The Enchanted Garden

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IlIl Giardino Incantato The Giardino Enchanted Incantato Garden

Francesca FrancescaOgliari Ogliari Shabby HomeHome Shabby

This book tells a story; the story of the magic that surrounds us. We do not always realise it, maybe because we too are a small part of this magic. A flower that blossoms, birds singing, the colour of leaves highlighted by the sun‌ our life, if you think about it, unfolds in a wonderful Enchanted Garden.

Let the story begin then!

Once upon a time‌

Creativity, sweetness, poetry.

Sensitivity, humour, irony…

This is Isabella, to whom I dedicate “The Enchanted Garden”…

Isabella, who holds inside the magic spirit of a fairy.

Francesca

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Contents Materials General Instructions Sparrows “Open-air picnic” Cushion “ Garden window” Quilt The dance of the flowers “My creative garden” Apron Sewing organiser “Remember” Roses Peonies Vintage Gardening Hat

6 9 12 18 22 28 31 34 43 46 50

“A Bag” (Aldina’s Bag) 54 Butterflies 60 “The Earth laughs” Bag 64 Pincushion “There’s a flower for every butterfly” 68 Water-lily 70 Garden fairy 74 Vintage Bag 81 Vintage Purse 84 Patterns 87 Acknowledgements 110

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ew the corners and the short edge of the strips as shown in FIG.4.

At the corners, the ironed line will guide you.

0.6 cm 0.6 cm

0.6 cm 0.6 cm

FIG.4

Also in this case, you should start and finish sewing at about 0.6cm from the border of the fabric (FIG.4).

Continue in this way also with the remaining corners of the strips.

Turn the cushion to the right way out through the opening previously left.

Carefully fill the cushion with wool.

Once you have completed the padding, understitch the opening.

QUILTING To quilt the cushion you will need to make a sort of running stitch around the two squares (upper and lower) and along the four lateral strips.

Do as follows: using a long needle, insert the thread in the lateral seam line and lightly pull so that the little knot disappears inside the fabric.

Come out with the needle from the upper part of the cushion, along the stitching that joins a square to a strip.

Make a straight stitch and come out with the needle along one side.

Make another straight stitch along the lateral strip and go back into the upper square, always at the stitching between square and strip.

Continue in this way on all sides of your cushion.

During the quilting phase, try to push the wool to the edges and avoid making the straight stitches too long.

Once you have finished, close your work by coming out with the needle from a lateral seam line.

Make a small knot very close to the fabric and insert it in the fabric by pulling lightly.

long end of the thread.

Come out with your needle from your chosen point in the square at the bottom. Insert the first button and go back in the cushion coming out from the point where you first pierced the upper square with the needle. Insert the second button and repeat the same till you have fixed all buttons.

Finally unthread the needle, pass the thread around the button several times and fix with a sold knot.

BUTTONS Using the vanishing ink pen, mark the points where you want to attach the buttons on to the fours squares of the cushion.

Use a long and resistant piece of thread.

Pass through with the needle on your chosen point on the upper square, leaving a very 21

LATERAL STRIPS From the cream fabric patterned with small flowers, cut out: -Forty 6x15cm strips -Forty 6x24.6cm strips SECOND FRAME For each square with the cream background, from the red striped fabric cut out: -Four 7x24.6cm strips (total of 40 red strips) For each square with the light blue background, from the light blue striped fabric cut out: -Four 7x24.6cm strips (total of 40 light blue strips) GRID From the cream fabric patterned with small flowers, cut out: -Forty-nine 7x24.6cm strips From the light blue fabric patterned with big flowers cut out: -Thirty 7cm squares From the red striped fabric cut out long 3.5cm wide strips From the light blue fabric patterned with big flowers cut out long 18cm wide strips (the length of these strips will

depend on the final size of the grid for the top) Method FIRST FRAME Sew the light blue striped strips onto the cream squares, and the red striped strips onto the light blue squares.

For each square, take the four strips prepared for the frame and fold them in half lengthways. Iron them.

Place one of the strips on the front of the central square along one side.

The open side of the strip should face the edge of the square.

Sew on the strip starting 3cm from the corner (FIG.1).

Place the second strip on top of the end of the previous strip and sew along this strip too.

3 cm

FIG.1

Continue with the remaining two strips (FIG.2).

Once you have finished the final strip, place the unsewn end of the first strip on top

FIG.2

and complete the sewing (FIG.3) Finish the four edges of the framed square with a zigzag stitch.

FIG.3

LATERAL STRIPS For each square, place one 6x15cm strip with small flowers on to one edge of the square face to face and sew.

Repeat the same with another strip of the same dimensions, placing it face to face onto the opposite side of the square.

Iron.

Place the 6x24.6cm strips onto the two remaining sides and sew.

Iron (FIG.4).

+

+

+

+

FIG.4

24.8 cm

15 cm

6 cm 6 cm

SECOND FRAME Using the 7x24.6cm strips, make the outer frame following the same procedure as already described for the first frame.

Please note that the red striped strips need to be sewn onto the cream squares whilst the light blue striped strip have

to be sewn onto the light blue squares.

GRID Make the grid by joining four squares of different colours at a time, sewing a 7x24.6cm strip in between each square and to the free side of the each end square.

Proceed in this way with all of the squares and strips, so as to obtain five bands composed of four squares and five strips each.

Prepare the horizontal strips of the grid by sewing together the small light blue squares with the remaining strips.

Finish assembling by joining all parts together.

Iron.

Now measure the long and short sides of the top.

From the red striped fabric cut out four 3.5cm strips.

Their length needs to correspond to the length of the

long and short sides just measured.

Hem the grid by sewing the 3.5cm red striped strips to it: start from the two long sides of the top first, then continue with the short sides. Iron.

Measure the four sides of the top again and from the fabric with big flowers cut out four 18cm strips, as long as the length of the sides just measured.

Proceed as previously described for the red 3.5cm striped strips.

Assembly Measure the patch-worked quilt and then cut two rectangles, slightly bigger than your measurements, from the wadding and the fabric you have chosen for the back of the quilt.

Place the cloth for the back, with its wrong side up, on to a sufficiently large surface 25

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Apron “My Creative Garden” Pattern on page 89 The underarm curve is the only part marked on the pattern.

To obtain the complete outline of this project, you will have to draw vertical and horizontal lines of the length shown in the pattern, and follow the plan described on these pages.

Light brown (for the edge and outside of the pots) Dark brown (for the edge and outside of the pots) Green (for the stalk and leaves) Long thin needle Threads of colours matching with the fabric for the appliqués Thermo-sensitive ink pen

You will need FOR THE APRON One 58x70cm linen rectangle One 3x28cm American fabric strip One 3x58cm American fabric strip Two 5x110cm American fabric strips

FOR THE FLOWERS Five 5cm squares of pink fabric One 3cm squares of pink fabric

FOR THE POCKET One 28x32cm rectangle of American fabric for the outside (on this one you will have to attach the appliqués) One 28x32cm rectangle of American fabric for the inside One 28x32cm rectangle thin wadding FOR THE APPLIQUÉ Fabric scraps of the following shades:

Method Once you have drawn the outline of the apron on paper (FIG.1), repeat it on the linen fabric and cut it out.

28 cm

22 cm 70 cm 48 cm

58 cm

FIG.1 31

Peonies Patterns on page 95 You will need Two 20x55cm rectangles of American cotton Thermo-adhesive paper (Heat’n Bond Lite©) Pressed cotton wool pads (found in DIY shops) Glue-gun Brooch with flat base and ribbons (optional) Preparation Prepare the fabric as already described on page 43 in the chapter on “Roses”.

Then cut out: -3 or 4 “A” type petals -11 or 12 “B” type petals -7 or 8 “C” type petals

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A Bag (Aldina’s Bag)

Method OUTSIDE Sew together the eight 100x5cm linen strips and the seven 100x7cm patterned strips alternating the two different types of fabric: make sure you start and finish with a linen strip. Once you have finished,

iron and straighten the edges if necessary.

Using as the base the short side of the rectangle you have just obtained, cut out a smaller rectangle, 8cm high.

From this rectangle, unstitch the central patterned strip to obtain two 8x33cm rectangles.

Leave them aside for the moment.

45 cm

45 cm

8 cm

8 cm

33 cm

Preparation From the linen fabric, cut out: Eight 100x5cm strips Two 6x53cm strips (for the straps) Two 12x32cm strips (for the coulisse) Two 16x12cm rectangles (for the pocket) From the patterned fabric chosen for the outside of the bag cut out: Seven 100x7cm strips Two 6x53cm strips (for the straps)

Two 110x2cm strips (for the ribbons of the coulisse) From the patterned fabric chosen for the lining cut out: Two 45x50cm rectangles Two 8x30cm strips From the interfacing cut out: Two 5x53cm strips (for the straps) From the wadding cut out: One 16x12cm rectangles (for the pocket) Two 45x50cm rectangles Two 8x30cm strips

33 cm

You will need Linen fabric Two types of American cotton fabric with matching designs (one for the lining, one for the outside of the bag) Thin wadding for quilting Interfacing (e.g. VileneŠ)

FIG.1

Now divide the big rectangle in half, obtaining two 45cm long rectangles (FIG.1).

Place one of these on to your working desk so that the strips are vertically orientated face upwards.

55

Garden Fairy Patterns on page 104 You will need For the body Sateen, beige Synthetic wadding for dolls Pink chalk Cotton wad Thin thread, dark brown For the hair A ball of merino wool, beige Method Draw all of the patterns on to some thin cardboard and cut them out. Place them on to the fabric, face to face. With an invisible ink pen, lightly draw the contours of the patterns. Sew all parts and cut out, leaving about 0.6cm of safety margin around the stitches. With a pair of scissors, make some small incisions along the margins and turn all parts to the right way out.

HEAD Fill the head up with the wadding, making sure the face is shaped gracefully; once the stuffing is done, close the top opening with understitch. This area of the head will be covered by the hair later.

LEGS Use the synthetic wadding to fill up the legs to halfway, where you will sew some running stitches horizontally. In this way the legs of the fairy will bend at knee-level. Finish stuffing the legs.

ARMS Stuff the arms stopping about 1cm from the upper end, and put aside.

74

Assembly Fill the body of the fairy up with small clumps of wadding. Insert the legs at the bottom and handstitch them inside (FIG.1).

The arms of the fairy will be fixed to the body at a later stage.

Take the head of the fairy and place it on top of the upper body to support it. Understitch it carefully in this position (FIG.2).

HAIR To make the hair you can choose several types of materials to obtain very different results. For this project I have chosen beige merino wool.

Fold the woollen thread forming 8 rings, about 20cm long. Cut the thread and tie the rings in the middle with more wool, obtaining a kind of tassel (FIG.3).

Using the same method, make many tassels and sew them on to the head of the fairy with a thin thread of the same colour as the hair. Attach the first row of tassels along the stitching of the head covering the whole circumference and behind the neck.

Repeat with concentric circles until you have completely covered the head of the fairy.

FIG.1

FIG.2

FIG.3 75

Acknowledgments A whole book wouldn’t be enough to thank all the people who have encouraged and supported me.

Yet. I will try to be concise and do my best!

Firstly, I would like to thank the translators Giovanna, John, Rosa and Sonia who have done an amazing job accepting with stoic patience all my requests.

With all my heart I thank Marika, Isabella, Stella and Jenny, mainly because of our friendship, which for me is the best present of all, and for all the rest I will soon publish an “acknowledgments” only book as I was saying earlier!

Thank you to Stella and Alessandro, for their infinite kindness and for having raised four amazing creatures.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to the Spanish girls, for their love and support: Silvia Moyano from Roses-Girona (Blog: www.silvia-magnolia4.blogspot.com), Pepi Lopez and Mati from the “Mi Casita de Patch” shop, Rincón de la Victoria (Malaga) and to the amazing staff from “Tertulia del Patch” in Las Rozas, (Madrid).

A huge hug to Sonia, Paolo and Amélie, who have made me dream among the colours and perfumes of Provence.

Thank you to my sweet husband Gaspare, who every day makes me feel the protagonist of a wonderful tale.

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PHOTOS Marika Righetto daitrentainpoi@gmail.com Blog: www.daitrentainpoi.blogspot.it

TRANSLATIONS English: John Ascott j_ascott@yahoo.co.uk Giovanna Ramazzina g.rama@hotmail.it

GRAPHIC Gaspare Andreella info@studioandreella.com

PHOTO DESIGNER Isabella La Rovere isabella.larovere@gmail.com Blog: www.shabbulous-life.blogspot.com

Spanish: Rosa Sรกnchez rosasanchez@hotmail.it Sonia Sรกnchez supersol@telecable.es Blog: www.everyquiltunderthesun.blogspot.com

PRINT Effe e Erre litografica Trento

FORMATTING Francesca Ogliari

AMERICAN FABRICS Fidl and Flink Country and Shabby Home Piazza dei Signori, 44 35122 Padova 0039 049-8764255 Web site: www.fidlandflink.com

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Nature with its magic aura tells us a story.

And this story is what ‘The Enchanted Garden’ would like to recount.

A total of 16 projects, from amazing flowers to bags, sparrows, fairies and multi-coloured butterflies… they are all protagonists that will come to life from your hands.

What are you waiting for? Open your eyes and dream, you can’t but start living this magic tale.

Once upon a time…

You can follow the development of my future creations and projects by visiting the following blog: www.francescashabbyhome.blogspot.com Other publications: Shabby Home Beautiful Creations Shabby Home The Joy of Christmas Shabby Home The Song of the Sea My books can be purchased online: www.shabbyhome.com