Two more days and we're off to foreign parts

At first light, well actually before first light!!, we're off to Spain and Morocco and won't be back until around the 20th May when I hope to have lots of piccies to show you.  In the meantime I've been trying hard to get all my commitments finished and in the post.  This is what I've been up to inbetween trying to organise the packing of clothes etc for three weeks away. 

 Not made the teddy that stays at home but the Easter Basket is for Wendy part of the Quilting Gallery swap, you can see all the other baskets here on their Flickr site.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/1445124@N20

 Next are my little art dolls for Pauline and Debs who swapped with me on Surface Design group.  I made the felt previously and cut out a rough heart shape with a head, buttonholed/blanket stitched them together and embroidered them.  The faces and feet are ArtGlitz charms.

 Now for two cards from Dayle in Australia with home I did an ingredient swap.  Not sure which one I like the most and was surprised at the amount of bits an pieces I sent her she'd managed to incorporate.

One thing left to do before we go and that's to work out how to make an insulated cover for my insulin pens to keep them cool while travelling.   I may get another posting in before we leave but if not I'll see you all mid May.

EG Olympic Postcard Project

Not sure how many Embroidery Guilds in the UK are doing the Olympic Postcard project but ours is and these are the cards produced by our members.  Each guild was given a 'participating country' which was chosen by picking a name out of a hat system.   Darlington EG was paired with Uganda and I got the dubious honour of co-ordinating the project for our guild.   My first thoughs on being told we'd got Uganda was Idi Amin, Aids, brutality to women, gorillas.  Not very inspiring but further research showed me a beautiful country with rain forests, abundant birds, beasts and flora.  The one stipulation of the project was that the flag of 'your chosen' country must be the first postcard on the strip.  Each strip is between 9 and 15 cards long.   Each card is 6" x 4", laced onto archival board, backed and signed and dated.   These are the cards made by our members, Marigold Kelly, Linda Doughty, Joan Bainbridge, Pat Camburn, Carole Wilson and myself. 

I'm sure you'll agree they are all very different and "didn't they do well".

My new sewing table

Keith has been busy in my sewing room again after I saw this on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/user/CrazyShortcutQuilts#p/u/40/g14govA4pIM

I've been complaining for some time now, well ever since my 830 wouldn't fit in my Horn cabinet, that I missed the flat sewing surface.  Buying another cabinet capable of taking the larger, heavier machines was out of the question.  So after we watched this video we made a quick trip to B&Q and Wilks for the materials and this is the result.

Table as seen from the back, notice we have left enough room for ventilation.  Also we couldn't get the wider insulation into the car so had to settle for smaller blocks taped together with gaffer tape.

 On the front there is a removable piece so I can change the bobbins easily.  Previously I had to remove the table each time I wanted to change bobbin thread because I  couldn't see what I was doing with it on. Now changing bobbin thread is easier as lifting out the front piece leaves it easy for me to see everything.

This is the piece that fits in front of the machine.   I have about 7.5" of space between the front of the table and the needle.   I am still sitting at the same height as before.  Begin vertically challenged Keith chopped off a bit of the table legs so I was sewing at a comfortable height.  But the new 'infill' gives me a wider sewing surface and allows me to rest my arms on the table to quilt, much less strain on the old neck and arms.

We had to use four insulation boards in all, two on the bottom and two on the top. Drawing round the machine for the base boards and round the machine arm for the top boards.  The insulation foam is easy to cut with a serated knife but you have to remember when you draw out the pattern which way is the top!!  We nearly cut the arm piece with the curve going the wrong way!!  It's very sturdy but light and can easily be removed and propped up somewhere else when I want to use the embroidery unit.

I covered the whole table with heavy duty plastic that I'd bought some time back to make bags etc.  I cut a hole where the needle and feed dogs went and was surprised to find the plastic stayed in place and acted a bit like my Supreme Slider making it easy to free machine.  I'm very pleased with the outcome, it may not look pretty but it works.

April and May Journal Pages

More tangled journal pages, April's is a fantasy bug (Tanglebug) using Acrylic Inks for the colouring in bits. The background fmq is supposed to represent the blossom the 'Tanglebug' is getting nectar from.  You may have to use your imagination!! May is more straight forward tangle, 'Bloomin Tangle 2'.  This time I doodled on the fabric and used the fabric to applique petals and fmq'd the background in wandering leaves.

Last weekend we went to the Threadbangers' (local Quilt Group of which I'm not a member) first quilt show.  This was being held in a local village hall and when we got there there were Morris Dancers on the Green.     It was a lovely show, small but the quilts were varied and well made.  There were a couple of traders and plenty of small sewing related items for sale.  They made over £2000 for the Help for Heros charity.  Well done Threadbangers.  One item which I loved was a quilted Wendy house made by the group. .  Here are some photos. 

Morris Dancers outside of the Inn

Village Hall where the Quilt show was held.



Quilted Wendy House.



I've been meaning to show you these monoliths for some time now and keep forgetting.  Every time we go to Boroughbridge for 'woody things' for Keith we pass them.

They are called the 'Devil's Arrows' and are prehistoric but the reason why three should be stood in a row (one on one side of the road the other two in a field on the other side of the road) is anybodys guess.

These are the second and third monoliths, time and tide have taken their toll on the height of these two.  The second one in this photo is not very clear, its beside the large tree.

Two weeks to go and we're off on holiday.  This is our Ruby Wedding anniversary treat, it should have been last year but it got postponed due to Marc and Alix's wedding.  We are heading for Marrakesh in Morroco by way of France and Spain stopping off at points along the way.  On the way back we will be calling at Madrid as I've always wanted to see the Alhambra.  Hope to get some good photos to share.

Off now to finish my last two swaps before my hols and tackle the dust bunnies.

March JP - Primeval Tangle

 I wanted to continue with the Zentangle theme for my March JP but this time on a black background.  The
fern-type leaves were my 'strings' which I drew freehand then drew the patterning inside of each leaf.  Next step was to outline the pattern and the leaves.  I dithered a bit about whether or not I should pattern each section within the leaves but in the end decided to try out some new paints.  Keith had bought some Jo Sonja pearlescent paints for wood and I'd seen these paints advertised as suitable for fabric so 'borrowed' them from him.  He might not get them back....  I think the paint is a bit thick and I should have watered it down a bit but wasn't sure whether it would bleed if I did.   Still its done now.

Next couple of photos are close-ups of parts of the journal page.

I have deliberately not join many swaps this year as I want to do other things but one I did join was an 'Ingredient Swap' with the Surface Design group.  I received a package of bits and pieces from Dayle in Australia from which to make a card and post it back to her.  This is the ingredients and the card I've made from them.

Sunday gone (3rd April) was Mothering Sunday here in the UK and my eldest son Marc wanted to take me out for lunch.  He was again though in the Lake District having taken part in a triathlon on the Saturday and wanted us to go to Keswick.  Well I love the ride over the moors to the Lake District so we agreed.

 On the way over we saw this strange cloud with a rainbow centre.  The rainbow was much brighter than the photo as I had to take it through the car windscreen which as you all know have UV shields built in them.  As you can see from the photo below the sky was blue, just this one dark cloud with a rainbow.

 Marc and Alix had booked lunch for us at the Horse & Farrier Inn, built in 1688 and retaining many of its old features.  If  anyone is in the area, the Inn is actually at Threkeld, they do a lovely meal at a reasonable price.   At the end of the meal all the ladies were presented with a small bunch of daffodils which was a lovely touch.

Me and Marc outside the Inn just before leaving for home.

I'm off now to make a start on my April JP which I hope to show you soon.  At the moment I don't have any idea of what I'm going to do.

Back on-line again

You wouldn't believe the amount of work a new pc can cause.  My laptops have both been giving me problems for a while now, one very old Dell displays the picture as though the screen was hour-glass shaped.  The other one doesn't like to talk to the internet, it is very temperamental as to whether or not it will find our network.  It finds everyone else's but struggles with ours.  In the end I decided to go for a desktop rather than laptop as I tend to use it in my workroom all the time and don't take it anywhere.   So Yesterday it arrived and I thought what a good idea it would be if I just moved my usual work place to the other side of the room!!!!    My dh and ds spent last night and most of this morning removing units and relocating plugs, wires etc.  I am under pain of death to move it again.  But at last I'm up and running and still getting used to Windows 7.   I will keep one of my laptops as my Version 6 of the Bernina software won't work on Windows 7 correctly and the cost of upgrading to ver 7 is out of the question.  

So what have I done since last we spoke, not a lot really.  I'm in the process of finishing my March Journal Page, another Zentangle one, this time black with painted bits.  I'll show you later what it looks like.  Apart from that I've done a bit of walking much to the distress of my poor arthritic toes but they need the exercise.

We went to Farndale on the North York Moors to see the daffodils but when we got there they weren't out yet. Spring reaches those parts later than anywhere else.

These were the only daffs we  found.

 Friday we took Buster for a walk along the dismantled railway line from Mickleton in Teesdale to Romaldskirk - about 2 miles each way.  It was a lovely Spring day and Buster was very keen to see the Black Sheep.

 When we got to Romaldskirk we stopped at the village inn for a drink, Buster has finished his.

 The village was inhabited in Roman times and there are still stocks on The Green from medieval times.

The old church stands at the other end of The Green.  The walk back was harder due to our muscles stiffening up after sitting in the sun outside the inn.   Buster didn't complain though he could have turned round and gone back again!!

Yes I am still alive

I've just been hibernating now that the cold has returned.  Actually I've had a bit of a head cold and not done much at all.  My mad splurge last month has tired me out, oh dear!!!  But I have caught up with the Accuquilt blocks and have photographed them, well sort of they all seem a bit skewed but you'll get the idea. 

They are all 12"squares not odd sizes as the photos shows.  I enjoyed making them and have been quite impressed with the Accuquilt Go.  Problem is I got a bit carried away and ended up with lots more 3" triangles than I needed so if I don't use them at the end of this BOM I'll have to find something else to do with them.

One other thing I got round to doing was to make a Linus Quilt from old tshirts.  I cut off the sleeves and separated the backs and fronts then cut 6"squares and sewed them together with my overlocker.  I overlocked the border edges before putting the border on.  The back, border and flowers are made from some blue fleece I bought a while back to make a sweatshirt for dh and never got round to making.

This is a close up of the squares and flowers.

The next thing to finish is March's journal page but my mind is a blank at the moment.

Missing ZentangleJP from yesterday

I realised after I'd blogged yesterday that I'd missed one of the JP so here it is.

Also round 7 (I think) of Kate North's SAHRR - her instructions were to embroidery or applique something on the quilt top.

Ihaven't as yet photographed the BOM's but hope to do so later today and will blog about them then.

Been taking a break from blogging and housework

I've been tangling - I started my February Journal Page for the Contemporary Quilters' challenge and couldn't stop tangling.  I sewed the outline of flower petals and filled in the spaces with Zentangles.  The corners and non-petal edges of each JP are different, depending upon the whim of my muse at the time of creating.  I got a bit carried away and before I knew what I'd done I'd made four JP's.  As you are only supposed to make one a month I may have to do something else for March, April and May to comply with the rules.

So here they are, all four panels, not very well photographed but good enough I think to let you get a feel for my 'Bloomin Tangled' journal pages.

I've also been making up the block of the Month on the Accuquilt Go site.  These are very traditional blocks and so far I've finished nine of them which I'll show later.

CQ Journal Page Challenge 2011

I've learned from past challenges that I work better when I have something I want to do or a theme I want to play with.  A while ago I did a Zentangle swap and since then have had a hankering to do something with them. But until now that's as far as it got.  I've been doddling zentangles in my sketchbook for the past couple of weeks. I thought it was time I put my thinking cap on and try to make some of my tangles into journal quilts. So that's my personal challenge for 2011, at least for the next four months.  Here are some of my scribbles:

They are very simple to do, all you need to start making tangles is a piece of paper, a pencil and a pen such as a Micron 01 or ultra fine Sharpie.   Using the pencil put a dot in each corner of the page and join them up, don't worry about being neat if they are wonky it adds character.  Then take your pencil for a walk (called a string) to divid up your square (or rectangle).  Here's where the fun begins, using the pen start adding pattern to each section.  That's all there is to it.  If you want to see more try Zentangles or google 'zentangle', Amazon have several books on the subject  by Suzanne McNeill which are relatively cheap.

 Don't worry if your line goes outside the box these can be borders, fringes, flowers.   The term Zentangle (which is a noun not a verb by the way) was coined by Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts, who is an ex monk.  It's a form of art meditation.  By that I mean you get so engrossed you loose yourself in it.  Give it a go, have fun and chill out at the same time.

 I've been practising turning my tangles into quilt tiles the one above is a 5"tile which I tried putting a bit of colour onto.  The one below will is the prototype for February's Journal Page and so is 10".  I wanted to see just how much a challenge I had taken on.  I've started with some of the easier tangles to interpret but there are several that will be either impossible, at least for me, or difficult to quilt.  This one is a quarter of a flower each month the petal and corners will be different and I hope when hung together will harmonise into a whole.
 

I ended up sewing the outlines and colouring some of the patterns using a black Sharpie.  As you can see the quilting leaves a lot to desire but I need a lot more practise.  This is going to be a real challenge but enjoyable I think.

The Sketchbook Challenge this month is 'Opposites' I did think of saying my tangles were opposite because they were done in black and white.  I am going to do one on black paper with a white pen and then I might just change my mind and sketch something completely different.