2013 August (second half)

 

Wind The Bobbin Up

Apologies to anyone who has had kids, or worked with kids in the last 30 years - that song has now probably wormed its way into your head and will stay there for hours!

But it's what I was singing to myself as I prepared a few embroidery machine bobbins for the tasks ahead

Why so many?

Well this bunch of school jumpers was delivered (some of the mums don't like the generic ones, so they buy Marks & Spencers' jumpers and get me to do the school logo)

And this load of tops was delivered to have a transport company's logo stitched to each one

I'll see you on the other side

Bag Ladies of Chertsey

I taught a fab class last night at Chertsey Museum, part of their series of Wine and Craft nights:  titled Bling up a Bag, or sometimes Tart up a Tote, The ladies brought friends and wine, the museum provided the bags and nibbles, and I brought felt, fabric, bondaweb, buttons, embroidery threads, cute stuff, rubber stamps, and other stuff . . . and we had a great evening

Just look what they made (individual pics on the Fun With Fabric blog)

We've got three more classes booked:
25 October (Animal pin cushion, based on Plum's chicken, thank you Plum),
15 November card making,
and
29 November Creating Cushions (again)

fancy joining us?

While I'm Working

I'm plodding though what looks like a thousand jumpers, poloshirts and sweatshirts - a great way to fund my fabric habit, but very boring to blog about.

So instead, I thought I'd share some more Quilts from the Festitval of Quilts last week.  These are together as they respresent pictures.  As before, the pics in the mosaic, and other pictures are on the 'Private Use' page.  Click [here] for the link, or use the tab above

Basting and Binding

While the embroidery machine is chuntering away I have little to do, but cant really get distracted by another project

You can see from this photo that the parts of the polo shirt that have been pushed away are just waiting for me to pay attention to another project so they can flop down and get included in the embroidery

But after basting a few quilts over a coffee break, I managed to quilt around the flowers on this little quilt while the other machine was embroidering, and then quickly add the binding to the front before I started the next shirt

 And then the same again with this one

 
Then in the evening Shawshank Redemption was on TV, a crazily long movie, but one of my favourites, so I settled down with glasses and needle and thread and hand stitched binding on this

and this  

Yay two finishes!!!!!

(really chuffed with the scrappy binding on the Oakshott Triangles)

Button Box

Following my button picture post, I had some comments about buttons - did I have many left?

Well this *was* my button collection

And then a friend gave me two boxes from her late father 

So I sorted these (I only keep the ones that lay flat, not the ones with a shaft, does anyone want them?) and now my jars look like this 

They look lovely on the window sill with the light shining through, but there are quite a lot now!  Maybe just as well I'm teaching button pictures soon!

Wordsworth Wednesday

As a treat for getting through 50 or so polo shirts (another dozen or so to go) I decided to work on one of the outstanding Star of Africa blocks.

Veena wanted a flower that represents our country, and black and white fabric bordering the flower.  I know daffodils are Wales' national flower, but with Wordsworth's Wondering lonely as a cloud 

And then my heart with pleasure fills, 

 And dances with the daffodils.

and Daffs being my favourite flower, I decided to use them

To tie it more to the UK I used some London themed fabric (although all the Images are also seen in Windsor) for the case, and finished it off with this lovely "how to sew a cushion" fabric.  Hope Veena likes it!

Holiday Memories

I have finally got round to planning my holiday memories wall hanging.

I am using the Bargello style of patchwork, (inspired by Eldrid's northern lights wall hanging) but needed to know how to get the curve, so I practised with paper.

I made the horizontal strips

Then cross cut and tried to arrange them.  I was doing OK until Quilt Inspector #2 came to help

Thanks Scratchy, just make yourself comfortable why don't you?

Finally she got bored and let me finish my paper quilt

Now to do the real thing!

Chertsey Kids

I had a great day yesterday with a lovely bunch of girls at Chertsey Museum: aged 5 to 15 they all had great ideas about what to make

Individual photos here

And my favourite creation, and mosaic pics below

Picture Postcard and Plagiarised Poetry

I'm still catching up with the overdue Star Of Africa blocks: Leanne asked for a block representing a postcard: I already had in mind what I wanted to make for her, but needed to find the postcard that matched it (not necessarily the conventional way, but it worked)

So I was delighted when I found this postcard

with swans, the castle, and bearskin guards, it ties in perfectly with this embroidered block

Hope Leanne likes it

Best Friend, oh Bestie,

How do you love me?

Let me count the ways *

(I apologise to poetry lovers everywhere for that awful mutilation of a lovely romantic poem)

Actually, I'm not sure I can count how much Jackie loves me - she loves me enough to sizzix all these hexies for me.  She has sorted and cut and trimmed and then posted them to me so I can get on with the Yellow Hexi quilt

Love you Jackie x x x

* "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways..." by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

Quick Quilting

As you may know, I'm a patchworker far more than I'm a quilter: I tend to go for minimal, in-the-ditch quilting if I have to do anything, and even then I shoot off the edges, or fall out of the ditch far more often than I'm happy with. Part of my reluctance is that I don't want to spend more time on this quilt: I want to get on with the next one!

 However, this top needed to be quilted

 

So I pulled on my big girl pants, and quilted free range echo lines either side of the zigzagged seams.   I didn't worry about going straight exactly to the seam and turning, instead I curved around it, and that made it much easier and much quicker

And I used grey top and bottom, so the curves showed on the back of the quilt too

I'm rather chuffed with this

I then machine stitched grey Spraytime border (one of my favourite go-to fabric ranges) and this is now in the rather monstrous pile waiting to have the binding hand stitched to the back

Scrappy Sunday

I finally finished the machine embroidery on Sunday, and also managed a bit more quilting.  This scrappy Fractured string quilt was asking for a concentric quilting pattern, but I didn't feel up to circular quilting,

So I went for a more angular design, quilting concentrically about an inch apart

It look ages, but I think it's worth it.  Yellow binding then got stitched to the front, and the whole lot is now in the waiting-for-cooler-weather pile: it *almost* doesn't count as a UFO any longer!!!!

Northern Nights

I'm starting to run low on sewing time as school starts up in less than a week and my to do list is a bit long, but I have been working on the holiday memories quilt

So far so good, I'm now trying to turn the corner, this is the work on progress photo of the next section, the bumps are where I need to resew as the angles were too steep

Unsewing :-(

I decided the northern lights design wasn't doing it for me, so this is the result of today's time in the sewing room

The expanse of sky is now strips of sky

Pah!  Good night 

How Many Hexies?

Over the last few evenings I've tacked and whip stitched about 200 three quarter inch hexies.  I have sewn them together in strips, and when I've sewn the strips together it will look like this

This isn't even half the full project as once the centre is filled in I'm adding borders in solid colours that match the dotty fabrics - a few more years' TV project me thinks.

At least it's growing - rather than the darn Northern Lights project which got unsewn yesterday and has been staring accusingly at me all day today, I need to do a lot of rethinking to get the effect I want

Bag Distraction

I need to put some more time between me and the Northern Lights quilt, so today I worked on a bag I'm making for a friend's 50th at the end of September

Jane (just two days younger than me!) works for a local habi / fabric / curtain shop as a curtain consultant.  She is an amazing knitter, and knitted this awesome meetcat for my birthday last year!

She recently mentioned a bag she had fallen in love with. This bag, made by one of her colleagues, sits in the window of the shop, so I went and had a good look through the glass, and took this photo

Jane specifically commented on the colours and the flying geese ("tiny triangles").  My first concern was the flying geese: I'm not very good with sewing on the bias, and then I realised I couldn't make an exact copy as I could only find one FQ of the beach hut fabric and none of the seagulls, so I added a solid to the mix and changed things around a bit

One side of the outside

I decided to have a go at the flying geese, Issabella has inspired me to have a go even if they are a bit blunt beaked: her project looks awesome

Inside there are 4 big pockets

I feel the frustration of the Northern Lights problem slowly ebbing away

Zipperdy Do Dah Zipperty Ay

I'm trying to get into the habit of using up fabrics that are left over from a project: either cutting into 2.5 inch strips, or on a little project.  So I had a play with the scraps of the Beach Bag project.  I used a large piece of the wooden planks for the front

And joined the smaller scraps with some of the solid for the back

Did you see what I did for the front?  Did you?  (back to the first photo) It's a first for me, and it worked better than I thought, I'm not very good at following instructions so I kind of made it up as I went along.

Have you worked it out yet?

I fitted a zip!!!!!!!!!!!!

So here it is zipped

And here unzipped.  I lined it with planks on the inside back, and there is more of the solid inside front.

The lovely Fiona at CelticThistle blog has a New To Me link party each month: I don't normally join in as I tend to repeat rather than try new things, but I'm linking my zippy bag as it's my very first zip, ever!!
 

I couldn't get my head around hiding the raw edges (as I usually try and do in bags), so I've just zigzagged them, but I'm quite chuffed with what I've achieved.

2013 August (first half)

 

Buttons and Beaches

Having returned from Ireland on Monday, I drove to the New Fiorest on Tuesday night  to meet up with girlfriends for a couple of days 

We chatted and ate and chatted and drank!  We went to the beach

And I started a button embroidery hoop wall hanging

And I did some work on the yellow hexies too, but I'll take a photo tomorrow 

Map Fabric with May

I recently joined a texty fabric swap with May, and although I haven't used many of the charms I received, I'm still loving looking at and fondling them (you understand don't you), so when she invited people to join a Map fabric swap I couldn't resist!

So I've just bought some of this

to be cut into layer cake squares (10 inch squares) as my contribution to the swap. 

There are still places left, so visit the Flickr groupto see the details, and to join

Holiday Hexies

Both in Ireland, and in the New Forest I did some more work on the yellow Hexie quilt, I'm a bit worried there may not be enough yellow! 

The centre is being stitched in strips, I've worked out a suitable distribution of colours and positions and am referring to " the list " for each strip 

Then I had a brainwave, and I've written the position on the back of each coloured hexi so I know how  many to add to each side

Miscellaneous Monday

I finally got my C&G PTTLLLS certificates today, I'm now actually a qualified ( post 16) teacher,

who'd 'a thunk it???

In other achievements, I bound the Lilac Jelly Roll Race 

Found some empty boxes 

That I can rebuild inside out

To make great project boxes,

And had all this cut off 

Leaving me looking (for the first time in a year) slightly maintained!

A respectable list of achievements me thinks!

Triangle Tuesday

When May came to visit a few weeks ago, she very kindly brought me this awesome Oakshott stack.  I've fondled, and drooled, and thought, and today I decided to cut into it

I pressed all the fabrics, trimmed them, and cut them into a 2.5 inch strip and a 6 inch strip

The 6 inch strips then got cut into 6 inch triangles

(just look at those yummy colours)



















and the triangles got sewn into strips and the strips got sewn onto a fleece blanket, and this is what I have

 

I  now have a shopping list for some more Oakshott for a border, and I have the 2.5inch strips to join to make a scrappy binding

I wanted to blitz through this one as I know I don't like HSTs and I wasn't sure that triangles would be much better, but I knew I wanted to use this fabric as triangles - I was worried that if I put it to one side I may never come back to it.  

The verdict?  I LOVE the top because of the colours, I'm really pleased that I went with triangles, although I know that plenty of points don't match (darned bias edges) and I strongly suspect there wont be many more triangle quilts in my future!

Busy with Bags

I remembered today that last time I went to Festival of Quilts I decided I needed a decent size shopping bag, but didn't have one.

Not that I'm one to leave things to the last minute, but I started one last night and finished it today.  

It will usually be used this way, but is reversible 

I had a bit of time left, so made one for Lisa too, she chose the fabric and design last tine I saw her at home:

And again it's reversible, with an inside pocket:

Now I need to go and shop to fill mine!!!

Successful Shopping

Day one at Festival of Quilts: brain dead, feet knackered, not much impulse shopping, but I managed to get more  yellow for yellow hexi quilt, and solids to match the dotty fabrics, so I can add borders to make it bigger

And I got some Oakshott to border the triangles quilt, and fabric for two bag projects

And Jackie got me this lovely sewing themed mug!

:-) thank you Jackie 

Shopping Show and Tell

Well I was quite restrained on day 1 at Festival of Quilts, but not quite so retrained on day 2!

I bought this lovely pack of Liberty fabric from the lovely Yvonne at Village Fabrics: I already had one pack (thank you Jackie), and now there is enough for a bigger, um, something.  I also got some more charms for my sewing bracelet, and Jackie got me a replacement for my broken purple thang

I got a few replacement perspex sheets for Jackie's big shot (I felt I should as I've given her loads of fabric to Sizzix for me!) and got some fabric glue from the ladies at Apliquick which is much softer than prittstick.  I also got another thermofax screen: a spool of thread to go with the scissors I bought last time

I have been collecting red and stone linen for a while and have finally decided to make a log cabin, but had a glut of stone rather than red.

 

 So when I saw these I had to get them

But then I saw these too, and somehow they slipped into the shopping basket too, I think I feel a bag coming in these

I popped in to see the lovely ladies at the Button Company (at Eternal Maker - I gather the shop was a bit empty this week!) and got bits for bags as well as buttons and felt

And then I got some more wooden spools just because

 That covered nearly all of my shopping list plus just a few extras.  

The outstanding items were some paper piecing templates: triangles and hexies in both 1¼ and 2 inches, but no one seemed to have them.  I could cope, as I'd found them online from America, but that would include $22 shipping!

Jackie and I had arranged to meet for a final coffee at 4pm - on her way to the meeting place she passed Hannah's Room . . . with an almost hidden stash of EPP templates, so she dragged me back and I got all 4 packs for about half the price of getting them shipped from the states

Private Pictures

Some Quilt Festivals ask that any photos taken are for private use only: as this blog is more a record for me, and doesn't have a very high readership anyway I'm going to hope it's OK to post a few mosaics here of some of the quilt photos I took at Festival of Quilts.  The original photos are being loaded to the Private Use tab (see above)

These first quilts are mini quilts, generally 8 or 10 inches high.  To give you a point of reference, the wooden 'pole' they are hanging from is 1cm diameter!

 The winning quilt was a whole cloth - again remember that the pole is 1cm!!!

Stars On Sunday

Yesterday I finally got started on some of the outstanding Star Of Africa Bee blocks.

Cindy was Queen Bee for April, and wanted bright blocks (think of the brights in a box of crayons.) on a background of white  Our blocks will be added to a rainbow coloured Around The World top, and our positions have been allocated!

She wanted the block to represent our home, and to show our name and our location.  My home is the most boring looking home imaginable, so I decided to make the block  show my life instead

My family

My sewing

My church

And my school / work

Tomorrow I will put them all together to follow the colours Cindy is using in her quilt

Tuesday's Tree

I've been working on a button tree as a sample for a class later in the year, and have finally finished it.  All ready to be hung on the wall

Holiday Wallhanging

The lovely Fiona and I have become friends through the Star of Africa bee that we are both in, and she has given me a little bit of a much needed kick to get one with a particular project: She has invited people to join her Holiday Memories - Mini Quilt competition

She has arranged judges, prizes and even a button

And given that I had the holiday of a lifetime this year, and have already planned the quilt and bought the fabric . . . I think I need to sign up!

Oh, and I need to make the wall hanging too, I've ordered some more dark fabrics and once they arrive I'll get going

Oooh, oooh, Ooops

I've joined May's Map Fabric swap, so I HAD to buy some map fabric

I got this map of Paris from Fabric Rehab,

And they offered flat rate posting so it was rude not to sneak in anything else

. . .  so I got some of one or two others!

No, no ideas what I'm using them for!