Weekend Sewing

Mixed fortunes in this weekend's sewing.  Part two of the Splendid Sampler appeared on Thursday and yesterday was the earliest I could make this was yesterday.  Keeping the mostly red and white them adding some black and white for this butterfly wings block. A bit chunky with seam allowances in places but otherwise looks good, it'll pass muster.

Today block 3 was posted.  One large heart with 5 smaller.  Made a start on that with one (not so successful) small heart and one larger heart, which went together a whole lot better.

As you will see, another block, a Farmer's Wife one is also in progress, on my work board.

Another Farmer's Wife block was made this afternoon (accompanied by Sounds of the Seventies on Redio 2). This one is Katherine, quite and easy machine pieced block, no fiddly bits involved here.

Another make I've done this weekend, which I couldn't resist doing were these little Pixie baskets on the Fabric Mutt blog.  

I could have taken a better photo, but I like making little bits.  I have used wadding in both the baskets but I think the outside pieces may just need to be backed with some Vliene, to stabilise, which I might try next time.

It's good to have something to show for the weekend's sewing,

The Splendid Sampler

In my last post I mentioned a new project, The Splendid Sampler, run by Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson.    On the run up to this starting yesterday, 14th February, there was a bonus block and a few other items.  The blocks for the sampler, 100 of them, are 6.5" square. I'm not sure if I will keep up with this, but there is no race to keep up or even to make all 100, but the intention of this is as a skill builder rather than a competition to get the blocks made quickly.

Anyway this is the bonus block that I made before the start of the Sampler.

I've had a few eighths of this French General style of fabric, which I've had in my stash for a few years. 

Here's the first block, called Hearts Aflutter.

Being as the time difference with the release of the blocks is Eastern Time in USA and UK time is 5 hours behind I didn't see this posted on Facebook until early afternoon.  Before then I made a pincushion, from instructions by Kim from My Go-go Life blog

It was a tough one getting through tall the layers when joining the fabric to the Cathedral Window square, but it was quick to make.

There are loads of hearts on The Splendid Sampler blog or on Instagram #thesplendidsampler. Go and have a look.

How long?

I've been meaning to post about Popular Patchwork magazine as I saw the cover of the latest issue which made me realise how long I've been at this quilting malarkey. The magazine has been going since 1993 and I remember buying the first issue.  That was 23 years ago and the only other magazine at the time was British Patchwork and Quilting, which itself was only available to the public a short time before.

I discovered patchwork about 1992 after I bought a needlework magazine, I think it was Needlecraft, which hasn't been in print for some years, as at the time I was into cross stitch.  The quilting magazines were at the time bi-monthly. It was sometimes difficult to get hold of as only some newsagents would stock them. It's amazing to think now that there are about 6 UK magazines that can be bought in the shops, supermarkets or even to read on your tablet/IPad. Shows how things have changed in that time.

I've also found another sewalong called the Splendid Sampler which starts on Sunday 14th February, do I need to join another as I don't have enough time to do all I'd like to do? Unfortunately work does eat into my sewing time (but I do also like going to work). But I digress. The Splendid Sampler is run by Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson.  It has its own website, Facebook page and other social media feeds too with many other well known quilters contributing. I'm typing this on my iPad on Blogger so I can't do the links on this post, but if you Google The Splendid Sampler you'll find it,

I've had a go on the bonus block this morning in advance of the start of the sewalong.

Have a good weekend.

Pebbles

One blog that I follow is Fan My Flame, authored by Gina Ferrari.  In a recent post she had a go at a technique called Posh Pebbles by another textile artist Alexandra Waylett, in an issue of Stitch magazine.  I have a copy of that and decided to have a go too.  By the way, Gina also does a lot of cakes so you if you visit her blog there are some recipes there too.

For my first sample I dug into my stash of fancy fabrics, velvets, silks, satin, using a purple felt base with a layer of lace and tulle. Here's my attempt.

Circles of fancy fabrics were trapped under tulle and after stitching the tulle was cut away revealing the circles which are raised.  More stitching was added. This square was about 7" square.

I really enjoyed this so I thought this would be good as another journal quilt.  I'm really liking the size of these small quilts 8" X 10" are a great size for trying something different.  This time I used a multi coloured felt and used lace to cover the fabric shapes. I also stitched small circles and cut away the lace so some of the background felt showed through.  So this is the result.

I've trimmed this with strips of lace.  I think some shapes need more embellishment, but I'm quite pleased with the effect so far.

Both journal quilt and sample together. 

Want to see the backs? Why not..

It's firm iron on Vilene on the back of the felt.