2018 Wk 18 - end of a holiday

The EPP Ferris wheel I showed earlier was one of a couple of sewing projects I took on holiday to Lanzarote this last ten days.  The Ferris wheel went as far as it could go with the fabric that I brought, but I had a standby project too

I made this sweet sixteener before I went, and make sure I had the right colour threads to quilt it.  Lots of stitches (and holes in the tip of my middle finger - I forgot a thimble) later it now looks like this

And the back looks like this

I didn't do much shopping - but what joy: I bought a linen dress and it came in a pretty fabric bag make from recycles sari fabric:  Shopping, pretty bag and recycling - a combination that made me very happy

And a rubbish pic of a window in another shop - I just loved the colours!

2018 Wk 17 - time to sew

Oh the joy of hours and hours with nothing to do - except cut, tack, and stitch 🙂


And then with a bit more time I added some more low volume pieces

Happy me

2018 Wk 16 a crafty weekend

Mum and I had a glass bead lesson on Saturday - melting the glass to make beads and then making jewellery from the beads we made - great fun - and no one got burnt!!

Mum, in action:

 And our creations:

I was sent these awesome pics by Graniger’s grandma - he seems to love his taggie!!!  Isn’t he a  cutie!!!


And I have been doing some sewing - the yummy mini charms that Jackie sent me are on the way to becoming this -

2018 Wk 15 - bunting and EPP

One of our church wardens turned 70 today: others in the congregation arranged a card, gift and cake . . . I arranged bunting


And later at M-i-L’s, I worked on this:  I’m coming near to finishing this I-spy hexies and triangles


Just another 32 triangles and it’s a flimsy!!!

My Farmer’s Wife (handyman’s wife) block 7 is getting closer to being finished


And I treated myself to a new trolley to store my hand sewing in the sitting room - easy to reach everything and to push it out of the way when necessary

2018 Wk 15 - chocolate and creating

Do you know that feeling when you need a hug from your BFF but she’s too far away.  Well the best alternative is an unexpected squishy containing a paper hug AND a zippy pouch, AND fabric AND chocolate!  Love you Jackie xxx


In the afternoon I was teaching at a Chertsey Museum - a little out of my comfort zone!  Mixed media notebook decorating!  We used wooden and card shapes as well as fabric shapes, ribbons, buttons and lace.  They were all stuck down and then painted black with gesso.  Once that was dry it was over painted with a metallic paint (red, purple or turquoise) and finally some elements were highlighted using silver, pewter or gold wax.

Some stage photos: such a dramatic difference between stage 1 and stage 3
  
And some comparison photos showing how much difference the wax makes
 

And finally the other creations



A good day eh?

2018 Wk 14 - Easter Weekend - 3

Today I have spent a lovely day pressing, cutting, speed dating, sewing, pressing, sewing . . . And made this


It’s called a Fortyniner quilt.  I started with three 7x7 squares, and then cut two of them into triangles.  The binding will be the same turquoise as the diamond. Quilting and trimming are needed before the binding but for once I have actually made exactly what I bought the fabric for!

There was a lot of speeding dating / auditioning - I do sometimes wonder if I overthink these things!,
  

In an ideal world I would have been in Ireland this weekend  - on "reatreat" at Jackie’s, but the flights over Easter were so expensive so we both sat at home and sewed alone - sharing in-progress photos

She made these two baby quilts


And finished this incredible crochet


Hope you had a good Easter xx

2018 Wk 14 - Easter Weekend #2

With the prospect of at least a couple of days of sewing ahead I, of course, started a new project!  A girl can’t have too many UFOs right.

Jackie sent me the templates for the Ferris Wheel mini quilt.  I’ve changed the order of the colours a bit, and then sorted up the right fabric from my “two-and-a-half-inch-squares-sorted-by-colour” box


I got slightly distracted by my interchange blocks needing trimming (and ordering some heat’n’bond lite so I can make some more). I treated myself to a 4” square - you’ve got to have the right tools for the job haven’t you!


Then I sat and watched Shrek and started on the Ferris Wheel - happy me :-).
We are going on holiday later this month so this will be my travel sewing project

2018 Wk 14 - Easter Weekend #1

We’ve had a few rubbish days but we are getting through them, and a bit of sewing time is always good therapy.

Day 1 of the Easter weekend saw me completing the next 1/4 of a Farmer’s Wife (or in my case a Handyman’s Wife) block: yes this block is moving ahead very slowly!
 

It also saw a name (or three) being embroidered on a quilt for this little munchkin:


(The new grandma is a clown hence the noses!). She, the baby, is called Saga, like the Norse legends, so although I added her name the conventional way


I also added it in Viking Runes and to look like Viking runes - I had fun!


Just need to stitch on the binding then it can go off in the post


And the rubbish part? We had to bid farewell to this old sea dog, my father, who has sailed off into the sunset on a solo adventure. He went peacefully, in his sleep, with a good friend by his side after a lifetime of fun and adventure and love, and a lovely nurse looking after him - can any of us ask for more?

2018 Wk 11 - Gillian Travis appliqué

I spent most to the day at a workshop arranged by Richmond and Kew quilters.  It was run by Gillian Travis (http://gilliantravis.co.uk/) who does a lot of repeated applique blocks where blocks are made in twins on light on dark and dark on light.

Simply put, a square of bondaweb is ironed onto a square of batik.  A shape is cut out of the batik, and both the shape and the square missing the shape are placed on, and bondawebbed to, contrasting squares.  Gillian has done vases, mittens, sweaters, pomegranates, pears: all sorts of shapes.
Many of the ladies used a fab array of colours, but I stuck to two colours, 4 different fabrics (all provided by the lovely Plum)


I really enjoyed this part of the class.   Next I need to trim all the blocks to exactly 4” square, and arrange them on backing fabrics butting up to each other, and zigzagged together.   The next bit will be much harder!!

I will be dropping the feed dogs and free motioning around the shapes.  I have 20 blocks so far, each pair of twins representing something from my life - I will make some more as I think of other things, but this could be procrastination to put off the day when I have to start the free motion sewing!!

2018 Wk 11 - Almost Snowing Again

It isn't really snowing again - it's just that I am working on a very old Christmas snowy quilt!  Plum reminded me of it earlier this month - We met through being members of then Yahoo BQL (British Quilt Lovers) group, and back in 2011 I offered to embroider BQL badges for the ladies who were going to Festival of Quilts.  They offered to pay but I asked for green scraps for a scrappy quilt I wanted to make.

I got the scraps and started the quilt but it then stalled.  It was last blogged about in 2014 when the tree was shown plonked on the sky fabric

At some stage since then the tree and the sky were joined but nothing further.

Today it has moved forward to this


The details don't photograph too well, but the star above the tree and the candle flames have been embroidered with a glow . . . in glow in the dark thread!


The top of the snow glistens with a glitter fabric attached on a gentle curve

and snow drifts have been topped with more sparkle

It's still a bit tall and thin but it's doing much better than it has for the last 4 years!

2018 Wk 10 - two quilts!

Quilt 1
After the previous disaster with June's quilt I have now made a replacement. Amo suggested a way to salvage the original which I will do, but for now June's replacement is ready to go to Texas, and with the right name!

Quilt 2
I was inspired, many months ago, by a quilt I saw in a fabric shop in quaint village called Grayshott.

My version was planned last August

but never got stitched until this weekend.  I considered the lines of quilting in the white sections, to make it look as if they were pieced, but didn't feel the love.  I rummaged in the quilting threads box and found threads that were close to the colours in the fabrics

and I quilted and quilted and quilted - something like 130 yards of quilting, all triple / bean stitch, and I'm really pleased with the result

I just need to find suitable fabric for the binding

We've had  few days of the country going into panic mode - Brits can go through a World War or two with nothing defeating their spirit, and have shown terrorists that our best comes out in times of disaster - but a few inches of snow has achieved the results that the terrorists planned and hoped for! The country shut down!  Schools were closed, flights were cancelled, people panic bought at the shops that were open.  Niki was flying back from Budapest: the flight was delayed not due to the two foot of snow there, but the two inches of snow here!

Another casualty of the weather was Niki and Lisa's front door.  They could not get it open!  Their home insurance comes with an emergency call out service - but the operators couldn't get to the call centre so they were no help at all.  so . . . Daddy to the rescue

It was the only way in!  He did manage to remove the lock and fix it so at least he could leave by the front door rather than the kitchen window!

And finally, Janet from Crafty Church has created another "Horton Hug".  Completed blankets are appearing in church and then being taken to a good home - to someone who needs a hug!  I love the colours on this one

The snow has now gone, the weekend has nearly gone, and this blog post is done!  Hope you had  good weekend