Synchronised Olympic Sitting

Health and good taste warning!! -You may not wish to read this post if you are of a serious or delicate nature!

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My friend Bob T Bear (Esq) is having a little competition for bears in honour of the Olympic Games. He felt that bears were being left out of all the excitement and so has developed a new event "Synchronised Sitting for Bears". This is a highly technical competition requiring a high levelo of skill and bears all over the world have been practissin, I mean practising! The event has a gold. silver and bronze award so there is everything to play for!

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Tonight, in the Mixed Media household the bears have been limbering up and practising their balancing skills. Even the bedroom bears have been joining in! They made a valiant first attempt.............

Poor polar bear mummy couldn't quite get her head in the right place and had a wobbly Fred bear sitting on her head! The tiny bears at the top couldn't quite sort themselves out and sparkly red bear didn't want to sit right on the top even though she is the smallest....

One of the artist Bears and Glitter thought it was very funny and wouldn't stop giggling!

Bertie was not amused and wished they would all hurry up so he could watch Coronation Street.

At last, with a final shuffle and scramble and with Bob for inspiration they finally managed to stack their pyramid! Yay!!

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But what's this?

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Oh No!! The bedroom Not-a-bears want to join in! I don't think they've quite got the hang of it....

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Oh all right! I'm sorry I forgot you, you can have a photo on your own and the dog can join in too! lol ROFL HaHa Ha!

We saw this little guy at the Heckington Show but we didn't realise at the time that he was practissin.

And I think this bear was grumpy because we were disturbin his consentrayshun while he was showin off to his Canadian friend!

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If you want to join in with Bob's challenge there's still time to prove you're as barmy as me. The deadline is midday tomorrow BST.

Mamma Mia! I did it!

Yay! I finally got to see Mamma Mia! What a fantastic film! It definitely lived up to all the publicity and to everyone's enthusiasm. It had everything! Abba music, beautiful scenery, colourful (and how) costumes and backdrops, Colin Firth (!), a great spirit, lots of laughs a few tears (from me - what a softie!) and a happy ending! Magic! I can't wait to see it again.

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I didn't think I would be able to do it but your faith and encouragement spurred me on and........I did it! The mile a minute bag is finished! Just in time for the Festival of Quilts!

What do you think? This is the first bag I've ever made. If I tell you the blocks are approx. 4 inches square you will have a rough idea of the size. I had the option of backing it with Timtex but I chose to use a lightweight wadding type fabric for the interlining as it would be easier to sew (apparently). I think another time I would use a stiffer lining as it's very floppy. The actual lining is a lovely bright red from the fabric I dyed last week.

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I am absolutely delighted (and exhausted!) to have completed this project in a week so I will be showing it off tomorrow ;o)). If you're going to the Festival of Quilts have a great time. I'll be back with lots of pics!!

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Have you noticed there are a lot of exclamation marks in this post? I think I'm a bit excited!!!!!

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PS Apologies to Gina for "borrowing" her Mamma Mia picture.

Mile a Minute

A couple of days ago I said I would post some details of how to go about making a "mile a minute" patchwork block. I can't pretend that this is a tutorial as I am not a patchworker and I have only done this the once (well, twice if you count making this post) but I will just describe how we did it.

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The first step is to cut your fabric into strips. The beauty of this method is that there are no rules, no measurements to worry about except making sure you have a minimum seam allowance of 1/8th inch. You don't have to worry about cuttuing in a straight line particularly, the blocks look great if the angles are all different. Variety is the spice of life!

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OK. Take your first strip and cut that into sections, say 1.5 to 2 inches wide. Take a second strip and sew the small blocks to it as shown below.

Place the stitched strip on the ironing board wrong side down and press the full strip up, then cut through the strip as shown below, using the line from the original block.

Take the block of 2 pieces and stitch that to a new strip and repeat the ironing and cutting (Are you with me so far?)

The photograph below shows you the ironing process when the fifth strip has been machined.

You continue to add the accumulated block to new strips until you are approaching the size you finally want.

I found that my block was looking a bit square so I cut the sides off at a bit of an angle as I prefer it to look a bit haphazard.

I have included the photo above to clarify how the growing block is stitched to the next strip.

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Once the block is near the required size you can use a template and a square (not sure what that's called) to check the size. You can turn the block in any way to find the area you want to use. It may be necessary at this stage to add a piece to one edge if the size or shape isn't quite there.

Finally, you use your square-thingy and a rotary cutter to square the block up and cut it to size, in this case 4.5 inches.

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Your block will not necessarily ever look like mine as you build the sides up as you wish and not in any particular order. Mine does have a bit of a pattern to it but that is unintentional. Once you've made the number of blocks you need you can make anything you wish. This is also a great way to use up all those odd scraps of fabric you've been hoarding. You can also cut up plenty of strips in advance and then have a good blast at making up blocks.

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I've got a feeling that is all as clear as mud but I am a beginner so you'll have to excuse me! As long as you follow the principal that anything goes you can just have fun!

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I've almost finished my bag so I'll hopefully show you tomorrow! Yay!

Scrappy Crow winner!

Sorry for keeping you waiting a day but I've been a bit busy with the "mile a minute" blocks project. I think I may be hooked! I've never done so much sewing in a space of 24 hours!
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Anyway, enough of that. In true blogging fashion I accosted a third party for my Scrappy Crow draw. There were 19 entrants! Thank you all for your lovely comments and support. I think you're all very brave to keep coming back for more of my bimbling and burbling :o) but I do appreciate every visit and every word you leave.

All the names were written onto paper slips and put into the box.

The disinterested third party otherwise known as my poorly sick DH put his hand in the box,

a name was drawn out and it was

Yay! Kate!! Congratulations Kate! I have your address so I'll be popping Mr Scrappy Crow into the post asap.
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Now I feel really bad because I couldn't give everyone a scrappy crow. They are really easy to make tho'. Just cut out 2 vaguely bird shapes. Decorate with scraps of fabric, felt, yarns, ribbons, beads, buttons, anything to make them fun. Stitch the 2 halves together, either by machine or by hand and add a little stuffing before you finish the stitching. The yarns for the head feathers can be caught by the stitching as you join the 2 halves together. I also trapped a ribbon to hang Mr Scrappy with. Go to town! Have fun!
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I've been working on my bag today and have been making a few more "mile a minute" blocks with step by step photos so I'll try and get that posted tomorrow or Wednesday. Probably Wednesday cos I'm going to see Mamma Mia tomorrow!! At Last! I must be the only person who hasn't seen it yet! Yay!!!!!!!!

PS My poor DH has been sick for nearly 2 weeks. You won't want to know the details but suffice to say something unsavoury has been sent to the hospital path lab today to see if he has food poisoning or what. We're on a very boring diet of chicken or fish and boiled rice at the minute, even worse than my normal boring diet. :(

Modems, dyeing and blocks

The last few days have been pretty hectic, I'll tell you why in a minute. First of all I have to thank my brother for the fact that I can be on the computer at all today. Our ISP, in their wisdom, offered me an upgrade a couple of weeks ago and, without thinking about it too much, I agreed. That was the easy bit. The hard part was installing a new modem and setting up the wireless bit for the laptop! I knew it was going to be beyond me and fortunately my brother offered to come over and sort it all out for us. Today was the day - pretty lucky really because I only asked him this morning and he rang up just before lunch to say he was on his way! I think he might have regretted it.....it took ages to get the kinks out of my laptop! Actually, don't tell him, it was just my way of getting him to stay a bit longer lol!! I have to apologise to my sister-in-law though. She was hoping to go to the local Superstore but they ran out of time. Sorry C! (I was a bit slow there. Us girls could have gone shopping and left the guys to it!!) Anyway, thank you very much D for sorting us out, again! :o)

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The last two days I've been to a workshop at the sewing shop in town. Unfortunately the course was so hectic that I didn't get chance to take many photos. On Thursday we were dyeing fabric using Procion dyes. I don't expect to be massively into dyeing but I wanted to learn a bit about it to try and de-mystify the process. The only photo I managed to take was of the fabric sitting in all of the bags "cooking".

As you can see I worked with colours I don't tend to use normally. The whole process was really quite simple and was done in a dye run so that all the amounts were controlled so that there was a smooth colour run from yellow through orange to magenta. We started with 7 bags, each prepared individually and the fabric put in with the dye, salt solution, soda solution and water and the bag sealed before the next bag was filled. As we wanted a random dye, not a flat colour, we tried not to handle the fabric too much, just tipped the bag to make sure it was all wetted. Once the fabric had been in the bag for about 2 hours we put a second piece in, expecting to get a lighter effect.

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After a minimum period of 4 hours a lot of rinsing, washing and more rinsing followed and eventually, once dried and ironed, the beauty of the fabric was revealed:

I am really pleased with the gorgeous colours and marks in this cotton which was the first batch.

The second batch are much softer and more in the pastel range but are equally lovely. (You may have noticed that I had 8 bags - I used up the left over dye on the final 2 pieces of cotton). I have to say, if I do this at home I will probably spread the process over a couple of days as it was exhausting doing it all at once. You can actually leave cotton overnight in the dye and it won't come to any harm. Also you can make up the salt and soda solutions in advance and they will keep.

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Yesterday we went back for day 2 which was to make use of the dyed fabric. Thursday was a steep learning curve but yesterday was even steeper! The idea was to use the fabric to make a bag or wall hanging. The technique we are using is "Mile a Minute" blocks. I am not a patchworker so I hadn't a clue what this was. I know now! Fortunately it's a great method of piecing blocks! No accuracy required, no measuring just lots of strips cut and sewn. I think I'll try and put the whole process on here in a day or two as I'm still working on it but here's a glimpse of blocks in progress till then for those of you who aren't familiar with "mile a minute".

It's a bit like sewing bunting. The red square is the central square. You gradually build up the blocks till you reach the size you want (in this case 4.5 inch squares). As you can see they all grow in different shapes. Conformity comes when you square the blocks off and cut to size.

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I'm aiming for a bag, if I can remember how to do it. I had to leave early so had 2 hours of tuition in 10 minutes! I've given myself the goal of having it made for the Festival of Quilts on Thursday! It'll never happen! lol

Scrappy Crow Giveaway!

I'm embarrassed to admit that I've let my first blog anniversary and a significant number of posts slip by without acknowledging either of them and without a giveaway! Well, that is about to be rectified!

This cheeky little fellow (there's only one of him, these shots are of both sides) is up for grabs if anyone would like him. Just leave a comment before Sunday with a way of contacting you (email address preferably) and I'll send him winging on his way - well, not literally, I think an envelope and the Post Office may have to help out. If you follow this link to Kelli Perkins' colourful blog you will see where I got the idea (from Quilting Arts Cloth Paper Scissors magazine Issue 15, November/December 2007 - Thank you Gina for pointing out my mistake).

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If you've been lurking for ages now's your chance to say hi, even if Mr Scrappy Crow doesn't appeal to you :) I don't bite, honest! I must say thank you to everyone who looks in here and has given me so much support since I started blogging last June (30th). I've been having a great time and not only have I learned loads I've made some lovely friends! Thanks everyone! :o))

Blog Award

I had to pop back in just to say "Thank you" to Sigrunn who I did not know before today and who has given me this award. Sigrunn, thank you so much. I am so delighted to know that you have been enjoying my blog and that I now have the chance to visit your own blog, which is so varied and has some beautiful flower photographs on it. Sigrunn, who lives in Norway, makes beautiful bags with photo images so please look in at her lovely blog.

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I was very surprised to receive an email from Sigrunn today and it made me think about the people who do read my blog without my being aware of it. Thank you, everyone who takes the time to look in here, whether you leave a comment or not. I really appreciate the fact that you take the time in a busy life to come and visit me here, especially if you come back again! :o)

Outside my comfort zone - again

You know how you coast around from blog to blog and suddenly see an idea that inspires you? The trick is remembering where you saw the idea so you can, (a) go back to it later and (b) give credit for where you took your inspiration from. On Friday at my art group I had a play with a narrow canvas and ended up with the textured surface you can see below. I had previously prepared the canvas with various textured layers, cobweb, tissue, torn doily, torn handmade paper, sand and acrylic flakes.

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I'm still trying to decide whether it needs tweaking a little. I started out thinking it was going to be based on a seascape but my dear friend challenged me to use colours outside my comfort zone hence the red and gold theme!

Getting back to the "where did I see that?" theme, I had a lot of paint left over from the canvas and didn't want to waste it. In the last few days I had seen a blog where someone (oh dear, I've forgotten who!) had made some monoprints using plant material from the garden, so I thought I would use the leftover paint in the same way. I used a little thickening medium to give the paint more of a printing ink quality.

I forgot to take a photo of the plate before I took any prints so this is the plate after the prints were taken. I had included strawberry leaves, grass stalks and grape hyacinth seed heads and sprinkled grass seeds over the surface.

I placed a piece of dampened cotton on top of the plate (plastic sheet) and gently smoothed the fabric down onto the paint. Some of the paint did seep through to the reverse of the fabric so once I felt it had soaked up enough colour I slowly pealed the fabric back to reveal the image above.

This is the second print from the plate, not quite as strong as the first.

The next step was to lift off the plant material as I wanted to see what marks were left behind.

I really like this print which came off the partially cleared plate.

Because I had still got gold paint on the palette I set another print block up and took another print. I used the grape hyacinth seed heads again and as they had retained some of the red paint a hint of red crept in which I really like.

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I am seriously thinking that I will paint the fabric, particulary the red versions, with a loose green wash to offset the red. What do you think?

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By the way, if you recognise this process from your own recent blog please accept my apologies and also leave me a comment. Many thanks.

These are prints on cartridge paper and on tyvek which I also took from the monoprint plate. I think I will do some more of this when I have a particular project in mind. Meanwhile all these pieces will go into my stash while I decide what to do with it all.