Quickie

Almost forgot to blog tonight! I got into playing a game on the computer (this was a consolation for having to deal with an awkward thing in a swap I am running) and forgot I hadn't done the day's blogging - so here's a quickie before I go to bed. Got this great kite card from Lyn (for the Triangles Swap) and finished the purple row on the row robin quilt - now just the pink one to go. That was it, until after dinner, when I helped the girls do thank you postcards for their teachers & teaching assistants (between them, there are 5 & three in the nursery, but Alex and I did paper cards for them) - more on those tomorrow, when I have a little more time due to being less tired...

A picture is worth 1000 words...

Finished up these cards today - just meant putting a frame around them and doing the edge stitching - I used gold metallic thread, so instead of my usual satin stitch, I did a zigzag - I used a metallic needle, which seemed to help (no breakages) but I still didn't want to risk the satin stitch. I think they came out nicely. The funny thing was, when I was cuttign the corners in order to "mitre" the frame, I noticed I had this little pile of gold triangles on my sewing table and thought "hey, triangles" - this immediately joined in my head with what I was thinking I'd do next on my triangle cards, which was to use sheers and stitching in some way, burning away the excess with my soldering iron, so...

Here's one triangle background (the background is a good half inch larger than the card all around, so will be trimmed eventually) - I sprinkled the tiny triangles on top, covered it in organza and stitched some triangles (what else) on it. Later, when I've done them all, I will get out the fine tipped soldering iron and trim around the triangles (I did make sure the tiny triangles were within the area of the stitched triangles). I think I will probably add one or two more things as well, but we'll have to see what it wants. Maybe some stamping, or if I can find any, triangle shaped sequins...

This is the other thing I worked on today - some blue and black bowties for the Scottie Dog quilt - as with the snowballs, I will do a double row of 10. Not sure yet whether I will put these with the same orientation for all the bowties or put some of them the other way, but I'm sure they will look sweet regardless. Then I just have to decide whether or not I need to do anything else above the top Scottie Dog row and below the bottom one - I'll have to measure the top and see how big it is before I make that decision, I think.

And some treats in the post, too - the new Quilting Arts magazine (I was expecting this, as my American friends got theirs recently) and a cute train postcard - this is from the Mixed Media Challenge on Arts in the Mail and is from Diane. She's used a variety of media, including metal washers and, my favourite - wallboard tape (the track). Alex likes this one, too. Not surprisingly!

Scottie Dogs revisited - and thanks!

Didn't have a lot of time to work this afternoon as I spent part of the time acquiring a new toy but I did manage to get a bit done on the Scottie Dog quilt - I finished sewing all the snowballs together and did a row of 10" pinwheels blocks, too. I have one more row of dogs to add on, and I'm thinking I'll put a row of bowties between the bottom dogs in this photo and the other row (maybe double, the way the snowballs are) - just need to work out sizes. Then I'll see how big the whole thing is and if I need to add anything to top and bottom, but I do feel progress is being made. Hoorah.

Nearly finished stitching the binding down on Sarah's quilt, so perhaps a photo of that tomorrow. Or the next day. Has to be finished fairly soon as I have to take it to the showground next week. Yikes. Have to finish Olivia's binding, too, but as her quilt is only about 36x42, I'm not so worried about that. I always tell myself I'm not going to leave things until the last minute, but do I listen? :)

Also, just wanted to say thanks to everyone who posted about my postcard wallhanging - I've replied to most of you, where I could, but those ones where I couldn't, well, just wanted to say thanks to you guys too. I never quite know what to do about comments where no email address shows - at the moment, I get few enough comments I can still respond to people, which I like to do, though who knows whether that will always be the case. But when there's no email address and no profile showing (and so no link back to the commenter's own blog) well, what can you do? But I appreciate the comments anyway - please don't stop!

A is for Africa...almost

And here's today's pretty pictures... Some treats in the post - in fact, just what I like - only two items of post, and one was the May/June issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors (I only just subscribed, so it's probably coming later than most people have got theirs, but that's ok, I'm looking forward to reading some as my bedtime reading tonight - flipped it open randomly and landed on an article about Janet Bolton, who is one of the few quilt artists I actually know anything about already, having been to one of her talks (she gives good talks, so if you get a chance, go. Also, because her background is as an artist not a quilter, sometimes her perspective is really different than those quilters who come from dressmaking backgrounds - which is a good thing, especially if you yourself came into quilting from dressmaking rather than art).

Anyway. The other postal treat is below (today's photos being arranged by size & shape rather than theme) and is a card from the tree swap, this one from Janet, a lovely card of the Weeping Willow in Winter. It's fabulous, isn't it - painted silk, I think, with an appliqued tree branch, and then all the willow fronds done in machine stitches with little French Knots on the ends. The tree series is producing some great cards.



I did some work myself today, unlike yesterday, despite spending a good part of the day in the park, where there was an open day with lots of free sporting activities, including tennis coaching and free crazy golf - the crazy golf pitch is new this year, so we've not played much yet - Sarah, Alex and I had a go around while Olivia was playing tennis; Sarah liked it so much she queued to play at least once more, possibly twice. Anyway. This morning I managed to do some sewing including finishing up the snowballs - they aren't quite all attached into a single row, but are now in groups of four.

I also finished the background to the triangle postcards - all those batik HST units. No idea what I'm going to do with them next, other than it will involve triangles in some fashion. But they aren't due to post until the end of June so I have a few more weeks to worry about them. I think I'm going to put them to the side for a little while so I can have a think. I have to do some Picture Frame cards first anyway. As well as finish the Open Theme with Beads (though I know more or less what I'm doing there, it's just a matter of actually doing it).

And I worked on some African blocks for my private swap with Karol Ann (who was right in thinking my purchase of black fabric meant I'd work on these blocks) - unfortunately, they didn't come out well - I used a design from Judy Martin's Block Book, and was reminded of everything I don't like about this book - all that cutting parallelograms & odd triangles, and then trying to work out how to align them and what not. Ick. I think I am going to get rid of that book as it never fails to annoy me when I go to put the blocks together. There are some nice designs in it, though, which I could no doubt adapt to another method of piecing, so perhaps I'll just write myself a note on the cover...

I do like the way these blocks look in principle though, if only they were flat and not too small, so I am going to do this design, but I am going to paper piece them. I almost paper-pieced them in the first place, and now I wish I had done, but hey, live and learn. Anyway, I have printed the papers out, so will get started on them tomorrow or some time, but Karol Ann, I'm afraid it's going to be several days before yours is in the post!

What I did while I was away...

Well, here they are, the fruits of my labours - I sewed down two of the purple fan units for the nesting robin quilt (would have done more, but forgot they were in my bag until the last night I was there), played around with some Hardanger stitches (practicing for an upcoming postcard swap - H is for...), beaded some geese (can't really see from the photo), finished off the hand stitches and French Knots on the green & brown postcards (no photo of those, because I'm shortly going to post a photo of the finished product and the colour is much better in that photo, and they don't look much different, just the edging is on). And also, a photo of some bits I bought in the market in Loughborough. There were lots of elaborate trims which I resisted, as I had no idea what I'd do with them, and just bought some ribbon I can use - narrow ribbon is always useful for stuff and the sheer ribbon is for an upcoming technique swap on my surface embellishment group (theme: sheers). I am planning to do some melting, among other things, and thought the ribbon would be a fun thing to use...

A day full of quilting

Remember this? This is the nesting row robin which I've been working on which will be for Olivia for Christmas or therabouts. Each month I get an instruction, and I'm doing each row in a single colour (and black). The blue baskets waited a long time before being sewn in to a row because I was going to stitch the flowers down first (they are just fused, though the baskets themselves are pieced). I did one today, then decided that it would make more sense to stitch them down during the quilting process anyway, so went ahead and attached them.

The next instruction for was for Grandmother's Fan blocks - the purple row - so I am doing quite simple blades, just four per fan. Here they are shown laid out on the black background, not stitched down. I decided to get them ready, though, as I have a few days coming up at my MIL's house with no sewing machine (and no computer, so prepare for a few days' quiet from me!) - as the fan edges can easily be hand sewn, whether I do curved piecing or applique (haven't decided yet) I thought I'd take them with me.

I didn't do much sewing yesterday as we spent the day with friends, but I did do a little bit of quilting in the postcard holder - here's what I decided on in the end - I'm using a pale variegated thread within the postcard spaces. It won't actually show when they are cards in them, but I think it will look better than the quilting in the sashing, which I have almost finished removing. It just looked too busy, as the sashing is so narrow. I also did this little heart postcard, a one-off for someone on one of my lists who needs a little cheering up.

I did some other postcards, too - worked on the green and brown series - three of them are mostly done, as I've added a variety of hand stitches and a button each, the others I got ready to be worked on by hand, as that is another thing I will take up to my MIL's house, along with the green threads and some buttons. I will also take some beads & the flying geese - hopefully, that will keep me busy in the evening if I am watching telly.

And one more thing I did today:

worked on the London series of cards. I used a Big Ben fabric background (scraps, believe it or not - not even from my stash, but from a friend's), a piece of fabric printed with an aerial view of my house (ok, it's technically Greater London, but I think I can get away with it), some London icon stickers - taxis, beefeaters, Tower Bridge, postbox, telephone box - a stamp of an old London posting mark and a charm of a teabag. Only one has the charm sewn on so far, but I think they look pretty cute. Couldn't resist the chance to use my own house in something, though. These were fairly simple, and not as fibre-oriented as many of my cards (a lot of paper in these) but still pretty fun.

It probably sounds like I spent the whole day sewing - more or less, I did. It was a foul day today, cold and rainy and we were out all day yesterday, so we didn't really do anything. Geoff pretty much read and check on work stuff on the computer and the kids watched telly, played bizarre role-play games and did some sewing themselves. They all three worked on their quilts as well - Olivia finished the cross-hatching in her nine-patches and quilted around the first border, Alex pushed the pedal while I worked on his panda quilt, and Sarah did two more SITD rows on the log cabin - only a few more to go, and then the borders. Perhaps these quilts will be ready in time after all! Photos of the kids' quilts soon, I promise.

Basket case

These are the baskets for the basket row of the row robin - it's the blue row, as you may have guessed. Last night I cut out a number of blue flowers in various shapes, sizes and fabrics, which I'll add to the baskets before sewing them into a row. Not something I would normally have chosen, but I think it's going to work fairly well.

Didn't do much sewing today - worked on the black and white postcards some more - finished the white stitching and started in on the black in the opposite direction. Luckily, it looks more or less like I imagined, which is good. If I have time (and inclination) I may add some beads in some of the grid spaces - if I have black and white beads, that is. Can't really imagine that I don't, but it's possible I suppose.

Not everything is black and white

These are the brown postcards ("my favourite colour") done - I like the way they turned out. I was going to use metallic thread for some of the decorative stitching - you can see a bit of it here and there - but it was breaking too much and annoying me, so I gave up and instead just used several shades of brown. It works.

I also started work on another set of postcards - this on the theme "black and white". After throwing around a number of other ideas, I decided to go with something really simple - half black and half white, with diagonal white stitches in one direction and diagonal black in the other. Here, I've done about half of the white stitching, the rest of that and the black are still to come.

And finally, I have started the next row for my nesting row robin - the basket row. I decided to just make some simple baskets and then cut out a number of little blue flowers and bond them on and sew them down "in" the baskets. Photos to come.

Nesting Row Robin, back again

Been a while since I worked on this, my excuse being I was out of the black fabric I'd been using, but today I decided to go ahead and work on it despite that. I'm glad I waited, though - the instruction for row 5, which was the February row, was to do a "plain" row, with nine-patches in the corners if desired (the row is somewhat longer/taller than it appears, I had a hard time photographing it). I wasn't really sure how I was going to interpret this, as I didn't want a plain black row.



Then I happened to buy some fabric in Angelcat's blog sale with the idea of "doing something with it someday" and then reaslied that it would be perfect for this, as it's the right colour (turquoise) for this row. A few funky nine-patches in the corners (using a different black - you can tell, but I'm not letting myself get stressed. No guarantee I could find a black to match the first one anyway) and hey presto - row 5 done. The closeup gives a better idea of the wonky nine-patch blocks. I'm sure the mermaid fabric will prove very popular.

In the meantime, row 6 has been announced and it's baskets - not a motif I would have chosen myself, but then that's the point, right? I'll do a few, not sure how many, maybe fill them with blue flowers, as it's a blue round. At least I have lots of blue for variety. Don't know if I'll do that tomorrow or put it away to mature a little first...

Nesting Row Robin, rows 3 & 4

Well, I've been putting off doing this one, because I wasn't really sure what to do with the instructions - which were "If your doing round robin style: with a applique in corners with strips, or curved strips or chercker board or piano keys or more applique between them. This should allow some creative freedom and something different thrown in. Stretch the imagination, Ladies... Row style: applique your block with curves, checker boards, or piano keys, strip to the outside of block."

In the end, I decided to change the instructions slightly, because I had just done a row of appliqued curves with the orange, and I didn't really want another one. So I did a central block in applique with Olivia's name (it has one curve!) and piano keys to the outside. It's not attached yet, because it's what I was working on when the sewing machine died, and although I now have the loan of another sewing machine, I left my yellow thread on my machine when I took it to the shop, so I don't have any yellow thread to finish the "VIA" in Olivia... and it will be easier to do with it not attached. But that's not a big deal, I can easily finish it off when I get the yellow back. Can't imagine needing any more yellow thread, so I'm not going to buy a replacement and anyway, then it might not match, yadda yadda yadda.



So then I went straight away to the next row, which instruction was only posted a day or two ago - and it was to do crazy piecing. Luckily, the row I was due to do was green, and I have tons of green fabric - in fact, I didn't even have to use anything except my scrap bin and strip bin, in the end. The picture is slightly washed out in colour - the greens are a bit brighter in person. It's a fun row and was very quick to do - that's the joy of imprecise piecing!

Curves or circles

Finally worked on round two of the Nesting Robin #2 - the instruction was to "use curves or circles", so I did a kind of drunkard's path thing, only with quite small circles, so they didn't overlap. In a perfect world, I think the four quarters of the orange would have met up better, but it wasn't worth the effort of trying to get them perfect. The main photo doesn't show them well, but you can see all the different fabrics in the detail photo. Wonder what will be next?

Corn and beans...

No, not dinner (which was actually roast pork, roast potatoes & beetroot and some Swiss chard from last night - and gravy, of course) but a project that has been knocking around for who knows how long - cut out and in little baggies, but waiting for a day when I felt like dealing with lots of little triangles. Who knew today would be that day? I know, they all need trimming, but that's something to do later, in front of the telly - so at the moment, we can just ignore all the little triangley bits sticking off the sides... And there are lots more to come, of course. I'm not sure, but it looks like there are no two combinations the same and a lot of blocks - 60 or so, maybe?

And I managed to finally sew together the first two rows on the nesting robin. Tada. Oh, and I hemmed a pair of Brownie trousers, but I shall resist posting a picture of them, unless specifically requested...

Nesting Row Robin, row 2

This is the second row (first instruction) for the nesting row robin (did one block yesterday). After finishing the row, I played around with EQ5 for a while and decided that the first row and this row need a narrow solid black row between them, so that will be added later, maybe tomorrow (though perhaps not as I have to run out to the place that sells Brownie uniforms, and who knows how long that will take). Still, progress is being made, and I will be ready for the next instruction on the 15th - now I just have to decide what it will be, as I've been chosen to nominate the instruction... Not sure what yet, but I won't pick a specific block, like this one - I'll go with something more able to be loosely interpreted.

As usual, it's interesting how the camera interprets colour - in this photo, the one red batik with white swirls looks much more white than it does in reality. It's probably a little unbalanced, but the white really stands out in this photo, while it doesn't so much in person.

A sewing day, at last

Or at least, a little bit of sewing amidst a day full of generally organising stuff - starting with a bit of a clear up in my sewing room, which it needed. Once that was done, I could start work a little bit on a few things that need doing. I started the first row on my second Nesting Robin (or rather, the second row, as the first one in the starting row) - this is the one where I'm doing each row in a single colour with black backgrounds - this is the block chosen for the row. It's a 10 inch block, so I am doing 6, each in a different red. I haven't yet decided if I will put a black spacer between the rows or not and whether I will attach the rows as I make them or wait until they are all done - I think I may wait and see how they balance, but you never know.

I also managed to make a start on the Baby shower swap for my surface embellishment group - this was the one where we sent each other things which we then had to use to make something. I received two pieces of fabric and some foils, so today I have sewed the fabrics together, then cut them apart and so on, until I was happy with it. I think I am next going to quilt it together into a two sided mini-quilt (it's 8.5" x 6.5" at the moment, I think) and then start working with the foils. So far, so good.

Ostrich at home

And here it is - ta da!

Finishing off...

Well, I have now finished binding the last of the quilts I am taking with me to America - which means that everything quilt related I need to take, be it finished quilts or blocks or whatever, is done. Yippee! And a bonus to that - my 2006 Ostrich is finished as well - haven't started quilting the 2005 one, but that's a whole nother story...

I expect this is the last time I write about anything I actually sew for some time, as we'll be on holiday in the US, but I do hope to BUY lots of quilting, dyeing and embellishing related stuff, so maybe that will compensate! Tomorrow I get to spend the whole day hanging out with longarm quilters, so that will be quilting related, and who knows, maybe some photos to share there.

The mysteries of hand quilting

Probably not something I'll ever understand. But I have finished all the quilting I am going to do on my mother's b/w & red "ostrich" quilt, including some trapunto (very basic), which was one of the instructions for the final month. I was going to ostrich in October (i.e. stick my head in the sand and ignore the instruction) but actually, the piece decided it had too much empty space to it, which wanted something quilted in it, so it was simple enough to stuff some circles of batting underneath in various places and quilt round them - I did four. The photo I took of the whole quilt doesn't show any of the quilting (well, black thread on a black background, from a distance, what did I expect?) and the closeup is blurry because I couldn't get the camera to focus, but I think you get the idea. Tomorrow, binding & sleeve on, tomorrow night, sew them down, and hey presto, it's finished. Then I just have to tackle last year's Ostrich!

Nesting Row Robin

Some of you may have followed my Nesting Robin last year - this is now finished (although I have one more round to do when I come back from holiday, which is to repeat an element used somewhere near the centre of the quilt- I am going to add some more flying pigs) and a new one is beginning. The idea is to start with a block or row (or whatever) and each month, add something to it, based on the isntructions given by one of the participants. For instance, you might have to add squares or curves or use applique. Usually the instructions given are fairly broad so that you can interpret it in a way that will suit your own project. It's based on the more traditional round robin - where each player makes a centre and passes it to the next person, who adds a round, and so on. But it's more pracitcal to doing one that "nests" rather than flies for several reasons - for one thing, you don't have to post it on to the next person, so that saves money. But also, it means you can work to your own schedule, and you don't have to worry about the quality of work that goes into any given round. I love doing them because although there's usually still lots of room for interpretation, you also get pushed a bit outside what might be your normal boundaries or tendencies.

Anyway. The new one will only be 8 rounds long, to keep the quilt from getting too big. And I have decided to do it as a row robin - so instead of making a centre block and working outward, I will do a starting row, and then one row each month - this will work out nicely to a single bed sized quilt. I am going to do the rows each in a single colour (though not a single fabric) with a black background - the starting row, I have done in 8 different single colours, and I think it looks very nice, if I do say so myself! The photo is not great, but it's chucking down rain outside and I have nowhere great to lay this out to photograph it. Subsequent months can hopefully hang from the washing line, as per my usual quilt photographing technique...

Alternative Christmas colour scheme

Finished the Christmas stars in my alternative colour scheme (mostly blues & silvers) today - there are nine of them, and I'll sash them together somehow, haven't decided just how yet. They'll make a nice little lap quilt for Christmas, once I get them together. No rush... Also did a few blocks for the October Block Lotto on Quilting Forum - I decided I'd also use these blocks in a smaller size (these are 10") to make a starting row for a new nesting robin, which I'm doing as a row robin - the idea being to do each row in a specific accent colour, with black - so the starting row will have all 8 colours in it (red, blue, yellow, orange, green, purple, pink and turquoise). I think these little broken arrows will really look nice as a starting point...

Ammended Ostrich

I was saying the other day that I thought my Ostrich wanted a bit more black space between the centre strip and the quarter-square triangle units, so tonight while watching The Aviator (excellent) I took it apart and put a strip in, and put it back together. Much better! I also added a black strip at the bottom - probably wider than I want, but easier to trim later than to add. Still not entirely decided how I will quilt it but should make a decision in the next few days so I can get started. I think I will do it by hand (gasp!).