BLOG 506

Blog 506

It’s more of the same this week. I have continued to make progress by preparing some more blocks for the Contemporary Sampler. These measure 5 ½” when trimmed so the individual pieces for the blocks are quite small and fiddly to handle. But that’s never stopped me yet so ‘here’s some I prepared earlier’ as the expression goes!

Four Patch

Card Trick

Maple Leaf

Rail Fence

I followed the same procedure of painted fusible, sheers and stitch until I ran out of black cotton thread. This halted my progress somewhat as I had to order some more and await its arrival.

Blocks with fusible

Sheers and stitch

Out of thread

I intend to cover the blocks with free-motion designs. All the darks will be done in the black cotton thread and all the light areas in off-white. And then I fretted about what colour to use for the medium areas. I recalled someone in the mists of time telling me that lilac is a good all-round coloured thread for general sewing as it goes with most colours. So that was what I chose in the end. This project will probably be continued next week … and the week after!!!! There’s a lot of work involved at each stage and although it probably only took you 5 minutes to read this blog, just remember that it took me many hours to provide the visual evidence of progress. Enjoy!

Free motion stitch 1

Free motion stitch 2

BLOG 505

Blog 505

We have had a mixed week weather-wise but it has still given me a pleasing amount of time in my room which is good. The garden is more or less looking after itself apart from a bit of weeding and some gentle cutting back. My husband spends masses of time on his little tractor mower to keep on top of the flourishing grass which in turn gives me even more space! (We used to have the paddock cut by a local farmer for his own use, but he decided early on that the quantity produced wasn’t worth his while!) So, with the relaxation of lockdown in Wales dragging behind the rest of the country, time is still very much my own and I can spend it just how I prefer to!

So this week I continued to concentrate on the Contemporary Sampler that I started last week. This involved drafting the sampler quilt blocks onto graph paper initially and that was straight forward enough. So far, so good! The problem was that my roll of graph paper was in Metric and all my rulers for rotary cutting were in Imperial!! So this slowed down progress considerably as I had to convert from one to another and use the 1/8^Th and 1/16^Th marks on these rulers!

Patterns

I also had to paint more fusible with watered down acrylic paint and leave it to dry completely.

Painted fusible

And then it was a case of cutting my collection of colourful polyesters into the required shapes for the various blocks. The design was then over-laid with the painted fusible so that the layer of sheers could be added. I continued adding the sheers haphazardly but also took into account the lightness and darkness of the various patterns.

Log cabin (and fusible)

Sheers

Log cabin and sheers

Ohio Star and sheers

The block was then put under the sewing machine and I used a black cotton thread and two of the decorative stitch patterns on my machine to define the block and the individual pattern shapes.

Stitching

The Sampler quilt continues to develop pleasingly but just sometimes you need to do some motorway driving with your sewing machine … at east this girl does! So I chose some fabric for a Linus quilt, cut some squares and zoomed them under the sewing machine, foot down. It is a good way of using up bits and pieces of threads from the bobbins and I use a smaller stitch length so that the seams are firm from using different weights of thread.

Linus squares

Linus sewing

Linus construction

Spools (bits and pieces)

BLOG 504

Blog 504

Didn’t it rain this week?! We had weather system after weather system passing over us and we watched the ferocity of most of them from the warm safety of our sunroom. The well in the paddock is now full and the garden has had more water than it knows what to do with!! Lots of the tall plants got battered but they are starting to pick up once more now that the sun is shining. We still managed our daily walk thankfully, finding a gloomy slot between showers. Most walks were exhilarating but the odd one caught us out and we got a bit wet! Rain is excellent news for me because it gives me time and space to go straight to my playroom and play!

This week I started to work my way through another project that has been in my head since finishing the ‘Contemporary Welsh’ quilt.

Contemporary Welsh

 I remember thoroughly enjoying the process of working with felt and adding the layers of painted fusible and sheers before embellishing the surface with stitch and, eventually, a soldering iron. It was great fun and pandered to my love of all things colourful! So this time round I am going to create a ‘Contemporary Sampler’ quilt. Having completed the miniature log cabin blocks in Liberty fabric last year, this will be another (easier and quicker!) way of showcasing the Sampler Quilt. Here’s a repeat of the process as a reminder and I need to add that I was inspired by the work of Susan Lenz. Here’s the story so far!

Fan block (Contemporary Welsh)

In preparation (corner block)

Mass production

Painted fusible

Adding the fusible

Coloured layer

Sheers

Sheer layer

Straight stitching

Outlining

 

Decorative stitch

BLOG 503

Blog 503

We have been through yet another week of lockdown. In England, things are starting to lift cautiously but, here in Wales, things are taking a bit longer. Suits me! I think I would be a bit nervous to be out and about mixing with vast crowds of people. We have rather got used to our quiet solitude and the accompanying tranquillity. That said, I do miss interacting physically with the immediate family and, while virtual messaging and chatting fills the void, nothing can replace the joyful spontaneity of close cuddles.

This week I have made another long wall hanging based on Sunflowers. I started on my lap in front of the TV and followed the same system as last week. I used both fabric and sheers to create the flowers and here is the sequence in pictures. This is for sale too so get in touch on dilys.fronks@btinternet.com if you are interested.

Ready

Cut and place

Sheers

Composition

Detail before sewing

Machine stitching

Detail during sewing

Close up

Close up 2

Sunflower wall hanging 11” x 35”

Detail

Signature