Great Aunt Christine

I thought I'd add a quick post today before getting on with the school work that I've been putting off for some time. I've let Caro know about her quilt, and she wasn't very happy - she probably thinks that I'm not as far on with it as I am - I'm going to take the quilt and the label up to show them on Friday, so that she can see it and see the progress.

So, the title - Great Aunt Christine - I did a bit of picture organisation yesterday so that I have all my photos on my laptop. In October 2005 I became a Great Aunt - Keith's (and my) neice gave birth to a baby boy called George. I offered to make a quilt for him, and the offer wsa accepted. I used a pattern that I had made twice already, called Bright Eyes, that was in a copy of Patchwork and Quilting magazine back in about 2001 / 2002. It's a great pattern that allows you to showcase the 'special' or 'conversational' fabric. With the wide range of fabrics available, the only problem is trying to decide which fabrics to use - or rather - which you are going to (reluctantly) leave out! I chose bright colours - not due to the title of the quilt, but because I don't do pastels! - except in special cases. I understand that bright colours help babies to ... - that they are good for them in some way. I used different conversational fabrics, so that later George can use the quilt to learn words for different things - I suppose a bit like an 'I Spy' quilt. With the number of strips I had, I was able to make a cushion as well - and use the other conversational fabrics which I hadn't included in the quilt. I used the sewing machine to piece and quilt the piece - using my Elna 6005 Heirloom Edition. What follows are the pictures of the pieces, the label, and my great nephew and me!

Disaster Strikes

I had a restless day yesterday. I started early to get to work on Caro's quilt, and then my baby - my Elna 7200 sewing machine - started making loud noises and the lights started flickering on the machine, and it slowed down, speeded up, slowed down as if it was going to stop entirely. I phoned Step by Step to check I could take the machine in. I got there quickly, and Anne performed exploratory surgery on the machine, but could find nothing. I've had to leave the machine there and it's going to be examined by sewing machine technicians. This is serious stuff, as the sewing machine has a larger 'arm' - making it ideal for quilting, and has a start / stop button so you don't have to use the foot pedal and try to keep an even speed. I have my other Elna - 6005 - which I can also quilt on, but it doesn't have a start / stop button, so I'll have to practise first to get used to using the foot pedal to set the speed. I also had to go mountaineering in the house to get my other sewing machine extension table, which was put away in the far corner of the living room (the store area at the moment) - that was really hard work trying to get to it without injuring myself or having boxes fall down on me.
On a different matter, the course I went on on Saturday was called Strip and Flip bags - it was great! I really enjoyed the day and will have to spend some time finishing the panel - once I've finished the panel I shall put a photo of it on this blog, and when I've made the bag I'll put a picture of that on here as well. I'll put more details of the workshop on the post with the photos. I really need to get on and do some school work - marking books and writing reports.
Do have a go on the survey - just for a bit of fun, and check the links I've added - I particularly like the Charity Focus and Daily Good sites, which have some lovely stories and quotations.

It's lovely in the sunshine

It's a lovely sunny day here in Westward Ho! once again. I'm keeping an eye on the shingles to make sure it's not coming back with a vengeance, and this involves getting up early in the morning. That's not entirely true, I get up early to make the most of the coolness in the flat before the sun comes into the flat. I love having the sunshine and the blue sky, and the heat, but the heat is not comfortable for quilting - well, it wouldn't be, would it; sitting under a quilt with the sun blazing down into a room that is effectively a greenhouse.

Anyway - the next installment of my endeavours. Today I'm going to show you a competition entry.

This is a bag I made for the Patchworks competition back in 2004. Patchworks is a shop in Scotland, and you paid about £6 for some fabrics that you made into whatever you wanted. You could add other fabrics as well. I can't remember which charity the competition was raising money for - it may have been breast cancer. I used one of my favourite fabrics - the chocolate one - twice; once on the outside, and then again on the inside for the pocket. I used and adapted a pattern from Barbara Randle's book - Crazy Quilting with Attitude, the bag also appeared in Popular Patchwork several years ago. I adapted it by adding a single shoulder strap on the gusset, and by creating a flap so that the bag could be closed over the top, rather than in the middle - I thought this made it a bit more secure. I used the stitch and flip method to piece the bag, and added ribbons and couched decorative threads for embellishments. The use of ribbon served two purposes; one was to use the means of tying the fabrics together for posting, and the second was to hide an unsightly join in the fabric. I couched the threads using invisible thread to add some movement to the piece, and used the colours of the fabric pack. I used some of the embroidery stitches on the machine along the ribbon, and along the gusset.

The bag didn't win any prizes, but it was fun to do, and I stretched the limits of my skills to achieve something that was attractive, practical and useful. It made me think carefully about what was required, and how to achieve the finished product - it was an exercise in creative thinking and problem solving.

That's all there is for now - check again soon for the next installment.

The Start

This is the start of my patchwork blog. I shall be adding things as they occur to me, and as I'm doing the work. I won't be posting my ideas here; I'm going to be selfish with my ideas and keep them with me only, until I have realised them in patchwork - I don't want others pinching my ideas - although I doubt that any of them are totolly original. Still, I like to think that they are. And besides which, the work that I produce may not live up to your expectations of it if I tell you my ideas first.
The first item I'm going to show you is the piece that I produced at the weekend, during a workshop called 'Stitched Herbaceous Borders'. It's a piece that uses the technique of free machine quilting, and is embroidery really. I haven't really done any machine embroidery before, and I have a large variety of quilting threads, but have very few machine embroidery threads - only a few rayon threads, and all of them are in storage at the moment.

I shall have to post the photo later, as I seem to be unable to post any pictures at the moment. Watch this spot!

And here it is with the picture added! I decided on the flowers and plants I wanted - fuchsias, sweetpeas, tulips, Wedding Day rambling rose, antirrhinums (excuse the spelling), lavender and peonies. The crayon like background was done by using some oil type fabric paints - maybe in future if I try again, I will try using Markal Shiva paintsticks, or even some of the setacolour fabric paints I have. It may work using Angelina fabric - that would add a very different effect. The person leading the course said that watercolour pencils could be used - so that would give me a chance to use the Caran D'ache pencils - if only I knew where they were!

Watch out for the next post!