Patchwork Meadows

(Photo montage courtest of Plantlife Patchwork Meadow Project)

A little while ago, I was contacted by a representative of the wild plant conservation charity Plantlife. They are asking the public to create a giant “Patchwork Meadow” of textile squares, celebrating our native (UK) wild plants and their central role in British Culture. Anyone can submit a square, whether amateur or professional. Once completed the “meadow” will be shown at a series of exhibitions around the UK , beginning at the Wild North Festival in Caithness and Sutherland.  I'm not sure if I'll be making a square or not, but it sounded like a fun and worthwhile project, so I said I'd pass the information on to anyone out there reading my blog - do take a moment to go check it out!

Scrappy stars, again

I finished the last of the scrappy stars today, and stitched them together.  Another one for the quilting pile. Someday!

Charming Stars

This is what I've been working on today - I had a selection of 5" squares (charm squares) from my visit to Karol-Ann and I was looking for something to do with them which still showed a lot of the fabrics, so after some googling, I decided on the Moda Bake Shop Charming Stars pattern, which has the virtue of being easy, versatile and attractive, as well as still showing most of the fabric in each square.   I supplemented the charm squares with selections from my own 5" squares collection - I don't have tons, but I have enough - and I think they are looking great. It's a good pattern (I only used the stars part, though, not all the sashing, etc). 

More funky houses

These are some more funky houses, not from the blocks I had in stash, but made specially for two projects. This one above is part of what will be (providing I get it bound in time) the BQL Skinny Challenge for March/April. Here's the rest:



According to this month's guidelines, the piece will be 7.5x24". I think I made 8" blocks, so it might need a little trim, especially as it's not that heavily quilted.



And there are 4 more, this time joined into a square, which will get quilted up soon and donated to a school art show. Again, the blocks finish at 8".

Skinny Challenge

Nope, I'm not on a diet (not yet, anyway - probably soon!) - this is a piece for a challenge that BQL (British Quilting List) is doing this year - several times through the year there will be a challenge in a specific size and those wishing to take part can make a piece, which will then be available for swapping in a similar way to the way my ALQS works. The first challenge, due at the end of February, was for a piece 12x18", so I decided to try out something like a small piece I saw on Julie's blog recently.

This uses some (but not much) of my collection of Lonni Rossi fabrics, which I love, but never seem to find enough chances to use (they are quite large prints, in many cases).



I think it's come out well. If no one puts it on their "want" list, I shall be more than happy to keep it at home!

I won't force you to look at the mending!

Did a load of stuff today - most of it either secret (Exquisite Corpse) or boring (mending - yes, mending!). But there are a few things I can show - the first is this block, which is for the Around the World Quilting Bee - it actually doesn't look nearly as dark as in the photo.



The other thing I can mention is the UFO challenge - I decided that it was done after the beading, and put some binding on it tonight. I still can't work out which way is up, so I put tabs on all four corners and will let Deborah worry about it.

FFO...

...or, Finally Finished Object. This is the quiltie I got in the post today from Deborah (for whom I am finishing this piece) as part of the UFO Challenge swap. This top was made a long time ago as a start for a challenge piece with the theme of summer. I got as far as the beach huts and then lost steam. Deborah has kindly sorted it out for me and it looks great. There is detail that doesn't show in the photo, such as some fringe at the top of the sand and the bubbles quilted at the top of the waves. The piece really works now, and I'm delighted with it. Thank you so much, Deborah!

Back to the UFO

Although most of today was spent out and about, I did spend some time yesterday evening and this evening (while watching telly) adding some beads to the UFO quilt. I didn't want too much, so the main emphasis is on the lines down the centre of the piece, with a scattering of beads to either side. At the moment, I think that's it, but you never know - it might want more later. Cobi left a comment the other day suggesting some foil and I'm going to mess around with that idea a bit - maybe test a bit on the back - as I think there are real possibilities there. Might also pull out a few other embellishments and see if anything speaks to me, but honestly, I'm not sure it wants too much more.

Then, the only thing I have to work out is how I want to bind it, and which way is up! I've been working on it with the long strip of solid salmon colour at the bottom, but I'm not sure, that might actually be the top - what do you think? I suppose I could always ask Deborah which way she intended the piece to be. Not that it really matters, but I thought I'd put a sleeve on it, so it would be good to know which side to put the sleeve on...

more UFOs

Well, although the weather was not as bad as predicted today - indeed, it was quite nice this afternoon - I still managed to get some time this morning to work on quilty things, and chose to do some more quilting on this piece for the UFO challenge. After spending some time browsing various sources and doodling, I decided to fill with wavy lined columns, then connected spirals, and finally finish with bricks, to echo the previous hand quilting and grids.



So here's the finished piece - or rather, not finished, but I've done all the quilting on this piece that I will do. It now tells me that it wants beads, so that's next. Not sure what I will do for binding - probably something fairly traditional, but I guess it will depend on what I find in the way of fabric. Anyway, beads first and then we shall see.

UFO challenge

Although yesterday was full of other bits and pieces, I did manage to snatch an hour or so to work in the UFO challenge I am doing with Textile Challenges. You may remember that I received this piece to work on - I have started out by filling the background with very dense quilting. On the left you can see the quilting that was there to start with - in the very left-hand section, the hand-quilted grid. I have added the dense swirls below the red object and the circles above. In the right hand photo, you can see a mostly machine quilted grid of varying density - Deborah had already started quilting a grid in this section and I felt the best way to handle the quilting here was to echo that. I'm very happy so far with how this is working, but haven't decided yet how to proceed in the next section. At some point I may go back to circles, but not yet, I think.

Interesting challenge

My group Textile Challenges is doing a UFO swap/challenge (due at the end of June) where you swap small UFOs with someone else in the group, finish each other's piece off and send them back (they are also doing one where you keep the UFO rather than sending it back, but as most of my UFOs are larger rather than smaller, I decided to only take part in one of the challenges). This is the piece which I received from Deborah to work on - it may actually be upside down in this photo - I'm nbot sure yet which way is up. Or maybe it wants to go sideways. What you may not be able to see is that she's done some hand-quilting on it, very small stitches close together - in sort of bands across the piece (with other, unquilted bands). I have several ideas brewing on how I want to tackle this (it won't involve hand quilting!) and I think it's going to be fun to work with. I won't do anything with it right away as I need to get a few other things finished first.

I also received the next round of the Exquisite Corpse to work on - this one has a black background, which is different from any of the others I've had so far - and I will be working on the hips & upper leg region. Not sure what I'll do for that yet, but I'm sure something will come to me - it has for the other three parts, eventually! I won't be able to show it until the very end, of course, but someday it will sure be fun to show all these things...

I've not done any actual work today, I confess. I did empty all my bookcases, repair the backs (most of them are the cheap type with heavy card backs, which after a while, come loose), get rid of lots of books (not so as you'd know it from looking), help the kids organise their books, and so on, but no sewing. I woke up with a very stiff shoulder, which put me off - tomorrow I do hope to get some work done, though as it looks to be another busy week coming up.

Monoprint ATC challenge

Textile Challenges (a yahoo group to which I belong) often has a monthly challenge to try to keep us all from getting into a rut. This month the challenge was to visit (or re-visit, as the case may be) monoprinting, and then to make an ATC from the resulting fabric. You saw the results of my monoprinting the other day, this evening I took a small amount of time and turned the rust dyed piece into some ATCs - one of which will go off to my partner and the others will go for trades at one time or another.


The colour in the close-up shot has washed out completely because of the flash but you can get a fair idea of the colours from the photo on the left. I've decided to keep them quite simple with some stitching (I FMQ'ed the entire piece before cutting it up) and only a very few embellishments (for once).

ATC Day

Today I made a load of ATCs - several of them to catch up with challenges on Textile Challenges, and others just for fun. The first one (above left) was for week 2 of our February challenge on Textile Challenges - we were to go to a room we don't normally work in, grab an object to use, then find 4 more items to use on the card, and make the card, with a 15 minute time limit. From my bedroom, I grabbed a small (defunct) coin from a box DH keeps in his dresser drawer, then grabbed a piece of background fabric, a ribbon and a buckle from my sewing table and assembled them. When I finished, I realised that I can't count, and grabbed the packet of "jewels" which form the line across the top. It took me 17 minutes, including a brief phone call and a short interruption to find all the newly washed fabric for my mother to iron (she offered). It's not my favourite of all the ATCs I've ever made, but it's ok, and again, an excellent exercise in not overthinking things.


Then I tackled week 3 of the challenge, which had no restrictions on it other than to keep an eye on how much time it took you. I decided to combine this with the colour combination lottery, in which my assigned colours were burnt umber and teal, so made two cards with that colour theme. I started with the background fabric which is a slightly reddish brown, and added teal and reddish brown wool fibres -I was originally intended to hand needle-felt them, but couldn't lay my hands on the needle bit of the needle-felter, so just decided not to waste any more time on that and stitched them down using some invisible thread. I then added some copper foil, which I'd punched with my new big punches (on half price sale, though still a little dear, so I intend to use them a LOT to get my money's worth!). Then I added some stitching in teal coloured rayon thread (nice and shiny) and some faces in teal polymer clay. These two ATCs took me about half an hour, including at least 4 minutes wasted on a background which really didn't work and has been stuck into the "do something else with later" basket. I really like these, and if I'd had more copper foil to hand I'd have made at least 2 or 3 more.





After I'd discharged those obligations, my mother and I decided to have a play - she had asked if she could watch me make some ATCs (which she certainly is welcome to do) but I suggested instead that we simply make some in parallel. However, as she's not really into sewing, we used mostly paper and glue with a bit of stitching thrown in. These (mine left, hers right) are done on a rusted paper background, with ribbons, paper, punched paper, polymer clay, beads, brads, buttons, bows, jewels and so on. We had good fun with them and now she has her first set of ATCs. I always find it interesting to see what happens when two people use the same set of ingredients - whether their end results are similar or (more usually) quite different.

Imagine

Here's another one of my favourite things - a dual purpose piece. This little journal quilt not only serves as a journal quilt (last week's) but also as a piece for the Challenge Quilts group, where the current theme is "Imagine". I realise the major word on the piece is "hope", but "imagine" is also up there, in the corner. And the quilt was inspired by the word imagine - I often think of imagination as a web - words and images weaving together in the mind, so the webs seemed natural. Not to mention, it's kind of that time of year. So the piece is done in autumnal, slightly Hallowe'eny colours with spider webs stitched in each square and some inspirational words and faces.



And then there's another journal quilt - this week's one, this time - this has a very straightforward Hallowe'en theme, and includes a few scraps of fabric from the project I have been working on which I can't show you. (I finished quilting it yesterday, and now only need to bind it - hurrah!) I shall take photos so that when it's reached its new home, it can be shown. Very annoying all this secret stuff ...

I also received a postcard today for the Neocolour 2 swap - in this instance, Rita has used the neocolour crayons to create the sky background on this card - lovely, I think. I must dig these crayons out again and do some more with them.

Saturday - sewing at last!

I know I didn't post yesterday - Friday is pretty much a no-sewing day, as I tend to spent the day at school, so unless there's any interesting post (which there wasn't yesterday) I don't have anything to show... Today, however, I managed to get quite a bit done in the morning while Geoff took the girls to tennis and Alex played on the computer. In amidst all the laundry and changing the duvets from summer weight to winter weight and other exciting domestic tasks.

Anyway, on the left is my journal quilt for the week, which also fits the criteria for a challenge on Textile Arts - the October challenge (and it's only the 4th - woohoo!) - the challenge being to use a variety of recycled materials, which I have done - except for the thread and the vilene (stabiliser) it's all recycled. When I back it, which I haven't done yet, I will use some sort of recycled/reused paper, as well. I started with a piece of linen from an old dress, and added some net with beading on it, which was actually a shirt I got in the sale rack of a charity shop for £1. I then added some stitching, and a variety of motifs - the gold circle is the wrapper from a chocolate coin, the blue heart is made from dryer lint, the rose is cut from an old postcard, the cream coloured paper strips are from one of the paint strips from a colour we have decided NOT to paint the hallway, the metal shape is from a belt purchased at a car boot sale for 50p (I got about 8 of them off the belt), the metal building is from an old mobile my parents used to have and finally, the blue lines are made by couching down strips of plastic vegetable netting bags (or, being as it's dark blue, it might have been mini cheeses or something, but you know what I mean).

On the right is my slightly belated September arch for Patsy. It has a silk background ( very nubbly), some paper images, lace, buttons (obviously!), a few charms and some stickers.




I also added some shrubberies to the house block - and will hand sew down the little flower motifs shown here - I bought them ready made, and think they work well here. Also will add a little button as a door knob and perhaps embroider a house number. Then it will be ready to go - oh, and I need to take the paper of the back as the block is part paper-pieced.

On the right, some Japanese fabrics I got in the post today. I also got a postcard of a Teapot ("T is for..."), which I have forgotten to photograph, but it's a nice Teapot - take my word for it!

On a slightly different note, my mother has decided (at my suggestion) to start a blog - at the moment, she's only posted a few times - hopefully in future she will show some of her pottery, esepcially her masks, etc, there - she does some nice work. Anyway, if you are interested in seeing what she gets up to, she's over here...

ATCs and safety pins...

...though I will spare you photos of the latter. I took my mother to the airport today, and when I returned, there wasn't a lot of time - plus also my upstairs hallway (where I usually set up the ironing board) was covered in wallpapering type equipment - so I just pinned together the diamond quilt ready for quilting - maybe tomorrow I will begin to quilt it.

These ATCs are both from my ATC challenge - on the left, one from Julie, along with some lovely scrim and bits and pieces to use; on the right, from Cheri, whose card for me is aptly titled "Tipsy" - and look at the gorgeous batiks she has sent along with the ATC. I am definitely going to repeat this challenge at some point - it's been such fun seeing what people make of the backgrounds harvested from old bits and pieces of mine!

Stuff to show after all

Having said I had nothing to show, I realised that I could show the tree quilt again - this time with the binding done. and yes, I changed the silk tree to be a single colour and I'm much happier with it this way. So, off it goes to Hever quilt show - perhaps some of you will see it there!





And I can show this, too - some earrings which I bought from Julie's etsy shop - aren't they great? And a few charms as well, as long as I was ordering something...

Busy day

Well, we went up to town today to the Natural History Museum to meet up with Karol-Ann and her family (DH, DS1 & 2) who were down in London for a weekend. It was a lovely day - the boys had a great time and both my girls enjoyed looking after Toby, who is just he right age to look after (not quite 2) for girls of nearly 9 & nearly 11. After perusing some dinosaurs and whales and other stuff like that we went up to the Princess Diana Memorial Playground in Kensington Gardens where there is a rather large sandpit and climbing-on pirate ship. We spent quite a while there - you'll be surprised to hear that, I'm sure, what with all those small boys in tow....

Anyway, gifts were exchanged, the frog doorstop being one which came my direction, along with a lovely keychain/dangle thingy which I didn't take a photo of, and some things for the kids - a dinosaur fabric tote bag for Alex and little zippy bags for each of the girls. In the other direction, a toy dinosaur and shark found new homes, and a tie-dye shirt I had in hand. And the other thing which I gave her was this:





a little African cat mini, which you may recognise from the tease I showed the other day.

While I was out, lots of lovely goodies came to my house in the post -





These two things came from Anna - on the left is an ATC which is the first back from the challenge I issued a little while ago and on the right is a special bonus postcard she also included.


And I also got two other postcards - one from Celia for the autumn-themed swap with my dyeing group and the other, "T is for Time" from Priscilla.