Twenty seven different yellow fabrics in fourteen foundation-pieced triangles. Inserted, with curved piecing and appliqué, in to a rather crumpled and tired looking background. Union Jack fabric at the bottom, tea-stained and of nondescript shape, dissolving into tattered threads at the far right. ( This is straight - unlike UK politics, just distorted by the medium - like UK politics).
UFO clearing is a good thing to do when creative energy is in short supply, but is going back to a project that was started 7 years ago a good idea in this situation? The answer was yes, when it is this swan, started 7 years ago, in a workshop with Ferret.
I got stuck on this as I was going to appliqué some leaves into the corner, but couldn’t get the scale of the leaves to my liking.
A cycle along the river ( the only benefit of visiting my relative with the stroke) gave inspiration of just stitching on lines of stitch to suggest the winter threads of willow branches.
A greenish, variegated thread from the stand looked like a good mix of colours.
Trying to apply some of my new knowledge about tone, I also added some darker stitch down one side of the variegated thread and some lighter stitch down the other side. The Bernina edge-stitch foot is a great tool for precision stitching.
I need to stitch more lines and to decide whether to stitch in the thread ends or sew them in.
On the design wall - or ,more accurately, the design floor, auditioning half square triangles with some appliqué blocks ( I think based on a block from Piece O Cake) that i worked on in Australia, nearly two years ago.
Stitching on the sturdy featherweight.
I can see now that the middle block in the bottom row is missing a piece!
Auditioning in black and white shows a misplaced square in the topmost right, and insufficient contrast in a few of the sashing squares.
Auditioning a border of strips, which I think is too busy. It needs some plain fabric between the squares and the strip border.
Still discovering functions on my camera - black and white with a hint of red.
……trying to make sure that all leftovers are transformed in to something useful, I’ve been working on the scraps from the Alice in Wonderland quilt. Triangles and strips,put together at random, quilted with close lines, and 4 appliqué hearts added. Just needs blocking and binding.
Quilting progress on a gloomy Sunday afternoon
Backing, bought at the bric-a-brac stall at our exhibition
Border quilting experimenting with inverting programmed, decorative stitches on the machine
Quilting in the body of the quilt
Appliqued corners
and a little postcard, sent for a German birthday.
These are glimpses of a larger project that I can't really blog about until it is finished, but it is taking a lot of my time, so I need to post to remind myself that I am still sewing. I'm not really one for gadgets for cutting, but this tool, Tri-Recs, has made accurate triangles very easy to align.
Applique and trapunto roses. The curved tips really make a difference to cutting away the wadding ( These were a present if you are gasping at the price, one reason why they don't leave the house.) The scissor fob was made at a jolly evening's sewing with Plum.
To alternate with the triangles, a developing top, from the samples and scraps. The triangles with the curves won't be appearing in the finished piece, the arithmetic was just too tricky.
….. on cloth. Not much spare time this week, so stitching has been limited to postcard - sized pieces. The first on a theme that I always love, boats and the sea, using a few precious scraps of a favourite fabric. Damp stretching this one, but not as rigorously as it should be done. First in black and white to examine the tonal contrasts, then in a blaze of wonderful colour.
The daughter of a good friend is in a local professional production of " The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" and her first night is very soon. I've taken one of the images by the original illustrator, Pauline Baynes, and simplified it for stitch. Some holographic thread added by hand for sparkle, and silver paintstick for background tone.
I hope she recognises the image when it goes through her letterbox.
I had an unexpected stretch of time on Saturday, before a full day of family support commitments yesterday, so managed to finish the quilting and binding on the mindless piecing quilt. The feathers did improve as I completed each one.
I washed it to increase the texture, and that has certainly happened.
Feather detail
Piped binding , made using this tutorial, by Trisha Chubbs.
… and the kaleidoscope quilt now has a triangle border.
A miscalculation of size led to the design solution of the black winged shapes in the corners.
It was surprisingly windy when these photos were taken.
but this gives the general idea,
It is now 58 inches square, and I am deciding if it needs a broad black border to frame it.
In the black theme, my Queen of the Night tulips blossomed today, wonderful.
*The song is by Patsy Cline.
With a nod to Al Stewart, I'm continuing the song theme, and have added a border to "Old Friend". It is now about 48" square.
This could be one of those projects that just grows and grows as I am now planning a 6 inch deep border of striped triangles round the whole thing. True to form, those points in the middle did not meet up accurately enough, so there is a bit of appliqué slapped on top.
Like the cobbler's children who have no shoes, mending is very low priority on my list of sewing projects. However, when it gets to the point that every double duvet cover has some sort of textile-related problem, it is time to act. The only way to get through it was to promise myself some more interesting textile time in the afternoon.
Duvet reclamation, apparently, this Ikea design was designed by Cath Kidston before she was "Cath Kidston". It's the closest I'll currently get to any Cath Kidston and it hasn't worn very well.
Now a single duvet cover - female guests only as the boys refuse to have this on their beds, I guess the non-gender -based parenting has failed. I love seeing the sewing machine whizz through the repeat button holes.
Like 95% of quilters, I have a load of unfinished projects. This year( !) the aim is to finish at least half of them. This one has languished for over 3 years and only needs 2 blocks to finish. It was supposedly an exercise in using a neutral top with curved piecing, but it morphed in to something else. I wish I had room for a design wall!
Lime green sparkling in the sun.
and then of course, I decided that some of the existing blocks don't work as well as they could, and that I could make a more interesting back, rather than just use one piece of cloth.
When does a pieced back become another quilt on the back? - when it takes all afternoon to plan and put together. The paint squares fabric has been stored for over 15 years, and that is part of the finishing resolution. If it has larger than 1metre, and has been there for over 10 years - use it, swap it or give it away.
And finally some real hand stitching, preparing a piece of American smocking for Morley on Tuesday. There are several tutorials on the web, and I followed the instructions in the book by Colette Wolfe, " The Art of Manipulating Fabric". I think my cloth is too sturdy as there are more folds in this piece than in a previous version I attempted. I deliberately used dark thread in this as I need contrast for the experiment I hope to try on Tuesday.
Back
Front - there are two different patterns on here, lattice and lozenge, which is why it looks a bit irregular.
Hoping to get the quilt basted up tomorrow night at Richmond and Kew Quilters sewing evening.
Last year I kept all of my minuscule scraps to try to pretend I was a "real quilter" - you know, one who uses old fabrics and recycles them into something glorious, rather than one who starts with glorious fabrics and just turns them into something else. I randomly stitched these scraps into blocks ( crumbs they are called by some) and used the strips left over form the Dr Who quilt to make sashing. On this miserable, rainy, blustery day, what better time to show progress so far. Photos need better light, but that's not going to happen today. Blocs are about 7.5 inches finished.
Back - fabric that it is at least 10 years old. This year's resolution is to use really old stash fabrics - as that then assuages the guilt at purchasing items like this.
Front
I have layered this with hi-loft wadding for a different look and am finding this really tricky to quilt evenly - choosing circles doesn't help either.
Happy 2014 to all.
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.
