Kate's Quirky Quilts

Lily's Quilts: Christmas Gifts for Quilters 7 (+ mahusive giveaway)

2011-11-16T23:09:00.000Z

Lily's Quilts: Christmas Gifts for Quilters 7 (+ mahusive giveaway)

Autumn's back again...

2011-09-14T22:10:00.000+01:00

Time for a little update I guess, as so many of my quilts haven't been 'shown' here yet...

Here we have Luke's quilt, made earlier this year, Caleb's quilt,sent to New Zealand a few months ago, and Lizzie's quilt, which now lives in Bristol.
I had great fun making all these quilts, as usual, but my fabric stash does not seem to have got any smaller!

Another bit of catching up...

2011-06-06T23:01:00.000+01:00

I wasn't able to upload more photos the other day, so time for another go. I've had a marvellous weekend of sewing, raking through my extensive fabric collection, and reorganising some of it. I've got four or five baby quilts actively on the go, and a number of other patchwork tops which need to be finished off in due course. I love sewing baby quilts though....
Below is a picture of my 'best ever quilt', just for Sheila...

Right - back to a crop of baby quilts.

This is Freya's quilt, for my cousins' baby in Australia. She was more of a toddler by the time she got it last year. The design is mostly from a purchased pattern, but of course I didn't stick to it.

And this one was for Freya's Mummy and Daddy - a wallhanging with Australian fabrics, as a very late wedding present. The formula for this pattern came from the book Nine Patch Pizzazz.

Google doesn't let me upload very quickly, so that's all for now!

Happy sewing everyone!

I'm rather behind...

2011-06-02T09:41:00.000+01:00

I'm horribly behind with blog posting, something which me stepdaughter likes to remind me about... Hey ho. sorry folks. I blame Pinterest where I keep finding lots of ways of wasting time while I marvel at the taste, creativity and imaginations of people all over the world.

I also blame knitting - it is so much easier to sit watching TV while knitting rather than clear the kitchen table for every meal. However, there are some projects which have been finished. Mostly for babies - I just love making baby quilts.

Back of Lizzie's quilt (2010)

Right side of Lizzie's quilt (2010)

Above is the front and back of a quilt for baby Lizzie. I don't often use panel fabric - I have had a half metre length with these panels of mother and baby animals for several years without really knowing how to use it. However, I pulled out all my bright fabrics with spots, stripes and hearts and started playing. I still have 4 more (different) panels left from this fabric, so I may just make another of these.

For some reason, blogger isn't letting me add any more pictures, so further catching up will have to wait, sadly.

Let's hope that June's weather for North East Scotland is a substantial improvement on May. Happy Sewing everyone!

Applique Samples

2010-06-18T14:45:00.000+01:00

I have a quilt in progress, that is nearly finished, but I would like to post a complete story about that one. So, in the meantime, here is the selection of applique samples that I have in my collection of UFOs.

What we have here is evidence that I am not overwhelmed with joy at my own applique skills. I love the look of applique, but when it comes to myself I prefer quicker results from rotary cutting and chain piecing. The sunbonnet sue was made from a kit that I got as a free gift with an internet fabric order. Even with something so simple I can't avoid tweaking - I added the heart and the zig zag border from other project leftovers. This is a fused Sunbonnet - I must confess that I generally do applique with fusible web!

I will also acknowledge SewKalico's observations that these are samples or tests rather than UFOs. I do have a proper applique UFO - which I shall look out and photograph for you all on another occasion.

The fused suns (and single moon) are adapted from a pattern in a Lynne Edwards book on using up scraps. I'm not sure what I am doing with them yet - so far, there is the making of three seperate quilts, given the different feel of the fabrics used. The one on point may well acquire some sashing.

The needle-turned examples are 'OK', but I must confess, that though I started the teddy bears for a cousinly baby quilt, I don't think this method is hard-wearing enough, so I don't know what to do about them, some of the fabrics are quite thin and/or pre-loved. The stars are much nicer (to my eyes!). These came from a pack of die cut yellow stars, of which I have many more, so I could use these altogether for a big quilt, or I could use them in batches with other blocks for a sampler effect. I could do with a few more red background fabrics if I am going to make a bigger quilt of lots of stars.

Not much time for sewing this week, just chain-pieced some 2.5x3.5 inch rectangles into a brick layout border for the latest baby quilt (of which more next week) - I had my PhD viva on Wednesday so I was preparing for that. Not too bad - a few corrections, but I was awarded my PhD, so I am now (at least informally) Dr Pangbourne. Huw had his second ever school concert, in which he played a prince puppet in the Lonely Goatherd song. He was very good, but rather serious looking! Tonight my beloved and I are getting dressed up in evening dress and going to a dinner dance. So, a lovely week.

English Patchwork UFOs

2010-06-10T09:03:00.000+01:00

I thought I should confess to my main sin (after buying too much fabric). I have a big problem with starting projects and then not finishing them. This is the first post in a series that owns up to some of my collection of UFOs and WIPs (Works in Progress). I'm not sure how many I have - every time I do a count, I find more somewhere else later.

Also, how should we define the difference between a UFO and a WIP? UFOs are, in the patchwork and quilting world, Unfinished Objects, and WIPs are Works in Progress. We also have Orphan Blocks, which are left over from otherwise finished projects. But when does something become a UFO? I am assuming that the label WIP applies to a project which is planned - you know what you are making, but you haven't finished it! A UFO however, is a something which you start without a clear idea of what it is going to be/look like - but how much do you need to make before it can be called a UFO? Is a single block a UFO or a sample?

Anyway, today I have collated a few of my English Patchwork WIPs and UFOs:

At the top left we have a hexagonal piece that was inspired by the More Colours selection facility in Microsoft Office (yes, really - go look at it!). I don't know what this is going to be, or what it could be, so it is a UFO rather than a WIP. Either way, I really love it, and need to do something appropriate with it. On the right of that is another hexagonal piece. This one was originally going to be a small wallhanging, then a cushion, but I have enough cushions. So, I think this should be a bag - but what kind of bag! I'm thinking tote, but I will have to see what other fabrics I have that complement the panel, and then we will see. So, as I know what kind of object this is going to be, it is a WIP! Bottom left is just pastel/kid print hexagons tacked over papers. Originally I was thinking of making something similar to the panel that is now going to be a bag, but I'm not so sure any more. What will these be useful for? Finally, on the right, there is an ambitious set of blocks at various stages, for a full size quilt. This one was definitely to use up fabrics and scraps. The pink kite shapes, as the stem of the posy, come from a man's shirt that was dyed pink and purchased from Flip in the 1980s. The background fabric came from a sale find, and the florals are all Liberty or Liberty-style cotton lawns. I'm not at all sure I like this, it isn't my usual style at all, but I felt I should explore some of the old-style classics. Should I add sashing or not?

More to follow another time. Meanwhile, happy sewing everyone!

Quiltless babies and other work in progress

2010-05-26T20:59:00.009+01:00

Now that I have a litte more spare time, I have been catching up with some quilting. Four quilts have actually left the building this year, a major achievement for me, and this is inspite of the acquisition of a Jack Russell terrier, and severe limitations on the use of the design floor! The first two were the non-identical pair that I have already written about. I'll tell you about the next two here.

One is for my cousin Charlie's first baby, Fin, who has been quiltless for a little while.

I have some blocks left over from this one, as I wasn't sure what I was making when I started, but realised that Fin was a quiltless baby, and I needed to sort out a quilt fast! The sashing helped to reduce the busy-ness and tied it all together, and the backing and binding are one piece of bright orange fabric from my collection. This was a real stash buster.

Although the blocks are random, I have sort of organised the colours when laying out the finished blocks (yellow corners meet in top left, green on top right and blue on bottom right). I have also tried to make sure that identical prints are not adjacent.

The second quilt was for a very new niece, althoug I had started the blocks before. I put them together into this bright number for Arwen:

I used the fabrics from a Moda tin, called Splish Splash - lots of bright water theme nursery prints with coordinates. I did of course supplement this from my own collection to make a bigger central panel. I add two borders to bring the blocks together, the black and white border is intended to give the eye somewhere to rest, and then the left over strips of fabric make the next border. I had to go out and buy the bright pink flower fabric (once I knew that Arwen was a girl!). Although I did have fabrics, I didn't like any of them with the quilt centre. I also bought the backing fabric, which I completely adore.

There are still quiltless babies, and more on the way, so I will have to continue with the baby quilt production line. However, I also have other unfinished projects, some of which I am trying to get a little further on. This one is from a Katherine Guerrier design in Popular Patchwork a couple of years ago, which I have, as usual, adapted to suit the sizes of fabric I have in my collection!

A non-identical pair

2010-03-22T18:47:00.005Z

I have been a bit busier with sewing since I got my new sewing machine earlier this year. I haven't done as much as I would like, as I am due to finish my PhD next week (eek). However, I had a flurry of finishing baby quilts, stimulated by some new arrivals. Of course, having finished a non-identical pair, for a pair of non-identical twins, I haven't actually got around to posting them. Silly me.

However, here are some pictures of a pair of quilts, for a boy and a girl; I'm quite pleased with these.

I only used fabrics from my stash, even for the backs. The clown fabric that is used in the centre of some of the blocks is a Laura Ashley Country Furnishing Cotton from the 1980s. I have only a few very small squares left of it now. I love the colours, but the clowns actually look a bit miserable! I hope these quilts will be used rather than tucked away in a drawer. One has a ribbon border appliqued on because I accidentally nicked the outer border fabric with a rotary cutter in a couple of places - now secured by the ribbon! Oops.

While I was waiting...

2010-02-08T21:42:00.004Z

Welcome to 2010! Yes, I know it is February already, but we had a lot of snow in January, which messed life up a bit in this neck of the woods. Well, I now have a new sewing machine as you can see. So far, I haven't done much with it, but I have decorated a T-shirt, to go with some knitting for my smallest boy, which has kept me out of mischief but still creating. Cutting out and putting shapes back together is obviously vital to me, as you can see from the cardboard reindeer (pattern was in a Hobbycraft magazine) and the decoupage Christmas cards, which I designed myself (very thrifty, made from cards received the year before)

More to follow soon, as there are babies waiting for their heirlooms!

Gave away fabric!

2009-09-24T08:56:00.002+01:00

I still have no working sewing machine, and an unfinished PhD, not to mention lots of part-time work and job hunting. I hate the lack of creativity, but I kept in touch with fabric by giving some away! Yes, mad I know, but Aberdeen Freecycle had a request from someone making a king-size scrap quilt, and I thought that I should do a good deed! So, I gave away some of my fabric, which gave me an excuse to open up the boxes and bags, take some out, unfold it, refold it, cut bits and stroke it! It felt good.

Still no sewing machine

2009-06-06T08:52:00.001+01:00

I have not been very active of late as I still have no sewing machine. However, I have been knitting a bit, and I have a Toto costume to make for my youngest (nearly 5). That should be very cute, AND has a deadline, so I'm bound to finish it! I'll post a picture when its done.

Hope everyone else is rather more productive!

Something old, something new

2009-02-22T14:59:00.003Z

Well, my New Year's resolution is to keep doing things I've started, and to make 2009 the year of FINISHING things that are overdue. I'm not just talking about quilting, but it goes for that too. I've got much better at finishing quilt UFOs, and I will keep that up, I hope.

I hope I will also keep up posting to this blog, because I didn't manage much in 2008. Anyway, today, I have finally scanned in a picture of a quilt I made for my mother about 3 years ago. She is a piano teacher, hence the musical theme. You can also see that the quilt is a part of my hexagon fad.

The other picture is the hand sewn UFO I dug out the other day. Thanks for the advice about quilting it - I have taken that advice, and changed it appropriately. So I used the sliver of soap trick to mark out a simple pattern, based on my 60degree diamond template, which just happened to be the right size.

I've then used big stitches, using Gutermann silk threads, and resisting the temptation to add anything more. Consequently, this is now on the wall! Yippee.

Hand-sewn UFOs

2009-02-01T14:38:00.004Z

Well, I've been giving some thought as to how to find essential therapy whilst my sewing machine is broken (credit crunch delay ensues...). Karol-Ann's shining example has led me to pull out my UFOs, and I have found some likely candidates for finishing and here are some photos. Suggestions as to how to finish these off would be welcome!

Firstly we have a sideways view of my favourite UFO. This was started in one of my (many) hexagon phases, and was intended to make the most of a small quantity of Dutch wax print strips that I purchased at a show. They were only 2 1/2 inches wide at the most, so there wasn't much flexibility. However, they are all used up, and this is all I managed. I am planning to fold the backing to the front, to create a border all round, but I don't know what to do about quilting, if I am hand-quilting it. I'm not very good at delicate hand-quilting - what do others suggest? This is a wall-hanging rather than anything else...Secondly, this is an octagon/squares quilt, inspired by Lucy Bolton's piano quilt. The rather garish black and white unit is going to be replaced. However, this one has stalled because I have run out of the rather lovely white background material. It was a heavy cotton jacquard weave skirt that I wore in the 1980s. I hope you can see from the close-up what it looks like, and why I have a dilemma. I shall have to haunt the second-hand shops to find anything suitable.

Thirdly (and finally for now, although I have many more, I didn't dig them out today), I have another hexagon/diamond effort. This is as big as I'm going to make it, and I'm thinking another border provided by folding the backing to the front. However, I could add along the zig zaggy ends to make it longer. At the moment, it is good for nothing except a cot quilt.

Update on work done in 2008

2009-01-28T18:22:00.002Z

Here we have my first effort at long arm quilting, done on a Gammil at the Seattle Quilt Company. Brilliant! I will definitely do that again. The top had languished for about 4 years.

Well, I have a few pictures of work progressed in 2008 that I never got round to uploading. Thanks for the welcome back comment, and sorry to Ali for not realising that she left a message at the beginning of January! Happy New Year to you and yours too.

Now you can see the finished dinosaur quilt:Still wondering who should get it!

What happened to 2008?

2009-01-27T20:33:00.003Z

Well, I've reemerged from the parallel universe that sucked me away for nearly the whole of 2008. What happened? I have no idea, but I haven't finished my PhD, but I have got a part time job. I've done some sewing, but mostly household mending, and now my sewing machine is broken. However, here are a few pictures just for candy. These were the quilty highlight of 2008 for me, although this is a coverlet. It is the Wyatt coverlet, which has been written about. It belonged to my great great great grandfather, the Rev William Wyatt, and is a sister coverlet to the Bloomfield coverlet, which belonged to Mrs Wyatt's sister and husband. I couldn't believe it when I read about these coverlets. I have long had a memory of something folded in my granny's bedroom, that looked something like this. My mother, when memory jogged, thought it might be one that she sold in the 80s after both her parents had died. She didn't unfold it, because it looked fragile. Both coverlets are now in the possession of the Quilters Guild of the British Isles, and I am so proud to be connected to them. I trailed to Luton from Aberdeen to visit them!

False alarm...

2008-02-18T08:24:00.002Z

Thanks for the best wishes, mostly in e-mail - thankfully Jay is fine now - it is apparently "only" gallstones, although his GP will be seeing him soon. He probably won't be recognised, as he hardly ever goes! Does he know where the surgery is?

Now one of the boys is ill and has had to stay off nursery, so that's today's plans out of the window. S is home for half term though, so I will still have to help him with his scale model of a Roman fort! Do you think he would like to make it in fabric? No I don't think so either.

Moribund Valentine

2008-02-14T23:53:00.003Z

So sorry that this blog has been dormant for a while, but nothing has been achieved in the sewing room, as I have been slaving over a PhD instead. Guess what I would rather be doing? Sadly, however, it will not keep body and soul together (only soul).

Feeling really down now too, as my partner has just been taken to hospital in an ambulance. The paramedics said it wasn't cardiac, but that he needed "the once over". It is nearly midnight here, and I won't have news for another hour. I expect it is my fault for making too rich a meal for Valentine's Day, although it wasn't anything particularly extravagent. The boat is a model made some years ago by my partner. He's who I'm thinking of right now, so his handiwork should be honoured today, not mine!

Sew much fabric, sew little time, sew true!: Tagged again

2007-11-19T21:52:00.000Z

Just thought I would make a link to Karol Ann's blog, just to see how it works! I like Karol-Ann's blog, (and Karol Ann!) so I hope you will too.

Sew much fabric, sew little time, sew true!: Tagged again

Challenge Round-up!

2007-11-19T21:32:00.000Z

Well, I haven't done all that well really. I've updated my UFO list on the right there, and count only 7 items finished, and the list I've chosen to give you is VERY VERY incomplete! My consolation is that if I hadn't set the challenge, those 7 items wouldn't be finished, although I may well have started just as many as I did!
Here's the dinosaur quilt as far as it has got:

On the left are two picture trialling the borders, and on the right is the final choice. I had to buy the bubble fabric as I had nothing at all that was right, even though I tried hard. However, the bubbles fabric is ideal I think. The back will be a rather garish green patterned fabric I bought at sale price for just such a purpose! I think this is a colour scheme that you either love or hate. I like it but I'm quite prepared to believe that it is hideous.
I'm going to have to concentrate on anything that I am making for Christmas now.

I've been tagged! - Why do I create?

2007-11-07T11:07:00.000Z

Well, Karol-Ann has tagged me to answer the following five questions that she has on her blog (following a tag herself!). When I've done it I have to tag five other quilters, so I hope I don't repeat...

I can't add pictures to this, sadly, as I am doing it on my Uni computer, and the normal tool bar is not here. Something to do with a browser or java or something, but I have no idea what. After I uploaded all my photos to this computer too. Typical. Anyway, here goes with answering the questions:

1. When did you start to make craft?
Well, I was pretty young! As a very little person I remember drawing cats and ballet shoes. Don't ask me why, except I had a cat and did ballet. Luckily, there are no pictures. My Mum used to make my costumes for the school ballet shoes - I remember being a Hawaiian hula girl in a raffia skirt, an American Indian (I still have some snippets of that fabric!), and a frog. My Miss Muffet costume wasn't home made - it was a very beautiful silk and velvet child's costume that had belonged to either my granny, or more probably my Great Granny. Sadly I have no idea what happened to it. It had a companion 18th Century style dress too. Beautiful.

A little later I remember making embroidered gifts for people, monograms on hankies, tray clothes and felt pin cushion (that was at school). My Granny had a lot of embroidery transfers, some from the 1930s, and I used those as patterns. I think I still have some of them - waste not, want not. Jacobean style was one of my favourites. I also started an embroidery kit in my early teens, but made a mess of it. I hung onto it, and finished it off when I was in my late 20s. It is a lovely picture of a kingfisher flying through weeping willow leaves over water, with fish and dragonflies. It is now framed and hanging in the living room. The kit was a gift from my stepmother, from a BBONT gift catalogue (BBONT was a local wildlife trust). Both my grannies, and my great aunts were knitters, and that influenced me a bit, although I didn't really knit until I was a 'grown-up'. I did crochet though - made hundreds of granny squares for Save the Children blankets. I also went to a local lady for Buckinghamshire lace making lessons. I still have a 5 inch long braid that I made, and a very short piece of more decorative lace. I would love to do that again, but my Mum has all the bobbins and the pillow. That might have to wait...

Mum also did English patchwork (guess - hexagons!) in the 1970s, and I copied.

2. Why did you start creating?
Well, Mummy was also making things - for economy I suppose, but also, I think she just likes the sense of achievement, as do I! As I child I really liked the praise I got for gifts that I had made myself, and this included baking as well as sewing! I also remember that it was normal as I was growing up for people to MAKE the presents that they gave, and I really like that. My Mum made me a wooden dolls bed and all the accessories for it, for example, and a farm landscape and buildings out of hardboard, papier mache and sticky backed plastic. I am of the Blue Peter generation - I was inspired by washing up liquid bottles, matchboxes, old fashioned pegs (I made a lot of Peg dolls).

3. Why do you create?
Just have to! Can't watch telly without doing something with my hands. That ranges from reading a book, doing Sudoku puzzles to knitting and sewing. Sewing with the TV less now as I mostly use the sewing machine, so I have to retreat somewhere. But I get cranky if I don't make something regularly. I actually feel like a failure when I haven't made something. Even if its only curtains!

4. What do you create?
See above! Curtains, clothes, dressing up costumes for the children, toys for the children, whether fabric or otherwise, sometimes I make cards, sometimes I draw and paint although not as much at the moment as I would like, quilts, wallhangings and cushions, household items, sewing kit items, bags, occasional knitting and crochet, mostly for the children ... On and on.

5. Has this changed since you began crafting?
Yes but no! I think the main change is that I try to make things more stylish, although as that is a matter of taste more than anything else, I think I should be satisfied with making things in my own style rather than trying to emulate the style of others. Although learning how to design things while doing City and Guilds has made me more confident with design, I have never been entirely happy with my style. As I have less time at the moment to spend on design, when the urge to make is upon me, I have been trying to work through the design processes of others, so I can get into their minds. This is quite interesting, I liken it to being apprenticed to old masters. I think I am learning a lot doing this, without having to invest a lot of time thinking about design before making something. I just get stuck into following someone else's process, reading what they say about it, and following their recommendations. I then do the thinking while I'm making. I hope when I have more time and space for my own work that this will come to fruition. I really should start a sketchbook again though.

One thing I would like to do more of is exploring creating my own fabrics through dying, painting and embellishing...

Who am I going to tag? Ali, Kate N, Sally, Lynda and Andrea. Sorry girls, hope you don't mind!

Not much creatively speaking

2007-10-16T23:02:00.001+01:00

Well, not much has happened at the sewing machine, although I have progressed one quilt from the cut strip stage, to having sewed some together and then cut them up again. Gosh that's amazing! The picture above is from something I made (and finished!) over a weekend in March. Day one was a workshop at one of my local quilt shops. Unfortunately, I failed to take a note of the designer of this beautiful pattern, so I can't give proper credit. I don't think my border does it justice - I rushed it a bit just to get it finished, and the quilting is fairly basic. One of the things I really like about this one is that a lot of the quilting is actually zig zag over the edges of the bonded applique - 2 stages in one! This one is hanging on our bedroom wall, where it cheers me up every morning.

Also, I've started a dinosaur baby quilt and added some borders to the block centre. Stuck on the third outer border, as I don't have quite the right shade of blue.

Otherwise, my next trick will be making a Count Dracula cloak, specification black bat wing shape with scarlet lining. Someone (sadly not me) is going to a fancy dress party. He's going to 2 actually, but has opted to go pirate to the Peter Pan one. That's dead easy, have all the required bits for that one already.

My veg box lady loved the veg bag - I hope she uses it!

Trying to keep up

2007-10-03T09:15:00.001+01:00

Well, the last few weeks have been a bit much, without anything in particular happening. Trying to up the pressure on my PhD to progress it, but every time I try that the family needs me. What about me!!!

Anyway, when I can't work on intellectual things I can play with fabric, as that is more 'interruptible' - so I've done a few quilty things, although nothing old is actually finished, and some new things have been started - one of those was finished though, so its not all bad.

My attempts not to buy fabric have been completely useless - I have bought loads! One of my cyber quilting friends was visiting Aberdeen, so I escorted her around some of our quilting shops. Of course I HAD to buy stuff - pictures above!

I have also completed and sent off some Linus blocks to Karol-Ann (sorry can't figure out how to add links). The smallest block was for Karol-Ann to keep.

I also finished off some Hearts and Flowers blocks to send to Jane from British Quilt List. They were a bit quirky, but I hope somebody will like them. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of them!

Other progress - actually on a UFO this time, was to add borders and black/white hearts to a cotbed size quilt, originally inspired by a design from the French magazine Magic Patch. Unfortunately, they are really bad at crediting designers, so I can't be sure who originally designed the quilt. Although I have strayed from the original design, because I lost the magazine after I sewed the centre, I think it remains fairly faithful. It's certainly bright!

I've started another batch of Linus blocks. At least I think they are for Linus - I might have to use them for a baby quilt for family, as someone has just produced (a boy, after two girls), and her sister-in-law is next month (I hope a girl, as they have 2 boys!).

Other things done: started a new baby quilt (probably for new cousin no 1 - the wee boy), and a bag started AND finished, as an apology for being a rotten customer of a local veg box scheme. I hope they like it!

Also, I have added eyes to the fish, and other half has hung them on the wall. Sadly, he wants them in a particular place, which isn't right. But never mind. I'll make something else for that spot that is right, and swap later. I haven't taken a picture yet, it's still on the to do list.

That is probably enough for now! I have a parcel to send to someone on the local Freecycle network who wanted embroidery things - another box has been emptied - so I'll take no 2 along to the post office! He's off nursery and missing a trip to Macduff Aquarium as a result. Rats. I'm also missing another meeting in the department. Sometimes, being a modern woman is raw deal. However, I'm glad we're not chattels any more!

Best thing that's happened is my squishy from Ali - lovely fabrics all the way from Australia, and a sweet Christmas decoration. I'm still choosing what to send to Ali, but I had better hurry up.

Bye for now!

One finished, one not sure!

2007-09-10T19:32:00.000+01:00

Well, after a fortnight of very little sewing, and concentrating on work/family or family/work, depending on what day of the week it is, I did retreat to my sewing room (aka Stu's bedroom), and finished the baby quilt for my cousin's first born.

I am quite pleased with it, although I had to make a couple of fabric compromises in order to not to buy extra. however, overall, it is quite pleasing. The block arrangement came from Mary Hickey's Sweet and Simple Baby Quilts http://store.martingale-pub.com/catalog/index.cfm?fuseaction=product&theParentId=33&id=533. I changed the border to give it more oomph, as my fabric compromise reduced the contrast in the middle! The quilting is mostly in the ditch for the blocks, with some free quilted hearts on the triangles. The border is free quilted with stars, spirals and meanders.

I have also got a picture of the fully finished Chinese wallhanging:

Finally, I'm not sure whether I have finished this last one or not. The appliqued fish are foundation pieced and are my own invention. However, now that I have quilted and beaded the border, I think they look a little plain. The dark blue centre has been hand-sashiko quilted, but I think the fish need a little more something. What does everybody else think? Sorry it is sideways. On the right hand picture, the left is the top!

Back from London

2007-09-03T14:04:00.000+01:00

Well, I'm back from London. 14 hours on the train has left me with a sore back. Dear old GNER - the 125 High Speed Train was wonderful once (nice big seats), but it was so rickety and noisy this time. Not to mention scruffy.

My visit to the V&A was wonderful, if short (two of my favourite items shown above courtesy of pictures on the V&A website - link to all the fashion/textile resources on the right) - I went round a fashion exhibition quite thoroughly, and went up the textile galleries, which were interesting, but a little disappointing - a rather skimpy and partial look at the richness of world textiles. I guess they have far more in storage than they can hope to display, and I suppose it is not their flagship collection.

The shop is great, although I didn't have the time or the energy to examine the books properly. Probably a good thing, as I must have saved heaps of money that way!

Back to sewing tonight.

Some distance from my sewing machine

2007-08-31T11:40:00.000+01:00

Hi! Thanks to all you have commented on my 100 day challenge! I am presently in London at the Royal Geographic Society-Institute of British Geographers annual international conference. This sounds very grand, but geographers are a scruffy bunch on the whole! However, they have very nice computers with free internet access here in the basement. I gave my presentation on transport governance to 17 bored intellectuals at 9.30 this morning. My mind went blank and I couldn't remember what I was saying as I said it.

However, my friends in the audience said I was fine, and that I appeared to be completely confident (HA!). Still, probably not saying anything of any interest to transport geographers as I didn't mention buses once.

Since I last posted, I have finished the Chinese wallhanging, except for the label. A photo will be posted as soon as we have restored our broadband connection (AOL blame BT, BT blame AOL). We are both in the information game, so this is very traumatic. On WIP Wednesday, I was trying to finish a baby quilt for one of my cousins, who lives here in London, but I realise that the attempt was futile, and that it was better to finish it properly than to rush it. I'm coming again in November to another conference anyway.

What else have I finished? NOTHING! However, I haven't started anything new either, so that's good isn't it? What shall I reward myself with? Well, I'm just around the corner from the V&A, so I think I might go feast my eyes...

UFO 100 day challenge update

2007-08-22T10:53:00.000+01:00

Hi to everyone who is holding their breath to see if I can reduce my UFO pile! Well, I started last week, and I have finished 2 (nearly 3) UFOs. I am putting in pictures for you, as there is no point having a blog about a visual medium with nothing to see! What we really want is the pictures anyway!

The green one is a baby quilt, which I started in 1997. All it needed was the binding, which I had half cut. I finally searched out more of the green/black spotted fabric from my hoard and finished off one evening last week. Not bad. I nearly like it now. Sadly it has no destination for the timebeing.

The little Japanese bag was made from a kit I purchased at the spring quilt show in Edinburgh earlier this year, from the lovely people at Euro-Japan Links. The kimono silks are just lovely to work with. I finished this one on Sunday. Several evening events have come and gone since I started this in March!

Finally, I am working on finishing a Chinese wedding wallhanging for a couple who married nearly 2 years ago! Oh well, I usually promise wedding quilts for the second anniversay, which is cotton, although quite a bit of this quilt is red silk. The reason this one has taken so long, is that I made the quilt up (using a pattern from Kitty Pippen's book Quilting with Japanese Fabrics), but couldn't settle on a quilting pattern for the central octagons. As you can see I have found something appropriate, and couched gold cord on with red thread. The top pattern is a stylised chinese character for double happiness, a traditional lucky symbol for weddings. In fact the wedding in question had this particular style distributed in red foil around the tables, and that is where I got it from. I had to change the size though. The bottom symbol is an eternal (love) symbol, which I got from a book on symbols. It is often used in China. I have rounded the corners off to make it look good with the top pattern. I also had to resize it. Aren't photocopiers wonderful!

100 day challenge

2007-08-13T23:15:00.000+01:00

Well, having counted the UFOs (including WIPs and PhDs...) over the weekend, and having felt thoroughly miserable on Sunday, I have picked myself up, dusted off the rotary cutter, and started cutting 2" strips from various oddments of fabric that don't seem very inspiring. This act was recommended by Karol-Ann, and I was galvanised by receiving a small red plastic bin with a lid. I thought the toy cars it was filled with needed to be replaced with fabric!

Also, I have finished a ten year old UFO (one of the PhDs), that had languished minus a binding. It's done, it only took an hour, probably less. Only a baby quilt though, and a small one at that...

Also, have now got a memory card for the camera, but I haven't had time to insert it into the camera (too busy blogging, and enjoying Lynda's and Jane's blogs today). Well, you will have to WAIT! I promise that I'll get round to some serious snapping and uploading in the next week (ish).

Anyway, what does the title of this post mean? Well, I am going to see how many UFOs (WIPs and PhDs) I can finish in 100 days. Points will be deducted for new projects started (unless I finish them of course!). My fellow quilt bloggesses can be my official monitors! So, 100 days finishes on Tuesday 20th November (please correct me if I am wrong).

Quilt sins

2007-08-11T22:15:00.001+01:00

Well, what would the seven deadly sins of quilting be? I don't know, but in the interests of feeling in control of my hobby (not to mention my life), I have continued to tidy and sort my quilt belongings, as I move into my eldests bedroom, which with his permission is now shared, so I can sew when he is away at school/with his Dad.

In sorting out the fabric, and refolding, stroking, etc., I am inevitably turning up those UFOs. Well, I have UFOs (UnFinished Objects), which are orphan blocks, and other bits of sewing started but not finished, usually with no idea what they could turn into. I also have WIPs (Works in Progress) - these are cut out or with sewing begun, where I know what I am making. I also have PhDs (Projects Half Done) (I also am doing a real PhD, maybe that should be the subject of another blog - no time, no time), these are where the tops are largely completed or the quilting is in progress. Sadly there are few finished quilts - I think I have 4 in use as bed quilts or wallhangings, plus 5 cushions. One or two quilts are languishing in cupboards. That's it.

But that's OK I hear you say! Well, it isn't, because I have been counting the UFOs, WIPs and PhDs. There were 41 UFOs, 40 PhDs and 29 WIPs. When I stopped counting. Those maths genuises will spot that this makes more than 100 projects started and not finished. This is not counting dressmaking and other crafty endeavours. Is this some kind of record?

I would like to show you some pictures of this extravagant collection. To this end I bought a digital camera two days ago, but the dopes in the shop failed to tell me that I needed to buy a memory card seperately. DH is away this weekend, and I could have played with it to my hearts content without having to own up to expenditure. But I can't get back to the shops to buy a memory card! What I did do was take my 3 yr old on the bus (great excitement for the poor car-strapped mite), and up and down a lot of escalators. He has inherited his father's distaste for actually buying anything, but that didn't stop me buying clothes (Buy One Get One Free) in H&M on the grounds that yes I did like the dresses, but I liked the fact that they are plaid cotton and come in two different colourways even more! In my own defence, I wore one for the rest of the day. Is it work out yet, can I make something out of it?

Sad aren't I?

Granny's throw and cushions

2007-08-07T09:01:00.000+01:00

Well, have sneaked onto Jay's computer, so I can upload a photo...

There are two more cushions to finish, but Granny already has her first instalment! I made this quilt in a Take 6 (FQs) workshop at the Seattle Quilt Company shop in Aberdeen, probably my most favourite fabric shopping haunt, because it is so friendly! I took 6 FQs, and the wide border fabric, but changed two of the "plains", bought 2 (I think) new florals, the pale blue background and the dark blue inner border. The backing is a purple fabric I bought in a sale.

So for my stash diet, it wasn't that successful, as less than half the fabrics used were already in my collection. However, the cushion backs (2 at least) have come from my collection: leftover Laura Ashley lightweight curtain fabric in blue/cream large scale plaid. If I had paid attention when I was cutting it, I would have got all four backs from it, but only realised too late, so have only enough for three. I have used it for two, and will have to scour the bags, boxes and drawers for something else for the other two, that will tone!

Stash progress...

2007-08-06T20:36:00.000+01:00

Well, on my trip to my parents in Hampshire, for the Lang Gang Picnic, I bought NO fabric. However, I did visit a charity shop and picked up a red and white skirt for patchwork reasons. On my return home, I bought no fabric, except I went to another charity shop, and bought another skirt, tiered this time, with 5 different fabrics, 4 pink and 1 blue! Guess why...

Sadly, I can't post any pictures of these choice items, as my computer isn't speaking to Jay's, although it is SUPPOSED to.

I haven't made anything either, but I did buy 2 cushion pads (and 4 dress patterns, but that is another addiction, for a different blog), so now I have no excuse but to finish the remaining two cushions for the set for Granny.

I have also found a simplified version of a double happiness character, so I can finally finish my Chinese wedding hanging that I made for friends (German/Chinese) who married nearly 2 years ago! I shall have to tantalise you about those too...

Holiday triumph!

2007-07-17T14:43:00.000+01:00

Well, I've had a week's holiday on the beautiful West Coast of Scotland, and I managed to not go to the craft shop in Oban twice! This means that I have not bought any new fabric for over a week. I feel guilty that I did not contribute to the local economy though...

However, we spent money on other things so I guess that is OK. Also, I got my reward for good behaviour, as today Karol-Ann's parcel arrived with lovely fabrics (only 1 duplicate of something I have) to swap. I am going to have a lovely evening choosing things to send her in return.

I have been sewing hard today - I am off on a tour of family next week, and want to finish some cushions and a matching throw for my m-i-law, for her new flat. So I'm quilting away, and using up fabric for the backs - hooray!

One step forward, two steps back

2007-07-04T22:22:00.000+01:00

Well, two days into this experiment, and I have spent £6 on charity shop purchases for patchwork purposes, and bought 3 sewing magazines, despite having no shortage of published ideas for me to work from!

However, I have also made 2 new quilty/bloggy friends, Kate N and Karol Ann - I would like to add links to their blogs, but don't know if you can do that, or whether they want me to! Maybe someone can let me know.

In reducing my stash, I have a promise of a swap - not really a reduction, just a stir! In the general spirit of compacting though (which is apparently what not buying things is called), I have spent an enjoyable hour fusing together plastic bags (the rustly type) with an iron and craft paper as a surface and iron protector. I found the instructions on another craft list somewhere (craftster?), and they seem to work fairly well. I got clever and applique fused some flowers (ever the quilter...) cut from coloured bags.

My first effort is pretty ropey, but it has definite possibilities and would be good for making waterproof bags. The finished fabric is quite robust in feel, and should be stitchable. Photo to follow eventually! Everyone else in the house was completely underwhelmed by it though.

My first Q-blog entry

2007-07-02T23:11:00.000+01:00

Not quite my first blog, but pretty close to it! I'm going to keep this one just for blogging about quiltmaking. I'm pretty much an amateur at this, although I've been doing it for 20 years, and have my City and Guilds. However, I'm not really that talented, just love fabric, and stitching, and making things. Especially making things out of nothing. And this blog is going to be about trying not to buy fabric.

In all the books and magazines and the quilt fora that I belong to quilters are both apologetic and defiant about the size of our fabric stash. So I'm probably not alone in admitting to owning a gargantuan amount of fabric. Some that I have had for 20 years. I still know where I got the early stuff, although I am more hazy about some of the more recent purchases, as my shopping habit has got out of hand.

I know I can't use this stuff. I know that a consumer attitude to my hobby is bad for me financially and psychologically and bad for the environment. Worse still almost is the paralysing effect all these materials have on my creativity. I have so many possibilities, I cannot choose, and I have more UFOs than I can remember. I find things everywhere. The mess upsets my other half and my step daughter. Thankfully my sons don't care about it all.

It's got to stop. This blog is a companion to my blog on MySpace (www.myspace.com/notfortaming) where I shall report occasionally on my efforts not to buy new stuff. Here I am undertaking to use up my stash! I am going on a stash diet (please nobody publish that book title before me). I will post pictures of my finished objects - if I run out of pristine fabric, I shall make do, learn to dye, or paint, or embellish (using my stocks of other craft materials bought just in case). I will rediscover my creativity and I shall have fun. I will no longer be burdened by the environmental damage done by indulging my hobby, which used to be all about thrift, make do and mend. Anyone want to join me?