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


Comments

  1. Oh I do love a bit of bunting!! Love the beach huts and yes it was rather mean to use your dads for a photo shoot and then take the bunting home again! ;)
    I wonder how many times those houses inWhitehead have been photographed, they do look great! Did you manage a look into Craftswoman?
    V x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ahh, love the scenery...as well as your festive garden. That's a great piece of fabric! Is it made in Italy?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, Helen. This gives me such a great idea. I have these "outhouse" blocks I got in a Swap using Carolyn Friedlander's Outhouse pattern and I think they would make great bunting instead of a quilt. la bellissima idea I love yours.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Helen, I love beach huts and your bunting has turned out really fabulous. I also love to see pictures of colourful buildings and those Whitehead ones are great.
    I only just saw your comment on my blog about school and smells, you know what I went and was expecting to smell that overcooked cabbage smell near the canteen but it wasn't there, even though they were serving 'school dinners' on the day. I also thought I'd smell the cleaning or disinfectant smell I remember down the corridors but that had gone too. However in the art room, there was still a comforting distant smell of wax crayon and paint :) x have a good weekend

    ReplyDelete
  5. The bunting is gorgeous! I think you need to make your dad some too!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh, I've never been to Whitehead, it looks gorgeous! (The big black cloud seems to be a given for this summer.)

    Bunting looks great! Love the fabric used.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Lovely bunting! It's fun to break away from the usual string of triangles.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Love the bunting. I wonder what some would look like on my arched bench. I might have to have a little play. They sell make your own pre printed bunting panels in my local fabric factory shop. Nothing exciting, various blues on one panel and reds on the other. Might get some and have a go. If I like it then I'll make up something a bit more creative

    ReplyDelete
  9. Very pretty bunting....Love Whitehead. ...did you visit the bank house and lighthouse yarns?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Your bunting is very cute. I have been throwing around an idea for a bunting, but haven't really started working on it yet. Every time I see a cute new bunting, I wonder when I'm gonna get around to making mine. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Those houses are lovely. Perfect bunting.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I have some of that fabric - never occurred to me to make bunting - great idea and looks lovely in your garden!

    ReplyDelete
  13. What a great idea - those little beach huts are perfect for bunting. Love your photos of Whitehead too.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Can't believe I only just managed to read this post! Your bunting is bellissima and I love the idea of the individual bunting! Very inspiring... Looks great on your Dad's "cabin".
    Whitehead looks amazing even with that big cloud!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you so much for your comment, I try very hard to reply to them all.