2020 or is it SOSO?

Blogging has taken a back seat in 2019, might it return to the front seat in 2020? Catch up on Nov - Dec activities

Costume exhibition at the National Theatre, free, on until June 2020, 

Panto making, production photos here

Birthday flowers

Contemporary drawing at The British Museum, very inspiring, free, finishes on 12 January

Floods in Oxfordshire

Last 4 Brexit journals, painted wadding background, decreasing influence

Repairing the Xmas wreath, from Gina Ferrari, I think 

Golden yellow winter jasmine, much needed colour

Starting work on a bookshelf quilt for a baby due in March, some of which had to be sewn on the Singer 201k

Will I take part in the Contemporary Quilt Group challenge for 2020, theme is Fragmentation? One metre by 60cm for 31st May? Gathering ideas

Just for fun, a pen holder, using scraps from the panto costumes, using this tutorial.

Trying to persuade my husband that even if we are trying to reduce, re-use and recycle, that a new nail brush might be needed, 

Coming up:

New exhibition at Two Temple Place, “Unbound, Visionary women Collecting Textiles” free, on until 19 April 2020.

Alexander McQueen, “New Roses” how some of those astonishing dresses were made, 27 Old Bond Stree, free, until mid 2020.

 

 

Presents wrapped, Xmas baking done..........

..so time to sit back with a good book and a small glass of this season’s sloe gin?  I was on the way to that, but pulled a dining chair out to sit on and decided that the Christmas table, dressed in its finery,  could not be disgraced by these dilapidated chairs..

Out came the upholstery tools, the stash was raided,

and a transformation took place.

Merry Christmas all, and hope you have the people you want sitting at your table this festive season.

Buried treasure

Not much time for stitching, as I am digging out a garden that has had no attention for over 20 years. Rubble pile so far

from these areas

has led to the discovery of rust dyeing treasure

The rest of the family think I am mad as I exclaim over rusty bits of barbed wire, broken horseshoes, rusty nails, steel wall reinforcing - rust dyeing plans are afoot!

Last stitching of 2016 - and a diversion in to clothes making

A quilt to finish the year with. “ Proper” patchwork made from two worn out shirts,  a discarded calico curtain from a charity shop and backed with a fabric picked up at the bric a brac stall at a quilt show.

No photos of the full quilt as the light is too low today.

I have not made many quilts this year as I have been diverted back to clothes making. My younger son has difficulty finding shirts to fit his narrow shoulders and long, slender frame so I volunteered to make him some. Unlike women’s clothing, there is a little choice in patterns for men’s shirts, but several bloggers use Burda 7045, however I anticipated having to make many pattern adjustments, after reading an account of making it here.

Commercial patterns are not like quilt patterns. They are never perfect and always have to be adapted to an individual  because human bodies are too variable. The instruction sheets frequently do not take account of modern sewing methods and advise cumbersome techniques and outdated interfacings.  There is so much help on the internet to address these commissions and I followed tutorials about shirts from here and here.

The test shirt, with cotton lawn, digitally printed,  bought several years ago from M Rosenberg and Son, went down well. 

Version 2 is now cut out, with a longer armhole, removal of the darts on the front and a collar that extends further in to the open neck of the collar band. 2017 could be the year of the shirt.

Happy stitching everyone.

Journal quilts - talk to the trees

The journal quilts this year are to be 8 x 10 inches, with the first four containing a piece of purple, no less than 1/2 inch square, the second four containing s piece of orange and the last four containing a piece of green.

A walk in the Isabella Plantation a few months ago was the inspiration for my first four. It is many years since I have visited, and besides the improvements to disabled access and the better paths, I was struck by how many of the trees, even rather ordinary looking ones, not just the ancient oaks, have numbered tags.  I hope this isn’t indicative of how worried the parks are about the state of these trees.

Using fabric i already have, ( tray-dyed, repurposed linen sheet; Procion P painted cotton, dyed pelmet Vilene) this series was the result.  Called “Counting the trees"

Outcome of dyeing

Well that was all rather successful, gorgeous stripes and textures

almost like simple ikat ( soon to be seen at SOAS Gallery) without the skill and effort needed.