Snowy New Year

Belatedly Happy New Year to everyone!  I hope you’re all keeping warm (or cool if you’re in the warmer areas of the world).  We have had some snow, enough to look pretty, but fortunately up to now we have not had the deluges that many have had.  However, I am not holding my breath as heavy snow is forecast for the weekend.  Up to now we have been living off the excesses of Christmas shopping but I will soon have to venture out to Sainsbury’s for a re-stock. 

Did you all have a good Christmas and New Year?  We spent time with my Mum here and then with her at my brother’s for New Year.  The photo above was taken off the telly hence it’s a bit blurry but I like the shapes of the London Eye pods, maybe there’s a quiltie in there somewhere?

I’ve finally got round to sorting my sewing space out a bit today and my sewing machine and embellisher are at least now in a position to be used.  My embellisher has been sadly neglected so I intend to put it to some use this year.  The Journal Quilt size for the Contemporary Quilt Group of the Quilter’s Guild has been announced this week and it’s 7” x 10” in a portrait format so I am thinking of working some of them with the embellisher.  I worked all of my quilts last year in portrait format out of choice so it will stretch me further now that I am obliged to work the same way this year. 

Lots of people have been talking about their ‘word’ for 2010 and the one thing that popped into my head was “Positive Mental Attitude” which I think will resonate through all areas of my life if I can only keep it up.  I am not very good at making and keeping resolutions but I did find it useful to remind myself of my ‘focus’ word last year.

Well, enough rambling.  My mojo is still on holiday and has left me with a grotty cough for company.  I have finally given in and booked to see the doctor tomorrow as I think it may have progressed to the realms of an infection.  We shall see.  I leave you with a glimpse of my DH exhausted by the New Year indulgences and telly watching! lol

Bless! (He said he knew my mum was taking this pic and was trying not to laugh!)

Santa’s pressies

Was Santa good to you?  I had a wonderful surprise on Christmas Day when I opened my presents from Dilly.  I was so delighted to find this excellent book by Kelli Perkins and two beautiful pieces of fabric.  Some time ago I received an envelope from Kelli when she was de-stashing so I was overwhelmed to receive this book from Dilly and Helena.   I have had a bit of a look through the book and Kelli has been very generous with her ideas.  It is a lovely book and will give me lots  ideas for mixed media projects.

Isn’t this batik stunning?

And this one!  I shall have to find a very special project for these beautiful fabrics.  Thank you so much Dilly :o) You are a very generous wagon and very thoughtful. xx

I am feeling a bit lacklustre at the moment and very disinclined to blog.  I’m sure it’s just the time of year and I’ll soon be back to normal.  Until then please forgive me for being rather brief.  Just in case I don’t get back to blog before the special day I wish you all a very Happy New Year with good health, wishes coming true, happy family days and lots of creativity.  If you have health worries that you are taking forward then I hope that you will find the strength and support to carry you through to renewed vigour.  Happy New Year and thank you for your friendly support this year.  I really appreciate everyone who takes the time to look in here. I am hurtling towards 600 posts so I will soon be offering a little gift (once I’ve finished it!). xx

Merry Christmas

Well, all the shopping is now done, presents wrapped and under the tree, the turkey’s thawing, DH is in the bath (probably snoring by now) the trifle is half made (Mum’s secret recipe, it will be getting custard on top, hope it’s got plenty of alcohol in!) and a bottle or two will soon be open.  How’s it going with you all?  I seem to have shopped endlessly and I’m sure there will still be things I wished I’d bought but it’s too late now, thank goodness.

We are having a very quiet Christmas Day, just DH, my Mum and me.  We had trouble getting Mum here because of the bad weather but my brother managed to fetch her on Monday, phew!  It has been very icy here over the last couple of days so last minute shopping and visiting has been curtailed.  It even took us quarter of an hour to get off our drive this morning as the wheels kept skidding.  A bag of salt did the trick plus a couple of mail sacks under the wheels.  It didn’t help that I kept falling about laughing every time a sack flew out from under the wheel as we did a wheel spin! (It was probably hysteria as we were rolling ever closer to my DH’s car!)

Anyway, enough rambling, I’m sure you’ve all got better things to do.   I’m very grateful to everyone who looks in here and leaves a comment (or doesn’t),  and I really appreciate all the friends I have made over the last two years.  Thank you all for your lovely friendship and your encouraging comments and advice.  Thank you too to all the people whose blogs I visit throughout the year, you are an inspiration to me.

Whatever you are doing this holiday I hope you have a really lovely Christmas Day.

Merry Christmas and Blessings of the Season!

Nellie's Needles

Go and have a look at this wonderful work that Nellie has produced for a hospital in Illinois. If you scroll down and click on the label for Prairie Flowers you can follow Nellie's journey and while you are visiting with Nellie have a look round, she has some inspiring work on her blog. I particularly like her Ort work and Crinkle Quilts. Maybe I will find time to try a little crinkle work myself over the holiday?

I’m back

This is one of those posts where you don’t know where to start because you’ve been quiet for so long! ;o)  I am still coughing, a bit, but not as much as I was, finally, thank goodness.  Ah, that’s better.  I’ve broken the ice. 

The project that I didn’t want to show just yet is now finished. Yay!!!  For a smallish piece it has taken me a long time to complete and I have been working on it over the last 2 weeks between all the coughing.  (Johnathan, if you should be reading this post could you bale out now, please, as I’m going to put a photo up. Good lad)

Has he gone yet?

Are you sure?

OK, so I’ll show you what I’ve been doing.

My nephew and his wife are having their first child in February and, although I had said I would never make a quilt again I really wanted to make one for this new member of the family.  The fabric is not pieced as you can probably tell.  It is made by Andover fabrics.

I wasn’t sure what design to use for quilting and eventually decided to use spirals and some wavy stitching (very technical terms!) with some little hearts.  When it came to the panel of flowers I followed the shapes of the flowers with the stitching.

Before I started on the quilt I practised on a sample first and was able to make this into a bucket bag.

Actually it doesn’t look quite like this now as I have lined it and turned the top over but you get the gist.  I am really pleased with the quilt and the bag and I couldn’t restrain myself from showing you all so I hope my nephew hasn’t looked in.  The quilt is just less than a metre square but I still found it quite strenuous quilting it on my little Janome.  Fortunately I found that I could use the extension table from my embellisher to support the quilt so that did make the job a bit easier.  Will I make another one?  Hmmm! Quite possibly as my friend’s daughter is expecting a baby in the summer next year and I would quite like to make her a quilt too.  Watch this space!

So, how many of you are snowed in this weekend?  We have been fairly lucky and just have about an inch of snow but it is freezing hard.  Hopefully we won’t get too much more.  It’s surprising how localised the snow has been in this part of the country.  If you pop across to my DH’s blog he has been posting a few photos of our town in the snow.  ( I stayed home and got my sewing room ready for my Mum who will be coming up for Christmas).   There will be more over the next couple of days, I’m sure.

Today brought me some exciting Christmassy post.

 

The very lovely Dilly sent me two parcels and they both arrived today.  The larger parcel has some very green bows on it.  Green is one of Dilly’s favourite colours. Well, she is a baby dwagon!  I am going to be very good and not open these till Christmas Day. Is that all right Dilly?

I’ve had 2 special cards today too

This very pretty card from Dilly and Helena, not forgetting Bob T Bear and his daddy.

And this lovely card from Carolyn, my very dear friend in St Ives Cornwall who is not too well at the moment.  Hurry up and get well Carolyn xx

I have a confession to make.  I have been so busy with trying to get my baby quilt finished in time for my brother to take it to my nephew this week that I haven’t found the time to make any Christmas cards for my many blogging friends.  I hope you will forgive me and know that I wish you all a very Happy Christmas.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to rush off and watch the final of Strictly Come Dancing.  I still can’t decide who I want to win.  See you soon!!

 

A Mixed Bag

I’m still coughing and sniffling and battling this wretched cold!  The most frustrating part is the rotten cough that starts up when I start talking.  Imagine!  The peace that my DH is enjoying because any extended conversation starts me off ;-)  I’ve had to cancel several visits to friends because I can’t stop coughing long enough to chat and the phone has been unusually quiet too.  Anybody want a cold? Going cheap?

Anyway, enough of moaning!  I have had two lovely treats through the post to cheer me up this week.

Recently Jacqueline was celebrating because she had passed 777 blogposts and then passed two exams so she had a giveaway and I was a lucky recipient.  This beautiful page above is layered and burnt through to echo the stitch marks and I love its golden colour. I am hoping to incorporate it into my flower book that I have yet to finish.  If you follow the link to Jacqueline’s blog take some time to have a look round.  She is a prolific artist and enjoys experimenting and exploring different surface textures.

 

My second gift in the post was from Lisa who blogs as Ivory Blush Roses.  This beautiful pincushion, which is far too delicate to use for pins, was a giveaway too and it is exquisite. 

If you follow the link to Lisa’s blog stay a while and have a look around.  Lisa does the most beautiful crazy patchwork which is delicate and very pretty and she has the most beautiful touch in the way she arranges her favourite things in her home.  She creates a very calm atmosphere both in her home and her blog. 

I’ve been making one or two more cuffs but they are quite different from the ones I made on holiday.

For all three cuffs I first wove silk ribbon which I then bondawebbed and machine stitched roughly onto black felt.  I think I should actually have just machined it onto a stabiliser as the felt combined with the ribbon made it quite thick to stitch.  For the cuff above I couched down sari wool (which was already wound into a yarn and which I bought in St Ives) and then added beads and finished with a felt lining and blanket stitch edging.

The cuff above has a fancy embellished ribbon stitched on with buttons and beads added.

I think this one is a bit ‘punk’ with heavier beads and shell beads added.  I also made another of the turquoise sea themed cuffs but I have sent it winging its way to a friend in Cornwall who wanted it for her Mum and I forgot to photograph it! Duh!

These cuffs will end up as little gifts for friends but I may just have one of those things………what are they called?  Oh yes! A Giveaway, but not till after Christmas.  Watch this space!

In between coughing fits I have been working on my project and have got on quite well, although the air has been very blue at times.  I told you I had said I was never going to do this ‘thing’ again didn’t I?  I’ve been doing an hour or two most days to spread the job out and it’s involved plenty of practice with free motion quilting.  I’m on another learning curve and thank god for quilting gloves, they are a great help.

Well, I hope you’re managing to stay cold free but if not keep warm and drink plenty, like me.  I should be going to the local Embroiderers’ Guild meeting on Saturday but I will wait and see how this cough goes.

Comments

Just to let you know I have changed my settings for comments and they should now come up in full page view. I was reading on someone's blog that there have been difficulties for some people where the comments box is embedded. I don't think mine was embedded but I thought I'd change it anyway as I know one or two people have had problems leaving comments here in the past. Let me know if you have any problems with the new set up. DH and I are both 'buggy' this week, coughs and colds, yuck! Work is continuing on the secret project in between the spluttering and sniffing and hopefully normal service will be restored in a few days.

Christmas must be nearly here, I've just heard Cliff Richard in the background on the radio in Coronation Street (Mistletoe and Wine)! Go Cliff!



This photo has been unashamedly borrowed from the internet but unfortunately I forget where from.

December Journal Quilt

Yes, I know it’s still just November but, ‘Dah da dah!’ I’ve finished my December Journal Quilt for the Contemporary Quilt Group. Woo hoo!

This was the stitch and flip curved piecing which I then topstitched using variegated threads, changing the thread to blend with the fabric as I went. The fabrics include my own hand-dyed and painted fabrics together with commercial batiks and cottons. I have to say I am really pleased with it and with myself for completing this challenge before the deadline. I really wanted to get December’s quilt done before everything started to get mad with the ‘C’ word.

The topstitched curves piece pictured below still needs cutting to size and binding but I have done the decorative quilting. I used the same arrangement of fabrics for both pieces.

I did think about stitching the two quilts together back to back but I chickened out! Bwck! Bwck! Bwck!

I have a couple of things I should have included here before.

When Carole sent me the fabric to make her stitched square for her bloggers’ quilt she also sent me this ATC made from vintage embroidery. Thank you Carole :)

I have made this little postcard for a lady I met at a workshop with Gina Ferrari down at Art and Stitch in Peterborough. Pat, who doesn’t blog, very kindly sent me some cyclamen leaves as she had seen the Journal Quilt I had done inspired by Gina’s embroidery workshop. This postcard is a little thank you to her .

I’ve already started my next little project but I’m not going to be able to show you it until much later as it’s a present and I think the recipient may look in here occasionally. Suffice to say it is something I said I wouldn’t do again so the air will probably be a little blue chez nous.

Hope you all have a good week despite any grotty weather that’s about.

A Bloggers’ Quilt

 

 

A few weeks ago Carole Brungar in New Zealand had the idea to make a quilt for herself and to ask her blogger friends to each contribute a square using fabric and thread provided by herself.  I’ve just had an email form Carole to tell me that my contribution has arrived so I can show you my square.  I was stumped at first for what to do, especially as I could only use the one thread that Carole had supplied,  but then I thought I’d do a little garden.  You can tell I’m not a true embroiderer as I don’t think there’s even a name for some of the stitches I’ve used but basically I played about with detached chain stitch.  If you pop over to Carole’s blog you can scroll down her sidebar and see all the squares she has received so far.  I’m looking forward to seeing Carole’s finished quilt and what a lovely reminder of people you have ‘met’ around the world! 

While you’re visiting with Carole have a look round her blog, it’s very varied and she has some beautiful work to share.

Harrogate K & S Show

Why are there not 48 hours in the day and the energy of a 5 year old to go with it? I went up to Harrogate on a coach yesterday and had a great day. Fortunately I had bought the catalogue in advance so I was able to plan my day before I went and it certainly helped to have a route round the exhibition planned in advance.

I have never taken time before to look into the amazing Royal Hall that serves as a refreshment venue at the Conference Centre so I had a peak in yesterday and was blown away by the beautiful building which has been restored recently.

I am sure there will be inspiration for future work in these images.

Unfortunately I don’t have any photos of the first exhibit that I really enjoyed by Louise Baldwin but if you follow the link you can see the type of work that she had on display. I was also particularly impressed by the work of Cindy Hickok and Tom Lundberg, neither of whom I knew before.

This embroidery by Cindy Hickok is entitled “Her Mother Told Her Not To Run With Scissors” and is typical of the quirky vein that runs through her work. It rang a particular bell with me as my Mum has always said the same thing :)

Next stop in my day was an enjoyable demonstration by Jan Beaney who I have never met before but she imparted a huge amount of knowledge and insight to her work in a very short 45 minutes.

Jan’s talk centred on the use of solvent supports for embroidery and the piece above has given me some ideas for the future. Mind you, I went rushing off to Barnyarns later in the day to get some Soluble Sticky and managed to buy the wrong stuff! Oh well, I will still find a use for it!

I managed to link up with Sandra for lunch which was lovely and then had to pack quite a lot into the last 2 hours before my coach left to return home.

I was pleased to be able to see “The Art of the Stitch” exhibition as I had not seen it on any of its previous outings.

Jane Kenyon’s work.

Rosie James’ work.

Pippa Caley “Twigs”

Pippa Caley Twigs detail. My photo does not do this work ( or probably the ones above either) justice as the light was not wonderful and my camera struggles a little. I’m hoping Santa might bring me a new one for Christmas (Hello DH are you listening? lol).

So what else? Oh yes, Alice Kettle of course. If you follow the link and click on New Proj. you will be able to see the work that was on display within Clay and Thread, a collaborative exhibition of work between Alice Kettle and Helen Felcey in Place Settings and Alice and Alex McErlain in Conversation Pieces. I particularly liked the combination of subtly coloured ceramics and the delicate stitching of Alice Kettle’s work.

My camera wouldn’t oblige me with a decent photograph of the Alex McErlain pieces but Alice’s website has some good images.

I had hoped to spend time watching the Artists in Action but when I got there there wasn’t much ‘action’ :o( I think they were mostly having a late lunch or working on their stands elsewhere. (Insert rude word of frustration here!) Never mind, next time.

Finally, I did manage to get most of the things on my shopping list.

There were a few other bits and bobs but they were just routine things like sewing machine needles and urea for dyeing. The books are a present from my DH who also cooked dinner when I got back. Bless!

Well, that is by no means all that was at the Show but I think I did quite well in the time allowed. Needless to say I am exhausted today and my body is reacting in its own wonderful way but it was worth it. I enjoyed the day and got lots of inspiration.

You may have noticed that I’ve got more photos than usual into this post. I’ve decided to give Live Writer a try and so far I’m impressed. It even allows me to save the post to my laptop so I will have a permanent record in case Blogger ever throws a wobbler.

Oops! Nearly forgot, here’s a photo for Sandra

Work in Progress

There is something addictive about these curves! Having said yesterday that I really liked the top-stitched curves I found a slight variation on stitching curves with stitch and flip and have really enjoyed doing just that today. It was in the book Stitching To Dye in Quilt Art by C June Barnes which I have on my bookshelf. I have to confess I've had this book for a while and haven't yet got round to reading it properly. You know what it's like, you buy the book, have a quick scan and drool over the pictures and then put it to one side for a moment when you have more time to really study it. Nine times out of ten that precious moment is a long time coming!

However, I digress! So far I have constructed the basis of a seascape above using stitch and flip and effectively quilting as I went as the fabrics above are stitched to wadding and a base cotton. I have used an assortment of commercial fabrics and batiks, hand dyed and painted fabrics. The curves went together easier than yesterday and my only/main niggle is that some of the areas look as if they are going uphill as I didn't angle the curves quite right.

Questions that occur to me are:



* Should I now add free machine quilting? Yes probably.

* What quilting pattern should I use? I think I will use a series of lines that suggest the movement of the water with a variegated thread. I would probably have to change this for the foreground which is supposed to suggest the beach.

* What about incorporating some layers on top eg lace, scrim, sheers, net?

* What about adding embellishments, beads, beach finds? Too early to decide at this stage I think.

* How do I include narrower strips next time? I have an idea but I will obviously have to keep working on that one.

I think I will have a go at the same design using predominantly the topstitched technique to see what that looks like. I have enjoyed myself so much yesterday and today that I am worried that I am catching the patchwork/quilting bug! These things creep up on you when you least expect it! Not so long ago I called myself a painter then I morphed into a mixed media artist only to find I was becoming a textile artist and now it appears quilting is slowly taking me over! I'm only taking little steps but they are taking me in a very unexpected direction ;o)

Curves

Thanks to some very generous blogging friends, you know who you are :o) , I have been having a play with stitching curves. Before I started I watched Alicia Merrett's videos on YouTube as Sandra suggested. This was a good introduction and demystified the process to the point where I felt ready to have a go.

Having said that, I did decide to start with the top-stitch curves as I thought they may be a little easier. Annabel had sent me some detailed instructions which walked me through the technique.

The main premise of this method is cutting the curve, turning the edge and stitching the curve down onto the next fabric after pinning. (Please ignore the top piece of orange fabric in the photo above, it shouldn't be there).

The beauty of this method is that you can arrange the curves so that some are set as 'valleys' with a fabric stitched on top on both sides, and some become 'ridges' being stitched on top of two other fabrics.

For the other method there is no top stitching but a 'normal' seam is stitched with the edges being pinned round the curve and the fabric eased. I am assuming that with this method you cannot have valleys and ridges in the way that you can with topstitching.

Putting the two techniques side by side the curved piecing on the left does give a smooth feeling of landscape or rolling hills. I can see that you would have to work with tone to achieve the feel of a landscape or seascape and I can see exciting possibilities with this method. I would add though that I found it very tricky to do, but that may have been more to do with cutting across the grain - or not! The top-stitched curves on the right were much more comfortable to do and I do like the idea of including 'valleys'. Karen Eckmeier is a proponent of this technique and both teaches and has written books on the subject. Her quilts are lively and my trip to the Knitting and Stitching Show on Satruday will definitely have me looking for her books!

Obviously I have only just started to explore this technique and my efforts are very raw but I am excited by the possibilities. I think my next task is to explore combining both techniques to get the effect I have in mind, to see if it will work. If it doesn't I think I will explore the topstitched curves for my final journal quilt for the Contemporary Quilt Group. Or maybe I could go mad and try a reversible quilt with one method on each side!!!! Oh no! Forget I said that! :o)) Thank you, everyone, for all your pointers to instructions for cutting and stitching curves. Bloggers are wonderful!

Journal Quilt - November

Where did the last week go? I have been busy but I can't show you everything that I've been doing yet (not that all of it's wonderfully exciting!). I have finished my Journal Quilt for November. In the finish I decided to edge the quilt with satin stitch rather than apply a binding. I did, however, apply a backing and stitch through from the quilt top to secure it. My inspirational (!) title for this JQ is Across St Ives Bay II. My friend Sandra has suggested that I make this again as a miniature quilt for next years Festival of Quilts. Hmmm! Maybe. I think I would be very tempted to add beads if I do this again. It was very hard for me not to add some beads to this JQ. ;o)

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Earlier this week I received the last two pages in the flower book page swap that I have been engaged in at MixedMediaATCs_UK Yahoo group.

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This page is for the inside of the front cover and was made by Wendy Kirk. I very conceitedly thought the writing said 'Julies' and wondered how she could have known that I would get that page! However, when I looked again I saw it said 'Tulips'! Duh! :O)

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This page is for the front cover and was made by Jean who organised the book pages swap. It bears a passing similarity to the front page I made and I am delighted with it. Now I just have to make two pages of my own and bring the whole thing together into a proper book. That is going to be the hard part and may take a little time.

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I'm still not sure where this week went but part of it went in a very enjoyable day out in Bradford with the lovely Sandra Wyman . We had said that we would have a day out round the textile outlets in Bradford when we met up last year at the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show and it has taken me all this time to arrange it. The absolutely gorgeous velvets and threads above were Sandra's very generous gift to me. She felt that the colours would work well in one of my seascapes and all the fabrics are her own hand dyes. I am such a lucky girl! Thank you Sandra, I will have a wonderful time using these fabrics and threads.

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So what did we do in Bradford? We started off with coffee at the National Media Museum which does what it says on the tin and focuses on all methods of communication from photography through radio and film to the internet. The Museum was extremely hectic vibrant with hoards groups of students visiting so it was nice to get into one of the exhibition spaces and find a little peace and quiet, not that we don't enjoy the company of excited young people! (You can tell I don't have any young people at home, can't you?) We had a look round the history of photography section and then had a look at an exhibition by the animator Joanna Quinn. I didn't think I had heard of Joanna but I very soon recognised her work and it was wonderful to be able to see the progression of her work and her sketchbooks. Aren't other artists' sketchbooks fascinating? Also, did you know (Bob T Bear, you might wish to look away for a minute!) Joanna Quinn is the artist who drew the bears for the Charmin adverts? Her drawings showed her progression of drawings of real bears with quite angular features to the rounded figures of the Charmin toilet paper bears. Sorry Bob, I didn't mean to remind you about the awful things people do with the bears on Charmin toilet paper! If you click on the link to Joanna you will be able to view the excellent resource that the Media Museum have put on their site including Joanna's sketchbooks and video clips of her animations.

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What did you say? Textile shops? Oh yes, I nearly forgot! We did eventually tear ourselves away from the museum and went to Bombay Stores which is a mind boggling source of everything shiny and glittery! We spent a lovely hour caressing all the beautiful fabrics and ogling at all the threads, beads, trims, silks and satins but believe it or not, our purses stayed in our bags! I for one was overcome by so much choice. I will just have to go back another time! lol

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So what happened in the rest of the week? I've lost a few days with recovering from my day out and a tum that decided to have a bit of a shout but I have been working on some hand sewing. Unfortunately I can't show you yet as it's got to go to Carole Brungar in New Zealand for her blogger friends quilt so until she has received it, it will have to stay a secret. Ooh, that reminds me, I haven't photographed it yet! Don't forget!

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This week I am planning to work on my next Journal Quilt and work on the topstitched curves thing so if you hear some bad language coming from this neck of the woods you'll know who it is! Have a good week everyone and if you're going to the Knitting & Stitching Show in Harrogate have fun! I''m going on Saturday, can't wait!

Lest We Forget

We shall remember them........