Made this block today (it's called King's Highway) as part of a block swap in batiks and black - it's an 18" block and I did it as a tester - I like it, except I don't really like having two different blues (at least not in those positions)- I think it would be better with a different colour as the other cross, as the pink diagonal really dominates. But that's ok, I'll do another one in different colours...
Well, the kids go back to school tomorrow, but my mother is still here for another week, so although I will get a bit more sewing done, it sure won't be back to my usual level. To be fair, I have done a little work over the past few days - mainly just some string pieced blocks as my string scrap bin was getting very full. My mother helped with these - taking them away and pressing them as needed, which was great - perhaps not so good for stretching my back, but I did mean I got more work done. I also did these two Oriental Lanterns as samples for a swap I am going to run on about.com.
Today's post brought this offering, which is from Jan, for the "Fibres" swap on Fibre Artists International. In addition to lots of varied fibres, Jan has also used tyvek to create texture. I really like this card a LOT. Makes me want to run upstairs and melt tyvek...
A challenge on the Art Quilt Forum on about.com was to create a quilt inspired by a piece of literature. I was thinking about joining this challenge, and suddenly started thinking about e.e.cummings poems, in particular the one about spring (perhaps I'm just ready for spring!). The poem I had in mind is called Spring is like a perhaps hand and talks of windows and hands - and spring of course - and change. I thought it would make a nice little art quilt piece. I was thinking I'd do it journal sized, but in the end, went a bit larger - it's about 10 inches high and 18 or so wide.
The fabrics in the windows are simple prints - a tree print on an autumnal background, a tree print with a sort of sparse autumnal/winter/early spring feel to it and then a spring flower print. I used bondaweb to tack the windows and frames down, then quilted briefly around the windows - and quilted lines in the background, which is a white on white print. I've used pelmet vilene between the two layers (stiff interfacing), but no batting. The hands are angelina and stitched down. The edges are finished with ribbon and decorative stitching.
Okay, I know fabricpostcards isn't a single word (though I've seen it used that way by lots of Dutch & German friends - those whose native languages probably have a lot more compound nouns than we do in English - I always did love that about German, that you just strung the words together to make a bigger word, like bejewelledcatfabricpostcard...) - but anyway, it just would have ruined the alliteration otherwise!
I also received this lovely flower card, which is actually a non-traditional example of a Valentine's card, and which I love - thanks Beth! Mine for the Valentine's swap were more traditional - red with hearts - but I love this and am delighted to have received it. No sewing Friday, and none today, but maybe tomorrow (Sunday). We'll see.
The top one, which unfortunately doesn't show as well in the photo as in person, is from the Fibres theme swap that I posted my photos for the other day. Thanks to Kathy for the great card, which looks like needlepunch felting or something like that (not my area of expertise) on the left, and simple a lovely riot of fibres on the right.
The bottom card is from Debi, in an open theme swap on Quilting Forum on Delphi (this is the swap for which I make the snowflake flowers). It's my first card from that swap and only missed Valentine's Day by one day, which is pretty good, as it came from the US. It's got great crystals on it.
And the other item for show and tell is this - the start of my cards with an International Women's Day theme. At the moment, they are "paper dolls" on fabric background - next I want to print out a thin row of flags (on cloth, I think, or maybe ribbon, if I can find something suitable) and run them across the middles of the cards (about waist high on the women). Then I will quilt them with a couple of peace symbols each. Simple, but hopefully effective. I'm very happy with the "dolls", which were done with hand-dyed fabric, with bondaweb attached - I cut them out with the paper still on (helpful, as I could draw the shape on that way too) - a bit thick to cut through, but they came out well, I think.
I did manage to do quite a bit of stitching on my Take A Stitch Tuesday Challenge crazy quilt blocks - catch them on my TAST blog...
Still, I managed to have time to finish off the edges to these cards (nothing fancy) and finish putting together the eighty-ones quilt from yesterday (decided not to add a border). And I even started to work on another set of cards with the theme International Women's Day. Trying to get ahead a little! Photos of those later, like tomorrow, when I no doubt won't get any work done as I have to make a trip to the airport to collect my mother...
I have now finished all the blocks for this quilt and have begun putting them together. Here you can see them laid out on the bed - obviously there are some setting triangles still to come, and the rows aren't sewed together yet, but you can get a fairly good idea of what the piece will look like. I may put a fairly narrow cream border around the whole thing, as well - I'll make that decision after it's together - I kind of want a floating effect, so I might need a little more space around the edge. Anyway, I think it looks nice and more to the point - how I imagined it would look!
Last night I finished the last of the beading on my open theme postcards (the snowflake/flowers). I don't have a picture of all of them, but here's one- you can extrapolate the rest of them. Now I just have to decide what type of edge treatment to do. I don't really want to simply satin stitch all the way around, so I might have to experiment a little...
This is Olivia's nine-patch quilt, with the borders now attached. It's not quite as wavy as in the photo, though it is a little wavy - but then she's 7, so I guess a little waviness can be allowed... This is what I worked on yesterday - or rather, I tidied up my sewing room and scraps while she worked on this, and I supervised, ironed, cut strips for borders and helped pin them on. Then Sarah worked on her log cabin for a while (photos of that to come in future), and I carried on not sewing. I did get a lot of miscellaneous tidying up done, which is good.
But today I took back the sewing room and first did a number of small things that have been waiting for me to do - a couple of blocks for a block shower, a block for a cheering up project someone is organising, a label, attached some binding, and so on. While I did that, I supervised some homework (which mainly consists of spelling words for the child who is writing something). And then I worked on these blocks after lunch - I only have about 4 more to do and I'll be ready to put them together. I think it's going to look really nice. I'll keep you posted!
It was a nice day today for post - as well as several blocks from a scrap swap I'm in, I also got this postcard, which is for a swap called "Fibres" with the yahoo group Fibre Artists International - it's my first card from this swap (and indeed, this group) and it prompted me to go do my cards for the swap (posting date of the end of Feb, so I'm not really late). I love what Marie has done with this one - great idea to fray the fabric in different amounts on the different sides.
I also received this Dear Jane ornament from my friend Cathi in Ireland - I took part in her pay it forward swap a while back and this is the promised item. It's not as pale as it looks in the photo (the background is a natural calico) - I promise all my photos will be better in the spring and summer - trying to get good colour indoors in the British winter is a real challenge!
And yesterday, I got another squishie in the post - this is a "silk paper" postcard from Susan - and again, in asking her to send me one, I have to promise to send a piece of my artwork to the first five people who respond (and who agree to make a similar promise on their blog). So, here I am, offering again. If you would like a piece of my artwork - this is most likely to be a postcard, probably from the series of snowflake/flowers I am working on at the moment (see yesterday's blog entry) and are willing to offer on your blog to send a piece of your work (it can be anything) , please leave a comment and I'll send you a card, once they are finished! If more than five people respond, I'm sure we can work something out - but it might be a different postcard series, is all. 
And here's a photo of the "fibres" cards I made for the swap I mentioned above. I only made 5 (this includes one for myself) as that was how many pieces of interfacing I had cut (lame excuse, I know) - and for a change, I did variations on a theme, as you can tell. I have a LOT of fibres, in different colours - I probably could have done 4 or 5 more colours of cards - black certainly, neutral/gold, orange, red, brown, maybe more. But I decided that 5 was enough - and as it happened, it was exactly the number I had time to do this afternoon. One thing I did with these cards that I've never done before is do a finished edge with the fabric folded underneath on both back and front (I usually just satin stitch, but I am trying variations, like with the lace-edged Valentine's cards). Anyway, I like all five of them, and will have a hard time deciding which one to send to myself (though I'm leaning towards the olive green one at the moment). 
Finished the snail's trails today - I found these totally addictive - easy to piece and really effective looking blocks. I might make some more of them (later!) in just scrappy fabrics - I think it would make a sweet quilt - or maybe use two colours constant and the other two scrappy for a semi-scrappy look. File that one under "someday", I think...
Today's offering in the January cheer swap is this lovely, bright card from Anne - great 3D embroidered flowers, very cheery fabric. Nice one!
Afterwards, Allie and I went down to Wimbledon town centre to have a browse through the Early Learning Centre (toys - fairly educational, not so many branded items) as he had a birthday cheque from Grandma Lucy to spend some of - he picked out a little game involving a dragon which pops up from inside his castle tower when you jab a flag in the wrong (or right, depending on how you look at it) slot in the castle wall. And I picked out these... and on sale, too. Some fake flowers, and a variety of beads in good shapes - stars, shells, etc. And two different sizes of alphabet beads. Not bad for a couple of quid...
