Finishing projects - or trying to.

Cushion cover - reverse to show the construction

It has been another busy week here. Not a lot to show for it, since some items cannot be shown since they are gifts to be given on Wednesday. However, a lot of work has been put into this cushion cover. 

It all started some months ago as a challenge to myself and then got left as other projects took over. You can see my original post about this project here. I find it quite a shock to realise that this has been under way for some seven months now. Hopefully it will not take too much longer, although I do plan to knit a back. The back is going to be striped rather than anything else so that I can use up the remains of the yarn left over.

Cushion cover - the front under way

As you will have noticed there still rather a lot of ends to be sewn in, as well as patches for those holes between the sections.

Needlecase under construction

One of the projects completed is this needlecase. I can't yet show the completed item since this will be handed over on Wednesday. There are also some handmade cards. Like an idiot, I forgot to take photos of these before sealing up the handmade envelopes. Never mind, I shall take my camera with me to the Pinfold meeting. There will be a collection of handmade needlecases which will be handed out randomly as well as cards. It will be interesting to see what others have made.

Adding piping

Another completed project is the "Trees" page for the Pinfold book challenge. This will be shown to the owner before being handed over to the next person to complete their page. I will come home with another book and will have another page to complete before our January meeting. I must be mad, but I do enjoy these challenges.

Almost completed Pinfold book challenge - Trees

Another challenge project is now under way. This is for NWCQ. I mentioned the project at the end of this post about a month ago. Nothing is sewn at the moment with pins holding all my bits and pieces together. It is nice to be able to get under way with this one.

NWCQ challenge under way

Messing around with felt and stencils on paper

Quilting the bag sides

This week I finished the bag I showed last week. You will recognise the photo above from my last post. I handed the bag over on Wednesday. It was part of a Christmas present from the Recorder Consort to Kathryn who leads us admirably.

The pattern is an adaptation of the Stowe bag by Grainline Studio. I first made the pattern here. I have fully lined the bag and added a single zipped pocket instead of the collection of small pockets of the original.

Finished bag

 Now you can understand why the music fabric was important. Kathryn was delighted with her bag and her other presents too. These included some fruit cordials which she supplies us with during the break during rehearsals and a gorgeous music decorated set of notelets.

Zipped pocket inside the bag

 I've also been playing with nuno felt using the techniques taught by Vivienne Morpeth. It remains to be seen just how successful I have been.

Starting to add the fleece round the silk pieces

 As you can see I have used the same colours I used for the felted top I made during the workshop with Vivienne. I have added some scraps of sari felt from my stash.

The back of the nuno felt before work starts

The finished nuno piece - front

 The nuno felt is still wet at this stage and the colour may well lighten by the time it is fully dry.

Nuno piece showing the back

 The squares are caused by the pieces of felt added beneath the sari silk. I decided to see whether using squares would work.

Messing around with stencils into my sketchbook

 After a lengthy session making two pieces of felt - the second piece I can't yet show you since it will become part of my pages for the Pinfold Challenge. The theme this time is "Trees", hence the following experiments.

Stencil onto paper using fabric paints

Trial run using an acrylic spray

Kitchen paper used to clean the stencils

I had a lot of fun messing around with a couple of my stencils. I really like the patterns left on the kitchen papers used in clearing up. I can see these being added to my sketchbook when they are dry.