One or Two Finishes and Other Bits

Now at the end of June and in some ways seems to have gone in a flash and others feels a long month (I think that could be money).  Last Saturday I went on a coach trip to Sandown for the National Quilt Championships, more of that later, following that a return trip to Bletchley Park. On our return I have been helping Sarah with new baby Florence as her husband returned to work after his leave.

First I have two finishes - one is in the bag as I can't show just yet, but will do next month.

I've also finished my socks

These are Hermione's Everyday Socks pattern by Erica Lueder, knitted in hand dyed yarn from Truly Hooked in Summer Haze colour way, which was yarn used in a subscription box of that there were spare skeins of.

There hasn't been must sewing going on as its been a busy week, but with the sunny weather the sun hat shown in my last post has come in really useful with outdoor walks at Bletchley Park on Sunday followed by visits to Nuffield Place and Cliveden (both National Trust places) on our return home on Monday.  I will follow on with another post about these places.

Although enjoying the coach trip to Sundown last Saturday, I think I wasn't the only one that felt some disappointment with the show.  It has shrunk so much over the years and there was room around the traders, none seemed too busy.  The championship quilt was a lovely whole cloth long arm quilted by Lynda Jackson.  This is not the most flattering picture that I took of this, bust as you can see there are coloured threads which enhance the quilt design on a silver grey fabric.

This time there was a lot showcased by long arm quilters which is good in a way as it shows what can be done with these machines and the cost and effort to perfect their craft they have to build a business to make their investments pay.  However there wasn't many other quilts of other varieties to make one inspired.  Or has the Festival of Quilts taken away to the extent that people will enter that and not other shows?

There were some displays like that of Gillian Travis and her display entitled 'Journeys in Stitch'.  Her work is so bright and varied and really illustrates the feel of the countries she has visited.  I remember when I did a workshop at Pauline's Patchworks two or three years back that she started work on a coconut seller on his bike.

Below are just a few of her quilts.

Another display was from Mike and Greta Fitchett, both quilt makers with very different styles.  Like Gillian's quilts these were a collection, not part of the competition quilts.

This was Greta's take on Birmingham New Street station which has a viewing area to see the trains

I quite like the distortion of the image reflected on glass buildings

and Mike's view of The Shambles, York, which has the styling of railway posters

Another quilt that I liked was the really embellished one, this was a competition quilt, by Frieda Oxenham.  I like all the colours, beads and sequins, which actually belong in the quilt instead of being an add on.

I did buy some fabric but I set myself a budget and came home with a bit of change, so pleased with myself.  I think I can even see a quilt coming out of what I bought.  The green and purple fabric will make a skirt, which I hope to have time for next week.

When we arrived I saw a Lego sculpture of a lion and I thought I'd take a photo on the way out, but in the meantime the lion was replaced with this

You can just see the baby penguin at its feet!

One good thing that I always enjoy at Sundown is sitting in the grandstand for lunch.  Views across the racecourse to planes, trains and other things going on and trying to make out the landmarks as you look across to London.

Get Ahead

That saying "If you want to get ahead, get a hat"?  Don't know if that's true today as not many people wear hats.  The recent sunny weather caused me to need a hat when I visited Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour last week.  Using Pinterest I found a 'bucket' hat pattern which seemed simple and so printed out the pattern and instructions.  This was from Lost in Paris blog which has some free patterns on its website of a reversible denim bucket hat.

Not having any denim I backed some blue fabric in a firm Vilene to give the hat some body and left cutting out the lining until I finished the outer of the hat.  My sizing was between small and medium so I cut out the medium size but took a bigger seam allowance.  I found the middle section a bit deep so cut that down by just .25", though could have gone to .5" and again took that slightly bigger seam allowance from 1.3cm to 1.5cm (which is marked on the plate of my machine.  I made the lining from some batik fabric that I had and matched up the seam allowances around the brim.

Top stitching the edge once the hat was turned out was ok, but I had a job accurately top stitching the lining to the outside of the hat on the body and crown.  So the hat won't be reversible but that's ok.  It fits and thats the main thing.

Here it is modelled by my iron (no, it wasn't switched on!)

Then as a selfie by me!

Does anyone else feel they look odd when taking a selfie pic?  Eyes keep going from the screen to see what the image is to trying to look up so it doesn't look as though you're checking out the screen!

A Bit of News

I don't often write of family news on my blog, but I had to share this one.  My daughter Sarah, who married last year gave us news that she was expecting a baby last Christmas.  Yesterday was baby's arrival, 2 weeks earlier than expected.

This is Florence and she is tiny at just 4lbs 15oz.  She had an early birth in hospital as she wasn't growing and Sarah also had high blood pressure. Mum and baby are now doing well.

Florence is Sarah and husband Andy's first baby and our 5th grandchild after a gap of over 8 years

Postcards

I enjoy making fabric postcards, which I've done on and off for several years.  They are small pieces of fabric artwork which I've done mainly for swaps, but also as a way of trying out different techniques on a small scale and don't take up a lot of time.  They are usually between 6 - 6.5" wide by 4 - 4.5" high (or vice versa depending on whether the design is landscape or portrait).  They are usually made in such a way that they can be put through the postal system as a normal postcard, which is sometimes referred to as being posted 'naked'. Sometimes some extra embellishment is needed for which a cellophane envelope is used.

Last month I made a couple of postcards for a UKQU (UK Quilters United) Postcard swap entitled 'My Dream Home'.  First off is this beach hut one

I had a little piece of this beach hut fabric from which was the also the inspiration for this.  Adding a strip of the yellow 'beach' I fused the hut, roof, door and window and stitch to secure. I found this little seagull on another fabric which had to be added!  Since living in Poole I've been envious of people who have beach huts - they are either rented out or owned by families and they are expensive too! So although I'd like one I'm unlikely ever to have one, but if I did I'd be down the beach more days than I do now!

Getting in the swing of things I made another postcard, just a normal house.  It's home, nothing more.  East, west, home is best.  I've done some decorative stitching for the flowers above the green fabric and found a tree to fussy cut from another fabric.

 There they are both together.

I should get an email later this week of the new homes they are going to.

When I was on holiday on our way to Yorkshire we stopped by The Bramble Patch in Weedon.  It is my all time favourite quilting shop and visit when I can.  They support the Macmillan charity for cancer care and hold exhibitions and other events for this cause.  When I was there there were kits to make postcards for a donation and to make a postcard or two to send back to them.  The theme for this year is Flower Festival and on Sunday I made a card for this which I will send in the post this week.

I started with the background, the idea for this came from a design by Jo Avery of My Bear Paw and her design for a mini quilt (I've linked to her blog post about her mini quilt) in a recent issue of Love Patchwork and Quilting (Issue 59). The background are low volume fabrics with small wonky square, half square triangle and drunkard's patch blocks, raw edges left stitched down with lines of variegated green and peach threads.  The peach thread is a rayon one, so it gives the surface a slight sheen.  I've had that thread for ages but I can see me using that again!

Afterwards I noticed this on the back

Ooops! How did that bit of fabric get there?

On the front I used Jo's tendril technique for stems and for flowers I used my cotton reel technique,   Fabric is backed with a small piece of fusible and I trace around the a medium or large based cotton reel.  After cutting the circle I then cut into the shape to get petals. The leaves are free cut, I've done so many leaves before by putting fusible on the back of some green fabric and cutting and sticking down it's almost second nature to do that.  Lastly I felt there was a little more needed so some decorative feather stitching was added.

On the back before adding address, etc.

I like to add a piece of selvedge to separate the address side from the message.

I may make another to keep in my technique folder as a reminder of what I've done.

So Much Stuff

After coming back home from holiday I decided to turn out the built in wardrobe in my sewing room and it was strewn all over the floor!  I really have so much stuff that one does accumulate over so many years of sewing and crafting.  Also I have some finished items that I have no home for so time to do an assessment of what I can finish off and find homes for.

I like to make blocks and enjoy the calculating of sizes, working things out and cutting things up, so I have an accumulation (ooh, that word again!) of blocks which need to be joined an somehow.

These aren't joined together I've just arranged them.  They are made from a book called Fast Fat Quarter Quilts, where layers of fat quarters are cut into different sized units and there are suggested blocks to be made from them.  I used fabrics that I didn't really care for just to try this out.  It made more blocks than then twelve here but those have been used already in separate items.  In the photo above they don't look that bad and provided that I can made a decent sized border around it could make a reasonable sized quilt.

As you will have seen from a previous post here I have some blue cross blocks, some of which I am keeping and some are in a swap which will take place this month.  I have now put the swap blocks in a padded envelope along with the little orange card so they are ready when I get the recipient details later.  I may make some more so that there is a small child size quilt from this, so there will be a purpose to these.

Next on my list is some random blocks that I am not quite sure what to do with 

The white and coloured square blocks on the left are sweet 16 blocks some of which I received from a swap with Benta with a couple of my own.  They are 8.5" squares so they will use odd 2.5" squares which I do have so I could made some more of these blocks to make something productive out of these, not sure what as yet.  

I made the decision to throw the little blocks on the bottom right of the pic, they are small and I don't think I can make use of these.  The larger blue and white at the top could be made into a cushion cover to go in the charity makes bag and the other two in the middle I can't make my mind up about.  The cream/purple/pink one was just trying out a block so that could go the same way as the little blocks.

The grey and pink one is a big project though.  Cut out last year when the Bourne Quilters were into kaleidoscope quilts.  I may need some help on this one as the pieces are cut out into wedges of the same pattern repeat and I know that some of those pieces will need a large size of the grey to border.  Now its either Googling to get some idea of the method or picking some brains.  Any thoughts?

I think I still have plenty of things to keep me busy in just the sewing front, let alone the knitting and sewing projects on the go!

Yorkshire Trip

David and I went away 2 weeks ago and returned home on Bank Holiday Monday from our holiday in Yorkshire.  We stayed in Wakefield, York and Thirsk, before making our way back home and stopping over in Cheltenham.  The first two days home have been catching up days with washing and shopping and generally sorting out.

Our first stop was just outside Wakefield, where we were able to visit old haunts from when we briefly lived up that way. David caught up with old work colleagues and during our 3 day stay we visited Sheffield city centre (we were hoping to go to Kelham Island steel museum but it was shut - on a Saturday!) Yorkshire Sculpture Park and Nostell Priory.  I also had some time at the Hepworth art gallery (a couple of pictures of Barbara Hepworth's sculptures above) and in Wakefield centre itself, which doesn't seem to have changed much but there is a nice wool shop now!  Another day we went further south to Crich near Matlock to visit the National Tramway Museum which also had it's Classic Car Day. As you can see from the pics below it was a really gorgeous sunny day.

On to York, a place we know quite well and a chance for David to make another visit to the National Railway Museum while I had a mooch around the city.  Another day we took a trip to Harrogate on the train and the chance to use the Champagne Afternoon Tea gift that we had from my sister and brother in law from our 40th wedding anniversary last year.  Very luxurious and enjoyable it was too.

On to Thirsk where we had a rainy day when visiting the Heriott Museum, which we really enjoyed and spent quite a bit of time there and opposite there was the Thirsk Museum which had all sorts of interest pieces there.   Thirsk was also the birthplace of Thomas Lord, who founded Lords Cricket ground in London and some history about him.

Around the town there was a lot of yarnbombing of knitting and crochet around the town.  During last month there were 2 big events - the Tour de Yorkshire cycle race and the Royal Wedding.  Also marked was the 100th anniversary of the RAF.

A Spitfire in crochet outside this large house near the parish church.

A lot of bunting in the shape of small jumpers were around the route of the tour

And there was lots more, but I've done a collage of some of the pics I took of these

 Big crochet mandala hoops in the trees in the park

Traffic bollards in the town centre were all decorated.

On our way back home we had a stopover at just outside Cheltenham and visited the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Steam Railway (GWSR) where there was a Steam Gala Event to mark the opening of the newly rebuilt station at Broadway, Worcs.  While David was watching the train comings and goings I took the old London Routemaster bus ride into the village and enjoyed a wander in the village and a leisurely lunch.

I rather liked the look of this Maclaren sports car

but had rides on these instead!

That was our holiday, but there will be more pics to come soon.