I've not been idle

After finishing my job last week I have been catching up with some sewing stuff.  I had to make a card for 10th Sept for Ruth's birthday - made in a rush last week and I have another birthday postcard for 25th September to make for Plum's birthday (that won't be in such a rush). So here's Ruth's postcard

This week my husband is at home too having had a hernia operation as a day patient on Saturday.  It will take at least 2 weeks recovery and he's resting watching dvd's and telly so I've taken to my sewing room and started on Monday with a pattern that I bought back in June from Quiltessential.  It has been difficult to get going with this and I should have known it wasn't going to go well when the first square was a 9" x 8" rectangle instead of 9" square - oops! The pattern instructions are in multiples to make different sized quilts from table runner to king size quilt. I cut out the fabric to make 2 panels to make 1 wallhanging, but found I didn't have enough of one of the fabrics and however I tried to fiddle with it.  In the end I have made 1 panel, which is quite wide.  So this will now be hung on its side as a long wall hanging instead.  In spite of whatever could go wrong did go wrong I and quite pleased with this quilt top.  Here are pics below.

1 panel just joined together above and below after adding the borders

The photo above shows how much fabric that I've got left as I intended to do 2 sections, as it turned out the one that I've made hung on its side will be enough.  Will have to get creative with what I have left.

I've also made an ironing board cover for my Ikea table top ironing board.  The original cover was quite disgusting with Bondaweb marks on it (from when I forgot to cover the web with baking parchment).  I had this lovely turtle fabric and also took the wadded cover of an old ironing board cover to add to the original wadding on the board.  I made the cover an inch bigger all round than the original as I thought it was quite skimpy in the first place and no longer have to battle with a cover that keeps falling off.

 One grotty ironing board cover above and below, nice new one with turtles on.

I also found amongst my UFO's a Mariner's Compass panel which I made yonks ago which was appliqued onto a beige background and that was it.  I haven't got most of the other fabrics now but I did have a bit of the red, which was some Rose and Hubble fabric.  Gosh, must have had that for a very long time.  Another wallhanging perhaps?  Think that might go in the spare room.

I am also starting work on a set of Bridges postcards, I think when signing up for this that it came under that category "seemed like a good idea at the time" as I am having trouble with this theme. I have 6 of these to do.  I will get there - eventually.

I have decided that I will back off the postcard making for a while and get done those that I have committed to.  I have a couple more cards of this year's birthday swaps, a black and white one (I'll not have trouble with that) and a Bit of Bling which at present stands at a whopping 18 cards (I'll have to get going on those - hope I have another week next week of not working).

I also managed to fit in a few appointments that I was meaning to get sorted when I finished work so quite pleased that I've managed to fill the week.

Harrogate Quilt Show

Last Sunday whilst David was working (yes, he worked all day Sunday) I was decided that I would go to the Great Northern Needlework and Quilt Show just outside Harrogate.  It only takes three quarters of an hour to get there and with the traffic being very quiet on Sunday morning it was also a pleasant drive.

As I'd only been to the festival of quilts a few weeks before I wasn't looking to buy anything but have a relaxed wander looking at the quilts and taking photographs.  Quite a lot of large quilts on display it seems more than last year. I also took in a talk by Barbara Howell on using photographs as an influence on quilt design.

Here are some favourites from the show.

A couple of the quilts from Clare Kingslake, in a collection of her quilts called "A Quilter's Journey - The Story So Far".  

I could not resist taking a photo of this quilt - a group quilt I think - of different rolls (influenced by jelly rolls), i.e. rollover, fig rolls, toilet rolls, jewellery roll. Quite cleverly done.

I also like Joan (from Barnsley Embroiderers) fun seaside quilt.

Also a group of strip quilts from Bolton Quilters (I can't remember the group's exact name, sorry). They did a collection of red and white quilted panels.

The Womens' Institute ran a competition sponsored by Makower Fabrics with the title "All things Bright and Beautiful" using a specific Makower collection of fabrics. I found there is a slidshow of the entries here. Here's a couple of wall hangings from that challenge below.

A lovely patched butterfly

And a drapers shop scene - loved the striped fabric used for the 50's style dress.

Of course a trip to a quilt show is not complete without a visit to the traders and their selection of fabrics (oh the temptation) and here's what I bought.

A metre of striped fabrics plus some fat quarters and I liked some glittery ribbon in silver and gold, which will come in useful for a "bit of Bling" postcards towards Christmas. I hadn't washed the fabrics I bought from the Festival of Quilts so they all had a light wash together.

I've now finished my temp job where I've been for the past 6 months.  I was sad to leave to company but I guess time to move on.  I hope that I'll have some spare time to catch up with some sewing and other jobs that have needed doing this week and see how things go with trying to get another job.

Blists Hill and Clematis Postcards

Still continuing my catch up from our holiday. After the Festival of Quilts and our return to Yorkshire we visited Blists Hill Victorian Town, which is a living museum.  We went there many years ago, but after the BBC recently showed the series Victorian Pharmacy, which showed the changes in the Victorian era through the pharmacy shop, in 4 programmes, we decided we could do a detour to visit there.

A lot has changed with the orginal building still being there, but with the addition of a newer street with haberdashery, hardware and fish and chip shops, post office and photography studio.  I could not resist taking photos of the haberdashery shop.

I'm having trouble with uploading the photos so here's an explanation.  The top photo is the outside of the shop, the middle shows the sewing machine sign to the left of the shop.  Inside were a couple of displays with sewing machines and other linen displayed around them.  One of the hand machines is used by the ladies in the shop (dressed in costume).

 I managed to find some quilted items too amongst the cottages at the museum (though I can't now remember which cottages they were in!). As you can see the top photo has a bed with hexagon quilt and also a crib with a crochet blanket on it.  the middle photo shows a cot with what looks like a crazy patchwork cover.  The bottom photo shows a chair seat with Suffolk Puffs (Yoyos) on top and on the floor is a rag rug.

Whilst I was there I saw a clematis plant growing against a wall and that was just right for my postcards which had the theme of "Something Purple", so it was just the right inspiration for that theme.  Below are my postcards which have made this last weekend and posted just a couple of days ago to swappers in the BQL Postcard group. I'd used a couple of clematis flower shapes that I drew onto paper then traced to Bondaweb and also cut out leave shapes backed with Bondaweb too.  The fabrics for flowers and leaves were hand dyed some time ago, but that gives a lovely variation in shades of purple and green.

This weekend I'm hoping to go to Great Northern Needlecraft and Quilt Show at Harrogate, so more photos to be taken.  It is a lot smaller show than the Festival of Quilts a couple of weeks back, but last year was quite enjoyable to take things at a slower pace at this show.

Festival of Quilts

On Thursday and Friday last week I went to the Festival of Quilts, the first time I've visited over 2 days as I've previously tried to get everything in a day.  It has grown so much that it is so difficult to see all I'd want to see and photograph and buy, of course (can't go to an exhibition without purchasing something.

One big thing I have bought (it has yet to be delivered) is a Horn cabinet like this one here. After having a desk made up of a worktop on some adjustable legs which in our old house was attached to the wall, but here is freestanding and does sometimes wobble if stitching quite fast, and it will be good to have a level sewing area to work on too. Other than that I bought some books and arty bits which took my fancy but not a lot of fabric.

Ok on to the pics. Here are a few favourites of mine.

Amongst the miniature quilts above in the middle of the top row is one made by my friend Janet

This one is Best in Show and Miniature Quilt winner by Kumiko Frydl.

I like the clothing section and these 2 coats I really liked - unfortunately I didn't take note who made these

Another favourite was Gillian Travis' Balkan Socks on a washing line - this is half the washing line-full

I also liked this one of the pottery kilns in Stoke - again I don't know who made this but here are 2 photos - the second with names of the towns in the Potteries area of the Midlands

I know who made this one though, it was Julie, who has a blog here

And the pansy above was absolutely gorgeous.  I am a sucker for blowsy flowers.

Just a few of the thousands of bonnets to commemorate the many women convicts who were sent from Britain to Australia.  And more were on the floor

It was just a brilliant display.


I'll continue with my catch up at the weekend.

A new blog

Just thought I'd mention that my daughter-in-law Mary has a new blog - Look What Mary Made.  She's only just recently started her blog and she likes crafty things, especially cross stitch.  What lovely talented daughters-in-law I've got!

The Wedding

Still catching up - today saw me back at work and the news that I have at least a couple of weeks work, so my employers haven't finished with me yet!  The temp job was only supposed to last 3 months, now I've been there 6 so anything is a bonus at the moment.

David has another couple of days, which have amongst other things, been catching up with shopping and ironing (he is such a hero!).

So weekend before last we have a lovely weekend enjoying Peter and Diane's wedding in Surrey (Peter is David's brother).  They've been together for quite a few years so when they said last spring last year they were getting married August 2010 seemed a long way off - how the time flew!  They were lucky enough to have the photos taken between showers as there was thunder outside during the service.

Here are a few of my pics from the day.

The happy couple

With the Best Man and Bridesmaid

With the Wild family (my son Alex took this photo)

And again

Doing the impossible before the wedding - getting the grandchildren lined up nicely on the settee at the hotel to take a photo of them in their best clothes! Freddie (3rd from left) had a cap with his outfit which Isobel (2nd from left) could not resist trying on for size.  There were some good ones taken, which my daughter in law, Carly, took.  She is a keen photographer and took loads of photos too and here she is trying to get one of the shots outside the church when I photographed her!

She did take a lovely photo of our children which I'll post sometime if she can mail me a copy.  It's very rare to get all 3 together.

Next time I will get to posting about the Festival of Quilts from last weekend. Just got to choose what photos to show.

The first leg of our holiday was to go down to Dorset for the day and stayed at my parents' overnight.  My Mum and I went to the Quarterjack Quilters exhibition at Upton House in Poole.  Took a while to catch up with people that I hadn't seen for some time, that I only had a short time to take photos.  So here are a few of what I did managed to take while I was there.

This is what I could not resist, small challenge quilts about 12" square I think, of black, white and one other colour and what a variety of quilts were produced.

There were also a lovely selection of giraffes, and I've just noticed that one has a hat on!  This was taught by Jan, who's speciality is making toys.

 This scrappy quilt contains teddy bear fabrics - didn't know there were so many! I can't say who made this as I can't remember.

And I really like the colours in this quilt.  This was displayed quite high under the picture rail in the house.

So just a taster of what we saw there.  It was a lovely sunny day too (nice to see the sun for a change) that we couldn't resist an ice cream after seeing the quilts.

An update

We've just come back from holiday, having spent 10 days away there's lots to catch up on, not least the unpacking and washing.  Thankfully, its a sunny morning so the washing machine is kept busy and no doubt there will be loads of ironing this evening.

I've been to visit the Quarterjack Quilters exhibition, then on to a wedding in Surrey, back down to Dorset to stay with my parents and catch up with friends and ex-colleagues.  I then went to the Festival of Quilts on Thursday and Friday whilst David ventured to places around Coventry and Birmingham.  On the way home we visited the Blists Hill Victorian Town near Telford.  So there will be a lot to post on the blog over the next week and hope that I can spend a bit of time each evening.

I was lucky to catch up with friends at the Festival of Quilts and Lis has a photo of us over on her blog here. I'd also met up with Janet from Barnsley and Chris, Lesley and Marion from Durham, and more. More from me soon.

Pennants and Bags

I've been busy sewing last weekend and also earthing out my embellishing machine to make a bag.  The pennants have been towards to "Pennants for Patchworkers" organised by the Miniature Group of the Quilters Guild of the British Isles and will be sold in a tombola at the Festival of Quilts later this month.  Here my little effort - 3 little quilted pennants.

The first is just wavy quilting with variegated thread on hand dyed blue fabric, which was quite quick and easy to do as I've done this on postcards before. (Please excuse grotty ironing board cover)

The next one I made was inspired by a magazine article in Popular Patchwork by Sheena Norquay who made some seasonal tablemats and I've pictured that next to the magazine.

Then on Sunday I made one with sort of Clematis flowers - raw edged applique flowers (the flower fabrics used are hand dyed pinks and mauves) and beads sewn in the middle of the flowers.

I took part in the Embellisher Yahoo Group swap with a small bag - 6" square - rather fancied doing that and sent this swap to Jenny in Wales and received a bag today from Anne in Hertfordshire. Hence the dusting off of the Embellisher machine. I should have taken photos in progress when making my bag, but didn't so may have another go as I quite like this technique.

I layered a felt base with wool roving, topped that with painted Bondwebbed and after applying that I chopped some bits of gold foil to iron on top of that.  On top of this I layered some fine chiffon.  I did some hand embroidery when I finished with the needlefelting.  Having made a cord strap and joined the lining to the bag I added a daisy button.

From Anne I received a lovely red leather backed bag, with some roving and yarn with sequins and beads on the front.  Inside were some findings which will come in useful for further bag making, no doubt.

This week we're on holiday for a couple of weeks first of all going to a family wedding in Surrey and hope for a nice weekend. After visiting Dorset and catching up with people we'll be heading up for Birmingham and the Festival of Quilts at the NEC.  I'll be visiting on Thursday and Friday this year - the first time I've visited over 2 days as last year it was difficult to fit everything that I wanted to there.