Bowes Challenge

Our very small textile art group has challenged each other to create a piece of work based on photos we took of the outside of Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle.  I missed the joint photo day out we had arranged but went along earlier this week to take my photos and get the creative juices flowing.  I've been concentrating recently on quilting projects, mainly Christmas presents and now feel the need to do something else.

I've played a bit in Photoshop with this one, thinking of doing something on the embellisher and hand stitching.

Part of the gate ironwork

 It was difficult to get a clear picture of the formal garden at the front because of the different levels.

When we set off the day was sunny but by the time we got to Bowes it was threatening rain so everything looked a bit dull.

One other piece of news, I'm about to become a great grandmother next year.

My grandson Matthew and his girlfriend Siobhan are to be the proud parents.   I'm trying not to become too excited at the moment as its still a long way off but I am looking at baby quilts.

Jelly Roll Quilts

I saw this on You Tube and was amazed at the speed these ladies can create a quilt top.  I thought I'd have a go too.

I searched through my jelly rolls and decided to use one that seemed to have been hanging around for a while.  It's a variety of batiks but when I unrolled it I I wasn't too keen on several lengths.

Thirtyfive minutes it took the winner of the Jelly Roll Race to complete her top.  As for me - well it took me 3.5 hours just to piece all the lengths together and sew the first row.....   and another 2 hours to finish the quilt top!!  Guess no prizes there then.  I think the race must have started once all the strips were sewn together as it was this stage that took up most of my time. I also made lots of  mistakes at this stage.  First once was not to sew them together one after the other.  Instead I sewed them in pairs and then the pairs to each other.   I found I had to repeatedly check where my seams were lying and I spent a lot of time unpicking them because they were on the wrong side.   But eventually I finished it and here it is (sorry about the pegs the wind kept blowing it backwards).   I must say I quite like it. All I have to do now is figure out what to do next. It turned out bigger than I expected at 64" x 60" so I might add borders and put it on the bottom of our bed.

Drunkards Path

Sy and Julie bought me the Drunkards Path die  for the Accuquilt last Christmas, so I thought it only fair that I make them a lap quilt using this block.  They have decorated their living room in chocolate and lime so those are the colours I've used in their quilt.   I bought 14 differing shades of browns and lime/greens and set off to cut out the pieces.  I happily spent a couple of hours cutting all 104 pairs for the quilt (with some extra) then sewed them all into blocks of 4.  The Accuquilt really comes into its own I think when cutting pieces that are more difficult to do than straight rotary cut pieces.

Once I got them to this stage the fun began.  I had enough for 7 rows of 8 blocks but ended up making the quilt 7 rows of 6 blocks in a sort of sudoko pattern.   Sewing these blocks together gave me a real headache much more difficult than sewing them all together.  I used our bed to lay them all out and get the pattern correct.   Then took each pair into my sewing room and sewed them together.  Easy yes....  Well I put them down in the order I thought I'd picked them up but I'd actually put them down upside down - you following me?   I'd lost the plot and a hour later and several unpickings I finally asked Keith to give me a hand to sort out the pattern again.  Then I did the sensible thing and pinned the pairs together with a label (t for top).

This is the result:

I could only get part of the quilt in the photo but you get the idea.   There were several blocks left over so
I made Buster a matching quilt to go on top of his new bed but I'll keep it until Christmas or Sy and Julie might guess what they are getting.

I've basted both tops onto fleece and hope to get one of them quilted before the weekend.

I've been chuntering on about the Big Shot machine for some time now as a complimentary machine to the Accuquilt.   I must have gone on a bit more than I thought for when we were in Embsay Mills on Sunday Keith bought me one!!!!  He also bought me a couple of dies and embossing folders.  I've been watching videos on Youtube as well as Patsy Thompson's videos on using the Big Shot with fabric and am keen to play with it.  However I want to quilt at least one of the drunkard path quilts before I start or they may never get done.

Almost forgot - Henny Penny has been refurbished, doesn't she look regal.  I almost think if I added a whip she could become a dominachick.

Foundation quilting

I've finished my second foundation pattern mini quilt I printed the pattern out onto tracing paper but I've just seen a method I'd love to try.   It's here on Sewwequilt blog.  Elaine is the lady doing the tutorial and she uses freezer paper.  I've not tried that method but think I'm definitely going to give it a go.

And now for my not so masterful mini quilt, but I like it.

As for Henny Penny shown in my last post, well she's in pieces.  In fact several of her pieces have been recut in a more suitable fabric.   All she needs now is the quilt fairy to come along and sew her back together.

Come on now own up....

How many of you have gone to a workshop only to find you have brought totally unsuitable fabrics?
My friend and I decided at the last minute to join a workshop to make a hen.   The list of requirements was emailed to us but no image of what we were making.  A hen, well how difficult can that be to decided on fabrics.

This was my selection of fabrics, I thought the leaf pattern could represent feathers and the other two contrasts.

This is Ann Bull our lady tutor for the day.  She was very good and helped all of us even to sewing some of our pieces when we got behind.

Joyce Smith was our host and supplied us with tea, coffee and delicious cakes and acted as our goffor for the day.  She is a long arm quilter and her Quilt Barn can be found here

Inside the Quilt Barn, small, cosy but light and airy.  The lady in the purple tshirt is my friend Pat.  She likes purple as you can see from her hen.

We didn't get round to finishing our hens but one or two did.

A previous project had been this splendid cockerell

And this was as far as I got before going home.  My hen was becoming blurred in the fabrics.  I had forgotten that random dyed fabrics would not easily allow identical parts to be cut out.  My hen has jester legs, a hood that is green on one side and reddish on the other and merges with the body fabric.

And now this is the state of my hen - the sum of all its parts....

Ann glued the thighs onto the body but I prefer to sew pieces together.  My legs looked like Nora Batty stockings so I've decided to recut some pieces.   Watch this space.

Cooling down

Go on throw it.......

Go on throw it , pleeeease....

There it is ........

 I'm bringing it back for you to play with....

I'll just have a quick chew....

And a good shake...   Oh sorry Mum.

Catching Up at last

I seem to have done nothing but make samples for the last couple of weeks, that and chase dust bunnies. Our 'Dippy Day' was on Monday gone and as one of two of the members had recently purchased machines for workshops we thought we'd go back to basics and get to grips with our sewing machines.

First we started scribbling to loosen our stitching up.

Next we tried our hands at a few basic quilting stitches, first using straight lines then getting a bit more adventurous.

Next we tried sewing Zentangles.  We first made a frame to work within and to make a border to hang onto when moving the fabric.   These were quilt sandwiches we'd prepared earlier.  Once the tangling was done we added a border using a decorative stitch.

We thought we'd like to try out the decorative stitches on our machines and make 'Stacked Stitches'.  This is a Bernina term and several stacked stitch 'recipes' can be found here.   There are also loads of other ideas.

This is one I made earlier (another Blue Peter job) its a quilted background and a piece of stacked stitches fabric cut into hearts and appliqued onto the background.  I think this would look good using Christmas colours and perhaps a snowman, tree or even a house with snow on the top.  Maybe my cards this year will look a bit similar.

This is another one I did earlier.  The fabric is sheeting over which I placed a plastic stencil and sprayed die onto it.   I layered wadding on the back and stitched round the petals then cut out the wadding to make the flowers puff up.   I put it on top of a second piece of wadding and stippled in various sizes in between the flowers.  Added some beads and a border.

We finally tried thread painting.   I painted the skey then didn't like it so I cut it out and layered the remainder of the card onto another background.  It gives it an almost 3D effect.

I'd been reading Karen Linduska's "Your Machine's Decorative Stitches" in preparation for our Dippy Day and made this piece using her technique.  You can see her book here.

I have been getting on with my second mini quilt and should have it finished within the next couple of days so will post it then.  

CQJP'S next bloc finished.

Not sure why but Blogger has turned some of the photos upside down, so sorry you will have to stand on your head if you want to seem them the right way up!!   Think I might have posted some of these before but not sure.  Okay here goes, our task for these four JP's, should we accept the challenge was to include text.   I based all four on electronic communications.



June - Texting
Hope you can understand my version of text speak...



July - Twitter (Tweeting)

August - Facebook (here's where you stand on your head)

September - Login
Digital images and text printed onto tshirt fabric.  I did add beads but then took them off.

October - Chamomile Days
Another upside down one, I know I'm early but I got carried away. The next set of JP's have to include buttons.

Mini quilt finished

Just a quick post today to show you my finished mini quilt (9pm curfew project).  I enjoyed doing it but got it all wrong as I cut out the foundations minus the seam allowance - durr....   As a result not all of the blocks are the same size, my mind must have been on the tv than on what I was doing.   I've started another one, this time I've cut the foundations with a much larger margin of error.

Keith has gone off to help Sy lay laminate flooring before they have their BBQ for Julie's mum's birthday tomorrow.  And as for me I have four pairs of trousers to take up, not one of my favourite pasttimes but a necessary one as dh has short legs and hates shopping for clothes.  I have to buy them while I have him cornered else he would go around in a tatty pair of trousers quite happily.

Bits and pieces

Bits and Pieces is all I seem to have done recently.  I've been catching up on all those odd jobs that need doing but get pushed to the back of your mind.  Well I tidied up my room and decided to just get on with them and that would leave me free to sew later.

We went to Harrogate Quilt Show but I'm not posting pictures as they seem to be lots of them all over the web.  What I have done is post a couple of pictures of the goodies I bought while at the show.

 There were so many lovely goodies it was difficult to choose what I wanted but I had gone with specific buys in mind.  After I bought those, freezer paper, threads, velvet and grey net - the latter I didn't get as there was none to buy, I went a bit wild.   The photos aren't too good as they really don't show you the brilliant colours of the threads I bought from Oliver Twist's.  I have a specific project in mind, something for my dil's birthday (although at the rate I'm going it could be Christmas) present.  So I won't say anything about it but let you drool over the threads.

Arenh't they beautiful...... I love Jean Oliver's colours just wish I could dye something similar.   Anyway apart from threads I bought some Egyptian cotton from the Egyptian tentmaker's stall, a bag of jelly roll offcuts on sale for £6 which I though might come in useful.  I really splurged though on books.   They were on sale for around the same price as Amazon but without the postage so I told my dh that they were a bargain and he believed me.

Amongst my stash of books was Susan Brubaker Knapp's new  one "Point, Click, Quilt" and Isobel Hall's Textile Adventures.  I also bought a book on digitizing, I can do pretty basic designs but sometimes thread compensation baffles me so I hope to do great things after I've read this one.
Last weekend was also the Embroidery Guild's first meeting after the summer recess.  Philippa Naylor was the speaker and apart from seeing her absolutely stunning quilting she is a very funny lady.  If anyone is looking for an entertaining speaker I can definitely recommend her.  Her book "Quilting in the Limelight" is also excellent both visually and techniquewise.

Beadnell and old friends

Yesterday we met up with Anne and Grant, good friends we'd not seen for several years.  They were holidaying in their caravan in Beadnell, Northumberland.  As it is closer to us than there home in Cheshire we decided to make a day of it and visit them.  We took Buster with us as we couldn't get a dog sitter but he was very well behaved all day I'm pleased to say.

We took the direct route up the motorway for quickness but stopped at Amble to let all of us stretch our legs and do the necessary.

Buster was disappointed that the tide was out and we wouldn't let him play in the mud.  That's Warkworth Castle in the top photo, not a very good picture though.

We arrived a lunchtime and Anne and Grant our friends insisted on taking us for a birthday lunch in Seahouses.  As we had Buster lunch had to be in the beer garden but that wa fine as it was sunny and the garden backed onto the harbour.  We also had a wonderful view of the Farne Isles.

Later  we went back to Beadnell and finally allow Buster a paddle and play in the sea.  He loves water, so long as he doesn't involve soap.  He spent ages picking up seaweed from the water and depositing it on the rocks.  I think he must have been a retriever in a previous life.

He really did not want to come out but we had to set off home.

We took the long way home via Alnwick, Rothbury across the moors to come out just above Hadrian's Wall.  The heather was beautiful and we stopped to pick a couple of  pieces and let Buster stretch his legs again.

All three of us really enjoyed our day out and apparently we'd worn Buster out as he took himself off to bed at 7:30pm and was difficult to get out of bed this morning - just like us.