The Process Continues!

 Not too much in the way of sewing this week - but I did put some of the pink blocks together to make this quilt top.

40" x 40" makes it an OK size for a baby as either a quilt or a playmat.

I've made some other scrap blocks too, so they will be put together once this top has been basted, quilted and bound.

It's a Process!

I've been playing with scraps again!

These are some of Georgie's FabWraps scraps generated by a year of making bags and wraps.

I've sorted them into colour families.

I've arranged roughly by length.

I've dived in to start making blocks.

This was the result of the pinks - that's 5 x 16.5" square, 6 x 8.5" square and a 'crumb starter' for next time we have lots of scraps.

Not bad for 'free' fabric - all too small to be made into bags, but not too small to be made into quirky blocks to make quilts.

More colours to work on.  More fun to be had!

Of course, after that we'll have to work out useful layouts and complete the quilts.  Just my sort of projects!

Beyond the Festival

 A new version of Blogger today - so far I haven't been able to put the text around the first photos - sorry!  I'm sure that I'll learn!

What I wanted to say was that I'd taken a fun Zoom workshop with Jennie Rayment (always an entertaining person!) at the end of July, as part of the 'Beyond the Festival of Quilts' programme.

I lined up my computer near my sewing machine, spread the required class items around, and off we went.  Just over an hour to learn this technique of making and playing with fabric circles to produce this 'topper'.  I suspect that it will take a full lifetime to master the technique completely and discover all the variations possible - although in Jennie's book, which I later bought, it does give you a good insight as to what you could be trying!

Lots of food for thought!

Kingfisher Completion!

 So, when you last saw this it just had the base stitching.

I bite the bullet and started colouring with my Inktense pencils.

This is before the water was added.

 This is after a spritz from the water bottle - the colours are brighter and fixed.

Then there was another pause until I decided how to stitch the ivy on the river wall.

 I stitched the ivy, and started laying out leaves to represent the trees around the site, based on my A3 size (or so I thought).  I wanted the leaves to be more 'foreground' as if the viewer was looking out through the greenery around.

 Then I added 'branches' of homemade cord (embroidery floss with zig zag stitches over it).

And some organza weed in the river - with a little quilting for the river water

 And some fish, which I'd forgotten to add earlier, but needed to be included, as otherwise why would the kingfisher be there?

 Then, using my marked lines, I chopped off the excess.  Hmm, slightly more than I thought, but I trusted my marking.

 I went ahead and bound the piece, added a hanging sleeve....

Added the kingfisher - glossing over the fact that surely, that would make those leaves on the other side of the river, not in the foreground.  I should confess here that I'd expected my kingfisher to be perching on the bridge structure on the right hand side, but I'd mis-remembered which way he was facing!

Finished!  I was quite pleased with it.  Until the very moment that I hung it next to the other piece that I'd made for the same A3 challenge - and found that it's quite a lot smaller!

I really thought that I'd measured twice and cut once, but whatever I'd done, it didn't add up to an A3 hanging!

Oops!

I'm still pleased with how it worked out, and enjoyed revisiting some of these techniques, but there is no getting away from the fact that it doesn't meet the brief!