A gift of bits and pieces

A friend passed along a bag of scraps today, which someone had passed her (she's not a quilter, but she does some crafts), so I had a sort through and cut it into some pieces - a few larger sized squares for my squares collections, some strips, and the rest just manageable scraps, to go in the scrap basket. I cut away a lot of weird sized edges - obviously some dressmaking offcuts, etc.  

Some of it is poly-cotton blends, but most of it was pretty decent stuff - a good feel and not too thin, so  I think I will use it in PL quilts anyway, despite being a blend (the stripy fabric at front is 100 per cent cotton, as were some other pieces). 

Of course, my scrap basket is now dangerously full!

Red and white baby quilt

Back in July, we were making spokes blocks for the block lotto - I made extra blocks to go with the red theme for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and here they are assembled into a top - isn't this great? The red border fabric is one which I bought last summer in the US as I needed some red for block lotto blocks that month, so it seemed particularly fitting to use it for this top.  This one is going into stash for baby quilts, not being donated to PL...

ATC Friday

Some more finished Round Robin ATCs - these Parisian ones, which started like this:

These postage stamp ones, which started like this:

And these gold ones, which began this way...

Scrappy top with border

Another very scrappy one done this summer. I actually put the scraps into small squares of different sizes, and then put them into strips to assemble, which gives a slightly different feel than if all the squares were the same size, though basically, it's just all-scrappy, all the time...

Cross Stitch Update

Lots of variety this week... I started stitching the cross-stitch kit of the little girl which I picked up at the Great Northern Quilt Show - haven't made a huge amount of progress, but in this centre section, there's a lot of counting and changing, so it doesn't go quickly...

When I went to my little quilt group this week, I didn't want to have the effort of something which has to be counted over and over, so I took along the sheep to work on over the course of that evening - the progress is all on the right side of the design.

And finally, I can't really show this piece, so it's only a teaser... I've signed up to the Something Wicked Hallowe'en Mystery from SamSarah designs (via The Patchwork Rabbit). This is, as the title may imply, a Hallowe'en mystery, in three parts. The pattern asks that you not publish pictures on the internet of your stitching until it's finished (the mystery), but I don't think this tiny tease really gives much away... However, I won't be able to show overall progress on this one, which is a little annoying!  But I'm having fun stitching it regardless, and shall show it off as soon as the mystery is concluded, even if my stitching isn't itself concluded!

All Together Now - Tula Pink 62

Make sure you click through to see the border fabric close up!

Tula Pink no 45

This set of blocks, I wasn't completely sure about back when they were just blocks, but someone predicted they'd work better together once they were assembled, and I think that person was right - the effect is pretty good now that they are all together.  Just needs a border...watch this space!

Abstract, with stitching

In an effort to be sensible and reduce, reuse, recycle I am trying to use bits and pieces of ATC backgrounds and whatnot which I have already, when I need something for a swap.  For this swap, a theme of abstract, with stitching, I had this piece of work, which I had made as a larger piece some time back - these are offcuts, I think. The original background involved paint and lace and perhaps lutrador - it's been a while, so I can't remember, entirely. But there is stitching involved and I added a bit more to finish off - I do love the textures in this piece, so I was glad to be able to repurpose it!

Goodies!

Well, one can't attend a quilt show without buying a few things, though I didn't buy much fabric at all. I picked up this piece at £5/metre - there was more than 1.5 metres left on the end of the bolt, but she only charged me for one and a half; it will make a nice border on some charity tops, with all the colours in it.

And these six pieces are all remnants/offcuts - all width of fabric, some quite big - over a quarter - they were from the bargain bin at my friend Meg's stand (New Threads Quilt Shop). I resisted looking at the non-remnant fabric on her stand, especially as I had already raided the moda charm packs and FQ bundles at Sandown...

I had a great time browsing through the buttons on the Textile Garden stand, 

and picked up some cheap cross-stitch kits from the clearance bin on another stand - not sure which as I looked at several cross-stitch stands. Also picked up a cross-stitch map of Leicestershire, which I have decided to stitch up for my brother-in-law and sister-in-law for Christmas (maybe Christmas 2015!  we'll see how it goes) but which I didn't seem photograph for some reason - can't work up the energy to do it now...

Also picked up these lovely charts, three of which are going away in the birthday drawer, so I'll pretend I don't know about them.

Finally, a 3D cross-stitch Christmas ornament, shaped like a house, which almost certainly won't get stitched for this year, a kit to make a tiny landscape card from fabric from Sally Hollman's stand (her kits were very reasonably priced, and I was tempted by some of the larger ones, but thought I was more likely to get a tiny one actually finished!).  And last but not least, some free thread samples, again from New Threads - they are stocking a few new Aurifil types, and this is the sample pack of all the different weights, including a 6 strand floss on a wooden bobbin (how sad is it that I can see myself buying these just because they look lovely and are so practical, wound on bobbins...)  

A very rewarding trip, goodies wise, especially as I didn't make it to the Knit and Stitch or Stitch and Craft shows this year, and there were no cross-stitch vendors at Sandown (one vendor selling stitcheries, but virtually no cross-stitch, which is my addiction...)  I've started one of the new pieces tonight, but you'll have to wait until Wednesday to see which one!

Just a few quilts from the Great Northern Quilt Show

Being up in that part of the world, for a change, I had the chance to attend the Great Northern Quilt Show today.  I didn't take a lot of quilt photos (I don't tend to much anymore, between having been at this quite a few years and copyright issues and also being lazy when I'm at shows) but here are a few quilts I particularly liked for one reason or another. Please note that I did not make any of these quilts, nor do I have any rights to the images. I've credited the maker each time - if you are interested in their work, you should try to see if they have websites!

This quilt is one of many in the show by Chris Marriage, a longarm quilt from "up north" as we call it down in London... I've seen her work before, and she had a section within the show featuring her quilts - I liked a lot of them, but this one in particular, which is called Nebula, particularly struck me. I really enjoyed the colours and also, all the different fills she used...

This quilt is called Line Dancing and is by Maureen Crawford (I think  - my photo of the label was a bit blurry). I liked this one partly because I just enjoyed the colour and the movement, but also, the idea struck me - this was a row quilt, but instead of joining it in a traditional way, she's set it all diagonally, joined half the rows perpendicular to the other half, and finally, sliced the whole thing open to add the curved flying geese at the end - what a great idea!

This piece is The Little Lost Coverlet by Louise Clayton, and is a replica of a coverlet the maker's husband found in a skip (dumpster) many years ago - I liked the simplicity and the way the blocks are all different sizes - I'm thinking this would look great with shirt fabric and similar. If I were going to make something like this, I would quilt it a lot more, but I understand why this one isn't, as coverlets aren't really quilted...

This is the rather stunning Dreamcatcher  - Caught a Dream by Birgit Schueller, a German quilter. I just enjoyed all the work in this one - the quilting was great, though the other photo I took of some of the vegetation didn't really come out.

And finally, Postcard from Venice by Susan Lax, which does such a great job of looking like medieval floor mosaics...  I also liked the composition of this one, though, with all the different kinds of floor tile mosaics inserted into a small space. And I liked the diagonality, if that's a word...

There were many more quilts there, but as I said, I only took photos of a few of them, even though there were lots of others which I enjoyed looking at. Normally when I take photos at quilt shows, I never do anything with the photos  - often not even look at them later, so I hope you've enjoyed seeing these few, and I hope the makers don't mind my sharing their lovely work.

Bordering another wonky top

This was another one of the small tops made in my experiments with the wonky quilts in my new book... You may remember the red centre part. I added some more of this coffee themed fabric for a border, and voila - another top. Again, the effect of the wonky blocks is really good, with minimal effort on my part - I definitely like this book! (Wonky One Block Quilts by Marlous Carter).

Cross Stitch Update

Before we went away on holiday I placed an order for my missing colours, and it came very quickly (thanks, Patchwork Rabbit!!) so I've been able to work on this sheep piece while I've been away. I've finished the grass now (and there was a lot of grass) which was the major task - there's lots of other stitching, but not so monotonous - on to the sheep and flowers, the rest of the house, the other words, and of course the borders. Seems appropriate to be working on sheep up here in the land of sheep (Yorkshire)...

A peek in the yarn shop

In the spirit of craft sisterhood, you can't walk to a small village which has a yarn shop (or a fabric shop, craft shop, etc) without at least a peek inside - this was a yarn shop, so not so full of tempting things for me, as I don't knit, but I did enjoy looking at the buttons (though I didn't buy any).

It made me wish, once again, that I did knit - but as usual, not enough to actually learn how to do it. (I do know the basics, I'm just really bad at it!). And I don't need another hobby anyway...

Wonky, bordered

Here's one of those little experiments in Wonky tops I did recently, with a little border around it. I do really like this pattern, and think I will use it again in future for something larger. It's great the way it seems to curve, when in fact it's all straight lines...

Red border

This top was hanging around for quite a while before I managed to get a border on it - debated about what to use, but in the end, decided to do something which contrasted with the centre - partly because of the contrast, and partly because I didn't really have anything in my stash which toned with the centre. I think it was the right choice, however...

A Linus Day

Had the chance yesterday to spend the day at a Linus quilt making workshop at the house of my local Project Linus co-ordinator...  She has a good sized house, with lots of space in her sitting room and dining room, so we were able to set up about 10 sewing machine workstations, which was fun. 

First off, I stitch some borders on a large underwater panel, and then quilted it with seaweed  coming up from the bottom and bubbles at the top. You can just see some of the seaweed lines in the photo below - unfortunately, the finished quilt photo doesn't really show them. 

But it still looks cute. 

Here are a couple of other quilts folks made - I think there were about 10 total, including a handful of small ones for the Special Care Baby Unit, which were largely simple quilts backed in fleece, with minimal quilting, in case they were going to babies with sensitive skin...

It was a fun day with a bunch of other stitchers - she's having a few more over the next few weeks, and there's one other day I might be able to pop in - so watch this space!

ATC Friday

Some more cards on which I was the last player - finishing off the card after two people have already worked on it. This hummingbird card was already quite full, so I just added some words to it and left it at that.

This one, I found a little trickier; I wasn't sure what to add to this singer. In the end, after a rummage through my stash of bits and pieces, I added these owl charms and a few little colourful dots.

And to these art deco cards, I added a larger flower to complement the little flowers in the other two elements.