Thursday 27 October 2011

the 400th tale

 The elves and the quiltmaker.



Once upon a time in the valley of Bun Mountain there lived a girl called SummerFete who was seamstress to the queen. She lived on the beautiful tree lined street Linden Grove but often dreamt of  life on the coast where the
silver pebbles shimmer and the sea is forever peacock blue.
The everyday life of our friend is filled with little cottage comforts
and her house filled with needles pins and baking tins. When she is not indoors she likes nothing more than to take her sketchbook into the garden and do a bit of potter-jottering, you see she likes to sew and sow for she has quite a love for gardening there are only a few ungardened moments.
Summer likes to live a colourful life and loves roses most of all and this is why she calls her garden my rose valley.
Every morning she takes a stroll with her two cats jumble and jelly, past the newly planted tree with the heart shaped leaves,
and down to the hen house where she is greeted by her beloved chickens Andamento, Monda loves, Gilly flower, Dosie rosie and not forgetting her favourite Bobo bun.
It is here she can be found sipping tea and enjoying her favourite treat a millefeuilles (vanilla slice) and lusting over lifestyles in the glossy magazines she loves so much, Sals snippets is her first read, followed by Green rabbit designs, Lilys quilts and the wondrous Fabric of my life.
You see our Summer is a dreamer and likes nothing more than escaping into worlds that are not her own, as you can imagine she is quite the bookworm, to spice up her sugary life her favourite read is the intrepid tale of Moll Flanders where she gets so caught up with the intrigue that she often gets behind in her work...
One fine day Summer is commissioned by the Queen of bun mountain to create one hundred patchwork quilts in one hundred days! Now all you crafty people will know that this is no mean feat and our Summer is easily distracted. But her dream of living by the sea urges her on to fulfill the order.
Being a thrifty mrs, fabrics are gathered hither and thither,
vintage materials are found at Suzy's vintage attic and at the Vintage and handmade fair, which in France might be called troc, broc and recup
(now that's another story!)
Summer works day and night until her fingers ache! Her sew wonderful life has turned into a nightmare where mountains of fabric fill every inch of her sweet house, she is quite literally spending her life under quilts.
After ninety nine days stitched in colour Summer comes to realise that she cannot possibly finish the queens order in time, so with a heavy heart she put down her needle and thread and drifts off into a deep sleep, so deep in fact, she dreams she is visited by the Felt fairy who creates a Busy bee studio. With the help of her elves Rainbow hare quilts, Serenata, the Blue patch quilter and Izzy quilts, the works in progress are soon basted, quilted and bound,
each one made with love..

On the one hundredth day Summer awakes to find one hundred beautiful quilts tied with ribbons, all ready for delivery to the queen, so her patchwork n play dream came true and so to did her dream of living by the sea...
Summer often wonders just how the quilts were selfsewn?
And ponders if this is the end of my life in stitches? What do you think?

Of course not, because Summer love love loves creating and with the help of her friends she will always sew on and sew on....



This is a fictitious selfsewn tale.
The animals may be imaginary but the people are real!

On this my 400th post I would like to thank everyone who has ever commented, I'm sorry I've not mentioned you all (I'm not super woman!)  but thank you because without you I might not be typing right now.


Clare xx

ps.apologies for the overly twee tale, you try making a story out of your commenter's!

edited: very loosely inspired by the elves and the shoemaker!

22 comments:

Sheila said...

Ah, so many links - will have to come by later.
Keep on keeping on.........x

Mary said...

Oh my, Clare! Not only are you a talented gardener and quilter, but a fantastic story teller too!!! I was totally caught up in the tale that I felt my heart sink when Summer could not fulfill her obligations to the Queen! Congrats on your 400th. post! That is quite an accomplishment. I hope in real life the fairies and elves are always good to you and treating you with special surprises now and then :)

Crafts @ Home said...

Absolutely brilliant :) What a lovely idea, and a lovely story :)
Sue Xxx

Gill said...

Congratulations on 400 posts! I loved the story and I shall be clicking on the links I haven't come across before!

greenrabbitdesigns said...

Congratulations on 400 posts Clare! :)
I love your patchwork, I love your gardening and I now love your story telling too, brilliant!!!
Here's to next 400!
Vivienne x

Pomona said...

Wow! More fairy stories, please . . .

Pomona x

Lisa said...

What a wonderful tale for your 400th post. Congratulations on both!
Lisa x

KC'sCourt! said...

What a lovely post. Wondeful tale.
Julie xxxxxx

{Love, Love, Love} said...

What a wonderful and creative 400th post, Clare, and thank you for mentioning me xxxx

Simone said...

A truly unique and wonderful story Clare! Happy 400th post and more stories like this please!!! Thank you for all the links too! x

Catherine said...

wow, what a wonderful tale, beautifully told - and I am honoured that I got a mention, thank you!

Floss said...

That is FUN! I'd like to find some way to get my pupils to write a story with fixed points like that. Congrats on your 400 posts - you are always so well worth reading. I'm scarily approaching post 665 (the Neighbour of the Beast) and am really chuffed with that number for some reason. The joke certainly got the boys chuckling over an evening meal the other day...

andamento said...

I enjoyed that! A lovely novel idea and brilliantly executed. Lots of links to look up too, I'll be back to check them out when I've a bit more time. Thanks for the mention, how interesting to be a chicken(!) Congratulations on your 400th post, here's to many more...
Anne.

Deb Robertson Writes said...

lol this is awesome! I love it :) congratulations on 400 posts. I love your quilts and I love seeing your summer garden while I'm freezing my butt off !!

Lesly said...

That's a fantastic tribute to your commenters! And to your taleweaving skills! Congratulations on your milestone!

Anne said...

This is absolutely gorgeous Clare, you are such a sweetie to mention us in your tale.
I do love following your blog, enjoying your creativity and gardening exploits. :)
Congratulations on 400 posts, a wonderful achievement.
Have a wonderful day.
Anne xx

Molly said...

Congrats on 400 posts and .... WOW! .... what a great story. Love all the links and the props you showed your peeps. Here's to 400 more!

Miki Willa said...

Great tale. What a very clever idea. Congrats on 400 posts.

Janine @ Rainbow Hare said...

What a beautiful story and such a clever idea. Congratulations on your 400th post. I look forward to reading hundreds more :)

Diane said...

And many thanks for being a total inspiration . Lots of love
xxxxxxxxxxx

Unknown said...

I read this a while back and realised I never commented. So sorry! I love your story. Its so cute! And SUCH a fantastic way to show everyone some love ♥ ♥ ♥

Lynne said...

So sorry I missed this at the time. What a clever you!
What an achievement- 400 posts, wow!