Feather On A Wire

Why doesn't my quilt drape well.

2012-02-01T00:01:00.002Z

You will often hear people comment that they don't like machine quilting because it makes quilts stiff. The truth is it can and does. The good news is that it doesn't have to. The stiffness, is a result of the amount of quilting, the batting used, the thread used, the type of design quilted and the fabrics used.

If you want to use heavy threads, do but remember you need to quilt much further apart, at least a couple of inches and try not to cross the stitching too often. In a wall hanging this doesn't matter but on a bed or wrapped round a baby it does.

For dense quilting I use very fine threads most of the time.

I like YLI silk, top and bobbin, though to save money I sometime use Bottomline in the bobbin (it comes in loads of colours which almost disappear on the back of a quilt particularly if it is printed) If I am using White or Cream YlI silk, then almost any brand of white bobbin thread seems just as good. With this I can quilt as close as it like, often closer than 1/16th of an inch apart, without loosing drape qualities.

SewFine and Masterpiece from Superior in the top, and bobbin. These are nice threads, not as fine as the YLI silk but still fine. You can make them even more drapable by using an extra fine bobbin thread. With this I like to quilt to just to between 1/8th or a little less with no drape problems.

If I use the thicker threads I either use them for quilts which I consider utility quilts and wall hangings. If a quilt is going to be heavily used and not quilted exceptionally closely then these are perfect threads and my favourite of the heavier cottons is Aurifil. (I love the variegated ones). These threads are strong and will take the stress put on them by use if the quilting is far apart.

Battings make a difference, for the very best drape with heavy quilting, I love Hobbs Wool. When you have quilted heavily you will find you can wash your quilt happily in the machine as the close quilting stops the wool fibres rubbing together and felting and therefore shrinking. (Do make sure you use a wool wash detergent). Resists creasing.

Hobbs Cotton is good as it is not a thick bat, it drapes nearly as well as the wool. It can give your quilt an antique look once it has gone through the machine. And if it creases to remove the crease you need to either steam it or wash and dry.

Quilter's Dream Poly, is unlike other Polyester batts I have used. The polyester in this batt is microfibres and this mean the very fine fibres cling to your top just like the cotton. It comes in three weights and the finest drapes as well as wool. The middle weight is good for utility quilts and the heaviest is wonderful for faux trapunto work. It is warmer than cotton. I love it for quilts I want to wash frequently and tumble dry. The only downside I have found is that on using some cottons (but not all) it can beard (bearding is when fine fibres migrate through the quilt top). It is worth making a sample piece with the exact same fabrics as you have used in your top and backing, put it through the washing machine and dryer to see if the fabrics you have used are affected by bearding.

As I have mentioned before, the more a thread crosses another thread in your quilting motifs and even more in your background design, the more stiff your quilt will become. The one motif guaranteed to stiffen your work is tiny pebbles. Echo quilting does it the least.

I will assume you are using quilting cottons in your quilt top. These vary. If your top has loads of small pieces and/or has one or more of the more heavier coarser fabrics, this will make a difference. Some sheetings are so finely woven they can add to the problem. Look for a fabric with drape. This can be hard as often the fabric has so much finishing in it, that you cannot tell unless you wash it out first.

And remember if you want a quilt to be stiff and stay that way, do the opposite.

We have had a heavy frost here this morning and on the outside of the conservatory were these lovely ice patterns. These were taken from the inside.

And I had an exciting episode with my washing machine, bubbles everywhere. I have learnt before not to use water softeners on a boil wash, I just forgot this time.

Life goes on

2012-01-18T16:44:00.000Z

Even if quilting is only in my head, but I did buy some super fabrics at the Maltings sale.
I had limited myself to only buying ombres but then I found this super fabric on the Crafty Quilter stand. I have some in another colurway, not sure what I'll do with it yet but it is fun to ponder.

Then I found this wonderful print with birds, I can never say no to birds can I? I have this in the green colourway but this red is stupendous!

Another fabric I can never say no to are good Turkey reds. I'd seen this online and it never looked like it was the right red, but then seeing it in person..... What's a girl to do? I bought all they had left.

And I found this super large scale 30's print to go on my Heart's Desire border on the Esther Aliu quilt which I am still aiming to finish once all the decoration at home is done and dusted.

And of course I found some ombres, not too many but enough to play with.

I has been cold here and I found the ice on the outside of the conservatory absolutely beautiful. I am keeping it up above freezing on the inside to protect my plants, but outside it went down to -4°C. Nothing like one of my Facebook friends in Edmunton, Canada, where they went down to -40°C. That doesn't even seem possible!

One of the rooms in need of redecoration is the laundry room. Years ago it got papered and was Fliss's little playroom and then DH used it for a while as an office. Finally I claimed it back as the laundry but the little girls wall paper remained. You can see a bit of it left under the far end of the wall cupboards.

That is the first time that washing machine has been moved since it arrived. So many men thought it a challenge and then gave up but the Mighty Mike who is a strong as he looks moved it around to decorate behind it. Finished photos will follow. I have had enough of disorganisation and long for the day everything is back where it should be. We have had carpets laid in two bedrooms and all the stuff from those rooms is in what was my studio. I want my life back......
Someone ate the post this morning..... I don't care how sorry he is about it, he is in the dog house...

Will someone let my garden know it's January?

2012-01-12T15:37:00.000Z

Yes!!!!!

2011-12-30T19:03:00.001Z

Two brilliant things have happened at Toad Hall over Christmas.
The best is we have a new member of the family, he is so lovely,

And I found my ribbons!!! All of them, I've counted, 24 were in a drawer in the sitting room, not as exciting as a new dog, but very good news.

Merry Christmas 2011

2011-12-25T13:38:00.000Z

We ended up spending Christmas at home. The upside, I know how the cooker works, the downside, half of Christmas is up at the cottage. This isn't Toad Hall but I love this nesting box.
This has meant my simple white trees are up there and already decorated and 180 miles away from our Christmas. Fliss came home yesterday and we set up the traditional tree. She told me her friends were very sniffy about fake trees. Now there fake trees and fake trees. These are the needles on ours. It doesn't smell like a real tree but it does take the weight of the decorations which a real tree cannot.

And a couple of hours later it is decorated.

I'm writing this just after 1pm on Christmas day when most people are sitting down to their Christmas lunch. We don't do that, we've had a late brunch and shall have our Christmas meal at about 4pm with pudding at about 6pm if there is room...

Saving you from watching paint dry.

2011-12-13T17:11:00.000Z

I haven't blogged because I'm painting. Not anything creative, just the gloss work throughout the house. And when I'm not doing that, I'm making curtains.

We are getting some basic white wardrobes for the cottage. To customise them I thought it a good idea to put some fancy knobs on the doors. I learnt the hard way, it is not a good idea to Google Pink knobs. I will not make that mistake again.

My Christmas wrapping is done and dusted.

New studio in progress

2011-12-08T13:27:00.000Z

You know that Chinese curse, "May you live in exciting times". I think someone cursed me. Half my studio was already at the cottage and the other half was coming with a 'Man with Van'. Only it didn't arrive. Hours later we heard his gear box had disintegrated on the Motorway. So instead of Sunday, we eventually got it on Wednesday. Three damaged bookcases and as you can see a couple of the boxes have been squished. (I cannot bare to see inside them yet, my stress levels were through the roof.

This was taken hours later and now I have had enough of sorting but there is so much more to do. Somehow I feel more comfortable calling it my studio on the ground floor than I did when I had one upstairs. Why is a room designated as a sewing room more acceptable as a studio than a room designated as a bedroom?

A slight nod towards Christmas. I love my little forest of white trees with red and white decorations. I do hanker back to the days when decorations came ready threaded. These curtains are blue and white and I found a box full of them, they 'nearly' fit the windows so shall suffice until I get round to making them. It takes a little of the pressure off me and the room is so much warmer with them.

My Accuquilt Go! Baby has arrived.

2011-11-25T21:08:00.000Z

So happy. It arrived on Wednesday but I just had too much to do. Then on Thursday I had some time but couldn't find the fusing paper. (Never ever have your sewing room in two locations 120 miles apart).

I cut out some feather lobes and first tried them this way, with both the colours darkening in the same direction.

Then the other way and was happy with that.

I tried Patsy Thompson's EKG stitch on a sample but it didn't work with the only thread I had to hand (Never ever have half your studio 120 miles away from the other half). I ended up using the double blanket stitch, narrower and shorter than the set length, I am pleased with how it turns out. I just placed some batting behind the feather to do the stitching. I shall cut it out from the background for faux trapunto. Click on the image above to see the stitch.

This is the back.
Do I love my Go! Baby? Oh yes, I can see so much potential in using it in various ways. I so want to keep playing with it, but the move of the studio to the cottage goes on. I have reached the point where I don't care where the studio is as long as it all is in the same place (or even county!) and organised.

Did I tell you, I have lost all my quilt award ribbons? I am trying to remain calm about this but it isn't happening.

Goodness so long since I posted

2011-11-22T11:47:00.000Z

Whilst clearing the sewing room I found my old tech drawing school book. Year 9 which was about when I was 13/14. I think I might have been a patchwork designer way back then....

I also designed my own clothes. (and drafted the patterns). Ok not brilliant but it was the 60s.

And you know how I say I couldn't draw, well it seems I could, not well but not terribly either,

I went to B and Q this week and bought a bargain rug, 100% wool down from £98 (which isn't a bad price) to £30.
Firstly Rosie wanted it to play with her,

Then she decided it needed to cuddle her,

George thinks it's rather wonderful as well,

I will try harder to post more often but life is chaotic to say the least at the moment.

Did I mention I cannot find my quilt ribbons anywhere? I've been hunting them for 3 days now to no avail. Gulp.

There are other reasons for quilting.

2011-11-06T16:06:00.000Z

Quilting isn't just to keep the layers together and give a decorative finish. It also strengthens the fabric. This is the front of a cushion cover for the cottage, all except the pale blue fabric with the flowers are strong heavy weight cottons, but that one is particularly floppy. I had to quilt it so it would stand up to the stresses and strains of being on one of the main sofas in the kitchen. And that meant the other fabrics had to be quilted too, to allow for the shrinkage the quilting brings to be even.

Good news, Ikea have some of the Rosalie fabrics back in stock at £4.99 a metre. Lovely and soft for quilt backs.

Autumn is in full swing and the crab apple has so many fruits we have had to trim back the little tree and strap it up to the fence post to keep it upright.

One more pair of the dreaded curtains made..... feel for me.

I am a Winner!

2011-11-04T17:41:00.000Z

I have won an Accuquilt Go! Baby fabric cutter on Esther Aliu's Blog. I am so excited to get playing with this new toy. I don't have a clue how long it will take to get here but already I have ideas spinning round my mind.

Now doesn't this look like fun?

I won three (cutting) dies to go with it and it took me simply ages to choose (I want them all......) Obviously I chose a bird, and feathers (I mean these have my name writ large don't they) and a Rose of Sharon which I shall use in all sorts of ways which are not Rose of Sharon but the elements in this die are more than useful in all sorts of things.

Meanwhile back to the curtains....... feel for me. Asking me to make curtains is like asking Picasso to paint walls.....
I did give in to the ridiculous expense and bought Roses by Kate Forman for one pair.

Isn't it wonderful?
I have more to write today but Blogger isn't allowing me to add any more photos at the moment... Bless it.

Fish soup/stew, extra yummy! (the cheats way)

2011-10-25T10:53:00.000+01:00

Grab a large handful of frozen prawns in their shells. (these must be cold water shrimps or prawns to get the flavour). Bring to the boil and simmer for at least 20 minutes or longer.

I use frozen Fruits de Mer and I had some frozen cod. Take it out of the freezer now (you don't have to wait for it to defrost). These are cereal bowls to give you an idea of how much. This will feed three or four people.

Finely chop one large (mild) onion (less if it isn't mild) and 2 or 3 stalks of celery and one clove of garlic.. Fry them very very slowly in butter or mild olive oil. This is more like sweating them than frying. It should take about 20 minutes, the slower the better with the lid on until it is almost a mushy mess.

Whilst the prawns are boiling and the onions and celery are gently cooking, get a few tablespoons of mayonnaise (I use Helmans but it doesn't matter as long as it isn't Tesco's own brand). Add a small crushed clove of garlic. Add a bit at a time until it has a flavour you like. Then add a little pepper sauce, not too much, you should almost not be able to taste it.

By this time your prawns should be well cooked. Let them cool down a bit and then put them through a blender or food processor. Do this this in batches, otherwise it spits everywhere as it's hot.

Sieve the blended prawn and their liquor into the onion and celery mix, push with a back of a spoon to get some of the mushy prawns through.

Add some tomato purée, not too much as it's easy to overwhelm the fish with too much. Passata is good as an alternative, or even a couple of chopped tomatoes.

This should be the colour, or a little more red.

Add a couple of good teaspoons of fresh or frozen chopped parsley (never use the dried parsley, it's yucky).
Now slice up a long baguette of French bread and toast it. Grate some parmesan cheese.
Add the fish to the stock and bring gently to the boil, (we're women we can do the toasting and this at the same time), low the heat to simmer for 5 minutes. Once the fish is nearly cooked add the shellfish, bring it back to the boil, turn off the heat. In five minutes the residual heat will have cooked the shellfish (you really don't want over cooked calamari if that's in your mix, it goes like rubber bands).

The cheese and mayonnaise go on the table with the toasted baguette.

There are two ways to serve, our favourite is to have it one go. Spread some mayonnaise on a bit of the toast, sprinkle some cheese over this and float in the stew. I add some chilli oil, just a drizzle to mine, but DH doesn't. As the bread started to go soggy, you will be in food heaven.
The other way is use your ladle to serve the soup, have the bread, mayonnaise and the cheese with this, then serve the fish as a second course.

I cannot tell you how yummy this is.
If we are feeling posh and I have the time for a dinner party, I make it with monk fish, shellfish and other white fish. I use the heads and bones in the stock as well as prawns.

If I were Superwoman

2011-10-21T19:45:00.000+01:00

I would be sewing these by hand.

But I'm not so they are all done on the machine with the blind hem foot. I have finished this pair and half of the next, so many to go.

It's amazing how you can procrastinate when you are not enthusiastic about a task.

We went to the cottage again last week and crossed the new Severn Bridge. I find this one so much less scary than the old one as it has these barriers which stop me feeling like I am about to drop off the edge.

It was a rare glorious autumn weekend.

Make a Boob

2011-10-14T09:58:00.000+01:00

I think these are brilliant Make A Boob! I shall make one in between being saddled with making 21 pairs of curtains.....
not a happy Sally but needs must.

Feather on a Wire

2011-10-13T10:37:00.000+01:00

Dawn who writes 'Sweet as Cinnamon' asked why we have named our blogs what we chose.

What's in a name? Mine came from living in Greece at about the same time as Leonard Cohen. His song Bird on a Wire has always resonated with me and that's what I named my first blog. Finding a name for my new blog was easy, I'm known for my feathers and it became a natural follow on from that.

Go 3min 20 sec into the video if you wish to avoid the preamble.

I checked to make sure no one else had used this phrase ever online and took it as my blog name.

Some idiot on twitter who has not only read my blog but commented on it as well, has decided she can use it. Is that stealing, lack of imagination, impersonation, just down right rude or some other weird personality flaw?

First borders

2011-10-12T16:16:00.000+01:00

These two borders shall go top and bottom. I haven't yet decided whether to add birds at each end or to continue the feather....

This is a close up of the appliqué work. The line in the between the lobes shall be covered with the spine. Don't worry about the black lines, they wash out. If you click on it you will see a fine cat's hair but the stitches are still difficult to see. You can see the needle holes just. I used a 60 Microtex needle. Once it's washed, these holes will disappear as well.
The close up also shows the dress shirting fabric I've used as a background. That pattern is in the weave, it is not a white on white.

It all takes time

2011-10-05T16:55:00.000+01:00

If you click on these photos you'll see what I'm doing.
I'm adding a little free motion embroidery on some of the appliqués. Here I'm just adding veins to the leaves.

Then I changed threads and stitched between each of the red fabrics on the flowers. The effect is subtle. The ones at the top of this photo have yet to be done and the bottom ones show the difference.

And this is what it looks like on the back.

Just a little detail to the birds.

And then a little tip for when you come to appliqué borders or any long strips. Roll up the work at each end and fasten with a safety pin. This way as you turn the work through 360° you do not run the risk of getting anything caught under your work. As you move along the piece, just reposition your safety pins.

Autumn arrived today and the cats are happy to snuggle down on a sofa in the conservatory.

Don't do what I do (or learn from my mistakes)

2011-10-02T09:13:00.000+01:00

Remember how I had the idea to pad out/trapunto the areas behind the appliqué before joining the blocks together? Seemed like an amazingly sensible idea at the time. Well the idea is not bad, it is in fact a very good one given two things I didn't take into account. One is if you have to add more appliqués which go over the joined seams. You can see how hard it is to fit it all in the harp of the machine. When doing machine appliqué you want, no you NEED no drag on the machine when you are trying to control a stitch just less than 1/16" wide.
I wanted to use Quilter's Dream Deluxe to pad out the shapes. I couldn't find it anywhere in England but luckily Hancock's of Paducah had a free shipping offer on and I took advantage of it. I have used it before and been pleased with it for this sort of thing but this time it seems to have more bulk and be less drape (this is probably my memory or it could be just the sheer amount of it I am using in this quilt).

The other problem it presented was how the bulk of this batting wanted to push the fabric over when I was doing the quarter inch seams.
And a third problem was I hadn't trimmed back my blocks to the completed size before adding the trapunto. There had been a good reason for this. I did not want the edges of the block to fray during so much handling, but it is very difficult to cut and line up accurately when half of the block has trapunto in place.....

So this is it all joined up with the trapunto cut out from behind (mostly)

I still have the vases to cut away.

I was very pleased with myself I remembered to mark the quilting lines on the vases before the trapunto. It would have been nigh impossible to do it afterwards with any accuracy. You have a sneak preview of my next border here. It might not look like much but just preparing all those lobes for these feathers took three days (and I haven't even started to stitch them yet).

And I need help. Does anyone have any idea what this shrub is called? It's up at the cottage and the builder has planted it.

It's five or six years old now and needs a trim but I would like to do it at the right time of year and using the right pruning method for it. I am at a loss without knowing what it is.....

faux trapunto, Light and Shade and Toad in the Hole.

2011-09-14T21:38:00.000+01:00

I've decided to do faux trapunto behind each of the appliqués. I'm taking an approach used by longarmers, and that is to quilt just outside the appliqué to make it more prominent. Because of this I don't have to use water soluble thread. I'm using Quilter's Dream de luxe (the heaviest weight) polyester for the trapunto. This batting sticks like cotton and is a joy to machine quilt. This weight is almost like white synthetic felt, the two lighter weights, Request and Select have a really good drape, but this one is quite stiff. I'm stitching this batting with Invisifil just up against the applique before cutting away the excess.

I bought the Invisifil at the National Quilt Show this summer. I love this thread, it behaves like the silk but so very much cheaper. Very kindly Wonderfil gave me some of their other threads to try out. I haven't had occasion to play with them yet, but I'm excited with the prospect. I just know if I start playing before I've finished the Heart's Desire quilt, I won't finish it.

For the Light and Shade piece for the International Quilt Challenge this month, I quilted a wide attic window style border . On the lighter putty shade of the border I used a filler I haven't used since I made my husband a quilt for the millennium. I had forgotten how quickly this background filler quilting goes, it's possibly one of the fastest out there (something to remember).

We had Toad in the Hole with a rich onion gravy for dinner tonight. We haven't had this for years and it was yummy!

My post to the International Challenge 'Light and Shade'.

2011-09-07T20:24:00.000+01:00

I'd had an idea about balls bouncing about with their shadows giving them their position within a 3d piece. After tearing up a few pieces of paper, I'm ashamed to say I gave up. What has happened to my tech drawing skills, I thought they were with me forever....

First I applied the shadows on, and then I added the foreground

It's still not stitched down but I am pleased with the effect of this very simple piece. So tomorrow I might get round to quilting.....

Time to stop

2011-09-06T13:16:00.000+01:00

I took a couple of tramadol last night, I was excited at the prospect of being pain free for a few hours and to have a deep sleep. Well, I woke at 5am in pain and was very disappointed but I drifted back to sleep and on my reawakening felt much better. So not a total success but not a total failure either. I feel a little woozy today so not the day to do anything which requires precision.

I did get the last two corner feathers completed and love them even more now.

I added a couple of them to one corner and traced through the extra leaves and vines. I am totally convinced now that these just are just overkill on top of the appliqué feathers so they shall stay as they are. I'm waiting for some Quilter's Dream Deluxe poly to arrive from the States to use for some faux trapunto. As any of you who have done this will know, it's the cutting away of the excess batting which takes the time. When it arrives I shall stitch it onto the blocks before joining them together as it is so much more comfortable to cut away when working on smaller pieces than with a whole quilt top.

Slowly but surely

2011-09-03T02:30:00.001+01:00

It's coming together,

To do two of those feathers either side of each vase is taking a day of stitching but I'm in love with them! I laid this out just to show you guys but now I am thinking perhaps I don't want to appliqué the more vines and leaves over them which were in Esther's original plan. There's a voice in my head saying 'you don't want to do that because it will save on the work' but there is a stronger voice saying ' it would be gilding the lily'. I really cannot say I am avoiding it to get myself over doing more work on the quilt when I know these each of these feathers with 23 different fabrics in each are more work than the original triangles designed for all eight sides of the vase blocks combined.

It has been a very odd summer here in our part of England. Very very dry from February until June, then grey, cool and damp almost every day from there on. The Cosmos self seed and I love their cheerful brightness even on the darkest of days, the delphiniums haven't faired so well in the high winds and heavy rains but to be fair on them, this is they're third flowering after cutting them back after each bloom has faded.
It's been a great year for the foilage on the runner beans but not so many beans themselves. Enough for the two of us 2 or 3 times a week...

Block4 changed for 30's fabric

2011-08-30T21:56:00.000+01:00

I've replaced the triangles at the sides of block 4 with a feather to link with the central block. Each feather has 22 lobes and there are eight of them. This little bounty of prepared lobes has taken me the best part of today and I've still only prepared 8 for each feather. The triangles seem a much better option now but having started, I shall finish!
Yesterday was spent redrawing the block and copying the new feathers onto the fabric.
You can see the old vase which has been whitened out.

I have an awful feeling I shall want to add something or other to the vase... Why can I not leave well alone?

Middle block has it's final tweak

2011-08-27T22:32:00.000+01:00

This hasn't made it better or worse than Esther's, just different.

I was loathe to put the dark circle in the middle. Whenever I see things appliquéd down over points meeting like this I often think people are hiding an error, but in this case it really unites the block. In retrospect if I'd seen the whole quilt before I had started, I would have done the hearts in the purple and the daisy like petals in the red.

Just for me to get an idea of how it shall look

2011-08-26T08:03:00.000+01:00

I wanted to see if I was right about the red hearts and the green shapes in the centre block looking too heavy once I added that innver border and I think it was as I had feared. I'm going to try to overlay the red and the green with other fabrics with the same shapes but smaller so the red and green only show round the edge of each motif.....
Esther did warn us there would be a lot of applique but never did I imagine it would be this much (grin). I love her quilt but being the egoist that I am, I have to do more to make it mine. The vases and the inner border is a start, I think the next border will be all mine.....

More on the middle block

2011-08-24T06:47:00.000+01:00

I decided to place something different round the centre clock. I drew a wavy line, cut some fabric 1¼" wide on the bias, pressed it in half and stitched it down. Can you see how the dreaded steam iron has spluttered over the fabric. A little annoying but it shall wash out...

I then designed a feather type lobe shape and prepared them with starch like Esther prepares hers.. By the way, Margaret Docherty uses a similar method and her applique is the best I have ever seen. (I found out this time when repeating the same shape over and over, 3 layers of freezer paper is even better than two).

This is how it looked before I stitched it down.

I think it needs more inside the spine, birds perhaps? And perhaps something to tone down the red hearts and the green shapes, something inside to make those a little less heavy.....?

Work in Progress Wednesday.

2011-08-17T00:30:00.000+01:00

I have been playing with a different shape for the vase. I feel my 30s fabrics fight the Art Deco shape of the pattern. I quite like this one.

I did wonder for a very short time about adding handles to the vase, luckily this thought came and went with the breeze.

Those of you who looked at my Pinterest page a couple of posts ago might have noticed I pinned this bird. I could not resist temptation and bought one for the conservatory whilst they had 20% off.

I like having birds round the house, this one got left behind after Christmas, I love it hanging from these twigs. (Why is it, there is always on Christmas decoration which doesn't make it back into the loft with the rest?

Work in Progress Wednesday.

2011-08-10T20:51:00.000+01:00

As you can see, I haven't done much this week. Indeed although I worked through most of today all I managed was to prepare three of the flowers and stitch down two of them, this appliqué eats time.
I also did a little work on the International Challenge piece, this was not so sucessful, but a lesson learned.

Not a lot done since my last post

2011-08-07T15:02:00.000+01:00

The fibromyalgia has been a killer recently and has interfered with my life and my quilting.

I have discovered Pinterest, it's like a visual Facebook and bookmark site combined. You download the Pin and then whenever you see something you like or love, you click on the pin on your toolbar to save it. You can set up different boards for different interests you might have and the glory of it is that you can click on any picture, click again and it will take you back to the site from where it came. Brilliant, no more bookmarks which you cannot remember why you bookmarked them!
See my boards here, for some reason the link software on blogger isn't working today so this is the link,
http://pinterest.com/featheronwire/
enjoy and have fun. I requested a page and was sent an email for setting mine up a couple of days later.

Now it is really Wednesday....

2011-07-27T21:01:00.000+01:00

I was in a lot of pain on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday so you'll just have to forgive me getting the days muddled. Today is a bit better and I'm compos mentis.

Today I got a lot more done, two flowers. When I started this quilt of Esther's she sucked us in with quite a simple block. I was at a stage when I couldn't think of what I wanted to do and it seemed a good idea at the time! If I had known how challenging and time consuming it was going to be I probably would not have started. It is a super quilt, if you click on the link to Esther and scroll down you will see it finished in her colour choices. As a rule, I don't make other people's designs. If I'm going to break this rule this has been a good quilt to do it on.
I wondered how I was going to the anthers of the flowers, and today I decided to machine them. Here's how I did it, much much quicker than hand stitching and I like the effect and the 3d thickness of them. I used a polyester embroidery thread.

I put the area into a small embroidery hoop with a layer of very fine interfacing underneath. I placed the needle half way along the line and bought the bottom thread to the top.

I stitched away from the start (I have the feed dogs down and am freemotioning) just far enough away from the start so I can cut the ends off. I then just stitched up and down the line not quilt in the same place until it looked thick enough.

To do the next one I just jumped across (again in the middle of the line so the ends will be hidden)

When finished I just turned it over and cut away the interfacing quite close. I don't want it affecting the natural give of the fabric whilst quilting.

I love how this is turning out. I will probably change the vase into something which goes more with the 30s fabrics, something a little less art deco.

And having done the anthers on the flowers of course I realised I could use the same method for the tendrils on the previous blocks.

Work in Progress Wednesday.

2011-07-26T16:24:00.000+01:00

Not quick by any measure, this one flower has taken most of today with breaks to make a couple of cups of tea, and accpet and put away the supermarket delivery....
There are three flowers on this block and four repeats of the block. It might take more time than I thought....

Not sewing but painting (and not pictures)

2011-07-24T17:52:00.000+01:00

The conservatory is coming together.The floor cannot be install for another month or so until the screed has totally dried and there is no chance of any damp.
Some time ago when one of the chains of leather furniture shops went into liquidation I bought four coffee tables to paint up.
Before painting but after sanding.

Midway through with two coats of primer undercoat,

And after two coats of paint,

Meanwhile, Steph undercoated the front door, I loved the colour and the mat finish of the primer....

But now it's black,

It just needs another coat.

WOW Heart's Desire

2011-07-20T18:42:00.000+01:00

WOW = Work in progress on Wednesday
Esther has come up with this idea, we all should post what we are doing on Wednesdays. Well today saw the finish of my root canal work so that took up a goodly part of the day. I started doing my first block 4 in Esther's BOM on Monday. Life has got in the way and I haven't much to show. But a start is a start....

There will be four blocks the same as this one. Take a look at hers, she has finished and it is super!

Back to Quilting

2011-07-12T11:00:00.000+01:00

I apologise for being such a bad blogger recently. I shall endeavour to try harder. In my own defence it's partially due to having had a very bad tooth abscess which seemed to take over my entire brain, body and soul. After two visits to the dentist and more to come, I am back in the land of the living.

I got the baby quilts finished.

I've finished Month 2 and 3 of Ester Aliu's BOM,

Block 2 The feet in her design were beyond my appliqué skills, so mine got prosthetic legs and I added a tail. I haven't embroidered the 'twirly' bits on either block, as I like my quilts to be rock solid in the washing machine. I might do them in satin stitch though I'm not fond of that on quilts..... decision to be made later.

Block 3 (these took so much more work than Block 1 led us to believe.

Today's post arrived with exiting things. Who would have thought I could be so desirous of some else's offcuts. But these offcuts are Patsy Thompson's, and they are very special.

She's used the positive of these feathers, so I get to play with the negatives. Obviously I cannot place the in the same sort of way (or can I?). As soon as I wrote that I realised nothing is impossible, I could cut close to the outside edge..... But I won't, I just want to play.
We've had a green visitor to the front garden yesterday, I assume it's a green finch but I know nothing of such things.

I am quite pleased with the quality of these photos given they were taken through the kitchen window.
____________________________________________
I'm always on the lookout for new quilting designs, and I saw this commercial quilt in TK Max.

Such a simple idea and so effective. This has obviously been done on a computer driven machine as the pattern repeat shows but as a freemotion design it would be fantastic.

For absolutely years I've been planning to take a photo of this, The Lion and the Lamb in Lion and Lamb Way in Farnham. So I've taken this just with my phone though sadly it's now coated with a very ugly polyurethane varnish. They had a choice of leaving it be and let it go grey naturally, or oiling it every so often, but they went for the ugly solution... why? Kids climb over it and love it and that's exactly how it should be.

Tool, tips and cotton batting

2011-06-28T10:02:00.000+01:00

If you have ever seen those concentric circle rulers and didn't know what on earth they were for, well here is one use for them. When I want a lovely curvy line for the spines of my feathers, I place the ruler along a line and match the marks on the ruler against the line and then make my mark. You could in this instance just as easily use a large dinner plate with a couple of marks on it but none of mine have a round edge.

When I got to doing the third baby quilt I found I was a few inches short in one corner on the batting. This was a Saturday lunch time, I wanted to get on and my local quilt shop does not carry the same brand of batting anyway. So here is how I join two bits of batting together.
Lay the one bit of batting over the other, give yourself a few inches overlap. Then through the top layer only, cut a wavy line.

With a large zig zag stitch sew over the cut line. It is important not to pull the batting out of shape.

Flip it over and very gently tear away the excess batting against the stitching line. Once in the quilt, this join disappears completely. If you join with a straight line it doesn't! Believe me on this one.

The Grace hand quilting frame wins my award for the worst instructions I have ever come across and that includes Ikea. On the other hand now I have pinned three quilts on it, it is quite simple. (if I hadn't been in a rush on this one, I might not have wound the backing fabric rotated through 90°, duh. I think to fold it up and unfold it is a two person job.

One the left is the first baby quilt and it has been washed and tumble dried. On the right is the one I have just finished and it is unwashed. There is slightly different quilting in each but you can see the instant "antiqued" look you get with cotton batting. I have never done what they suggest on the instructions about rinsing it and drying it to preshrink it. My gut feeling is if you don't want this look then use a batting which does not shrink.

Here they are side by side showing how much shrinkage there is! The one on the right has a wavy edge as someone suggested pressing the binding over as it makes sewing it down easier. I haven't found out yet if it's true but if I wasn't going to wash it, I'd be more than a little unhappy with the waviness. I suppose you could iron it all over but then you would loose the puffiness and texture of the quilting. The washing will undo the effects of pressing it..

Wonderful day at National Quilt Championships

2011-06-19T20:25:00.000+01:00

I knew I had won the Machine Quilting Award with Wings of Love, but the Judges Merit ribbon was a lovely surprise. Click on the photos to see it enlarged. The thread was a wonderful variegated one from Auriful.

And 2nd Place in the Small Wall Hanging with Feather Journey#2 was something which made me very happy.
The Best of Show was hand quilted and beautifully appliquéd by Sandi Lush. Very well deserved.
But my favourite quilt was not in the competition, I just love the following quilt

I have very eclectic tastes and this one is even brighter and more exuberant in real life, I LOVE IT!

Birds and boy quilt underway

2011-06-16T11:42:00.000+01:00

In my never ending search for fabrics with birds for appliqué I found these last week on Ebay. For those of you in the 'know' about decorating fabrics, Zoffany is one of the top and most expensive brands around. I was extra pleased to find just over three meters of this, though disappointed it only yields 3 birds of each design, I could get 6 of each by seaming the ones by the selvedge.

This quilt is the next in my series of three baby quilts. I'm pinning it on the hand quilting frame to save me getting down on the floor. It's OK doing it on a frame though I prefer the way it does it on the floor, the backing is tighter.

The quilting on this one is coming on nice and quickly though I have to stop and start a lot when doing the outer rings of the spirals. It will look wonderful when all the marks are washed out.

Missing in inaction

2011-06-09T15:28:00.001+01:00

Or not quite, I have done some quilting on one of the baby quilts, the end of this one is in sight, just two more to go.

And I took this the other day. This had almost survived the high winds but the heavy rain we've had since have done their worst. I don't mind there's more things coming up elsewhere.

Time is eaten up

2011-06-01T12:26:00.000+01:00

Somehow making cups of tea, coffee and answering questions eats your days and uses my 'spoons' (see link on the right).

From this

to this in a couple of days.

Today it's the electricians turn, he's wiring the automatic roof vents, the floor sockets and the wall lights. The the original chap comes back to seal the floor and install insulation and more screed. Then the long wait for the screed to dry to add the oak floor. I keep telling myself it will be good once it's done...

I had a birthday and my darling husband got me this object of desire, a Cath Kidston DAB radio, I love it though the gold plating might be a little OTT.

And my darling daughter got me this fabulous blade sharpener from Quilt Direct, you just roll your cutter up and down and then rotate it to do the other side of the blade. Love it.

We dug up some horseradish which I love. This beast was so large that it filled two ice cube trays. (If you want to freeze it, just grate it in your food processor, keep well back or your eyes and nose will sting, and wet it with vinegar before freezing in trays, then store in a sealed plastic bag.)

What a difference a day makes

2011-05-20T22:57:00.000+01:00

Things are happening at Toad Hall. First thing this morning, the first barrow of concrete landed followed by many many more until it looked like this.

I had to keep the cats inside for four hours until it was dry enough for them to walk over. I was worried a fox might come and try and walk over it,

but no, these much smaller footprints appeared. Now who would have thought a squirrel would have been curious enough to go over it?
I'll reveal what is happening as and when each stage is in process. Needless to say lots of builders tea is involved.

I love this rose, Zephrine Drouhin (I even love the name), she is thornless and very heavily scented. She repeat flowers but her first flush is the best.

I also love my oriental poppies.

What I don't love is this combination, it offends my eye. So much does it offend that I yanked out the oriental poppy, roots and all last year. They are supposed not to like their roots being disturbed so you can imagine my surprise when up it came again this year. I'd even planted things over where it had once been. And it has about another ten or so buds wanting to come up. It took courage to kill it last year can I summon the strength to do it again? It does look so dreadful next to the pink and reds of the rose....

I bought this plant last week, it's large and sculptural and the underside of the leaves are wonderful but what is really remarkable is how it lifts it's leaves in the evening.

Yes!!!

2011-05-10T21:47:00.000+01:00

I've cut my meds down by a third and feel so much better, it's only two days so I cannot depend on it lasting but I have less pain, more energy and my brain is functioning. So yesterday and today I managed to finish this quilt top.
I used the blanket stitch to appliqué the curved strips.

I found out why I had limited numbers of flowers this year on the tree peony. It has these fabulous seed heads which I left on and apparently they need dead heading.

And another one, click to see how really fabulous these are.

I couldn't resist bringing a little of the outside into the house, the perfume from this one rose is amazing.

And joy of joys, I found Anzac biscuits in a local supermarket. I haven't had these since I left Australia. They are very moresome so perhaps this isn't a good thing to have in the house.......

I'm selling a quilt frame.

2011-05-06T16:10:00.000+01:00

So if you are local you can find it on Ebay here
It's the one which belonged to a friend of mine and all proceeds are going to the local quilt group who makes lots of things for charities.

You need to be local to me to buy it as the poles are so long.

Some prep work, if not any sewing yet

2011-05-02T14:13:00.000+01:00

These are just laying on the white fabric whilst I decide which way to go. This way with each one aligned and giving nice large spaces to quilt and then narrower ones,
or

this way, giving wavy areas of white to quilt.....?
These photos were taken yesterday, Mayday, the first was taken by my daughter

I think these young girls are delightful.
The first rose of the year

The first Alium

The first clematis

And the hostas and ferns are coming along nicely

And the saxifrage in the patio paving looks super (though it was out a couple of days before Mayday)

Now all I have to do is choose which way I will do the quilt. Somehow I don't think it matters very much, it will be a pretty quilt either way.

One quilt, different cameras and lighting.

2011-04-24T10:06:00.001+01:00

Feather Journey #2
The first two photos are what I took with my camera at home for the juried entry into the MQX show, the last two are by people who took theirs at the show. The third photo has the best colour but not the best focus. I found it interesting to find how difficult it is to photograph Heide Stoll Weber fabrics accurately. No ribbons for this one at this show. I might enter it somewhere else.... I love it. It's about 15" wide and 58" high.

What a difference a day makes

2011-04-23T16:50:00.000+01:00

This was one of the tree peonies last night and by early this afternoon...

It was like this. I don't know if it was the snow during the winter or the lack of rain, but this year there are just five flowers coming on this bush and the other only has three (it had about a dozen last year).

The double tulips are stunning.

And the tree fern is just starting to unfurl.

Another week has gone by with no quilting done whatsoever. I promise to try harder. Perhaps not right now as I've just heard a huge roll of thunder, I'll unplug my machine......

Spring has come early to Toad Hall

2011-04-16T23:28:00.000+01:00

The apple blossom this year is all white with hardly a tinge of pink.

This tulips were supposed to be three different varieties of pink and even the ones which look pink in this photo are closer to purple.

The honesty is taller than it's ever been.

The bluebells are going over before they would not normally even be in flower.

Even the tough as old boots primoses, are going over and need watering.

We have two new additions to the family, Princess Suki and Goldie. They were in a tank too small for them. We floated them in bags for a couple of hours and all the little goldfish already in the pond came to say hello and investigate. We wondered if the big news guys would beat up the little residents but all is calm. The tank fish need to learn to be a bit more circumspect about coming to the surface or the heron will have them.

The Solomon's Seal shows promise of things to come.

This is four weeks at least too early.

And the shuttlecock ferns unfurl.

George is loving the dry weather.

Even the grass is showing dry patches. It's April, where are the showers?

Absent without leave

2011-04-09T09:55:00.000+01:00

March just went, but I loved the quilt on my V and A calender.

I must print out a quilt photo to cover this one up. It's the main quilt they used in the publicity last year. Ugly beyond words.

Spring has sprung and Rosie decided she could hide in the bluebells coming up. This was last week. The weather here in England has been wonderful the last few days and now some are in flower.

The first of the camellias, and the sudden warmth has bought them all out.

I have been doing a bit of the appliqué on Esther's Blog, there are three blocks the same as this one to do. This is month 3 but I decided to get these done first as I'm not fond of doing the same thing over again and I shall 'reward' myself with block 2 which is similar but has a bird on it. I add this photo to show you how I do appliqué.

This is a case of don't do what I do because thousands of people will give you thousands of very good reasons why you shouldn't. That's fine but this works for me.

For the actual applique shapes I'm using the method Esther suggests using starch over freezer paper, but I double the freezer paper to make it more stiff.

I have traced the design directly onto the fabric using a Berol Handwriting pen. I am confident it will wash out but don't take my word for it. (If you are in the UK there are some cheapie shops selling them which somehow don't seem to be the same ink, so try it first or buy them from WH Smith or another good supplier).

The other tool I use a lot are glue sticks. These particular ones in the photo are sold for children and are dirt cheap. They have the magical property of going on purple and clearing in about 30seconds. This means you can see where it's gone on. It washes out too. The manufacturers of glue sticks specially made for fabric say theirs are safe to use on fabric and others aren't. Well all I can say is I have never had a problem with a glue stick however cheap except if I have bought from somewhere with a low turnover they might be too dry. Click on the photo to enlarge to see everything is stitched down except the ring and the two leaves in the middle. That is how good it is for holding things in place.

After I have prepared the shape (Esther's method), I glue stick them into position. I will not prepare the whole block in one go, but prepare a few, sew them down, and do some more etc..

I'm stitching these on the machine with invisible Sew Art invisible thread using a blanket stitch. More on this in another post. I should be up and dressed, strimming the edge of the grass and doing a bit of pressure washing on the patio.

1703 Quilt - Victoria & Albert Museum - Search the Collections

2011-04-05T08:48:00.001+01:00

Bed cover - Victoria & Albert Museum - Search the Collections
I love this quilt and love going through the collections at the V&A. Sadly I don't seem to be able to share more than one quilt at a time. I find their descriptions a little weird. Would you call this a wholecloth?

Spring is here!

2011-03-27T16:50:00.000+01:00

Applique and birds

2011-03-24T22:28:00.000Z

Back to Esther's lovely BOM, I might have bitten off more than I can chew! I started preparing that circle with the vines going over and under, in short pieces but that started to get a little difficult.

Plan B. I'm preparing each circle whole, and then will cut as and where necessary, or that's the plan anyway.

The birds came back but I could not get a photo as they wouldn't stay still. This afternoon they obliged to hang out in the crab apple tree for long enough for me to get a shot or two through the kitchen window. So many of you were right. They are wax wings and apparently they are here in numbers this year because the winter in Scandinavia has been so bad. They will leave soon, but it's been good to have such exotic creatures for a short while.

Wings of Love

2011-03-23T12:18:00.000Z

I said I'd show it to you once it was backing from it's 'outing' to the AQS Lancaster show, no ribbons but those who saw it there liked it so all is good. I haven't received any judges feedback, not that I hold a lot of store by these but it's interesting to see what they have to say...

Any idea what these birds are

2011-03-22T15:32:00.001Z

Not as big as woodpeckers and there were three of them, I could not see the colour as they were against the sky so just these picures and they are better than I could see with my eyes. I liked their crests.
EDIT
Found them here.

And More

2011-03-20T12:32:00.000Z

I have been planning decor for the cottage for years and now I have started to buy stuff. I was undecided between the lovely Kate Forman linen above which is very expensive and the Lecien Durham collection below from Japan

which is expensive in terms of quilt fabric but much cheaper than linen curtain fabric. I have ummed and ahhed for weeks. I had a plan that if I went for the Lecien I would interline the curtains to give them some oomph. Then I thought why not just make a pair of quilts to hang. They would be just as warm and have the advantage of being washable. Good idea but I still wasn't sure. Then the earthquake hit Japan, and my mind was made up. In a very small way (apart from the obvious of making a quilt, see previous post, or making a donation here if you are in the UK or here if elsewhere) buying Japanese fabric will help getting the country on it's feet.. So the two quilts shall be make out of the white floral bottom left with a wide border of the blue/grey floral and of course I couldn't stop there and bought a little of the others you see on the right... Heaven help my plastic. I bought the fabric from Kim at The Fat Quarters who was very helpful with my order which kept changing.
And THEN having hit the plastic so heavily, someone on Ebay had 4.2 meters of the lovely Kate Forman fabric, so I shall make a quilt for the bed with that and as it's linen is will be more cat resistant than the fine cotton.

Exciting things in the post

2011-03-19T08:00:00.001Z

Remember this feather I coloured years ago with Inktense? Great properties, you draw onto the fabric, gently wet it, the colour intensifies, then let it dry, then it is stable. (some of the colour are better than others)

Now they are doing Inktense in blocks (blocks might be a little exageration but much more pigment than in the pencils). I think this will make much easier for larger areas and to avoid the pencil lines.

George chose a different sink today.

Quilters, we can do this. Please note: Send date has been edited!

2011-03-18T15:55:00.002Z

A PLEA FROM JAPAN FOR QUILTS

Naomi Ichikawa, editor of Patchwork Quilt Tsushin Magazine is asking for comfort quilts to be sent to Japan. She says:

It is still bad situation now in Japan.
We are still nervous about shaking and radiation,but no way to escape.

I start to announce to the quilters to send us comfort quilts for the
people who are suffered.I would like to do it to the world quilters.
We will deliver the comfort quilts to the people who are very difficult
situation.Could you please help to announce it to the quilters in your country?

We accept any size of quilts(baby to adult).new or unused.
The deadline would be the end of May or later.

★Send the quilts to:

（after the end of May）
Naomi Ichikawa
Patchwork Tsushin Co.,Ltd
2-21-2,Yushima,Bunkyo-ku,Tokyo,Japan zip:113-0034

I will appreciate if you help me.

Naomi

It's been quite some time since I've blogged

2011-03-18T14:55:00.000Z

I had one day since I last blog when I felt good, very good. It was only one day but it is lovely to know I'm still there below the pain.

I haven't got much done. I gave a talk to the lovely ladies at Region 6 of the Quilter's Guild of the British Isles. Unfortunately, a price had to be paid even with resting totally the day before, it took it out of me and I will not be able to do it again.

If you click on the picture of Esther's block you can see her mystery quilt I'm following. I thought I could manage with just these four fabrics which have 3 different ones in each but if you look at her blog you'll see blocks 2 and 3 are very complex and will need more than just these. Luckily I have loads of the 30's fabrics to use in the other one (I'm doing it twice, once in the 30's fabrics and once in the others) but I'll need to add for the other quilt. I've tried uploading this photo twice but it is still coming up sideways on.

So I've had to get out my reproduction stash

and these

Decisions, decisions. These pieces are all 2 metres (a little over 2 yards) or less. I haven't even looked at the fabrics I have in the yardage on the racking.

I slept for weeks and woke for short periods

2011-03-03T19:15:00.000Z

But now I'm nearly but to normal or what passes for normal these days.

I kep thinking about doing an applique quilt, someting quite traditional but my own design. I did a lot of displacement pottering around the house, busy doing nothing. Ideas wouldn't quite come.

Then Esther Aliu launched a BOM. After much umming and ahing I eventually bit the bullet and decided to trust her to come up with something I'd like. I still feel guilty for not doing something original to me but at least I'm doing something.

And insanely, I'm not just making one quilt, but two!

I'd seen people preparing applique shapes with starch and freezer paper and indeed have even tried it once before but this time I'm sold. I did make my freezer paper double thickness to give me extra stiffness to iron against and that helped a lot.

Whilst browsing the web I found someone using Magic Tape for positioning applique shapes for machine applique. Now this is wonderful, it doesn't move the piece one iota whilst positioning. Love it.

I think I'm back in the land of the living

2011-02-21T18:05:00.000Z

It wasn't until last Thursday I started feeling human again.

We did manage a meal out on the 11th for our 29th anniversary, I always love their flowers.
Colin bought me a huge hand tied bouquet of white flowers but I can't find the photo on my hard drive.
(Something for next time).

I've got a small amount of stitching done on my appliquéd feathers quilt, only a little but it's uplifted my soul.
I posted off Wings of Love to the AQS Lancaster show and discovered something evil.

Two doors down from the couriers is a new cheese shop. The strongest cheddar I have ever tasted (and I'm a woman always on the hunt for this) and another cheese with hot horseradish amongst it's creamy texture. Both are divine and I wish I had never discovered them!

Alive but tired

2011-02-14T09:17:00.000Z

I think I've got off lightly on the shingles. Already I'm feeling so much better, no pain but I am sleeping for England. Get up about 11am, get a few jobs done, go back to sleep for the afternoon, eat dinner with Colin, lie in THE chair for the evening and go to bed.
I lie in bed with plans for what I will do, but sleep wins out every time. Deep sleep and strange dreams.
I hope you all have a lovely Valentine's Day.

One Word (or maybe a few)

2011-01-28T10:00:00.000Z

Shingles, it sound like a nice word doesn't it? A bit like spring and Christmas rolled into one.
I think I'm a lot better than others who have had it but it is something I could do without....

Too late now, the die is cast.

2011-01-22T18:20:00.000Z

I had planned to show you this with it all laid out before stitching. And to get your comments......

But it's too late now, I've stitched the first one.
I still might change that very dark green to a lighter one. It's not as dark as it appears in the photos but dark enough.

Procrastination is a waste of time

2011-01-20T20:34:00.000Z

but how do you avoid it when you are unsure which route to go down?

I have got a few things done since my last post but not much. I delivered this quilt yesterday to the local quilt group. They pieced it, I marked rough lines for the spines of the feathers, then quilted it. I'm not sure what the plan for it is, maybe for a little raffle or to donate for a cause.

Remember those two skinny quilts I was working on? This is the back of one and I've decided to enter it into a show in the USA, I'll have to wait and see if it gets in or not.

I went to Farnham Maltings Sale and added this haul to my stash. 21 metres of plain white, 21 metres of the cream marble, 3 metres each of the orange and pink marbles, 2 of the red bandana and 6½ of the reproduction print. The threads were a massive bargain from Quilt Direct, I'm sure there were other bargains to be had but I wasn't up to fighting my way through the hoards.

I spent a day adding cotton lace and pretty fabric to our towels, I just wanted a more feminine look to the plain white. Don't think DH is drowning under pink and lace, he has two sets of towels of his own, one taupe and one bright red.

As much as I liked the poppy in the middle of these shapes, I couldn't bring myself to use a bonding method of applique on one of my quilts. So today I tried this simple flower but even with toning the inside edge of the dark red, I'm not happy. I considered some sort of weaving of the various reds and greens but haven't gone down that route.

So I went back to the original drawing. I think adding these lobes in the middle of the motif could be the answer. I need to sleep on it (or in other words procrastinate some more....).

I love it when the first tulips are in the shops. These are particularly lovely, pale on the outside and bright on the inside.

Rosie is being oddly still for photographs these days, but strangely her eyes look quite demonic in this one.

Aiming for perfection

2011-01-01T11:19:00.000Z

I have been thinking a lot in the last year about comments people make about their quilting.

'My points don't match but I don't care'. The fact they have to say it out loud, means they do care (this is different from people who deliberately miss their points). So why not do them properly in the first place? It doesn't take any longer, it just takes care. Care when you are cutting, care with your seam allowances, care with your stitching when you come to a point. It might mean you have to pin on that point, and stitch just off the seam side of it, but you will end up with something to be proud of.

It still might not be 100% but as near to perfect as possible. This means you are pleased with your work and not ashamed of it.

I hate hearing quilters pull out their work and then just continue to run down what they have spent hours or time and good money making.

Take classes and make sure when you do, you learn from the best. One class with an award winning quilter is worth a whole course with another. There is a reason they win awards, they take CARE with what they do. There are exceptions to this, people who have great skills in composition of their work, people who have a wonderful sense of colour etc. Make sure when you take classes with these people you take away with you the thing they are excellent at and not the other aspects of their work. When you go to a show learn to look carefully at the quilts, look for the good and the bad bits of each quilt. Learn to get your quilter's 'eye'.

Make 2011 the year that everything you make is something which makes you proud.

Happy New Year everyone and thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings.

Merry Christmas everyone!

2010-12-25T11:03:00.000Z

On earth

This angel has fallen...... I can't reach...... hope she enjoys it.....

Quilter not a cake decorator

2010-12-21T11:56:00.000Z

Steph was here yesterday and she attempted to teach me how to decorate a cake simply. I learnt lots about how to get the icing very smooth, how to make it and the marzipan to stick and then we moved onto the roses. The one in the middle was my very first rose. Unfortunately, it was my only rose, no matter how hard I tried I could not repeat the exercise. And this is why I make quilts and she is queen of cake making.

This is what happens when snow comes out of season. Instead of beautiful white virgin snow, the leaves keep coming. Some of them are even falling whilst still green.
The foot prints are from the fox.

Quilt, fabric and Christmas

2010-12-20T12:11:00.002Z

A lovely bright quilt to be working on in this cold weather. It's a top made by the local quilt group for charity. I'm not sure if it's to raise money for supplies or for a raffle.

I found this lovely fabric at Hancock's of Paducah. I've been looking for birds to appliqué on a reproduction (ish) quilt for ages. It only has these two birds on it but they are the right size. I might amputate their feet to make life easier. It can be found here.

A friend came to stay last week and she came with these fabulous roses. I adore this faded colour.

I hang this along the bottom of the stairs each year. It's so much better than hanging near the bannister rail where it gets in the way.

This year I decided on a more simple look for the mantle piece.
Growing up in Australia I dreamed of a white Christmas, now we have it, and although it's beautiful, perhaps my dream should have had the caveat, the snow should start on Christmas Day and not before.

Lucky find

2010-12-12T17:54:00.000Z

Six dinner plates, two covered serving dishes, one gravy boat an oval serving plate and (this is the sad part) five side plates.
I love this stuff, it will look so pretty with the Cath Kidston retro things. The whole lot was found for the princely sum of £10. I will have to keep my eye out for one more side plate, or perhaps you will find one for me?

I think this is it.

2010-12-08T20:09:00.000Z

The poppy is from my brown Chateaux Rococo fabric. Remember how I'd bought 18 yards of this? I lost it until this morning. How can you lose 18yds of fabric? Burying it under all the quilt backing fabric will do it nicely...

I spent the afternoon on the phone looking for more of the stripe from the range. There are two versions of the stripe one is cherry/magenta with sage green, the other sage green with cherry/magenta. I don't know what I've got, so I've had to order both. I can see another of my twisted borders on the horizon.

Now I'm off to cut out some more poppies and leaves.

When I look at the preview of this post it has pages of links to this post? What's going on Blogger? On the other hand I'm very impressed with Blogger's new spam filter for blog comments so far it has picked up all of them (will they give up now they know it doesn't work?) and hasn't put any genuine one in the spam box.

AQS Blog of the Week!

2010-12-07T07:42:00.001Z

How cool is this? Thank you AQS. See my lovely little badge on the left?

Yesterday Steph and I decorated the house for Christmas. I saw this hanging thing in Cox & Cox I think it's for hanging herbs and flowers to dry but I thought it fabulous for hanging Christmas things above the table. Great table decoration but it doesn't take up any space on the table. Of course it's one thing coming up with great ideas, it's totally another executing them. Steph to the rescue and a very good thing too. It would have killed me getting up and down and tying in all that fishing line. This little effort took as long as decorating the tree. There is a plan to store it with the baubles in tact.

I'm hoping the cats are old enough this year to leave the tree alone. And although it's only a hope, we're shutting the door at night. Fingers crossed.

Liquid Thread resolved.

2010-12-05T15:01:00.000Z

Before I forget, I have found a UK supplier for Liquid Thread (the UK equivalent of Liquid Stitch). The products seem to be the same thing, just different packaging. The good news is Liquid Stitch has a longer finer nozzle. If you get some be very careful to cut it really near the top so the hole is tiny. I can get a very small machine needle down the hole but not a large one. The shop is here I have never bought anything from them so I can't comment on their service etc. I was amused to see the appliqué squeakers on the same page, it took me just a little while to work out what you would use them for.

I never did find the quilter who I first saw using this. I did get lots of suggestions as to who it might be and most are doing it a similar way to this. I put a bead of the slightly watered down Liquid Thread along the outside of each rose. I then placed another silicon sheet over the top and pressed it quite hot, Steam escaped round the edges, so if I were doing it again, I would do smaller pieces.
Wait for it to cool before removing the silicon top and bottom. You can buy expensive nice white sheets of silicon from quilt shops or more cheaply as cooking silicon sheets and black. Cheap suits me just fine.

I love these roses with their photographic quality. Thank you Lois, who very kindly gave me the fabric.

Now before you look at this next photo, imagine a blue bow where the stems cross, green leaves and the stems curving.

An alternative centre is this rose. I think the colour of the stem has too little contrast with the background fabric, but I can create something different.

Meanwhile Christmas is coming.

I got this great wreath at TK Max, the postman will be relieved not to cut his fingers on the silver trailing one from last year.

And we've had an early snowfall. The tree fern became a giant white octopus when viewed from above.

The foot prints aren't the cats, they come from the wanderings of the fox.

Too cold to sit under the pergola.
These photos were taken earlier in the week and the snow has mostly melted. The temperature is still below freezing and there is no end in sight to the cold. No problem for me, I like a cold bedroom.

People sleeping rough on the streets are having a very hard time of it. If you can possibly make a donation to the Salvation Army this year, it is needed more than ever. I know that in addition to their normal Christmas appeal (which due to the economy is much needed) they are helping the people on the streets in this very cold year.

Liquid Thread Liquid Stitch Applique

2010-11-30T16:50:00.000Z

I know someone some where posted about using this stuff for appliqué. I cannot for the life of me remember what they did or how they did it. I Googled to find their blog or Youtube but by the time I got to page 20 on the searching, I gave up.

So I tried to reinvent the wheel. Firstly I tried to squeeze it out of the nozzle but the stuff is very thick, so I diluted it with water (first checking it did mix with water). Then I squeezed a line round the edge of the rose on the back of the fabric. I left it overnight to dry.

Notice I am using Liquid Thread, not Liquid Stitch. I bought the former somewhere in the UK but for the life of me cannot remember where. I think they are probably much the same but I haven't opened the Liquid Stitch yet.

I cut round the edge of the rose from the front so I could see and get a nice edge. As I cut the dried Liquid Stitch fell of in places and made a white powder over my scissors.

I then ironed it in place with a very hot iron and no steam using a silicon sheet to keep the sticky stuff off both the iron and the ironing board cover. It wasn't very successful and I had white residue round the edge of the rose and it just wasn't stuck down. Duh moment, I had turned off the iron and it just wasn't hot enough. Waited for the iron to get up to top heat and tried again. This time it stuck but only where the glue hadn't fallen of during the cutting out.

This time I cut out a yellow rose and placed it right side down on the shiny side of some freezer paper, then went round with the Liquid Thread on and just over the edge. It was quite difficult to pick it up without getting the Liquid Thread everywhere.

Duh moment part 2. Yet again I had not remembered to turn the iron back on (actually I can't remember the logic in turning it off, I blame it on the increased medications). You can see where the Liquid Stitch has spread out. Only I thought it just hadn't sunk into the background fabric. This dark grey fabric is one of those ones which have a plasticy feel.

I had success with a very hot iron on this green fabric (I don't think the different fabric had made any difference whatsoever, it was the heat which did it). I stitched it down with a double pass blanket stitch on the machine. I'm not happy with this stitch on the sharp points.

I cut away the background fabric behind the rose to lessen the thickness of the fabrics.
On the whole I am reasonably happy with the result with two exceptions. One is that it is quite difficult to place when it is covered in wet Liquid Stitch and the other is the blanket stitch.

Perhaps cutting out the rose and applying the Liquid Stitch after cutting and leaving it over night would be ideal. Or even applying it, pressing between layers of silicon sheet and then cutting will work.

I need to play some more...

Wrapping station

2010-11-26T12:28:00.000Z

I'm feeling a little smug, as I have all the presents wrapped for Christmas and it's still November. It doesn't feel like it though with the temperature well below freezing. The sun is shining on the heavy frost so my spirits have lifted.

I am glad I stopped to take some photos as I found these other four hidden in my secret hiding place.
I haven't done any sewing as my fibromyalgia pain came back big time. I've increased my meds by 50% and I think they are starting to kick in.
I also had a silly accident. I boiled up some prawns (shrimp) in their shells to make a fish stock. I then went to put them in the blender before straining the stock. I realised just in time I had not put the little stopper in the lid. Found it, put it in, turned it on, then found I hadn't put the lid on properly. Boiling stock hit my chest and arms. The burns are healing now nearly a week later but it has curtailed what I can and cannot do a little. Ouch!

The difficulties of entering shows.

2010-11-18T16:59:00.000Z

Well over a week since my last post, how did that happen?
I ran out of spoons as my meds seemed to cease working properly. My dose is up 50% so the side effects of being sleepy all the time is back with a vengeance.
I made some very pretty and very tasty cupcakes, I love the spotted papers, not so keen on the blue icing taking on a green tinge from the butter.

I decided to enter one of the US quilt shows. They would like you to take your photos outside against a plain wall on a day with no wind. They don't live in wet damp England in November. Would you try and hang a wet quilt outside here at this time of year? And that is without the plain background. Most house walls in England are brick, not all but most. Stone wouldn't have helped much nor would a timber framed house.
So I used decorators tape to hang a sheet in front of the wardrobes then set up the quilt stand. I used the cheapie Finepix camera I'd bought but the distortion was too great, then I used the older one with the iffy focus motor but wasn't entirely successful. I ended up buying one of the super optical zoom cameras with a wide angle lens. Luckily my credit card gives me vouchers at John Lewis so I only had to pay a little extra. The close ups were amazing!

I won't show the entire quilt until it's had it's first show outing.

But the shots getting the whole quilt in still had a problem. Even though I had 360watts of light and forced flash, the lighting conditions were such that the resolution wasn't high enough. So I have to move it out from in front of the wardrobes and closer to a window. See the problem? That's right, the sheet background can't come with me.
At this point I want to cry each effort takes it out of the small amount of energy I have and that's not even taking into account the pain.
I pin the quilt to the sheet from the back, then pin the sheet onto the frame (no I didn't make a sleeve for the sheet ). At this point George has decided to add his 2c worth and distorting the sheet.

I got a good shot in the end and mailed it on time. Now I just have to wait to see if it's juried in...

And just so Rosie doesn't feel left out.

She often disappears at the first sight of a camera and her fur confuses the lens most times I do get a shot, so this photo is a marvel.

Go see this quilt!!!!

2010-11-06T12:56:00.001Z

Sandra Leichner This is one of the Houston Winners. Make sure you scroll down her page to look at the close ups. I was given a nudge about how wonderful it was, but in the little photo on the winners website, I'd thought the enthusiasm a little over blown. I' so glad I made the effort to find a good photo to check it out. Wonderful!!!! And it seems there is a book on it as well. I don't know if it's out yet and I know I don't have the hand skills, but I shall buy it just so I can drool every so often.

George last night insisted 6.30pm was the time for me to stop quilting the little special baby quilt.

I finished the quilting this morning. Just need to sew on the binding and throw it in the washing machine after carefully removing every single cat hair.

DH pointed out I should not make these little quilts quite as special as the recipients will not be quilters and producing a few is better than just one at show quality.

For a baby in need

2010-11-04T21:18:00.000Z

I drew this out this afternoon, it's only 20" X 16". There has been a call from the local hospital for little quilts for babies who 'need to be baptised' quickly.

This is the back to give an idea of how it will look when the marks are washed out.

It's been therapeutic for me today to concentrate on families who have problems I can't even imagine. I sincerely hope the baby who will lay on this little quilt lives to grow up.

Can it really be less than four years?

2010-10-30T08:50:00.000+01:00

I first started drawing my own feathers in 2007. This one is from my old blog 'Bird on a Wire' from the very first post. I used it in Old Gold, as a mirror image.

I urge you to try and draw your own feathers, it is so much more satisfying to 'own' your own quilts.

Why am I looking back today? No good reason really except my baby is starting her life as a fully fledged woman. She has a job and is moving to an apartment in London today. So today is an end of an era in my life and the beginning of one in hers. I'm very proud of how she has grasped life with both hands and knows how to enjoy it.

How I wished then to have a window to see her now.

Sending me quietly insane.

2010-10-28T16:05:00.000+01:00

Firstly blogger deciding to rotate this photo. Why?
And secondly all those little circles, I love the effect but terminally boring now I'm on the 2nd quilt with them. In real life the effect is like the skin of a very large lizard, wonderful!

How lucky am I?

2010-10-27T11:47:00.000+01:00

A friend is downsizing everything and I gained this fabulous quilt frame. Now I have no intention of ever hand quilting at a frame, but if I can find an extra rail, this will be brilliant for basting. I'm so excited about this, just wish I had a quilt 'ready to go'!
Anyone know where in England I can get long wooden rails? Just the one...

Another strip quilt in progress

2010-10-24T16:39:00.000+01:00

This is the other strip of the same Heide Stoll Weber fabric. I decided this one should be free form feathers (to find out how to do this get Patsy Thompson's first DVD on feathers) This feather is about 12" wide so this stretches my abilities on a domestic machine, I like to do each line without stopping and my hands just aren't in control over such a big distance. I have a very small disagreement with Patsy over variegated threads on this sort of feather. I just love the effect.

See how different the same threads are on different coloured backgrounds! Love it, love it.

And then the intensity it adds by adding a dense dark background. (Always click on the photos to get the full effects.)

George just needed to let me know that white quilts are made for cats to mess up. This is why I have a cheapie imported easily washable quilt on our bed.

It's coming along

2010-10-19T08:00:00.000+01:00

It's looking good. The thread is silver Isacord (non metallic) not white as it looks in the photo. I had planned to do it with a row of little circles like I did in Heide's one here, though it would show up more as the thread is a much higher contrast. (scroll to the bottom of that post to see it) and how to do it is here. I think longarmers call them pebbles, mine are more like fine gravel. Though it is possibly a mistake, not in the effect but these little grains take time, loads and loads of it.

If you click on the photo you will see where I've drawn the feather on the fabric and how I've sewn completely elsewhere. I often do this as when I'm sewing I can see a better way to get nice curves. So why do I draw it all out only to ignore it? Well it gives me a frame work which I may or may not use but I can see the angle of the curves I've drawn and then make the final decision in thread.

The marks shall wash out and the threads will be buried and I'll be a very happy quilter.

I can't believe it has taken me over two years to go back to this format. It's about 12 or 15 inches by 60". I have thought of entering it into the Festival of Quilts though I think their new size restrictions might not allow for this shape. I will have to take a look at the entry forms.

And the quilt that started it all.

I'm amazed at how much my feathers have evolved since this quilt, When Heide Met Sally. I still like the subtlety of the background but I think the 'in your face' contrast of the current one is good too.

Not much done this week but I have started something new.

2010-10-15T21:20:00.000+01:00

I always do a little practice piece to test out the threads with the tension and needles etc. On this little feather on the left I used a new thread. I think it's called Wondafil (or something like that, my PC is downstairs and the thread upstairs). It's a bobbin thread which comes in loads of colours. I have no plans to use this on top of my next work but I was told by the guy at their stand at the Festival of Quilts it would behave itself perfectly in the top. I've not had success before using these ultrafine threads in the top whilst quilting before (except the very expensive YLI silk) so I'm a very happy quilter.
This photo points out how different thicknesses of thread make so much difference to the quilting. The fine thread almost disappears and emphasises the loft between the stitches. The thicker thread (in this case, Isacord) emphasises the line of the stitch.

And this is one of the new projects. I'm doing two or three of these skinny quilts. Remember a couple of years ago when Heide Stoll Weber asked me to make one for her stand? Well this is the same format. And there is another quilt I made with one feather climbing up and around a large piece of her fabric. I loved it but it didn't win anything. And there was also the dark blue quilt with the white stitching, 'Flying High' which won the Wholecloth Award at the Scottish Quilt show. Then there was the Contemporary Strippy which was also successful. So I'm going back to play with these ideas but these will be more 'in your face' with high contrast, very heavy threads. So far so good. This one is a very traditional early feather, if somewhat elongated.

My Christmas Cactus, in bloom early, and to be totally contrary it normally blooms again for Easter. Wanda aka Exuberant Color has one which is normally out of sinc with Christmas as well. I think mine has beaten hers to it this year.

Does this freak you out?

2010-10-02T21:57:00.001+01:00

Before I raise your blood pressure I'm sharing a little of autumn in my garden.

Both of these were sold as Virginia Creeper. Obviously one of them isn't. I don't care, they both perform their socks off at this time of year.

I've been working on my wholecloth. This is how you saw it the other day. People always ask what I use to mark. You can find what I used here.

Scroll down (and stay calm). Don't forget to click on the photos for the full effect.

I decided to play a little before I quilted in the backgrounds round the feathers. Above is what it looked like after I sprayed it gently with water and waited ten minutes. The ink has started to run.

Scroll down

This is after half an hour. The inks in the pens start to run but in the constituent parts of the colours the company used to make the black. One pen ran out whilst I was marking it, it becomes quite obvious the colours in the pens were different, though when I used them for marking the ink looked the same from each.

I think the effect is quite pretty, but not what I want. I keep thinking one day I might use this in a finished quilt. Would this worry you if it were yours?
Scroll down.

Breathe, this is it straight out of the washing machine after I quilted the background.

Because I used a variegated thread (Aurifil), the lines of the feathers appear and disappear.

And a close up, it's just draped over the sofa and still wet. The full effect will show when it is dry.
I've realised a few of you thought I was scared, I wasn't I trust it to wash out. On Old Gold (the quilt touring the States with the World Quilt Show), the ink was ironed in and left for a couple of years and it still came out first time.

Remember the bright fabric?

2010-09-29T21:07:00.000+01:00

Well this is how it looked when I started cutting away the top fabric.

And here it is with nearly all the cutting away finished. (I'm tempted to leave those big circles).

Recently I bought some old American Quilter's. In one of them was an article about reverse machine applique. It involved having a picture of the work on the back, stitching through each area of applique with very small stitches, then cutting away the excess. I liked the idea of the method, but the work was finished with satin stitch. I know I shouldn't have any prejudices, but I do and satin stitch applique is it. I am not enamoured however well it is executed, to me it's an ugly finish.
So I have an idea that's good and a finish which isn't. I have also been toying with different ways of creating circles, variations of double wedding rings and the like. I thought this method would look good with thirties fabric and blanket stitch applique, you could even do each ellipse a different colour. Then I remembered the Kaffe Fasset fabrics I bought at the FOQ. One on top, one underneath and one for the borders. This should be quite quick (though the cutting away is taking 10 times as long as I had thought it would).
I'm hoping to get the quilting on the wholecloth finished tomorrow or Friday. This is one quilt which has turned out so much quicker than I thought, so little background and so many feathers. (I must remember that).

Am I the only one who does this?

2010-09-27T21:31:00.000+01:00

I KNOW I don't need any more Christmas decorations. This one could not be left behind. She's about 8" high.

And she is about 6". She also came home.

As did three of these little cushion decorations. There are still some new decorations downstairs which never made it up into the loft last year. I will try so hard not to even look in any other shops. After all it's only September and my resolution is fading.

And now I'm trying out a new idea. Can you guess what I'm doing? All will be revealed whether it works or not. If you click on the photo you will just see some feint markings which might give you a clue.

I have been doing some quilting!

2010-09-23T13:39:00.001+01:00

Firstly I quilted this little top which will be the raffle quilt at a coffee morning organised by one of the members of a local quilt group. I used YLI fine gold metalic thread and was delighted at how it behaved itself. It's only about 40" square.

Then I quilted the feathers on the wholecloth I designed a little while back. I'm trying to decide whether or not to quilt it down between the feathers. If I do, I shall do it with white silk thread to make the background quilting as unobtrusive as possible. The feathers have been quilted with a vareigated blue to almost white Aurifil thread. I haven't washed out the markings yet so I can't see the full effect. I might have to do a little sample piece before I decide.

The back looks quite cool. I need to spend this evening burying the threads.
Meanwhile, I bought some old American Quilter magazines (the AQS ones) and found an article of reverse machine applique (I think the writer named it something different). She used the technique to make pictures. I'm doing something completely different.... Wait and see.
As always, click on the photos to get a good look.

My experience using the new basting method

2010-09-09T21:21:00.000+01:00

It worked very well on the quilt in the foreground. This quilt is only about 40" square and I used Hobbs Wool batting. I used pins instead of hand stitching and was just as happy as I would have been had I done it on the floor.

On the larger quilt in the background, it did not work out as well. This quilt is larger, though not huge. It's about 60" wide and 70" long. I used Quilters Dream Poly ( Microfibers and which cling like cotton batting. This is a good thing as there is less risk of movement between the layers). It started out well but when it came to uncurl the backing, the batting was stopping it big time. I had to bring the batting over from the back unroll the backing fabric, then readjust the batting and then unroll the top fabric. By the time I had done this, the two planks of wood had lost all alignment. As I worked my way through the quilt it did get easier as there was less batting to deal with. All of this would have been much easier with another pair of hands.

I did have to get down on the floor to cut the backing fabric and batting to size. This stage didn't take long but a few months ago whilst I could get down on the floor, I couldn't get back up again.

Would I do it again? Oh yes, but I would have someone around to help. And if I were doing it again, I would not starch the backing fabric, or if I did, I would do it very gently.

I really should take notes

2010-09-03T16:37:00.000+01:00

Last year I watched Sharon Schamber's youtube video about how she bastes a quilt. I still like pins, I know thread works for her and who am I to argue but I'm sticking with pins. Her method should work with either. Last Christmas DH bought me two 6 foot banquet tables and two long lengths of wood so I could copy the method. This quilt is only 60" width so one table shall do the job. I went out yesterday to buy the lengths of wood. I was certain they should be 6" wide. Nope they are 3". Hey ho, I expect it will still work. Or it would if I hadn't hurt my back getting the table up.....
See her video here

There is a part 2 to the method which you can find on the same Youtube page.

I'm so proud of these! I planted a grape vine last year to shade the bricks of the house. This was not a special vine, just one for decorative purposes, but we have sweet grapes. I didn't even know we could grow desert grapes in England. If I had I might have done the thing where you remove half the bunches a month or so back so they grow larger.

In comparison to the imported ones, they are tiny, more like currants. But I am very proud of my crop!

I give up

2010-08-31T22:15:00.000+01:00

I thought when I bought the roses fabric I could use broderie perse to add them to that applique quilt I started earlier in the year. They are just too small and fiddly. I'm not happy with these and they took forever to do each one. So I'll find a larger print.

I can still use this fabric elsewhere.

And my plan for the millennium quilt? I like to do foundation piecing on freezer paper as I like the way it holds each piece flat when you add another one. Two rounds of 80 points will take forever. The points are too fine to go through a few layers at a time with an unthreaded needle in the machine. I'll print them out from the computer but because I don't have a super large printer, I shall have to print the outer round of points in quarters rather than one piece.
My admiration for the winner of Best of Show at the Festival of Quilts has got up even further.
So I suppose I haven't really given up, just finding other ways to reach the same ends.

Marking finished (and some gore)

2010-08-30T19:42:00.000+01:00

I got it marked up today and yesterday. It took the best part of 9 or 10 hours. And well not gore, but a little blood. I tried the 'use your own spit method' and it didn't work. It did however make the ink run near the blood. I'm not worried blood always washes out for me (that tells you something about how careless I can be). If you click on the photo you might just see it near the top of the photo.
As always, if you want to find what I use for marking put 'perfect marking' in the little search box at the top.

Only ten years late

2010-08-29T08:41:00.000+01:00

I've been tidying up my sewing room and found my Y2K patches. For those of you not into quilting way back then, loads of quilters all over the world swapped out 2½" or 3" packets of different fabrics (called squishies) with other quilters. The aim was to get 2,000 different fabrics to make a quilt to celebrate the millennium. I never got round to using mine, mainly because I like to mull over things. I think this could be my block pattern. It uses 80 different fabrics.

So laid out 5 blocks by 5 blocks gives me 2,000. We all know it's one thing having a plan, it's a whole other thing acting on said plan...

What's ten years or 20 years late in the grand scheme of things?

My light table

2010-08-28T10:28:00.000+01:00

This is my wondrous light table. OK it isn't a pukka light table, it's bigger and better. It my sewing table too. In reality it's a glass garden table (see the hole for the parasol?). I could have found one without the struts across but these had bars along the sides to strengthen the structure and those would have got in the way of my knees whilst sewing. In this photo I have two lamps under it. One with an 18 watt low energy bulb (these are good because you can get higher light levels without the heat) on the floor and one clip on one with an 8 watt bulb to the bottom of the right of the photo.

These photos were taken with my phone so you might need to click on them to see more detail but you can see the feathers quite easily through the paper. They show up even more so when your hand is holding them down.

And an hour or so later, I'd copied it out so I have a full sized half pattern. I laid the wonderful satin I'd bought at the Festival of Quilts over it to see if it would trace through easily and it does!
Yay.

But, it turns out although the satin is supposed to be 60" wide, it's more like 58" and has very wide selvedges so probably has about 54" of usable width. This design is just a little too wide. So I shall go with plan a and use cotton sateen.
Sort of boo but it will look good anyway!

Festival of Quilts 2010

2010-08-23T09:26:00.000+01:00

My haul (more than I thought...)

1 is Heide Stoll Weber's fabulous hand dye

2 some super shot fabrics (wholecloths in my mind)

3 some Kaffe Fasset (I've finally given in and started a collection)

4 some Indonesian hand dyes

5 incredibly shiny satin (see 2 above)

6 fabric with roses (I see these roses cut out and used broderie perse style)

7 Stunningly printed fabric ( I can see these roses cut out as well but truly I fancy some summer trousers, which idea will win?)

8 Some wonderful creamy marble fabric from the American Quilt Store (they are going to get more for me so I can use it as background)

9 Tana lawn type cotton to make another very light weight 100% cotton night dress which I don't seem able to buy.

10, 11 and 12 Are thick shiny threads (for wholecloths), gold and copper fabric paint with brush (given to me by some super Dutch people) and a gold pen and gold and silver pencils from Art Van Gogh

13 'Real' thread charts as opposed to printed ones. I wish the thread people would have more of these. I order the threads I have 'real' samples of and don't order the ones which I can only see a printed impression.

This was the first year the Best of Show winner was agreed with every one who saw it. Totally amazing. This quilt is about 8" square and all those little points are perfect. Just awesome work and style. I'd tell you the Japanese lady's name but my show guide is upstairs. She said it took her three months working full time to complete. I think this is amazingly quick as working small can often take longer than full size. I would be delighted to have made this quilt at any size. I am in awe.

My drive to the show involved two road closures and detours where the detour signs ran out. I got lost big time on both routes. On the way home on Sunday I chose a different route avoiding these closures only to find another road closed. All I had in my head for the last half hour was a cup of tea.
I'm telling you this by way of explaining how when presented with the above, I did the most horrible thing ever. I am a terrible person. I rejected the champagne and put the kettle on. We did have the champagne in the afternoon but I know I spoiled the effort of my husband to celebrate my win at the World Quilt Show. I cannot tell you how guilty I feel.

Yay!!!!!

2010-08-20T03:45:00.000+01:00

I'm having a little touch of insomnia. It's 3.30am and I want to share my good news. I just found out Old Gold has won Best Machine Workmanship at the World Quilt Show. I'm so pleased the quilt which gave me the most pain and suffering did so well! It makes the inasomnia worth while.
This does mean I have more to spend at the Festival of Quilts today......

I've got a new camera

2010-08-17T11:54:00.000+01:00

My husband offered me a deal, he'd buy me a super new camera but it would be my early Christmas present. I went with buying a cheaper model for now. I know I hate Christmas without something to open. I'm such a child.
Anyway at least I can show you what I've been up to. This took a day to design one eighth of the quilt with loads of rubbing out along the way. It took another day to go over the design in black pen and then to trace through to get the ¼ quilt you see here. I think I might even trace it through again so I have a ½ quilt drawn out. I find some cottons stretch so much it makes it hard to marry it all up in quarters. I'm quite pleased how the twisted spine has turned out in the border feather.

Sorry about the mess in the bedroom in this photo. I lay on the bed figuring how it was different from the previous one and took this shot. You've seen photos of our bed before and know that the posts are vertical (as are the wardrobe doors). I'm not sure this is acceptable even on a base model camera. I feel quite drunk looking at these curves.
It is too late to do anything about it now, I'm going to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham on Thursday. I have a plan so I don't run out of spoons. I shall drive up Thursday and probably not go to the show but just rest in my room for the afternoon. I'll visit the show on Friday and Saturday and drive myself home on the Sunday. Worse case scenario is my husband will have to come up on the train and drive me home. This will be the 2nd year I don't enter the show. Next year I will try harder.

Finished

2010-08-08T14:41:00.000+01:00

Sadly my camera has died. It takes great photos from about 12" but doesn't focus properly at any other distance. So I have included these two pictures of the quilt pinned to a board to block it. The first is the best focus to see the quilting and the 2nd to see the colours.

To prove it can focus when it wants to, a few photos from the garden.

More quilting yesterday

2010-07-26T22:11:00.000+01:00

Not the best quilting in the world but is does feel good to be back behind the machine again.

A little more done, but it takes time.

2010-07-24T17:32:00.000+01:00

I thought I'd try to do things the Patsy Thompson way rather than the normal faux trapunto. With this method instead of using invisible thread round the outside of each motif and then cutting away, you just quilt each motif in the final thread, then cut away the excess batting.

Cutting away is hard on the hands and takes ages to do it carefully. As this trapunto work will be heavily quilted close to the feathers I didn't have to be too exact, but you still have to be careful not to cut the top fabric. (I did this on my first two faux trapunto quilts, it is recoverable but makes you feel sick to your stomache).

I did this little sample first, mainly to see which background to use. In the sample I stitched one echo row outside the feather and cut round that. I thought that didn't give a clean enough line to the motif so in the quilt itself, I shall stitch this echo line later.

As you can see, when it's finished you can only see the outline of the feather on the back. As I like my quilts to look as good on the back as the front, I probably won't use this method again (but never say never). Another problem is the areas can be quite large in these feathers to have no quilting on them so I shall prabably restitch their spines to secure more fully to the main batting and the backing fabric.

Cover Girl

2010-07-24T17:04:00.001+01:00

Marion Barnett's new book Exquisite Evolon has just been released and my Exquisite Feathers quilt (see my show quilt page above) is on the cover.
The book will be for sale at the Festival of Quilts and no doubt shortly available from Amazon and her own site.

Books

2010-07-18T12:10:00.000+01:00

Although I haven't been stitching over the last few weeks, I have been buying books (poor bank balance, and on one book in particular but more of that in a later post). I'm planning on giving a personal review of each of these books, one by one over the next few weeks. Some I have been delighted by, others have been a disappointment to a greater or lesser extent. My views are personal and subjective. So I can show the covers of the books I have linked the blog to Amazon marketing. Please don't think I have done this to make mega bucks out of you guys, not going to happen as they pay in dollar cheques (checks for those of you in the US) and as my bank charges so highly, cheques for $1 or so at a time would cost more to process than they would be worth. Mainly it gives me a means of showing the covers without any copyright infringements.

I did try to start sewing my quilt on Wednesday before we left but the machine I tried to use threw a tantrum. I will try and sort it out today and if that doesn't work, go onto the other machine which is waiting patiently for me to get it serviced.

Colin has gone down to Exeter to pick up Fliss and the rest of her stuff. It seems she only left home to start university a couple of months ago and now she's coming back home again. Where shall all her belongings go? Steph is here tomorrow afternoon. She is the world's best organiser, but can she fit a gallon into a pint pot? I think there might be tears before bedtime.....

Now a fully fledged Graduate

2010-07-15T16:24:00.000+01:00

It was really quite emotional. And we thought they might have forgotten her. She was the very last person in her ceremony to receive her degree.
A little bit of fun watching Nigel Farage (right wing offensive British politician), watching his son receive his degree from the Chancellor Floella Benjamin, now Baroness Benjamin. Pure joy.

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