Sewing and more stitching

November Journal Quilt - the last piece of the map.

December Journal Quilt - a repeat of the boot to finish off.

The last couple of weeks have seen me busily sewing. I have completed my Journal Quilts for this year and now you can finally see all twelve of the little quilts shown together as intended. The theme, as I have mentioned before was "Journeys", which I took from another group which has used this a their theme for the year - NWCQ. The Journal Quilts were a challenge from Contemporary Quilt - each little quilt is 8 inches square. The map pieces all show the area where I take my dog Ella for her walks each morning, which also explains the walking boots being part of the design. Ella loves going for rides in the car too, and sometimes we take her further afield for a walk, hence the car. The aeroplane celebrates a trip to Prague taking an exhibition of quilts across for the Patchwork meeting. This took place in April.

The materials used have been: silk sheets printed with photographs and designs of my own based on car tyres and the tread of the walking boots; dye catchers which have been accidentally dyed when used in my washing machine - I have quite a collection; my own printed and painted fabrics; sheer fabrics and the wristband I wore during the Prague exhibition; finally, free machine quilting, and some hand stitching. Some details have also been drawn onto the quilts using permanent marker and coloured pencils.

All twelve Journal Quilts shown together.

I also made a couple of little bags for friends. These were made from my stash of Liberty lawn fabrics and have a spring clip fastening. 

Small presents for friends.

The little bag linings.

I also got the December challenge for the Sky's the Limit group finished on time. For me, this year, it has been quite an achievement to get this posted and finished on time. I do intend to be less last minute in 2015. Wish me luck in this resolve.........

The December challenge for Sky's the Limit, was "Painted Face". So many different ideas went whizzing round my head, so that, in the end, I borrowed my younger daughters beautiful masquerade masks. I just love them.

The Scaramouche mask.

Catto

My own version was rather simplified using silk and satin scraps on a black linen background. The gold fabric has been bondawebbed in place since it was far too fragile to stitch in place. The rest of the fabric has been satin stitched. The background has been free machine quilted imitating the swirly patterns of the masks. Yes, I was very good and returned the masks quickly to their owner.

Skys the Limit December Challenge - Painted Face.

Sewing and knitting

September JQ - Ella

It has been quite a busy week. I managed to nearly get up to date with my journal quilts, finishing two of them. The third one, November is languishing on my workbench this evening since I have been so busy getting other things done today. I have promised myself that I shall get it stitched tomorrow. It is another section of the same map that I have been putting together over the past few months.

October JQ - another section of the map

It might seem daft to stitch a map in sections like this, but the intention is to get all twelve of the journal quilts put together in some way. I haven't quite decided how this will be achieved yet, but they will need to be held carefully together so that all the bits of the map link up. It shows the areas where I go walking with Ella.

Speaking of Ella, the September Journal Quilts was achieved by printing an outline drawing of Ella onto silk. The outline was taken from a photo which I took some time ago. The colouring in was done after the silk had been printed and left to dry. I used some colouring pencils, trying to keep as close as possible to the colours of the original photo. It would have been so much simpler to have merely used a photograph printed onto silk. I just wanted a different, matt, texture. The background was first painted and then stencilled before the image of Ella was appliquéd using bondaweb.

Sky's the Limit quilt for November - Hand Out / Handout

The last quilt completed this week was this one for the monthly Sky's the Limit group. The theme this time was "Hand out". For this I used a piece of fabric which I dyed some months ago and was not happy with. It had been lying in my "fabric to be used for printing" pile for some time and was perfect for this. I have written phrases in the style of a dictionary, putting together some of the meanings of "Handout" and "Hand out". Hence the title. The hand is an outline printed onto silk which has had the words "Handout" written repeatedly over it in permanent marker. This has been bondawebbed in place onto the background. The whole has then been free machine quilted with a hand design in variegated thread. This was simply achieved by drawing around both my hands, scanning this image into my computer, reducing it in size. This was then printed out and the resulting print used to trace the design repeatedly onto a thin tissue. I then stitched through this joining the hand images so that the whole was stitched continuously. Good fun!
Oh yes, I finished my jumper too. I've worn it as well. Very cosy and comfortable. I forgot to take a photo, so that will have to wait until another time.

Textiles, textures and knitted pieces.

"From Jacket to Wallhanging" by Jan Tillett.

This is my favourite acquisition from the Festival of Quilts this year. I was really very fortunate in being able to buy this amazing piece, since the pieces on sale were being sold so very quickly.

At Festival this year, there was a really interesting stand, "Unfinisheds". Do visit the site to see the wide range of pieces on offer. Just click the tabs stating "From the UK" and "From abroad". All were sold.

At the time I visited the stand, in between duties on the Contemporary Quilt stand, my eye was taken by this delightful piece by Jan Tillet. I just had to have it and paid for it straight away. Yes, a rash decision, but I was so afraid that if I walked away to think about it, the piece would have been sold by the time I got back. It now has pride of place in my workroom. It speaks to my fascination with colour and texture. I just love it.

Crochet challenge work in progress.

From the beautiful work of Jan Tillett to a work in progress. This is a piece of crochet. This is something I very rarely do. I think the last piece of crochet I completed was a shawl made almost thirty years ago.

This particular piece is the result of a Mystery Crochet-a-long organised by Valerie Bracegirdle on her Ravelry group. I'm really enjoying it so far.

Liz's skirt.

This was another recent project - a skirt for my elder daughter. The skirt was a purchased one which was both too big and also rather too transparent. This is the finished skirt after I had rebuilt the waistband having gathered the too full skirt slightly to fit. The skirt now has the full lining it originally needed.

Another knitting project.

This project is languishing for the moment since I have been busily stitching the next piece.

"Summer Blues" - in progress.

This next piece is a challenge for the Sky's the Limit group. The theme this month was "Blues". I found myself playing around with some free machine quilting stitch patterns ready to quilt a top I have ready for a waistcoat I am also working on. I got carried away and ended up with a piece which I felt fulfilled the challenge topic for the Sky's the Limit group. I added bits and pieces from my stash and collection of stitched items. The piece was a lot of fun to make.

"Summer Blues".

More sewing, stitching and such.

I have been busy with costumes again for the local drama group.  This dress was waiting for a transformation into a spanish dress when seen here. The transformation is now almost complete and I have a number of other items to make and alter before the costumes are required at the end of April.

Apart from this, I have been busily mending a couple of coats which had been torn and a couple of pairs of trousers. These last had had the hems badly scuffed since they had been just a fraction too long for the wearer. Not me, I hasten to add.

There has been little in the way of quilting, although my third journal quilt is nearly ready to stitch.

I can't get over just how messy my workroom looks in the photo above. It is time for another tidying session before getting stuck into something new. The list of projects certainly doesn't get any shorter. At present it looks like this: Complete Spanish dress; make shoulder pads for a ready-made blouse; alter an apron; make a jacket out of fine net and decorate it with flying birds (don't ask.......); complete a black pair of palazzo pants, along with a separate waistband to give the illusion of a high waist; journal quilts for March and April; quilt for the Sky's the Limit group challenge; start textile book for the beading group; start textile book for the Machine Embroidery Group; finish the one stitch challenge piece. Those are just the sewn items.......

No matter, it will all get done, though I think it is only the costume items which will be completed on time. I must get some photos taken ready for my next post here.

A busy time - sewing and such

Frosted ground from my garden.

It was quite a shock to realise that a month had passed since I last posted anything on my Blog. It has been really busy here. I organised the Contemporary Quilt stand at the recent Creative Stitches and Hobbycrafts Show at Event City in Manchester. That was really enjoyable, especially being able to chat to others interested in textiles.

"Contrast" - for Sky's the Limit group

I have also been sewing - this is the piece I made for the February theme from the Sky's the Limit group. The design was taken from some work I did on Notan whilst on a workshop back in September 2011. I couldn't see how to use the ideas at the time. It does take me rather a long time to work out how to use something. Do go and have a look at all the other pieces shown on the group's Blog.

January journal quilt - Journeys 1 Walking boot.

This is the finished journal quilt. I had shown the beginnings of it in my last post. I added sheer fabric and net under the drawing of the boot just to add a bit of colour. The boot has been hand stitched.

February journal quilt - Journeys 2 Walking with Ella. 

Again, I showed you the start of this piece last time too. The background fabric is a collection of dye catchers sewn together with a free machine stitched map drawn over the top. This shows a  little of the area where I go for walks with Ella. The landscape round here has a number of these electricity pylons looking as if they are striding across the land like giants.

The salt mine, River Weaver.

The river was so still this morning and there was such a bright blue sky, I really just had to record this image. This is a pile of salt stockpiled ready for next winter.

Tree felled by the recent bad weather.

Sadly, we have lost a number of trees round here due to the very high winds. This particular tree fell across one of the paths through a copse. For a few days I found myself having to clamber round the fallen tree. Now the tree has been chopped into pieces. I just loved the colours of the wood inside the bark.

Spring is on the way - new lambs.

Another sight on my way home with Ella. Two newborn lambs snuggling together and enjoying the sunshine.

As you can see I have been playing around with fabrics - in this instance a collection of dye-catchers, under which is a sheet of silk which I have put through the printer.

This sketch has been transferred onto a sheet of Stitch and tear ready for stitching.

A piece which was going to be for the January challenge of the Sky's the Limit Group. However, I really am not happy with it so it is languishing on my workbench.

It has been rather an up and down week with the sewing this week. I'll let you see what I'm working on now in my next post. It is at that will it work or not stage at present. The theme is "Journeys", but that is all I can say for now. 

Still sewing

It has been an interesting week. I have been continuing the sewing for the Drama Group production, but have not been able to do any of the other projects I really should be getting on with. Ah well, the rehearsal this evening is a costume check, so I should see the end of the sewing for this production. Today will see me adding buttons to a jacket which seems to have lost all the buttons it originally had. I'm only going to add the buttons on the epaulettes since they look distinctly odd with none. The there is just the fastenings to be added to the last pair of dungarees. Then end is in sight.
I do have some knitting on the go. The hat I mentioned last time is now finished and is so cosy to wear. I have started a second hat and hope that this will be finished soon so I can have one hat in the wash and one ready to wear. I intend to knit another pair of the fingerless mittens to match this new hat.
There are a couple of other projects which really need my attention now - a textile book which really should be completed before the next Beading Group meeting. This is the book which will hold all the Chinese Whispers pieces; an A3 quilt which I promised for the end of this month and has still not been started; my piece for the Sky's the limit November theme; my journal quilts which are woefully behind. All four remaining quilts need to be finished by the end of December. Did I really say "a couple" of projects?
I'd better get on with the Drama Group bits and pieces and then set about designing the book and the A3 quilt. Hopefully everything will get done in time....... wish me luck.

Back to sewing once more.

Socks

So why am I starting with knitting? Well, I have had a bit of a mental block as far as stitching and sewing are concerned. I think it is all to do with having quite a long list of things I need to get on with. Once I have that sort of list, my own inclination is to walk away and get on with something else. This usually turns into a lengthy stage where I get nothing of a textile nature done at all.

Sock heel

The first sign that this impasse is coming to an end is the fact that I feel the urge to start knitting again. I tend to knit the safe and easy projects - socks, gloves and hats. So useful now that I have Ella to take for walks and I am woefully short of hats to cover my ears and protect them from the wind.

Fingerless mittens

I must admit that I do have quite a number of pairs of socks already in my drawers ready to warm my toes. But then, when it is getting chilly outside is there such a thing as having too many socks? It is the bought socks which I tend to wear out. They don't last nearly as long as my own knitted socks. It isn't that I buy them either. I seem to have them given to me every so often.

I've experimented with fingerless mittens this time too. I already have one pair, but haven't been particularly impressed with their ability to keep my hands warm. This new pair, however are quite different. Sock yarn, the same yarn I used for the first pair of socks, bought cheaply in the local Lidl. These have been a revelation. I lengthened the cuff to avoid drafty winds breezing their way up my arms when walking. They enable me to keep hold of the lead without it sliding through my fingers, and yet manage to keep my fingers as warm as my old pair of leather gloves do.

Hat

 Now, the remnants of the same yarn are being put to use as the ribbed band on my new hat. Hopefully I shall get it finished this weekend ready to start on a second pair of the fingerless mittens. The yarn is a wool and nylon mix. I must admit that it isn't all that soft, but will be hardwearing. However, they are quite comfortable to wear and the yarn is quite good to knit with. It doesn't split too much, and is quite evenly spun, although there are one or two slightly thicker, more lumpy sections.

Old print board cover

You will have seen this photo before. It is the old cover for my printing board. It had become so covered in fabric paint and thickened dye, that I had to remove it and replace with a clean white cover (two layers of old cotton sheeting). This is no longer a pristine white, but then you would have been most disappointed to hear it was still unused. There hasn't been much printing done and I really need to do some more.

The second layer of the old print board cover

This photo is one you will not have seen, however. I pulled the two layers of the old top apart and this is the lower of the two layers. I rather liked it and so used it as the basis for the Abstract theme for The Sky's the Limit challenge for October. You will find a detailed description of the piece on their blog.

"Abstract" for The Sky's the Limit challenge

I do so love accidental dyeing. It turns into something really special. I still haven't done anything with the old top layer. That will wait until I think of a use for it. I don't really think it needs much adding, it just needs the right project.

I haven't been entirely idle over the last few weeks. I have been sewing, but this has just been a sequence of repairs and also alterations for the costumes for the next Drama Group production, "Bolt from the blue", by David Tristram. Ella comes along to rehearsals too. She quite enjoys all the fuss she gets, especially the treats for being good.

In case you are interested, here are the links to the knitting patterns:

Socks - "Wise Hilda's Basic Ribbed Sock" by Kate Atherley.

Fingerless Mittens - "Koigu fingerless gloves" by Astrante.

Hat - "Double Layer Sockyarn Hat" by Dawn Adcock.

Each of these patterns is available on Ravelry.

Catching up with sewing projects.

The past few weeks have been very busy. First, I had to remove the old cover on my small printing board. It had just got to the end of it's useful life and I was due to go and help out with the crafts at a birthday party last weekend. I had offered to teach anyone who wished ti have a go, to print on fabric.

My old cover for the small printing board.

It was quite interesting. I only ended up with a couple of people actually wanting to have a go, but quite a number coming along to look and see what I was doing. I had taken all my fabric paints, printing blocks, thermofax screens and a lot of fabric. One man was really taken with the idea of printing that he spent some time with me and was delighted to take away a carefully decorated piece of fabric. Sadly, I just did not take any photographs, I just didn't have enough hands. You may be surprised to hear that this was a friend's 50th birthday party, and it all took place in her garden. The nice thing is that she had a go too and gave me a lovely bouquet of flowers.

September challenge for the Sky's the limit group - "Change".

Last week was filled with completing challenges ready for deadlines which were looming. The first to be completed was the chameleon on my Sky's the limit piece. I still am not fully convinced by this piece, mostly because I made a mistake with the stomach area and had to add a piece of fabric to cover a piece which was really far too dark. I feel this needs much more work than I can do at present. What do you think? I call it "Change, alter, adapt". It is calligraphy using up my old fabric dye pens which were drying out over a dyed piece of fabric made some time ago. Over this is a piece of scrim which has then had a bobbin work drawing stitched in place. The whole piece has then been quilted onto a wadding base.

For Wednesday, I had to complete my last piece for the Chinese Whispers challenge. This has been going on since last September, but I haven't been able to post about it before now.

The original photo - underneath the Tay Road Bridge, Dundee, Scotland.

It all started with a photograph. I took this during the Quilters' Guild AGM and Conference held in Dundee, Scotland in May 2012. It is a view looking through the pillars of the bridge. I was very lucky with the light conditions on the morning I took this photo. It had been extremely foggy earlier on.

My piece based on the Tay Road Bridge.

I must admit that I wasn't very happy with my own piece, feeling it is just too simplistic. However, at the time I just didn't have the time to make a more complex piece. I feel it would be wrong of me now to replace this piece with something else since my next challenge now that I have had all the pieces back from everyone else taking part in the challenge is to make a book with all the pieces I have. Hmmmm.

Chris' piece - designed from my textile piece.

I passed my textile piece on to Chris. We had been instructed to pass everything on to the next person hidden in an envelope to hide it from everyone else taking part in the challenge. We would only be allowed to see all the pieces at the end of the challenge.

Chris' note attached to her piece reads, "I found this quite difficult to know what to follow on with at first. However, two things came to mind - a ploughed field and a wooden door, or floor. Decided to use the pattern I had for a foundation pieced house and make the door of wooden slats!"

My main difficulty was that Chris' house was landscape in orientation and not portrait. However, that adds a rather interesting challenge in itself.

Mary's piece - designed from Chris' piece.

The next piece came from Mary who made this enchanting quirky castle. She had only seen Chris' foundation pieced house, so her block is also landscape in orientation. She wrote, "The log cabin reminded me of a house and an English Man's House is his castle so I did a quirky fairytale castle in applique."

Bernice's piece, designed from Mary's piece.

Seeing only Mary's design, Bernice completed this piece. She wrote, "The castle that Mary passed to me caused me to think of knights of old. Then when wondering how I cold depict my thoughts, I came up with the idea of making it a fun picture just suing simple applique techniques."

Brenda's piece designed from Bernice's piece.

Brenda wrote, "After seeing the crusader with such an aggressive stance it conjured up ideas of what or who he had rousted. So we had to have a knight fleeing on a horse to gain the safety of his castle."

Rosemary's piece designed from Brenda's piece.

 The last piece to be completed was Rosemary's. She had organised the challenge for us all and kept us to time as well. Not easy since we met every other month to exchange pieces. Each time we each had a piece for someone else's Chinese Whisper. In my next post I really must put together the photos of the pieces I made for each of the others involved in this project.

Going back to Rosemary's piece for me, she wrote "The picture is of a castle in Guimaraes, Portugal. We went there on th last day of our holiday. The figure is D. Alfonso Henriques. He won the battle of Sao Mamede which paved the way for the foundation of Portugal. The castle was built to defend the monastery and Christian Community from the attacks by the Moors and Normands, so I decided to use my holiday memories as a basis fo the Chinese Whisper piece. It is hand stitching on appliqued background with the knight on a separate piece of the applique fabric stitched in place by matching the background stitching."

As you can see each piece is a superb item in it's own right, all very different and now my challenge is to make a book which will retain the quality of each of the pieces I have been given and yet will make a book which works as a whole piece in it's own right. Not easy!

Thursday brought a very different day. I met up with other members of NWCQ and we had a wonderful day of learning different techniques of dyeing.

Freshly dyed fabric waiting for me to get around to washing it all.

Our teacher for the day was a good friend, Sandra Wyman who is an expert dyer and great fun to be with. I was extremely saddened to hear that she too had lost a very dear furry friend very recently. She wrote a very moving post about the loss of her dear cat. Do go and read it.

Now all that is left for this month is for me to complete my Journal Quilt for September - it has been started and just needs to have the stitching completed before it is ready for posting. Then I must get on and wash all the fabrics which I had such fun dyeing yesterday. Thanks Sandra.

Printing and painting fabric.

Printed and painted fabrics.

It has been rather too long since I added a post to this blog. Things have been crazily busy here. I still keep stitching and have been knitting too whenever I have had a spare moment. I shall post about those another time. Visiting my friend Hilary the other day, I was only able to take a couple of things along with me. Items she had not seen. It was a few days later when I got around to getting some ironing done that I rediscovered some printed and painted fabric which I had completely forgotten about. As you can tell, I really don't do any ironing very often - unless it is ironing new fabric after washing it for the stash.

These pieces were made during a rather enjoyable day spent with the NWCQ group. We spent some time printing fabric - I took along my thermofax screens and some stencils, a collection of previously printed and painted fabric and my print board.

Thermofax printed onto painted gauze.

Stencil onto previously painted gauze.

 Well, my print board got a little damp after printing the cog wheels stencil above, so I used one of my pieces of salvaged poly-cotton (an old valance) as an additional dropcloth. I folded it twice to print this:

Stencil onto previously painted gauze.

Dropcloth after printing the gauze above.

Second layer of the dropcloth showing dampened original dropcloth leaking through.

 As you can see the results were really interesting. I shall be keeping this impromptu dropcloth on one side for further printing and painting.

Old dropcloth overprinted using thermofax screen.

This last piece of the day still needs some work, but is developing in a rather interesting way.

Completed book pages for the Machine Embroidery Group. Brenda's theme is "Flora and fauna".

"Breakthrough" completed journal quilt for the Sky's the Limit group.

There have been other pieces completed, but I won't bore you with them here. At present I have started work on a quilt which I hope to complete in time to be entered for the "Horizons" challenge for the Contemporary Quilt group. It is full of pins at the moment so I haven't taken a photo - maybe next time.

Thanks for reading. I shall be back.