Lovely workshop with Sally Kelly

Lovely workshop last night with Sally Kelly who often has projects in "Stitch" published by the Embroiderer's Guild. She gave us all a calico square stamped with fabric paint and a selection of threads. Using couching, seeding and any other stitch we fancied, we stitched using the stamped patterns as a basis for the design. Very interesting to see how each person used the stamped image, and lovely to do.
I photographed this on a blue paper napkin and it goes very well on there - if I had tried to find a match I would have been there for hours! Serendipity is often the best project planner.

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.

Curves and Christmas - already!

These are my first attempts at freeform curved piecing. Sewing these was easier than I anticipated, although I did have to unpick and resew a few valleys. Also the strips moved a bit when I was cutting them, so I held them down with various tins from the cupboard. The family were a bit puzzled at seeing tuna, beans, sweetcorn and canned tomatoes on the sewing board. These strips are the outer borders for a WIP quilt.


Although saying that I haven't been sewing much I have done yet more of these redwork stars which are a favourite pattern I bought in California about 8 years ago. They are a handy project to stuff in a bag and don't attract too much sand when done on the beach.

Autumn pronking

Very busy few weeks so not much sewing happening.

First conkers are down , younger son is back to school so autumn is here. In the spirit of pronking your home, the conkers are in a Ruskin blue bowl from Dartington pottery. I love this pottery and don't use it enough, but the conkers look wonderful against this blue.

AuguSSSZZZt

I had a weekend on my own this weekend as the rest of the family went camping in Devon. Besides making the August challenge for BQL from start to finish, I indulged in lots of lovely outings of little interest to my sons ( and dog!).

I went to Wisley, then to visit the lovely Nikki at The Patchwork Cabin in Great Bookham and ending in a visit to Polesden Lacey.

On Sunday I cycled to breakfast at Petersham Nurseries, then had a very leisurely visit to Ham House. This is a beautiful Stuart mansion that you could really imagine living in.

Lots of inspiring photos of avenues of clipped trees and hedges, just letting them turn over in my mind to become quilt designs.

The weekend ended with signing up for this new online quilting magazine Quiltposium, looks interesting and something to look forward to in September.

London bricks, but is it art?

Off to the Science Museum with my sons to day to see the " Wallace and Grommit" exhibition - good fun, but not a lot of science in it. These wet bricks in the tunnel to the museum caught our eye. Amazing colours and although they look textured, they were very smooth.

Then off to the Serpentine Gallery to see the Jeff Koons exhibition. not my thing at all, but prompted some interesting debate with the boys about why was his work considered to be art but the interesting bricks weren't.

Summer journal - but there's no rain on it!

This is my summer journal quilt, called " Summer Twilight" for our quilt group challenge.
I've used a beautiful piece of silk from a kimono roll and various cottons to make the flowers. The large flowers are loosely attached to the fabric by the centres, the smaller ones are sewn on all round the edges.
The smaller ones were made with this technique ( you need to scroll down the entry to near the bottom), the larger ones were made with the technique mentioned a few posts ago.
Machine quilted with a walking foot and Sulky variegated thread, and bound with some torn strips of the silk fabric, with the frayed edges brought to the front.
The blue silk has a different appearance on the back and the front of the fabric and I've used these different sides on different pieces of the binding.
I really like how this has come out but I'm pondering on adding some beads to reflect the rain there has been in most of this summer's twilights!