Some Finishes For This Year

I hope you had a good Christmas and looking forward to a Happy New Year.  This year has been a mixed bag of ups and downs with family illnesses, bereavements but also a wedding too and hope for a more positive 2018 year to come.  Looking forwards David and I have just booked a cruise for next December around the time of our 41st anniversary so at least its something to work towards. There may be some other good news too, but that will wait until further into the New Year, watch this space.

I did mention some finishes in time for Christmas and these were well received.  I made a couple of jumpers which I hadn't mentioned before (just in case the family had seen this).  Sophie and Isobel, my granddaughters like the Harry Potter books, in fact Sophie is HP made so a couple of jumpers were made which I can now share here:

This is Isobel's - Ravenclaw House (I found out later this should have been blue and bronze, but I think the bronze would have been difficult to interpret in a yarn colour.

And Sophie's - Slytherin House

(excuse the scissors, how did they get in there?)

David managed to source the badges, which I sewed on and they don't look too bad.  On Boxing Day when they received their jumpers they were worn straight away! However my grandson Leo has also recently discovered Harry Potter and almost devoured the books and looked a bit crestfallen that he didn't get a jumper.  Guess who will now be knitting a Gryffindor version!  The order went to Wool Warehouse which arrived yesterday along with a yarn pack for another project for next year.  Plenty to keep me busy!!

This is a Quarter 4 Finish as this was the Christmas knitting I couldn't reveal earlier (just in case).

I also put the finishing touches to a picture that I made at the Kantha stitching workshop a few months ago.  I bought a canvas just slightly bigger than the stitching.  I painted and mounted it onto the canvas so I'm pleased that its another finish, just have to think where it's going to go.

Really pleased with that and I may try another picture using this technique as it was so relaxing doing this piece.

I have made progress with a quilt I am making but just have to finish off threads and I've just ordered some fabric to do the binding, which I found was on sale and is in the same range. Hoping that comes during the week next week it may be a finish on Sewing Saturday next Saturday.

Back to knitting and this was finished on Christmas Day evening, so here is a sockfie.

I loved the pumpkin colours as I chose the yarn back in October and used Winwick Mum's easy lace pattern, though the yarn colouring is probably a bit busy for the pattern and perhaps I should have used a plain yarn, but I think it looks good and was a good pattern to follow.

Next up I started on another pair of sock starting from the toes instead of the cuff. The free pattern on Ravelry is by Louise Tilbrook.  Seemed to go ok until I hit the gusset and heel shaping and I don't think things are going right, so may need a bit of un-knitting (frogging) and starting again from the end of the toe increase.  Its a bit more of a learning curve but sure I will get there in the end.

This was the photo I posted on the Winwick Mum Knit and Natter group on Facebook.

My next post, which may be this evening or could be tomorrow will be a review of 2017.  Until then, have a lovely time, whatever you do for New Year.  With my best wishes for a 

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2018

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Just popping by to wish my friends a HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Hoping you have a lovely time, wherever you are and whatever you do.

Love

Sue  x

Sadly Neglected Blog

It's been nearly a couple of weeks and a lot has happened which I've not had a chance to spend typing at the computer.  I really miss that I can't post from my I-Pad as Google no longer has an app to compose blog posts.  Anyway, which David is watching American football catching up from games shown last night and will be seeing more of today's games I thought I would take the opportunity to spend time on the 'Big Mac'.

Week before last saw us go to Middlesex for the funeral of my Aunt and David and I went with my sister and brother in law.  My aunt had been having respiratory problems for a long time and the last two weeks were spent in hospital before she passed away.  She was my Mum's younger sister and was well loved by family and neighbours.  The service was taken by someone who grew up next door to my aunt's family and so knew my aunt well, which was a nice touch.  Anyway unfortunate circumstances lead us to meet up with cousins that we've not seen for a long time, must have been 17 years ago and it was good to see them all.

Last Sunday was our 40th wedding anniversary.  David had arranged for us to stay near Stratford-Upon-Avon.  We were able to see the Victorian Christmas market going on there although it was bitterly cold.  We managed to find the Nutcracker Christmas shop and we also had a look at the shop next to Shakespeare's birthplace and added to our Christmas decorations.  I joked before we went that I hoped to get a Christmas Bard, and David bought it for me!

There were Christmas parties being held at the hotel that Saturday and felt like gatecrashers going through the bar to the restaurant! That's the only problem with having a December anniversary!  Anyway, on Sunday morning we were greeted with this....

Snow! We put a brave face on and went to Stratford town centre and the roads weren't too bad, if really pretty with the snow covered trees.  Here's the view from the car.

Needless to say there some shops open, but not that many so we consoled ourselves with some coffee and cake in a lovely warm coffee shop and later went back to the hotel room to hibernate!  Any thoughts of going out to a nice restaurant to celebrate our anniversary were out the window and we stayed and had the hotel buffet dinner, but it was good to get away.  On the Monday we returned back home, leaving a little later in the morning fortunately once out the hotel car park the roads were ok to drive and the snowy scene on the roadside did look pretty.

View from the car again, this time with a promise of a wee bit of blue sky, but that didn't last long.  The snow line stopped at about Marlborough, where we had a coffee stop before heading further south to Poole.  I'll be there still won't be any snowfall for Christmas though!

Last month on the UK Quilters United postcard group there was a Christmas swap announced and I made a couple of cards one of which went in the swap, the red one on the right.  My card went out on Monday.  The one on the left has gone to my friend Brenda.

I received this one from Sharon on Thursday

On Thursday I went to the Christmas dinner with the Bourne Quilters and at the pub there were also my ex-colleagues from Borough of Poole so it was good to see them too.  Today David and I met up with a friend of ours for dinner, which means no cooking today!

This morning I made a quick postcard which will form a Christmas greeting so I won't show that here just yet.  I've also recently joined together some hexagons from last year's hexie swap to make a wreath shape which will be sewn onto a background, will make a table centre.

Will it be done in time for this Christmas?

Quarterjack Quilters' Christmas Speaker

Every December local quilt group Quarterback Quilters put on a Christmas lunch with a speaker in the afternoon.  I used to belong to this group before my move to Yorkshire some years ago but although not a member there are tickets available to non members to enjoy their hospitality and it's good to catch up with people I've not seen for a while.

The speaker this year was Alicia Merrett, whose work you may have seen in quilting exhibitions, usually known for her quilted maps.  There was some of her work on display and I took a few pictures and there are more details on her website.  Her talk was about the exhibition in New York in 2003 about the Quilts of Gees Bend and how it influenced her work.

For this not familiar with the Gees Bend quilts, these were naive style quilts made by African American women in small community virtually cut off from the outside world in whatever fabrics they had and there are some images here

I took some photos of the afternoon

 This was the intro from the slideshow presentation.

 Afterwards I took a couple of photos of one of Alicia's quilts

A close up shows the detail of her stitching, using contrasting and matching thread and different free machine patterns.

 The quilt above looks influenced by Gees Bend as well as curves and free machine quilting there is also the addition of decorative machine stitches.

 A map of a village at night, the bright colours pop against the black background, but again the coloured thread is used for quilting to give more interest.

There was a members' challenge for which I didn't take photos until they took the pieces down, so I caught a couple of small wall hangings before they were taken away!

 A lovely Christmas candle mat

And an equally lovely robin on a tree stump.

A lovely afternoon was had and while I was out David was at Corfe Castle signal box while the Santa Special train was running on Swanage Railway.  He already had a Christmas jumper from last year which he'd bought at the National Railway Museum and I found just the hat to go with it.

We're gradually getting into the Christmas spirit!

Post 651

Not sure what to call this post as its a miscellany of things.  Day out in Salisbury (nothing unusual in that as the city isn't a long journey from where we live), my birthday (what - another?) and more makings from the Stitched Sewing Organizers (apologies again, this a US book title).

On Saturday we went to Salisbury to the museum there which currently has an exhibition of the late Terry Pratchett's life and work and the artwork of two artists who worked on his books.  Terry was the author of the Discworld fantasy books who live locally to Salisbury, but what we hadn't realised was that there was a book signing event too with the signing of a new book called Terry Pratchett's Imaginarium by artist Paul Kidby. who was the illustrator of the Discworld books. The museum was bustling with fans of his books (some dressed like some of the characters in the books) but it was worth seeing including the display of his office.

As the museum was busy we decided to take this in two parts and went across to the Cathedral for lunch. It was a cold if brilliantly sunny day and this made most of the detail from the front of the Cathedral, even from a distance

And the photo below was from the quadrangle

We took the opportunity to see the Magna Carta, one of only 4 of the originals in the country. amazing that the writing was so clear and well preserved  having been written in the 13th century and it is housed in the Chapter House, of the quadrangle, which in itself is an amazing piece of architecture.

After that back to the museum to see the other parts of the building and seeing a gallery of Iron and Bronze Age and also Roman discoveries and artifacts from the surrounding Wiltshire countryside.  Also rooms with Salisbury history and ceramic and costume galleries with quilts. I was able to take a few photos without flash with my phone.

 The two pics above are the same quilt, and a map of one of the villages.  Below a Grandmother's fan quilt.  Sorry I didn't take much information here. Also there were a lot of examples of Downton lace, worked in Downton just south of Salisbury.

So after visiting there we moved on into the shopping areas and all the bustle of Christmas shoppers but we also took time to see the Christmas market stalls there.

My birthday was came and went (62 years now) but saving celebrating until David and my 40th anniversary in December, when we go away for the weekend.

I've made a couple more items from The Stitched Sewing Organizers book, one of which I'm quite disappointed with, but have found out that others on the Instagram feed have also had problems with. It's a boxy pouch and I had a fight with the fusible wadding sticking to the woven interlining, but when all put together the corners of the pockets on the side of the pouch didn't tuck into the seam allowance of the bag ends.  So it will require some re-working, but you know the feeling when something hasn't gone right in the process and doesn't end well either.  Either undo and start again or chuck it all and start anew.  Still deciding on that one....

I also made a Sliding Box which was quite a bit larger than thought.  I used Fast 2 Fuse for stiffness, which worked ok, but not as effective as pelmet Vilene would have been.  In spite of that it looked good and pleased with the resulting box.

So that's it for post 651.

Pouches, Folio and Other Makings

This week I had a couple of days off as well as my usual Wednesday day off.  Theres been some sorting of things around the house and the purchase of a new television - a smart one - to cover forthcoming birthdays, wedding anniversary and Christmas to each other.  Technology has changed so much over a short time but now up to date (for the time being).

However I've also had the opportunity to make things too.  On Instagram I've seen photos of people having made items from Aneela Hoey's book of "Stitched Sewing Organizers" (sorry for the Americanism - it is a US published book).  I bought the book back in August after FoQ as I couldn't see it there so had to be an Amazon purchase.  This is the pic I took back then with some yarn I'd also bought at that time.  It was when reading Jennie's Threads, whose blog I follow, that was the encouragement for me to have a go.

I haven't followed the SAL (sew along) as I've come into this late and I have also used what I've had and have probably not used the correct items to make what I have, but what I already have in stash. If you wish to know more the person who's organised the SAL, Penny of Tuppence Ha'penny Quits has details on her blog here.

It has encouraged me to jump in and make this small Handy Fold Up Pouch.  It took a small amount of fabric and interfacing so was simple to do.

 Front

Back

As you can see if has a flap that goes into a band on the front and it a size handy for some threads, or ear-phones - something small.  I've used this for some large needles for sewing up knitted items.

Next I made a small box container - the patters shows 2 small containers that fit into one larger and would be good as a stationary container.  This small one now sits to the right of my sewing machine, just handy for holding binding clips, pins and other bits until I can put them away in their proper places.

I had some, think it's called Fast to Fuse, to provide the stiffness to the box shape and also has a fusible glue to attach the fabrics front and back.  It was another simple project that just took an evening to do.

I also made a drawstring project bag, which had hexagon tabs at the end of the drawstrings.

This made use of the aboriginal style fabric that I had in purple with a grey contrast fabric at the drawstring channel.  There should have been fabric strings but I found that twill tap did the job just as well and I fussy cut some circles in the fabric pattern for the hexie ends.  It is padded out with a 100 gram ball of wool and the size just does nicely for a sock knitting project with yarn and circular needles.

I then went on to make another project bag but this time one for keeping cut out pieces in for sewing so that they don't go wandering!

 Front

 Back

Binding

 Although looking simple, this pouch involved vinyl, which I've never worked with but also making binding, which I have made previously but just joining strips end to end at an angle.  This binding worked cutting a square to make half square triangles and rejoining to make a rhombus then rejoining again before cutting a continuous binding strip.  Never made that before and took a bit of time to work it out but work it did and really pleased as it came in useful for this...

Pieces for the Fold Up Folio, which has two side pockets with zips, another pocket inside, pincushion and needle book

 Inside of the folio before being sewn to the exterior

 Finished folio

All joined together from the inside

I had a disaster right when I was pressing for the last time that I forgot the vinyl pocket (at the top) and melted part of it, only a small bit, but I don't fancy taking things apart to repair.  I may pretty it up with a bit of washi tape.

Of the five items made so far I think that the See-it-All pouch may be the most useful to me for all the little cut out pieces and may make some more in different sizes.  There are more items to make so watch this space, but I am enjoying this book and even though I've made a lot of bags and pouches over the years there's still something new to learn.

I am currently working on the Boxy Pocket Pouch, which will be interesting  attaching another zipped pocket to the side of a pouch.  See how that goes.

Two finishes

It was my Mum's birthday on Tuesday and I went to visit her yesterday for a short trip out to Nicola's Craft and Gift shop at Sammy Miller's Motorcycle Museum, a lovely drive out between Christchurch and New Milton.  As well as craft units and coffee shop there are some animals there too - donkeys. alpacas, a goat and several others. Anyway Nicola's shop had a sale so a chance to stock up with fabric.

Before going there I gave Mum her birthday present.  This squishy bear. This is one of my finishes for this quarter which I couldn't say anything about!  I have to say that although it was easy to knit the Sirdar Snowflake yarn trying to sew up wasn't easy but the effect is a lovely soft fabric.  After making the outfit, this was from The Bear Book 2 which has sporty bears I had found the first Bear Book which had some other outfits so may make something else to ring the changes. But I'm pleased and more importantly Mum's pleased so much so she share a pic on Facebook!

Amongst my purchases from Nicola's which wasn't very much I bought a bag kit.

I've made a lot of bags, pouches so you may wonder why I bought a kit.  I had reached a stitching hiatus and hadn't felt much like sewing of late so to have something where the fabric was already chosen and cut to size and all you have to do is just sew was what I needed and yesterday afternoon I completed the bag, which folds down to look like a purse, handy to take out and about.  The pattern instructions gave sizes of fabric pieces to make another.  I'm really pleased with something so quick and easy with the bonus of lovely cheery fabric too.

 The outside of the bag (the photo was taken in the evening so please excuse the phone's shadow!)

And folded into a purse.

I'm pleased to say that I have 2 finishes under my belt this week.