BLOG 108

The best laid plans …. and all that! I was fairly sure what I was going to develop and achieve in my studio this week but, on the spur of the moment, I decided to go and visit my mother in the Southern Lake District for a few nights. Every year she finds the anniversary of my Dad’s death hard to cope with, so it was a good time to go. She is very well in herself, with notable improvements in her condition of several months ago. Although reliant on Oxygen and Zimmer frame, she is as well as I have seen her for a long while.  (And I have nothing but praise for Furness General Hospital - so maligned in the press of late - and for her elderly care package.)

So that’s my excuses out of the way, but just what I have done in the short time I have been in my room this week?

My Dual Image Jacobean wall hangings will have to be posted tomorrow for the Festival of Quilts competition at the NEC in Birmingham next month. Typically of me, I decided at the 11^th hour to add some detailed stitchery to the joining strips, to make them less obvious. To go about this, I went to my box of resource material and looked at my books, pamphlets and pattern packs for inspiration.

 

                                      Inspiration

 From these, I selected and doodled some ideas on a pad.

 

 

                                     Doodles

The strips I will be sewing across are long and narrow, no more than 1” in width so what I needed was a flowing pattern that required no stopping and starting. I tried several different lines.

 

                               Flowing pattern

I drew width lines onto a fabric sandwich and then tried some ideas with thread.

 

                                Thread practice

 Once I was happy with shape and flow, I took a deep breath and just ‘went for it’ as the popular saying goes. As soon as I had done about 6”, I reviewed my progress, knowing that, once committed, I had 3 horizontal and 2 vertical strips to do, not just on one quilt but on two. This was going to be quite a commitment so I had to be sure that it was right for the piece. It was and I have done it now!

 

 

                                             Detail

 Looking at the close-up above reminds me that I must remove all the cat hairs, fibres and fluff from the surface of the quilt!!

PRODDY RUG

The hand project that I took to do at my mother’s was something totally different for me. I wanted to try my hand at rug making, specifically to make a small rug for a bathroom to go at the foot of the wash basin. The things you get involved in eh!! I have chosen to make it with some of my stash of batik fabrics but I realise that this may cause problems for me to solve as I am going along.

 

                                              Fabrics

Requirements include hessian (I am using part of an old sack), ½” x 2” strips of fabric and a spring-loaded tool.

 

                                   Fabric and tool

 I have drawn a simple design on the right side and used the darkest of my fabrics to define it. I have also turned the raw edge over onto the RS and held it down with a row of fabric stitches close to the edge. This can be more clearly seen on the WS. I’m not sure that I am enjoying it but as a means to an end, it may grab my attention. So perhaps more of this in later blogs if I don’t lose the will to live in the mean time! Have a good week.

 

                            Simple design WS