Bling bacteria, sleep and stitching on wood

The last journal quilt has been completed, the third on the theme of bacteria. Photographed on a sheet ( I don’t like ironing!) to show the extended, wired threads. A single antibiotic-resistant, flagellate bacterium swimming in a soup of over-used antibiotics. Bling for December.

Hand-dyed applique on commercial fabric with appliquéd threads, some hand-wired, which was much trickier than I had anticipated.

My copy of the book of The Sleep Quilt arrived this week, so I am setting aside time in the Christmas melee to enjoy that and think on how it was made. There is a superb blogpost about the project here.

A visit to Manchester allowed time to visit the Manchester Craft and Design Centre. This is lovely space, with a current exhibition of work by Kate Colin whose skill in paper folding is terrific.

Intriguing work with punched and stitched wood veneers by Jane Blease has gone on my long term wishlist.

Quilts, by other makers

It is a few years since I have visited the National Quilt Exhibition at Sandown.   This year, our quilt group had a group quilt in for exhibition, a Dear Jane, started by one of our members who was a terrific hand piecer and quilter.  Sadly, she died, before finishing the quilt, and as a memorial to her, many of us finished off the remaining blocks.  We could not get to the triangle borders, that would just have been a task too far, but we did get it professionally long-arm quilted by Isabel Compton.  It was very moving to see it finally exhibited.  We are also raffling the quilt for funds for the hospice where our friend died.

The show was much smaller than when I last attended, with far fewer quilts on display.  That did give time however, to see all of those that were there.  New to me was the fantastic long-arm quilting of Janette Chilver, fantastic use of negative space.

Best in show was this masterpiece go piecing and quilting, by Gilli Theokritoff.  The photograph does not do justice to the quilting, which is the story of David, quilted in text across the whole surface.

More to blog about on this show, but i need to gather my thoughts before writing.

Dyeing results and bag distractions

The dyeing from last week went well, although the graduated pieces done in the microwave all seemed to come out very similar.  The gradations below all came from leaving the fabric overnight at room temperature.  Original white shown at the side for contrast.

Patience may be a virtue here it seems.

My large project is giving m some headaches, so I had a bit of a diversion in to some bag making for The Quilter's Guild bag tombola at this year's Festival of Quilts.  The first two are made with the Morsbag method but with longer handles, a square base,  and a bit of stitching along the edges of the base to give them more definition.  The startling ( or could be " jaunty", depending on your point of view?) pink webbing has been lurking in the "bag of interesting bits" for some time.

The next two were made using this method for the base, which gives a good finish without having to join up fiddly edges.  I also added some key fobs to these ones, again using some clips from the other bag of " useful bits that might come in handy".

Hearts tombola

Sudden, but not unexpected changes at work have led to more time than planned for stitching.  However, those changes are also unsettling, so I am finding it difficult to relax in to a large project.  The hearts tombola has been the solution.  These A6 book covers, made from this tutorial, have filled the bill.  The edging foot really helped giving these a professional- looking edge finish.

Pieces of tie silk, lined with scraps of old duvets.

Foolishly laying our hearts on the table...

..to be sent to the fundraising "Hearts tombola" for the Quilters' Guild at Festival of Quilts.  These little purses are surprisingly simple to make

and I find it much easier to get a consistent shape than it is with the same pouch pattern, but made in a circle.

(The title is from a song by Suzi Quattro.)

Blackwork

Not traditional blackwork by hand, but machine quilting using black thread on white cloth.   I've been reading the book "Freemotion Quiltng Handbook" by Judy Woodworth.    That, in combination with the drawings on the site of Lu-ann Kessi, and an exercise to be done for next week's Morley class, inspired me to do free motion stitching in black.  Very tricky, as the black shows up every wavering line, but very good to see where those lines come in each shape, and perhaps find a creative solution ( other than just more practising) to adapt the design to cope with the wavering.

Piece of 30cm square sampler

Rose detail

Feather detail

Strips

This middle one is my favourite triangle ( without the dog hair!)

And finally, the binding is on the scrap quilt, sewn to the front, folded over, and stitched from the back with the machine serpentine stitch.  You can also see the wavy line quilting in the border here, where I deliberately set the tension such that a bit of the cream thread from the bobbin shows where the stitches interlock.  I thought this added a bit to the quilting, and also allowed me to keep the cream thread on the back really clear.

Back - yes there are shadows today.

Sometimes, one just needs to go back to basics

In the midst of all this artful interpretation of memory, it is useful to go back to absolute quilting basics.  In that spirit, a little cot quilt, " Hearts and Stars" ( about 24 x 30 inches) made from scraps, ( "proper patchwork" as one of my friends calls it, including bits of old clothes)  and off to Project Linus to brighten someone's day.  

Quilting detail

Back, it is straight, just photographed badly.

Fine Cell work, pop-up shop

I am a supporter of the charity Fine Cell Work who teach prisoners how to stitch. This is not part of the punishment, (as stated by members of my family) but "is a social enterprise that trains prisoners in paid, skilled, creative needlework undertaken in the long hours spent in their cells to foster hope, discipline and self-esteem"

They have a pop-up shop in central London, at which I will be helping in September. Do visit if you can, I'll be there on Tuesday mornings.



Not much stitching going on here, too much Olympics watching.

Accentuating the positive

The week started well, with a visit to "Showstoppers the Musical" on Sunday, but then went downhill with car and work issues, followed by a day in the Morley study full of my own errors trying to do some devoré. All good learning, but I've had to sing a lot of " Accentuate the positive" to keep going.

So a return to some charity sewing,for boys this time, using patterns adapted from here

Something positive, and two more pairs cut out.

Dresses

There are some dresses that always stick in the mind, bringing back vivid memories and strong emotions. Not always those associated with set-piece events such as weddings, but those worn on more everyday occasions. For me these are: a grey and white check, round necked,long sleeved with a red velvet ribbon trim when I was 5; a dirndl skirted cotton number with a large collar, a hand me down from friends of a family friend with America relatives when I was 8; a hand-made, cream, flouncy number for a school dance in my teens; a hand-made, couture effort, Jasper Conran look-a-like in fuchsia pink, lots of darts, large shoulders and brass buttons in my 30s.

Perhaps these memories are why I was stirred to action by this charity sewing project " Dress a Girl Around the World". I avoid many charity sewing projects as they are too dominated by individuals with strong religious views. ( It is perfectly possible to be charitable without this having any religious or dubious spiritual trappings). The UK project is organised by Louise from Sew Scrumptious. I was due to be at a trapunto workshop today, but as it was cancelled due to the tutor being ill, so I got down to finishing these, started at the Bank Holiday weekend.

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Very therapeutic, and used up fabric I have had forever. It was lovely adding pockets and trim - as a mother of boys, this has been lacking in my clothes' sewing life. These will be in their way to Louise on Monday.

Charity sewing - wiggly bags

Not a lot of sewing inspiration going on, but I have learned how to compress photos, so should be loading more photos to the blog.

Mindless sewing to make wiggly bags for the Liberty Rose Trust who then distribute them to children with central lines. Trains, snakes and platypuses hopefully make these suitable for boys.

More charity stitching

Group meeting last night and a cascade of finished tops from our charity sew-a-thon. I think we made 10 tops and have 6 of them quilted and bound. Volunteer quilters, you know who you are, so many thanks.

This cot quilt has come up beautifully" crunchy" due to the density of the quilting.

I did take more photos, but I still can't get the hang of this multiple photo loading, so I'll leave it with this one pic.

Charity stitching

Our quilt group had a charity "stitch along" a couple of weeks ago, and I brought a set of blocks home to put in to a top. this was all donated fabric, hence the eclectic selection. I added some quieter inner borders and managed to add some similar squares to get an outer border. Quilted from the back with variegated thread around some great planets fabric from stash. This is about 40 inches square.

I don't know what's gone wrong with loading these photos, but I've had three attempts to fix it, and that's enough.