Corrine Lapierre | The Little Room of Rachell

One: I can’t tell you how good it is to have made something. From beginning to end in about 10 days. Yes!

Less yes, and more noooo was experiencing the sewers equivalent of yarn chicken. I’d asked on Instagram for any suggestions and someone said tie the old and new thread together. That seemed a bit rubbish, so I undid it all and started again with a longer thread and, would you believe, it happened all over again! I Googled thread tying and it is a thing. Sorry to whoever suggested it – I was an unbeliever – but it worked. It was initially a bit tricky trying to get the knot to stay at the back and not pull around, but anchoring it behind a tuck of the gathered material worked perfectly. Looking at the back you wouldn’t know.

Two: As mentioned on my last post Corinne Lapierre sent me a thank you gift, and someone there wrote a really lovely note. It’s so lovely that it’s pinned on my noticeboard in the little room.

Three: Yes your eyes are not deceiving you… I have managed to do some crochet this week. The first picture was taken after my allotted ten minutes. The first time I’ve done any crochet since, I think in about November. I had the yarn and hook poised in my hands ready to go just before I started the ten minute timer. I wanted every second! I felt thoroughly relaxed even having just done a little. Crochet always feels like a tranquilliser!

Ahem… The second picture was a few days later and I completely blame Nikki and her lovely Nan for my going way, way, way past the ten minute timer.

I’ve never got into vlogs. Generally I find them full of umming and ahhing, repetitious and overly long without enough content the fill the time. (Say what you think, why don’t you?!) I think this is probably only the third one I’ve ever watched in full. I’ll definitely watch another. This is the episode.

Four: This fluffy lovely spent ten minutes sitting in one of our two balcony feeders, sun basking and occasionally pecking at the crumbs of mealworm. I was right next to the window chatting to him and he just blinked at me. Looking at the fluffy tummy feathers I would say this is a juvenile.

Five: And it’s bluebell season again, seems to come around fast doesn’t it? This isn’t even my official bluebell visit, but some that are filling my local woods. What a gorgeous sight.

The Woodland Trust has lots of general info about bluebells and a search box to find bluebell hotspots. I enjoyed reading the article about ancient woodlands too.

Here’s a guide to identifying native bluebells.

And if you’re in the UK The National Trust website is always a good place too to search for bluebell woods and walks.

I’m currently having a word with myself about my perfectionist tendencies. Yes, next time I will draw the smaller circles with a template, not free-hand, but the beauty of hand sewing is that’s human. It’s not machine accurate; hammered out at 1000 stitches a minute (1,000?) The charm is that it’s ever so slightly wibbly and wobbly.

When at school, and into my late teens, I did a lot of patchwork, embroidery and tapestry. Sewing was my thing, much more than knitting at which my Mum was expert. One day a friend and I went to an exhibition in London. It was a display of the work of an Embroidery Guild and the sheer perfection of the pieces had a detrimental effect on me. I felt at the time that there was no way I could reach that standard, so I didn’t do any for years. It’s a shame. Now I look at what I had sewn at the time and think what a silly girl! If only someone had pointed out to me that such a high standard is achieved by many, many hours (years?) of practice. This total shutdown was probably partly down to those horrible see-sawing hormones and a lack of confidence. That was a weird thing; a lack in some areas, while feeling wildly confident, with a can-do attitude in others. It’s a very strange age. So, now I’m …ahem…older I’m just getting on with it and enjoying the process, even if I’m not entirely 100% happy with the outcome.

I’m just so happy to be a tiny bit creative again. I’ve been doing a little stitching then I put my ice-pack on my wrist. Even if really I should be doing physio exercises with my tin of baby carrots, a little bit of embroidery a day equals creative satisfaction, plus the surge of endorphins is pretty cool too.

I award myself bonus points if my sewing session is paired with good music as well.

The kit from Corrine Lapierre comes with 2 embroidery needles, a tape measure, an unpicker, wool felt, cotton thread and stitch guide. It’s good quality.

No sponsorship or payment of any kind has been given for this post. This is just me chatting to you, with no agenda other than to share something good which I’m enjoying.