones to make an almond-flavoured French liqueur. Simply put the cracked stones into a preserving jar, cover with vodka or eau de vie and leave in a cool dark cupboard for at least three months.

2. When sweet chestnuts are ready to eat, the spiny case conveniently splits open. Collect on country walks, then take them home to roast in the fire for a special autumn tea (remember to pierce the shells first or rather than nicely roasted nuts you’ll have a series of explosions and bits of chestnut everywhere!). Traditional iron shovels for holding them in the fire usually feature a pierced design to let the heat through.

3. Beeswax candles are expensive to purchase

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The Real Mrs Tiggywinkle

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Boston Baked Beans Ingredients ● 225g dried black-eyed beans, soaked overnight in cold water ● 2 tbspn olive oil ● 1 large onion, peeled and chopped ● 1 large garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped ● 600ml dry sider ● 150g passata ● 2 tbspn tomato paste (preferably sun dried) ● 1 tbspn black treacle ● 1 tbspn demerara sugar ● 1 tspn French mustard

Method ● Drain and rinse the beans, then put into a large pan. Cover with plenty of fresh cold water, bring to the boil and boil steadily for 10 minutes. Remove any scum from the surface with a slotted spoon. Lower the heat, cover and simmer for a further 20 minutes. ● Heat the olive oil in another pan, add the onion and garlic and fry gently until tender. Add the cider, passata, tomato paste, black treacle, demerara sugar and mustard. Bring to the boil. ● Drain the beans and transfer to a casserole. Stir in the tomato mixture. Cover and cook in the oven at 170C for 1½-2 hours or until the beans are tender. Check and stir the beans occasionally during cooking and add a little extra cider or water if necessary to prevent them drying out; the finished sauce should be thick and syrupy. ● Season to taste and serve accompanied by hot crusty garlic bread or jacket potatoes and a salad.

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Rich Days Welcome to you, rich Autumn days, Ere comes the cold, leaf-picking wind; When golden stocks are seen in fields, All standing arm-in-arm entwined; And gallons of sweet cider seen On trees in apples red and green.

With mellow pears that cheat our teeth, Which melt that tongues may suck them in, With blue-black damsons, yellow plums, And wood nuts rich, to make us go Into the loneliest lanes we know.

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Natural Remedies Only too often November brings the beginning of the season for coughs, colds and snuffles, especially this year as our immune systems are out of practice and many of us are suffering from “the worst cold ever”. But before heading off to the chemist to purchase pills and potions, it can be worth considering trying old-fashioned remedies first as there are many natural ways to help relieve the miserable symptoms of a cold.

Peppermint tea sipped slowly or made into an inhalation will help clear your breathing, as will eucalyptus oil. Put a few drops in a bowl of hot water, put your head under a towel above the bowl and inhale. Look after yourself when you’re feeling under the weather by running a bath and adding a few drops of essential oils before soaking. Try thyme, eucalyptus, lemon and rosemary. A few drops of these oils on a piece of muslin tucked under your pillow at night will help to keep your head clear and make breathing easier.

One of the est ways of achieving a good night’s sleep at the beginning of a cold is to drink a mixture of very hot lemon, hone and whisky if you like it, last thing at night. The classic cough mixture of lemon, honey and glycerine works just as well as it ever did and is much more palatable than many commercial remedies. The honey and glycerine are soothing, whilst the lemon adds a welcome sharpness and a good dose of Vitamin C to help your immune system fight off infection. Just add 150 ml clear hone and 50 ml glycerine to the strained juice of two lemons and mix well before drinking.

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