A day at the museum

Friday was my afternoon to teach Fun with Fabric at Chertsey Museum.  Four ladies attended for at least a second time, and three new ladies too

Jenny brought her denim bag from last month which she finished for 'homework'.  I love that these ladies, mostly over retirement age, bring along their creations for 'show and tell', just like the 5 year olds at school do!!!

Most of the ladies decided to have a go at paper piecing: pentagons or hexagons.  Barbara made a hexie pin cushion, Jenny and I went for pentagon balls, while Iris, Frieda and Denise went for grandmother's flower design either as a mug rug or a wall hanging.

Deborah didn't fancy this, she's done patchwork before, so she had a play with the gingham fabric I'd prepared for smocking.  I didn't get any photos, but she did a great job . . . and now we've decided that we'll all going to try smocking next month, so I'd better get some more gingham!

Hole In The Ground Panel
When I got home I managed to do some work on my yellow, orange (and now pink) Hole In The Ground.  (I think of it as this name, but Google couldn't find a block by this name, so if you have a proper name for it, please let me know!!!)

It was really easy to make the centre piece: It was from a jelly roll, so there were lot of fabrics pre cut to 2.5 inches x width of fabric (about 42 inches)

• I joined enough strips to make a flimsy that measured 42 x 21 inches, then cut that in half, so I had two striped pieces each measuring 21 x 21.  
• I put these two squares one on to of the other, right sides together, one with the stripes going vertically, the other with horizontal stripes.
• I stitched all abound the two blocks (usual seam allowance) joining them together.
• I cut the resulting block, diagonally, from corner to corner, like an X,
• I then opened out the 4 triangles into squares.  
• They were then twisted to create the design above.

This piece was started pre-blog, in oranges and yellows, with just a tiny hint of pink, but I have some great fabric that I want to add that has a fair amount off pink.  I thought I would introduce some pink, before I introduce loads of pink!

Now off to Windsor Library for the next class!!!

Found time to post!

The beginning of the week is always difficult for me to blog, I get bogged down with work (apologies for the four letter word there) Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then treat myself to some sewing on Thursdays, finally getting to blogging for a few days before we start with Monday all over again!

So, excuses over, and here I am

So an apology for being tardy - and here are the photos of the very high tech give-away random winner generator:

Basket of scraps of paper,

and the first two slips drawn from the basket. 

 

As you can see, neither Plum or Teje relieved me of decision making, but they did narrow it down!  I decided to go with two children's charities

So the vanishing nine patch will go to the Foster Network, organised by a friend of Plum's, and the fail fence zig zag will go to Great Ormand Street hospital in London

 This going-to-be-a-whirly gig top hasn't progressed. :-(  I couldn't find any suitable border fabric locally, so went on-line and found what looks like the perfect fabric, and ordered it.  It was only when I got the dispatch email that I realised I'd ordered it from Germany!!! so hopefully that will arrive next week

 I have however managed another texture block for Hilary's quilt.  She has no idea that this is happening, but i needed to know how best to do these braille dots.  I stitched the braille for 'texture' in a few different ways (satin stitch, running stitch outline, triple stitch outline etc) and got mum to take it and ask Hilary for her help on a project!!!

So with Hilary's help (she chose the satin stitch) I have created another surprise block for Hilary - isn't that great!

One last piece of news before I go and pack my stuff for a lesson at Chertsey Museum (we are going to tackle hexies (and pentagons) and make either a pin cushion or a child's ball), I finally have furniture again in my living room.

This arrived on Monday, and is so squishy and comfy, I love it, (even if it is a tad too big for the room LOL)

Square Dance Quilt

Some of my favourite quilts at the moment are coming from Jo at Bearpaw and Bearpaw, and I have been inspired by her Whirly Gig quilt.  We exchanged a few email as to how she had made it (using a template and cutting each piece to the template) and I worried about keeping tabs on which piece goes where (I don't have a design wall, more of a design bed!)

Then I had a real DOH! moment - I've made two of these before!!!

 

Jo's method uses a irregular trapezium shape (different definitions for US and UK English!), and each block is 8 of these, 4 the same fabric, making one Whirly Gig, and 4 different fabrics making 1/4 each of another Whirly Gig. (Shown here outlined in black)


The method I used in the past uses a square template resulting in square block of 4 fabrics (shown in yellow).  I think the method I have used will suit me better as I don't have a place to lay out the blocks to make sure each one is correct in relation to it's neighbours.

I LOVE Jo's random fabrics (although I think they are all from one designer) but I don't have the confidence to choose fabrics from my stash and get that effect.


 I looked a number of 'families' of fabrics:

 and in the end the batik dots won.

To start with, these need to be pieced into a basic flimsy, and pressed

Before I do the next step I need to add a border, so part two will follow after a trip to a fabric shop!

Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival

It was Amy's Quilt Festival that got me started on blogging.  I loved looking at the submitted quilts for a couple or festivals , and then decided that I wanted to play - so needed a blog.  Thank you to Amy, not only for the festival but for the introduction to Blogging too - I've made SO many friends!

To visitors FROM Amy's site, welcome.  To my guests who would like to see the wondourous quilts in the exhibition, click on the top box in the right hand column: make sure you have plenty of time, there is LOTS of lvely stuff to look at!!!!

The quilt I want to show you this time is this elephant of a quilt:

[hopefully you can move your cursor over the photo and it will zoom in]

This was made in 2004 as a leaving present for our Vicar and his wife.  They had been a big part of the lives of people in two villages for  about 12 years, and lots of people wanted to contribute.

It's about 6 foot high, and about 10 foot wide! Dozen of organisations and families contributed a small, medium or large block which where then all stitched together.

We didn't use the stitch-and-flip method, as the block were not uniform in size (tip 1, if you do a project like this, send out blank fabric squares for people to use, don't trust them to measure and cut accurately) and some groups had decorated right up to the edge (tip 2, draw a margin to give yourself a seam allowance).  Instead we joined two flat sheets, placed the blocks on the sheet wrong sides together, and used cotton tape over the joins. (tip 3, you need somewhere with a lot of clear floor space, and that is clean!)

A variety of decorating methods were used ... fabric pens

 

counted cross stitch

 

photo transfer

hand embroidery

Applique

We all have fun making it, and keeping the secret (300 children involved from the school where Mrs H worked -- and not one told them!!!) and they really loved the reminder of their time with us.

Yippee

My missing post has been regurgitated by the system!  I'm happy now!

[can you gurgitate something? or can you only regurgitate?]

Darn blogger

off line for 48 hours and ate my last post!

I'll re-post tomorrow

A day off...

I don't work at school on Thursdays: this leaves me a day free if I want to visit mum or Lisa.  I love them both, but today I wasn't visiting either, so yippee, I had nothing in the diary!  What a difference it makes to be able to sew without clock watching!

I had some 'ladder' blocks which pre-date the blog, but finally today I decided to do something with them (they are, at least, on my to-do list!)

So from this

 

I got this 

  

and now this (just stitched in strips at the moment)

 

I have also (ages ago) signed up to do a  postcard swap - with a theme of my favourite pet.  As we have this little chap in our house, how could I not?

 

 (And yes, we are allowed to keep one indoors, and no, he didn't come from the garden, and yes, he really is as cute as he looks!)

 So here are his postcards!

 
 And lastly I've started on a job I've been putting off since last October: Every autumn I go on a girly trip for a long weekend with friends.  Years ago I made us backpacks for a trip, and  now we have an embroidered design for each trip.

This is Jane's bag, the other side is just as busy: 10 trips in 8 years!

Last October we went to Florence, and the design was easy, but with so many designs it was becoming difficult to hoop a spare bit of bag, so I kept putting it off.

Anyway today I thought outside the box, and have embroidered Florence onto fabric that I can easily stitch onto the bags - bingo!

Welcome Stash Manicurists

I am a bit very nervous, not sure I'll sleep tonight ... Any time now, Madame Samm over at Stash Manicure will be publishing a post from little old me.  It was meant to be in a few weeks time, but at short notice it was moved to 9th May so I ran out of time to find an excuse to wimp out!.

So welcome to Stash Manicurists, thank you so much for clicking the link!  The Charity Quilt giveaway moved down on the screen, but you can scroll down or [click here].  All comments will be looked at, whether on this post, that post or the garden post!

As an excuse for a photo on this post, have a look at these yummy fabrics I've been collecting for my Sis-In-Law's birthday pressie: red grapes, green grapes, corks and bottles of wine ... SO her!

Not telling what it is yet, just in case she visits the blog!

Need a good home ...

I have two quilts that are nearly finished.  I have been putting off the last hour or so of finishing as they don't have a home to go to, so I've been doing other projects instead.  However, I am getting to the stage where I need the space, so I would like these to go to a good home.

Please have a look at them and help me out - do you think of a deserving person or charity when you see these?  Can you suggest someone who would appreciate one?  Please can you use the comment form to suggest either an international charity, or a UK based charity or deserving cause, and I'll pick two suggestions next weekend and send the quilts.

Disappearing 9 Patch from Moda's Arnold's Attic range

and a Zig Zag rail fence.

TECHNICAL STUFF: measurements ... ZigZag: 170cmx130cm, D9P (browns and greens): about 115cm x 140cm.  Both 100% cotton top, quilted, and 100% fleece backing.  Machine washable to 40 degrees C)

not enough space

I have now tidied my sewing room (it seriously needed it) but I'm shorter on space than I was before.  I claim to not understand it, but between me and Mr Mastercard, I know exactly why there is less space... 

... 3m of curtain fabric from Ikea, for Lisa's bedroom

... 10 FQs for £10 from Cottonpatch, well, it could have been rude not to as such a good price - aren't they YUMMY













... 2m pink batik to border the pink and purple pinwheels

... and these Moda Aviary fabrics to compliment the ones I got from CrossPatch a while ago; the ones I used for Kelli's baby's quilt.  I got these form the states - they got sent to dad's to save on postage costs, and astonishingly, one of the grandparents at school has a house just 5 minutes from Dad's so she kindly brought it back after their recent trip :-)




And the final photo is an almost-finish.  This is the Arnold's Attic fabric I won at Christmas that is finally quilted and half bound.  I've stitched the binding to the front, and pinned it to the back, but I'm fed up with it, and it doesn't have a home planned, so it can go back into to the pile until I fancy some hand sewing!

mum saw these...

my mum saw these quilts and thought of me, aren't they great :-)  I especially love the stained glass window and the matching quilt - must have been made by a very talented quilter!

Thank you  mummy!