Christmas Pudding

With less than a month before Christmas Day, I thought I would show you a Christmas Pudding that I made.....

 

Were you expecting a real one?

I started this at Bourne Quilters the beginning of this month having had a demonstration by another quilter, Vera.  She supplied the fabrics, brown and cream metallic ones. Somerset Folded Patchwork pieces were arranged over a polystyrene sphere and pinned in place.  I found a Christmas plate yesterday in Sainsburys (do you know how hard it's been finding the right plate?) which did the job. 

All this squares of fabric folded into triangles are just the thing to do while watching the television of and evening. I was able to hold the points of the triangles using a binding clip while using thread to tack the top folds together. Arranging and pinning on we're quite hard on the fingers, but again it was a good thing to do while sitting of an evening.  

Christmas Postcards

After a hiatus of nearly a couple of years I've made a couple of postcards. The UK Quilters United group on Facebook has another sub group to swap postcards for this Christmas, so I thought I would join. However I made one postcard which has led to another one being made.  I've done these using reverse applique.

This is the first, a bauble

You'll have to excuse the glamorous surroundings, on my ironing board, propped against my travel iron. I folded gold ribbon to use as binding on this card and had literally half an inch left! The circle is used was traced from the rim of the mug that holds my pens, which you can see lurking behind the ironing board.

Today I made another card with 2 bells overlapping.  I used a large cotton reel for the head of the bell shape which I drew on paper and cut out to make a template, which I then drew onto paper and stitched through the paper onto the fabric. I then cut away the top fabric to reveal the others underneath.  I thought the green fabric was a bit busy, but doesn't look too bad.

Here's a pic of the back of the first card. Another view of my iron again

I'm pleased I can still make postcards.

Just a Quick Post

To say that my rainbow quilt has had 129 votes in the Bloggers Quilt Festival, which I'm really staggered by.  Ok, so I may not have won anything, but to know that other viewers have voted for my quilt and has come 6th in the ROYGBIV category has made me really happy.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, here's the quilt in question

Farmers Wife 1930's Sampler Quilt 4

The number of blocks is growing steadily, with taking time at the weekend for making one block here 

This is #24 Coral, with its off centre square in a star.  As with earlier blocks that I've made I've been able to work out the measurements of the block pieces to rotary cut and machine piece.  It came together very quickly. I did play around with other plains, but this dark green works well with the print.

I did a bit more sewing on Monday evening to make 2 more blocks

This is #78 Old Maid, the classic Old Maid's Puzzle block. There are 2 shapes in this, larger and smaller right angle triangles. I printed out the templates and used a two in one 90 degree ruler to cut the shapes accurately from 2" wide strips. I picked out the blue flower when deciding the plain cornflower blue contrast. Really goes well.

Being on a roll this evening I went for another block

This is #14 Betty, another simple block of squares and half square triangles and apologies for the not so brilliant photo, I tried hard to get the light right, but not always possible, especially in the evenings, but the background black wasn't a good move. I will probably use the mini design board as a background as the black was too stark.

I will add this post to the Farmers Wife 1930s page at the top of my blog, where you will find links to my previous posts.  If you are on Instagram have a look at #fw1930squilt set up by Kerry Green, who is also running the Sew Along. Just click on the link to the side of my blog, all the info is there

Baltimore Album Block 2 - Oak Reel

Very appropriate as it's Autumn and suddenly the leaves are changing colour and falling from the trees.  There have been some spectacular sights of the colour changing trees, but all too quickly the leaves will be gone.

So here's my second block, the Oak Reel from Mimi Dietrich's book Baltimore Basics.  

It wasn't easy to do the little curves in the leaves, but with some clipping of the curves and using temporary glue pen to shape the appliqués they managed to keep their shape.  More little berries, 16 of them this time, which were easy to lose until attached.

The batik fabric I bought from Doughty's some time ago, seems to give the impression of a wet Autumn day, makes a nice backdrop to this block

Next block will be Pineapples, which will involve applique from the reverse of the background fabric. See how that goes.

Farmer's Wife 1930's Sampler 3

I've still not tackled more foundation piecing so these two blocks are worked out by measuring, rotary cutting and machine piecing.  I will have to get a handle on the more complicated blocks, but given my time constraints at present to get two more blocks completed is an achievement.

So here they are

The top (pink) one is (no. 79) Patience, I have to admit a bit of cheating with the patterned pieces, cut 2 squares and 2 rectangles instead of of 6 squares, but don't tell anyone ;o).

The bottom block is (no. 94) Susannah, a block which I am very familiar with, having made this a few times, seeing as the name of it is as close to Suzan as I'm going to get!  I like purple too, so this had to be a block with purples in (or shades thereof). Again rotary cut and machine pieced.

Do you like the board that I've displayed these on?  I found on You Tube a tutorial on making a mini design board by Lori Holt on the Fat Quarter Shop here

I didn't have the foam core board that she uses, but I did have the middle of a fabric bolt which was made of corrugated card.  As it was a long rectangle I cut in half and joined the two halves side by side and taped together well, although it does bend slightly in the middle because of the join.  I used a glue gun to attach the wadding (batting) to the board.

I used 2 strips of fabric to make the binding and had some of the strip left over so that made a hanging look to put neatly away when not in use (that's the theory, anyway). The binding strip was glued again using the glue gun around the side, top and bottom of the board, the loop was also glued on.  Using this to keep the pieces together will be handy in putting more of the Farmer's Wife blocks together. especially when the pieces become very small.

Here is another picture of the board with another block, Sarah, which I shared on another post.

Being as the days are shorter, there probably be more shadowy pictures, I try not to get too much of i-Phone, i-Pad or camera in the pics, but sometimes it's just impossible.

Bloggers' Quilt Festival

I've decided to enter my small quilt, made at a recent workshop, into the ROYGBIV category of the Blogger's Quilt Festival

 This the the front

 The back is pretty rainbow-y too

And here's a close up detail of the stitching applique circles, and a few sequins.

I love it so much that it is hanging in the bedroom, just love the colours.

Read more about it in this post here.

See the post about the ROYGBIV category of the Quilt Festival here.

In Other News This Week…..

Last Saturday saw the Dorset Quilters' Day at the Hamworthy Club in Canford Magna near Wimborne with two speakers Gwyneth Rose and Claire Passmore, both art quilters with different routes to their craft.  Gwyneth grew up in Hertfordshire who didn't achieve high enough grades to enable her to become a teacher and later became a mature student to realise that career later in life. She found English Paper Pieced hexagons in the 1970's when a teenager, then learnt more about quilting which lead her to being an unqualified teacher and the university courses to get to her goal of being qualified.  She started experimenting with rust on fabric and her work is influenced by industrial scenery.  She doesn't have a website but has a page with gallery pictures on the Quilters' Guild website here.

Claire Passmore, the second speaker, learned how to quilt when she relocated from the UK to South Africa for a number of years.  She now spends her time between the UK and New Zealand and teaches in both countries.  Again she learned traditional quilt making before exploring art quilting.  She taught a workshop last Sunday, which I didn't attend (unusual for me) but her quilts were really varied. I took a photo of a couple of them here and she has also has a website.  She has a blog, where she has written about the Sunday workshop.

Sunday was busy washing out fabrics from the past few weeks (from Pauline's Patchworks where a did a workshop 3 weeks ago, last Monday evening's speaker evening and Saturday's quilting day).

I also won one of the raffle prizes. an Advent calendar panel, which I made up last Sunday afternoon

And on Wednesday I looked for a large piece of Christmas fabric to go on the back.  I didn't have any, so I made the back from several pieces of fabric

I'll finish off this afternoon.  It may go to one set of grandchildren, depending who'd like it.

Progress this week on the Baltimore Album block

Seven berries stitched, nine more to go. Coming along well.

We had a delivery from Ikea yesterday of some shelf units to go in my room.  One had been made up but now debating whether the Billy bookcase we ordered will fit in too.  Might mean a bit of juggling around. More about that later.

Farmers Wife 1930's Sampler, no. 2

It should be 'An Addie Disaster'!  When I first got the book I wanted to try the first block, Addie.  The pieces looked simple enough so I machine pieced this and although careful with my piecing it puckered when put together. That was disaster no. 1, which is the top yellow,green and red block.

Disaster no. 2, the bottom block. The flying geese in this are heading in the wrong direction. Although the blocks look good and I foundation pieced the block it is totally wrong and I only noticed that when ironing the block this morning. Oh well, may be third time lucky.....

However I made this block on Wednesday called Becky (no. 12), which could be rotary cut and pieced.  Nice and simple, small progress has been made.

Yesterday morning I came across a YouTube video by Fat Quarter Shop of a mini design board demonstrated by Lori Holt, of Farmhouse Vintage fame.  I think one of these could be really useful in keeping small pieces together while constructing so I may make one of these.  Another handy thing I've found which I hope will help with making the Farmers Wife blocks was an A4 pad of 50gsm Layout paper, which is considerably thinner than normal computer paper but goes through our printer quite well and will reduce the bulk in paper foundation pieced blocks.

Which just goes to show, no matter how experienced you are, there is always something new to learn!

Two Finishes

I've now finished my rainbow wallhanging, from last Saturday's workshop tutored by k3n having worked on it during the week, yesterday morning and this morning.  So here it is

 It's not wonky at the top, it's just my photography!

And here's the back with hanging sleeve and label (I've impressed myself here!)

And a close up, where I've stitched some "bubbles" and added small circles (I traced around a couple of cotton reels onto Bondaweb for those). I also added a sequin arc for a bit of bling.

Here's what the rainbow was like before I added the backing and trimmed down.

Lastly for this piece, I bonded the backing fabric onto the wadding so it covered up all that lovely stitching.  For those who like to see what the back was like before the addition of fabric, here it is

I really enjoyed the freedom of making this piece and the workshop was good too.  

The second finish is the first of my Baltimore Album blocks.  The book I've used, Baltimore Basics, by Mimi Dietrich, has very comprehensive instructions and, stitching when I can, was this

My first Baltimore Album block. It's not perfect, but it doesn't look too bad either.

Fired on by this I started on a second block tracing the outline of the pattern onto background fabric and the appliqué pieces onto freezer paper.

All cut out and glued with a Sewfine glue pen onto the back of the freezer paper and ready to sew on. You will notice that I haven't yet cut out the red berries just yet.  I think that may be another evening to cut out, gather and press all 16 of them!  Ironing the oak leaves have proved quite challenging this afternoon.

Nice to say that I've finished something!

Saturday Workshop

I went to a workshop at Pauline's Patchwork in Dorchester.  The class was tutored by Quilt Artist K3n, Kathryn Chambers, called Stitch a Rainbow.  The morning was taken up with cutting and layering 0.75" strips of fabric in, as the name suggests, in a rainbow of colours.  Some ladies in the group made a lot bigger pieces but for me my piece was around 23" x 10", as I didn't want to spend a long time on agonising over colours, and I did get to some points over the colour choices where it became difficult. After a lunch break it was time to sew.

I think there could have been a less marked contrast between the yellows from golden yellow to lime yellow, but not bad.

The stripes, attached to wadding needed to be stitched down, starting with a straight stitch where the strips overlap. More stitching was added, with some fancy machine stitches added.  I've stitched from the bottom purple strips and got as far as the yellow strips, by the time the class ended.  

More to complete with the addition of some free machined 'bubbles' that we were shown, together with some Applique circles, which I think will added a bit 'extra' to this piece.  I'm looking forward to working during the week on this piece.

Old Quilts

Yesterday I started a clear out of the built in wardrobe in my sewing room.  It seems very congested at the moment and I do need to clear some stuff, so I've got out some older quilts from the top shelf and laid them out onto the bed for a bit of airing. I thought I would take this opportunity to show you a couple of quilts I made a long time ago.

This is quilt was a mystery quilt using Debbie Mumm fabrics (so this does date this quilt, this designer hasn't had a fabric range for years) which was run by Bramble Patch in Weedon by post.  At the time I saw it advertised in one of the quilt magazines and I liked the style of fabrics.  I can't remember how long the mystery went on for, but had a standing order and each month was sent a pack of fabrics and this is what I made

Before being stuck at the top shelf of the wardrobe it did drape over the recliner chair in the living room.  It's size is 52" wide by 63" long so would fit a single bed, though we don't any single beds in the house any more.

Here's a close up

and another

They were lovely fabrics and even getting this quilt out makes me smile

And I even made a label too

There we are it was made between July 1999 to May 2000. Wow, finished that over 15 years ago!

This small quilt. just 24.5" square doesn't have a label (tut,tut!), but as the shop where I got the idea from closed about 2005/6 its probably about 2004-ish.  Another collection of fabric, this time from Thimbleberries, who made country style fabrics. to make a nine block quilt of 6" blocks. These were using a fat quarter pack.

Although I had the idea, I didn't have a pattern so it was a case of searching for quilt blocks that would easily convert to that size.   There is a mistake in one of the blocks, I know it's there but I'm not going to tell you where that is.

 Here's a close up of one of the blocks and the sashing.  I didn't want plain square cornerstones in the sashing, so added small triangles and I remember those were fiddly but added another dimension to the quilt. Can you tell by now that I like stars?

There was a quarter left but wasn't big enough to back the quilt so added another fabric to 'frame' it.  As I said no label, but it did have a hanging sleeve. I think I may put this right and get that done sometime soon.

I hope you've enjoyed these old quilts.

Going Traditional

As well as working through the Farmer's Wife 1930's sampler blocks, I also taken to making a Baltimore Album block because the Bourne Quilters wanted to make some blocks I have, reluctantly, joined in with this. I bought the Album book by Mimi Dietrich from Amazon the same time as the Farmer's Wife one and have read through some of the book while on my daily commute on the bus.

Before I attempted my first block, at Bourne Quilters we had a go at making a ruffled flower, the cream one on the right.  I had another go with the pink fabric.  The ruffled flowers are made with a long narrow strip of fabric with gathering stitches made in a zig zag and pulled up. The gathered strip is coiled and stitched in place to hold it together.

Then I made a start, first of all the strips going across the middle (should be used to that having made all those small narrow strips for Jacquie's quilt).  Then using freezer paper shapes, cut and turned the seam allowances on the appliqué pieces with the help of some Sewfine glue.

In my room is a bed settee, so clearing a space there and placing a couple of cushions on the floor I had a small cushion on my lap to rest my sewing on.  I'm finding so far that I'm enjoying hand stitching, but I can't work on it for too long, so I put the sewing down and do something else, then get back to it later, which I find works best for me.

My equipment.

A bit more sewing and a small bag of appliqués ready to see

In the book it suggests making a block a month for 12 months so that you end up with enough to make a quilt.  Hmm, have to wait and see if that happens, but enjoying the experience so far, which is surprising me, as I dint think it was my thing.

Mini Quilt Swap

Back in April/May on UK Quilters United group on Facebook, a mini quilt swap sub group was set up to make mini quilts to swap in September.  I was assigned my partner to make and send a quilt to and with basic info about likes/dislikes and through seeing various posts on Facebook was able to "stalk" her to find out more.  As she has her quilt now I can reveal how I made the quilt.

My partner is Jacquie from Guernsey and by chance she happened to take a photo of the floor of her daughter's Victorian house, which instantly gave me inspiration for the design here

I then did a rough sketch before drafting the design onto some freezer paper

From the info I had I knew that she liked butterflies and I had just the fabric a pink background with mauve, yellow and blue butterflies. Along with a batik with butterflies I then went on to choose a fabric for the "grout" for the tiles and thought a deep purple would set it off.  Only trouble was I have just enough fabric to squeeze out half inch strips to make quarter inch tape to go on the quilt.

I put the drafted drawing under some stabiliser to put the fabric pieces onto and iron on to hold the fabrics pieces together

The inner square was just too small so a border with the dark purple strip and the deep pink cornerstones made it to 15"square. I then added the quarter inch strips.

Before quilting

After quilting and with the binding.  I did find some pieces of butterfly fabric to put on top but did I take a photo after then? Of course not!

Label on the back

A few bits and bobs to put in with the quilt.

Jacquie received her quilt on Monday and she is delighted with it and knows exactly where she will be hanging it.  Meanwhile someone else in the swap was making a quilt just for me.  

Here it is

Some lovely flying geese, my favourite quilt block.  The greens will go well in my room and the orange  geese just add an extra pop of colour.  This came from Mary in Bodmin, Cornwall.  Just down the road from Bodmin is Padstow

She included a lovely linen tea town from Padstow in the style of those old fashioned railway posters.  Far too good for drying the dishes, we will have to find a home to hang that too.  Didn't take a good photo of that, save it for next time. 

She owns an internet shop called Patchwork Dreamer, with some lovely fabrics. Temptation indeed!