Getting Back Into Sewing.

 The stormy weather of this last weekend and Monday has made me put together a Project Linus kit that my friend collected for me recently. This is a four patch easy square pattern with plain small squares and large squares with small bow shaped butterflies.

Where Bourne Quilters meet is a room at a local social housing organisation and the Scrap Store.  The housing organisation rehouses vulnerable people so I’m guessing that what they move into is very basic. It was mentioned about making cushions or bed runners, but the details are vague.  So I took out samples of blocks I’ve tried out over time that have been hibernating in my craft room.

First off is this wonky block which I made possibly 16 years ago at a workshop in Barnsley. I took an orange background to appliqué on to. This was rectangular so I had to add some length to square up so a couple of strips top and bottom of the back fabric. I didn’t quilt the cover.

Another project is this foundation pieced butterfly, which was a more recent sample from a Zoom workshop back in 2020 by Jo Avery.

I have layered and quilted this top and used red fabric for the envelope back. It was quilted in the ditch and then a circle around the butterfly. 

I had a ready quilted piece in purple and I wanted to do something different with this so I made this into a table mat, which could simply decorate a table. I used plain purple binding sewn from the back, turned over and zigzagged to hem the front.

This block was a design by Red Pepper Quilts that I tried out once and haven’t made again. The fabrics used were assorted Thirties style ones, so I kept the quirkiness and used strips from similar fabrics to bring up to a cushion size.  I haven’t quilted this yet, but layered up all ready. The envelope back fabrics may use 2 different fabrics.

A last small project was using this Dresden plate and appliquéing onto a background. It may become a fourth cushion.

So hopefully my makes could help others and reduce part made things that are cluttering my space. 

Getting Arty

 A few years ago I had a go at the 30 Day Sketchbook Challenge, which is run annually by artist Susan Yeates.  Although one can register to receive tutorials from other artists I decided not to and just see the daily prompts on Instagram.  

I started by sketchbook by taking some pages out of an old A5 sketchbook, folding to A6 and sewing the signatures on the fold using pamphlet stitch. So that’s the paper and for the sketching and mark making I am using my collection of graphite pencils, coloured pencils, fine line pens in different colours and a small palette of watercolour paints.   I have been posting onto Instagram daily, which has fed through to Facebook.

Below is the first 4 days

The first day was Fungi, so I drew a Fly Argaric mushroom. I added a mushroom washi tape stamp in the top right corner. I also had an ink stamp of a mushroom so added those to the space. Day two the topic was pens and I drew from my collection of graphite of fine liners and gel pens.  Day three was tea, for which I used a sketch pencil to draw a teapot, mug and tea caddy.  Acorns were the subject for day four. Like day one I also had a washi tape stamp and ink stamp for acorns. I used fine liners in different colours for shading.

The next batch are as follows

Cakes for day five, so I chose a couple of scones with jam and cream. Day 6 was an item less than an inch and I chose a piece from a jigsaw puzzle that was made up over Christmas. I draw around the piece and coloured in with colour pencils. Day 7 was something purple and I drew from my small knitting pouch. Day eight’s subject was exotic fruit and I drew figs from an image from a plant catalogue.

Last collection for now covers days 9 to 12.

Day nine’s theme was glass and I used a Sherry glass and wine glass as a model for these pencil sketches. Day ten was metal and for this I used a twisted wire card holder first with pencil and drawn over with fine liners. Day eleven was underwear and I used my camisole vest (sorry but the days were somewhat cold so taken to wearing a vest under my clothing).  Day twelve is something beginning with L and I used Lego leaves from my flower arrangement Lego kit.

I’m now up to Date 14 now and so far have enjoyed the experience and refreshing to do something for a few minutes on a daily basis.  I hope I can try to keep this up at least until the end of the challenge and maybe beyond, 

January

 HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Monthly marker for January and one of my Christmas presents, a Lego Chrysanthemum.  How was Christmas for you? After the busy-ness before Christmas it all went quiet. I’ve not been well with this cold that’s been going around but feeling a lot better now.

I’ve had more Lego to build in the form of the flower bouquet and this is the progress to date.

I like to savour making the kits over time rather than getting it all done quickly.

I’ve not got any resolutions make for this year, other than to try and finish projects and declutter as best I can (that’s a joke!). To this end I’d like to clear a hexagon project I’ve had going for some time. 

This is a pile of 35  (7 x 5) 6.5” squares. Most incude the 100 hexies 100 days from previous years. I have a name for the quilt already which will be Conversation Piece.

As well an existing project I had started something new, which is art based and called the 30 Days Sketchbook Challenge by Susan Yeates on Instagram.  I did this for a while in 2021 and hope that I can keep it up for the whole 30 days.  I make myself an A6 booklet from the remaining pages of an old sketchbook makes it a good size for achieving a small drawing each day. First day was Fungi so I drew a Fly agaric mushroom 🍄 less the spots, I did try to put some in. I added a mushroom stamp and a self adhesive washi tape stamp.

Day 2 is pens and I used some of the pens in my collection. I have quite a few gel pens.

Day 3 is Tea and I’ve done a pencil drawing of my tea pot and mug.

It’s quite refreshing to do something different.

I’ve made a small change to my craft room by getting a larger peg board to replace the smaller one and a cork board.  I’ve got a large banner which was made some years ago so I pimped that up with flowers which were stuck onto the cork board. There is a gap between both, which will have some small quilted/embroidered items. 

But I have the first finish for 2025 which is an Aran Cardigan. A bit of a cheat as I finished the knitting in November, but it’s proper finished as I added buttons, bought in Devon last month.

There’s a couple of knitting projects to finish this month, so I must crack on and get them done. Also I have my Yorkshire blanket to continue with, so enough to keep me busy in January.