2022 Week 2

So we start a new year with a new blog post - and some actual finishes!!!!

None were quite as smooth as they should have been though!

The Janet Claire sludge fabrics got added to a fleece backing with a lot of flaffing and measuring: I like clams but I dont see loads of them in my future!

I decided to use the sewing machine to blanket stitch them down: sometimes she was very happy, 

Other times she was a right pain in the neck!

Anyway: quilt got joined and bound, and was delivered on Wednesday - juts two weeks late, and she's very happy with it!

Another finish has been posted to Norway for a cousin's newish grandson.  His name, Sverre, is an old Viking king's name.  His mum is cousin to Theia and Saga's mum, so although I made a different type of I-spy quilt I wrote his names in the same style

Annoyingly I managed to trap some loose fabric on the back when I embroidered one of the names, but I added a strip of the blue spraytime to the back to match the front and the binding and that hid the problem!!!

I stitched badges for the scouts and other uniform groups that delivered the village Christmas cards

And I got to the hairdressers for a trim and a bit of colour!!!!

With a bit of help from Lisa my stack of granny squares . . . 

Is starting to become a bloanket

I have completed the January Hexi flower swap hexies

And received all the December ones

Lisa's Jim got me a fabric pack for Christmas: mostly mustards and teal.  He is colour blind so I know he sometime struggles to choose colours but he said he bought these because they must go together as they came in a pack, and I overheard him say that he chose a pack he liked in case I made him something from it.  This is the problem with having daughters - it honestly never occurred to me that Jim might want something patchwork!!!!  Also he lives in a house with a number of quilts I have made for Lisa over the years and a fair number of blankets that she has crocheted, so I don't know that making him one would have occurred to me . . . well now it has!  He has the box room as his 'play room' where he plays computer games, and there is a small mustard sofa bed in it

This was the pack he got for me

I ordered a few more mustards and a replacement teal, cut them into 2.5" strips

And now I have a flimsy round-the-world in mustard and teal!

I need to find the right colour fleece for the backing but I rather like it - hope he does too!

2020 Wk 9 Play date fun

The lovely Tara from Crafty Church came to play today.  She brought this panel she had made at a class where she learnt to draw and write with a sewing machine, and we turned it into a cushion

While Tara was sewing her projects I was cutting t-shirts to size for a T-shirt quilt for a customer.  I wanted (needed) a quilters square 15 inches square, but don’t have one and couldn't find one to buy - so I butted a 12.5” square to a 2.5” ruler and topped them off with an over lapping 4” ruler: worked a dream and no duct tape residue when I pulled it all off!

This cushion is going to be gifted with a pack of fabric pens so it can coloured in - put to add to the pizazz Tara wanted to add bright pom-poms. . . It was a fair amount of flaffing to get it right but doesn't it look great

Come on Tara - show us how chuffed you are!!!

2019 Wk 35 - Dresden Plates and other stuff

In my last post I showed a "blades" Dresden plate made using this method

I thought I ought to be able to teach petal edges using the EPP method as well, (gathering the curved bit separately to tacking the fabric to the template) so I made this one

I had real problems finding on-line templates that actually fitted to make a circle, so many attempts later made my own templates.

Also this week I've made cushions for the lovely ladies at Windsor Baptist Church (I wasn't going to do hidden zips so I went colourful instead!)

And I had a stall at the Church fair - which was attended by a real unicorn!!!

I sold a few things at the fair but the bigger success was  the baby embroidery machine embroidering names on flannels.  I sold at least 4 to girls who are now at university (and one is a new mum) but still have the named flannels they bought from me a dozen years ago - and were delighted to get fresh versions (but still wanted to come and type in their own name and press the 'go' button!)

And I have been tacking hexies (just for a change)

and loving seeing them sorted in a Tupperware box

 And finally a friend, Hayley, and I have been silk screen printing.  A few disasters, but this cut from a Tescos brown paper bag worked really well.

We are meeting again next week to twist the stencil and turn the 4 leafed flower into an 8 leafed flower

2018 Wk 35 - Dalwyn don't look

I don't think my friend Dalwyn stalks these pages, but so, now is the time to go away!

I have completely finished the stole - and checked the length against my vicar (seen modelling it here) and it looks about spot on - thank goodness!  Thank you Colin for being a guinea pig!

I had done some test stitchouts (the triangle cross and the celtic cross) on some spare green linen, so I have added a few other logos (North Bedfordshire circuit, where he will be working, St Anne's broken cross for the university where he studied, and logos for the two Windsor schools that he taught at).  Placement isn't brilliant, but it makes a fun cushion!

I've also been making pencil / make up cases for colleagues at work - a few belated birthdays, one early birthday and two leaving pressies (plus an excuse to play with Lizzie's font library!)

 Hope you are all having fun!

Sunday Sewing

Today I've been mostly doing the boring bit of  patchworking: monotonous sewing of one block to another - for hours on end!

But the two zigzag quilts are starting to come together.

More exciting is this finished cushion:

which I've made for M's younger sister, and this top that Jackie and I started on my last visit, and she's now assembled:

Customer Catchup

Sometimes I feel like making something new, sometimes I feel like working on a UFO, but other  times (albeit very rarely) I actually feel like doing something that I *ought* to do

So finally the last of seven cushions for a friend/customer has been completed

 And the ripped coat sleeve for a colleague . . .

. . . has been repaired

Now back to pretty stuff :-)

Create A Cushion

I spent Friday night with a great group of women at Chertsey Museum, and a few bottles of wine, and they went home having made new friends and a fab cushion each

Well done all

Wednesday Wondering

I'm wondering where the first half of the week went, and whether I *really* have to get up at 7am again tomorrow?

Whoever said "work" is a four letter word is quite right!

So my creative week finished as the school holiday finished , and this is a busy term, with, already in the first three days, plenty of overtime, which means less sewing time 

However, some is essential: I'm teaching an adult class at Chertsey Museum on Friday - Create a Cushion, so I've been to Ikea to get the inserts ( and the purple fleece, and a few other fleeces )

I've made a few cushions for ideas, this one as a sort of lacy rail fence

and this one which are actually HSTs

these are as much to show different construction methods: this one used a man's shirt as the back, with the buttons as the back - thank you Fiona for that idea!

and in case there are some students with no sewing skills, I've prepared some basic pieces that they can sew or glue buttons, ribbon, lace etc onto

Polaroid 9 Patch, and Placemats

Another day, another two projects off The List

A friend asked for a cushion for her sister, with pictures of the sister's young son. She sent me loads of pictures and I couldn't decide on just a few to use.  I've seen lots of Polaroid blocks recently and thought they would be a great idea to use lots of the photos.

I used Little Miss Shabby's pictures for my inspiration, and made this today.

* FINISHED cushion for Sam


The placemats have now been completed, all 12 of them.  Lisa will deliver them to her friend's mum on Tuesday, so they have been ticked off

* FINISHED 12 place mats for Carol

THE LIST

For when Dave & Liz's baby arrives
 * FINISH I-Spy Quilt

For Christmas  
 * FINISH Napkins for Anna
 * START 2 Pairs of Patchwork boots   * START Wrap for Terri

After Christmas
 * START Jacket for Jamie 
 * START Embroider Anisa's name onto a quilt
 * START Nicky's Book Block (Out of Africa) 
 * START Janine's Butterfly block (Out of Africa) 
 * START Sana's Home is where the heart is block (Out of Africa) 
 * START Simone's caravan cushions
 * FOR ME Christmas Tree by Candlelight wall hanging

Kids Creating Cushions

I was at Chertsey Museum today, running two children's sessions where they were creating their own cushion.  I made the basic cushion cover, and bought the inserts from Ikea.  I provided fabric pens, buttons, lace, denim pockets, ribbon fleece scraps, scrap booking and sticky felt letters, bling, and several glue guns, and let them do what they liked (the only rule was that an adult had to do the glue gun, luckily 4 mums statyed at each session)

Once they had fully decorated their cushion, we stuffed the insert in and they got to use the old hand crank Singer sewing machine to stitch up the opening

I've picked out a few to show you here, but all the ones I managed to photograph are on the Fun With Fabric blog 

 

   

The museum has also asked me to do another adult class -  make a patchwork quilt in a weekend!  This is really exciting - we are going to do it as a real beginner's course, with 8" squares onto an Ikea fleece, and it will probably happen in October :-)

I am, of course, in the meantime available for birthday parties, baby showers, hen nights and Bar Mitzvahs!!!