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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 October Magazine Hello everyone! We enjoyed a beautiful golden September - and were so lucky with our wedding blessing. The sun shone, the air was warm (if a little chilly later in the evening) and everyone had a good time. It was so lovely to meet up with family and friends we hadn’t seen for some time and I hope that everyone is now doing so wherever possible. I will be sharing some photos of our day on the blog before too long, just as soon as they’re back from the photographer. This month is a little sad here at Bustle & Sew HQ as Rosie is leaving us to take up her career again now that Freddie and Florence are older. She’s promised to stay around and help out with the social media side of things (a bit of a mystery to me!) which is great. I’d like to thank her for all her hard work for the last seven years (yes really, SEVEN, can you believe it?!) a time in which so much has changed for both of us, and for Bustle & Sew too. This month’s edition celebrates all that’s best about the season - the colours of the countryside, seasonal recipes, Halloween and much more besides. We meet Robin Coetzee, a very talented maker, stitch pears, leaves and penguins and enjoy a spooky extract from “The Wind in the Willows.! I hope you enjoy this issue and the November Magazine will be published on Thursday 28 October. 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 … Tips for Stitchers
Page 5
Preventing Fabric Fading
Page 48
October Almanac
Page 6
Spinners of Silk
Page 49
Autumn Loving Hoop
Page 8
A Golden Pear Hoop
Page 51
The Countryside in October
Page 11
A Country Diary
Page 54
Choosing the right size needle
Page 12
The Creative Sewing Machine
Page 55
Halloween Printables
Page 13
In the Garden: Garlic
Page 57
Late Blooming Ivy
Page 15
Know your Squashes
Page 58
A Modern Arboretum Canvas
Page 16
Vintage Baubles Hoop
Page 60
Colours of the Season
Page 19
Summer’s Time Ending
Page 62
Tis Halloween!
Page 20
Embroidery Stitch Guide
Page 63
Lovely Idea Papier Mache Pumpkins
Page 23
In the Kitchen: Conversion Tables
Page 64
Charlie the Patchwork Elephant
Page 24
Templates
Page 65
The Days Grow Shorter
Page 28
Party Penguin
Page 41
Poetry Corner: Wild Geese
Page 43
Meet the Maker: Robin Coetzee
Page 44
Autumn Storms
Page 46
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Tips for Stitchers Don't try to hurry when you’re stitching text. It’s worth taking your time to make your text as smooth and flowing as it can be and as letters are such precise shapes it really shows if your stitching isn’t too neat and tidy. If you’re at all unsure whether to make one large or two smaller stitches then I would always make the two smaller ones. It can be tempting to try to get away with larger and larger stitches if you’re rushing to start your next design - but if you want your work to look beautiful then you need to take your time over it. And finally, if it isn’t looking great - then you may need to take the plunge and unpick it. It’s a horrid thing to have to do I know, but otherwise that work will always be spoiled for you when you look at it. Other people may not notice, but you most certainly will!
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October Early October brings that glorious last vivid display before nature falls into its long winter sleep and brilliant colour becomes a rare sight in the British countryside. All around the fields are ploughed and bare, whilst birds, squirrels and other wildlife are making the most of the wild harvest by stocking their winter larders before the cold weather arrives. A spell of unusually dry, warm, calm weather occurring in October, or exceptionally early November, is known as an Indian Summer. This name originated in the USA, perhaps a reference to its occurring in regions populated by Native Americans. It’s also known as St Luke’s (little) summer when it occurs around the feast day of that saint on the eighteenth. Here in England, October is the main month for apple-picking and cider-making. Since the early 1990s, as part of a campaign to raise public awareness of the difficulties the apple-growing
industry faces in the UK, and to promote the growing and eating of traditional British varieties, 21
“I’ve brought you nuts and hops: And when the leaf drops, why, the walnut drops. Crack your first nut and light your first fire, Roast your first chestnut crisp on the bar; Make the logs sparkle, stir the blaze higher, Logs are as cheery as sun or as star, Logs we can find wherever we are.”
October has been celebrated as Apple day. Events organised on or around this date include guided tours of orchards, apple tastings
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and advice sessions for fruitgrowers as well as fun activities such as contests to produce the longest unbroken pieces of peel from a single apple If you’re lucky enough to have sweet chestnut trees growing nearby then it’s fun to gather your own chestnuts to take home and roast on the fire. Horse chestnuts, are probably more popular with children and the young at heart though as this is the season for games of conkers. This game probably evolved from a game called “conquerors” which was originally played with snail shells! A later version was played with hazelnuts on strings, but by the 20th century these earlier games had been replaced by the game we know today using pierced horse chestnuts threaded onto the ends of strings. The World Conker Championship is now held annually in Ashton in Northamptonshire on the second Sunday in October.
The Battle of Trafalgar was fought on 21 October 1805 when the British fleet, led by Admiral Lord Nelson attacked a fleet of French and Spanish ships off Cape Trafalgar (which lies east of Cadiz) to stop them passing through the Straits of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean. Nelson’s tactics outwitted the opposing fleet, but sadly although the British were victorious at the height of the battle Nelson was fatally wounded by a musket shot. As he lay dying aboard his ship Victory, Captain Thomas Hardy brought him frequent reports on the progress of the battle. Finally Nelson is said to have spoken his last words, “Kiss me Hardy”, and then to have died with the words, “Now I am satisfied. Thank God, I have done my duty.”Trafalgar Square in London is dominated by Nelson’s Column and commemorates this victory. A long way from London, October is the time when traditional hedge laying is carried out. This craft dates from the 1700s and has the effect of filling in the gaps between hedgerow plants’ stems so that animals cannot push between them. First unwanted shoots are removed, then the remaining stems are cut partly through and bent over at a diagonal angle, after
which stakes are driven in to hold the stems or pleachers in place. It all looks very stark when first cut, but the pleachers aren’t killed and will sprout bushy new growth in the
put back by one hour - a sharp reminder of the impending season. Traditionally this would have been the time for making final additions to your winter larder, laying in provisions and stocking up on fuel.
“A wave of mass hysteria seized thousands of radio listeners throughout the nation last night when a broadcast of a dramatization of HG Wells’ fantasy “The War of the Worlds” led thousands to believe that an interplanetary conflict had started with invading Martians spreading wide death and destruction in New Jersey and New York. The broadcast, which disrupted households, created traffic jams and clogged communications systems was made by Orson Welles. At least a score of adults required medical treatment for shock and hysteria” New York Times 31 October 1938
On 30 October 1938, Orson Welles’ infamous radio adaptation of HG Wells’ science fiction novel The War of the Worlds. The original story tells of a Martian invasion of earth, and Welles scripted his play in the form of a simulated news broadcast so convincing that many terrified listeners fled their homes, firmly believing that aliens from Mars had actually landed in New Jersey, bent on the destruction of the USA!
spring. Here in the UK, on the last Sunday of October, which this year falls on the twenty-eighth, the clocks are
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And finally, the end of October also brings witches and goblins to our doors. In pagan times this was a brief season when the divide between this world and the next became less secure and the dead returned from their graves to haunt the living. Ritual fires were kindled at dusk on hilltops and open spaces to purify the land and defeat the powers of darkness. Boisterous games were played and horns and other raucous instruments blown to counteract the fear of evil spirits.
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Late blooming ivy … By now the flowering season is coming to an end, but there’s one last chance for bees, butterflies and other insects to enjoy a nectar and pollen rich feast before the colder weather really begins to bite. Ivy flowers from September to November and provides a valuable source of nourishment for insects when there’s very little else available for them to forage. You can encourage ivy to bloom more profusely by pulling the tops of the shoots carefully away from their support so that they can hang free.
When witches go riding and black cats are seen, the moon laughs and whispers,
“tis near Halloween”
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The Days Grow Shorter
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October - the month when the English countryside puts on its best finery, offering us a show of brilliant oranges, browns, russets, ochres, reds and golds, presenting us with a feast not only for our eyes but for our stomachs too. The long hot days of summer are behind us now, but their legacy remains as we busy ourselves preserving our bounty for the colder months ahead. Chutneys, jams, pickles and more are all promoted to the top of our culinary to-do list, while in the vegetable patch the golden orange pumpkins brighten the beds. Their tough outer shells are traditionally carved into Halloween lamps, whilst the sweet flesh inside, high in vitamins and fibre, adds sweetness and a velvety texture to the first of the season’s warming soups. But it’s not all inside this month, October is one of the best months to pull on a woolly and take yourself outside for a bit of foraging. The midnight blue skins of damsons cover the honey yellow flesh as they weigh down branches of trees along country lanes and hedgerows. The strong sour flavour of these wild fruits are excellent in jams while adding depth and colour to savoury dishes. Around our village hedgerows are fit to burst with ripe berries and nuts
and the mild damp conditions mean this is the peak time of year for mushrooms. There are some late fruits at this time of year that traditionally need to feel the frost, including damsons, medlars and sloes. Sloes are the berries of the blackthorn and should be harvested for sloe gin after the first frost in October. They are also popular with the birds and so, if any remain after the gin-makers have taken their share, they will be eaten by the song thrush, mistlethrush, blackbird, fieldfare and redwing. It’s true that we’re now most unlikely to experience a truly hot day, but it is surprisingly common to have a sustained spell of sunshine towards the middle of the month (known as St Luke’s little summer, named after the saint’s day that falls on the eighteenth.) An old custom in certain parts of the country, at the conclusion of the wheat sowing season in late October was to celebrate by making and distributing a special cake called a “seed cake” - the seed of the title referring to the occasion being celebrated rather than the actual ingredients within the cake.
Pumpkin and Pear Soup Ingredients ● 900g pumpkin flesh, cut into chunks ● 2 pears, peeled, cored and sliced ● 1 large onion, chopped ● 1 clove garlic, chopped ● 40g butter ● 1 tbspn mild curry powder ● 600ml vegetable stock ● 2-3 sprigs fresh thyme ● 300ml milk
● 2-3 tbspn double cream (optional) ● 50g Stilton cheese
Method ● Heat the butter in a large saucepan and saute the pumpkin chunks, onion and garlic for 10 mins. Add the curry powder then stir in the stock and thyme. Bring to the boil then cover, reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. ● Place the pear slices in a small pan with 2 tbspn water. Cover and cook gently for 10 mins until very soft. Pure , stir in the double cream, if using, and set aside. ● Remove the thyme sprigs, puree the soup and return to the pan. Add the milk and heat gently. Season to taste. ● Serve the soup with a swirl of pear puree and crumbled Stilton on top. Serves 6
Autumn’s Harvest: Apples
There’s something so very English - and particularly “Somerset” about apple orchards. Somerset, where I live, is a county famous for its orchards and cider-making and many old apple trees still remain. Strolling through an orchard’s dappled light in late summer, trees dripping with ripening fruit, there is an anticipation of good things to come. And now of course is the time for those good things - English apples are ripening now - and these autumn fruits capture the essence of summer; a distillation of sunshine and warmth; of gentle rain and blue skies. Many varieties are good to store well into the winter months, and to bite into one is to step back in time to remember the hazy summer days that produced it. Crab apples, smaller and tart, are probably England’s original native apple, whilst the sweeter domestic variety originated in the the area of Kazakhstan that borders with China. Apples spread through the Middle East and Europe several thousand years ago, and were brought to this country by the Romans something else we have to thank them for! So suited was the mild English climate to the growing of apples, that at one time more than 2,300 varieties of dessert and cooking apples - not to mention the hundreds of cider apples - were once grown in orchards across the south and west of the country. The fruits are glistening and jewel-coloured when ripe, ranging in every shade from the palest ochre to the deepest crimson. Today the National Collection of fruit trees in Kent contains some 1,900 different varieties of apple tree. Traditional orchards and the apples they produced are the source of old recipes handed down from cook to cook, and quirky customs such as wassailing, when bread soaked in cider is laid on the roots of trees - a practice said to guarantee a good harvest in the year to come. Apple growing was further assisted by the 1804 founding of the Horticultural Society (later the Royal Horticultural Society) which ran fruit trials, encouraged production and even built up its own fruit collection at its garden in Chiswick. Between 1828 and 1830 it produced the wonderfully named Pomological Magazine, featuring detailed illustrations
of the different fruit varieties grown in Britain, accompanied by comprehensive descriptions. But did you know that every apple pip offers the potential for a new variety? Saplings growing by the motorway and wildings from discarded apple cores may hold as much taste and goodness or even economic promise as a new variety from a horticultural establishment. For this reason trees are not grown from seed, but propagated from cuttings - usually a young sapling selected from the characteristics of its root system and what these will mean for the growth of the tree. Apples are no longer named after characters such as Lady Sudely, whose striking dress prompted her husband to name after her the apple his gardener had raised. Or Bess Pool, who found a new apple whilst walking in a wood. But we are still left with a legacy of wonderful names such as Herring’s Pippin, Peasgood’s Nonesuch and Tower of Glamis. Granny Smith is named after Maria Ann Smith who propagated the cultivar from a chance seedling whilst the famous Bramley apples originated from a tree known as Bramley’s Seedling, which was planted at the start of the nineteenth century in Southwell, Nottinghamshire by a woman called Mary Ann Brailsford. Incredibly each and every one of these marvellous cooking apples originated as a graft (or a graft of a graft of a graft….) from this single tree!
October is Toffee Time! October brings the start of the colder weather - the time for ice creams enjoyed in the garden or on the beach is long behind us. But there are compensations - what could be nicer than an afternoon spent making toffee in a cosy kitchen surrounded by the aroma of warm caramel? It’s really easy to do, but children should never be left unsupervised as the boiling sugar does reach very high temperatures. To make a simple caramel toffee, melt 225 g unsalted butter, 450 g caster sugar and 450 g golden syrup in a large heavy-based saucepan. Bring to the boil and then add 150 g condensed milk. Boil the mixture steadily, stirring constantly - if you leave it for even a moment it stick and burn to the bottom of your pan - until the mixture reaches the “soft crack stage” on a sugar thermometer, then carefully pour into a lightly oiled Swiss roll tin. Allow to cool, but before it’s completely hard, score lines on the surface with a knife, marking where you want your toffee to break. When it is hard break into bite sized pieces or larger slabs as desired. Wrap in squares of baking parchment and twist the ends to seal - or for a super-special finish tie the ends with twine - red and white baker’s twine has a lovely festive air.
“Set yourself targets and self-care boundaries otherwise it is easy to burn out” talks to us about her love of birds, where she finds her inspiration and how she started her business, Originally from Cape Town, Robyn moved to the UK when she was 19 and is now based in Bristol. She works from her home studio where she creates beautiful animals, decorations, plaques and jewellery from glass.
A serendipitous mistake. I went on a day course thinking I was going to learn how to make glass beads. I had been making beaded jewellery and thought it would be fun to learn about lampworking. Silly me! It was actually about glass fusing, where you heat glass in a kiln so that it melts and fuses together, lampworking involves a torch!
I will plan a new design, for example, a new garden bird design where I will do preparatory drawings and investigations into the silhouette and the colours.
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Then I cut out my shape and apply glass powders freehand or with stencils to create my surface patterns, designs and textures as well as using small pieces of glass. This may take a few practise firings and sample experiments until I am happy with the result. I record my process like a recipe otherwise I WILL forget. Sometimes my ideas arise naturally from the process too. I tend to make thinner, lighter glass pieces for most of my work except the whales where I think it is more appropriate for the glass to be chunky and heavy. The silhouette of my glass needs to be perfect so I do a lot of cold working which is working the glass after it has been fired in the kiln ie. shaping through grinding. Some pieces go through multiple kiln firings.
The natural world is my main inspiration. If you visit my website or know me through Instagram or Facebook, you will know that my first and foremost love is the wonderful world of birds. I have
been making them for at least fifteen years now. The love affair began at a very young age because our house was built around a large internal courtyard/aviary housing roughly three hundred birds, most of the rooms in the house opened up onto it. Whilst I don’t agree with caging birds, it is a spectacular childhood memory to have. I am also inspired by ocean creatures. I guess growing up in Cape Town and living near the sea means ocean creatures and birds will always be in my bones. I love the challenge of creating movement in my ocean inspired items such as my pelagic thresher shark commission.
Ooh that is so difficult to answer that, I guess if I have to choose I would say that I really enjoy making my whales as they are a bit more free form, much of my other work is very fiddly and detailed, which means I am often holding my breath or grinding my nails away. With my whales I am adding layers of glass over a series of kiln firings to create
depth of colour, it is the closest to abstract painting for me which harks back to my days of painting. I have a degree in Fine Art, a far cry from what I do now yet I know I will incorporate this more into my work in the future.
I try work on marketing first thing, then a bit of studio time in my home studio, lunch and dog walk, them more studio time if possible or packing and posting. It is hard to say as it just depends on the amount of work I have and there are so many things to do. At the moment I am doing professional development so I am studying in the mornings when my mind is at its best, if the internet is working that is! ’
When I first started making a decent living from my artwork.
Setting up and maintaining a website and online shop myself.
Developing an online presence is an ongoing job and I have SO much to learn. Allocating time to this and all the other jobs involved in the running of a business is challenging but I would not change it for the world.
Set yourself targets and self-care boundaries otherwise it is easy to burn out. Also, be sure to have an email subscriber list from the start!
To create a beautiful and desirable range of recycled glass work. I have made a start but this is just the beginning, watch this space…
You can find Robyn’s gorgeous creations on her website and on Instagram
A (very) Little Guide to Preventing Fabric Fading If your project needs washing you may well find that over time the once bright colours fade and begin to look a little lacklustre. Though it’s almost impossible to restore colour once it’s faded, there are some simple, natural methods you can utilise to stop fading in the first place. In the early 20th century it was common for housewives to add a tablespoon of salt to their washing. This trick works because the chloride in the salt helps seal the colour into the fabric. I have heard it said that salt added to the wash in this way can help to restore the brightness of dull fabric, but personally I’ve never found this to be very effective. Washing your fabrics on a cold or cool wash isn’t just eco-friendly (and friendly to your budget too!) it will also help to keep the colours of your fabrics
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bright and fresh. You could also try using a colour brightening detergent for extra effectiveness. My mum’s favourite tip was to add about half a cup of white vinegar to the rinse cycle. This will freshen up your laundry and help the colours maintain their intensity. To help set their dyes before you wash fabrics for the first time, soak dark fabrics beforehand for around half an hour in water mixed with a half cup of white vinegar and two teaspoons of salt. Baking soda is also an effective colour preserver just add half a cup to the wash cycle. And finally, it isn’t just about the washing - when you hang your fabrics out to dry then be sure to turn inside out whenever possible or hang out of direct sunlight as the sun’s rays will fade fabric even more than washing does.
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Summer Time’s at an end….. British summer time ends on 30 October this year - as always the last Sunday of October. But have you ever wondered how the practice of putting the clocks forward an hour in early spring began? It was first introduced fin 1915 following a campaign by William Willett, who enjoyed his early morning rides and wanted to see more people up and about enjoying the beginning of the ay. He published “The Waste of Daylight”, a plan to encourage early rising during the summer months by adjusting the
clocks. His proposal was to move them forward 80 minutes, in 20 minute increments on Sundays during April, and then back again in September. Willett died in 1915 without seeing the introduction of his idea, but just a year later it was implemented as a “temporary” wartime measure. In 1940, during the second world war, the clocks weren’t put back in the autumn, but were advanced again in spring as a fuel efficiency measure, known as British
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Double Summer Time. Though we returned to GMT at the end of the war, Double Summer Time was reintroduced in 1947 due to severe fuel shortages. Another arrangement was tried between 1968 and 1971 when we remained on BST all year in an attempt to reduce accidents on the roads. The results were inconclusive however, and so today we all spring forward by an hour in March and fall back again in October when we return to GMT.