Costumes finished......... I hope!

stitched birds

Play Week starts next week. This evening will be the dress rehearsal, with setting up the hall this afternoon. This morning saw me stitching the last few birds onto the jacket I made for the last rehearsal on Thursday evening. You can see the birds I made above this text. They are made from three layers of different sheer fabrics backed with stitch'n'tear.

stitching the birds

I stitched on the back of each bird following lines drawn onto the stitch'n'tear. The needle had a backing thread while the bobbin held the embroidery thread - a rayon variegated thread called Mirage by Wonderfil. A lovely thread to work with. I shall definitely be using it again.

the bird jacket

This is the finished jacket, a tulle base with cream satin bias binding at the hems. A very simple box shape since the main impact on the jacket are the birds. The dress beneath belongs to the actress.

the back of the bird jacket

It has been a rather hectic few weeks since my last visit to this blog. I have been mostly busy with the costumes for "Glorious". This is a play which will be performed by Moulton Drama Group for whom I am currently doing the costumes. Despite my pessimism in the last post here, I did manage to get most things done. I still haven't done anything for the Sky's the limit challenges, or either of the textile books I am committed to finishing. They will just have to wait. Since the end of March the following things have happened:
Prague - 4 - 6th April -  I took quilts to the 8th Prague Patchwork Meeting. There were 98 quilts in total. The main collection was the Horizons collection from the Contemporary Quilt Group, with 30 quilts from the Traditional Group (these were their Suffragette quilts) and 21 miniature quilts from the Miniature Group. A further collection of five quilts was bought along by Nava, my colleague who, with her husband and my own husband helped carry all the quilts and hang them. All the groups are members of The Quilters' Guild of the British Isles, and we were their representatives at the Meeting. A really interesting, and exhausting experience.
Portsmouth - 11 - 13th April -This was The Quilters Guild annual Conference and AGM. A very busy weekend, but so enjoyable to meet quilting friends again.
After this I got home and was able to finally concentrate on the costumes, stitching furiously. The palazzo pants and their waistband all got completed, but I forgot to take any photos. I also made two cravats which I also forgot to take photos of. These will probably be returned to me a some stage and I shall take photos then. I also altered an apron I made several years ago based on a 1940's nurses apron which had belonged to my aunt.

apron altered

I removed the original waistband since it no longer fitted me and did not fit the actress who would be wearing it. This has been replaced by a white waistband and some ties with the straps now attached to the ties at the back.

back of the altered apron

The spanish dress also got finished. There are 15metres of fabric in each of the lower flounces. Two sewing machines decided they had had enough during the making. One of these is now up and running again, but the second will have to go in for repairs!

The almost finished spanish dress shown in the last blog post. The pins have now gone and the dress is hanging waiting for use in the play.

The biggest project for this production was the white dress. This is for the final scene and is worn with a pair of wings made from cardboard, gold paint and gold tinsel. I forgot to take any photos of the finished dress, but this is the muslin. I made up half the dress to check the fit before starting on the whole dress. This has now been completed and is currently in the collection of costumes awaiting the dress rehearsal later today. Yes, it does now fit. The actress asked for the long princess style sleeves.

muslin of the white dress

I did manage to get my two journal quilts completed for the Contemporary Quilt JQ challenge. It was important to get these finished since otherwise I would not be able to continue with the challenge this year. I am not convinced these are completely finished, but will continue to work on them and also get started on the next JQs in the sequence. The theme I am using this year is "Journeys". My first two showed a walking boot and a map. This time I have continued with the map. The March quilt is intended to be seen alongside the February quilt so that this map is a continuation of the earlier one.The April quilt shows my car, another in my sequence of modes of transport used this year in my journeys.

March Journal quilt

April Journal Quilt

Apart from everything else, I have been spending some time in the garden during some really lovely weather we have had here. As you can see, Ella got into the spirit of everything, digging rather a large hole.

Ella digging

Lastly, some photos of the garden showing some of the flowers and the blossom on our fruit trees.

Narcissi

blossom in the garden

apple blossom

Having fun with textiles.

I have not been posting about the work I have been doing lately. Sorry about that, I have been rather busy.

This collection of fabric is destined to become clothing. I am seriously trying to get my large piece fabric stash into more manageable proportions. Yes, I know you have heard this all before, but I really must make some clothing to replace the aging items in my wardrobe. Rather more satifying than going into a shop and buying............. or that's what I'm telling myself.

Here are some of the patterns I shall be using. Yes, that is a vintage Burda shirt pattern at the bottom of the pile.

The main project I am doing at the moment is my monthly pieces for the Traveling Pages group. This is great fun and I am learning a lot seeing other people's work.

This first lovely page was made for me by Trillian. My theme is "The Sea". Isn't this interpretation lovely?

Here is a close-up.

The next piece is my working of "Flowers" for Kath. This was sent to Crete at the end of January.

It uses some of the lino-print fabric I made earlier in January. (You will need to scroll down through this post to see the fabric I printed.)

This is a close-up of some of the stitching.

Here you can see the flower bud I added.

And some free machine embroidery in progress. This was used for the appliqued flower.

Now, I have started on "Leaves". This is the theme for Maya and will need to be completed and sent off before the end of this month.

I indulged myself this morning, having huge fun with fabric paints.......... Children are not the only ones to enjoy playing.

Flowers

I just love this time of year. In the garden, there are so many lovely flowers. The colours are truly amazing.

The show from these plants is just stunning this year. I think they are called Crown Imperials, though I am not entirely sure. Any help with naming them?

Back to the sewing machine.

Yes, I have started work again with my sewing machine. There is a large pile of fabric pieces on my workbench ready to be cut up. A vague plan has been drawn on squared paper, notes written on a small piece of notepaper and my rotary cutter lying on it's side ready to be put to use again. A pile of pinned fabric lies ready for sewing by the sewing machine. A new needle has been inserted, the bobbins are filled and I am ready to go as soon as I find where the cotton reel has disappeared to................

This afternoon I had an interesting trip into Lidl. They had some cotton yarn for a silly price. I just had to put it in my trolley.

The tiny flower belongs to a miniature rose which opened its petals last week. It is a really bright splash of colour on my kitchen windowsill. A second bud looks almost ready to open.............

Recently I have managed to collect these little zip tags. They are wonderful for those fiddly little pieces of metal used for opening and closing the zips I use for the inside pockets of the bags where I have added a lining. I'm sure I have a ladybird one somewhere, but I haven't spotted it recently. (Ooops, sorry for the pun.)

May I give my heartfelt thanks to those lovely people who have added their names as followers of this Blog. I really enjoy visiting your Blogs and encourage anyone reading this message to go and do the same.

Jenny is an inspirational embroiderer, Robin a maker of delightful quilts, Donna is an expert in knitting socks (now, now, don't be modest!), and Mrs J has a really interesting Blog and is a fellow member of Ravelry. Scatty has just joined too. Thank you all.

Day Trip

We had a lovely day out together yesterday, Ian and I. We went to the National Model Engineering Show in Harrogate. We go there most years, and it is well worth the trip. Harrogate is a couple of hours drive from here.

I took my trusty notebook along with me, since I knew I would be finding inspiration somewhere. My handwriting is truly appalling when I can't find anywhere flat to write against.

After enjoying the Show for a few hours, we went off into Harrogate itself to have a very late lunch. We found ourselves in a wonderful place called the Cattleman's Association. The waitress had a wonderful sense of humour and we spent a very happy hour there. I ate my first Burrito - delicious! It is one of those strangely decorated places. There were pictures of Wild Bill Hickok, various cowboys, a display board of different barbed wire samples and gun cartridge cases. Very strange. The food was good.

Later, we went off to one of my favourite Charity Shops. This is the Oxfam shop close to the famous Betty's Tea Shop. The upstairs of the Charity shop is one big second hand book shop laid out like a library, so everything is easy to find. I found these two books.

I'm looking forward to spending some time with my overlocker (serger) this summer. I really do need to find out exactly what I can do with it.

Oh yes, I wanted to share these flowers with you. They were sent to me as a thank you. A stunning display of really exotic blooms. They look as good this morning as when they arrived just a week ago. The scent of the lilies is just so rich. Gorgeous.

I added a copy of the top photo to my letter of thanks. Ian had a special thank you too. He is off to spend a really nice day at the Manchester United Football ground. A special lunch and he gets to watch a match too! A wonderful surprise for both of us!

Finished!

I finally got the Traveller's Chuck completed.

The back is one fleece which I picked up cheaply some time ago. I had intended making it into part of a coat. I also have a deep yellow fleece bought at the same time. In the end, I really didn't fancy a yellow and orange coat even though it would have been really warm. The yellow will back another quilt.

The front is bright and cheerful. My dear husband's reaction? "That's bright!!" He isn't too keen. Never mind, he will enjoy using it for picnics.

Outside, it has been the most wonderful Spring day. Chilly this morning, but bright and sunny all day. Definitely a day for sitting outside. This is the delightful Rhododendron which lives in a corner of the back garden. The cats love hiding underneath it.

Have you seen this wonderful event yet? Use the link in my sidebar to join in the fun. When I visited today, there were over 300 quilts entered! Amazing. I still haven't decided which of my quilts could be anywhere good enough to be seen amidst these wonderful entries. I'll ask my daughter Rosie to choose for me. She has a good artists eye.

Plans starting to come together.

I've had another busy week. This time managing to get some sewing in - well, the sewing took place yesterday and today. No housework took place. During the week I got on with some knitting.

Sorry, the green here looks rather washed out. This is the Sirdar pattern.

Next comes the Vogue design by Vladimir Teriokhin. This has been such fun to knit so far. It looks a little odd at the top at present because this is where the second v cable starts. Again the colour is not quite right, it has more of a green cast.

Then I was playing with my camera and took these one evening.

Today was such a gorgeous day, that I took these.

Spring is definitely on the way!

With my trusty helper watching from the mending pile (when he wasn't asleep), I sarted getting on with the new quilt.

Its still just a collection of blocks at present, but its getting there. I shall soon have to choose which of my fleece blankets I should choose for the backing.