Another little thing!

 Another little trinket for DD2 - this time an acorn mug rug.  Nicely seasonal, whilst still using 'her' fabrics.

Something else to clutter up her uni room!

The pattern / template is free from Fig Tree and Co.   I used smaller squares in the acorn, as I already had these 1.5" squares in my scrap drawers.

A Puffin Bag!

 My lovely friend Benta, as well as giving me that cute papoose pouch, also gave me two beautiful puffin tea towels.

Too good for drying the dishes, I decided.  I wondered about pinning them to the wall just as they were.  I wondered about making two matching wall quilts.  I finally decided to make a shopping bag with them - that way they would get plenty of use, and would make me happy every time that I use it!

This is the 'big' side, and below, the 'little' side.  Plenty of fabric to make the handles, and even a little left over for other projects!  Lots of fun to be had!

I am really pleased with my new bag - thank you, Benta!

Thirty Fifth Anniversary!

Our Coral wedding anniversary - so, even though we don't often exchange anniversary gifts - I made this coral fragment, based on the methods taught by Meredith Woolnough, in her book, Organic Embroidery.  I thoroughly recommend it!  Lots of ideas, tips and tricks.  I'm sure that you will be as mesmerized as me!

I started with my design for a coral - although I did wonder if I'd made a winter tree branching system instead, even with the cross joining 'limbs'.

After transferring it onto water soluble fabric (using a water soluble pencil) I started to stitch it.

It's hard to tell, but I actually used three different colours of thread - perhaps they were too similar to each other, as it's difficult to see them clearly.

After dissolving the fabric and drying the embroidery, it was time to mount it using pins.  This photo is where I try to show the depth behind the embroidery, and the shadow that it casts.

Finally, here it is mounted.  Again, I'm trying to show you the shadows!

This wasn't my first attempt - but is certainly my largest, finishing at about 7" in diameter.  My earlier attempts were of leaves, and were all much smaller than this, and great as samples whilst I learnt the techniques!
 

And was my DH pleased?  Yes, I think that he was!

Sashiko Samples

I've been enjoying an online course through Domestika, provided by Kate Ward, who is well known as a sashiko enthusiast and teacher.  

This picture is a warning to pay proper attention to what she (or any other teacher) tells you about spacing.

My attempts at the lovely rice flower design  - third time lucky!  The first time I forgot to leave any gaps between the stitching lines when I was setting it out.  The second time I mis understood my own notes (!) and left two stitching line between the stitched lines, instead of two spaces (one stitching line), so I didn't have many motifs on the piece.  Third time lucky!  I finally got the spacing right, and got the distribution of motifs right, and they were lined up with the proper diagonal lines working too!

The first pattern that was taught was this simple cross.  Nice and straightforward.

Can you see the grid drawn behind it?  I used new stencils for this project.  It's nice and fast to use them for drawing lines, but the rest of the samples I used the dots stencil, as I preferred it to stitch on, even though it took a tiny bit more time to do so.

I could iron the grid away, but I quite like having it there for reference in my sample.

This is a person and flower stitch (I can't quite remember the proper name for it, but that's close enough!).

Kate recommended that you draw one or two motifs out as you go, so you don't get in a muddle with your stitch pattern - and also that you stitch some of your verticals and then some of your horizontals to make sure you know what you are doing!

Not the neatest sample, but you can see that it's the pattern that I want it to be.

Finally, we moved on to the rice flower pattern - the one that I struggled to get the spacing right on!

This, by the way, is not the right spacing - I should have left a gap between the lines of stitching.

However, the photos are to show me that 1) the stitches are a little shorter that the full length between the dots, and 2) how the motifs are made up with four directions of stitching.

You can see how it's building up here.

But actually, I didn't feel like finishing this sample, as I knew it wasn't right.

This was the one where I actually nailed it!  I'm so pleased!

Of course, at some point I will make some more samples, and perhaps make a sample book with them.  

I was pleased that I finally got the spacing right for these though!  Doesn't it look pretty? And is supposed to be a good strong one for visible mending too, rather than just decoration like I'm doing here.

I might also look for stencils with the grid that is a little tighter than this one. But that's a project for another day!
 

Papoose Pyramid Pouch

Aren't these cute?  Benta made the blue one for me - and was kind enough to give me a template and instructions too, so that I could make my own.

So, all beautifully pyramid shaped when closed....

....when you loosen the cord / thong you can see the body and the hood......

.....and when it's beautifully flattened and fully open, you can see why it is called a papoose pouch!

I can see that they would be lovely for mini presents on a tree - I might just have to make some in Christmas fabrics for that very thing!

 And just as a reminder to myself, this is the shape of the piece before it is sewn together (but in this case, after machine quilting).

Thanks for this pattern and gift, Benta!

I'm Running Late!

I forgot to post these from almost a month ago!

Fun workshop (thank you, Miniature Quilt Group from UK Quilters Guild!) with Gary Mills, where we made these fun long legged birds in the morning....

And these excellent reindeer in the afternoon!

Lucky that DH and I had just pruned an apple tree, so I had plenty of twigs to use for legs and antlers!

Fun projects!  Easy to sew, and using a technique to make 'pockets' for the legs that I hadn't though of using previously.  Thanks, Gary!
 

Comfy Cushion

Final stitching (for the moment) for DD2 who has just taken her quilt (and a whole car full of other items!) and headed off to Uni.

This is a cushion cover, 26" square, using some of the fabrics used in her Uni quilt, and the same block pattern.  I love that it has hearts in it to show her how much we love her!

I quilted some extra hearts into it too - I wonder if she will notice?  On her quilt I added leaves to the meander quilting.... so this is slightly different.
 

Missing in Action - Part 2

Another quilt that never actually made it on to my blog when I made it - and I'm not sure why!

It was an MSQC pattern, called 'Wallah' or 'Voila' - and I seem to remember (I made it in July 2022!) that it was a fun one to make

Here I was laying it out.  I can remember that it was a 'disappearing' block - I think that it was four patches and exchanging parts with other blocks, but I'm sure that you can track down the video tutorial and find out!

Here it is, a bit more put together.

And finally finished and shown over our garden table!

The sunlight didn't make for great photos - but this one is trying to show you the quilting and the backing!

I hope that you are happy to see this after so long!

Finally, for me to be all caught up, this little quilt was made in March this year for a 'quilt whisper' challenge within the Miniature Quilt Group of the Quilters Guild of the UK.

Mine was the fourth in a series, that was prompted by an image.... I realise that it would make more sense if I could show the others, but I don't have the right permissions!  So, if you didn't catch them at Festival of Quilts last month, then I'll let you know if they are going to be shown anywhere else!

 

Missing In Action? Part 1

When I was updating my Quilt Record recently (I confess that it was a couple of years since I'd last updated it properly!) I realised that there were a couple of quilts that once they'd been finished had never made it on to the blog - so I'm going to put that right!

The first one to show you is this frame quilt.

It was the merging of two projects.  I wanted to set my own challenge to design and make a 'mini block' project to replace a simpler quilt on a living room wall, but I was also working on a frame quilt challenge for my old quilting group.

I started the frame with a simple pinwheel, that flared out into a star. Then I left a good chunk of negative space to allow room for quilting.

The next challenge row was to use seminole.  That was a fun one!

Triangles (I used flying geese) came next.  Then it was curves - a bit of a cheat for me, as I applied this gold bias binding in gentle curves.

Stars was the final prompt, and I used them as corner stones to complete my challenge piece.

After that I managed to make the batik blocks fit (with a little 'fillet' of 1/2" or so in batik to make it work properly!).

You can tell that I had fun with the quilting!

I had a blast and I'm very happy to have it up on the wall!
 

Card Time Again

It's that time again.  I always seem to reach the end of the summer with a shortage of cards, but lots of dates in the diary when I need them!

So, a few fabric scraps, a little hand sewing and a glue stick, and I have sufficient cards to get me through the next couple of months!

Not all shown here - I forgot to take a photo of the first patch that I made.  

It's always fun to match up the fabrics with the recipients!

 

More little projects

The start of the school year and the Uni year are rolling round so quickly!  I've seen a few ideas for elasticated pen holders on line, and I thought that this version, with a zip to keep pens and pencils secure, would work well.

This one with black elastic was made for an A5 notenook, DD2's favourite size.  Made with fabric that was included in her Uni quilt.

 And this one for DD1 is an A4 size in fabric that she chose.

The pattern that I used was this one from PolkaDot Chair.

Elastic Pencil Case Bookmark

I think that I'll probably be making a couple more of these!

Finished!

I always love a quilt with legs!  It reminds me of Terry Pratchett's Luggage in the Discworld series....

Anyway, here it is, complete with the borders, fully quilted and bound.

I'm really pleased with it!

The all important label.

Scrappy binding to match the scrappy border and main blocks.

I did a meander pattern for the quilting, adding in hearts at random along the way.

So hearts in the pattern as well as hearts in the quilting.

The only thing that wasn't scrappy was the backing.  A lovely floral - good counterpoint to the busy front!
 

I Added a Border

I decided that I did want the scrappy hearts to be a bit bigger (it was 54" square), so raided my 2.5" strips and scraps to make a double border for all four sides.

It didn't take much to fiddle the scraps so that there wasn't too much overlap of the most populous fabrics.

So here is the quilt, stretched out and being spray basted on the living room floor.

Next, quilting and binding!