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.

Hand stitching

Some stitching has been taking place. Strangely, for me, it has been all by hand. With the move here and everything else that has been going on I have not felt like getting out the sewing machine. My workroom is still being used as a bedroom and there is no table for my sewing machine yet.

Coco has decided she quite likes hand stitching. It means that someone has a lap. She doesn't seem very concerned that she is sharing it with pins and needles.

Just so long as she gets the attention.

This is my latest piece for the Sky's the Limit group. You can see the details about this piece here. I wonder if you can guess which film this is before going to look at the other post.

No, this isn't the only piece of work I have completed recently. Sadly the other piece is part of a Chinese Whispers challenge and I cannot share anything about it until the whole sequence of pieces is complete. This will be in November.

This is the tree outside my workroom. We are not sure what it is - it might be a flowering cherry. The builders put in flowering cherry trees in each of the gardens of the houses around us. It will be interesting to find out when the spring finally arrives.

Sadly, I do have to report that my father-in-law died last weekend. 

Flying and a cake-eating cat.

Yes, you heard me right, this week has really been rather crazy.

I had better start with the cake first. This was a bit of a disaster, edible and quite nice, but not good. I tried a recipe from a new book I had been given some months ago. Queen cakes - an old fashioned style of cake I had made many times from a recipe in my old recipe book. (I think the Americans might call these cup cakes, they are basically a small sponge cake made with sultanas, rather than the type covered with sweet icing.) The resulting cakes were good to eat, but rather greasy for my taste. Next time I shall halve the amount of fat used. They really were far too oily.

Well, I left these on my wire rack to cool. There is not usually any danger to cakes left like this. However, when my husband returned he found the unmistakeable signs that the cakes had been lovingly licked by a cat. Felix!

The cakes that had been definitely touched were thrown out for the birds. Well, I should say here that the birds never got to touch these. Felix found them on the lawn and we were treated to the sight of our idiotic cat licking and nibbling the bits. Madness. Needless to say I threw out the remaining cakes since we could not be certain which had been touched and which hadn't............

This morning, by comparison was surreal.

We were out of the house by 5.15 am. Yes, you did read that correctly. We had been given a present months ago - a ride for both my husband and myself in a hot air balloon.

Take off was gentle. We slipped away and up into the air. The burners are switched on every so often to keep a certain height above the ground.

When these are not on, it is so quiet, you can even hear the sound of the ducks on the water.

Its astonishing to think that the basket is only held up by hot air. It is a basket too. Hefty and strong enough to carry the weight of twelve passengers. Can you see the sky through the sides?

I took around ninety photos. I know I shall use these as inspiration over the next few months. I loved the patterns of the hedges, the colours of the fields, those long shadows, the textures, colours...................

The landing was an interesting experience. A couple of bumps and we were down. The basket toppled onto it's side and we were dragged for a few yards.

It was a wonderful experience and one I would urge you to try if you ever get the chance. We had an hour long flight, starting at an interesting place called Dearnford Lake, near to Whitchurch. We travelled for 16 miles due east, landing in a field not far a place called Madeley.

As I started writing this, Felix came to join me. I quote

"ow-oweraw-ohaw-owaw-owow-mmhr-mehrow"

He likes to have the last word, my opinionated cat.

Keeping busy.

Why is it that when I start one project, another comes along before I have finished the first one? At present I have quite a queue of projects in the process of being completed, started but not much completed yet and waiting to be started.

The first of these is Rosie's quilt.

I have got to the stage of having finished the first part of quilting seventeen of the twenty blocks. The first stage being the "flower".

This is what it looks like on the back.

The next bit will be quilting the blue "sashing". After that I shall be able to start sewing everything together.

Project number two is getting on with my page for the Traveling Pages project. The
ay theme for me is "Coastline". You do not need to remind me that I am fast running out of time to complete this during May.

As a tease, these pieces of felt I made some months ago will form the basis of the page.

Another project which has been started will have to remain secret for a while since it is something being made as a gift.

I still haven't got started on my mum's quilt........... I have quite a collection of ideas which will form part of the quilt when I start. I really do not have the time to begin just yet.

"Get on with it!" shouts Felix.

He is right, I must get on with the sewing.

Still prevaricating.

I have been doing far too much reading of websites, Blogs and the like just recently. There is so much fun to be found. Here is one I read regularly. RicRac. This is such a charming post from a really beautifully written Blog.

This last week, I have found it really difficult to get started on any new projects. There is just so much going round my head at the moment. I really don't know where to start!

Theres an admission!

Now that I have said it, I know what I need to do. As Alison Lee puts it so succinctly "Get your butt in the chair". Now she is one lady I really ought to listen to. After all she has so much experience in making beautiful things for a living.

Well, lets get down to what I really must get on with:

First, my page for the Traveling Pages. I haven't started March yet. Ooops! In my own defence, I do know exactly what I am doing for this, I just haven't got around to getting on with it. I am still not entirely sure what techniques to use................

Second, getting on with my knitted tunic top. Well, that at least is still moving. I got into a muddle with where I was on the front, so have abandoned that for the present and have started on the back. That may sound completely mad, but since the front and back are identical almost to the shoulder, I should be able to discover where I have gone wrong on the front.

Third, mum's quilt. I still have not started this. However, during my holiday I ended up getting some rather interesting ideas which I am slowly working on. No further information for the moment in case one of my daughters, or my mum just happens to read this...................

Fourth, altering a skirt I bought last week. Well, I may end up altering two skirts. I bought them in a sale and they are both rather too big around the waist and hips.

Fifth, reading. I am steadily reading my backlog of magazines. I have even finished reading two from this month! This makes a change, since I am usually at least three months behind. I also have a mountain of books waiting to be read. They are climbing the wall in my bedroom at the moment.

Talking of books, I bought two on Saturday. There was a sale in WH Smiths of certain titles. All the books were in a rummage box. Well, I could not resist. I found these two books there:

Simon Henry's "The Little Black Dress".

This book looks really interesting and should teach me all I need to know to make Liz's wedding dress. (My daughter is getting married in September next year.) It is written like a dressmaking course, but in book form. There is so much about dressmaking that I still don't fully understand. Hopefully the knowledge will help me to make a decent dress for Liz. I intend to get on and follow the exercises written up at the start of the book. Wish me luck, I may need it. Oh, and avoid my house while I'm doing this...................

"Katrin Cargill's Curtain Bible".

Now this is something I have been wishing for. I have made curtains in the past, but my ideas are the usual boring and straight-forward ones. This book has some rather nifty ideas which I can actually see myself using in this house. There is a rather awkward round window downstairs which I have never been able to do anything with. A nice bright blind could be rather nice..........

Why is it that whenever I give myself time to sit and think there are more projects I wish to get on with?

My younger daughter now has my beloved sewing machine so that she can get on with some projects she is intending to make for sale. I have my old sewing machine back. (Shown above.) It is good for sewing clothing, but I cannot do any Free Machine Embroidery on it. Shall I buy another machine? Rosie cannot afford to buy herself one.............. Now is this why I feel so lost?

Too many questions and far too much prevarication. I must take myself in hand and get something started. Felix has just jumped onto my shoulder, so I think he agrees. Either that, or he is warming his chilly paws.

Back again and raring to go!

I've been away on holiday for a couple of weeks. My workroom colleague - Felix, the furry fiend on the right - just won't leave me alone for long. He loves to sit on my shoulder while I am working. It makes for a noisy time, since he likes nothing better than to purr down my ear.....



On my return I had a lovely surprise - a package which had these lovely stamps on the front. It contained the February page from Johoanna. This is all part of the Traveling Pages project. For further details see the link at the side of this Blog.



Isn't this lovely? I feel so lucky to have this as my second page.



Talking of being lucky. This arrived in the post today. I am a member of Just Hands on TV, an internet community which has a really good series of quilting related videos. They have sent me a small bundle of the new Fusion Fabrics from Robert Kaufman. The fabrics are just as gorgeous as they look here.

Going into a local Supermarket today, I found this delightful not-so-little fold-up bag. So useful. Just fifteen inches tall and thirteen inches wide, it is six and a quarter inches deep.



It rolls up small into a package just six and a quarter inches wide and three and a half inches deep. Something I shall now start to carry around with me.



The crafter in me wonders whether I could use this idea to make a series of similar bags for myself. I shall of course be using much better fabrics - the only fault I find with this present bag. Rest assured that I shall not be copying this design - that would break copyright laws, I feel sure....

Oh, back to the title I have used. Coming home rested and relaxed I now find a multitude of ideas welling in the back of my mind. Watch this space for new proejcts as they start coming to life.

But first, has anyone got any good ideas for getting a cat, painlessly, off my shoulders?

Memories are made............

Memories, in this instance are definitely made of fabric and thread.

I was taken back to the time when my daughters were aged 10 and 8 (back in around 1993), when I found these items.

My husband had been taking boxes down from the loft (roof space) when one of them collapsed. The boxes all belonged to my elder daughter and were to be taken to her new home so she could sort out what she wanted to keep.

I used to make quite a lot of my daughters' clothes and these two pairs of culottes (one in brightly coloured cotton, the other in crepe de chine) alongside the cotton shirt were made years ago. I had forgotten all about them.

We used to have a lovely fabric shop in the local town. Called Harts, it was a favourite haunt of myself and my daughters. They chose the fabric and the patterns, I did the sewing. They usually liked to wear the same things, so my younger daughter had pairs of culottes exactly the same as these.

The clothes were summer weight and the culottes would have been worn with colourful t-shirts.

The last item here is something which my dear husband returned to me after sorting through a drawer of stored items. I had stitched the insert to my own design on 32 count Aida (or was it 28?), in 1996 as a present for my mother-in-law. It was found, safely wrapped and never used after her death some six years later. It is one of those lovely pottery bases with a kit lid produced by DMC. Do they still produce these?

I remember stitching one of a completely different design for my own mother. Her container sits on the dressing table in her bedroom. Another of my designs, originally contained within a card sits in a mounting as part of a small clock in her bathroom........

Why the photo of Felix? Well, my dear little friend has been spending most of the time I have been typing this trying to get me off this chair! Cats!!!

Keeping Warm.

My experts in the field of keeping warm were not willing to comment, so I left them cuddling up to their quilts. Needless to say neither Coco (top), or Felix have been very impressed by the weather outside this week. Visits to the outside world have been very brief and they have demanded cuddles to get warm again once back inside!

This is the view from my bedroom window.

As I write this, Felix is snoring on the chair I use for working on my sewing machine. Coco is snuggly asleep on my bed.

The next photos show things I am, or shall be working on in the next few weeks. The first is a part-made quilt top which I started some time ago. It started out as an autumn quilt, but didn't continue beyond this size (20 inches square). I rather fancy making this up as a large lap quilt with a fleece backing.

The next fabrics are those I shall be using for a quilt for my mum. She asked for a quilt to cover her leather chair. This will have a fleece backing and will be around 72 inches square when finished.

The floral fabric at the bottom of the photograph is the upholstery fabric covering the main chairs in mum's livingroom. This is my next big quilt project.

The next item which really just needs to be assembled is the lining for this cotton fabric shopping bag. The bag does not have a lining and is rather floppy. I shall be using some heavy-duty interfacing between the lining and the bag to make the bag stand up. This will make it more useful to me when I take it shopping.

I have been busily working on finishing this little project over the past couple of days. This is a little needle case kit which I was given by some friends when I left my teaching post in the summer. I shall use it to house my collection of needles. These are in a tin which does not close properly at the moment. I was prompted into starting this when my needle tin fell onto the workroom floor............ You can imagine the resulting mess. The tin is quite a large one. It used to hold my sketching pencils.

This is the second of two hats I have made this week. This one is double sided, so I can wear it in a number of different ways. The design is "Very Warm Hat" by Elizabeth Zimmermann from her book "Knitting Around." It certainly is cosy and warm to wear.

The green yarn was already in my stash, left over from a lovely thick aran jacket I knitted some years ago and still often wear. I bought the cream aran weight yarn as a contrast.

My latest knitted project is the delightful sock design Widdershins by Brooke Chenoweth Creel.
I have been using the bamboo yarn, Happy by Wendy in the colourway Pisces.

This is the gentle cabled design on the top of the foot.

The bottom of the foot looks like this. I just love this self-striping yarn. It is so pretty.

The design knits up really quickly too. I started the first of these socks yesterday evening and its already just over four inches in length. Perhaps I shall be able to finish them both before the weather improves.