The final arch!

Well, here's my very last arch of the swap - the 12th one I've received, which came today in the post from Cathy - isn't it gorgeous? Look at all the lovely beading... This has been a great swap - I think I will miss it next year. Of course, I'll have my houses to be going on with, so perhaps they'll make an adequate substitute.

Did some more work today on the blue string squares - there are a lot more which are nearly done - just one or two strings left to go. Hopefully I will get most of them done tomorrow. Alex wants to make something from his fabric, so I may have to devote some time to that - I'm going to try to talk him into something small like a quilt for eagie (his toy eagle).

The Final Arch - and other stuff

Amazingly enough, I did have a little time to work today, between the morning school run and being back at school for lunchtime (then off to grocery shop after lunch, so nothing accomplished there, unless a coffee in Starbucks counts as an accomplishment, lol). Anyway, first order of business was this arch - the December one, and indeed The Last Arch. I've really enjoyed this swap - the arches have been great, both to make and to receive. If you want a quick reminder of some of them - I think a few of the received ones haven't made it onto the blog for whatever reason - click here. I should say that this arch is for Arlee, and yes, it IS somewhat intimidating to make something for someone who does such fabulous work.

I also made a Christmas themed ATC for our secret sister ATC swap on Textile Challenges - not very exciting, but I was pleased with the row of lights across the bottom. Forgot I had those embellishments!

And finally, a new block for my advent calendar - I mentioned earlier that I thought I'd do a Christmas cracker block - and lo! here it is. Yep, spent an hour this evening (perhaps not even that) making it and it's come out well if I do say so myself, except that I realised I bordered it with the wrong green fabric, so will have to take that off and redo it - luckily, I realised that before I quilted it! Anyway, I'll take the paper off the back tonight, and hopefully finish it up on the weekend - tomorrow is too much to hope for.

Not Thanksgiving, but very productive

First, a wish for a very Happy Thanksgiving to all you yanks out there reading my blog - hope you have a great day, with lovely food, and a fun time with friends and/or family. And of course, good shopping tomorrow... I don't bother to mark the occasion really - as it's not a holiday, nor is tomorrow, it's a bit hard to get into the spirit...we did have some sweet potatoes at dinner, so that will have to count for holiday eating!



Lots of stuff to show today - including the two things I got in the post yesterday, which I forgot to blog. But first, what I got in the post today - this fabulous mini quilt! This is my quilt from the Spring Fling Round Robin 2, and isn't it lovely? I'm really, really pleased with it - everything, from the fabric choice to the design, to the quilting, is well done and although it's very much to my taste, it's probably not something I would have made for myself, which makes it all the better.

So, many thanks to Julia (centre), Tami (first border), Helen (second border) and Luisa (quilting, binding, finishing) - the quilt is really first rate. Thanks!



I did do some work myself, amidst the carpet fitters (hoorah - the decoration is DONE!), gas & electric meter reader guy, postman, Ocado delivery, laundry, and goodness knows what else... The November ATC lottery for Textile Challenges (this month's theme was a motif - I had to do "leaf", which was straightforward enough) was one thing I did - I did three ATCs, although I only have to send one, as it's always useful to have a few extras knocking around. The big leaf is done with embossing powder & a heat gun; the backgrounds were some I had in my box of pre-made backgrounds, which seemed particularly suitable.

I also did 4 postcards for an Angelina themed swap - basically you just had to use Angelina somewhere in the postcard. My first thought was to use a technique I've never had much luck with - using a rubber stamp and an iron to create a shape in the angelina - but I still didn't have much luck with it, so I ended up making a thin sheet of angelina fibres and embossing a design onto it. I then added some other bits and pieces and sewed and/or glued it to a quilted background and backed with some interesting paper. They've come out fairly well, though of course they are better in person - Angelina is very hard to photograph.



And finally - or perhaps I should have put it first as it's the first thing I did - the arch for November for the year-long swap on Textile Challenges. Only one more month to go with this swap - it's been really great, I think. I would miss it, but next year's swap/challenge is going to be good, too, as it's going to be houses. I expect to have fun with that one.

Anyway, this arch is for Pam, who liked relics and the aged look. Not sure I've accomplished that, though I do like the arch - I used some of the rust-dyed fabric with indigo in it, a photo of a ruin at Ephesus (from my personal collection, lol), and other bits and pieces including lace, buttons, metal embellishments and some lovely dangly things Lana sent me from India for my birthday. I hope she likes it.



And last but not least - what I got in the post yesterday. A postcard from Jeannette for "X is for..." - in her case, it's just for "X" and she's done little people as X's. X is hard. I've been debating what to do myself, but still haven't really come to any conclusions. The cards aren't due out until the 15th of December, and frankly, it might take me most of that time to decide what I want to do - I'm thinking about a treasure map with "X marks the spot" but who knows, I might get sudden inspiration in the next few days.



I also received another selection of Japanese fabrics from my monthly club. I may have to stop that club at some point, as I seem to be doing more accumulating than actually using the fabrics...

Things received...

This has been a monumentally busy week, even by my standards, with very little time spent at home (most of it at school, with one thing and another). However, I did receive a few nice things in the post in the last day or two - I received a belated arch (September, I think) from my arch swap - it's a two sided arch, and came with all the goodies in the left-hand picture above. Well worth waiting for, both in terms of the arch, and the goodies - thanks to Gillian for that. And on the right, the last of the cracker blocks from the block lotto - now I can put them together into a top for a baby quilt in my free time (ha).

I'm hoping this coming week will offer a little more time to work - I do have high hopes of the weekend, though, so you should be seeing some interesting things later.

A productive day

Well, amidst some birthday parties, making a cake, visitors and various other things, I did actually do quite a bit of work today. I quilted this blue and yellow mini - and even bound it (while we were playing dominoes tonight) - it's about 14" square. I put the border on the purple and green ALQS, and will sew it down later. Only a few more little minis to finish to meet all the committments I've made; I'm feeling much more relaxed now. I think I may even get a few more days sewing done this week - once our guests head out to Disneyland Paris, I might take a day or two to mostly hang around the house and sew. The kids like to laze around in the morning anyway, so they should be happy with a few hours of not going out and doing things.





I also did these two things - an arch for my arch swap - this one is in bright colours with Egyptian motifs - which is what my partner said she liked - kind of fun, not my usual style. I was originally going to go with the Eyptian theme with simply a sandy type background to make it look more aged and tombish, but decided to throw in the bright colours in the end - what the heck. I also did a little Hallowe'en ATC, which doesn't show too well in this overexposed photo; essentially it's a pile of bones with the word "oops" - my theme was "skeleton".


Cathi also had a productive day; she made a little mini quilt for my DD2's birthday - it's a sort of sunset beach scene in strips with a couple of dolphins silhouetted against the background (Olivia is very into dolphins) - really sweet, actually - and very quick to do. I think I may convert her to mini quilts - it' s so nice being able to start and finish a project in more or less one go!

Saturday - sewing at last!

I know I didn't post yesterday - Friday is pretty much a no-sewing day, as I tend to spent the day at school, so unless there's any interesting post (which there wasn't yesterday) I don't have anything to show... Today, however, I managed to get quite a bit done in the morning while Geoff took the girls to tennis and Alex played on the computer. In amidst all the laundry and changing the duvets from summer weight to winter weight and other exciting domestic tasks.

Anyway, on the left is my journal quilt for the week, which also fits the criteria for a challenge on Textile Arts - the October challenge (and it's only the 4th - woohoo!) - the challenge being to use a variety of recycled materials, which I have done - except for the thread and the vilene (stabiliser) it's all recycled. When I back it, which I haven't done yet, I will use some sort of recycled/reused paper, as well. I started with a piece of linen from an old dress, and added some net with beading on it, which was actually a shirt I got in the sale rack of a charity shop for £1. I then added some stitching, and a variety of motifs - the gold circle is the wrapper from a chocolate coin, the blue heart is made from dryer lint, the rose is cut from an old postcard, the cream coloured paper strips are from one of the paint strips from a colour we have decided NOT to paint the hallway, the metal shape is from a belt purchased at a car boot sale for 50p (I got about 8 of them off the belt), the metal building is from an old mobile my parents used to have and finally, the blue lines are made by couching down strips of plastic vegetable netting bags (or, being as it's dark blue, it might have been mini cheeses or something, but you know what I mean).

On the right is my slightly belated September arch for Patsy. It has a silk background ( very nubbly), some paper images, lace, buttons (obviously!), a few charms and some stickers.




I also added some shrubberies to the house block - and will hand sew down the little flower motifs shown here - I bought them ready made, and think they work well here. Also will add a little button as a door knob and perhaps embroider a house number. Then it will be ready to go - oh, and I need to take the paper of the back as the block is part paper-pieced.

On the right, some Japanese fabrics I got in the post today. I also got a postcard of a Teapot ("T is for..."), which I have forgotten to photograph, but it's a nice Teapot - take my word for it!

On a slightly different note, my mother has decided (at my suggestion) to start a blog - at the moment, she's only posted a few times - hopefully in future she will show some of her pottery, esepcially her masks, etc, there - she does some nice work. Anyway, if you are interested in seeing what she gets up to, she's over here...

Lots of things

So, lots of stuff to show today - firstly, I worked on the August arch (just in the nick of time!) - went with a jellyfish theme as my partner said she liked oceans and fish and so forth - and also did myself a journal quilt with the same theme (the colour is a bit off on the journal quilt).


Also decided to do a make-up journal quilt for the week I missed out - what I did was simply print out a composite of photos from this summer onto fabric and quilt some words around the edges - Summer 2008, tennis, picnics, museums, days out, sleepovers, gardens, farms, friends, parties, bikes, cinemas, zoo, castles, shopping, fun. Makes me feel better to have that week covered, and although a lot of those events weren't from that actual week, it's representative of our summer!


And then I did a few ATCs - I knew that cutting up those bases and having them handy would be a good idea. I had about half an hour or so and so I just grabbed a few and added some embellishments.




And then, despite thinking I was finished doing stuff for today, I actually managed to get a bit more done, while supervising Alex's bath (i.e. keeping an ear on him to make sure he didn't a)drown or b)cause a bathroom tsunami) - I started quilting this wee quilt for the 2nd blogversary giveaway! Hoorah.

Vintage Bride and other stuff

Lookie what I got in the post today - my August arch from Carol T - yippee. I don't know for sure whether she's a bride, but she looks like it, doesn't she? Love the beads around the edges, too...



And here are some little blocks I made today - I did some work on the September bag testing, but I can't show that - I did these at the same time, as I was working with the same fabrics... Tomorrow, I hope to get the bag finished and maybe work on one or two other things. We'll see!

July Arch

Here's what I did today - my July arch for my year-long swap with the Textile Challenges Group - this one is goig to Alis. As usual, the colour is not quite right, though it's not bad - the main problem is that the bit of lace in the foreground is not really a big grey blob when you see the piece in person! (It's more bluey-silver and silvery-purple.) Anyway, I started this piece with a background salvaged from a project I am not going to finish - it was a piece of hand-dyed fabric in dark pink and turquoise - two colours listed among the preferences, which was fortuitious, I think. The piece was already sandwiched with some vilene and FMQ'ed in dark pink in lots of small circles, so it seemed a good starting place. I then added a small faerie as a central image, with some vines growing up around her, and lots of embellishments, including an earring (the blue wedge at the top with dangly bits) which was among the stuff my mother gathered for me at yard sales in the US. Personally, I can't imagine wearing it as an earring, but it's great as an embellishment. In fact, I have another one to use in a later piece - only the dangles are the other way around, with the large one on the right side. I'm tempted to use the rest of the leftover background fabric for some ATCs, while I have all the right colour embellishments out - we'll see how tomorrow shapes up, I guess.

Nice stuff in the post

Got a nice selection of things in the post today - an ATC from Julie, my July arch from Carol R for the arch swap on Textile Challenges, and a selection of fabrics from the pounded fabric swap on my surface embellishment group...

The fabrics are from (in no particular order) Wil, Judi, Becky, Marijke, Kathleen, Kelly and one of my own (left, second from bottom).

I did also do a little work today, but nothing really worth showing - finished the "S" is for Snail's Trail postcards and got them in the post, and put a label on the second Hawaiian quilt and put that in the post as well. So at least I can tick those off my list!

Fairies in the garden

Amazingly, I did actually get some work done today - it felt like I might not, between spending the morning at school and having to take Olivia to a last-minute dentist appointment (she has a dead tooth which is causing an abcess on her gum) - she should be fine now with antibiotics, probably (there's a chance they may have to take the tooth out - it's a baby tooth - but the antibiotics may circumvent that)) and then having to be back at school to run the uniform shop. But I managed an hour and a half or so, and in that time, did an arch for my arch swap - this one is for Carol R - and started on a journal quilt for the week.

Both the journal quilt (which is farther along than this photo shows) and the arch started with a fairy printed onto a piece of turquoise hand-dyed fabric. I then added some sheer fabric over top, some green mesh, and lots of fibres couched down to make a sort of tree. I'm about halfway through that process on the journal quilt. Once I had enough fibres, I added some paper vines and flowers I picked up recently, then finished the edges and then added lots and lots of embellishments - flowers, buttons, sequins, charms, and so on. The journal quilt will be a bit different from the arch, because some of the things I used in the arch, I don't have any more of - like the metal flowers and the lace flower. But that's ok - I have lots of other embellishment stuff...

I'm very pleased with how the arch came out - I hope Carol likes it, too!

A little more than nothing

Well, as I metnioned yesterday, today was spent at school sorting the library, so there's not a lot of work to show, though I did remember to take a photo of my scarf - I have knitted one and bit balls of yarn and intend to do a bit more before stopping so that I have enough yarn left for some fringe on the ends. Should be a fun scarf, when it's done. I haven't done a lot of work on it lately, as I've got a number of other hand work things going at the moment - stitching down handles on the basket blocks for the June lotto, stitching the stems for the summer mini quilt, binding on the Hawaiian quilt, the African flying geese blocks - probably more as well!


I also did get some nice post today - a card on the left for the silver and gold swap from Priscilla - it doesn't show quite as well as it might because of the shiny-ness, but it's a fun card. And on the right, my June arch from Alis - isn't it great? Yep, it is!

Tomorrow I hope to do some work myself - a bit of quilting on the Hawaiian quilt perhaps, or working on the June arch I need to make. We'll see what the work will be, but it will be something!

Purple day

Today was a purple day - a purple arch for Carol (which is more purple than it is in the photo, though it's less purple than the postcard on the right) for the arch swap, and a purple and plum postcard for Ati, for the colour challenge on Textile Challenges. I am really enjoying these arches - both making and receiving - the shape is just different enough from what I normally work with to be challenging, but not big enough to be intimidating. Anyway, I've used hand-dyed fabric for the background, then stitched it with a flame pattern in metallic thread (only one breakage - hoorah), added a strip of sheer fabric (behind the hand) and some yarns. Then I added some metallic elements - the sun shape is cut from thin copper foil, and the three shapes with three circles I bought from Julie's etsy shop. Then there's the hand, some stars, some purple mesh, a wooden ring from the junk I got from my mother yesterday. And eyelash yarn. Where would I be without eyelash yarn?



The postcard just has two colours of fabric on it (plum and purple), separated by eyelash yarn in variegated purple - some other yarn couched down, some charms and another, different colour of eyelash yarn around the outside.



And the other thing I did was to do the next clue in the mystery quilt which I am doing - a short one, this time, which is fine - I like the fact that this mystery has lots of small sections - makes it really simple to keep up with it.

Only a few more until I figure out what it will be like. Who knows, I might even try another one someday, leaving aside my control-freak tendencies!

On another note, I see to be having trouble sending email to one or two people (but not everyone) - if you leave a comment and your email address shows (rather than appearing as noreply-comment@blogger.com) I will usually respond, so if you haven't had a response, it's likely it got lost in the ether. I had this trouble with one or two people on the ALQS swap - apparently there are a few addresses which simply don't want to receive mail from me. I might try using one of my alternative email addresses (like the gmail one) to respond to a few people from now on - what a pain, though!

Goodies in the post

Lots of nice post today, which was a welcome thing, when I got home from my long, tiring (but fun) day on the class trip to the Lookout Discovery Centre with the reception classes. I got a "Q is for" postcard from Denny ("quilt" - an idea I toyed with myself, before discarding it eventually, thinking that perhaps everyone else would do it) and another birthday block (again with the whole blue and purple not photographing well), this time from Faye, along with a lovely fat quarter.

And I got this lovely arch - the next in my series of arches for the year long swap - this one is from Lyn, and is very simple in some ways - black and white, with an interesting silhouette and some stitching.


I haven't started on my arch for May yet - I have a few ideas floating around but haven't really got anything firmed up - maybe next week. I'm really enjoying working with this shape - and am very glad I joined the swap.


And the final thing I got in the post was the pieces from my styrofoam stamping swap - there were only five us in the swap, so I got one of my pieces back (but won't show it, as I've showed them before) as well as pieces from (from left to right) Marijke, Becky, Wil and Kelly.