Busy not sewing

Pattern of frost on the conservatory roof

We woke this morning to a frost which quickly disappeared as soon as the sun came up. These photos record the patterns on the roof panels of my conservatory. Really pretty.

Pattern of frost this morning

No sewing in the past few days, although there has been some preparation. Firstly, the book has started to take shape. The first few pages have been linked together with ribbon. The ribbon will eventually be hidden away inside the front and back covers of the book.

Book pages - showing the brown paper backings

I described putting the individual pages together here. The pages have all been trimmed ready for this stage. As you can see, the bright colours alternate with the brown paper backings.

Book - showing the coloured pages, each is different.

The first page - it still needs some lettering and some actual pattern.

The theme of the book is "Pattern". This is the theme this year for the NWCQ group, so it seemed rather appropriate. I sat steadily working on this book at a meeting when most people were working on altered books. It was an interesting meeting to attend, but I really have a problem with altering any book. In my mind I see it a defacing the book rather than enhancing it. Hence my making a book out of what might be termed rubbish.

I also worked on some designs based on flowers for print blocks. These will be used for the next four of my journal quilts for this year. I just need to find a little space to get on with some printing. The print blocks have been made from foam sheets stuck onto foam board using double sided tape. The centre block used part of the foam backing from a ready made pizza, backed onto foam board to give it more strength, My last four journal quilts can be seen here.

Three weeks later........ sewing and dyeing, feltmaking too.

Blue pine from Brenda's garden - we were here to have some fun dyeing.

Apologies for the long lapse in blogging. It has been extremely busy lately. The wedding has been and gone. Great fun it was too! So lovely to meet family. We really don't get to meet as often as we would like. My dress and jacket were liked, but I still haven't got a photo to show of me wearing the dress with the jacket. I must remedy that as soon as I can.

The following weekend was Festival of Quilts. This was an exhausting time meeting a lot of people and getting to see some really wonderful quilts. I was lucky enough to have my own quilt exhibited along with the rest of the entrants to "Horizons". You can see the whole exhibition here. Just click on the link to the photos of the exhibition.

The three lovely bookwraps I won .

I also took part in the Tombola and managed to win not one, but three bookwraps by the same maker - Sally Hutson. They are lovely. I really don't know how I won three of her rather special bookwraps since I bought tickets on three separate days and won one each time. Such luck, and no I didn't cheat. The bookwraps website can be seen here. It has some lovely photos of the fun we had on the stand. I was able to help out on one of the days. If you look at the list of names to the side, you will find Sally Hutson and can see some of the other bookwraps she made for the Tombola.




Since then it has all been rather a blur. I had to get four book pages completed before Friday, ready for a meeting of one of the Textile groups I belong to. We had a lovely time getting together, dyeing fabric and chatting. Such a lot of fun. The day started off rather wet and we were wondering whether we would be able to work outside, but then the sun came out and it turned into a glorious day!





The first two pages are "Dance" for Marion.











The next two are on the theme of "Circus" for Judy.











Whilst there we were able to look at the round robins we had completed a few months ago. These have now all been completed. It is interesting to see how each piece came out.

I made the moon on this one.














For this one I added the hedge and gate across the centre.

For Judy, I added two crows.












For Karen's bag, I added the sun.












My own cushion design started with the pile of books in the centre and the background fabric printed with words to do with literature. My theme was "Books". When everyone had added their piece, I added the applique letters which state "books".

My round robin - my pieces are the pile of books, the kindle,
the calligraphy showing words to do with literacy and the word "books!"

When I got home I managed to get some felt-making done before the light went. I wanted to make some pieces of pre-felt so that I can experiment with some making some nuno felt later this week. This was all because of a really interesting book I picked up at Festival.

Felt using some wool slub. Not sure what I shall do with this piece.
It was great fun to make.

Pre-felt ready to start experimenting with nuno felt.

The book bought at Festival which will be
of great help when I start experimenting.

Today has been spent washing out the fabric I dyed on Friday. It all looks rather nice. At the time of writing this I am waiting to give it a final rinse out and put it on the washing line to dry. Unfortunately, the rain clouds are gathering again. Photos will have to wait until another time since I haev delayed long enough in getting this post out.

Oh yes, I also played around with my soldering iron and some nylon fabrics. There is some black acrylic felt under these fabrics. I really don't know what I'm doing yet, just messing around and seeing what happens. I was able to watch a demonstration of this type of work at Festival which is why I am keen to give it a go.

Messing around with fabrics and soldering irons.

Another photo of Brenda's beautiful Blue Pine - this is
a section of the bark. I love the circle design it makes.

Fabric book covers, knitting and finding inspiration.

Well the shawl is nearing completion. I have added a picot bind off to the edge since I didn't fancy either the garter stitch edging or the ruffles of the original pattern. It will be interesting to see this after blocking. Not many more stitches to go.

I've been playing about with making some simple paper notebooks lately. The book cover saying "East of India" was a paper bag I really just couldn't throw away or recycle.

This is the latest fabric book cover. This time I have covered a plastic A4 file. It has been made using African fabrics as befits the title of the file - "Africa". It now houses my small collection of printed African fabric and two pieces which have been languishing deep within my collection of UFOs. I bought the fabric here.

Both are based on this beautiful carved wood head which my daughter brought back from Tanzania. I managed to get a few photos of it before it went home with her. The photo has been altered using Photoshop to minimise the number of colours.

I really should do something with those pieces, but I don't quite know what yet.

I've been searching for inspiration lately for the latest challenge from the "Sky's the Limit" group. The latest challenge is entitled "Inspired by................" So I rooted around the library and found these wonderful books on Architecture. Whether I shall use them for the final piece or not remains to be seen. I am enjoying looking through the pages of these books for now.

I loved the photos of fences and bannisters in this book. Beautiful work and so ornate.

This one contains some wonderful buildings.

Where do you find your own inspiration?

Books, sewing and things.

Today started well. My order arrived from Amazon! One of my favourite Shakespeare plays. It will be interesting to see what this version is like.
A knitting book I really just had to have. There are some lovely designs in here.
The last book. Well, I really admire the work of Linda and Laura Kemshall. This is jam packed full of some of the techniques they use.



My pincushion got finished yesterday evening. I have already started using it. Such a very useful design. The whole thing is weighted, so it stays where it is placed.

This afternoon saw me walking down to the next village to post my page for the Traveling Pages project. This page should have been sent off in May, but I got woefully behind with a mental blank. I really just could see how to interpret the subject - Coastline. It took me some time, but it has been completed and posted. Photos will be posted once this has arrived safely. Perhaps in a day or two...........



The path I took goes past these very architectural electricity pylons.



The fields here are full of wheat. I just love the colours.



These plants at the edge of the path lie next to the fence. Tints of red with green.



On the way I picked up this beautiful piece of mossy bark. It now sits on a piece of wet paper on my window sill.



I can just see this as a series of french knots - the real colours are a bit brighter than you can see here. Wonderful stuff.

A new toy!

A rather interesting week. I did get quite a lot of sewing done, putting an indian cotton quilt top together for Rosie's bed.

Its going to be a multi-coloured affair, using up pieces from my stash alongside the collection of indian cottons. Not sure what it will look like when it is finished. We shall see.

I'm just in the process of sewing together as many of these blocks as I either have fabric for, or until I have sufficient to make a top to cover the top of my daughter's bed. Then I shall sort out the remainder of the fabric needed.

In the process I made the uncomfortable decision that my old sewing machine really could not cope with the sort of sewing I really want to do. Basic sewing, fine, but it cannot cope with the free machine embroidery I love to do. It always did find quilting rather hard work............ Hence the plan to visit Jaycotts yesterday to check out the sewing machines.

I went into Chester with my younger daughter Rosemary who was home for the weekend. I stocked up with magazines.

After a quick visit to the city, we travelled on to Jaycotts. This is a brilliant place. Here they sell sewing machines, haberdashery, sewing tables, overlockers (sergers), embroidery machines, and all kinds of paraphernalia for sewers. They are so knowledgeable too, willing to answer queries over the phone. Such a helpful place.

After a delightful playtime, I chose this machine. I just could not go home without it.

It is my new toy and I am having a lovely time getting to know it well.

After Jaycotts we went on to take in an exhibition by Chester Ps and Qs. This was a lovely small exhibition where the group had joined forces with a local photographer, ~David Cummings. Sadly, I took no photographs myself.

Rosie and I picked up some Liberty fabric.

These are mine and will be added to my collection as soon as they are washed.

One thing I was very taken by at the exhibition was the beadwork. It was exquisite, not very readily photographed by my own camera. Small hexagons linked by a row of fine beads to the next hexagon instead of using stitch. This looked lovely with the sunshine lighting it through the windows. All stitched by hand.

The photographer (David Cummings) had taken some photographs in Switzerland. It was so nice to see some small quilts using the same theme. What a lovely idea to have quilts and photography sharing the same exhibition space. It strikes me that perhaps this is something small quilt groups could imitate, sharing space with other crafts. It might bring a wider audience to each of the crafts sharing the exhibition space.

On the way home, Rosie and I indulged ourselves with a visit to a bookshop.

I bought these two books for my bookshelf. The Art Nouveau book is for my own Art education. I am trying hard to get around to reading more about Art History. My own knowledge is lamentably rusty.

The book about Trapunto and Boutis came home with me because I only have brief information about these in one of the magazines I have. I rather fancy trying to add more texture into some of my projects. The detailed instructions in this book certainly give me more chance of achieving some raised texture.

After we got home, I spent the evening getting to know my new friend. It was so strange not to be using a Husqvarna. In Jaycotts, I had been far more impressed with this Brother machine than any of the others. Having been shown how to use it for free machine embroidery in the shop, I really could not bear the thought of coming back to buy it at a later date. I chose to get some additional quilting feet rather than take advantage of the free trolley bag the machine should have come with. It already had a lovely large sewing table for use when quilting. (This hasn't been taken out of it's box yet.)

Just for your information, Brother seems to have a much more interesting American site here.

Ah well, back to some sewing. I am already becoming more confident in finding how to achieve the quarter-inch seams I need at the moment. Oh, I must add that Rosie was relieved to realise that the machine she has borrowed now belongs to her.

Stunned.

Aren't people kind................

The box of flowers is from my colleagues. The teddy from a friend. He is dressed in the school uniform.

Presents from pupils.........

The photograph album is full of messages from the children and colleagues. Something I shall treasure.

Lydia Buttercup is a soft toy. She is a cat given by a pupil. "To help you in the garden even when it rains", read the message. She even has her own tools!

The pot plant came from my younger daughter........... My wonderful husband gave me orchids........

One door closes, they say. Well my opening door tempts me with textiles.

The next photos are of my next project. The working title is "Tree". Not sure how this will work out.

I started with small fabric scraps, tacked together using Bondaweb. Then I placed the resulting shape onto one of my pieces of felt. You may remember this piece from several months ago.

Next will come "leaves" and lots of free machine embroidery.

Earlier today I went into town and found these two books in the Oxfam Charity Shop.

This book is in perfect condition and dates from 1976!

The second book is the "Readers Digest Complete Guide to Needlework". This edition dates from 1984. It will take pride of place next to my copy of the "Readers Digest Complete Guide to Sewing" which I was given free when I bought my first sewing machine in 1979.

Ooh, before I forget. If you live in the UK, go into your own Oxfam Shop. My local one has the new 2010 diaries in stock! Well worth a look. I shall say no more since I bought one for a special friend.