The new, the old, and some plans.

Well, this was the sky as I packed the car to go to Hartford Quilters on Wednesday evening. The heavens opened after I had arrived, thankfully. The Hearts and Flowers Hug did not get wet. Why the name "Hug"? Well, don't we all need a cuddle at times?



Here it is, the project which has kept me really busy over the past few weeks. The white hearts and flowers have messages of support in them for Denise, whose quilt this now is. Positive and brightly cheerful, she is undergoing Chemo at the moment and we all wish her well.



The back shows a little of the echo quilting used round each of the flowers and hearts.

There is a bag too, an over the shoulder quilted bag to contain the quilt. I used the pieces left over from the main quilt. Still holding the quilt, it can be used as a pillow if the weather is just too hot to take the quilt out to use. There is enough spare space to hold a good book, or even a few magazines.

Denise was pleased with her new quilt and happily took it home with her.

It has been a really interesting week. First, I heard this podcast from Sister Diane at Crafty Pod. At first it really annoyed me, but then I began to understand exactly why it was making me so cross. The topic was planning ahead for Blogs and Podcasts. It took me a while, and quite a bit of soul searching to realise that, yes, I could really learn something from the ideas shared in the programme.

I must explain, that for some time I have been a little unhappy with this Blog. It is not as good as I would like it to be, but I have not been able to move forward and do anything about it. I don't have the knowledge. Being on a budget, I really don't want to spend money on lessons to learn either......

However, perhaps you can help. Just send me a message with ideas on how to improve this site. Perhaps letting me know what you would like to know more about, and see more about here. I shall try to get myself organised and incorporate some of these in the near future.

Still prevaricating.

I have been doing far too much reading of websites, Blogs and the like just recently. There is so much fun to be found. Here is one I read regularly. RicRac. This is such a charming post from a really beautifully written Blog.

This last week, I have found it really difficult to get started on any new projects. There is just so much going round my head at the moment. I really don't know where to start!

Theres an admission!

Now that I have said it, I know what I need to do. As Alison Lee puts it so succinctly "Get your butt in the chair". Now she is one lady I really ought to listen to. After all she has so much experience in making beautiful things for a living.

Well, lets get down to what I really must get on with:

First, my page for the Traveling Pages. I haven't started March yet. Ooops! In my own defence, I do know exactly what I am doing for this, I just haven't got around to getting on with it. I am still not entirely sure what techniques to use................

Second, getting on with my knitted tunic top. Well, that at least is still moving. I got into a muddle with where I was on the front, so have abandoned that for the present and have started on the back. That may sound completely mad, but since the front and back are identical almost to the shoulder, I should be able to discover where I have gone wrong on the front.

Third, mum's quilt. I still have not started this. However, during my holiday I ended up getting some rather interesting ideas which I am slowly working on. No further information for the moment in case one of my daughters, or my mum just happens to read this...................

Fourth, altering a skirt I bought last week. Well, I may end up altering two skirts. I bought them in a sale and they are both rather too big around the waist and hips.

Fifth, reading. I am steadily reading my backlog of magazines. I have even finished reading two from this month! This makes a change, since I am usually at least three months behind. I also have a mountain of books waiting to be read. They are climbing the wall in my bedroom at the moment.

Talking of books, I bought two on Saturday. There was a sale in WH Smiths of certain titles. All the books were in a rummage box. Well, I could not resist. I found these two books there:

Simon Henry's "The Little Black Dress".

This book looks really interesting and should teach me all I need to know to make Liz's wedding dress. (My daughter is getting married in September next year.) It is written like a dressmaking course, but in book form. There is so much about dressmaking that I still don't fully understand. Hopefully the knowledge will help me to make a decent dress for Liz. I intend to get on and follow the exercises written up at the start of the book. Wish me luck, I may need it. Oh, and avoid my house while I'm doing this...................

"Katrin Cargill's Curtain Bible".

Now this is something I have been wishing for. I have made curtains in the past, but my ideas are the usual boring and straight-forward ones. This book has some rather nifty ideas which I can actually see myself using in this house. There is a rather awkward round window downstairs which I have never been able to do anything with. A nice bright blind could be rather nice..........

Why is it that whenever I give myself time to sit and think there are more projects I wish to get on with?

My younger daughter now has my beloved sewing machine so that she can get on with some projects she is intending to make for sale. I have my old sewing machine back. (Shown above.) It is good for sewing clothing, but I cannot do any Free Machine Embroidery on it. Shall I buy another machine? Rosie cannot afford to buy herself one.............. Now is this why I feel so lost?

Too many questions and far too much prevarication. I must take myself in hand and get something started. Felix has just jumped onto my shoulder, so I think he agrees. Either that, or he is warming his chilly paws.

Getting there

I'm still not tidy, but some stitching is being done.



This is how "Tree" is getting along. There has been a lot of free machine embroidery in two different variegated threads. Here is a detail:



You can see the madness a little better from the back view:



I shall be using FME to add some "Leaves" using these scraps. I really am not sure how this will all work out, but the process is interesting.



The size of this piece is 9 and a half inches (approximately) by 14 and a half inches (aproximately). The edges have not been tidied, hence the approximate sizes. I think I shall leave the edges just as they are. This will probably end up as a hanging.

This week, I have been looking around on the internet and thought you might like to share this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_wgE74Mro4

I really want to have a go with Trapunto and Patsy Thompson really makes it sound do-able.

This is her website address.

http://patsythompsondesigns.com/

Inspirational!

Well, after that, my own work looks really tame. Never mind, I shall keep on plodding away. After all, the more I do, the more I can improve. This paraphrases something which Nadine of Dreamweavers Quilts always adds to the end of her posts:

"Go quilt! Your work gets better every day!"

She is right.

I have also been listening to podcasts as I tried to get my workroom into some kind of order. One quote which really made me feel more positive about myself was this:

"Don't be afraid to walk away if its time."

I heard this in an interview Paul Overton had with SisterDianne on the Craftypod podcast. The interview is well worth a listen. The topic is "Crafting for money v. passion."

As you can tell, I have been doing far too much web browsing and too little work on my stitching. I must try to get the balance better organised this next week.

Speak to you again soon, Mandy:)

More knitting.

Well, I am busy learning new skills at the moment. Its scary to think that I have been knitting on and off for over 40 years now (actually its 46 years!), but I am still keen to try anything new. Well, new to me........

So I have knitted my very first pair of fingerless gloves. I've wanted a pair of these for ages, but not seen one until a podcast mentioned Knitty..............

The pattern is the excellent "Fetching" by Cheryl Niamath from Knitty, Summer 2006. I have used the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, which is gorgeous to knit with.

And I have started my very first pair of socks.

The pattern I have decided to use was sent to me by Charles of the "Stitchstud and his bride" podcast. Sadly, Blogger doesn't like this photo, so I shall tell you about it instead. Charles was very kind to send me a copy of his knitting tutorial, "Design your own toe up socks" after I responded to one of his podcasts. Since the instructions were so clear, I decided to follow this instead of a patterned pair of socks. Because the pattern I am following is plain, it should show the patterning of the yarn to perfection.

This is where the learning new tricks comes in. To start the first of this pair of socks, I have had to learn Judy's Magic Cast On. It took me three attempts to get this far, but then perhaps I have been stuck using the same cast on technique for rather too long.................. I must admit that I started using my usual way of casting on when I got fed up of waiting for my grandmother to help me to start yet another project. She was really clever, my wonderful grandma. I'm now certain she knew that if she kept me waiting just long enough, I would be able to work it all out for myself............

The yarn I am using is Cotton Surf Color by Regia. The actual colour is rather more of a subtle orange than shown in the photo and is so soft to knit with. A delightful surprise, since I ordered the yarn through the internet - I usually like to handle yarn before buying, but couldn't find anything suitable in my local shops.

Since starting to put this Blog entry together, and taking the photo, I have managed to get to the 16th round of my socks. This is so much fun. I love watching the pattern the yarn makes emerging under my fingers.

Hello again.

Still busy, but managing to get some knitting done. I completed the back of my tunic yesterday.

I have just started the front, and was starting the first lace row after the garter stitch border. whilst waiting for Blogger to upload my photos. The tunic is sitting on the top of my shirt quilt.

Since I last posted I have made another piece of felt. This was made using bubble-wrap rather than the more traditional rolling. This was because I used a range of bits and pieces, not all of which were wool.

The following photo is a close-up of the "top". It shows some of the bits and pieces I used - some really curly Wensleydale fleece (amazing stuff!), metallic rayon yarn scraps, and some threads.

The last photo shows the "back".

This was the last piece I made at the Textiles course. I am not sure what I shall do with next. We are supposed to be adding stitching, but I still haven't made up my mind. The felt now hangs from the message board, waiting for inspiration.

I must completely mad, but I have joined up with the "Elizabeth's-year" group started by Kelley of the Knit Picks podcast. This should be an interesting challenge, since we shall all be knitting pieces designed by Elizabeth Zimmermann. I must admit that before I heard Kelley's podcast I had never heard of Elizabeth Zimmermann. We are starting with a shawl. I have to wait a little longer since I have ordered the books I need from Amazon.com and they will not get here until later this month. Then I shall have the fun of sorting out suitable yarns.

Knitting

I must be mad, but I've started knitting again..........

I found myself listening to a really interesting podcast by a male knitter from Australia:

http://www.sticksandstring.com.au/

Its well worth a listen.

Unfortunately, I have now got back into knitting once more. For me knitting is addictive, once I start I cannot stop until I run out of wool or finish the project.

I do have one knitting UFO (UnFinished Object). This was started a couple of years ago. Its a Jaegar pattern called "Hattie" and should have been a cardigan rather a long time ago. The yarn is Jaegar Trinity in a shade I would call light jade.

I got bored, so didn't finish it. I got to half way up the right front, having completed the back and left front. One day I shall get back to it.

I don't know what I am knitting at the moment, at present it is a collection of 4" squares which I shall probably knit or crotchet together to make either a scarf or a shawl. I'm making it up as I go along......... The yarn is the polyester yarn shown at the top, alongside some of the completed squares.

One thing that has got me really thinking is the idea of going green - using more ecologically sensitive yarns, threads and the like. This was the topic of one part of David's podcast (http://www.sticksandstring.com.au/) today. Neither of the yarns I have could be called green. One is polyester and the Jaegar Trinity uses silk, cotton and polyamide! I think I have rather a long way to go before I can consider myself truly green.

Discovering podcasts.

I've had quite an interesting time today. Stitching feverishly to get a piece finished in time to send off, I was able to listen to a couple of podcasts.
Looking through a number of Blogs, I found a mention of this podcast -
http://www.craftcast.com/
Its an American podcast, and well worth a listen. The interviewee was Celie Fago who works with polymer and precious metal clays.
Searching around, I found another podcast -
http://www.theillustrativedesigner.com/
Again, this comes from America. It seems to be intended for artists rather than craft enthusiasts. However the speaker, Stefan Bucher, was fascinating to listen to.
To most of you I will sound really rather behind the times. I had heard of podcasts, but never listened to one. It will be interesting to find out about other podcasts there are which might be out there - to do with textiles. Any suggestions?

I shall post photographs of the work another time - I need to show it to the recipients first!