Work in progress

Work has finally started on a quilt I planned to do in January! This is being made using my overlocker (serger), rather than piecing it using my sewing machine as usual.

The idea for this came about as a result of a serge-a-long organised by the Serger group on My Sewing Circle.

All of the blocks are being made from fabric out of my over-sized stash. I am not using wadding simply because the backing is fleece, again from stash. Some blocks will have the yellow as a backing, the rest will have a chocolate brown. This last piece of fleece had been intended for mum's quilt, but proved to be too dark. It is hiding away in the top photograph.

Other projects under way at present are the February Journal Quilt for the Contemporary Quilt group, the next section of the Stitching Sisters Sampler for Norma, and a bag I need to get around to rebuilding. Yes, I am woefully behindhand with some projects. I get sidetracked easily...................

I completed the first of the bags some time ago, but forgot to post about it here. This is what it now looks like:

As is usual for me, all four sides are different:

One of the ladies in my local library really loved it when she saw it.

I had had to completely take the bag to pieces since the only good fabric left was that used to make the handles and also the lining I had made to prolong the life of my bag. The sides now have wadding as a backing to stiffen them a little so that the bag can stand up.

I'm not sure exactly what my next bag will look like. It is a pile of fabric pieces and a box of buttons, ribbon and iron-on motifs at present.

Oooops!

I made the mistake of accompanying my younger daughter on a trip to Abakhan yesterday. I have been so good lately , not buying much fabric to add to my enormous stash. And then I go to help Rosemary get some fabric for her dress....................... I must remember not to take my purse next time.

Well, I suppose I have not been as naughty as all that, since much of the fabric will go towards making quilts for Italy. I intend to make more than one, but am not too sure whether I shall be able to achieve this. I shall do my best. There are very few pieces of bright child-like prints amidst my stash.

I couldn't resist the sock yarn. Its really soft.

My knitting has been coming along quite well. It feels slow, but then I've been busy with other projects too.

All the pieces of my summer top have been completed, now all that remains is to sew it all together and get the neckband done. I shall search amidst my collection of buttons for the placket fastening for the back. (Colours are more accurate in the photo on the right.)

I have now completed the left front for the cardigan.

The right front has been started. Hopefully I shall get the ribbing finished soon - not my favourite part. Which sounds almost silly since a lot of the rest of the cardigan will be ribbing. It will look good when it is finished.

Knitting for chilly weather.

I managed to get two items completed this week - the cowl (Aibhlinn by Mary Burr) and also a hat (Cabled Beret by Ashley Hasse).



Here is the beret sitting atop my Aibhlinn. I wore the cowl for the first time today, since it was very chilly outside. It is so cosy! It will quickly become a favourite.
The beret is now in my younger daughter's possession. It only took a day to knit, so I think I shall make myself one.




Speaking of chilly weather, I took some photos of the spider webs before they thawed this morning. You may just see the frost still lying on the grass under fence. These water drops have still not thawed enough to fall.



My bamboo yarn arrived during the week. Oh it feels so gorgeous.......... I keep handling it, it is so very soft. I bought it from Cucumberpatch. The colourway is called Mocha.



My final photo is of a sticker I bought from the Quilter's Guild stand at Harrogate. This is now in the back of my car, on the side window. I used to have one of these in my old car a few years ago. I just loved the message. Sadly, the sticker was too fragile to be removed from my old car and I have had to wait until now for the sticker to be republished.

I've been bad.

Oh dear, I really have been naughty. I went and bought some more fabric! The trouble is I have such a large stash already! I do have plans for the new fabric. The idea at the moment is to make fleece-backed lapquilts using the fabrics as features.............

I went to Knots and Needles, a local stitching group, on Thursday evening to hear Magie Relph speak about African fabric. I just couldn't resist, so I bought some.

I bought some Shwe-shwe. One of Magie's Mini Adventure Packs - 20 pieces each 10 x 8 and a half inches. Its such beautiful indigo fabric. At present, because I have not yet had the time to wash it, it is as stiff as cardboard. Once the excess dye is washed out, it becomes very soft, I am told........ (I've just placed the different designs on top of each other in the photo.)

The other piece is a lovely brown fabric I found on Magie's store, which she brought along to the meeting. I couldn't resist. Its soft and delicious.

The frog fabric was one I bought to share with a friend some time ago. We finally got around to sharing it out at the same meeting. (I photographed it with the brown fabric shown above, but it made the darker fabric look very very dark indeed.)

Then, oh dear, today I went to Hobbycraft. I needed some extra knitting needles for a Craft Group which I am starting at school. I saw some John Louden fabric bundles on sale. Last time, because they were full price, I managed to leave again without buying. This time, they were reduced......... I couldn't leave them there. Indian cotton. Nice.............................

The nearest I got to any knitting was buying two magazines. There are some beautiful projects to be considered in these pages. I just loved the cushion cover on the front of Piecework. And oh, Debbie Bliss............ Who could resist? I couldn't.

My only excuse is the sunshine. I hadn't seen much for a few days......................... These were taken in the car park close to Hobbycraft in Stockport.

Oh yes, I finished knitting a bag some days ago. This has only been languishing because I have managed to lose the pattern! Why does something always go missing when I have been tidying my workroom?

This has been felted since the photo was taken. It just needs the flower adding and a ruffle round the flap. So frustrating!!!

Busy, busy, busy................

Well, I have been really busy doing a lot of sewing lately. This first image is of a skirt I made. Well, reconstructed out of a pair of trousers that was languishing in my wardrobe. The trousers had really wide legs which was probably why I hadn't worn them in a very long time. It was so easy to turn them into a skirt. I shall use this skirt a lot - some really useful pockets.





A very simple dress, with side pockets. Why do women's dresses and skirts usually not have any pockets? This was made to get myself back into making my own clothes and using up some of my rather large stash. The pattern is Kwik-Sew 2677. A really comfy dress, I added darts to the front to give the design more shape.






The Hospice quilt is finished and the binding is done. I shall be handing this over on Wednesday. It will be fun to see how all the other lapquilts turned out. There are four (or is it five?) in all.





These photos show just how daft I went with the free-machine quilting. I covered the design with flowers and leaves in resonse to the mostly floral patterns used in the fabric choices. There are a few squiggles too for variety. The backing is a gorgeously soft fleece. Warm, cosy and washable.
I can see myself making one of these for myself (unless it gets claimed by someone else) one day.

The last two of my projects recently do not have any photos...... yet. The first of these was a fully lined cloak made without a pattern for my younger daughter. "Mum," she said. "Can you help?" This was a Friday. The Fancy dress party was on the Saturday evening. Bless her, she did most of the sewing, I did the cutting out and working out how to make the thing and how much fabric we needed.
The fact that it was fully lined was my own fault. She was going as "Little Red Riding Hood", but wanted a full cloak and not a cape. (She is 23.) I suggested that since we were going to be making a cloak, wouldn't it be more practical to make something she would wear again? I suggested lining it in black so that it could be fully reversible........... I think my sanity must be in question here.................She loved the idea, and looked magnificent setting out for her party.
Unfortunately, I did not take a photo of her setting out and I have not seen the cloak since. It will be safely stashed somewhere............

Since then, I got involved in helping a neighbour. Her young daughter (aged 15) had just been named as the Rose Queen. A really pretty girl, she had been given a lovely boned strapless and sleeveless evening dress. It was too big around the bodice. I spent a fascinating and nerve-wracking few hours, fitted in around work (school had just started again), working out how to alter the dress. In the end I summoned up the courage to take the side seams apart, deconstruct the boning in that area, take in the seams, recontruct the boning and hand stitch the lining back in place. Sadly, no photos yet, but apparently the dress now fits beautifully. She had her first public engagement as Rose Queen yesterday.

My fingers are now itching to get knitting again, and I have some fabric poised ready to be made into a dress...... I may not have time to cut it out today, since I also have a few items that really ought to be mended............. There is a box of schoolwork to attend to as well. Now what shall I do first?

New work and other silliness.

I woke to a glorious morning today. A real lift to the spirits after all the rain we have been having lately. Sadly, it is just beginning to cloud over again - do not feel down-hearted since this will not dampen my spirits. Not after such an enchanting wake-up call.

The rest of the day will be rather silly, in that my dear husband is working on the plumbing and the water connection to the house has been switched off. No possiblility of housework using the wet stuff. Goody, goody, more time to play in between helping with the D.I.Y! (Do-It-Yourself) We are so fortunate in this household that my husband is extremely good at things D.I.Y. However, I do end up as the maker of cups of tea, general assistant, finder of missing items and first-aider. So if the post today seems a little disjointed, please forgive me.

The next few photos are of a Elizabeth Zimmermann project I started earlier this month. This star design comes from the August chapter of her book, the Knitter's Almanac. I decided to stick with the star shape and turn a number of these into a bauble, sewing these together with a few beads. Everything here has come from my stash, which is a good thing since I am fast running out of space in which to stash my various stashes.

This picture, showing the loop on the top of the bauble shows the true colour of the yellow acrylic yarn I have been using. Each star is 2 inches tall and the bauble is around 3 and a quarter inches tall (not including the loop, which adds an extra inch and a quarter).

Since the sides gape rather a lot, I have knitted three of these four-sided stars based on EZ's pattern for the five-sided star. The whole shape will then be filled by this enchanting stuff seen in the bag below. It came protecting a gift I received at Christmas. The bag I will keep to use again one day.

The next photo shows the pile of filling next to the partially completed bauble.

The delightful little snowflake is attached to one of the long lengths of filling. I shall use it in some way too.

The last picture shows one of the gorgeous flowers in my garden at the moment. I really wish I could share it's exotic scent with you.

I knew I shouldn't have started.

Well, we went back up into the loft this morning to finish the task we started yesterday. I found yet another couple of bags full of yarn.



Quite a mixture again. Some cones, many skeins and balls of 4ply and double knitting weight yarns. Most of these were acrylic, but some were cotton. I spent quite a time sorting it all out - finding somewhere to put it too. I am not complaining about finding all this yarn, since I shall definitely find uses for most of it. The rest will be donated for different projects.



Coco enjoyed watching the whole process, but then demanded a tummy tickle. Who could refuse her?

By the way, the total bags of books taken for the "Coffee and Chat" and "Old Friends" groups came to seven!! With another five bags heading off into town for the various Charity shops there.

A good job done. The loft is tidy. There are still quite a number of boxes up there, but these will have to wait for my daughters. It all belongs to them!

Now why did I ever start?

Have you ever started something that you really didn't think would be such a time-consuming task?

I helped my husband start work on sorting out the loft space. In the process I found some stash that I had completely forgotten about.

This was was the first stash I discovered, or should I say rediscovered? The garish prints are some screenprinted samples I did many years ago. The pieces at the bottom were cot sheets I made for my daughters when they were babies.

Here are the cotton sheets again, with some cot blankets and a stripy curtain. All these will find a new use. Their new home is as part of my ever-growing fabric stash. (Sorry this photo has been duplicated, I couldn't get the other copy to delete!)

As you can see the sheets were both brushed cotton and plain cotton. I have plans for some cosy brushed cotton pyjamas for myself ready for next winter.

Then I found the wool. Well, most of this is acrylic - the gorgeously soft acrylic. This was left over from knitted items made for my girls and my husband. Some useful quantities of a few colours and weights too. This has all found a way into my ever-growing yarn stash. I shall offer some of the yarn to my aunt, who knits blankets for different charities.

Lastly, I was so thrilled to have found this book.

Its a knitting book dating from the 1940s which my grandmother (my mother's mother) gave to me. I lost it some time ago.

It has some of grandma's notes in the front and also the back - this is a lace pattern. I think she means "yarn forward" when she writes "Tfwd" or "Tfd". To check, I shall have to try out the pattern for myself. This next photo is a project from the book which I shall certainly consider making.

There were no less than five carrier bags filled with the books we had hoarded but no longer needed. When we asked our next door neighbour if he wanted to have some of the books, we discovered that the "Old Friends" group had a book swop. This group is one of two groups of the older villagers meeting weekly in the village hall - the other is called "Coffee and Chat". Both groups run a book swop for their members. All books are usually bought from the local charity shops and returned there once everyone has read those titles they wish to read. (The groups only charge 10p per book borrowed). We donated three of our bags of books, leaving only the technical books to be taken to one of the Charity Shops next week.

The cats, of course, were not impressed by all the hard work.