So now it’s time to get down to some sewing  -  Cattapilla Designs has had a good summer and stock is getting low.  Even this far away from anywhere, there have been a lot of visitors to the workroom. Earlier in the week three young girls from Germany came to choose a Vintage Print Summer Bag each to use as book bags for school.  Dora, Clara and Laura – I promise you those were the names, straight out of Heidi -  rifled through all the bags  and each one chose a fabric that suited them perfectly.   My American friend from Washington shopped for Antique Embroidery Cushions  and Reversible Shopping Bags to take home as gifts, another friend from the pretty village of Allihies came to stock up on Wrist Key Fobs, again for presents and a few weeks ago someone I met at the Selvedge Summer Fair back in June turned up and left with some Gorgeous Wool Cushions!

Ready and waiting for this years lavender I have just made the first bags – I hope to have them filled and back on the website by early next month. 

 They look so pretty piled up, waiting.

Four sights that have caught my eye whilest out and about this week.

Carrots for sale in Kenmare

Co. Cork supporters

A wreck

and a ruin!

It’s been a few days of amazing radio programmes, even by the  BBC’s standards.  And thank goodness for BBC iPlayer.  I missed the scheduled broadcast of the last Desert Island Discs of the series so caught up with it on Saturday.  I was trying to ‘dress’ and label over 100 jars of marmalade and jam for delivery tomorrow over counties Cork and Kerry so began to listen to Kathy Burke with Kirsty Young.  Wow!  Most of the music left me cold – apart from Sinatra – but Kathy Burke herself was extraordinary.  Radio at it’s best – catch it if you can.  Needless to say, jam jars were still naked by the end when she chose her desert island luxury and you’ll have to listen to find out what that is – no-one else could describe it better!

So the jars still needed labels and there was another programme I knew I’d miss.  The treat came this morning.  BBC Proms with a celebration of Rogers & Hammerstein.  Could have done with a little more from ‘Oklahoma’  but  there was lots from ’South Pacific’ and I’m still listening to ‘The Sound of Music’.  Luckily T isn’t home yet  to witness  my tuneless singing, although the animals look a bit horrified.  R & H did write some great tunes.  And the rousing encore of  ‘Oklahoma’  has  just sent shivers down my spine and brought a tear to my eye.  Fantastic!

And the biggest treat of the day arrived with the postman.  My winter’s knitting wools.  On Jane Brocket’s recommendation I ordered some Biggan Design Australian merino from Woolaballoo. Choosing a colour for elder son’s jumper -  blue –  and grandson Joe’s winter tank top - orange and bright green –  was not an easy task.  What I really wanted was to order one of each 64 colours!  It feels as good as advertised and I can’t wait to get started.  The stripey yarns are a selection of sock wools from Modern Knitting.   They have a great choice of sock yarns  and delivery is fast and good value.    Whoever said that sock knitting is obsessive was right!  I’ve made myself three pairs now and will be making some for Christmas presents.  Suddenly the thought of long winter evenings and cosy fires doesn’t seem so bad!

The view from the kitchen on Wednesday.

Not a brilliant picture I know but it was such a beautiful sight.

In mid-August  the wonderful flower-filled hedgerows which I wrote about in my last post  provide food for masses of butterflies.  They lie in the road basking in the sun, settle along stone walls and if you stand still for long enough, some will even land on your arms and head.   An enormous bush of  a pink  hebe, ‘Great Orme’,  outside the front door is alive with both butterflies and bees.  We’ve re-christened it the ‘whoosh bush’ as everytime  we walk past it explodes with a whoosh of feeding insects!

The Tortoiseshell is the most common and tame

and obviously enjoys being photographed

 The Red Admiral is just so beautiful

as is the Peacock.

Even the Large White, whose caterpillars tear through any brassica plant, is worth admiring.

And this beauty is either the Common Blue or Adonis Blue   

I think it should have the latter grander name with those colours and markings.

Neither blackberry or butterfly but what colours!

I’m picking kilos of these every day from the 46 tomato plants I planted out in the greenhouse.  Yes, I know, what am I going to do with them all?  I’m sure I’ll think of something!!

I think this is my favourite

or is it this one?

Then again, this is very pretty too!

Be quick, the feedsack fabric Vintage Print Summer Bags always go first!

The hedgerows on Bere Island are beautiful in August.  They have never been sprayed with herbicides so are full of the wild flowers I remember from my childhood.  Yarrow, honeysuckle, the ubiquitous fuschia humming with bees, meadowsweet, purple loosestrife, willow herb, tufted vetch, birds foot trefoil -  isn’t that a wonderful name – knapweed, privet, montbretia,  the list goes on.  And with a bit more sunshine the blackberries will be ready.

I picked all these within a few hundred metres of home. 

In the garden the fresh early summer flowers are over but the follow up is pretty good. 

The high summer sun can leach colours so strong shades always win.

These colours are magnificent.

As well as providing  authentic Italian flavours to those pasta sauces, marjoram also provides nectar for the bees and is a great cut flower.

Mrs Finch, my absolute favourite rose which comes with a bit of  history.

Many years ago I was the head gardener – sounds much grander than it was – at a large garden in the south west of England.  The garden had been planted in the 50’s by the previous owner and in wide beds in front of the house was a musky-scented  pink shrub rose.  It had been bred by the then head gardener and named after his wife, Mrs Finch.  It was never registered so was never commercially available.  While I was working there I successfully took cuttings and the two I have flowering in the garden here on Bere Island are the grandchildren of those originals.  And last winter I took cuttings from these and now have great-grandchildren to plant wherever I may go.

  Grandson Joe was on fine form.  He’s now 18 months so full of curiosity and energy.  A constant stream of tractors past the cottage, sandy beaches, paddling pools, swimming pools and a captive audience of Granny, Grandpa and great Godmother ( C. is elder son’s godmother) meant that  he had a great time too.  Frisby and badminton, swimming and football were played by the young while us oldies sat about reading, knitting, dozing, drinking  and sometimes gazing into the middle distance, doing nothing at all!  Bliss!!

There was a curious lack of brocantes in the area although C and I did visit a vide grenière nearby but our trawl was disappointing.  However, C is my eyes in France where fabric and trims are concerned and she arrived with goodies she had found since I last visited her.  Great  French  50’s fabric, some beautiful much older stuff and a few special buttons are sitting patiently on the work table, waiting for me to create with them.  All in good time.

I hadn’t visited Brittany before and have to say was a little disappointed;  it’s very flat!  Lovely trees and rivers and acre after acre of maize – almost as high as an elephant’s eye!

   C and I did threaten to re-live our college days with a rendition of  ’Oh What a Beautiful Morning’  but luckily for the others, we forgot!  On the plus side though there are some wonderful ancient chateaux, chapels, and houses as can be found all over France.  I was mostly struck by the roofs, their shapes and angles.

Châteaux de Pontivy

Roof window somewhere.

House on river Blavet,  St Nicholas-des-Eaux

At a crossroads between Pontivy and Bieuzy

Saint Mathurin Church, Montcontour

Derelict house, Castennec

My favourite building was the tower of the 16th century chapel of Saint Nicodéme.  The sandstone tower appears to be alone in a field but is linked to a chapel and another building with a few houses around.  It’s nearing the end of a renovation, hence the scaffolding, and is a jumble of spires, turrets, gargoyles and intricately carved stonework. 

 The chapel is very simple  with a carved frieze of animals and the occasional angel.

On the first Sunday in August the chapel hosts  a  Pardon de Troupeau.  A Pardon is a religious festival,  in Brittany, and a troupeau is a flock of sheep.  In days gone by before maize arrived , sheep farming was predominant so every year thanks were given for the sheep.  Most areas of France have such festivals  -  usually called Fêtes.  Where C lives, in the Charente, there is a Fête de Melon.

I shall have to return when the renovation is complete and perhaps stay for the Pardon de Troupeau and take Joe along.  There may be tractors and it sounds like fun!

Next to the Chapel – the Priest’s house?

Shouldn’t the treat of shelling summer peas be undertaken whilest sitting in the early evening sunshine with a cold gin and tonic to hand?

Ha!  I podded these sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of tea, wearing a fleece and my magnificent new socks (now a pair) having had to don wet weather gear to harvest them.  I shouldn’t complain, I know, we didn’t come here for the weather after all, but…

A pair of young robins are sheltering in the greenhouse  – when Hercules isn’t sleeping in the thyme 

Horace looks at me in surprise whenever I suggest he goes out  to pick his way through the long wet grass and Rosie is glued to the sofa.  The young swallows have had their flying lessons cancelled due to extreme dampness;  the wind turbine is motionless and the solar panels have ceased to generate any power in the gloom.

But I spotted one creature enjoying itself!

American Feedsack fabrics are amongst my favourites.  They come in a standard size, some still stiched along the bottom and sides,  others with the stitch marks clearly visible.

  The cotton is a loose weave and as they have been used, it’s already soft.  Some are badly marked or torn and only small pieces are usable but all are special. 

In the USA in the early 20th century dry goods such as flour, grain and chicken feed were sold to farmers in cotton sacks.  During the Great Depression this cotton fabric was used by thrifty wives and mothers to make clothing and household goods.

 Originally the sacks were plain, unbleached cotton but in the mid 1920’s manufacturers saw a marketing opportunity and began to use colourful printed cotton.

 These sacks were re-created into dresses, shirts, aprons, bonnets, pot holders and more and the scraps used for beautiful American patchwork quilts.

No piece, however small, was thrown away and tiny bits were used to decorate otherwise plain items.

 Feedsack stories are many. Wives and daughters went with their men to the hardware stores to choose the fabric they wanted or find more of the same – it took 3 feedsacks to make one dress!

There was even a nationwide Cotton Bag Sewing Contest for the best ideas for the use of the bags.

 The tradition lasted until the 1960’s when paper became a cheaper packaging material.

 Feedsacks are now highly collectable and getting harder to find.  I wonder sometimes if I should be cutting and using them for a  differant purpose.  But  if they are in a collection, who sees or uses them?  Surely they were made to use and the designs and colours are too pretty to be hidden away.

I use them as linings in Gorgeous Wool Bags, for Vintage Print Summer Bags and Lavender Bags.  And one day I have promised myself that I will make a feedsack patchwork quilt!

For masses of pictures and lots more information Vintage Feedsacks by Susan Miller is a great book.  And thinking of quilts, look at this – isn’t it a great idea?

Monday 19 July

A postscript to this post – there’s been so much interest in feedsack fabric Vintage Print Summer Bags that I’m sorry to say I have no more  made in feedsack fabric – though lots in other lovely vintage fabric!  Am doing my best to find more!