Pickle Dish Workshop

Through the Miniatures Group, part of the UK Quilters Guild, I took a two part workshop with Judi O'May.  She was a great tutor - lots of patience with showing and re-showing different techniques to achieve the Pickle Dish blocks.

These were my starting point

And now, the crescents made and trimmed, with the squares and centre 'eye' shapes, all ready to join.

I had to remember to reverse the order of the fabrics to get them to be opposite each other, as that is what I wanted to do.

Playing with scraps is always such fun!

And here are the shapes, all joined up.

I made four, in order to make a small wall hanging.

Judi even gave us quilting ideas, as well as layout ideas and instructions on how to join them.

I went with echo quilting the shapes, with a denser infill - you can see it clearly on the reverse.

And here is the front in it's full glory.  Already hung on my study wall.  I'm very happy that I've made it, but I'm not sure that I'd want to tackle a full size quilt with this technique, lovely though it looks!
 

Bird Hanging - The100DayProject - Complete!

I forgot to take a separate photo of the last 10 birds that I made - doh!

But, it's because I was so excited to be putting them all together!

Here they are (laid out on the design bed!), after I'd sewn the rows.

And here I am, proving that I do own an iron and ironing board (not usually much in evidence in my work!).

And, ta-da, the completed wall hanging!

All 100 days of birds put together.

The hanging is roughly 2'6" square.

It has a floral backing.  I forgot that I bought some seagull fabric that I thought would be fun for it!

And, finally, here it is in my living room, right by my favourite place to sit.

It was a fun project to sew, and has make me think more about different ways to create images with fabric and thread again.
 

Part Ten!

 When I'd completed about 60 birds, I wasn't sure that I'd be able to find another 40 within myself.

I struggled slightly, then hit my stride again, and with this set actually introduced a new technique (to the bird project, not to me) of using fairly heavy stitched lines and blobs of fabric underneath them.

There are a couple of designs which owe their origin to Jo Avery and her applique designs (although hers are rather beautiful and mine and fairly butchered - sorry Jo if you'd rather not be associated with them!).

Fun to do - I think that there will be more in my final set of 9 (plus the extra one to take me up to 100!).

Little Extras!

Now that the 'main events' of the two quilts have been made, it's time to make a few bits and bobs to go with them.  I love using some of the left over fabric up like this, as well as cutting leftovers (where it isn't still 'yardage') into the sizes that I like for scrap quilting (10" squares, 5" squares, 3.5" squares, 2.5" strips and squares, 1.25" strips, 1.5" squares).

So, for each accompaniment this time around, there are three 'extras'.  First is a simple fabric bucket (pretty small, but will hold either pencils, or lotions, or something similar.  Reversible. 

Second, my favourite tissue holder.

Third, a zippy pouch.

These are all very satisfying to make, particularly as the buckets and pouches are easy to run up with whatever size scraps you have.
 

A Simple Strippy Quilt

When you have a lovely print, sometimes you don't want to chop it into pieces that are too small for you to be able to enjoy it.

That was the case with this fun dinosaur print!

I used a very simple quilt pattern, using various depths of width of the fabric, which I've used in the past.

Many thanks to MaryQuilts for this pattern.

So, overall this is roughly 42" x 60" - which is perfect as a baby quilt or lap quilt.

Unusually for me I've backed the quilt with the same print.  Isn't it great?

I confess that if I'd been in a bricks and mortar shop rather than buying on line, the orange might have been a little more muted, and closer to the one in the print, but it still makes a jolly quilt!
 

Part Eight

 Birds 64 - 72, which include three puffins, to show the days I spent on Alderney, hoping to see one in real life for the first time ever!

I'm pleased to say, that thanks to a boat trip with Alderney Wildlife Trust (thank you, Roland!), I was lucky enough to see several dozen puffins.  Mostly swimming in a raft in the sea off the island, but just a couple gave us a fly past, which was brilliant!

Now hoping to go to Skomer next year and see even more!

Part Seven

 Over half way through my #the100dayproject for this year!

I indulged myself with a couple of penguins - one of my favourite birds!

Part Six

Part six - the part that takes me over the half way mark!

Birds 46 to 54.

 

A Big Sister Quilt

My great niece will become a big sister in July, so I asked her to look at my stash and choose some fabrics that she liked.

She has a great eye, and, luckily for me, chose four fabrics (the butterfly print, pink, purple and teal that I used for the binding) that all worked together well.

I choose a simple pattern to showcase the fabrics. This pattern, Town Square by Donna Robertson, was perfect for what I wanted.

The blocks are large - finishing at 15" - and the quilt is a perfect sized 47" x 62".

Doesn't the binding work well with these colours?

I was pleased to have plenty of this 'mad owl' fabric in my stash too - it's made a really fun backing for this quilt.  Even better, it was nice and wide, so I didn't have to piece the backing at all - what a bonus!

I'm hoping to use some of the scraps that I now have to make a couple of other bits and bobs to match the quilt.  Watch this space!

Of course, what I really need to do is to get on and make the baby quilt......!
 

My Part Five of The 100 Day Project

 Days 37 to 45 of my mini birds project - I'm making progress!

I'm still having fun with different ways of creating the birds, and wondering about other styles too.

A Bag, and Part Four

 Part Four of my 100 day project - the next nine bird blocks.  Numbers 28 to 36.

Also I decided on the spur of the moment to make this Japanese Knot bag.

I saw the pattern here, on The Happiest Camper Blog.

Using her image as a jumping off point, I made my own pattern piece, roughly 20 inches high and 15 inches across.

I cut two pieces of print and two pieces of plain fabric and sewed them together as instructed.

Popped them right sides together inside each other, and sewed the centre circle together. Turned through, pressed, top stitched the outer handle circles (slightly fiddly!) and the centre circle.

And here is the finished bag - closed by looping the longer handle through the shorter one to create a 'knot'.  A fun and fairly simple make, with a fun bag at the end of it!

Why make just one?

.....when you can make more than one?!?

I missed out on a Miniatures Group sewing evening recently, but when I saw the tricorne bowls that the other members had been making, I wanted some of that action!

So, I jumped onto Little Patch Pockets website and ordered the Tricorne Bowl pattern.

Simple to purchase, and the PDF was sent to me quite quickly.

In not much time at all I'd read through it, cut out some fabrics and made my first bowl.

Perfect for Easter treats, or at least, it would have been, if it hadn't been swiped by DD2 who liked the look of it!

So, I set to and did some more cutting and sewing, and now have four made and ready to gift at Easter, as well as the first one that disappeared so quickly!

Nicely written pattern, good and clear to use - I recommend it!

 I feel nicely prepared for Easter now!

Part Three

The next nine!

I'm really enjoying these little applique birds, as you can tell by the number of them that I've made.

The machine sewn foundation pieced one (centre right) was more difficult, and I'm not sure that it came out just how I was imagining!

Still, onwards and upwards - lots more birds still to make!
 

Part Two

 The next nine birds!

I can see that I need to get better at making ones that face right!  Funny that I didn't notice as I was going along, it's only now that they are grouped together that my bias becomes obvious!

Still, I'm pleased with days 10 to 18!

The Start of Something!

 It's the time of year for #the100dayproject again!

I'm joining in!

This year I'm making a series of 100 birds on 2.5" squares, ready to make a wall hanging with them at the end.

I'm running slightly behind in showing these on here, as today is actually day 18, but here are the first nine.  I like photographing them as a square, so you'll get 11 of these and then a single final bird to make them up to 100!

The first four of these are raptors, to represent the days that my daughter was volunteering with the Raptor Foundation as I started this project!  I should really add a burrowing owl to them, to represent Basil, her favourite of all the birds that she was involved with!   If you are ever near Huntingdon, UK, with an hour or two to spare, she'd recommend that you visit - they do fabulous work educating people about raptors, alongside their main focus, which is to rescue, rehabilitate and then, where possible, release raptors.

Last of my Christmas Scraps

Last push to get all the Christmas scraps used up, once I'd had enough of making stockings!

This is a reasonable sized 'wrap' for Christmas wrapping - about 35" square.

This side is made up of scraps, put together in blocks and then sewn together.

I backed it with something else Christmassy, which isn't really substantial enough to be used on its own.

Perfect for this project!

My final project was to complete this selvedge project.

I'd joined the Christmas selvedges together on a backing piece of wadding, and once I'd got two pieces of a reasonable size, I was able to make them into a Christmas themed zipper pouch.

Lined with the same fabric that I used to back the wrap.

I'm pleased with how it turned out, but not in a hurry to make another!  

I'm quite pleased to be done with Christmas for the moment!
 

What Else Would I be Doing?

Surely everyone deals with their Christmas scraps in February?!?  No? Just me?

There were lots and lots of scraps from DD1's fabric bag business - and it was time to deal with them all, in her effort to be as close to zero waste as possible.

So, I drew up a stocking template on paper, and mounted it on some scrap cardboard.

Roughly cut the shape out of some scrap fleece, and then added the fabric scraps / strips using the 'quilt as you go' method to the front.

Then it was time to trim it and flip it over to admire it!

Repeat that seven times, add fabric for the back and lining, sew them together (pouch construction over the years helped me be able to do this fairly competently, I'm pleased to say!), along with a hanging loop, top stitch the edge - and this is the result.

I'm really pleased with these seven stockings, that FabWraps will be able to sell next Christmas.

On to deal with the rest of the Christmas scraps now!

 

Overnight Necessities!

When a girl might spontaneously stay away overnight, her mother thinks that there are some necessities that she should travel with - and a toothbrush and clean knickers come top of the list, with antiperspirant not fair behind.

After discussion, DD1 also wanted to add in her own toothpaste and her preferred brand of shower gel, handily available in a travel size. 

So, I grabbed a fun kitty print, made some pleated pockets, and produced an overnight roll for her.

 With a hair elastic and a button to close it, it makes a neat roll to be dropped into a handbag, just in case 'plans change' and there is an overnight stay involved!

We are both happy with the outcome!

Not the whole bird....

I'm taking part in the Quilters Guild 'Imagine a Bird' - and they ask that full images aren't shared ahead of a particular post that they are going to make, so here are just some snippets.

First of all, above, is the background that I've made for my piece.  A technique that I've seen other leading quilters use, layering up different neutrals, that I enjoyed creating.

Then you can see little glimpses of my work in progress - the bird that I am going to applique onto this background.

This was my first guess at a bird breast - but the colour wasn't working!

I was much happier with my second choice!

And the eye!  I thought that it was going to work, but it really didn't!

I've reversed the colours, and it's looking better than it was.

A fun project that I'm enjoying at the moment, although I'm having some adventures with threading needles, perhaps part of the reason why I haven't been doing as much hand sewing over the last couple of years.  More on that another time.