The new, the old, and some plans.

Well, this was the sky as I packed the car to go to Hartford Quilters on Wednesday evening. The heavens opened after I had arrived, thankfully. The Hearts and Flowers Hug did not get wet. Why the name "Hug"? Well, don't we all need a cuddle at times?



Here it is, the project which has kept me really busy over the past few weeks. The white hearts and flowers have messages of support in them for Denise, whose quilt this now is. Positive and brightly cheerful, she is undergoing Chemo at the moment and we all wish her well.



The back shows a little of the echo quilting used round each of the flowers and hearts.

There is a bag too, an over the shoulder quilted bag to contain the quilt. I used the pieces left over from the main quilt. Still holding the quilt, it can be used as a pillow if the weather is just too hot to take the quilt out to use. There is enough spare space to hold a good book, or even a few magazines.

Denise was pleased with her new quilt and happily took it home with her.

It has been a really interesting week. First, I heard this podcast from Sister Diane at Crafty Pod. At first it really annoyed me, but then I began to understand exactly why it was making me so cross. The topic was planning ahead for Blogs and Podcasts. It took me a while, and quite a bit of soul searching to realise that, yes, I could really learn something from the ideas shared in the programme.

I must explain, that for some time I have been a little unhappy with this Blog. It is not as good as I would like it to be, but I have not been able to move forward and do anything about it. I don't have the knowledge. Being on a budget, I really don't want to spend money on lessons to learn either......

However, perhaps you can help. Just send me a message with ideas on how to improve this site. Perhaps letting me know what you would like to know more about, and see more about here. I shall try to get myself organised and incorporate some of these in the near future.

Being Appreciated.

I was truly astonished to receive a Sunshine Award from Toni recently. Apparently, the award is "for bloggers whose positivity and creativity inspires others in the blogging world."

Well, since I write this Blog mainly for my own amusement and to keep track of all the projects I have completed, I was astounded to feel that I might inspire someone else. If I do, then I am humbly grateful that you like my work and wish to try some ideas for yourself.

Now Toni is an amazing person who talks about her experiments through her Blogs. She spent the last year avoiding processed foods and sharing a lot of information about food additives as a result. This made for a fascinating series of Blog posts on her "A little off the beaten track" Blog. Her second Blog, "A little yarn on the side", details her interest in knitting. I met Toni some while back through her Yahoo group, EZ Fans. We are also both members of the excellent forum known as Ravelry.


Well, here are the rules of the award:

*Put the logo on my blog or within a post
*Pass the award onto 12 bloggers;
*Link the nominees within your post;
*Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog;
*Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award!

Now to choose twelve. This is not easy since there are a number of bloggers whose Blogs inspire me. However, here they are. I have not placed any of these wonderful people in any set order in my list:


Karen, of the Selvedge Blog.

This is an amazing Blog which taught me to use every single scrap of fabric. I am currently saving all my selvedge pieces to make up into something one day and am having such a lot of fun fantasising about what exactly that might be. Thanks Karen for showing me just how much can be done with even these narrow strips of fabric.



Roberta, of Simply Ninepatch.

This amazing lady galvanised so many of her fellow quilters into sending quilts for the youngest victims of the major earthquake in Abruzzo, Italy in 2009. It was such a privilege to have been a part of the project - Mille Colores per Abruzzo.


Jenny, of Jenny's Australian Needleart Journey.

Now Jenny is one of the members of Stitching Sisters. Her work is always a delight to see and so varied too. It has been wonderful to get to know her a little through the Round Robin we have both been working on.


RobinM of Yarncrawl.

Robin is one of those interesting people who always blogs about the clothes she is sewing and knitting. A frequent reviewer of sewing patterns, it is always interesting to see what she has to say about the different patterns she uses.


This Blog post is getting longer by the minute as I write, so I shall break now and add more in my next few posts.

UFOs and stitching fun.

This is one of my many UFOs. A rather floppy cotton shopping bag. The shape is a useful one, but I hate the way this one falls down. Hence the need for a lining.

This is the lining that I put together for the shopping bag. It in turn has been lined with some heavy duty interfacing.



This is a photo of some of the pockets I have added to the inside of the lining. The flower tag was a lucky find in Hobbycraft some months back. It is designed to replace the tag on a zip. I have merely added it to the end of the tag rather than removing it. This makes it a little longer and more useful to me.

There are two pockets here. The larger one is the same width as the bag itself. There is a small pocket which can just be seen to the left of the large pocket.

The two flaps will soon have poppers to fasten them against the pocket edge to keep this large pocket into the side of the bag. The two buttons are to decorate the flaps.

The last photo shows the lining pinned into the bag.

Some time ago I prepared some new lino blocks for fabric printing. I posted about that here:

http://thestoryofthetravelingpages.blogspot.com/2010/01/flowers.html

The resulting prints are below:

The top one is my favourite. The print was made by doing it all wrong, pressing the fabric into the block inside on pressing the block down on the fabric. I rather like the resulting haziness of the printing.

The next UFO is a small box. All hand-stitched, it is made using Japanese folded patchwork squares. I shall be finishing off the lid with a beaded tag. The hinge has been made using bugle beads.

And last of all, the needle case. It is now full of needles and that tin has been emptied of all except my longest upholstery needles. These are threaded through a scrap piece of aida, so they cannot fall far when the tin drops on the floor once more. Knowing my own clumsiness this will happen again.



The first page of my own set, "The Sea" has been completed by Trillion. You can see a teaser here:

http://thestoryofthetravelingpages.blogspot.com/2010/01/sea.html

I shall post the page here on my Blog once it arrives. I am really looking forward to seeing what it looks like.

Knitting and Stitching Show, Harrogate.

Well, I am so glad I went to Harrogate yesterday. The weather today has been dreadful. Cold and wet with hailstones and very windy.

The following images are all of the wonderful Royal Hall in Harrogate. The Knitting and Stitching show used the exhibition halls linked to this wonderful building. This was where the fashion shows were staged during the Show. Sadly, I was too busy elswhere to remember to return and come and sit to watch. Still, I would not have missed one moment of the time I spent searching around the exhibitions and stalls.

These first two show the stage and the wonderful ceiling in the ornate hall.

The next two show the design and decoration of the passages serving the main hall.

The last photo is of a pair of doors opening off one of the passages.

I travelled to Harrogate on a coach organised by the local Embroiderer's Guild. I am not a member, but they are happy to take non-members. It is so much nicer to be driven to such an exhibition and also brought back. I took Kathryn, my next door neighbour and her daughter. Kathryn beads when she has the time, and her daughter is studying Textiles for one of her GCSEs. Emily had not been looking forward to coming with us, but on the way home she was enthusiastic about coming again next year. She bought some items for projects of her own too!

There was so much to see. I went to see the exhibition about the Schiffli Project. I bought myself a copy of the book and it's accompanying DVD so that I can revisit the wonderful range of work which came out of the project. This was one I have been promising myself I would see for ages. I missed the exhibition when it was housed in Macclesfield, so was delighted to be able to catch up with it in Harrogate. The exhibits were every bit as fascinating as I had hoped.

Another thing I had hoped to find was yarn - well, specifically bamboo yarn. Toni, the writer of "A little yarn on the side", had suggested I buy bamboo yarn for a knitted top I had been having difficulties with. I didn't fancy buying yarn that I had not been able to handle first, so waited until getting to Harrogate. I did find some, but it was sock yarn and not suited for the top. Oh, it felt gorgeous. A definite must-get. Not finding any at Harrogate, I ordered some on-line today! I chose the mocha. I'll let you know what its like when it gets here. I can hardly wait!

I bought myself a new book full of gorgeous applique designs. The designer uses gauze and a soldering iron to create her wonderful pieces. Needless to say, I bought a small soldering iron too.... I'm looking forward to trying these techniques.

Then I treated myself to two new magazines.

Then it was off to the second-hand book stalls, my favourite stomping ground.

I even got some old patterns!

Then it was off to find threads and buttons, fabric for a project I should have completed months ago and some special wadding.

The fabric is silk and so is the wadding. They are destined to help me complete Serenity. This is a doll I started rather a long time ago. She will recline upon a chaise-longue, clothed in silk. The wadding is for the quilted cover of the chaise.

This is Serenity - not quite ready for her entrance yet. She is made from self-hardening clay, garden wire and cloth scraps. The fabric and rat tail silk ribbon is all to be used in the project. I have an idea in my mind, but I'm still not sure how she will turn out. This link is to my first figure.

This rather strange picture is Serenity, before I started wrapping her in strips of old cotton sheeting. Her joints are designed to work so that I can position her. She looks rather better now.

My posts now total 100.

Now how did I manage that? It really surprised me today, when I went to start writing this post to find that I had reached 100. I had not noticed.

A lovely day again today - so lucky to have some fine weather. The leaves are all falling now, so the trees will soon be completely bare. I do love their autumnal colours.

The cowl has really been coming on this week. There is now 8 inches of it, so I am now a third of the way to completing it. It will be such a welcome addition to my cold-weather wardrobe.

I do hope that no-one minds my putting a followers section on my Blog. Please feel free to add yourself as a follower, but do not feel that you have to. I have added a list of those Blogs I follow. These are some of the really talented artists out there and it is such a privilege to be able to read their Blogs.