Nuno felt, sewing and knitting

Completed Malia top

It has been a rather busy couple of weeks. The Malia top eventually got finished as did a skirt which still has yet to be photographed. The skirt is still waiting to be ironed before it will be in a fit state to take photos. The top is an interesting one with a gather of fabric under the bust dart. I still haven't worn this since it was rather too cold when I finished it. The skirt will be warm enough to wear out until the weather gets too chill. It is the Dolores skirt from the summer edition of La Maison Victor. I have made it from a blue floral print fabric.

Completed Mercy cardigan

Detail of sleeve cap - Mercy cardigan

The Mercy cardigan has been finished and worn a few times. It is really cosy and just what I need for this time of year. The pattern is quite fitted, but leaves plenty of opportunities for wearing thin tops underneath.

 

Materials ready for dyeing

Dye bath filled with 6 metres of silk chiffon.

6 metres of silk chiffon drying on the line

I felt really brave some days ago when I dyed the silk chiffon required for the workshop with Vivienne Morpeth. It was a really simple process using the procian dyes and carefully following the instructions from Colourcraft. 

The workshop took place on Friday and Saturday 3rd and 4th November. It was really intensive. This is my nuno top under way. You can see the silk pieces laid out over the barrier fabric being used as a resist. My silk pieces are the plain coloured red. Vivenne very kindly provided the acid dyed silk with the variegated shading. The disks are made from prefelted pieces cut to shape. They are purely to add texture.

The text stating "Barrier" is printed on the resist material and does not come off during felting. I used scarlet, grey and ruby red superfine merino wool to make the felt itself. It is lovely to work with. I had not realised that there was more than one grade of merino available. I still have such a lot to learn. I learnt an enormous amount about felting during the workshop, not just from talking and listening to Vivienne, but also from the others taking part in the course all of whom were much more experienced felters. They were really supportive and helpful.

Front

These photos show my completed top. Yes, it does fit! I need to make a suitable blouse to go underneath it. This one is the toile I made for the cheesecloth blouse. I used around 3 metres of my dyed silk chiffon to make this top. The remaining fabric is destined to make the blouse. I fancy one with a frilly neckline based on this same blouse design. I just have to get around to making it. Or, rather more accurately, finding time to make it.

Back

 At the NWCQ meeting on Thursday we were challenged to used map elements to make a quilt ready for the CQ Annual Meeting being held in Manchester in March. Another project? Well yes......

The photo on the left shows an A4 sized sheet which was given to me as my inspiration at the meeting. We had had a couple of group exercises which produced a very large sheet incorporating sketches from everyone taking part. This sheet was then cut up into A4 pieces with everyone being handed a piece sight unseen. The completed quilt is to be in black and white and to have a small piece of a colour. I was wondering about yellow......The right hand photo sees some elements of work in progress on this. I was considering using this work as the basis of the "In Print" challenge quilt for Contemporary Quilt.

Further work will have to wait until I have finished a bag needed later this week as part of a group gift. The bag is nearing completion, but I really ought to make a second one so that the organiser has a choice.

Being busy - where does the time go?

Back of the Bronze Oxide shawl

Front of the shawl

 Well, it has been another busy week. I finished the first of my current test knits -the shawl. It is really heavy and should be very cosy for the winter.

I also managed to finish putting together the packs for my talk and workshop later in the year. It may be months early, but at least I won't be getting everything put together at the last minute...... unless there are going to be many more than fifty coming along. I did make sixty, so I'm hoping that will be more than enough. You can see my preparations for this workshop and the packs here.

Starting the colourwork

yarn colours for new test knit

This is going to be an interesting knit. Another jumper for my grand daughter. This one has a design of wolves around the neckline. Called "Wolf in sheeps clothing", it is the first time I have worked with more than one colour at a time using the fairisle technique. There are lots of markers in place helping me to keep track of the design repeats. Not enough completed to be able to show you the design yet, I'm just hoping that the colours I have chosen will do this beautiful design justice. It has been designed by the same person who designed Colibri, which you can see here.

Crazy patchwork challenge

At Pinfold last week we were looking at crazy patchwork. I have barely started decorating mine as you can see. I'm hoping to fit a lot more embroidery in before you see this again. Buttons and things too.

Overlocker ready for action

 My overlocker is out again ready to help me finish the tops I am rebuilding. You can see the fabric for the two tops here. The front and back are now stitched together at the shoulders, waiting for me to get on with adding the cap sleeves and sorting out the binding for around the neck. Hopefully it will be ready to wear very soon now. I really could do with some more summery tops before the summer vanishes again......

Front view

Back view

Getting ready to start more projects

Pinfold challenge

Yes, another challenge. The challenge is to make something out of these collections of five inch squares. There are twenty squares in each pack. I still haven't got round to washing and ironing the fabric, but I must think of something soon.

Colour challenge jacket

The completed jacket which I promised I would show you. It is really cosy to wear, just what I need. It caused a bit of a stir when I showed it last Thursday at the NWCQ meeting. It was wonderful to see the variety of pieces made by the other members of the group.

Back of the jacket

Label from inside the jacket

I've also been making a bed for Sasha. Very simple - two metres of polyester wadding folded inside one metre of fleece. I had already made one for Ella some months ago - she really loves her bed, so I thought it a good idea to make one for Sasha too.

Sasha's new bed

Ella's bed, made back in November

The Solar Dyeing experiment, back in July

You may remember my post about trying Solar Dyeing in July. Well, I finally got around to emptying out the jars and washing out the fabric.

The same jars this morning

As you can see, rather a lot has happened to the fabrics in the intervening months. I have not opened the jars, but left them to their own devices. The results are interesting. The Dyers Chamomile, the yellow flowers in the top photo have produced the fabrics below. All yellowy greens. Really interesting colours.

Dyers Chamomile

The second jar was the Medieval Solar collection. This has given a really fascinating collection of colours - from a light yellowy brown to a beautiful reddish brown.

Medieval Solar

At present the fabrics and fibres are still wet. I'm interested to see what they look like once they are dry.

New knitting project

I have another knitting project waiting for me to finish the tension square. It is a new hat. This will match a rather nice cowl which my elder daughter made me for Christmas. This is the same yarn which she used. The cowl already keeps my ears cosy, so having a hat to keep it in position will really help on those walks out with the dogs. The pattern, "Cogges", is designed by Jeni Hewlett and can be found in The Scrumptious Collection Volume one. The pattern is now available as a leaflet since the books is now out of print.

I just have the buttons to add to my waistcoat now. I am still trying to decide whether to go with the turquoise buttons, or whether to go with navy. I could use orange, but I really don't think that would look as nice.

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.

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. 

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.

Festival of Quilts will soon be here

Time goes by so fast at the moment. I'm trying to keep on top of the different challenges I have going on as well as watching the garden. Here you can see the fourth of my yellow quilts for the CQ Journal Quilt challenge for this year. I finished it some weeks ago, but have only just got around to posting it on the group's Yahoo site. I have already started on the last four quilts for this year. They are all blue.

 The gooseberries and the grapes are looking good. I love gooseberries, so quite a few get eaten before they are brought indoors. The surplus we freeze to enjoy through the winter. The grape vine is a young one so won't produce many grapes this year.

The cats enjoy sleeping under the large leaves of the rhubarb when it is hot outside. They get rather cross when I decide it is time to cut some. Stewed rhubarb is such a refreshing dessert when it has been chilled.

I finished this just in time for the "Friendship through Sewing" (it used to be called the Machine Embroidery Group) meeting on Friday. It is a cushion cover and was our first round robin. I started it all off with the painted fabric with the calligraphy, the pile of books and the kindle. Other members of the group supplied the fascinating collection of items around the books. I had supplied the red background fabric, but added the word "books!" to the whole before adding the sashing and piping. I just fell for those cats- what a pair of characters. That just has to be Felix sitting on top of the books, with Coco smugly settled beside the kindle. The cushion is 18 inches square, and has an envelope fastening on the back with three buttons to keep the back closed.

The other item I had to complete for the same meeting was the first pair of pages for our new challenge - a textile book.

Karen's theme is the hymn "All things bright and beautiful". I was asked to produce a page for the fourth verse. We are each making a facing page too which gives our name. I have added the words of the fourth verse to this one. I hope you can read the words.

Sheer fabric bondawebbed onto satin. The words are printed onto Jacquard Inkjet Fabric sheets - the cotton ones. The handwritten words are made using fabric dye pens and permanent markers onto screen-printed fabric left over from "Dreams" (Sky's the Limit). The facing page has pictures made from sheers bondawebbed in place with machine stitching using rayon threads.

The book pages are 8 inches by 6 inches. Karen has chosen to make her book in the landscape format. Mine will be portrait and my theme is "Music", one of my passions. I have a plan, but have not put the pieces together yet. Hopefully I shall find time to finish it before FOQ................... it won't be shown there, but I would just like to get it done too.

 The last two photos are pieces which I completed at the recent NWCQ meeting in Frodsham. We were lead by Christina in a really interesting day looking at Free Machine Embroidery. The first is a piece using a metal bangle. The covering threads were hand sewn using buttonhole stitch in a variegated cotton. The vertical threads were then machine sewn, a really interesting technique. I managed not to break a needle, amazingly. The stitching in the middle is supposed to look like a fuschia flower - it really isn't quite right. It was achieved by using water soluble paper behind the bangle and using FME to make the flower.

The second piece isn't finished yet. It is the first of a series of leaves I am playing around with. FME on water soluble paper.

I must say that I am really looking forward to the Festival of Quilts this year. I missed last year and the year before..................