Willow Wonders

 They may not look like much, but they are the result of my taking part in a willow weaving workshop last month, organised by the lovely Benta!

Big thanks to her and to Mary, who did all the prep to make this workshop so successful - and who taught us all how to create stars and Christmas trees.

I really enjoyed my time - and learnt two key things: 1) remember to take your secateurs, and 2) yes, it can be quite hard on your hands!

I'm really pleased to have these as part of my Christmas decorations!

Those scraps......

Each of the 12 hearts blocks (from the quilt I showed you last week) had a snowball block  at it's centre, which left a set of four half square triangles each time.

Clearly I wasn't going to waste them!  This is the cushion cover that I made with most of them.

Obviously the start point was pressing and trimming the blocks to the smallest one - turned out that 4" square was the measurement.

Then it was laying them out in a pleasing pattern, and chain piecing them, which is what is going on here.

Add a 'frankenwadding' (a piece of wadding made from left over scraps - in my case, usually the edges left after trimming a quilt before binding it), a backing and some quilting, and the cushion front is complete!

I added an envelope /  overlap back to it, and then it was complete, just needing the cushion inner to complete it.

Compare this photo to the one at the top - you can see why its a good idea to add narrow borders to anything that you make as a cushion front, as you rarely get to see the bits at the edges!

Finally, the remaining half square triangles were turned into pinwheels, and a mini runner came into being.  Perfect for topping a cupboard and standing pot plants on?

Just a bit of fun!

I've put the remaining few scraps into my scrap drawers now.  I can't understand how the drawers are, once again, full to bursting!  I clearly need to get scrap quilting again with what I have there.
 

Quilt Finished! Hearts Aligned.

Not brilliant photos - but at 72" square, it's quite a heavy quilt for DH to hold up!

It's a variation on the Hearts Crossed pattern by Dandelion Quilt Studio - a pattern that I used earlier in the year.

This time, the ninc blocks all have the hearts with the points closest to the centre, as a variation on the original.

Some of the hearts pop more than others!

And this is the back - with three more heart blocks.  I almost like this more than the front, with the restful areas of green!

I went for a simple stipple / meander all over, nothing fancy at all.

This was partly because it's about the largest quilt that I want to quilt on my domestic machine, and partly because I was concerned that the additional piecing on the back would make the quilt catch when I was moving it around.  In fact that didn't really happen, which was great!

 Binding in a lovely green print, and then the label was printed and added.  The quilt has now been gifted, which is why I can show it here without worrying that I'm giving the surprise away!

Yet another little thing

Another decoration for DD2.  A bit early for Christmas, but the colours mean that it can hang up all year long, if wanted!

This is the finished article.

It takes eight diamonds for each side of the star.

I glue basted them for speed, and left the papers in for rigidity. 

Sewn together into stars they looked like this.  The middle wasn't super neat (I'm a bit rusty with my EPP!) so when I put them together I added a button on each side.

A fun little make!
 

Using the scraps I

That fabric pull I showed you last week?  There are scraps as a result of the cutting out for the different blocks.

I don't like to leave a scrap behind (ahem, apart from the ones in my scrap drawers, which seem to renew all by themselves!)

So, using as many of them as possible, I've made these fabric buckets to go with the quilt.  You can see the two different sides of them, just cobbled together from the scraps that could be 5" square (on the left) or random strips put together according to their size.

Always useful things to have!
 

How I Fabric 'Pull'

I thought it would be interesting to watch my fabric pull happen for my next quilt.  The couple that I am making the quilt for wanted mainly greens with a few rich colours, and generally small patterns.

I actually started with the five fabrics on the left.  One of them is a golden colour, the rest greens.

I looked through my stash (the first five were purchased for the quilt) and found these 'bluer' greens, and a fun geometic print that picked up the gold colour of one of the base fabrics.

More variety (and yardage!) required.  Two more geometric prints added.  One a very pale green, the other, the one on top with the grey, picks up on the gold again.

But I was worried that it didn't have quite enough pizzazz!   Back to the fabric shelves again!

This red with flashes of gold is perfect, and brings in the richness that I wanted from what I'd been told by the couple.

Finally, I wanted to add just a couple of larger prints.  They tie in with the red / gold reasonably well, but will also give that 'punch' that the quilt will need if it isn't to become too sludgy.  Shame that I only have a couple of fat quarters of these, but that should be enough to tickle the quilt into being a little more interesting!

Now it's time to get cutting and choosing the combinations for the blocks that I am going to make.  I love my hobby!

 

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!