2011 September (2)

 

 of sewing

Nothing too fancy, just a bit of mindless sewing, interspersed with cutting and pressing:

These blocks will become a cuddle blanket for the living room (I've been collecting dark reds for ages, and now that I'm cutting into them it occurs to me I may have too many!!!)

And these pink and greens have been half square triangles for ages, but are finally being assembled into pinwheels ready for the school's next 'Pink Day' raffle, raising money for the local breast cancer unit

Hope you all had a good weekend

2011 September (1)

 

A lovely Wednesday

I had a great time with Lisa in Greenwich yesterday.

I did some shopping (I love Greenwich market!)

She showed me some making

(aren't they sweet!  And the pupil has surpassed the teacher - look at the tiny stitches, and the improvised beak, sigh!  I taught her all I know!!!!)

And I did some hand quilting on the train

What more can I ask?

And a lovely Thursday

Today I went shopping with Niki.

We started with a Starbucks - hot chocolate with LOTS of cream!

We bought far too much staff (daren't show it here in case 'he' pops in to have a look!) but tops, trousers, shoes, bras . . . in our defence, mostly from Primark, so negligible costs!

We then came home to find Mr Postie had delivered these great storage boxes: ideal for lesson planning, so I know all the samples and printed sheets are together for the next group

And these from Jaycotts - brother embroidery threads, a new hoop, a stitch ripper (where do they go?) and a cant-leave-the-blade-out rotary cutter for classes

I also got the first Goodie swap mug rug finished, including hand quilting and binding.  One more mug rug and two 'goodies' to go, but I've got three weeks, so even I should be OK!

And what have I done today?

Mum drove up from Portsmouth today, and we had a lovely morning in the garden in the sun (was this our summer?)  We then collected Lisa and, difficult to believe I know, we went shopping!

(I'm amazed the credit cards haven't been cancelled, or gone up in a puff of smoke over the last three days)

Our main objective today was to buy wool for mum to knit Lisa a jumper.  My presence was required purely for the payment side of it all!  Golly knitting wool is expensive.  Gone are the days when it was cheaper to knit than to buy, but I guess the same is true of making patchwork quilts: they are certainly far cheaper in a number of high street shops.

Still we managed to get some lovely wool: we picked up eight balls of this, and the shop is getting in another 8 to be picked up tomorrow

Beautiful summer day

We live in an area which is two villages within a few square miles.  Maybe once upon a time (both churches date back over 800 years) they were separate, but now it is difficult to tell where one ends and the other starts unless you are local.

Each village has a Summer Fair, one in June, one in July, and the larger village also holds a Garden party in early September: arranged by the church, and held in the gardens of the closest thing we have to a Lord Of the Manor (tongue in cheek, he would laugh if he read that!)

Anyway I got no sewing done today as I spent the day at the Garden Party on one of the church stalls, selling Mocktails.  for the 4th year running we have had the most marvelous weather, and the fancy dress and the children's races and the other activities have gone off without a hitch, and my First Aid responsibilities were not put to the test (phew)

So i just thought I'd show you a photo of the Garden Party in full swing,

and of our stall area after we have taken down the gazebo etc - aren't the hedges amazing!

One giggle I wanted to share with you: My friend Sharon's daughter Katie is 26 or so, and a mum, but 15 years ago she regularly came to our  Sunday School.  I saw her today and we had a lovely chat - suddenly she said "you'll never guess, I'm starting sewing lessons in a few weeks"  I then realised she was signed up for the Adult & Community lessons I am teaching on Wednesdays . . . we shrieked with delight and did a huggy sort of dance . . . and then realised we were being watched by her mum and dad and brother and son, and my husband and daughter, and another couple of hundred people - I don't care, LOL, I am so happy that (a) someone has signed up, and (b) I'll know someone there!  And it helps that Katie is LOVELY!!!!

Some gifts in the pipeline

A few days ago I started thinking about some kids I wanted to make presents for.  I'm meeting up with their mum, Hadley, and she is a crafty lady, so I hope I have found some things that are new for them.  I am writing this post in advance of our meeting, but wont post it until Sunday as I don't want her to see before we meet up! (Think I need a pic of a Dr Who type tardis here, as this feels a bit like time travel!)

Hadley is a newcomer to patchwork, but has achieved loads in the last year or so, and is very highly thought of in blogging and patchworking circles.  She writes a very entertaining blog with the bizarre name of Flying Blind On A Rocket Cycle, and she's also very generous with her time and her comments. . . and I am going to meet her, real life, in person :-)

More about our meeting later, more about some gifts now!

I was blog surfing the other day, and found Southern Disposition - a great blog that was new to me.  I'd got to her via Ikea Hacker, and I stayed for ages.  She introduced me to Betsy McCall paper dolls.  These were issued in the 1950s to compliment the McCall girls' dress patterns, and are now available (of course) on the net.  I did some flaffing around to economise on paper, and then printed a few dolls and a whole load of dresses onto magnetic paper and cut them out.

I showed them to Niki to see what she thought and she exclaimed "I remember these" as she reached for them.  In fact the ones that she and Lisa had about 15 years ago were possibly not as good; they certainly had fewer dresses!!!  Hadley had twin daughters aged 4 and I hope that these will be ideal

Anyway, I have cut out one page of dresses, and two dolls

  

and there are more for the kids to cut out themselves (maybe with help from mum)

 

I had a great time with these.  Mum, I'm thinking of a set for India for Christmas, what do you reckon?

I also did a little machine embroidery for a scarf for their brother - so depressing to be embroidering on a fleece scarf this time of year :-(

Real Life Vs Virtual Life!

What a great day!

Hadley and I 'met' in the virtual world towards the end of last year thanks to Annabel Serendipity (how are you sweetie?) but finally met today in real life.  Despite the pouring rain, we had a great time: we explored a county house-cum-museum, loved the embroidery and textile exhibition that was on there, and (surprise surprise) managed to do our bit to help the British economy by buying a few bits and pieces!

We both totally forgot to use our camera's while we were there, so I have no photographic evidence, bt we did meet and we did have fun!

Hadley made me (and beautifully wrapped)  a lovely felt brouch that perfectly matched my top

and I bought some felted, um, things, and some dyed silk (sooo soft) and some silk thread which I will use to do some hand quilting on the textures quilt (as I think mum has the DMC thread that I bought on Friday at the wool shop!)

For the sake of those of you who regularly read both our blogs, I shall try not to duplicate too much, as you can (and should) read about the day here from Hadley's point of view, but I must share the most amazing coincidence . . .

(Hello Sem, if you have come to visit)

Last Wednesday I went to Greenwich - Lisa and I mooched around the market and the independent arty and crafty shops that border it, and got drawn into an art shop by a drunkard's path quilt that was hanging there.  It was a lovely quilt made of lots of different fabrics, mostly in shades of subtle yellows, all sewn together by hand, with lots of curved seams.  

Now fast forward to today

Hadley and I got ourselves a cuppa and a slice of (very yummy) cake, and asked to join a lady at a table with spare seats.  She asked if we were patchworkers, as she was a weaver, but had ventured into patchworking recently.  (Hello, Sem, hope I got the name right) 

We had a lovely long chat, during which time it transpired that she was from Greenwich.  I started to tell her about the lovely yellow quilt Lisa and I had seen there, when I realised that her recent venture into patchwork . . .[yes I know, you are already there, but I was a bit slower,] was THE drunkard's path that we'd seen.  

After that realisation I went into talk-and-talk-and-talk mode to prevent my brain making too many connections - Lisa and I have a terrible tendancy to be critical of other people's work, but we had come away with ony one negative thought last week - The quilt was for sale, but what were the chances of anyone who had just the right room for it, and the right money for it,  actually seeing it in this tiny little art shop?  We felt sorry for the quilter who had made it.  It really was a lovely quilt, and the curves were all perfect, and the pattern was subtle . . . and our sympathy was misplaced as Sem has sold it!

Sem I hope you do get in touch, I'd love to meet up again next time I'm in Greenwich!

And a final apology to anyone who can spell . . . I cant, and spell check is ignoring me, so sorry for any errors!

10 minutes here, 15 minutes there. . .

10 minutes here, 15 minutes there . . . does add up to some sewing and embroidery!

I did these embroideries for a customer, for her son and his fiance's wedding.

I made these scissor tags for the Mug Rug swap goodies

And this is the starting of a mug rug for a partner who likes autumn shades: hope she likes it

Brief Post - lots of photos!

We've just got back from a  great weekend in Paris - Versailles in fact.

Not much sight seeing, but we get to see Notra Dame (this was a favourite movie when the girls were younger!)

And the Palace of Versailles, although we didn't have time to go inside

The priority was to attend this girl's graduation! 

Our lovely Slavka (see her for the Romantic Story and how she was brought back into our family) was there for her Graduation: receiving her Open University Masters Degree

The weather was fantastic (29c, blue skies and sunshine) what we saw of the Palace of Versailles was amazing, and the ceremony was perfect: fun, but acknowledging the hard work all the students had put in, and long enough to feel it wasn't rushed, and short enough not to get boring.

Slavka and Scott

After the ceremony we gave her the quilt I'd made her, and then we went for a lovely meal

Slavka with Petra, and her Mum, Anna

Slavka, Anna and Lucia (who came to our friends as an Au Pair 16 years ago, when Slavka came to us)

Terri (Brian's sister), Scott and I

Most of today was spent travelling - four separate train journeys - but I managed to get the quilting finished on the Mug Rug, and now I'm ready for bed!!!

The hand quilting on the mug rug

And a photo of me and him, in our Sunday Best!!!!

I'm still here!

Not got much sewing done, but yesterday I did join The Richmond and Kew quilters for a talk by Sara Impey who created one of the quilts in the V&A Quilt exhibition last year.

This is a photo of the V&A quilt (photo taken from the book: I did get told off at the V&A for taking a photo of this quilt, but I cant find that photo)

Sara gave a really interesting talk on how she makes these, and how they evolve.  The V&A quilt was make on one piece of fabric, using different coloured threads ( these letters are the unsewn areas)

I have an idea to do something like this to look like an old fashioned telegram - but as ancient as I feel, I cant quite remember what telegrams looked like, so I will need to do some research, sometime when I have some free time!

Sara has gone on to do others where the letters are the stitched areas

Then onto colour blocks (she has a great sense of humour) like a paint chart

 

 And then free hand writing

I went to the R&KQ Group with Plum, and had a lovely tea and chat at hers first -  I love this cushion that she embroidered!

I received this lovely leaf postcard from Sue W (left) and sent her a dressmaker's dummy very similar to the one on the right

Time for bed now, night night 

The Texture Quilt is FINISHED!!!

At long last (nearly 12 months mother tells me) the texture quilt has been finished.  The last of the binding, and the burying of the thread ends, and the snipping all got done tonight in front of the TV (four episodes of The Big Bang Theory) and IT IS DONE!!!

For those who have been with me on this epic journey, you can just congratulate me on finally finishing it, and skip the rest of the post, but for anyone who wants to know - here follows the evolution of the idea of the quilt, and details of each block.

Mum has friends, Geoff and Hilary, who asked her to help with some ideas on redecorating.  Hilary is blind and mum thought therefore that texture was important as well as appearance.  I had seen some textured blogs on a few blogs and thought a texture quilt would be fun to do..  In fact thinking of the 24 blocks has been challenging, and changing my mind from Quilt as you Go to conventional quilting half way through was maybe foolish (!) but I got there eventually.

So here it is

(sorry, rubbish photo - will try and do better at the weekend!)

And here is each block (from top left)

Twisted pin tucks

Machine embroidered squares with textured fill

Pinwheel centre with inset log cabin border

Giant rik rak, in woven pattern

Ripped cotton strips

Folder Prairie Points

"Hilary's Texture Quilt " written in font and in braille.  Machine embroidered, and unknowingly checked by Hilary - I asked her to check the work Texture for a project I was doing!

Folded Log Cabin block - very fabric hungry, mega thanks to Jackie for the extra!

Trapunto block. The flower is raised, and the outside is flattened with free motion quilting

Whole cloth block, quilted at 45 degrees

A spiral in a rope design, machine embroidered

A heart of antique buttons (mostly donated by Mum and Hilary's friend Fenner's mum, thanks Jane)

White on white fabric conventional log cabin block, with silk cross stitch embellishment

One inch squares in 'postage stamp' block.  Quilted diagonally

Folded Flying Geese block

Traditional English Pieced (over paper) hexagons in Grandmother's Flowers arrangement appliqued onto calico

Pin tucks smocked into a honeycomb design

Labrador puppy, machine embroidered

Celtic knot.  Fusible binding, hand stitched

Labrador: machine applique using fleece

Strips of Lace and Beads

Raw edge applique

Suffolk Punches (also known as yoyos) donated by Avril (thank you Avril!)

Folded panel

Phew - that's it, all done, 

Good Night!