2019 Wk 34 - Stuff!

I'm teaching Dresden plates next week so thought it was about time I had a go!  I'm really pleased with this one

But it took a lot of work getting the right angles on the segments!

Husband has been working on some different angles - the bathroom-floor-to-garden-table project is progressing well - and I can hear him sanding the edges as I type so hopefully they will be another photo soon.

Start

and nearly all glued in place . . .

Watch this space!

My sewing room is a right tip at the moment.

Amongst other things I am trying to make cooling summer scarves.  According to several people on Pinterest these water absorbing beads are the thing to use, but I can tell you they aren't :-(

So I moved on to a new dress for me.  I have fully lined it - so it's maybe a little thick for this weather (32 degrees as I type this!) but it means it is reversible.  I've wanted to try reversible for a while and the batik was so flimsy I thought this was maybe the time to try it.   Pockets and hems and then it's ready

I just love the batik pattern and the colour

Back to work tomorrow

The holiday is over and I'm back to work in 12 hours, so the sewing room has been put away for a while :-(

I did manage to assemble and quilt my warm triangles quilt

 

And I've stitched down the binding on the white zigzag quilt

 

Now I can plan and shop for the next projects!!!!

 

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The one where Lisa crocheted a Dragon

For years Lisa has been crocheting flower squares, but suddenly she got the urge to follow instructions (maybe she's not really my daughter!)

And this is the result (so sorry about the awful light and the abundance of feet in the background!)

Isn't he cute!

Meanwhile I have done *some* sewing - the white zigzag quilt is now ready to be finished - the binding has been machined to the front and will be hand stitched as soon as the weather cools down a bit - it's far too hot for me to sit with a quilt on my lap while I stitch down the binding!

 

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The one where I zigged and zagged

A beautiful bundle of cotton batik type fabrics has sat maturing in my sewing room for at least 2½ years:

I made a decision back in May, and cut and pieced rain fence type blocks and back in July I got them laid out

but hadn't progressed much further until today

They have now started to be joined together onto a fleece and are looking like this:

And I have to say I am rather in love!

Maybe I can get the piecing finished tomorrow

The One where I made the Crafty Church Ladies Crochet!

I advertised this month's Crafty Church as a crochet special - suggesting that we use some of the donated wool to make 12 inch granny squares, then stitch them together and make charity blankets. This pic from Pinterest  was my inspiration:

We had a dozen ladies at Crafty Church and they all got crocheting - these were the ones I managed to get photos of

Here they are all hard at work 

 

As for me - I started laying out my zigzag quilt

and pinning the blocks together

4 more days at school and then I'll have plenty of time to sew the blocks

Beautiful Batiks

Lisa gave me this fabric bundle for Christmas 2013.

As sometimes happens I had to wait a while for them to speak to me; to tell me what they should become.

But today they have been cut and stitched and cut again: the inspiration from Pinterest is with them.

I'm now off school for a week, but I'm off to Ireland for some of the days, then back to a Thursday with family, a Friday with a smocking class at Chertsey Museum and a Bunting class at church, a Saturday with a Race For Life 5 kilometres AND Kids Crafty Church, a Sunday at my mum's . . .  and there endeth my holiday! 

'Ello Ely

Ely now has a quilt with his name on - thank goodness!

I've also had a bit of a play with the remainder of the blue Elmer's glue, sort of "batik meets zentangles".  The glue takes a while to dry ...

And then I started to paint it, I'm rather liking this, I think it will make a decent infinity scarf

More Making and a Muck Up

A few other bits from the weekend: we had a go at thermofax screen printing

And a go at cheat Batik (using blue Elmer's school glue and watered acrylic paints). This is the result after machine washing, the bolder colours are definitely better

After Jackie left I made Lisa a document pouch

Using some very precious New York fabric

And then I got a text from a friend. She had already asked me to make an I-Spy quilt for a new great nephew that was due, and he has now arrived and his name is Ely. I did check with her as the two boys I know with that name spell it Eli. No, definitely Ely.
I embroidered the name and machine stitched the binding to the front. I then spent a lovely hour in Lisa's room, sitting comfortably and cosily hand sewing the binding on while listening to an audio book . . .

(Panoramic photo of Lisa's cosy room)

Then I went to take a photo of the finished quilt

Grrrrrrrrrr.
Anyone know a baby called Eli who would like an I-Spy quilt?
I'm now making a quilt for Ely!!!! Luckily I had pre cut squares of all but two of the fabrics!

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Copied Cathedrals

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about various methods of achieving Cathedral Window blocks, and showed some samples ready for a class I'm teaching.

A friend, Janet, saw the post and decided to have a go.  I saw her blocks yesterday and realised this was a method I hadn't covered either in the previous post, or as a class sample!

Janet's blocks (pinned together *very* roughly by me) inspired me, so I decided to copy:

 

I had a pack of a dozen batik charms from Plum for Christmas sitting on my work bench, and the black from the cars quilts was still there, so I had a play this afternoon

I drew, with my trustie Flixon pen, 5" circles onto the batik, and cut them out, then placed each one on a black square, and stitched them together, all the way round

I cut out the black circle too then cut a 1" slit in the batik near the edge, and pulled the fabric through.  I shaped it and pressed it, then drew a 3" square in the centre of each circle (the best fit of an edge to edge square)

I pinned the strips together making sure I matched the lines back and front

I stitched the seams, then pressed the petals open.  Can you guess the " deliberate" mistake?  Yep, all the frixon marks have now vanished! 

Luckily the frixon pen leaves a slight scratch mark on the batik - usually a pain but this time it was an advantage so I was able to stitch the rows together, then press the new petals open too.

I rather like the scollopd edges but I hadn't thought it through and and some of the turning slits are at the edges, so I had to press over the outer petals too - luckily I rather like it like this too

Not sure what will happen to this next, but for now it's a very pretty sample for my class.

Thank you Janet, and thank you Plum