The Library at Greenway

It was great to head down to Devon last weekend to see family. Family that we’d not seen since before lockdown - we were due to visit in April 2020, but clearly that didn’t happen. When we’re there we have a few favourite National Trust properties which we visit in turn. On this visit we headed over to Greenway, Agatha Christie’s holiday home in Brixham. It’s a great house, and the gardens are pretty spectacular too.

Today I’m sharing pictures from the library, and unusually there’s relatively few books in my photos.

During the Second World War Greenway was requisitioned by the US Coast Guard and one of the men stationed there left ‘a unique momento’ in the Library. It’s not the first time I’ve seen the frieze, but it’s something that doesn’t disappoint on any visit.

The freeze is on all four walls and there’s 13 murals in what was the ‘mess room’ with a bar set up in the alcove. The murals are painted using just four colours - blue, khaki, black and white and shows incidents that occurred during their eleven months’ journey to Greenway.

When the house was decommissioned and returned to Agatha Christie, she was pleased to see that little damage had been done but was “somewhat surprises to find the graffiti left in the library.”

The commander wrote offering to have ‘the fresco’ painted out and, as her autobiography records, she quickly wrote back that “it would be an historic memorial” that she was delighted to have.

It’s really quite special, so if you’re in the area it’s definitely worth a visit. But make sure to book your parking in advance.

Crafting experiments with photos

I’ve long held thoughts that photos could be used for crafting, but in a much more exciting way than just sticking a photo onto a card - though there’s scope for that too of course. I’ve a pile of photos which through various offers I’ve had printed and have been sitting there waiting for me to get my experimental hat on.

With a few days off and my mind whirring, I pulled out the photos and started to try things out. First up embossing, with mixed results.

The photo in the foreground above was much more successful than the one behind it - from this I learnt that the embossing pattern was key, and often less is more. Pleased to discover that embossing was an option that worked, with careful consideration, I was keen to try something else.

Cutting up photos. But in a more controlled way than that makes it sound. Out came my die cut machine and this was way more successful. To start with I tried a quite intricate design, and am now the proud owner of many glossy cut out cars - it was addictive.

I love how the photos add texture to the design - you wouldn’t know that the majority of these photos were of plants and garden views. I realised as I went on that there was also scope to cut more than one die cut from each photo.

And so with some washi tape more die cuts were taped into place and off I went again, this time butterflies. Again a pleasing success.

The Christmas baubles also worked - the orange/black version is from a Christmassy photo and I think that works better than the bauble with lupins, as much as I love lupins.

Always one of my challenges when making cards is wording, and so I have a few die cuts to help there too. Again pleasing success.

I particularly like the bottom cheers - the grid lines really work, and unless I told you it was one of those index photos you might never know.

So after a few hours experimental crafting, I’m calling it a success - and a box of shapes ready to use already. I’m inspired now to carry on and try out more - I could be a while!

Creating my rustic barn

The workshop that I booked at the Knitting and Stitching Show was to create a rustic barn - and gave me the opportunity to experiment with the decorative stitches on the sewing machine and cut out fabric and use bondaweb to stick it onto a separate piece of fabric and then stitch it on to secure it. When you put it like that, it’s a strange kind of activity isn’t it?

But it was good fun. Even better I didn’t iron the wrong side of the bondaweb, fusing the interfacing to the iron’s plate, so that’s another win.

The two hour workshop gave the opportunity to use a ready made kit to practice the techniques, and free rein to do whatever the urge took. Thankfully mine was pretty restrained on the day, and I was so enamoured with the process that I did more to finish it off the next day, and have ordered some more bondaweb so I can carry on to my heart’s content.

The photos below show the progress with my rustic barn.

I was quite pleased with my progress in the two hours, so much so that I carried on the next day - first up was the door.

I also added the final window, I wasn’t keen on another animal window so made use of two shutters and a flower pot for a plainer version. Overall I think it’s turned out well.

Now I just need to work out what to do with it now. I may add some grass on the right hand side, but other than that I think I’m done with the decoration. I want to make it into something useful, I can’t see it as a cushion cover or a wall hanging which are the obvious choices. Maybe a bag, who knows? All ideas welcome!