More sewing, knitting and planning

Offcuts from the workshop packs

I'm still working on getting as many packs as I can prepared ready for the workshop in November. Yes, I am rather ahead of myself, but it takes rather a time to get all the fabric packs set up. There is a lot of ironing on bondaweb, cutting fabrics and so on. The collection above is my growing pile of scraps. All the bits that are just that little bit too small. All useful since they have been bondawebbed. Hence the growing collection of made fabrics where I am collecting the scraps together to make useable and useful pieces which could make something.

Green-yellow fabrics

Yellow - blue fabrics

The resulting fabrics are a little too stiff to use for much. project bags and bookcovers have been made before. Perhaps some cushion covers.  All of the three made so far need to be stitched to reinforce the surface. I think I will probably add some fusible wadding to add some texture when stitched.

Green - blue fabrics

 I must admit I really enjoy the stitching bit, although it does take rather a time to complete. Speaking of stitching. I finally completed the sketchbook cover which I mentioned last time. I chose a piece of fabric which I had painted, bonded to fusible wadding and then stitched,

Completed sketchbook cover

Almost completed Colibri jumper

 The Colibri jumper is now almost finished. I just have a few ends to sew in. Next, I shall need to find a young friend to wear it. One of the things to be completed after finishing a test knit is to complete a questionnaire to give the designer some feedback about the design and any errors before the design is finally published. It has been a really interesting process.

Almost complete Lanesplitter

 I've also been getting on with this skirt. It has languished in my project bag for a few weeks. I have never made a knitted skirt before, so it has been quite interesting making this one. The design is a free one from Knitty which you can find here.

The fabric pieces below belong to a challenge which I need to get on with. I still haven't decided what to make yet.

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.

What a couple of weeks!

Ella with her new friend Sasha

Well, there has been quite a lot of sewing which I can't show you, as well as some knitting. The sewing cannot yet be shown since it is ready to be unveiled later this week. It is the result of the colour challenge which I organised for NWCQ. I shall post photos after Thursday.

The biggest change over the past few days is that we are now a two dog household. Can I introduce Sasha. She joined Ella in our house just a week ago and has been settling in well. She was a rescue and is around three years old. As you can see she is a similar size and weight to Ella who is a Husky-Akita cross. Sasha appears to be an Akita-Alsatian cross.

Rosamund

My waistcoat is nearing completion. I am just knitting around the border at the moment. The plastic safety pins are showing the positioning of the buttonholes which will be made in a few more rows time. With 712 stitches on my circular needles this is proving to be a bit of a marathon. The pattern asks for a long knitted strip rather than a knitted on border. However, this will work better with my remaining yarn. As you can see I have only knitted two rows of the navy and am continuing with the turquoise. I have just about enough of the navy left to do a final row and also the cast off.

I have also been involved with an exhibition. You can see photos of the stand here.

Quilting, knitting and enjoying the countryside

Completed shawl neck cabled jumper

Well, since my last post there has been a completed project - this cabled jumper. The pattern dates from 1989 and the yarn has languished in my stash for rather too long. There wasn't quite enough, hence the decision to add the brown for the shawl collar. The two yarns are the same make and vintage, luckily. The jumper is really cosy to wear too.

Taking up an abandoned project

I started this one back in 2011, so it has been hiding away in my knitting bag for far too long. I had completed the back and half of one front when I got bored with it. Now I am half way up the second front. It will be a sleeveless waistcoat. The pattern is from the Rowan Classic 4ply designs for men and women. The designs are by Martin Storey and the yarn used is no longer available - it is Rowan's Cashsoft 4ply. An unusual purchase for me since I very rarely buy the wool suggested by a knitting pattern. The colours chosen are my own and not that used in the original pattern. The design is called Rosamund.

Close up of some of the pattern

I've also been out walking too. My long suffering dog Ella by my side.She loves the walks, but hates the idea of being the subject of photographs.

Walkies

Hence the look on her furry face.

My long suffering companion

We had stopped by the river, opposite the weir shown in the photo above. It is a lovely spot with a bench. Perfect for a short stop to sit and admire the scenery.

I have no photos of the quilting as yet. Not any that I can share. The project is the result of a challenge and it needs to be completed before being shared with the NWCQ group. I wrote about it here.

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