On With The Bunting

Bunting seems to have become very popular with the whole shabby chic thing. No longer just on the streets when there is something to celebrate, we had bunting at the end of the war, so I am told, the Queen's coronation, so I am told, and to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee, that I remember. We also have street bunting in N Ireland throughout the summer, but that's a whole other story, for another day. And now I have my own garden bunting.

I saw on Nesta's blog and instagram some great bunting she had made, Nesta is from Italy and she described it as "la bellissima idea". Sounds lovely said in italian, doesn't it? Nesta described it as a summer garland. Nesta blogs at Ella and Nesta's Little Room. You can check out the bunting she made for her friend here, and the gorgeous origami dress bunting her friend made her.

Anyhow, I admired the little beach houses and she very kindly offered to send me some. Boy, was I pleased. And, as we were off work this week, I thought I had better get the holiday bunting done. Nesta had cut her strip into sections, zig zagged around the edges and attached them to garden cord. She had also attached a little cord at the bottom to hang holiday souvenirs on, a little driftwood or a shell.

I lay my fabric on top of some striped blue and white fabric as a backing.  I too cut mine into sections, or having first sewed a channel between each hut in a random red, white and blue aurifil thread which picked up the beach hut colours. I just happened to have the thread in the house, as you do. I then cut between the channels, to divide it into sections. I overlapped the stitching to give a random rope effect.

Next I laid it out on some narrow blue ribbon and just stitched the panels onto this with random spacing. The different weights of the home decor fabric, the striped blue and white and the ribbon meant there were problems with the tension, but I loved the effect of crinkly, blowing in the wind. I love the way the bunting moves in the wind and I see glimpses of the blue fabric, reminds me of deckchair fabric. It gives it that organic feel I love, there's that word again, organic.

I had held back some of the panels and put hanging hoops on them, so I could hang them individually. They look a little lost in the photo, but it looks great in "real life", if I say it myself.   As one of Nesta's friends said to her on IG, "Stupenda la tua!"

The daughter and I decided to play that my father's hut was a beach  hut and hung it on the boardwalk. It could be a beach hut, he sits in there on a warm day and listens to the cricket on the radio, with the seagulls flying overhead. They usually mean the rain is coming. Rather mean of us, we brought the bunting home again for our own garden.

Today the husband and I went for a "run up the coast" and stopped in Whitehead, Co Antrim. You could almost tell yourself you were on your holidays. Apart from the big black cloud overhead. And I think I came up with an idea for my ATC season 7, or season 2 to me, with Very Berry Handmade.

And just to remind everybody the Blog Hop is still ongoing, this is the third week. Check out Yvonne for all the news on Quantum Quilters, New Bees, Sew Fabulous Hive and Sewcial Swarm.


Helen x