Month: August 2016

Creative costuming

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Hello everyone, hope that those of you in the UK enjoyed the Bank Holiday, usual mix of sunshine and rain meant that while we got soaked putting up the tents for the show at Lincoln on Saturday we were roasting by Monday and the tents were dry – hurrah!

This was our last event of the season with Swords of Mercia and not only did we have an excellent time with the group we went early on the Saturday to join in the Steampunk Festival which was amazing as always.

The sheer creativity and inventiveness of the costumes is stunning and we had a great afternoon. WeĀ  made some costumes for ourselves, not too elaborate this year due to lack of time but we were pleased to feel part of the event.

Here is Ellie in her lovely outfit, mostly put together from bargain charity shop finds and jewellery and embellishments she already had plus a bustle from Ebay, she looks very glamorous.

Steam Punk 2016 Ellie 1

 

Steam Punk 2016 Ellie 2

 

Steam Punk 2016 Ellie 3

I embellished the top hat Jake wore to his prom and Ellie bought me a lovely lace jacket from a charity shop for a pound as well. I also picked up the brooch I am wearing and this beautiful hair barrette at the market, very appropriate for a stitcher!

Steam Punk 2016 Ellie and me

 

Steam Punk 2016 Me new barette

There were the usual out of this world amazing costumes such as this peacock dress and this Gothic church inspired one, complete with matching waistcoat for the attendant who was the garment’s designer.

Steam Punk 2016 Peacock dress 1

Steam Punk 2016 Gothic dress 1

My favourite one was this Knitting Ninja, I love the creativity of this outfit with the, ‘ammo belt’, of wool and needles at the ready.

Steam Punk 2016 Knitting Ninja

 

Steam Punk 2016 Knitting Ninja 2

I also loved this butterfly dress with all the hand stitched butterflies, it is so brilliant to see people being creative and enjoying sewing and making.

Steam Punk 2016 Butterfly dress 1

 

Steam Punk 2016 Butterfly dress 2

 

Steam Punk 2016 Butterfly dress 3

We got lots of ideas for future costumes as well and as last year we were photographed so many times when we went out promoting our event on the Sunday and Monday, pictures of that and other wonderful medieval costume in a later post.

Meanwhile enjoy the rest of your week and thanks for visiting.

 

A little buying and a little making….

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Hello everyone, hope that you are all having a good weekend. It is raining again in lovely Marsden but as my sister and her cute dog are here for the weekend we have been out in it enjoying the beautiful countryside. The moors are amazing at the moment, all purple and it is great to be able to walk that far again after the mobility problems earlier in the year.

Not much has been going on craft wise, I have some progress on the Christmas ornaments and embroidery but nothing to show yet. However I can show you another cute little basket, this one made as a present for my cousin’s daughter. I made the smallest size of the Friends of the One Hour basket and filled it full of hair clips and she really loved it.

Anna-Mae's basket 1

As I mentioned in my previous posts I was very good at the Quilt Festival and only bought a little bit more stash šŸ™‚ Firstly these gorgeous little mini charm packs, I am going to be going on some more bag making courses in the autumn so thought they would be great for that.

Quilt Festival mini charm packs

Charise has also got a great zipper pouch tutorialĀ  on her blog which make use of these so might try that, look how cute the finished result is.

Charise zipper pouch -small

I also had to have some more Liberty from Alice Caroline’s fab scrap bin. Thought they would look lovely with scrap linen and have recently come across this lovely hexi idea from Pinterest from Lola Rose Patchwork.

Quilt Festival Liberty fabric

Liberty hexagons

I have also been acquiring more cute vintage text and sewing related prints from Simply Solids over the last couple of visits. Apologies but I have no idea of the fabric names or details of the ranges, these are earmarked for baskets or sewing related gifts. I particularly love the one with all the quilt block patterns on.

Well off to make brunch now before we go for another walk, my very energetic sister has just been for a 5K run but we will be doing something a little less strenuous as my knees can’t cope with fast speed!

Have a nice rest of the weekend and week ahead, take care and thanks for visiting.

 

 

Quilting a rainbow

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One of the things I love about seeing other people’s quilts is their use of colour. Sometimes putting together fabrics that you never thought would go, other times the use of a rainbow of colour that really stands out. Often it is the contrast between the fabric and the background and sometimes it is the quilting that helps the colour really pop.

This quilt entitled, ‘Bubbles of Joy’, by Anne Lilleholm Jorgenson is one such quilt, the fabric is gorgeous and what makes it really lovely is the contrast of the fabric bubbles and the quilting on the white background.

Another similar quilt used colour in the quilting really effectively, both sides, grey and black,Ā were displayed and the contrast between the little pops of colour fabric and the quilting was really effective. This reminded me of the Spirograph toy we had as a child.

This one is called, ‘Atom’, and was made by Brenda Sanders.

In my craft room I have a stash of rainbow fabrics just waiting for the right project, they look so pretty on the shelf I really don’t want to cut into them! Maybe I could make something like this lovely hexagon quilt, sadly forgot to take a picture of the maker’s name.

There were alsoĀ some gorgeous colourful Ā flower quilts like this one from Sheena Stubbs, ‘A Country Garden’.

Quilt Festival Flower 1

One of our other huge favourites was part of the Korean and Japanese quilters’ exhibition and was a pair of quilts which not only used colour really well but also wonderful Kantha stitching.

These are, ‘Lotus Pond 2 – Midsummer Day’, by SangSook Kim. We felt that not only were these quilts stunning but they felt like the sort of thing that we could actually make as the hand quilting used for the Kantha stitching is a lot less scary than the machine stitching in the other quilts.

The background is made up of wonky log cabins and that in itself is beautiful but the Kantha stitching and flowers really makes them into works of art.

Lots of inspiration again and has added so much to my future projects thoughts. At the moment I am working on two sets of things, a new set of Christmas ornaments using paper piecing and some more of Jenny’s lovely stitching, this time from her Primitive inspired designs from last month’s Stitchery Club. Looking forward to another delivery from her later this week.

Will show you more of that in a later post as well as some of my recent makes and fabric finds!

Thanks very much, as always for visiting, and have a great week ahead, the sun is shining in Yorkshire for the second day running which is brilliant!

 

 

Quilt magic

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Hello everyone, hope that you are all well and happy. Just back from a very hot Spain to lovely damp Yorkshire so what is a girl to do but take a trip to look at beautiful quilts? It was the brilliant Festival of Quilts trip again yesterday, just myself and Sharon this time.

We were very good, just a few purchases, no fabric for Sharon as she seems to think that she should use some of the stuff she has got before buying more but I got a little more insulation for the craft room šŸ™‚

We both bought books, they had a special offer on the Sarah Fielke Little Quilts book Ā and as we so enjoyed meeting her recently we felt that we just had to!

Sarah Fielke Little Things book

The main reason for going was of course all that magic that people can perform with bits of fabric and thread and there was again some absolutely amazing and inspirational work.

We loved the two quilts by Claudia Pfeil ,whose work we first saw last year. The colours are amazing and the level of detail and embellishment just make them sparkle so much. There is more of her amazing work on this Pinterest board here.

There were someĀ wonderful art quilts and pictorial quilts. I loved all the floral ones in very different styles such as these by Hilary Gooding, the more modern one which had a Judge’s Choice award, and Dorothy Clee Ā who had interpreted a walled garden. I love the stitching detail on both these very beautiful quilts.

One of my favourites combined quilting with my love of history in costume in a beautifully executed and very interesting idea based on Tudor dress showing the structural as well as the decorative elements of the fashion. This is by Joanna O’Neil Ā and has some gorgeous machine embroidery making the lace on the costume.

There was another set of historically based quilts of a similar theme based on effigies which were also beautifully stitched. These were made by Canadian quilter Dorothy Howard.

Quilt Festival - Dorothy Howard 1

Quilt Festival - Dorothy Howard 2

I have lots more to show you in a later post but for now will go and get some stitching done. Am going to be finishing the ring pillow today so time to choose a new project to start, am toying with eitherĀ one of Jenny of Elefantz’s lovely designs or starting some of my Christmas ornaments.

Take care and enjoy what every you are doing this weekend, thanks for visiting.