2022 March

Gingers are usually cheerul and happy, but  that was totally inappropriate for the shocking events that have happened this month, so I made this sad Ginger holding a Ukraine sunflower.  I'm not making them for sale but I have made a donation to the Red Cross appeal

On a more cheerful nore, the very talented Janine blogged about keeping a Book of Days - projects that grab your attention.  They are entered in the book as a safe place to keep ideas, they may never be made but they have been recorded.  My art skills are not up to hers and I tend to use Pinterest for ideas I want to keep, but she did inspire me to make a log of everything I have started to make and really should finish one day!

Be kind about my drawings - they are rubbish, but they are enough to remind me of each project, and that's all I need.  As I type this I realised there are still more to go in the book, but this gives you an idea!

I really do need to finish something before I start something else!  My plan is to cut off the top right corner if each project as I finish it so I can have a visual pat on the back for actually finishing something!!!

Not in the book, because it's crochet not sewing, is the Fall Shawl V2.  By mid March I got back to the size when I'd had to frog it 

And now, it's 99% finished (about 6 ends to sew in).  It's about 2m wide on the longest side so very difficult to photograph

It's lovely to wear, and I'm loving the "picot triangles" on the edge: I totally failed to grasp the instructions but with long distance help from Jackie and Amo I bodged a wiggly edge and am more than happy!

I went and set up the village hall early for Stitch and Crafty Church this month so I could speed date these 'covered corner' blocks in peace and privacy.  My thought was that I could do it at Crafty Church but I needed 8 tables which is all we have, and it's Lisa's birthday pressie so it's better if she doesn't see it!

Talking of birthdays - this glass panel was Brian's birthday pressie from the girls and I, I love it!

I made this Ginger for a friend,

And lots of these for Mothering Sunday at Church

However life then changed based on one of these (well two actually as husband had a matching one!)

So - jobs that had been put off for years no longer had any excuse to be put off any longer!  New kitchen cupboard doors and worksurfaces are due in April to transform this

So cupboards came down and walls and ceilings were painted

Cupboards cleaned

Patio tidied

And the fabric matched and cut

And half way to being a Chemo Comforter requested by a colleague of Niki's

But an opps!  

Do not proceed if you have any affilliation with the Quilt Police!

I cant believe when planning this block  I never considered seam allowance

How stupid is this!!!  How many years have I been patchworking????

It's simply too late to do anything about this - I think've used ten packs of FQ!!! I can't start again -  All I can say is I hope Lisa loves it despite the gaps!  (Plum I need to re-write the instructions!!!!!)

PS - and blogger spell checks seems to have gone on holiday, so aplogies for any spelling mistakes!

2018 Wk 22 Old Men and New Babies

I'm taking part in the Untangled Thread art project commemorating the end of WW1.  The pin cushions are based on an original design which was used at occupational therapy for wounded solders and they made something they could send to their mum or their sweetheart. 

We don't know much about Brian's granddad, but we know a Henry Channer was enlisted in 1916, and we know Granddad was known as Harry.  He married Rose in 1923, so it may have been him, so I (with help from Lisa and Niki) stuck a couple of hundred pins through the same number of beads to make this

We have had a spate of babies amongst neighbours and friends: A neighbour who used to babysit our girls when they were little has moved back in a few doors away from her mum and dad, and had baby William

Another neighbour has become a Grandmother to baby Amelia Rose.  I just need to finish the binding on these and I can deliver them

And Jackie has become a Granny again with baby Leah (but her quilt is being delivered in ten days so I'm not showing it here yet!)

My old boss and friend Dalwyn starts his new career as a Methodist minister in the autumn and I was delighted to be asked to make a stole for him.  Just in the draft stage at the moment but the stained glass rainbows have been posted to him to look at - does he want near solid or solid colours

And does he prefer hand stitched binding or twin needle stitched on the sewing machine?

My step mum sent me a memory box from my father's belongings:

I remember the hat - or one like it - he always wore one when he was sailing

Brian was really happy with the plane (bottom right)

A whole set of nautical flags will look great as bunting in the garden - really cheerful!

 Some photos of him, and of me from childhood

And my favourite of all - lots of photos of the girls that I have sent him over the years - all had been propped up on book shelves or stuck on walls!

2011 July (1)

Too busy to blog!

I have been busy making stuff, and busy being lead down dead ends trying to revive the SLIKstitches blog.  The making has been fun, trying to get to communicate with someone at blogger reminds me of the saying "the impossible I can do at once, miracles take a little longer!

Anyway, enough whinging - I've mostly been working on blocks for the texture quilt, just 4 more to go, then I need to work out how to arrange them.  Here are some photos

Suffolk punches from A at Stitching Science (thank you A)

Not sure if this is smocking or pleating, but it seems to be called honeycomb smocking

This block is four squares of corduroy with the nap in four different directions

This is a very loose woven fabric given to me

This one is ripped fabrics with some extra threads pulled out.  The strip is made by alternating back and front of the fabric

and finally a pleated one where I have stitched the pleats down so there is a twist

Where did the mojo go?

I still haven't really got my blogging mojo back: I really would rather be blogging at SLIKstitches, but still blogger ignore my communication attempts, so I have no idea what to do next :-(

I'm having a generally bleugh day anyway, as school have finally told me that although they have the funding, they are not going to extend my Extended Schools Co-Ordinator contract, so that leaves me with just three hours a week from September, so for the first time in about (gulp) 25 years I am actually looking at the vacancies section of the local papers.  Until now I've been lucky enough to hear about a job that I wanted - at a time that I was ready to work those hours - and get it, so this is a whole new ball game!

Anyways, enough of the whinging ... I HAVE been sewing!  I have pieced together some 8" squares to make an I-Spy quilt, just to have for when it's needed:

I have also taken this fairly simple flimsy,

and with the help of my little template

have turned it into this yummy Whirly Gig or Square Dance flimsey.

Annoyingly I did type out 90% of the instructions about a month ago ... and saved them on the old blog, but I think I can copy and paste so if you want them just let me know.

I have also been doing some lesson planning for Fun With Fabrics next weekend: The ladies asked for Stained Glass, and I had three methods in mind, so I have done samples using two methods and am half way through the third.  I chose owls for the image, and wondered how best to display them

When I next checked in at Hadley's blog (Flying Blind On A Rocket Cycle ... What does that mean?) I got inspiration, so here are two of my owls, just waiting for for number three.  (Pink is created using the cut-away method, and Yellow is made using the fusible bias binding method.  Red hasn't fully hatched yet, but will be made with the mosaic, or needle turn method)

Instructions are available if you are interested

something pretty

Lisa suggested I sew something pretty, just because!

I picked up this jelly roll from Fabric Freedom (Aunt Grace, Circle of Friends, SOOOO pretty! It reminds me of summer dresses from childhood) and pulled out some white to go with it.

Did I want to do nine patch blocks?

Or scatter the patterned squares randomly amongst the white?

I started stitching each strip to white, and then had a brain wave.  I cut 8" off each pair, then stitched the remainder together.  At one end I added the patterned to the white to make an 8" strip of patterned / white  /patterned which I cut off, then I added the white to the other end (making white / patterned / white) so i made enough for two nine patches and left enough for 6 or 7  white / patterned pairs. (Makes sense to me anyway!)

 

Yes Mum, I know I'm supposed to do Hilary's textures first, but I needed some therapy!  I've had to stop with the circle of friends because I ran out of white fabric, so I did this one for Hilary: woven strips.

I think it's just a few more to go, so I think log cabin (maybe uneven log cabin? and maybe ticker tape (raw edge applique)

I'm also doing some liberated sizteen patch for Block Lotto, so I'll show those when they are done.

9 patches and Block Lotto

I have done ten blocks for the July Block Lotto.  I loved doing the blocks (each pair is done together, and one is the opposite of the other) but the ironing was a pain.

 

Having not done enough squares for the day (!) I then made up a whole load of nine patches.  Lots more summery fabrics waiting to be used as soon as I get a chance to go the the shops