BLOG 533

 

Blog 533

 

This has been another week of variety which suits me just fine. Our torpid lockdown days follow the same monotonous routine so it is a joy for me to have numerous projects on the go in my playroom. I am there most afternoons and I can’t really express how uplifting it is to be immersed in colour, thread and fabric. I don’t know how others are coping with lockdown without a similar creative outlet. I don’t watch a lot of TV, just selective programmes which I can record and watch at my leisure so I have plenty of time to read and play….and build snowmen!! My efforts last week lasted no more than 3 days and this is what was left on the lawn. Yesterday I could have built another one after substantial snow falls and, with last night’s freezing temperatures, it would have lasted much longer too!

 

Not so snowman!

 

I have storage boxes full of teaching samples and projects that I have been unable to use or sell in the past so I am at the stage now where I am ready to re-purpose them or bin them! Some stuff has gone straight into the bin but there was one colourful picture that I really loved. It used to hang in a large frame above the fire place for over 6 years until the frame dropped apart with the rising heat from the fire. This has now become a large bag and it is something I will definitely use when I am allowed to attend my sewing groups again.

 

Bag 1

 

Bag 2

 

In the sorting out/throwing out process I rescued what I could to make small labels for my growing collection. They have not been bordered yet nor has a ribbon been added, but they are pictured below. Label 1: this was added to a piece of work made for my 60^th birthday by a very special quilty friend; it’s very special. Label 2: this is a section from a stitched textile which I made at Suzette’s. Label 3: this is made from a strip of off-cut fabric from the picture used to make the bag above. Label 4: hand embroidery in the style of Laura Wasilowski.

Label 1

 

Label 2

 

Label 3

Label 4

 

The multi-coloured quilting thread arrived this week so I was able to bash on with the strips for the Square Dance quilt.  This project has been an ideal diversion this week when weather conditions haven’t been favourable for our usual daily walk. I am at the stage now where all the strips have been quilted and they have been trimmed ready for reconstruction.

 

Square Dance quilting

 

Completed strip

 

Trimmed strip

 

In case boredom set in, I sent off for another jigsaw and here it is completed. It was a joy to do but it wasn’t without its challenges. As I was doing it I recalled that we used to attend balloon festivals in Bristol when the girls were small. If conditions were right (and often at 5a.m.!!), it wasn’t unusual for over 100 balloons to be air-borne at any one time. It was a spectacular sight. We are hoping to attend one in Yorkshire later this year if our covid circumstances improve, so it’s arms vaccine-ready and fingers crossed!!

 

Jigsaw

 

I am very fortunate in that I have always been a happy-go-lucky sort of person and I can find pleasure in the most trivial things in life. So this week, even though the local landscape is covered with snow and ice, I was thrilled to find that there are early signs of spring if you care to look. You can always trust Mother Nature to remain true to her rhythms and, as the days are lengthening, there’s nothing like a tree festooned in catkins to give hope for the springtime to come.  

 

First sign of spring

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BLOG 532

 

Blog 532

 

‘Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow’ as the song goes! It has been snowing on and off for 4 days and it’s still snowing now. It’s the drifting along our lane to the road that always causes the problem and prevents us from going out in the car…..But, as we can’t go anywhere anyway because of covid restrictions, it’s not a problem this year. Yay! The surrounding landscape looks seasonally pretty and pristinely clean and there’s barely a footprint in the garden. I love the look of it but I just automatically feel cold and our walking regime is on hold as we have to look after our hips!!

I have been fiddling a bit this week, waiting for various supplies to arrive so that I can continue to make progress on my main projects. On order are threads (Quilt Direct), Warm and Natural wadding (Empress Mills) and backing fabrics (Bombay Fabrics). My first fiddle was with the art cushion panel that I made a few weeks back and it has now been made into a cushion with an over-lapped back. It looks lovely in situ and cheers up the corner of a sofa.

 

Cushion front

 

Over-lapped back

 

In situ

 

Next, whilst tidying up my drawers, I came across some blocks that I had sewn using Kaffe Fasset fabric. I was given a sample pack with a plain contrast a long while ago and I had a go at a design called Disappearing nine-patch. They are quality fabrics but I have found that K F fabrics only go with K F fabrics. This is a terrific marketing ploy but not so good if you don’t buy into this trend. So I am trying to use them to make a Linus quilt. This is what I have done so far and I have yet to decide what to do with the remaining fabrics to make it into a respectable size for a lap quilt.

 

K F Samples

 

Mini quilt

 

Remaining fabric

 

Then I made a start on quilting the Set Square quilt having found a suitable multi coloured thread. I wound 3 bobbins in preparation and made a start. I got no farther than a few inches when the thread started to break and it continued to do so despite all the adjustments I could make. So I swopped to a Mettler multi-coloured poly sheen thread 9916 and continued to use the prepared bobbins. This worked very well until I ran out of top thread about three quarters of the way along the first strip! Grrr! I eventually found more supplies of the same thread and I am waiting for them to arrive.

 

Ready to quilt

 

Starting to quilt

 

Making progress

 

That left me with the freedom to focus on quilting the colour study and that I did over a few afternoons until all the surface was covered with stitch. I have to do this copious amount of stitching because of the bonded method I use to create the surface. It’s as much about holding the pieces in place as it is about the decorative detail. As I am sewing I have plenty of time to think about the flowers that I am going to create to enhance the scene.

 

 

Colour study

 

Detail 1

 

Detail 2

 

Detail 3

 

Detail 4

 

I tell myself that I build snowmen for the grandchildren but actually I do it for myself! If I am dressed well, I enjoy being out there as I sink into my own little world of creativity. Aw bless!

 

Snowman

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BLOG 531

 

Blog 531

All this week my focus has been to make progress with the individual strips of the scrap quilt which I have decided to call ‘Set Square’. I have been in the zone this week because of the weather and I have persevered until all the long individual panels are now being layered up and pinned onto wadding and the backing fabric that I have created. I can’t remember the last time that I worked so efficiently and with so much focus; I enjoyed it! It was also extremely pleasing to have used a lot of my remaining cotton fabrics to create the backing strips for this quilt. Yes it would have been much quicker to have bought fabric but not quite so smugly pleasing as seeing my stash being reduced!

After sewing all the individual strips to each other, I relocated to the warmth of the lounge to cut off the joining threads and reduce the fabric on the corners. Then I had a brain wave when I decided to wrap the strips onto wide pieces of cardboard to keep them tidy and flat. I labelled them on their width and it is good to know that any remaining strips will be easily stored for future use.

Sewing

 

Trimming

 

Wrapping

 

Storing

 

Remainder

 

I decided as I went along that I would tidy up my fabric drawers bit by bit and that was when I found a tray of fabrics that I had not used! Mind you, these were tone on tone fabrics which, on reflection, might not have been suitable so I don’t feel quite as grumpy about it now!! But it probably means I have to make a final scrap quilt now to get rid of them. For a long while now I have been trying to reduce my considerable stash so that I can just concentrate on painterly fabrics like Batiks and Bali’s. The Liberty fabrics have been used up; the silks have been sewn into a quilt and most of my scrap fabrics are now part of many quilts and wall hangings!! Sometimes I wonder why I am still making large pieces of work like quilts and throws but I suppose it is a reflection of the raw materials that I have to hand and the compulsion to use them to show that the money to buy them wasn’t wasted!

 

Tone on tone fabris

 

Painterly fabrics

 

To create the backing strips I decided to sew them straight onto the wadding using a walking foot and a ‘sew and flip’ method.  To cope with the bulk I rolled the wadding so it would fit under the arm of the machine and I worked with multiple strips so that I made progress along each one at the same time. I finger-pressed each strip after flipping it and only ironed the whole strip on completion.

Strips onto wadding

 

Sewing

 

Flipping

 

Rolling

Progress

 

More progress

 

Pressing

 

I am at the stage where I am layering up the strips now ready for free motion quilting which should happen this coming week. I am delighted to have made so much progress on a piece of work which has been folded and ignored on top of a cupboard for many a month!!

 

Layering

BLOG 530

 

Blog 530

 

I dislike having a mound of unfinished work lying around in my room so my aim now is to get these projects completed before I move forward creatively. I am starting with the scrap quilt shown below, which I haven’t named yet; perhaps something original will come to mind as I am working on it! This particular quilt is very large and will be a pain to control under my standard sewing machine which is probably another reason I haven’t tackled it yet. I am in the pleasant situation of having loads of fabric but not the large pieces that I need for the backs of quilts, so I need to get imaginative!

 

Scrap quilt

 

The first thing I did was to cut the quilt up into smaller units. I took a deep breath and cut along the middle of the black strips joining the rows together (the remaining pieces will need removing eventually but will be easier to tackle as smaller unit)

 

One section

 

And then I looked at my remaining stash of fabrics, ones which aren’t the Batiks and Bali’s which I prefer. There is a lot of variety and lots of different sizes and they are not co-ordinated at all; so I decided to cut them all up into workable strips. This involved a lot of time at the ironing board and the cutting board but hopefully it will be worth it!

 

Scrap fabric

 

Pressed fabric

 

I cut the fabric into strips of varying widths, namely 3”, 2½”, 2”, 1½” 1”. It took a long while and even after cutting masses of fabric, the basket didn’t look particularly empty!

 

Cut fabric

 

Remaining fabric

 

Another decision I made was to join the strips together to give a continuous length in order to keep the fabrics from creasing and keep them tidy. I prefer to do a diagonal join and this is how it is done. The strips are placed RS together but at right angles to one another with a slight over-lap. They can be pinned and the sewing line can be marked as shown below.

 

 

RS together

 

Marked diagonal

 

If you don’t want to mark all your fabric pieces, and who does, you can mark a guide line on your sewing machine with a permanent marker. This line is drawn in a direct line from the needle towards the edge of the sewing machine and it is invaluable for accuracy. Just let the machine do the sewing whilst you watch the point where the fabrics overlap travel along the line.

 

Joining seam

 

Marked line

 

I used a string-piecing method to save on thread and then I went to sit in front of the log fire to cut the threads and do the trimming with a tray on my lap. So far, so good.

String piecing

 

Completed section

 

Action required