BLOG 75

Another late blog! In my defence, we have been without telephone connection for several days now, thus affecting the Internet and email connection. Early last week there was an accident on a nearby lane, when a car ran into the telephone pole and brought down all the lines. No one was hurt fortunately but we have been without connection for the last 10 days. They assured us that we would be on again by last WE, but ours certainly wasn’t connected. And those that were, all the wires were crossed so that when you rang one number, you got another!

All in all, this has been quite a thought provoking experience, highlighting just how reliant we are on technology these days. We have been using our mobile phones for necessary contact but, as we don’t get a good signal in our rural environment, those contacts are hit and miss. So, on the whole, it has been quiet and tranquil here and what you don’t know, you don’t worry about!

I’d like to say that I have been sewing furiously but I haven’t. I visited my mother and stayed for a couple of nights to see how she is getting and to keep her company. Although she is frail and her mobility very poor, she fights on!

Liberated Appliqué

Here is an interesting exercise that we tried at the last Chester Ps&Qs meeting. We were asked to bring along a cutter, board and ruler, as well as batting and a backing. We prepared squares of fabric (e.g. 4”) by ironing a fusible web onto the back. I just happened to choose a colourful, stripped Batik fabric.

Fused squares

From each square, we were then instructed to cut out a smaller square to leave a border (e.g. 1”). We repeated this on the smaller square and ended up with 3 (or 4) shapes separate units.

Cut out squares

When we had cut out 16 squares in the same way, we shuffled the shapes about and put them back together again.

Repositioned squares

And that’s all there is to the preparation! The squares were then place side by side onto cotton batting (it must be cotton) and they were ironed to fuse them in place.

Fused squares

Now isn’t that just cool!! Obviously there are raw edges that need securing but a bit of decorating stitching or free motion machining helps to secure them onto the batting. I fuse straight onto the batting with my painterly method so this was an extension on that technique. I loved it.

BLOG 74

I am slightly later than usual in posting my blog as I have been at the Autumn Quilt Festival in Malvern. I had a lovely time with everything going like clockwork. Unusually, the motorways ran freely and I was able to remember the route to the show ground from last year. I stayed in a clean but functional Travel Lodge in the centre Worcester, shopped for food at Marks and Spencer and spent my evenings reading, drawing and watching tv .. I believe it’s called chilling out.

Here are some of the quilts that formed part of my display.

Landscapes

Wallhangings

Archway quilts

Prancing horse

Still life on the tiles

Cat and Balusters

The quilts were not hung to their advantage because of the hanging systems that are used but I was proud to see them there and delighted with the public response to them. I was berated often for not having written a book about the method yet … perhaps I feel another book coming on!

BLOG 73

The method of sewing log cabin squares for the bag project has been demonstrated at Gresford craft group this week. I showed the strip piecing method and Jennifer demonstrated the foundation method. (I DIGRESS: When quilters told me that their preferred method of sewing was ‘The Foundation Method’, I always thought that it sounded a bit like a contraceptive. As it is a fail safe method, you can justifiable claim that you practice safe patchwork with it!)

Anyway, after all the preparation, I am happy to say that there is a lot of interest. Having seen the original bag (Blog 73) with the added corners, some wanted to give that a try. It requires a bit of extra preparation but it is a simple procedure.
For each block, cut 6 squares at 2 ½” from the fabric used for the centre. Iron them in half to create a triangle.

Corner squares

Add the first round of logs to the centre square and then pin the corners in place. Use 1/8” seam along the raw edge to baste them in place before adding the second round of logs.

Round 1 + corners

Round 2

Pin and baste the next corners in place.

Round 2 + corners

Add the third round of logs and baste the corners in place to complete the block.

Round 3 + corners

For the bag, you will need 10 identical blocks.

In preparation for constructing the bag, you will need to make a cardboard template like the one below. It is 7 ½” wide (the size of the block) and divided into 2 squares and a triangle. Along the long side, the first square measures 7 ¼” The block less one seam allowance), the second 7” (the block less 2 seam allowances) and the third 7 ½”.


Cardboard template

My blog may be late next weekend as I will be at the Malvern Autumn Quilt Festival, where there will be a selection of my painterly quilts. I will be demonstrating my Dual Image method, selling my Christmas patterns and books, and running a daily mini workshop. Come and say hello if you are there.

BLOG 72

I have managed to frame my four pictures and I am really pleased with the results. They are ready for putting into the exhibition at the end of the month and it will be the first time I have ever exhibited paintings and offered them for sale.

Small paintings

Large paintings

I will not see them hanging, as I will be at the Autumn Quilt Festival at the Three Counties Showground in Malvern. Running from Friday 28^th to Sunday 30^th October, this event promises to be inspirational. There will be many different exhibits within the show and I will be showing, for the first time, a body of work called The Fabric Palette. I will be there to run a mini-workshop daily, to sit behind my stall and demonstrate and to sell my latest book and my collection of Christmas patterns. Come and say hello to me!

Next Tuesday, at the Gresford craft group, a friend and I are starting another project for those in the group who want to join us. This time, our theme is based on the traditional block of log cabin. I am going to start with a simpler version of the bag shown below and I have started to prepare my demonstration if you are interested to have a go.

Log cabin bag

The pattern, for reference, is based on a 7” square and you can draw it easily on a sheet of graph paper as shown below. Mark a 1” square for the centre and 1” logs around the outer edge. Number the sewing sequence and shade the dark side.

Log cabin pattern

The centre is a 1 ½” square and the fabric strips are cut at 1 ½”. Set up your machine with a neutral thread and attach a ¼” foot. This is the basic block. It starts with a centre square (black). Row 1: 2 gold strips and 3 red strips are sewn in sequence (I worked clockwise) round the centre block to complete the square again. Row 2: repeat the sequence. Row 3: repeat. Now what’s complex about that? Accurate cutting and sewing is essential and I recommend the use of an iron throughout the process. More next time.

Log cabin sequence

BLOG 71

I have had a lovely creative time this week but in a totally different direction. I was asked recently if I wanted to exhibit some work in a local village art exhibition at the end of this month. The message has got around locally that I am a ‘bit artistic’ so would I like to be included? I think when my husband passed on the message, it was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but I surprised him by accepting the challenge. So this week, I needed to prove to myself that I could actually come up with the goods.

I have been going to art class for a few years now but we have never done any of what you might call ‘normal painting’. It has largely been experimental but I have learned the principles of drawing, the mechanics of the colour wheel, tonal studies, painting with acrylics, watercolours, pastilles, bleach, chalks, charcoal ….. you name it, and I have probably done it. But can I actually paint a picture?

Yes I can and here’s the evidence!

Pansies

Anemones

Roses

Lilies

They can only be described as mixed media. I started with a rough sketch and then used the same palette of acrylic colours for all four paintings: alizarin crimson, ultramarine and cadmium yellow. I began by mixing the acrylics with a lot of water to do an under wash across the whole canvas, rather like using watercolour. Then I used thicker acrylic paint to build up the colour and add more detail. After that, I thought the paintings appeared a bit flat, so I used inks to intensify the colours and felt tip pens to add intricate detail. I then decided that the completed paintings looked too controlled and structured, so I used pastilles to smudge the colours.

I still don’t know what I’m really doing but I like the results and that to me is the basis of art. These will be framed and entered into the local art show and if they don’t sell, I have 4 Christmas presents in stock!!!!!

I want to continue to play with my embellishing (felting) machine and so decided to reproduce one of my paintings as a textile. I chose the Pansies and, after drawing a rough sketch onto felt, I began adding fibres, ribbons, cord and threads. I’m not sure what I am doing but I am pleased with what has happened so far. I look forward to continuing with this next week.

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

BLOG 70

I have completed the cot quilt and sent it off to Laurence Stanley Osmotherley (poor little blighter!) with a sigh of relief. So now I am able to concentrate on my still life study, with flower vases. My method of preparing the background and a sample vase has been demonstrated in previous blogs. I have made several more vases of differing shapes and now I need to arrange them on the background, on a design wall. This is when the camera comes into its own. I have placed four possible arrangements of the vases side-by-side so I can easy judge which I prefer.

1

2

3

4

My musings: I like the position of the vase on the right, as it seems to be basking in the full impact of the light source.

I also like the dark blue vase directly behind it.

In #1 I don’t like the fact that the 3 vases on the left hand side are placed in a line.

I don’t particularly like the position of the tall purple vase on the left hand side in #3 and #4. I prefer it slightly off centre, as in #2

My preference seems to be leaning towards #2 as long as the large vase on the left hand side is moved forward.

Here is the adapted arrangement I have selected.

Selected arrangement

And now for the flowers: I rarely do what is called ‘fussy cutting’ because it is so wasteful on fabric, but I did cut out individual flowers and leaves from this small piece of stamped batik fabric to make an arrangement for one of the vases.

Fussy cutting

I use pinking shears to cut them out and work with an iron on a sheet of baking parchment. I place the intended vase on the parchment and arrange the flowers to see what they looked like. They over-lap slightly, so once I am satisfied, I use the iron to stick them all together. Once they have cooled down, it is easy to peel them off the parchment and pin them back in place on the design wall. Nothing is stuck in place at this stage so there is still flexibility as the picture develops.

Flower arrangement

Placement

There are many ways to make simple flowers; here are a couple more ideas. I make a daisy with a semi-circular centre and curved petals. A primula can be a circle with a small contrasting shape inside. It’s good to play with ideas and I am now in a position to steam ahead with this project over the coming week.

Daisy

Primula

I can make these independently, and then audition them in situ on my design wall.

Progress

BLOG 69

A new baby arrived in the family in August, another great nephew for us, so my attention has been focused on making a quick play mat as a gift. It took me an evening to put together, with a pre-printed picture in the centre surrounded by 3 ½” squares and strips. Now it needs quilting by machine (it’s not worth doing hand work on an item that you hope will be used well and laundered often) so here’s how I put the layers together in preparation.

I cut the backing fabric 2” larger than the quilt top and lay it, RS down, onto the carpet.

I use safety pins to anchor it to the carpet, to hold it firm without stretching it.

Pinned edge

The batting, and the quilt top marked ready for quilting, is placed on top to make the three layers.

Three layers

I start by safety pinning the 3 layers together around the outside edge, before pinning the centre at 5” intervals.

Quilting lines

The quilting lines are marked through the middle of the squares so that they appear fragmented. The first quilting lines are sewn on either side of the border surrounding the panel to stabilise it. A walking foot (even-feed foot) is essential as it grips and feeds the layers through together. The stretch stitch I have chosen adds a bit of decorative detail.

Lines of straight stitches are then sewn from the edges of the inner border to the outer edges to secure the layers together and then I sewed round the lines parallel to the centre panel, working towards the outer edge. Easy quilting by any standards. Small motifs were added onto the quilt top for interest and the binding added. I didn’t have enough of the pale blue for the binding so chose the WS of a navy floral fabric.

Fused motifs

All I need to do now is quilt the printed panel, which is held stable and flat by the decorative stitches. I need to hand sew the binding and add the baby’s name and date of birth. Seeeemples! It will be posted this week and, I hope, gratefully received.

Binding