Not Much to Blog About

But I will be away for a few days to the lovely South Wales coast visiting relatives.  Hope to share a few pics when I come back.

See you soon

Round the World Blog Hop

I've seen this going around other blogs that have been nominated, to answer some questions, the latest being Diane, The Cheshire Quilter, who invited others to join in.  So here are my answers to the questions wandering the blogosphere.....

What am I working on?

At present I have a few things in progress,  this is the latest quilt top

The jelly roll quilt which from my last post now has border fabric and the remaining 4 squares in the corners.  I took the photo while on the spare bed which isn't ideal so could only get the top corners in.

There is another quilt in progress too. I've got the backing, the wadding and binding is already to go, just to clear the dining table for clamping the pieces down and pinning together before I quilt.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I have a bash at anything and everything.  I am a very curious person and have always had an interest in how things work.  I don't fit myself into a particular category and can go from traditional to modern or contemporary.  I will put in other things that can enhance a quilt like adding embroidery, buttons, sequins.  I also enjoy colouring cloth, I don't use dyes but like to use fabric paints and the latest thing I like has been block printing. I went to a workshop where I block printed this calico apron. It's good to play!

How do I work/create what I do?

My friend Penny a while ago recalled that when I had a part time job and my children were younger I would use a 15 minute slot of time to do a bit of stitching so my sewing usually fits in around work.  I am lucky enough to have a sewing room so the sewing machine, an area for cutting and ironing is set up and ready.  Nowadays I like to have a weekend afternoon to turn on the radio and sew.


How does my writing/creative process work?

Thats a difficult one to answer.  I usually like something that I see and think I will have a go at that.  The past few years I've taken part in postcard swaps and this year I've participated in a couple of mug rug swaps and an ATC swap so its been the themes that have influenced my thoughts on what I want to make.  I have done some drawings to get the feel of what I want to do

Above is a selection of drawings and a cut out for a frame.

Thanks Diane, the questions have given me food for thought. Anyone else want to have a go?

Instant Gratification

I don't know what happened this week but suffered a headache that went on for days and I was feeling very tired and down.  Whether things are catching up with me or there's been some underlying stress I'm not sure (as I started new job straight from my temp one just a couple of weeks ago). I felt the need to unwind and relax.  I had to go out on Saturday morning so I went to Fabricland and saw some of their 'Swiss Rolls' like jelly rolls but with 20 strips instead of 40. Their patchwork fabric isn't pure cotton and it wouldn't normally use their fabric for patchwork and quilting, but I was drawn to this one with hearts and for £6.29 was a quick fabric fix.By chance my copy of Love Patchwork and Quilting came in the post with its little kit. (Oh no, it has Christmas makes in it).

Unwrapping the roll of fabric I used instructions from the Jelly Roll Quilts book and happily sewed strips together.  I then used my 45 degree ruler to make squares

This afternoon I joined them up. I've found some black fabric to border the quilt top.

But last night I did some English Paper Piecing triangles for the iPhone case that came with the magazine.  The pieces were tiny, my hand is next to the patchwork to give you the scale, just a bit bigger than my finger nail.  It didn't do my eyes much good, but I got there.  Now having to think about putting the front to the back, should be right sides together and turn out but the felt is so stiff, so I may sew right sides out with blanket stitch instead.

A bit more relaxed now and hoping for a better week next week.

Quilty Weekend

This weekend while being home alone (David away in Yorkshire, working this weekend) I'd already arranged to go to the Quilters' Guild Area Day on Saturday which took care of yesterday and today I took a trip over to Salisbury, Wiltshire to a workshop.

Yesterday's speakers were Jenny Barlow, who as well as being a hand quilter is also a collector of old quilts too, with some interesting facts about them.  The afternoon's speaker was Jo Colwill, from Cowslip Workshops in Cornwall about her history in quilting. Both had been keen on sewing from a very early age and it had always been an essential part of their lives.  Here are some of Jo's quilts that she had on display 

And of course, with traders there, there were some purchases too.

Some fabric quarters, little Indian charms and sequins and hand dyed thread.

So today's workshop had a Christmas theme (82 days to go, I think, scary!) decorating a calico apron.

Photo above taken in the bedroom mirror, but as you can see using mainly shades of green and yellow to stamp on the Christmas trees, stockings,angels and other bits and bobs.

Later in the afternoon we used spaced dyed fabrics as a base to stamp various effects, which was quite enjoyable

And using up the fabric paints left on the palettes to decorate card stock

More stamps to add to my growing collection (got a few already

A busy weekend so a quiet evening watching the box and getting myself together for work tomorrow.

Fresh Sewing Day - October

It's the last day of September as I'm typing this, which has been a busy month.  Finishing the temp job last week and starting a new job this week.  The evenings are drawing in so it makes the day seem to disappear quite rapidly.  I managed to do some bits and pieces in September though

From top right a Beach ATC for a Popular Patchwork ATC swap.  This little piece of applique is just 3.5" x 2.5".  I remade the borders for a sampler quilt (see Demolition Job) so its looking quite good, just have to sort out the backing fabric.  Bottom row is a boat block made for Bee Blessed and a drawing exercise, not knowing what else to draw at the time I used my workroom iron (its a small travel iron) as my muse.  And there's more

Digging out my Sizzix machine I took a large scrap of fabric, Bondawebbed it and after using the die I then ironed as positive/negative images onto a white background fabric.  The middle picture shows some aluminium shapes cut out on the Sizzix, I used a cleaned foil dish from a ready meal, not sure what I will do with those yet.  The pic on the right is a maple leaf block that I made from the September block instructions from Sew At Home Mummy's blog.

The Dress Up Dolly blocks are slowly progressing, taking it to Bourne Quilters to stitch.  All in all considering the work I seem to be getting something done. The only thing I didn't do was the circus theme challenge, I just wasn't inspired, but that's not bad.

For October? Hmm, having to think about that one.  I am going to the Dorset Area Day near Wimborne on Saturday and that will be followed on Sunday by a block printing workshop in Wilton, Salisbury by Jamie Malden of Colouricious.  I heard her speak in Exeter a few months back and so took the opportunity to book to go to the workshop, I hope it'll be fun.  There are a lot of Quilters' Guild events happening in the region this month but most will be in Devon.

I will try to get the backing sorted out for the quilt top.  I'd like to progress that more.

At the moment I'm not going to put pressure on myself as I settle into new job and will take my sewing opportunities as they come!

I'm linking with Lily's Quilts Fresh Sewing Day and if you've popped over to my blog from there - Welcome, I hope you enjoyed your visit to my blog.

  

My Mug

This post will feature my Cath Kidston mug that's travelled to various places of work, several sewing workshops and get togethers.  My previous work mug was broken and David bought me this mug from a china shop in York's Designer Outlet probably about 5 years ago.

It's been to work in Doncaster, Wakefield, then down south to Dorchester, Poole, lastly Ferndown and will be at Poole again, so it's been well travelled. 

As well as drinking lots of tea and coffee from it, it's also been a model, as it's appeared in a few photos on this blog.  I've also used it for an outline for drafting a mug shape for a birthday postcard

and on a couple of mug rugs.

So to my mug, I hope you like your new workplace tomorrow.

Books!

I don't spend anything for ages, then all of a sudden I get the urge to shop.  It was all the fault of The Quilt Show, as on their blog they shared a You Tube video of Angela Walters' free machine technique. Of course when on the internet one thing leads to another and I watched a few more You Tube videos, then I went in search of her new book called "Shape by Shape" Free Motion Quilting on Amazon.  It looked interesting, so a purchase was made together with a book I'd been pondering whether to get or not.  That one is "The Ultimate Guide to Art Quilting" by Linda Seward, also a new book released just a few months ago.  The books came today and both are going to be interesting reads, by the look of things.

And the third book?  Yesterday morning I went out to a local event, the Canford Needlecraft Fair, which had a selection of traders in various needlecrafts, books, artisans and demonstrations.  Amongst the people demonstrating there yesterday was Maggie Grey who lives locally and has written several embroidery books as well as editing Workshop on the Web.  She was demonstrating the use of die cutter machines (such as Sizzix Big Shot) to use in emrboidery projects.  So taken with the variety of uses for die cut shapes that I went and bought the book.  It will inspire me to dust off my Sizzix machine to have a play (now all I need is the time!).  Anyway in the meantime I have plenty of reading matter.

Working Small

Photos of what I've been working on this afternoon.  Not a postcard, but an ATC (artist trading card), which is smaller at 2.5" x 3.5", except mine is 3.75" tall.  This is part of a swap on the Popular Patchwork forum called Beach.

Not until you see it in my hand you can get the scale

This will be send to the recipient, Maria, this week.

Bonus Sewing Time

Now that I've been working full time for the past few weeks, my sewing time is a bit limited now. I'm having to make time for it and the way forward would be to decide on an evening at least once a week to sew.  It's just too easy with the autumn evenings to settle in front of the telly after dinner and surf on my iPad, then I get a bit annoyed that I've wasted the evening.

Anyway, this week I had a second interview with a local company that runs a payroll bureau and... I got the job!  I will be finishing my temp job in 2 weeks and starting my new one the Monday after.  It will be a new challenge as I've not done bureau work before, but should be interesting.

Having taken the day off so as not to be panicking about time, as I also had to go to Bournemouth to see the agency that put me forward for the post. I had an afternoon to sew.  Remember the quilt I demolished last month?  Well here's one quilt out of that.  I kept the middle section and rejigged the border fabric.  I've taken a photo and it looks quite good.

Well the iPad photo isn't too brill but so here's another one from a different angle

That's better.

It's a bit wider that a width of fabric so something will have to be inserted to make it wider.  Another design opportunity, and will have to thing about that one this weekend.

Suggestions for the other 2 strips from the original quilt top was to add Flying Geese.  I am thinking of deconstructing further and taking the blocks apart, swapping over and adding more to make a nine block quilt with narrow first border, flying geese border and maybe a third border.  Now, unstitching is something I can do in front of the telly without wasting time!

I also took the opportunity this week to make a block for Judith of Just Jude's Bee Blessed blocks.  For September it's a boat block, so here's my bateau

A lovely quick bit of sewing.

Have a good weekend.

Saturday Morning in Poole

Nothing unusual about that, I live in Poole (well on the outskirts), but this morning I took in a bit of culture and visited the Museum, not having been there for years.  To my surprise its FREE! I'll be visited there a bit more often now.

On the 3rd floor there is a display of Poole Pottery, from when Carters Tiles (which later became Pilkingtons) started in the mid 1800s up to when the pottery items took over from tiles and to almost modern day. I checked the museum leaflet which said that photography was allowed, so I've a few photos to share.

I'm not sure when the top tiled picture was made, but the bottom one was made about 1930 by Edward Bawden and was in the tearoom at the Pottery.

I also took some photos of vases made around 1930s and designed by Truda Carter, one of the pottery designers of the time.

And I loved these typically 1950's designed plates (they're about as old as me!)

And theres a lovely roof top view from the museum's coffee shop up the High Street

And to the Quay

More info about the Museum here.

Fresh Sewing Day

Another month down and August has been a busy one as I've been working full time for most of the month!  It was strange that as I wrote about my August aims that an agency contacted me about work, very spooky.  What else did I want to get done in August?

1    While at Festival of Quilts I will get some backing fabric for my Tubix Quilt top, see my post about it here.  I have the wadding for this already and hope to see if I can bag a bargain at the Festival which will go nicely with it and think about the quilting. See if I can make progress on this. - I did buy the fabric at Lady Sew and Sew, but haven't managed to get on with the quilt yet.

2    Have a sort out of my fabric and a good old tidy up.  I've got a lot of children's novelty prints so see if I can utilise them in any way.  There will be a table top sale towards the end of September (seems a long way away, but I'm sure that will come around soon enough). The table top sale has been cancelled. Some bits of my fabric stash has gone to the local Project Linus. 

3    I've joined Diane's (The Cheshire Quilter) daughter's Mixed Media Challenge on Facebook, which starts today.  See what the challenge is and have a go at that.  Oh yes, I've done that, the little elephant postcard

4    (This is a difficult one) Get a job!!!  I am signed up to local agencies and keep looking around, someone out there will want my amazing talents!!! I'm sure that will come right eventually.  Haha, although last on the list it was the first to get done!

So above is my assortment of bits and bobs from the top left, clockwise, is the stained glass bag, the landscape card made at Festival of Quilts, Silk painted card, block printed elephant postcard and sample piece, free machine quilted feather samples and lastly the end bolt of fabric for the back of the Tubix Quilt.

For September, then, these are my targets this month.
1     I will be making a start on a City and Guilds course module as part of a trial. I've quickly realised that I will have to keep looking at new Google mail account everyday to keep up with this.  I hope this will all work out.

2    An ATC.  Made postcards before, but now a smaller scale.  I've joined the Popular Patchwork forum's swap with the theme of Beach.

3   Sally's (Diane, Cheshire Quilter's daughter) Mixed Media challenge this month is Circus.  Nothing comes to mind immediately, but am sure that there will be a little glimmer of inspiration sometime soon.

4   See what progress can be made on my deconstructed (as it is at present) quilt.  Read about that here. 

5  Continue with my Dress Up Dolly blocks, 3 completed, 3 to do and think of some "filler" blocks to go with them.

Linking up with Lily's Quilts Fresh Sewing Day




Thank you for dropping by!

Demolition Job

Back in 2000 I took part in a Official Birthday Block swap organised by a lady who was then a member of BQL (British Quilt List) Yahoo Group. She was at the time about to celebrate a significant birthday, she was going to be 40 that year, and 16 of us joined up and as we had our birthdays in different months so the block swap actually took place once a month over 16 months, hence the Official Birthday, like the Queen.  My actual birthday is in November but my Official Birthday month was March 2001, when I received the blocks I requested which I posted about a little while ago, but here's a reminder of the quilt I made from the blocks, a photo of which I took a few months ago.

A few people in the group decided to make duplicate blocks of the the blocks they were sending to the Birthday Girls to keep for themselves and so did I. These blocks made a single be size quilt top.  I must have made the quilt top at least 10 years ago, if not longer, and get it out have a look and fold up again, not knowing that to do with it. As you can see there was a larger block in the middle, Bears Paw, which was a larger size than the others, which were 12" blocks, so there are some 3" wide filler strips dotted around to make the others fit in.

Not having a single bed now and the spare bed that it's lying on already has its own quilt (the cream bedspread is a cover when the spare room is not in use), there isn't really a use for it.  Yesterday evening while watching the television I unpicked it.

As you can see I've taken the two ends off. I will also take off the border fabric and will utilised those pieces to go on the ends of the larger quilt to make a lap size quilt for charity.  As the whether the two strips of blocks remain together or I take those apart and I think I may keep them together I might try to find some block designs which work with what's there to make another row and add a new border.  Does anyone have any suggestions to make it a similar size quilt to the larger one above?

So that's my demolition job awaiting rebuilding!

Playing Around

As I had most of today to myself I decided to have a go at the Sally McClure's Facebook challenge "12 Months Mixed Media", which started this month.  The theme is Animal, in any type of media, drawing, paining, photos, etc.  Having bought a set of Indian block stamps from Colouricious at the Festival of Quilts it contained an elephant so decision was made.

I photographed the set after I'd finished with the paint but they have been washed and they're not so pristine now.  I used some fabric with script and backed with some freezer paper to keep the fabric stabilised while I used some fabric paint to sponge onto the stamps.  Here's how the printing looked this morning

And some more

Later this afternoon I made the top sample into a postcard and then afterwards I thought of using some fabric pens to colour in bits of the elephants.

And this as well, which might be made into bookmarks.

I had some paint left this morning so used a scrap of calico to mop up, which was dampened first to spread the paint around. As I went into the utility room I found the spray paints that I'd bought from FoQ as well.

I got out a stencil and sprayed the gold and red colours onto another piece of scrap calico

That looks interesting, not sure what I'll do with it yet.

And another session of playing around that I did last weekend was free machining with a quilt sandwich of fabric I didn't like very much and some thread in a colour that I don't use.  This was brought about by reading Jan's postcard blog and seeing her lovely feather postcards.  I divided this large piece into postcard sizes and had a go

Bit wibbly wobbly, but you get the idea.

Then one evening during the week I did a bit more machining. But the samples were getting smaller and I got fed up with feathers!

And there's space for a bit more!