Sewing Sunday

I start quilts with a broad idea in my head, but not a full plan.  Some days it all goes the right way and Sunday was one of those days.  Even although the sun was shining, and the new raised bed in the garden was calling, the sewing machine won.  The sun streams right on to my machine in the afternoon at this time of year, so I got the best of the weather, albeit from inside.

Glimpses here , as one of these needs to be kept as a surprise.  Two tops ,each about 48  x 65 inches.

 

Appliquéd panel, surrounded by yards of strip pieced rectangles.

50s vintage fabric with indigo and bright batiks.  A few very small strips of an all time favourite Laurel Burch fabric, now out of print.

Biscuits anyone?

These incredible biscuits are from biscuiteer.com. f you have a sewing friend who needs be cheered up , then this could do the trick, although they would have to be a very good friend as a box is £38.50.

You could instead, get the book and make some yourself of course.  This one’s on my Amazon list.

Sitting on a thistle 2

A request for a gardening/ plant themed item for the raffle at the school’s Gardener’s Question Time led to a quick cushion from the thistle fabric.  More successful than I had anticipated,so I might make some of these for our dilapidated sofa.

 

 

More Morley marvels

Heat transfer printing is a revelation.  Colours so bright and sparkling, some  a little overwhelming, but lots of idea boiling over.  This motif seems to have appeared in other guises before, perhaps a them is appearing in my projects at last?

 

Polyester satin transfer print

    

Fleece transfer prints, one of them actually made into a usable object.

Voile mache ( thanks Plum!) and colour catchers, transfer print.

Spring is springing to mind

  

Watercolour pencils on calico, stitched with Empress Mills floss

Best friends give you their copies of current magazines – with no pages missing!

Am I sad that a theme of spring makes me think about drying washing outside?

Light green and pink or pistachio and raspberry?

Morley this week was an exploration of transfer dyes, from dry paper and from wet inks inks on to artificial fibres, in this instance, pelmet Vilene.  The aspects of changing a flat surface in to a 3D shape challenged my brain as ever, but I did manage to produce a reasonable form.

There was an interesting exchange as individuals described the colours their dyes had produced.  Prosaic as ever, I described mine as light green and pink, while a more artistic member of our group described the same colours as pistachio and raspberry.  She would evidently be more effective than me at naming paint colours.

My sons’ reaction to the tale was to ask if the other person was hungry when she was in the class.  I’ll need to check next week.

In the spirit of food related colours, these fruits and veggies caught my eye in a lovely blue bowl from Dartington Pottery.  There’s some stitching inspiration here.