Lino Lines

I got a kit for Lino cutting, and had a go: I'm not very good at it, but I guess a bit of practice will help!

My attempt looks like this

Using the black tube of ink and a roller was not successful, but using a stamp pad to ink the Lino then using the roller to roll the Lino onto the paper was a bit more successful.

While I took a rest one of two visiting nieces, Tindra, picked up a block and a cutter (scalpel ?) and carved this 

Which stamps like this 

Darned teenagers!!!!!  

Tindra has a thing about eyes - her own is a work of art too

Plenty of Puppets

I had a lovely morning yesterday with a bunch of kids at Chertsey museum making puppets. I don't even make samples for these classes any more - the kids have such great imaginations!

 

 

Great day!

 

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Teal on Tuesday

Today I have taught a class making puppets (pictures tomorrow) and have added borders and binding to my teal bricks quilt.

I got the perfect border (only needed for two sides) and binding last week, and got them added today 

Another one on the finish-the-binding-when-it's-not-so-hot pile 

Friends With Fabric

A lovely gentleman at one of the churches in the two villages has given me a whole load of fabric from his late wife's sewing room; a friend who workes for a local curtain and fabric shop dropped off some samples and another friend who makes curtains dropped a box of fabrics by the back door.

(About 10% of the donation looks like this)

(Another 25% is in this box)

Clearly it would have been rude to refuse any (I'm sure you understand) but there really is a limit to how much I can store "just in case "!

So I have made some bags to sell at the church fete in September :  (all lined and reversible)

And one bag for a friend who needs one for her cutting board - Janet, you only get it if you make a comment - I know you read the blog, go on, make a comment!!!!

I haven't made much of a dent though, so watch this space for more bags!

Ikea Inspiration

Niki and I went to Ikea today and mostly managed to stick to the shopping list, but did get tempted by this lidded mug

It was only after we got home that I wondered if I could replace the decoration with something else - wish now that I'd bought loads more!

I used the existing decoration as a template - folding it into 8ths to save having to do any maths for the angles

 

Then I transferred those marks onto stabiliser

 

And stitched fabrics on using the lines

Quilted and trimmed

And into the mug

 

Got to love Ikea!

 

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Changed the Chain

After yesterday's failed attempts to get on with any project I decided I needed to achieve something today . . .

I dug out the Irish Chain quilt which only needed the binding attaching. The rest of the quilt has been made from the more muted colours in the Moda Essential Dots range, but I really love the bright red - as the back is a red fleece, and only a little bit of the binding will be seen I figured I could get away with a bright binding

 

Machine bound on the front:

 

Before I got too far on attaching the binding I remembered a suggestion Plum made a while ago, and with a bit of text help from her I added a casing on the back to turn it into a quillow.

I used the few remaining unused nine patches, cobbled together scraps for a nine patch star, and used some kona black to made the size block I needed

 

I attached it, inside out, to the back of the quilt (Plum says this makes a nice foot warmer pocket when the quilt is being used)

 

Then I folded the quilt into 3 width ways, and into 4 longways, and pulled the pillowcase right side out

 

So now I can use it as a cushion, and I can ignore that the binding needs finishing - I'll do that when it's colder: I can't have a whole load of fleece on my lap when it's 28/82 degrees outside, and I don't think anyone will need it for warmth just yet (and this will keep the cats from adding their own layer of fur to it!)

 

 

 

 

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Fortunately Infortunately

Fortunately school finished today

Unfortunately we only get six weeks off

Fortunately I haven't got much planned, so I can do lots of sewing 

Unfortunately my sewing room is inaccessible as we have guests

Fortunately my ancient but reliable Bernina is set up downstairs 

What to sew?

Fortunately I have a rainbow charm quilt ready to sew 

Unfortunately I ran out Kona white after a while 

Fortunately I have a red linen quilt ready to sew some more blocks

Unfortunately, having made up loads more bordered blocks I've discovered I've not got enough light coloured blocks 

Fortunately I'm going to Festival of Quilts in a few weeks and will hopefully get some more

Unfortunately it's now time for bed

Fortunately tomorrow I can sew and sew and sew!!!!

Second Sewing Day

Well the Altar cloth hasn't yet got the better of me - it was assembled this morning:

And now is quilted (!) and machine bound, and it's still afternoon!  I've just got to hand sew the binding, - I wonder which is the coolest room in the house?

Don't you love it when the binding is JUST right?

Just a few pictures tomorrow of it in church and then I plan to never show it again !

Day One Done

At the end of day one I'm a bit more confident i will meet the deadline - all the children's samples have been stitched and framed:

And all the alter cloth blocks have been stitched and joined in rows 

If you want to see the individual designs just pop over to the Fun With Fabric blog!

(http://funwithfabricuk.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/trinity-st-stephen-leavers-project.html?m=1)

Dreaded Deadline

The Year 4 embroidery & patchwork altar cloth project needs to be ready for Monday morning to be presented to the school and blessed by the vicar.  We ran out of time at school so I have to finish the embroidery, cut the pieces to size, patchwork them, finish and bind the alter cloth, trim and bind and frame embroidery for each child, and make a thank you pressie for the mums who helped!

Sewing machine 

Frames 

Laptop with embroidery designs

Embroidery machine 

Old school dress for appliqué

Pile of stitched designs

Cutting mat and equipment 

Measurements of alter table

(Unseen) large cup of coffee

See you on the other side!

Where did the Week go?

Friday afternoon - and I'm too tired to sew, how sad is that?

This came from Jackie though, and really cheered me up!

Roll on a good nights sleep, and a sewing Saturday :-) 

(Last nights sleep was interrupted by two hours of this:

( photo from Nicola B)

Quietly Quilting (and transfer paints)

I did some transfer paint painting a few days ago, and produced this campervan on fabric

And I've now started quilting it

I rather like it from the back too

I think this will become a notebook cover - possibly a Christmas pressie ready before Christmas!

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Trouble, and Double Trouble

Especially for Hadley who really has been here and done this: pictures of little miss not yet two . . .

 . . . And her brother and sister

I managed to make both Sam and Nina a taggie before I went 

Quite a lot of Quilting

I've been machine embroidering work designed by my year 4s (8 and 9 years olds) at school:

This takes ages and doesn't give me much to do expect change threads every so often.  I can't really wonder off as then it sits waiting for me to do the thread, so it's better if I can stay in the sewing room doing something else . . .

What to do?

Well this time it was easy

I stitched together the strips of teal brown and white,  and then (hope you are sitting down) basted AND QUILTED!!
 

The quilting lines may best be described as organic, but they are roughly 1.5 inches apart. I had thought of this top as Aqua, or Turquoise,but neither of those quilting threads matched at all, so this is a Teal top, quilted in white!!!!

Fab Fifteens

ten days ago I showed you this bit of strip sewing that was fifteen minutes worth

 
Added to lots and lots of other fifteen minutes worth of sewing and then some 15 minutes of ironing I got this

And then fifteen minutes of speed dating strips on my design bed, I got this

I am seriously in love with these fabrics!

And in other news ... meet Nina and Samuel - my great nephew and his twin sister

I'm seriously in love with these guys too!