Completing UFOs, making plans and plodding along

Daffodils in the garden

Everything seems to have started growing in the garden. It is lovely to see some bright colour outside.

Crocuses

Work has continued over the past few days on the weaving theme. You will see a sample of a woven pocket in the next photo. The sketchbook belongs to the challenge starting soon for the MEG group. I am looking forward to getting this one started. I don't normally use a sketchbook, preferring to jot things down in my notebook, so it will be interesting to get some guidance on how to put one together and then begin to use it.

I treated myself to a sewing magazine this morning, so will probably end up tempted to make something else. Unfortunately, my list of things to sew seems to be getting longer. I have now cut out the lining pieces for my Cocoon coat, but it has got no nearer to completion. I keep getting tempted to do a bit more with the weaving project. The first draft of the instructions has been written. It remains to be seen whether the directions and illustrations make any sense. 

The pdf pattern belongs to this design from "Sew Now" issue 3. I need to find some nice denim or fine corduroy to make this. Years ago I had a pair of dungarees which I really loved wearing. This is a more practical item of clothing for me these days. I just love those pockets.

Pinafore design in issue 3 of "Sew Now".

I did mention finishing UFOs in my title. Last time I mentioned a piece of embroidery but didn't show it. 

This is it. I only have the scissor keeper to embroider now, then I will be able to get the whole thing assembled. It has only been in my UFO pile for a few years. Embarrassingly I cannot now remember exactly how many years it has been languishing. The finished size of the closed Etui will be 3.5 inches square, so it really is rather small to have lain unfinished for so long. The brown felt shown behind the embroidered pieces will be used for the lining and the needlecase pages.

The designer, Sue Hawkins is a very talented and her work is really colourful. I couldn't resist it when I saw this little kit, which is why I am getting on with it now. There will be a needle case inside, and somewhere to stash a small pair of scissors inside the back cover, also a neat little thimble case which is to be attached to the scissors on a long cord. A rather useful item for my hand-stitching projects. I just need to find a nice sharp pair of embroidery scissors to keep inside it. 

My idea this year, is to get on with the rather large number of unfinished projects which have been lying around. Some may end up being drastically redesigned. My interests have changed rather a lot over the years. I'd like to use up at least some of the yarn I have collected, and then there is my rather too large stash of fabric.............. I must check to see if I already have something I could use up for that pinafore dress.......... Now that really would be sensible.

Do have fun with your own projects.

Learning Goldwork and quilting.

Colour challenge fabrics

A couple of weeks ago I got the next stage of the NWCQ Colour Challenge under way. Everyone taking part brought in a metre of fabric which was then split between all nineteen of us. To make this work, each metre was split up into twenty pieces, with the owner of each metre getting two twentieths of their fabric back along with one twentieth of everyone else's. This is my collection. A really exciting collection since at the last meeting we were all asked to choose one of the selected three colours and to bring one metre of that colour to the latest meeting. Well, we had a lot of fun writing the names of colours onto bits of paper, putting these into a box and then drawing out three at random. The colours chosen? Jade, grass green and elephant grey. The idea for this challenge came from a description of a similar challenge organised by Edwina MacKinnon at a Regional Day for The Quilters' Guild. 

I am so looking forward to what everyone makes with their fabric. The choice has been left completely open. It should be really interesting. The deadline for finished items is the January meeting. I shall keep my own plans to myself until then.......

felt workshop piece

The 25th September saw me heading off for a Felt workshop with Viv Netherwood. She was showing us how to make landscapes using felt. A really interesting workshop. My finished felt is above- not very interesting at the moment. I still have the stitching to do.

stitching sketch for felt

This is the sketch I made at the workshop as a plan for my piece. It is based on a photograph I took some years ago when I went on a hot air balloon ride. The photo has been manipulated to turn it into a black and white image. I wanted to have a go at a monochromatic picture for a change.

original photo

I've chosen a small section of the photo and moved things around slightly. I'll have to wait to stitch it until the African quilt is complete. I need to get that done before the talk I am giving next week. Did I tell you how good I was at prevaricating?

learning goldwork

Last Monday saw me learning Goldwork. It is something I have never tried before. This was my version of a star at the end of that day. The workshop was given by the very talented Sarah, who runs a company called "Golden Hinde" with her mother.

Africa quilt - top

The African quilt is nearly finished now. Just the rest of the stitching around the outer borders. I really enjoyed stitching the face images. You can see that I need to get a lot of tidying up done before that talk. A long session getting rid of all the fibres on the black fabric is required too. I didn't realise just how attractive to bits this black fabric is......... hmmm. Must remember that in future.

Africa quilt - the back

Oh yes, I actually finished the Goldwork star this afternoon. My next problem will be to decide which way up to mount it. The piece is sewn onto a blue silk dupion.

finished goldwork piece

Warm and sunny crafting days.

Its been quite a busy weekend so far. My younger daughter arrived on Thursday and we went into Manchester to the Private View of the 62@50 exhibition by the 62 Group in the Holden Gallery.
The exhibition was wonderful and I would recommend anyone in the area to go and see it. I shall be going again before it closes on the 17th of August. I'm pleased to say Rosie enjoyed it as much as I did. Favourite pieces? Sue Stone's delightful pictures of 1930's figures with modern day graffiti in the background. Really interesting. Then there was Alice Kettle's interpretation of "Guernica" - this is one of her huge pieces and is one we were drawn back to time and again. A disturbing theme. There was also the really amusing story of the 100 metre dash by Marilyn Rathbone.
Now why the letters? I treated myself to these when I was in Fred Aldous, one of my favourite shops. The letters are each barely half an inch tall. I intend these for use in my printing experiments.

The jacket is one I've just completed. It has taken me ages to finish this. All my own fault. I lent my little portable bright lamp to a friend to complete a project. Then, of course I needed it for all the hand sewing on this jacket, especially finishing off the lining. I've had to get on with this project in the last couple of days while the light has been good in the daytime. It is a black twill jacket which will see a lot of wear travelling to and from Choir and Recorder group concerts. I have to wear black for the performances with a brightly coloured top, so a smart black lined jacket will do very nicely. This is lined with a cotton-like fabric rather than the more usual rayon. It really feels nice to wear. Hopefully it will be fairly warm for autumn concerts.

The last three items have been ones I have been working on for a while, especially the hand embroidered felt bits. These are all intended for my last four Journal Quilts.

Each of my Journal Quilts this year have had handpainted fabric which I have written all over using the names   of the colours I have used for that quilt. These are all destined for my blue quilts (September to December). So you can see elements for blue-green, blue, light blue and blue-purple. It is rather unusual for me to be so far ahead of myself. I keep wondering what might go wrong with my plans for these.

Back to the stitching.

Its taken me a while to get back to posting again. Apologies to anyone reading this.

The image shown here is "Face". I have been working slowly away at this for some time. It can definitely be called a WISP (Work in Slow Progress).

"Face" is a collage of various layers of light and wispy fabric overlaid with a variety of machine embroidery and hand embroidered stitches. I have recently been trying to add more definition to the stitched outline I had started with, adding some coloured gauze. Adding the dark shade has overbalanced things a little with the nose (to the left) looking far too dark. The top of the head needs adjustment too (towards the top of the photo). However, playing with this image is teaching me such a lot about colour values. Before starting this piece, I had never tried using such flimsy fabric - just loved touching it....

"Face" is just one of a series of WISPs which I have haunting my sewing space.

Its been a while.

Hello there, sorry its been rather a while since I last wrote anything on this Blog. Been rather too busy even to sew!
The photos are of a piece of black work started recently, this has turned into a sampler and will have strips of different designs all in autumnal (Fall) colours - brown, red, orange, yellow, etc. I've started it in YLI Jeans Stitch thread, which is rather nice to use for handstitching. The work is being stitched on 28 count fabric.
The little book shows what happened to the sample I made to try out the motif. I couldn't waste it, so I made it into a little notebook. Not sure what I shall use the notebook for.....
The motif comes from a delightful book by Pamela Warner, called "Tudor treasures to embroider" (ISBN 1-86108-249-5).

Welcome to my blog. This will be a rambling, occasional series about my adventures with textiles.
At present I am working on a series of projects. I never can seem to concentrate fully on one thing at a time.
Projects ongoing at present:
Round Robin - this quilting project has just finished and I now have the enjoyable task of putting all seven of the components together to make a hanging. This will need to be completed by October for the groups Exhibition.
This group (Cranford) has also laid down another challenge which I couldn't resist, again to be completed before the Exhibition. This is to make a Crazy Quilted hanging using at least two of a given set of fabrics. I must be mad.
Two-stitch challenge - this was set up by Stitching Post, the online group. Just using two colours and two stitches this is hand-stitched- chain stitch and blanket stitch.
An ongoing block a month challenge with Knots and Needles, another of the groups I am associated with. I decided to do this in black, white and red. Rather dramatic colours, but I have never worked with such colours before. I like challenging myself.
There is also Face - a mixture of machine embroidery and hand embroidery. An experimental piece.
Then there are the UFOs lurking around the place - a blue quilt which needs me to sit down and complete the machine quilting. This was a very enjoyable make, since I got to cut up a load of my husbands work shirts instead of ironing them; a lilac jacket I started and still sits upon the shoulders of Aggie, my tailors dummy; a blanket quilt - a rather nice, but damaged chenille throw which I am tacking to a fleece blanket. The idea was to be able to reuse the chenille throw, when it was strengthened by the fleece. I was planning to decorate it too, but got bored....
There may well be others, but they can sit there for the time being. I shall enjoy getting back to them later.
Well, next time I shall try to organise some pictures, when I can get my digital camera to talk to this computer again.
Mandy.