2017 Wk 13 - Mostly Mono

I've finally had a bit of time to spend in the sewing room - mostly tidying up!!! I haven't even unpacked the linens, but thought I just might cut unto the black and whites!
So this . . .

. . . has become this!

180 black & white and white & black charm squares!

At some stage they will become 45 four patches, which will then have a shot of colour added to each one. (Some are spare as I have no idea whether my cunning plan will *actually* work!)
Fed up with the monotonous monotone I also had a quick play with the flag fabric I picked up - and made two zippy pouches, one for each set of travel plugs we have!

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The one where I've been to Festival of Quilts (part 1)

Oh my gosh - lots of inspiration, lots of shopping, lots of walking, and lots of talking!  Altogether a great 48 hours in Birmingham!

For now I'm going to share some of the  shopping!

some grey FQs and some picture fabrics as I'm running low for i-spy quilts

Plus a few more greys (I have some ideas!)

And some wool for Lisa,

Plus threads and new snips for me

And somehow I bought some charms too!!!!

Other People's Crafts (and One of Mine and a Question)

I've been really impressed with what some of my friends have been creating!

The lovely Tara from Crafty Church made these free motion raw edge applique blocks at a course in Dorking, at Gillian Gladrags

Lots of the Crafty Church ladies had a go at screen printing last week

And Jackie is making this fab quilt:- I LOVE the way the colours pop against the grey, I think I need to find my grey fabric!

And as for me, I *really* hope I've got this quilt right - after Ely's error I'm starting to doubt myself! A friend a school has a new grandson - I wrote the name down and got her to check it, and I've kept the paper safe to check against!

Inspired by Helen's quilting of her Christmas Cherry (over at Archie the Wonder Dog) I decided to quilt this in a sort of orange segment design

Maybe easier to see on the back?

 I'm really pleased with it - thanks for the idea Helen x

And finally - I went to my drawer of rainbow charm squares as I fancied starting something new . . . and  I found this message that I left for myself a while ago.  I'm guessing it's cutting info for a quilt top - anyone got ANY idea what I'm supposed to do next?

La Passacaglia Progress and Pretty Post

I have tacked and joined some of the La Passacaglia templates, and a shape is beginning to emerge.  The question is do I take it with me as a travel project?  I'm worried all the shapes will fall off and I'll get confused again

I might try some fussy cutting later, but for now I'm happy using solid scraps from the HST quilt a few months ago

Some fab post arrived from the lovely Reene in Oregon, USA.  She is making a Bow Tie quilt - she's making 700 (yes SEVEN HUNDRED) of these blocks, and is trying to make them all out of different fabrics

I sent her some charm squares and scraps that I had got fed up with trying to use,  and she sent me these to add to my sweet sixteen blocks - I was delighted - ALL of them are new fabrics tome

She also sent me a barrette (translates to hair slide this side of the pond!) that her husband had made.  It's really beautiful - made of modern dicroic glass (developed by NASA). 

I had several attempts at photographing the slide in my hair, using mirrors . . .

 But finally managed to get this

I did decide to have a go at quilting the Light House Quilt.  Its been a very long time since I tried FMQ, so I had a practice, and was happy with it

And then had a go on the real thing - not so good :-(   This isn't brown bobbin thread pulling through, its fluff from the brown fleece I have backed it with.  I think I'm going to have to hand quit this one

Off to mum's for the night tonight, then back to teach advent calendars and marbling onto fabric tomorrow . . . and off to Jackie's for FOUR days on Saturday, 

YIPPEE!!!!

And I'll have hours and hours to wait at the airport so I'll catch up with reading other blogs!

Inspired in Ireland (2)

So we spend Saturday surrounded by fabric, scissors, pins, rotary cutters - it was heaven!
The was some cutting and laying out which led to this

Some cutting and sewing (and, gasp, following of instructions ) which led to this divided basket from Noodlehead

And some laying out and moving and changing minds of this fabric collection

We also tried some crochet, with one of us trying very patiently to teach the other one a new stitch (I didn't get it!)

We have a list of things to try tomorrow before I have to go home!

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Charmed, I'm sure

 So my LJ 7R quit has been coming together well

 Except somewhere along the line I forgot to alternate!

Unsewing is very boring, but now my strips look like this

Ready to be pressed. 

Please tell me if you can see any other mistakes!

Shopping Addiction

My name is Benta and I am addicted to shopping!!!

So after my charm square confession last week - a confession about a different sort of charm

I bought some small silver charms a few years ago, and made some keyring / zip attachments for friends, but I was running out of several ones, so I bought some more: half a dozen (or more) of each these

and the same again of these.

Then I saw this fishing tackle box in Lidls

With all these lovely compartment boxes inside

And all the charms fit perfectly

Even I cant persuade myself that I *needed* any of this, but its so lovely to be organised!

So these are now going spare - any use to any one?

And I think I have to stop buying stuff!!!

Making Music

The last Star Of Africa Bee block was due back in the summer, but it has sat on my to-do list for ages.  I have really struggled with this theme.

Irene requested: My theme is: MUSIC!!! So you can make your blocks with anything related with your nation - folk music, instruments, musicians, dancing and/or costumes. This can be the time for The Beatles, Elvis, Beethoven, Riverdance, bagpipes, kilts, bush bands, country music, manjiras... -the list is endless- come up to stage, you may let the brainstorm come!  My project will be a wall hanging to be hung over my piano, this is my sketch: www.flickr.com/photos/idearagon/9290819902/   As you can see, your blocks will be "floating" on a white background.   Color of your background: Bright colors. Any color you like, that gets a good contrast over the white/black background.
Any technique, and being for a Wall hanging, embellishments are welcome!


I am the least musical person I know, so I really struggled with this. I asked family and friends for help, and finally my daughters' Godparents suggested an idea based on our house number being 4B.

This music instruction (so they tell me) is to play the note B four times, so 4B!

My grandfather was a concert standard pianist, and my oldest daughter learnt guitar and the youngest daughter learnt drums for a while, so I was really pleased to find these instruments as charms.   I was so bad at singing (still am) that I was the only girl in my class not allowed to join the choir. I had to do woodwork with the boys during singing lessons, but one of the woodwork teachers played saxophone, which also happens to be my favourite instrument, so I added that charm too.

The satin stitch is really tactile, and catches the light, as do the assorted silver charms (notes and squiggly things as well as the instruments).  I have not cut it to size as I couldn't decide whether to have the lines at an angle or horizontal, so I have sent it to Irene untrimmed so she can decide when it arrives. 

I do hope you like it Irene xxx

Fabric In, Fabric Out

The fabric for the Rainbow charm swap has been cut into 5 inch squares, and is now ready to be posted back to Cindy

Crossing with that package was a package from Cindy.

I want to do a Bargello type wall hanging, but no one near me sells the Kona range, and I was reluctant to buy just from a website.  I sent the lovely Cindy some photos of the Northern Lights as seen on our recent holiday. 

 

And she sent me these perfect fabrics (which have not photographed perfectly, but are spot on in real life)

So, as if I didn't have enough projects I want to start, I'm now wanting to start this one too!