{quilt} while you're ahead

* 19 *

There has been plenty of sewing around here and if the weather decides to brighten up a bit (a lot) I'll be able to take decent photos and show you.

In the meantime here are a couple of placemats and napkins commissioned by Mr M for a business friend

Once again I had to raid my stash for some favourite fabric (the downside of having the same taste as your husband's...)

... but I'm very happy I did.  For the back I used a lovely mellow linen

And last but not least... today was the 2nd day of 'Seven days of specialness' and here's my treat:

Beautifully chosen and perfect to replenish my depleated stash!!

* 9 *

I wasn't going to be left out, so I made myself a placemat too.

I love working with scraps.  I feel much freeier (?) to combine different colours and patterns... there's not pressure about wasting fabric... love it.

Quilting so heavily it's time consuming, not to mention the qty of thread I've been using up... but it's so so lovely... don't you think?  This time I went for triple diagonal lines as an experiment.  You'll be seeing these again somewhere else, me thinks.

The back - scraps and more grey linen - looks good too... in a 'poverty patch' sort of way.  (I've just noticed I missed a quilting line... doh... better sort this out or it will never ever get done...)

The binding is Liberty.  Of course.

Ok, now we all have one.  No arguing.
 

AND ONE MORE IMPORTANT THING... in this time of tragedy and sadness and desperate need... why don't you visit here... and give a little?
 
 

* 8 *

Sometimes it feels like I have 4 children instead of three plus a husband. (hey, anybody with me on this one?)

Mr M having spotted the boys' new placemats demanded one of his own.  It's not often that he asks for quilted objects so I jumped at the chance.

Grey linen.  Heavily quilted.  Applique.

Liberty border.

And the best thing? He really likes it.

Good boy.
 
 
 

* 7 * * placemats *

  It's becoming almost a tradition, new year new placemats.

This year I started with the boys'.  A few months back I was lucky to do a fabric swap with this fab girl, and I knew as soon as I saw it that it would be perfect for the job.

Of course when you have three children close in age... everything needs to be done in triplicate:

1

2

and 3

The boys are happy (and I'm loving the heavy quilting) and since there was enough fabric left they got napkins too

Because of course my children always use napkins... never ever the back of their hands or their sleeves... ehm ehm...

Christmas table runner

I hate having to mention the 'C' word again, but it's kind of the focus of all the activity around here.  We're going to spend it very quietly this year and I'm really really looking forward to it.  Ironically, given that not many people are going to see it, I'm really in the mood for decorating the house top to bottom... so watch this space.

This table runner was made as a 'teaching tool' for the beginners quilting course I've just finished teaching.  It was a six week course (2hrs each time) run at the gorgeous studio of my lovely friend Kirsty of Five Valleys Design.  By the way, note for your diary, Kirsty will get delivery of every single new Amy Butler fabric in January... don't forget to check it out.

It was my first time teaching and I loved it!  In January I'll run a day workshop on foundation piecing so if you're interested (and you live in/around Gloucestershire) drop me a line and I'll tell you all about it.

We covered the basics and had fun.  How to cut fabric, matching seams and corners, half square triangles and quarter squares, simple nine patch, log cabin, pinwheel and Ohio Star...  We all worked from the same fabric and it was really interesting to see how the resulting runners were all different from each other...

Don't you just love quilting??

Now I need some sort of centre piece... I want candles and pine cones... but in a modern style... any idea?

glimpse

Hi.

Still here.

Crafting but in secret.

Shhh...
 

small things

football, tennis, cinema, walking

 Autumn leaves

in a jug

eating, washing, laughing, playing, sleeping

quilting

rugby, partying, reading, homework,

raining

 

Beauty in the small things.

  
 
 

there are no shortcuts

Quilting is a lot like life.

For example, the old adagio: 'measure twice, cut once' ... what it basically means is think before you act. Agreed?  Good.

Now reflect on this for a second and admire the only remaining branch of my beloved Japanese maple (victim of an anonymous stray rugby ball... the case is still open)

So today, when I found myself with some precious time to spare I sat down at my desk and started cutting fabric and sewing fabric and .... aaaarrrrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhh

In my haste to tackle the UFO - now upgraded to WIP - of my previous post I completely ignored any measurement and elementary mathematical functions and basically made a huge/enormous/gigantic mess.

Take a moment, like I did, to mourn the loss of precious fabric and the temporary and hormonal loss of any rational mental faculty with a delicious (and posthumously regretted) chocolate biscuit

 

This brings me to my next point of simili:  there are no shortcut.  I wanted to finish this project quickly and what I did achieve instead is a big fat juicy waste of time.  Doh.  I wanted to ignore the little voice in my head pointing me to the right direction because it meant slow progress and fiddly sewing.

How many times has this happened in real life too?

So, no shortcuts is my new mantra.

Even if this means endless rows of little borders... 

I'll get there in the end. 

 

And I'll smell the flowers

 
 

mariner's compass

This is not a UFO... it's more like a fossil.  It precedes any grey hair I might have.  It is older than two of my children.  A relict from the days when I had only one child to look after and thought I had no free time at all - the charming ignorance of youth...

Anyway, I 've been trying to de-clutter.  And honestly, is there anything more poisoning than a great big pile of UFOs staring at you with their mean/sad/why-don't-you-love-me-anymore beady eyes?  Right, we all know the answer to that one.

So I exhumed the oldest and probably the biggest of these monsters and tried to re-kindle the old flame.

 

I must have been mad, this quilt was most likely designed in a daze of sleep depravation and baby love (do you remember those days... when you spent all night awake with a screaming baby and all day awake looking adoringly at your sleeping baby?... doh.)

Anyway, it's not my style really... but I can't just let it languish in a box forever so I'm thinking perhaps if I can ignore the fact that not all the point touch the outer circle (it's painful) I might be able to make a medallion quilt out of thise one? Help?

I don't have much in terms of the original fabric (mostly Kaffe Fasset)  but I do have four badly assembled blocks called, according to my notes, 'Martha Washington's squares'.  But that is not necessarily the correct name...

 

Should I use them? how? where? in the corners? in the middle of the sides?

(And yes, I'm standing on the table... don't tell the boys)
 

Birmingham Festival of Quilts - part 3

   oh yes, there's more.

The quilts I'm going to show you today were part of special exhibition.  Made by 'professional' as No 2 would say - his favourite to describe high level of proficiency and skills in any field whatsoever.

Right here are the 'professional' quilts then:

first up is Chiunghie Lee

Ingrid Press

Janice Gunner

And my completely absolutely totally undisputably favourite the amazing Yoshiko Jinzenji.

I had a brief chat with her and she's so nice and helpful and encouraging.  Taking on of her workshops would be simply amazing.  The photos do not do justice to the beauty of her work.

Amazing.  And nothing was 'appliqued'.  Just an inspired use of fabrics and patterns.

Amazing.