September Bag

As its towards the end of September it must be time for the September bag for the BQL Bag Challenge and here it is all completed. From the last post when the blocks were just joined together to make a front and back I had Friday off so in the morning I'd quilted, put in the zip, joined the 2 pieces and the lining too and by the lunchtime it was job done! I made an extra log cabin block so that I had a pocket for the lining. The second pic shows that.

Friday afternoon DH and I went off to Sheffield for the weekend. When I've uploaded the camera pics I'll post them on the blog. Managed to take some night time pics which I think have turned out well.

Stringing along

On Saturday I went with my Mum to the New Forest Quilt Group's one day show at New Milton. A lovely sunny day it was a nice drive out there. It was only small but packed with lots of quilts all sizes and a hallowe'en challenge so not easy to take pics so I didn't try. I did purchase some fabric and threads (I know I shouldn't but it doesn't take up much space when moving!). I saw some lovely hand-dyed thread from Dyeing for It (sorry, they don't seem to have a website so no link, I'm afraid). The first pic has the contents of their bits and pieces bag and the second pic were more threads that I bought.

Sunday saw the start of the September BQL bag. A log cabin bag with a zip top (not looking forward to that). I did start with all good intentions of using the strips that I have in the scrap bag but I did then cut some strips from the stash. Anyway no new fabric was harmed in the making of this bag - I'm still sticking with using what I've got.

I quite enjoyed the process of joining the strips and as you can see I draped one of the strips with the log cabin blocks in a string before it was cut up. It looked like bunting!

The last pic taken this evening is the work in progress. I now have both sides done now and ready to layer and quilt.

Quarterjack Quilters Exhibition

You will have noticed that my "advertising" for the Quarterjack Quilters on the sidebar has now gone as the exhibition at Upton House in Poole took place last weekend.
I didn't have as much time to look at this as I would have done as I only had a quick few minutes with the camera on Saturday afternoon, so this a small selection of exhibits.

The first picture is of batik wallhanging together with a wacky star quilt draped over and a smaller wallhanging and reversible table mats.

The second pic is a corner log cabin in lovely autumnal colours.

The next pic is of a table based on the "seasons" theme with summer items including hydrangea wallhangings and cushions, sunflower journal quilts and fabric bowls.

The fourth pic shows girly pink and purple stars and log cabin strips quilt - they really are lovely colours.

And lastly the fifth pic is another table on the "seasons" theme - this time Christmas. What exhibition doesn't have a bit of Christmas. Here there are assorted Christmas tree hangings, reversible table mats, fabric bowls and Cathedral Window bell pulls.

Upton Country Park is a lovely setting with the House and large grounds with gardens. There is also a tea room with a gallery above which often houses art exhibitions. The group were very lucky to have good weather for most of the time with only one rainy afternoon.

On the move (part 2)

With less than one month before DH starts his new job in Sheffield, everyday has consisted of one "sort out" or another. Our house in Poole is being rented from November and we have to find a house to rent in South Yorkshire. I'm resigning from my job and leave mid October so we're hoping to be moving the end of October. So if anyone out there knows of any payroll jobs going in and around Sheffield let me know!

A discovery that I made while sorting out was some knitting. Some months ago when visiting my daughter in Bristol I visited a shop there called "Get Knitted". I bought some German sock wool the colourway is meant to be Neon, but it's difficult to see from this pic. One sock nearly finished and I've just started on the other, which is not bad considering I started knitting and left the first sock for months before picking up again. It's surprising what discoveries are made when sorting out.

As a follow on from my last post about the pincushion I received mine from Jenny in Wales, a gorgeously coloured pink and dark red pre-felt shapes embellished on top of each other. It was really soft and squishy, it feels too good to be a pincushion. Here it is resting on my keyboard.

Needlefelt pincushion

I sent off a pincushion for the swap on the Yahoo UK Embellisher Group and this went to Jean in Devon, known as Genie. I was given some blue roving which I needlefelted into one large piece and cut out the shapes. On the long piece that forms the side of the pincushion I needled some organza ribbon as I like the effect of organza being scrunched into felt. After some hand embroidery I added a couple of circles of yellow felt and added a rainbow button.

This design was loosely based on the pretty little pincushions on Big Jen's Flickr site (she also has a blog link from this, though I have to admit this pincushion didn't seem little, but I was quite pleased with it.

I've now taken a pic of my painted postcard from my last posting on it's own. I've now added this to the "try something new"challenge on the Arts in the Mail Yahoo group, for August. This should be winging its way somewhere soon. I think this looks very pretty in spite of not having much embellishment on it. I know now what to do with my stitching samples as it turned out very well.

Another bag done!

Here's my August bag made for the BQL Bag Challenge (link to the Challenge blog on the sidebar). I've just finished it this morning having cut out the pieces earlier this month. I didn't have any heavyweight Vilene so having bought that on Saturday I set to on getting it done.

It's a clutch bag with a band (in the check fabric that wraps around and goes through the tab on the front. Although it looks turquoise its actually blue and olive/gold shot lame fabric. The lining is in the olive/gold lame. I bought the fabric some time ago and looks just right for an evening bag. Just need somewhere posh to take it!

Playing around

Recently I've been playing around with a few things just to see how they work. The first pic is of rust dyeing. When I was at the Festival of Quilts I met up with a few people from the BQL Yahoo Group. Sandy Snowden's stall was the meeting place where she showed examples of her rust dyeing and gave some instructions. Someone else mentioned that they used salt water to soak the fabric and sprinkled wire wool onto the damp fabric. Hmm.. I have salt in the cupboard and some wire wool too, let's try it. The damp fabric was placed overnight in a plastic bag with the wire wool and was washed out the next day. I'm quite impressed with the little speckly bits on the fabric so I might do this again sometime.

Another thing that I have tried is painting on a quilted piece. Other quilt artists have used this but I've never tried it. I have this piece of "quilt sandwich" on which I did some free machine practice for one of the bags that I've made (2nd pic), so cut to just bigger than post card size (3rd pic).

I've painted with white acrylic paint as a sort of primer, then mixed purple with the white and painted over that. I had some Stewart Gill bronze metallic paint which I dabbed over the whole thing with kitchen towel

The result is in the 4th pic on the top right of the photo (should have taken one on it's own really) when I'd finished paining and sandwiching together for a postcard.

The other postcards in the 4th pic are finished off UFO's that were hanging around. The one on the top left is wavy quilted using variegated threads on fabric paint dyed fabric. On the bottom left are oak leaf prints with a layer of Bondawebbed organza on top with hand stitching. The bottom right is a fabric woven card with Chevron stitches.

The last photo, which is a bit on the fuzzy side is some mulberry bark which I've glued onto calico then painted with some acrylic paint (that's on the left). After painting the surface of the plastic was quite wet so I took another piece of calico to soak up the wet paint. Not quite sure what to do with these two pieces. I'm sure the paint soaked calico will find its way to becoming a postcard back.

Seems to have been quiet on the blogging front from me. I'm still sorting through loads of stuff (where did it all come from?) so I'll have a little less to take with me when we move.

ON THE MOVE!

This is the chaos that is my sewing bench - which is on one side of one of the bedrooms, the other side has the computer and its paraphernalia. The reason for such a mess is that we are on the move.

DH was made redundant from his job this month after having a month of being "under threat of redundancy" we both knew what the outcome would be.

He has found another job which he'll be starting in October, which is good, however the down
side is we'll have to move....to Sheffield. After over 20 years of being in Poole, it is a very big move for us. But of course we must go where the work is.

The plan is he'll go up there, find somewhere to live and I'll follow later probably at the end of October, beginning of November. We'll rent a house and let our own house out down here in Poole.

So started the weekend with a clear out of one wardrobe, then another and there is soooo much stuff that the bedroom looks the mess that it is, these pics were taken last night but it was so much worse on Sunday afternoon!! It is amazing how much stuff accumulates - and it's not the end!

I hadn't got around to posting the latest postcards that I made at the end of July. Hot on the heels of the July bag I finished off the butterfly postcards that were due to be swapped on the BQL Postcard group. My postcards were made with butterfly fabric background with organza on top. Cut out butterflies were bondawebbed on top with another layer of organza and free machining to hold together. So far have had 3 postcards in return the picture below. I always find it amazing that one theme can produce such different results.

A bag for July

I've just completed the July installment of the BQL Bag Challenge. It's a tall tote, which I've made from a mottled green fabric with orange batik strips to brighten up. I've quilted this in wavy machine quilting with variegated thread and does really look more effective than the photo shows.

I've received more postcards in a swap titled Butterflies. I've yet to finish mine as I'm running a bit late on getting these out, but will update at the end of this week (with any luck).

Postcards received and made

Here's some pics of postcards that I've received recently. The one above is from the Arts in the Mail June challenge of Yoyos (or Suffolk Puffs). The cards had the have at least 3 yoyos. Mine is shown in this post which was sent to Chris in Co. Durham. In return she sent me this lovely lady. I took part in a small exchange, also with Arts in the Mail called Fancy Stitches and mine were sent out earlier this month and I've received these from Annette, top left, Jenny, bottom left, and Francoise, on the right. I've just realised that I haven't posted the ones that I have made, but if you go to the Flickr images on the sidebar, they are shown there.

The photo below shows some fabric weaving cards that I have made which I will demonstrate to a local quilt group in September. The top one is decorated with fancy machine stitching and the one below is decorated with hand stitching.
While I was sitting at the computer last night I saw this lovely sky, wasn't it lovely? My mobile phone came in very handy for taking this on night mode. I'm sure I take more pictures with the phone than I make calls with!

Little bit of Dorset

Haven't done any sewing this weekend, the weather for once has been too nice. Been to Southampton to get a new camera as our current one is getting older and the switches aren't working that well now. Sunday saw DH and I out and about starting with going to my parents in Mudeford. After that went on the Christchurch Motor Show in Christchurch. By then it was time for lunch and stopped at Southbourne to go on the beach there. No piccies yet. We decided we would go to Sandbanks in Poole and across on the chain link ferry to Shell Bay on the Purbecks. This is when the photos startThe Sandbank Ferry coming across from Shell Bay
We stopped at Swanage and this is the view from the Mowlem Theatre on the seafront looking across to the Needles on the Isle of Wight.We walked over to the Swanage Railway when we heard a steam engine come into the station. This pic shows it reversing to the front of the carriages to go out of the station to go to Corfe Castle.And this I could not resist. It's of Corfe Castle, near Wareham, which I took through the car window, when DH was driving through the village on our way home.

Expanding my horizons

Today I have joined Quilting Bloggers as I've noticed a few people from the UK have signed up to this. I'm still on the Take a Stitch Tuesday list as well, which is on my sidebar. Having looked where I am listed I'm just above Textile Goddess, Helen Cowans, whose blog I've followed for some time and admire her work. Take a look from this link. There are other bloggers listed from all over the world. Quite an interesting site with lots of quilting resources on the Quilting Gallery

Christmas already?

I know it's only July, but I've got Christmas fabrics out already! I'm currently demonstrating Reversible Table Mats over the next 2 meetings on Quarterjack Quilters using Sharon Pederson's method of Reversible Quilting from the book of the same name. To save trying to choose what colours to use, I dived into my stash and pulled out Christmas fabrics. The original pattern size was 14.5" wide and 40" long, which was a bit big for a table mat so have done a more manageable 9.5" x 19". Last night I showed how the blocks were made and at the next meeting how the pieces are joined by sashing.
Today I went to Romsey, Hampshire to the Romsey Quilters exhibition with my friend Penny. The main exhibition is in Romsey Abbey with more quilts shown in 3 other venues around the town as part of the group's 25th anniversary celebrations. This weekend only a 5th venue behind the Abbey grounds displayed pieces from an open competition. The picture below shows this spectacular quilt made by Ann Ohlenschlager inspired by mosaic floors whilst on holiday in Rome
Fantastic, isn't it? But then the quilts displayed are all lovely and it's difficult to choose a favourite. Took lots of pics and it was a lovely day out. Romsey itself was bustling too as there was a music festival as part of their arts weeks. At King John's House some jazz music was played outside in the garden as we were looking at quilts inside. The exhibition goes on to 20 July and they have a website.

Some holiday photos

As promised I'm now posting some of the pics from our last holiday in the Gower . Most of the pics are family ones out and about, however DH, DD and I did have a trip to Swansea and went to the National Waterfront Museum. There was an exhibit (no longer showing , I think) of stained glass from students of Swansea Metropolitan University. There were some wonderful pieces of work as below:-


The next picture below is the Dylan Thomas Theatre. I could not resist taking a picture of the murals painted on the side of the building - excuse the car boot and road signs. I tried avoiding those but it just didn't work

June bag done at last

And here it is - all done with one day to spare!

June bag and other bits

Above is a pic of my June bag in progress. In a previous post I'd already done the flying geese which I'd put together before my holiday. This is how it is 2 weeks later having quilted, put the base on (and awaiting hand stitching of the base binding). I've also stitched the handles ready to turn right sides out and the lining is also in progress so coming together nicely.

Some other work that's been going on this weekend is in the utility room. Our kitchen was updated with new units 5 years ago but the utility room had the original units that were fitted with the house. The doors on the units have been replaced to match the kitchen and a new wall cupboard was added. My brother-in-law, George, carried out the work for us , with DH assisting as his gofer. Thank you, George, you've done a really great job!I haven't updated with any holiday pictures but I'll try and put that right soon!

Callistemon

I'm going on holiday to Wales tomorrow with the family and have had today off work to get ready to go away. Weather has been really good all day, just hope it keeps up. The Bottle Brush plant in the corner or the garden is full of bloom, almost weighing down the top branches, with a lovely burst of red flowers. On the left is a close of of this lovely shrub, with one of flowers about to burst into life.