It’s hard to believe we’re almost half way through 2024 now, especially as the weather continues so cold. Just 13C (55F) is forecast for Thursday, nearly 10 degrees colder than it should be for this time of year. Growth in the Kitchen Garden has slowed right down and I don’t think I’ll be harvesting any new season vegetables before the end of the month/early July at least.
But not only that, we have lost one of our feathered friends. Clover, our speckeldy hen, sadly died earlier this week. She was fine in the morning, but definitely unwell by teatime. We gently put her in a box with some bedding to keep her comfortable, and by the morning she’d gone. I read somewhere that as chickens are prey animals they’re very good at disguising symptoms of illness, so by the time you spot anything is the matter it’s too late. The others seem absolutely fine, though they were a little puzzled at first I think as to where their leader had gone. However Primrose has now taken over as head hen and so all is well again in the Hen Pen. We will miss Clover though, she was a friendly, bossy and above all a very greedy chicken!
Last month I tried a couple of new ideas in the Bustle & Sew Magazine. The first was my Observer book covers which I absolutely loved making. Although I should be doing other things, I can’t resist creating more and am currently working on embellishing the cover of the “Book of Common Fungi” which I’ll share with you when finished.
The other new technique (to me at least) was using my inkjet printer to print onto fabric. I’m very excited about the possibilities of this technique and it will be featuring again in the July Magazine that’s published at the end of this month. The June edition featured another pattern that included printed onto fabric, and it’s this design that I’m gifting to our free newsletter readers…
There is just a little printing onto fabric and the pattern includes full instructions as well as hints and tips on how to do this. I have only a very basic inkjet printer, so please be reassured you don’t need any expensive equipment to try this out. And of course if you’d rather not try printing your fabric you can always embroider the breed names or leave them out altogether.
If you’re a free newsletter reader then you’ll find the download link for this pattern both in today’s newsletter and also in your free patterns library and I hope you enjoy stitching it. If you don’t receive our free newsletter and would like to then you can join using the link in the border on the right, and please be reassured, we will never share your information with anyone.
PS I think the piggies would look good, and would be very suitable subjects, for embellishing napkins too!
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