Abstraction

I have signed up again to take part in the Contemporary Quilt Group monthly challenge.  The size this year is 7" x 9", in landscape format.  I've been dithering about for weeks deciding on a theme, not helped by the fact that group members post their pieces for viewing on Yahoo, and the platform seems to be broken. There are therefore very few finished pieces to look at to spur me on.

However, the snow paralysis n the UK gave me time to think, and I've decided that my theme will be "abstracting nature".

Taking the gannet photos from the art class as inspiration, ( I love watching gannets), I have worked on abstracting what, for me, makes them distinctive: the sharp, streamlined shape as the enter the water; the blue highlight around their eyes; the yellow neck feathers.

Sketching out ideas, and trying to explore geometry in my sketchbook, leading to an almost finished piece.  I'm still deciding on whether this needs more quilting and will add a two colour binding to disguise the wonky geometry of the two  triangles at the side.

Other creative tasks were knitting a hat with beautiful yarn found in a charity shop. It's a lovely hat, but it is not a good look for me, so it is off to a local charity who are collecting warm clothing for homeless people.

Good omens - spheres, hemispheres and almost circles

In these uncertain times, I am seeking good omens wherever I find them in my life. Yesterday, a charity shop find of beautiful yarn from Fyberspates, top, and Posh Yarn, 4 smaller balls. Bought in hanks and a meditative half hour last night spent winding them into balls.

Eight yolks from 6 eggs this morning (pavlova in the making)

Gloriously scented James Galway rose in bloom in the garden

Charity shop find

Charity shops now seem to be very focussed on clothes and crockery, so there is less chance of finding a stash of someone’s threads, fabric, yarn or craft tools.  I was therefore delighted today to find this cutting ruler.  It seems as if this is an older version of this tool, as searching on the web, it is now called a Shape Cuts, rather than a Short Cuts ruler, and the newer version has another marked line at a different angle.

The young girl in the shop was intrigued by my explanation as to how it is used, especially as I tried to demonstrate without a rotary cuter at hand.

Not that I’ll be doing much cutting, as quilting the Kaleidoscope is taking priority.  It is very difficult to photograph the back of this, due to mottled grey and black fabric on the back.

My work this week took me to the Welsh valleys where spring is in full bloom.

In-di-go, it's magic

With apologies to Pilot, but the tile of this post expresses my continued amazement at what comes out of the indigo vat. This week, some cotton jersey, stitched with over stitches and running stitches while watching " The Ghost" and then taken to Morley.



The small hole was due to over-vigorous tugging at the stitches on the wet cloth - lesson learned. The middle section is a bit "tie-dye" for me, but I like the effects at the two ends.

And then today, a find in a charity shop, Nitin Goyal velvet scarf, my favourite colour, and lots of texture. If the temperature drops as forecast tonight, I'll be wearing this one round my neck tomorrow.



Hope you're keeping warm.

What to do when you don't feel like sewing - pick up a bigger needle

I haven't felt like sewing anything major for a few weeks, but did want to do something with my hands. A couple of my neighbours have started knitting, so when I found 8 hanks of this 100% cashmere yarn in a charity shop for an unbelievable £2.00, I had to buy it.

In the eighties ( yes, I am that age) I used to knit a lot, and loved the challenge of the patterns by Patricia Roberts . As I was a student, there was no way I could afford to buy the finished jumpers. I was then a bench scientist, and my experiments needed me to to a very repetitive task every 4 minutes, for up to 4h, so there was lots of time in between to knit. This was before the days of ipods, Nintendo DS, itouch phones and the like, remember. I also loved patterns by Sasha Kagan and Christian de Falbe.


So when I decided to knit this yarn, I wanted a bit of a challenge. I found it in this pattern from Cheryl Niamath in Knitty. I've never done a thumb shaping, although have knitted in the round. Lovely beechwood needles from Mrs Moon set me off on the right track.


I knitted these on 3.5 mm needles as I have quite small hands, and also lengthened the main section to 24 rows, rather than 18, as I wanted these to extend up my wrists. The thumb was certainly a challenge, but good photos on cheryl's blog show helped me to understand how to do this.

These fit beautifully, so I think I'll be running up some more in the indigo and cream yarn that were part of the original bargain. What next - a Hanne Falkenberg mermaid jacket perhaps?

Phrenolobby again- place, pastime, people

The phrenolobby idea is taking hold in a big way. These ones are stitched on a double layer of calico ( 2 tab top calico curtains, 48 x 92 inches for £3.00 in a charity shop) with two different threads. This whole piece is about 16 x 6 inches.

I was going to call this "Me, myself, I " with apologies to Joan Armatrading, but I've now decided on a more general title of " 3P - place, pastimes, people" as reflected in the words in each head.

Charity shopping - Out of Africa

Charity shopping at the weekend and what a find. A skirt made from 3 Leopards fabric in brown and blue. The panels are about 36 inches long. I've added a photo of the inside as this is always printed with the 3 Leopards logo. This fabric has a really distinctive smell as it is printed using wax ( I think). Similar fabrics can be obtained from Maggie Relph at The African Fabric Shop.
A peaceful evening spent watching Marley and Me ( far too sentimental and eliminating most of the good bits of the book) and taking it apart resulted in these panels - I now need to plan what to do with them.

Charity shopping - love it!

Look at this great vintage fabric I found in a charity shop. Lots of options for a train fan's quilt or quilt backing.

Several of the charity shops near us have gone too upmarket with prices likewise. There are still a couple of gems where bargains and bizarre bits can be found.