Bunting and Bundles

Is there anything better than a day spent pottering in the sewing room?

I've made bunting for the new great nephew and niece, and their bigger sister

And I've cut bundles of Hexies using Jackie's 2" die which is currently holidaying here from Ireland.

Do these two colours look the same? This isn't the first time that  I think two orders of Kona fabric have resulted in a slightly different shade :-(

Two cuts of Kona Steel:

Two cuts of Kona Cornflower

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Heck of a Hexie

I started an oversize hexi in June 2012 after being first inspired by Janine, and then being lent her books.

I never really thought about how big it should get, but it was getting quite hard to add each new layer so it has sat, abandoned, in a drawer for the last 18 months. Jackie gave me a good talking to: just finish it!

So I have quilted it

And machined on a bright rainbow striped binding

And it's now another one in the to-be-finished-in-the-cooler-weather pile

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Silkscreen Scissors

I recently ordered this book

. . . And had a go a silkscreen printing.  The newspaper attempt was not very impressive

 But using card worked a bit better, although I can see I need more practise

 

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Exhausting Embroidery

I was asked, by a fellow blogger, if I could embroider some initials onto some fabric which would then be made into bags for bridesmaids at her son's wedding.

Of course, I'd love to - so she sent me the fabric and the font ...

Although I usually tinker with the computer generated font, this one as too detailed for the machine even to have a go!

I can sort of trace over an image to create a design from scratch, so I had a go with the C (above) and it looked reasonable on the screen

And it stitched OK, but this took about half an hours concentrated work for a 0.75" high design that still isn't as detailed as the original!

Fiona is going to find me another font to try!!!

I then consoled myself by creating a totally unnecessary design that luckily stitched out fine!

And I just thought I'd share the padded trinket boxes made by the Chertsey Museum Ladies (full pic are here )

They also brought back their finished jewellery pouches

And Kaye brought a Mariner's Compass - her first, isn't it stunning!

Posting Pin Cushions

When I posted about the pin cushion I made for Jackie, to put sewing machine needles in, I got a couple of requests to make them.

Sorry to Katy and Kathy: I had planned to get these done earlier, but they have been stitched

And packaged

and went to the post office yesterday.

Is Benta Barmy?

Based on the comments of yesterday's quilt you reckon I'm losing the plot!

So this is an LJ R7 quilt because, as you (I) go down the columns assembling the blocks I say to myself, "join an L then a J then  another L and another J:

Then the next column is an "r" then a 7 then an r then a 7:

This all works fine until . . .

 

And it's not just my quits - I've infected Jackie's too!

So tell me what you would call this block then?

If anyone needs me I'll be in my own little world - they know me there!

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!

A Rose by any other name

Does this quilt design have a name?

I think of it as a LJR7 quilt:  one group of strips is made up of pieces where the border is a L shape followed by a J, L J L J etc, while the alternate strips are made up of r, 7, r, 7 etc.  (At least that's the conversation I have with myself as I'm sewing the strips together!)

Anyway I've added the white borders to two sides of all my rainbow charms and pressed them, and I *think* they are still in the right order so I'm ready to LJ and R7 the strips

Quick Rewind

I've finally found the cable so I can download the camera photos from Festival of Quilts.  I've added some more quilt photos to the Private Use tab, and here is the photo of the bloggers I managed to meet up with:

From left to right: Margaret, Sue, Jackie (who doesn't blog, but is frequently mentioned here), me and Eldrid who blogs as KameleonQuilt.

 We met at Deborah's (the blue hare) stall and her daughter kindly took this photo (thanks Charlotte) but Deborah herself was busy at the time, so didn't get included in the pic.  It was lovely to meet / see you all and put faces to the names.

Shopping Show and Tell

Now that I'm home and have recovered from walking *hundreds* of miles (my feet tell me I'm not exaggerating much) I can show you day 2's shopping haul:

The Warm Company were giving away wadding (batting) in exchange for an email address: Warm and White on Friday, and Soft and White on Saturday - thank you, I'll have some of that!

There was a stall selling 150cm wide fabric cut into 50cm lengths (so nearly the size of 3 FQs) for £3:50 a piece, so I bought some red and whites from them, and I picked up some £1 FQs that will be great for Sunday school.

I also got some picture FQs, some buttons and some beads, some sea fabric for a lighthouse quilts I've been asked to make, and that wibbly pink frame is a pompom maker - the ladies on the stall made it look really easy!

I think that's about all :-)

I did take some photos of some fab quilts - they are on the Private Use page

Festival Fatigue

We've just got back to the hotel after our first Fesitval of Quilts - my poor feet!!!

However, we had a lovely day!  We met up with Eldrid, Margaret, and Sue at Deborah's stall. (Photo on camera so I need a PC to get them onto the blog)

Today's shopping was mostly ticking things off the list:

Fabrics for the red linen quilt, buttons for a waistcoat mum knitted me, and lace to lengthen a denim top.  Additionally I found a stitch ripper with a rubberised end for gathering up the scraps of thread (thanks Katy for the suggestion) and some soya wax (I'll let you know how successful it is!)

I also got Kona steel and white for two in- progress projects, and thermofix red paint plus a new silk screen.

Fairly restrained!  I wonder what tomorrow will bring!

PS, thanks to Jackie for this fab wide mouthed bag , perfect for the next stage of rainbow hexies

Secret Sewing Spoiler Alert

Yesterday's sewing was pressies for Jackie: a project bag

With this embroidered on the front 

And a pin cushion for sewing machine needles - so you can identify them if one has plenty of life left in it but you need something different for now

Secret Sewing

Today I've been doing a bit of machine embroidery designing and stitching, some (secret) sewing and packing for my trip to Festival of Quilts.

Part of the box of fabric recently donated was a sort of linen / hessian fabric in a stone / beige fabric - I'm not normally a fan of this neutral shade (it was part of my school uniform at senior school) but add a bit of dark red thread and I'm loving it

But this is all I'm going to show you today

I've packed the important things:  This fab triple zipped pouch that Jackie made for me holds everything for my Rainbow and Steel hexi project for the train

Roll on tomorrow!

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Teaching Tuesday

I was booked to teach a kids' class at Chertsey Museum today: making people or animals from wooden spoons. When I lasted checked three or four had signed up - when I got there today I found I was expecting 14!!!

They have such great imagination - just look at the creations:

I especially liked how these followed the original design

And this slightly out of season chap

(Individual photos are available at www.FunWithFabricUK.Blogspot.com)

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