I'm a lucky girl

I'm back from sewing camp - had a great time as usual - due to all the lovely people I met up with (and those I went with). My sewing desk did get rather messy - but I got lots done and I will post photos of the projects and what other people made.
The Jacksons (as they are called) each made an owl - they did make us laugh... I even had a dream about owls - I rescued a baby one.

And here are my cracked tile blocks laid out. I will post another photo of it finished - with borders.

And I've won some fabric on a blog - the blog is Greenolive. It's a great site and she's a very talented designer.

So after this quick post I really need to sort out my sewing room - it really does look like a bomb site.

Holiday time

I've had a great holiday. A lovely Christmas and New Year, met up with friends and got lots done. Best one for ages.

I've been brave and decided to sign up to the 2009 BQL challenge. The idea is that you make a 12 inch square quilt each month. Kandy published the instructions and you learn lots of new skills as the year goes on. I really like the challenges as it encourages you to try different skills and see if you like them without having committed to a large quilt.

Now the dreaded January New Year's Resolutions. I'm still pondering - so when I've decided I'll let you know...

Last week

Well - I did a few things last week that I forgot to share with you all. And even after this posting there are a few more to come.

The photo above are of some oat and raisin cookies I baked - they managed to last for both a visit from the in-laws, a night with the quilting group at my house quilting and a husband with a hearty appetite.

Here are some of the purchases I made at Malvern. These packs were just £5, 8 pieces about 24cm square. I bought these for one of my fellow quilters who's after a variety of black and white fabrics.

And here are my fabrics I bought - the ones above are for my stash.
The bottom ones are for my pink quilt - circles and squares again.

And finally here's my experiment that didn't work. Can you even see the organza next to the printed A4 sheet? The idea was to see if photo transfer would work on organza and would show up - but as you can see it doesn't work. I'm back to screen printing in gold - which I know will work.
Finally - 'hi' to all of you who went to Quorn at the weekend. I know some of you are keeping an eye on Market Bosworth via my blog. Please feel free to stop by and say 'Hi'. And for those of you who went I'll see you in the summer.

Hello...

... sorry I didn't realise I hadn't posted for so long.

Not been up to too much lately. We had our class at Bramble Patch and our tutor, Bren Boardman told us about an exhibition she has on in Rugby - have a look at her site for more info. I'm hoping to be able to go along next week.

Tomorrow I'm off to a Quilters Guild Region 11 day at Kenilworth - I'm even baking a cake for it - bit of a rare event. I'm not too sure what to expect as I haven't been to one before - but as it'll be full of quilters I'm sure it'll be great. I'm going with a couple of the girls from our group so it's bound to be a great day. We're also going to hand over the neo-natal quilts we made for their challenge - it'll be great to see what other people did.

I also got the latest issue of Selvedge yesterday - it's such a lovely magazine. Please do go and have a look at one if you haven't seen a copy before.

Did any of you notice Patti's blog being reviewed in the latest British Patchwork and Quilting magazine? She didn't know it had been included so I've posted her a copy of it - I hope she'll receive it early next week.

Sorry they're aren't any photos - but I'll take one of my cake (if it looks OK) and some of tomorrow's event.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Getting on...

It's surprising what you can get done when you ignore all the other stuff that perhaps you should be doing. But I've managed to get the main part of my quilt pieced now. I don't think the photo really shows the true colours - the band across the middle should be red and it looks a bit pink to me. I think it still conveys the idea of the colours moving across the quilt.

Planning the border may take a few days as I like to work out what I need to cut - and then walk away and then double check if my calculations are correct and also check if I have enough material. I also need to have a think about whether to hand or machine quilt. At the moment it measures 39 by 51 inches - so even with a border it's not too large - well not compared to the last one.

A huge thank you to all of you who posted such nice comments about my last completed quilt. It's so nice to know you're all out there. I do reply to comments posted but I know some have the settings so this isn't an option.

Thanks again and I'll keep you posted.

Sunny weather

Honestly - we've had sun for a day and a half now. This means everyone has dashed out to mow their lawn - if they were anything like ours it was 2 foot long in places. As you can see from the photo above the garden is very wild. For those of you who've been watching the Tour de France from London you too will have seen that we've had sunshine. You can't believe how wet it's been - when it's rained it has rained for hours at a time and really heavily - there were even hailstones in some places. We have another show in the village and it had to be cancelled as the ground was so wet and it was thought too many vehicles (lots of horse boxes) would get stuck. Hope you're all having the right weather for the season you're in.

Anyway I have been crafting. I've made another raggy cushion. This one is for a demo I'm giving at our sewing retreat at the end of the month. I've still go to write the instructions but I don't think that'll take too long.

I'm also STILL hand quilting my rather large quilt - but the end is in sight. I'm on the final border now. My aim is to have finished the quilting by the time I go to sewing retreat and then to put the binding on whilst I'm there. I made the binding up last time I was there with scraps - and I've just measured it and it's 1.5 inches wide - ohhhh I think it's going to be tight but I'm sure it'll be fine.

I'm still amazed by the number of red dots on my map and the number of hits on my page - I'd love to hear from you all.

The festival.....

Hello - sorry that I haven't blogged much this week - just a bit busy. Anyway at last we've had the festival and I think it went rather well. The first photo is of our raffle quilt. The second one is of the raffle cushions -the idea was you paid £1 and could pick 2 cushions as the ones you wanted to win and put your ticket in that bag. The final one is of Linda's quilt that won 3rd prize at Trentham.
I was really pleased that Jane (Sew create it) made the effort to come along and have a look. It was so nice to meet her at last.
I'll be able to update you all soon with how much we raised and where it's going to and why soon. But now I'm rather tired and also starving - we've succumbed to an Indian takeaway - naughty but nice.

Ohhh - just to let you all know Maggie Grey now has a blog - please have a look and keep an eye on it - I'm sure it'll be really good.

Humid days

Well - we're on about our third unbearable humid day. It's really hot, close and cloudy. However the plants don't seem to mind; although I think they could use some rain. Above are the geraniums in our front garden and below are my fantastic poppies - the are big and blousey.


And this lunch time in the village the garden of Michaelmas House was open - it's beautiful; very cottage garden. They also have a studio at the bottom of the garden where they display sculpture and paintings during the summer. The shop is great - a really good range of items and something to suit everones pocket.


Thanks again to those of you who are sending comments - it's so nice to hear from you all out there.

Day out tomorrow

Tomorrow I'm off for a special day out. It's the launch of Thefold magazine at Ironbridge. The day comprises of both an exhibition and a lecture by Laura and Linda Kemshall and Catherine Nicholls. I think it's going to be a great event and I hope it'll help me with trying to grasp the concept of sketchbooks which I seem to have a bit of a block with. So I hope you'll have a look tomorrow and see what it's been like - I'll do my very best to get some better photos this time.
I also should add a bit more about the Linus Day - can you tell I was a bit tired when I was blogging that evening? The day is really good. You can just potter along at yourv own pace and have a good gossip. The fabrics are provided - or you can always bring along your own. You are also more than welcome to take some home and carry on with a top or quilt one or bind it - whatever you'd like to do. There's no whip cracking about what you've got to have finished at the end.
Can I also tell you about how freaky the weather is today - after it being torrentail rain on the Bank Holiday Monday and about 8 degress - today it's been bright sunshine and about 23. It's no wonder the British are obsessed with the weather.

Malvern 2007 and Flo update

Hi to all of you out there. I'm still getting very excited about the red dots on my blogging map. So thanks for looking and I hope you like what you see. I'd love to hear from you all.

Flo is having a great time now in the garden - without being supervised on her harness. She still hasn't worked out that plants aren't solid and she can't use them to stand on. It's very funny to watch her running around and bouncing chasing bees and birds. As this is yet another Bank Holiday weekend so it's raining - but she doesn't seem to mind it at all.

I'd also like to highlight a new forum to you all - The Quilters Toolbox. Please have a look and have a chat with fellow quilters.

I thought I'd share a few more photos from Malvern - this time I'm going to focus on those exhibits that used hand dyed fabrics. You'll see they've been used in lots of different ways - I'm sure you'll like them:

Oaks & Ferns - by Mary Button. A great example of hand painted fabric. The colours are great.

Black and white by Janice Croft - a collage of printed and dyed fabrics.

Timbuktu I by Christine Restall. A really fantastic piece of work. A good example of how to mix both hand dyed fabrics and African fabrics. A very interesting piece of work to look at.

Next year the theme for one of categories at Malvern is 'Architectural Inspiration' and to promote this they had the following two examples. This first piece is called Prague by Lee Brown. This inspiration was the Rider's Staircase in the Royal Palace, Prague. A very precise piece of work.

Another piece by Lee Brown titled Sagrada Familia - inspired by a trip to Barcelona and the work of Gaudi. Another great example of the use of hand dyed fabrics and accurate piecing.

'Indigo and sunflowers' by Delia Cecil. After dying a piece of fabric Indigo the image of a field of sunflowers resulted. The outline has been machine embroidered and a variety of threads used. I really dramatic work that deserves a closer look.

Going with the flow 7 - by Margaret Davidson. A very free flowing piece of work using hand dyed fabrics and diverse stitches.

Simply Pink by Kathy Turner highlights the exhibitors great skill is graduation of a colour using hand dyed fabrics.

Asterisk by Ann Jermey. The technique of spray paining is used here is is really impressive.

In my opinion this is one of the best quilts in the show. Winter - Wessex by Liz Heywood is influenced by the Dutch artist Tom Schulten. A really great piece of work - I don't think my photo really does it justice.

I hope you like the examples I picked for the use of hand dyed fabrics and can see the very different ways they can be used. I hope some have inspired you to give it a try.

7 random things....

Many thanks to Jade and Jessica for tagging me. The idea is that each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those who are tagged need to write on their own blog those 7 facts as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog.



So here goes:

1. Whilst at senior school I inadvertently dyed my hair pink. It was in the days when Toners and Shaders were just on the market. I thought the old one had washed out - but it obviously hadn't as it reacted with the new one and went pink. Luckily it did wash out over a period of time.

2. I got married (very young - child bride) in an emerald green dress. I looked like a corpse in white as I'm so pale.

3. I used to work in a bingo hall. I hated it - smokey, very static carpets and terrible hours. I was so glad I only had to give 1 weeks notice.

4. I am a tea monster - I drink gallons of it, but at least I'm on the de-caff now.

5. Due to my addiction to tea I've developed the ability to sniff out a good tea shop from some distance. I think I might start a blog with details of my favourite tea shops. (Latest one was "Fresh Basil', Strutt Street, Belper.)

6. I fell over when I was about 7 and smashed out my front teeth - they were left hanging on a piece of skin. The dentist refused to pull them out so my Dad had to. It was very bloody but better than them flapping in the wind.

7. I'm rather messy. People at work are surprised about this but I can assure you DH is well aware of my tendency to pile things yup and never be able to find anything. I usually end up having to have a really good tidy up and always surprise myself with what I find.

Now - the lucky 7 who I'm going to tag:

Jane at Sew create it

Print & Pattern

Marisa at Quilt Otaku

Florence's Attic

Downunderdale

Pod Bobbins

How about orange

I'll be commenting on all of these blogs to let you know you've been tagged.

I'll be back soon with photos of my class tomorrow at Bramble Patch and then of the Malvern Show on Sunday.

Have a good weekend.

Exhibition and other things....

Sorry I've been away for a few days - been busy playing with my Bubble Jet Set 2000. I must say it was really easy to use and there was no mess. I used a whole range of fabrics to test it out - linen, scrim, calico, silk fine, silk coloured, dyeing cotton and a synthetic silk. I treated the fabric, let it dry and then ironed it to the freezer paper. It was easy to put it through the printer - I printed 2 A5 images on each piece of fabric. When it was dry I cut each piece in half and washed one half in a gentle solution and then washed it at 30 degrees. I wanted to do this to see how the ink faded with washing and what the fabric felt like. I must say I was rather pleased with the results. When I've got it organised and in my sketch book I'll take some photos to show you. But honestly it was very easy to do.
Yesterday I happened across a really good art installation at the Leamington Spa Museum. It was by Jo Roberts, and was titled 'Finding a Way Through'. It's so different to anything else I've seen so please excuse me if I don't do it justice in my description. I entered the room and the first thing I saw was a large screen - shown on the screen was a movie of a river flowing and at the same time there was audio of the same. As the room was dimly lit the whole ambiance was very calming and tranquil. On the left hand wall was a geological interpretation of Jo's life - it was great and I think if you look on her site you'll get an idea of this. You were also asked to contribute to the installation by adding pebbles to the core samples that represented parts of Jo's like. As I said it's difficult to describe but it was really good.
I'd like to thank Jade for nominating me for a Random meme. I haven't forgotten but I'm trying to come up with a good set of 7 things - it's much harder than you think. But many thanks to Jade - I'm very flattered.
On the saga of the large quilt being hand quilted I am making significant progress - I'm actually on the first border now. However progress is made at the exclusion of most other things.
Apologies for no photos - I can promise lots next week. On Saturday I've got another class at Bramble Patch and then Sunday is the Malvern show that I hope to go to. It's not as big a show as the NEC (but what is) but parking is free and it's got a good range of quilts on show and lots of opportunities to buy.

Shopping finds....

Thought I'd share a couple of recent purchases I made. The first photo are my purchases from Wilkinson's - yes humble little Wilkinson's. I've learnt there are lots of good crafty things in the kids art section in lots of shops and Wilkinson's was a real find. You may wonder why on earth I bought them - well they're for my dying and printing classes - and as they were from Wilkinson's they were really cheap. I think this lot cost about a fiver.

Unfortunately I've rediscovered E-bay - but what a find these black Bakelite buttons were. I don't think my poor photo really does them justice but I'm really pleased with them - they're so delicate and beautiful.

I've also been playing around with some machine embroidery. The book I've been working from is 'Beginner's guide to machine embroidery' by Pam Watts. It's a slim but practical book .
The first sample has a backing of calico, with a piece of silk with various threads arranged on top and then stitched by machine. The second sample is the same process but with organza over the threads - this does make it much easier to machine and so I got carried away and used a number of threads - plain and variegated.

I cut up some of the first sample and machined the pieces to tags that I'll uses for pressies I'll wrap in brown paper. One of them was a bit wonky - DH said this showed they were hand made.... I resisted hitting him. I was rather pleased with the pieces I made - I needed a change from hand quilting.

Many thanks for the comments on my last post. Unfortunately my replies to you were bounced back to me - but I wanted to make sure you knew they were appreciated.

Have a good weekend.

As promised .......

As promised here is the pattern I'm planning to follow (from Popular Patchwork) but adapt for my orange and blue scheme. As you can see it's a diagonal pattern. As I said before I think I need to plan this very carefully otherwise it will end up a real mish mash.
The weather this Bank Holiday weekend isn't going to be great and DH is working Saturday and Sunday so I've got the perfect excuse to sew and only stop to eat. I'm really cracking on with the huge quilt - I've only got about 7 blocks to finish before I have to contemplate the borders. I'm going to machine some of it in the ditch - as it's at the edge it'll be manageable.
I also need to make some more bits for the sale table for the festival in June. I bought some magnetic catches for bags today - but I'm not entirely sure how you put them on... so any help would be great.
I also want to say again a big THANK YOU to all of you for looking at my blog - I'm still getting very excited when I see a new red dot appear in another country so thanks.

Shopping.... mail order

I wanted to let you all know about Strawberry Fayre - a mail order only fabric shop. The idea is you buy a set of samples from them of their whole range and when you place an order you staple or tape the sample to the order for them to match (this is returned with your order). The fabric is reasonably priced and the range extensive. As you can see I bought a few oranges as I wasn't too sure which one I wanted. I wanted to let you know how great the service was. When you order you can either ask for standard or urgent delivery (you pay a small premium for urgent). I posted my order on Sunday morning for a Sunday post collection and my whole order turned up on Tuesday morning - very impressive service.
I know the combination is a bit bright, but one of the things I'm trying to do is to be braver with colour combinations - for me orange and blue is brave.


This is also the start of making things for the sale table at the festival. So here are a few bags (just the right size for magazines) and some hearts with lavender (from my own garden).
The fabric was a real find. I was in Fenwicks in the curtain department and saw their remnant bin. Oh dear.... They had loads of pieces from their sample books - about 10 sample pieces for £1. So - as you can see for £1 I managed to make 5 bags.
I also bought some pieces left over from when they must have made curtains for customers. I'll probably use these for more bags.





I also wanted to say I'm still getting very excited when I see the new red spots on my map - thanks for viewing and commenting on my blog.

Magazines

I thought I'd share my views on a few magazines I like and what I like about them.The first Qulitmania is a French publication but is luckily for me in English language. It has great articles about international quilters and also good projects. The projects are graded and seem to use different fabrics to the ones I see in the UK.
I bought this from The Bramble Patch.

Quilting Arts is an American magazine I bought from The Bramble Patch. It's different to other quilting magazines in that it's focused on design element and getting you to think and see things differently. This one also has an international feel about it with articles by and about artists from all over the world. It also explains techniques that I've certainly not seen before.

Selvedge is just beautiful and really is a piece of art in itself - it's really special. The articles are easy to read but do make you think about other aspects of textiles. The ads are almost as exciting as the articles. I bought this one from Borders. I just like to sit and look at this one.

I would recommend getting all of the above magazines (I'm not on commission- honestly). I know I should be doing lots of other things but they really are a delight to look at, and we all deserve a treat - don't we.

I'd also like to say how much I've enjoyed seeing the red dots on my Cluster map grow and pop up in new places - it's really exciting and reassuring that there are people out there.....

Another sunny day...

Yes it's still April and it's still sunny.


Had a very nice outing to Staunton Harold today, as you can see from the photos.

I'd like to say a big thank you to all of who have sent words of encouragement to me about my blog. It's so nice to hear from you all and I hope you'll keep an eye on my site and see what I get up to. In the future I can promise loads of photos from the NEC Festival of Quilts (we're only about a thirty minute drive away - I'm lucky enough to be able to go for 2 days), details of the Quilting 5 day holiday at Quorn, updates on my classes at The Bramble Patch, details of the Market Bosworth Festival and general updates on my attempts at quilting and other 'things'. I hope you'll enjoy it.