Avoiding the Log Cabin Candle Tree
I have been adopting the suggestion of 15 minutes of play while I am avoiding the Christmas Tree quilt (is this another frog?).
The idea of 15 minutes is just to have fun with no pressure: so for me, whether it is designing on the computer, or stitching a simple embroidery design, or ripping up some more denim... I get my fabric fix and then I can get on with the boring stuff!!!
At home I have been creating other blocks to go with the 18 or so Raw Edge Applique Christmas Trees : just need to decide how best to join them - any ideas?
And at after school club I have getting into Zentangles (and the kids have been doing them too!). Avril gave me the idea as she was doing embroidery that reminded me of Zentangles I don't think I'll progress to the embroidery, but while looking after a room full of monkeys (oops, I mean children) I can doodle :-)
Don't know what I'll do with them though
The idea of 15 minutes is just to have fun with no pressure: so for me, whether it is designing on the computer, or stitching a simple embroidery design, or ripping up some more denim... I get my fabric fix and then I can get on with the boring stuff!!!
At home I have been creating other blocks to go with the 18 or so Raw Edge Applique Christmas Trees : just need to decide how best to join them - any ideas?
And at after school club I have getting into Zentangles (and the kids have been doing them too!). Avril gave me the idea as she was doing embroidery that reminded me of Zentangles I don't think I'll progress to the embroidery, but while looking after a room full of monkeys (oops, I mean children) I can doodle :-)
Don't know what I'll do with them though
Post Card Swaps
I've been making Christmas decorations today (but haven't finished trimming, so no photos yet).
I've received my Home postcard swap from Pam K in Utah, USA, made with card, fabric, feathers, beads, photo, text, embroidery silks ... phew - I'm exhausted just thinking about all the work!!!
Thanks Pam :-)
I also received two of the BQL Windows postcards (from Pauline C and Annette in UK) I love the very different thoughts that have been the inspiration for these cards
I've received my Home postcard swap from Pam K in Utah, USA, made with card, fabric, feathers, beads, photo, text, embroidery silks ... phew - I'm exhausted just thinking about all the work!!!
Thanks Pam :-)
I also received two of the BQL Windows postcards (from Pauline C and Annette in UK) I love the very different thoughts that have been the inspiration for these cards
I won an award!
Teje and her gorgeous Alsatian, Nero, have awarded me a Beautiful Blogger Award... They cant see me blogging in my pyjamas, with my hair unbrushed, but I think even if they could, it's OK as the award is aimed at the blog, not the blogger!Thank you Teje and Nero
There is a condition to accepting the award - that I have to post 10 things that you didn't know about me. I see the blog really to keep mum and Jackie (my patchwork twin, but she doesn't blog) up to date with what I'm working on, and there isn't much they don't know. However I have some other lovely people who also come and visit my blog and leave comments so maybe the 10 things are more for you guys ... anyway here goes:
- I was born in Norway, but lived in UK since I was two-and-a-half
- My Mum, Dad and Brother all live in a different country to where they were brought up: I live within 15 miles of where I was brought up
- My blog is called SLIKstitches as my brother's wife had their first baby at the same time as I got an embroidery machine, and they signed their emailed S (my brother's initial) L (his wife, Lisa) I (their daughter's initial) and K (for Kodi the dog!)
- My mum doesn't patchwork but I learned all my sewing skills from her - she is an awesome dressmaker
- I was politely invited NOT to take sewing at school - so I did cooking instead - now I don't cook, but I do sew!
- in 2009 I offered a bed for the night to a total stranger, known only through a Yahoo group, and she is now my bested patchwork buddy and we have manage to meet twice last year and twice this year at patchwork shows even though this involves trains and planes. (Love you Jackie)
- My family all have assorted quilts that I have made them (mum, mother-in-law, daughters, cats, niece and nephew all have at least two quilts or blankets) , but we don't have one on our bed!
- I taught myself to patchwork, and although I have since attended classes, I still do things that are probably crimes to the quilt police
- My sewing room is tiny: 2.5m x 2.25m (with 1 square m taken up by a built in cupboard) but as British houses are generally small, I am lucky to have this space, and not to have to put things away every day
- I started patchworking 19 years ago when I was sent a quilt for oldest daughter - and I thought "I can do that" ... actually I couldn't then, but I can now!
(my first quilt, now used as my camp blanket!)Busy Day
As I have managed to get Thursdays as a not-employed day, I bounce from a packed Thursday (visiting mum, Lisa, or whoever) to a nothing-at-all-in-the-diary Thursday - and today was one of those!
I've upgraded two sets of blocks into flimsies,
I've got my BQL Secret Santa packages ready to go,
I've done one named fleece blanket, and the next one is on the machine
And baby Hobby's flimsy is as ready as it can be, just waiting for his name
And added later ...
Another three fleeces,
hot off the embroidery machine
and another flimsy (I think this one was started about 7 years ago, next stash splurge will see it becoming a charity quilt I think!)
And best of all, STILL no one else is home so I can have a go at stitching out India's rainbow that I've digitised :-) rather than thinking about dinner - yippee
I've upgraded two sets of blocks into flimsies,
I've got my BQL Secret Santa packages ready to go,
I've done one named fleece blanket, and the next one is on the machine
And baby Hobby's flimsy is as ready as it can be, just waiting for his name
And added later ...
Another three fleeces,
hot off the embroidery machineand another flimsy (I think this one was started about 7 years ago, next stash splurge will see it becoming a charity quilt I think!)
And best of all, STILL no one else is home so I can have a go at stitching out India's rainbow that I've digitised :-) rather than thinking about dinner - yippee
India's towel
S-I-L Lisa, is Australia has emailed me with a request: India starts kindergarten in Feb, and each child needs their own sheet (for nap time) and hand towel - it needs to be named, and the child needs to be able to identify it. Definitely an Auntie Benta job!!!
Indi asked for a princess for the towel, and I'm going to work on that after Christmas as it will take a bit of work, but she asked for a rainbow and her name for her sheets, and I worked on that last night.
This is just a first stitch out: some of the lines need to move so they meet the previous colour, but I hope she likes this! (Yellow is always disappointing in designs like this, but you cant have a rainbow without it, so I think the red outline ties it all together, and next time the violet/indigo/blue need to be more different
I also finished the Christmas Ornament for the swap that I'm doing - they were doing well until I realised I had to have a way for them to be attached to a tree ... so now the Santas have a bullet hole in the hat - not so good :-( But time has run out, so they are going in the post on Monday, bullet hole or not!
Indi asked for a princess for the towel, and I'm going to work on that after Christmas as it will take a bit of work, but she asked for a rainbow and her name for her sheets, and I worked on that last night.
This is just a first stitch out: some of the lines need to move so they meet the previous colour, but I hope she likes this! (Yellow is always disappointing in designs like this, but you cant have a rainbow without it, so I think the red outline ties it all together, and next time the violet/indigo/blue need to be more different
I also finished the Christmas Ornament for the swap that I'm doing - they were doing well until I realised I had to have a way for them to be attached to a tree ... so now the Santas have a bullet hole in the hat - not so good :-( But time has run out, so they are going in the post on Monday, bullet hole or not!
Working on the to-do-list (and getting distracted)
One of the items on the to-do list is a table runner for my uncle, Trygve, and his wife. They brought me the fabric when they visited in the summer, and as Christmas was ages away I put it to one side. Now, of course, Christmas isn't ages away, so I've had to get moving!
The fabric looked luscious in the stack from the fabric shop (but i forgot to take a photo) and looked pretty yummy after I'd cut it too
I'm making a stack and slash for a coffee table, and a table runner too.
Photos to follow
Meanwhile, I had bookmarked this fab little bag from Ayumills at Pink Penguin. She has given some great instructions, but I confess I simplified it a bit to make this zebra stripe bag.
It's a cute little bag anyway, but also has a cover: she describes it as a lunch bag, but I think it'll be great for bathroom stuff on an over night stay, or for taking hand sewing in the car, or for all sorts of treasures that need to go from A to B. I think a bigger version will make a great handbag too
So having made one ... I simplified the instructions further to make this Christmassy version for my BQL Secret Santa swap, and I have another 7 started on a production line!
Finally, I wanted to show you the postcards I received form Lisa this week: all hand embellished (she has the old sewing machine at Uni with her, but is worried that if she gets it out she may never get back to the essays she is supposed to write!)
Aren't they lovely
The fabric looked luscious in the stack from the fabric shop (but i forgot to take a photo) and looked pretty yummy after I'd cut it too
I'm making a stack and slash for a coffee table, and a table runner too.
Photos to follow
Meanwhile, I had bookmarked this fab little bag from Ayumills at Pink Penguin. She has given some great instructions, but I confess I simplified it a bit to make this zebra stripe bag.
It's a cute little bag anyway, but also has a cover: she describes it as a lunch bag, but I think it'll be great for bathroom stuff on an over night stay, or for taking hand sewing in the car, or for all sorts of treasures that need to go from A to B. I think a bigger version will make a great handbag too
So having made one ... I simplified the instructions further to make this Christmassy version for my BQL Secret Santa swap, and I have another 7 started on a production line!
Finally, I wanted to show you the postcards I received form Lisa this week: all hand embellished (she has the old sewing machine at Uni with her, but is worried that if she gets it out she may never get back to the essays she is supposed to write!)
Aren't they lovely
Back in August (!) I started a quilt for the autistic boy that we childminded. (Blogged about here) Things were up in the air for R: mum wasn't able to keep him, and Dad was living in a different borough who didn't have a school place for him, and the foster parents thought he was going, so accepted a new child ... so my boy has been boarding at school all week, and with dad at weekends, while we waited for dad to move back to this borough so he could stay at his special school (following all this?)
Anyway, this quilt was meant to be a goodbye quilt, but he might be coming back to us, so I decided it needed to become a Christmas present, which meant it needed to be finished!
"Spiral Learning" is a memory boosting technique which is really good for children like R: asking questions and talking about what has happened helps various connection in the brain, so this quilt is all about memories: it includes a motorway sign, the family pets, our names, and favorite activities (counting planes, feeding donkeys, riding a tricycle, spotting bridges, listening to the washing machine etc)
I hope he likes it when we get it to him.
Yesterday we drove to Portsmouth to see my mum: Brian drove and I sewed, and got 80 4 inch squares stitched together in pairs for Trygve's table runner. Today they got ironed (and photographed), so I can get on with them tonight.
I also got a photo of some of the stack and slash blocks
Anyway, this quilt was meant to be a goodbye quilt, but he might be coming back to us, so I decided it needed to become a Christmas present, which meant it needed to be finished!
"Spiral Learning" is a memory boosting technique which is really good for children like R: asking questions and talking about what has happened helps various connection in the brain, so this quilt is all about memories: it includes a motorway sign, the family pets, our names, and favorite activities (counting planes, feeding donkeys, riding a tricycle, spotting bridges, listening to the washing machine etc)
I hope he likes it when we get it to him.
Yesterday we drove to Portsmouth to see my mum: Brian drove and I sewed, and got 80 4 inch squares stitched together in pairs for Trygve's table runner. Today they got ironed (and photographed), so I can get on with them tonight.
I also got a photo of some of the stack and slash blocks
