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Between the Covers … January Almanac
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Keep Cozy Cushion Cover
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Fragrant Flowering Hyacinths
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Meet the Maker: Enhar Koc
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Lovely Idea: Thimble Necklace
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Naughty Pups Trophy Heads
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Nice and Easy: Freestyle Machine Applique
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Poetry Corner
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Fragranced Bath Bombs
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Signs of Spring Hoops
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Dream It, Do It: Lady Belle Fabrics
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A Little Look at Linen
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Baking: Champagne Cake
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Magazine Pocket
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Meet the Maker: Breezy Guerra
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Drifts of Snowdrops
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January’s Favourite Blogs
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New Year - Time to Blog?
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Puff Bunny
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Matchbook Needle Keeper
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Fabric Collecting
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Cup of Tea Hoop
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And Finally …
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January Calendar
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Templates
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Contributors Rosie Studholme Puts together all our lovely ideas and baking pages as well as researching & editing our features and interviews.
Enhar Koc Talks about crafting, creating and her online business, Love, Joy Create
Brooke Becker Describes how her dreams became reality, her hopes for the future and the inspiration behind Lady Belle Fabric
Breezy Guerra Doesn’t believe in following rules - just inspired creativity and having fun!
Debbie Thomson Joined Bustle & Sew in November and is keeping us very well organised, as well as coming up with some lovely crafting ideas.
February February is often thought of as a grey and gloomy month, the tail end of winter and one which we’re glad to bid farewell. But for us here in the UK it’s the time when we are most likely to see snow, even down here in the south, where it’s an increasingly uncommon event (Rosie didn’t see snow at all until she was 13 or 14!). There is a traditional believe that the heaviest snowfall of the year will occur on St Dorothea’s Day - the sixth of the month. But if snow does fall it’s guaranteed to cause great fun and excitement for children and, along with the inconvenience, lots for adults to enjoy too. The familiar countryside around us takes on a whole new aspect and wrapping up warm to enjoy a brisk walk, feet crunching through the snow is a real pleasure.
Celtic lambing season, was subsumed by the Christian church into the festival of Candlemas - the feast of the purification of the Virgin Mary on the second. A traditional weather prophesy associated with this date states that: “If Candlemas be fair and bright, Winter will have another flight; but if Candlemas brings cloud and rain, Winter is gone and won’t come again.” In the Christian Church the 40 days (excluding Sundays) before Easter Day are known as Lent, a period of fasting that remembers the time Christ spent in the wilderness. Although many of the ancient rules concerning what people should and shouldn’t eat during Lent have been relaxed, many try to abstain from something they particularly enjoy such as chocolate or alcohol.
But February is also the month when the earliest spring flowers make their appearance in the woodlands and hedgerows, whilst the brown buds on the trees, so long dormant and almost dead-looking begin to fatten and swell bringing the promise of fresh young spring leaves beginning to appear in just a few weeks time. Catkins, or “lamb’s tails” hang from the bare twigs of the hazel and the first of the year’s butterflies, the Brimstone emerges from its winter home among the ivy.
Shrove Tuesday, which this year falls on the ninth, is marked by celebrations such as the famous Mardi Gras in New Orleans, or Carnevale in Venice, making the most of the last opportunity for partying before Easter. Shrove Tuesday is also a time for using up foodstuffs forbidden in during Lent, notably eggs and milk, hence the tradition of making and eating pancakes on this day - which today is probably
During the fifth century the pagan festival of “Imbolc” that celebrated the beginning of the
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better known as Pancake Day - a day when lots of very silly pancake events take place across the country. At Olney in Buckinghamshire for example, there is a race that any female resident over the age of sixteen wearing an apron and a covering on her head can enter. She must also toss a pancake in her frying pan at least three times before she reaches the finish. Tradition claims that the race dates back to an incident in 1445 when a housewife ran towards the church on hearing the bells whilst still carrying her frying pan!
In the countryside birds are beginning to pair up and the volume of birdsong increases throughout February as they sing to attract mates and defend their territory. Nest building also begins and you can help them with this by putting out hair from your pet’s brush, dried grass and snippets of yarn and thread. A hanging basket with vegetation and moss left over from the previous summer will be a good source of nest-building material for many species - do be sure that nobody is nesting inside before you pull apart any such baskets!
The general silliness continues on the other side of the Atlantic, if a little earlier in the month, when the USA marks Groundhog Day. The groundhog (or woodchuck) is said to emerge from hibernation on 2 February to check out the weather. If it’s dull or wet he remains active because winter will soon be over, but if he can see his shadow (ie if it’s sunny and dry) then he returns to his burrow to sleep for another six weeks.
February’s other famous feast, Valentine’s Day on the fourteenth, celebrates the day when birds are traditionally thought to choose their mates - and couples across the world declare their love for each other. I remember when I was at school any classmate who didn’t receive at least one card on Valentine’s Day was thought to be very unfortunate indeed. And finally, this year brings us a one-in-four event of Leap Year Day - which happens when the year number can be divided by four. People born on this day have to celebrate their birthday on 28 February or 1 March in non-leap years.
On 5 February 1953, the rationing of sweets and chocolate finally came to an end in Britain, and shops reported a brisk trade in all supplies of confectionary from lollipops to liquorice! An earlier attempt to remove confectionary from the ration books in 1949 had ended in failure as the government underestimated the demand for sweets and demand outstripped supply. Towards the end of the Second World War, the weekly ration of sweets and chocolate was a meagre 2 oz per person although this had increased to a more generous 6 oz per week by the time rationing came to an end.
On this day also, women who are tired of waiting for their loved ones to propose are entitled to take the initiative and propose marriage themselves. Often referred to as “The Ladies’ Privilege” it was believed that the man proposed to on this day couldn’t refuse - or if he did then his refusal had to be accompanied by a gift such as a silk gown or gloves.
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February brings Pancake Day!
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Don’t let anything stop you - if you love to do something then your dream is already coming true.
Meet the Maker
talks to us about how her love of crafting helped her overcome cancer and start her business, in her 70’s when most people are thinking about retirement! Barbara loved to craft little houses for her paper dolls from shoe boxes back in the 1940s. Today she has mastered new technology and to open her own Etsy shop offering the printables that gave her such joy as a child. She shares her story with us here ….
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“I remember that my dearest childhood Christmas wish was a paint set, but I didn’t get one until my Grandfather bought me a watercolour set when I was ten. I was overjoyed, but on the car ride home I cried all the way, while asking my Grandfather “Will Grandmother be angry?” It was ten dollars. A huge amount of money in the nineteen-forties. Like most young women back then, I married and raised a family, squeezing little bits of crafting time here and there, but never managing to make one project that I’d always dreamed of - a little Mouse House
for my childhood imaginary friend, Miss Mouse. She was an old lady mouse and, funnily enough, I always imagined her a little like I am now at 76 years old - plump, a bit bedraggled, and loving to decorate and make her little home beautiful. The years went by, my family grew up and married and, after becoming disabled following a car accident I retired early. Then along came computers with graphic programs - and I was hooked! I began to make what I still call “printies” and sell them on my website. After completing a few smaller projects I finally began work on my Miss Mouse Tea Pot House. Then fate dealt another blow in the form of lung cancer and I was given less than a year to live. I so wanted to be around to see my grandchildren grow up - and also to finish the project that had waited for me since childhood, the Mouse House. I went through chemo,
Recycle with Style: Rag Rugs 9
You have to be prepared to turn your hand to anything and don’t be afraid of hard work! For the next few issues, just for a change we’re talking to enterprising folk who have started their own country businesses. This month Debbie visited Peter and Carol Searle , the team behind Faerie Kid Goats Milk Soaps I wanted to share with you a wonderful visit I made to Peter and Carol Searle's home on the edge of Shepton Mallet in Somerset.
This meant he spent long periods away from home, and, after he’d spent time in Amsterdam, Holland they decided to call it a day and so he took retirement.
It was a lovely sunny morning with bright blue skies when I arrived for my visit, the perfect day for seeing the goats. I was warmly welcomed in and after a nice cup of tea, we settled down to talk about Faerie Kid Goats Milk Soaps.
Soon after this, Carol persuaded Peter to accompany her to a large 3 day agriculture show held locally. They wandered around the animal sheds, until they got to the goats and that was it! They became goat owners.
The business is run by Peter and Carol, who between them undertake every aspect of the business, from bringing the baby goats into the world, to producing, packaging and marketing their finished products. It wasn’t always this way though as Peter and Carol's background is in computers, where they had run two very successful businesses in the past. Sadly financial conditions forced them to close these companies and there the followed a period when Peter worked as a consultant.
Their business got off to a bit of a shaky start, when their first goat, Olive, who was pregnant when they bought her, became very ill, and had to be induced early. She had three kids, two of whom sadly died and the third, Cara, was very premature and sickly. Carol had to nurse and hand feed her and it wasn’t until two whole days after her birth that the little kid finally stood (this usually happens soon after birth). From this point Cara went from strength to strength and they still have her today. Sadly, they lost olive soon after Cara’s birth.
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1. Blogger Michelle (aka Mooshie) shares her love of hand embroidery, including some of the loveliest photos you’ll find anywhere online. http://mooshiestitch.blogspot.co.uk 2. Amy is a quilter, designer and selfconfessed fabric hoarder who used to feel like a granny when she told people she loved quilting! Thankfully she’s over that now and shares her love of all things quilty on her blog, Diary of a Quilter. http://www.diaryofaquilter.com 3. Jessica and her partner Mike didn’t just think about escaping the rat race - they actually did it - buying a cottage in the southwest of England and living a simpler life. Read about her adventures over on her Rusty Duck blog. http://www.rustyduck.net
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In the Kitchen : Citrus Marmalade
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English Paper Piecing: Behind the Hexagon
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Whale Wouldn’t you like to be a whale And sail serenely by A eighty-foot whale from the tip of your tail And a tiny, briny eye? Wouldn’t you like to wallow Where nobody says “Come out!”? Wouldn’t you to swallow And blow all the brine about? And wouldn’t you love to spout O yes, just think A feather of spray as you sail away, And rise and sink and rise and sink, And blow all the brine about? Geoffrey Deamer
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Home Comforts At this time of year the first daffodils are beginning to burst into bloom bringing a splash of bright yellow sunshiny flowers along hedgerows, garden paths and all kinds of unexpected places. They’re a sign that winter really is coming to an end, even though it may not feel that way. Bring a few inside and display in a variety of containers to brighten your home and bring a touch of spring indoors.
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