Making myself some chunky fabric weights

Once I’d cut out the pieces for my outside cushions I was left with a strip of fabric that I knew I wouldn’t use in future cushions, and I wondered if it might work for some chunky pattern weights which I’d had my eye on making since that bag making course I went on in May. I have some smaller pattern weights which I use, but I used some of these on the course, and they were really good at holding the fabric in place on the table, which if you only have a small space to work in is a life saver.

Clearly I could just have easily added the leftover fabric to my stash, but I thought I’d strike while the iron was hot and so I looked out the pattern that the tutor had shared on the course, and worked out with some small adjustments I could make it work. And they’re really easy to make, trust me.

All you need is a rectangle of material, mine was a bit smaller than the suggested 11cm x 21cm, a piece of ribbon for the finger loop, plus something relatively heavy to fill them with. I used rice for these, but would consider adding some dried lavender along with the rice to any future ones I make - as rice alone doesn’t have the greatest smell. I wouldn’t use too much lavender, or lavender on its own as I’d be concerned that the oils might seep through the fabric and onto the fabric I was cutting out.

You simply fold the fabric in half to form a square, insert your ribbon at the fold and then sew along the top and side open edge, leaving the bottom edge unsewn. Then open the bag so the seam is now in the centre, and sew but remember to leave a gap so you can add the filling.

Turn it through, push the corners out and fill with rice (it’s definitely worth putting it into a tray to catch the spilled rice - trust me) and then sew the gap closed.

Simples. And really useful too.

There’s plenty of free patterns for these kind of fabric weights online - if you want more detailed instructions try googling ‘triangular fabric weight patterns’ or ‘pyramid fabric weight patterns’ and you’ll be able to choose from written or video examples.

And of course using the outdoor fabric means that mine will be handy for outside sewing, or cutting out - though not that I’m actually planning any of that!

My garden in October

Last month was all about the sunflowers and tomatoes finally delivering, and that theme has continued this month and while this update is still sunflower heavy it does contain a little more too. But sunflowers first…

At the start of the month at least the sunflowers were upright, at times this was solely because they’d been propped back up again using plant pots at their base to help them buffer the wind as much as they could. However, it wasn’t to last and in the end the sunflowers have spent most of the month casually draped across the closest bush, still flowering, still gorgeous, just lolling!

It was great to see the smaller sunflowers persevere though - and we’ve been enjoying their flowers throughout the month. As the month progressed they adjusted to their surroundings, and once again started to head towards the light. Given that the plants have found themselves a more sheltered position I’ve left them there, which I think has extended the time I get to enjoy them - so it’s a win from me, even if these must be the most unconventional sunflowers ever!

I must remember to collect some seeds for next year though, as they are a variety I’d grow again. I’m not sure exactly which they are as the seeds were passed to me from a neighbour of dad’s in Norfolk.

We’ve had plenty of wildlife in our garden this month too, some of which we’d expect and some not so much. For a couple of mornings we enjoyed watching this blackbird gather berries from our pyracantha - and it seemed they enjoyed it too, so I’m glad we were able to provide a good perch point.

It wasn’t long before we received some unexpected visitors, who spent most of the morning in our garden waddling about and making the most of the fallen crab apples. Google suggests they’re red legged partridges and most likely had escaped from a local shoot as they didn’t seem that savvy at all. Hopefully they found somewhere more suitable, as we’ve not seen them since - which I think is a good thing, as lovely as they were I wasn’t overly keen on adopting them. Perhaps they found a pear tree that was more to their liking than our tiny crab apple tree, who knows.

One of my challenges for this garden is not quite having the hiding spots yet for plants over the winter, many of our terracotta pots I’ll move under bushes or closer to the brick wall at the front of the house to give them as much shelter as I can, and that seemed to work fine last year. But it’s the more tender plants that I’m struggling with in the colder weather; I’ve brought the chilli plant in and that’s by the window in the utility room. It’s not ideal but I think it’ll fare better than outside.

My other challenge was the succulents, which are new to us in this garden. I didn’t want to bring them in as the pots aren’t indoor pots, but I knew they’d need some protection but would also need some light. Then it came to me they could quite easily be re-homed in our garage gym, I thought initially I’d just place them by the half-glazed doors.

With frost forecast (but thankfully not materialising) it was time to put my plan into action, but then I realised the ‘drip trays’ I’d bought for under our bikes could really earn their keep. Even better having the pots here don’t get in the way of accessing the bikes, and when they’re watered there’s no risk of having any pot leakage across the floor! Definitely an unintended bonus of having something a bit dull and functional.

I had two newer and much smaller succulents from our recent Open Studios visit and these are also in the garage in their old biscuit tin drip tray. I hadn’t thought to add plants to our garage gym, but these are really great additions even if they’re here just for the winter.

Outside the garage the small pot of wallflowers I bought earlier in the year looks a lot more healthy than they did during the warmer summer months, so I’m excited to watch them do their thing when the time comes. These are ‘Chelsea Jackets’ so should be a mix of pastel colours, let’s hope they know what they’re supposed to do!

Although the weather has been unseasonably warm the amount of sunlight is obviously much reduced, so it was time to pick the remaining green tomatoes. Some ripened, but most were resolutely staying green which I don’t mind. I also had quite a few from dad that were green and all of them have been put to good use and gone towards a green tomato chilli ketchup, which is one of my favourite ways to use green tomatoes - more on that soon.

And talking of unseasonably warm temperatures, right at the end of the month I noticed through the utility room window that our everlasting sweet peas which we brought from the old house have already started growing. There’s lush green growth about 8 inches high, which I really wouldn’t expect to see normally. That said, the pot is in a sheltered spot and not the best place for growing sweet peas as they’ve not really done anything much more than this since we’ve been here. In some ways I’m pleased to see they’re still going, but surprised to see them now - and all I hope is that when I’m ready to put them into their long term home they remember to grow and flower in a more usual timeframe. Fingers crossed, though they may have a fair while to wait!

Walking East Stoke's lanes: September 2024

With a few days away in Glasgow during the month, there was less opportunity to get out and explore the lanes local to us, especially as I seemed to have also picked up some bugs this month - but I do have some pictures from a very blue skied walk along Moor Lane - though it was cut short as I was still struggling for breath. The cold that came after Glasgow - and which MOH avoided - lasted way longer than it was welcome!

But with blue skies such as these, it was hard to resist a walk along the lanes starting right from our front door.

The walk up and over the A46 always amuses me - the view promises so much (and it delivers once you’re on the other side) but it’s a bit of disappointment to see the traffic whizzing past with no real idea of what they’re missing. Even the verges on this section of lane are full of changing flora.

The seedheads that are almost ready to explode and fling their seed far and wide, not caring perhaps that a lot of those will be onto the tarmac road, and therefore lost - unless of course they make it as far as the nearest pothole (and let’s face it that’s never as far as we think is it?!)

The rosehips reminded me of those we foraged last winter which stood in the tall glass vase in our kitchen bringing their jewel colours to our impromptu Christmas decorations - and reminded me not to leave it quite so late this year, as it looks as if I can have an extra month or two of them in the house.

The weeds in the picture below also made me smile as I crouched down to snap them - at this angle they remind me of tall, proud sunflowers - but of course they’re not!

It really was a good day for skies and taking my recovering cold-full self out, but sadly we didn’t make it anywhere near as far as we normally would. No picture from the bridge for this month’s post, I only got as far as the bend in the lane before calling it quits - thankfully though the cold was much less short lived after this trip, finally.

Thanks for joining me this month, if you enjoyed this post you may also like some previous series where I revisit the same place - there’s my year in Greenwich Park and remember that time when I followed a tree?