Sewing and more stitching

November Journal Quilt - the last piece of the map.

December Journal Quilt - a repeat of the boot to finish off.

The last couple of weeks have seen me busily sewing. I have completed my Journal Quilts for this year and now you can finally see all twelve of the little quilts shown together as intended. The theme, as I have mentioned before was "Journeys", which I took from another group which has used this a their theme for the year - NWCQ. The Journal Quilts were a challenge from Contemporary Quilt - each little quilt is 8 inches square. The map pieces all show the area where I take my dog Ella for her walks each morning, which also explains the walking boots being part of the design. Ella loves going for rides in the car too, and sometimes we take her further afield for a walk, hence the car. The aeroplane celebrates a trip to Prague taking an exhibition of quilts across for the Patchwork meeting. This took place in April.

The materials used have been: silk sheets printed with photographs and designs of my own based on car tyres and the tread of the walking boots; dye catchers which have been accidentally dyed when used in my washing machine - I have quite a collection; my own printed and painted fabrics; sheer fabrics and the wristband I wore during the Prague exhibition; finally, free machine quilting, and some hand stitching. Some details have also been drawn onto the quilts using permanent marker and coloured pencils.

All twelve Journal Quilts shown together.

I also made a couple of little bags for friends. These were made from my stash of Liberty lawn fabrics and have a spring clip fastening. 

Small presents for friends.

The little bag linings.

I also got the December challenge for the Sky's the Limit group finished on time. For me, this year, it has been quite an achievement to get this posted and finished on time. I do intend to be less last minute in 2015. Wish me luck in this resolve.........

The December challenge for Sky's the Limit, was "Painted Face". So many different ideas went whizzing round my head, so that, in the end, I borrowed my younger daughters beautiful masquerade masks. I just love them.

The Scaramouche mask.

Catto

My own version was rather simplified using silk and satin scraps on a black linen background. The gold fabric has been bondawebbed in place since it was far too fragile to stitch in place. The rest of the fabric has been satin stitched. The background has been free machine quilted imitating the swirly patterns of the masks. Yes, I was very good and returned the masks quickly to their owner.

Skys the Limit December Challenge - Painted Face.

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.

Knitting and stitching.

Completed cardigan

 The cardigan has now been finished and put away ready for wearing at some stage. It was really quite a fast knit, only taking ten days to complete.

Journal Quilt for May

Other items completed this week include the May journal quilt for the CQ challenge. I have also started the June quilt, but will post that when it is complete. This still continues the theme of journeys. This time showing an aircraft flying over a map of Prague. The map has been printed onto a sheet of silk. The purple band is the one I had to wear when attending the 8th Patchwork Meeting in Prague some weeks ago.

The Sky's the Limit challenge for May also got completed, but missed the deadline by a couple of days since I just couldn't complete the stitching in time. The back is still just pinned......

Sky's the limit quilt - Filling in the Blancs.

Just to share the appalling joke - the background shows Mont Blanc with a blancmange to teh left, a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc to the centre and the French entrance to the Mont Blanc tunnel on the right with a line of cars entering and leaving. The theme this time was "Filling in the Blancs". You can see other quilts on this theme on the website.

A busy time - sewing and such

Frosted ground from my garden.

It was quite a shock to realise that a month had passed since I last posted anything on my Blog. It has been really busy here. I organised the Contemporary Quilt stand at the recent Creative Stitches and Hobbycrafts Show at Event City in Manchester. That was really enjoyable, especially being able to chat to others interested in textiles.

"Contrast" - for Sky's the Limit group

I have also been sewing - this is the piece I made for the February theme from the Sky's the Limit group. The design was taken from some work I did on Notan whilst on a workshop back in September 2011. I couldn't see how to use the ideas at the time. It does take me rather a long time to work out how to use something. Do go and have a look at all the other pieces shown on the group's Blog.

January journal quilt - Journeys 1 Walking boot.

This is the finished journal quilt. I had shown the beginnings of it in my last post. I added sheer fabric and net under the drawing of the boot just to add a bit of colour. The boot has been hand stitched.

February journal quilt - Journeys 2 Walking with Ella. 

Again, I showed you the start of this piece last time too. The background fabric is a collection of dye catchers sewn together with a free machine stitched map drawn over the top. This shows a  little of the area where I go for walks with Ella. The landscape round here has a number of these electricity pylons looking as if they are striding across the land like giants.

The salt mine, River Weaver.

The river was so still this morning and there was such a bright blue sky, I really just had to record this image. This is a pile of salt stockpiled ready for next winter.

Tree felled by the recent bad weather.

Sadly, we have lost a number of trees round here due to the very high winds. This particular tree fell across one of the paths through a copse. For a few days I found myself having to clamber round the fallen tree. Now the tree has been chopped into pieces. I just loved the colours of the wood inside the bark.

Spring is on the way - new lambs.

Another sight on my way home with Ella. Two newborn lambs snuggling together and enjoying the sunshine.

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.