Quilting wonders

August 9, 2015August 9, 2015 stitchesoftime1 Comment

Hello everyone, hope that you have had a nice weekend. We have had a wonderful trip to this year’s Festival of Quilts, Sharon, Helen, Emily and I from knitting group enjoyed a very lovely girl’s day out, it was their first trip to this show and my second.

The quilts, as always, were amazing and I took so many pictures I have split them into two posts.

I love traditional quilts and there were some exceptional examples on show. This was the first one that we saw when we went in and I love the unusual appliqued blocks.

This is, ‘Stonefields’, by Coriene de Has and Kay Bell.

It has given me some ideas for other things to do with hexis – love this hexi in a square in a square idea.

I also really liked this hexi quilt – called, ‘The Joy of Hex!’, by Penny Chattey. As well as some brilliant quilting there were three panels at the bottom explaining the technique.

Some fabulous examples of wholecloth quilting as well, this first one by Ximo Navarro from Spain, entitled, ‘This is not a Dream, this quilt is real’.

And this from Sandy Chandler, ‘Juno’, this is just the centre of a double bed sized quilt, a beautiful piece which must have taken hours to do.

My favourite quilt in the whole show was this one by Liz Jones, ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’. I love the combination of the Elizabethan style design with modern fabrics and the machine applique is perfect.

I have been looking at some of her other work, this is her Pinterest page where I found this earlier Tudor Rose quilt.

The other thing I like about quilt shows is the range of work as well, there are quilts from all levels of skills including some lovely quilts by children, including school groups.

This one was really nice from the, ‘First Quilt Category’, ‘Everything she does is Magic’, by Lucy Currie. I really like the colours and the wonky Sudoku blog.

This looks like my level of quilting and is similar to the Stained Glass Window pattern I used some years ago for my Christmas throw and cushions.

There were also some historic quilts from the Quilt Museum in York, a quilt pieced from printed handkerchiefs and a bible quotes quilt.

There was also some retail therapy of course 😉 I had been reading some statistics about visitors from the Festival web site and it said that the average age of visitors was 57, (so we brought that down a bit as our average age is in the early forties), and the average spend was £197!

I am pleased to say that we were very restrained despite all the temptations and it was nowhere near that much.We did go and say hello to Lisa and Justine from our local quilt shop Simply Solids, here they are with Helen.

I will post pictures of my new stuff once I have stopped admiring it and stroking the large pile of Liberty scraps I now have 🙂

Take care and thanks for visiting.

Life, love and Liberty

August 1, 2015July 28, 2015 stitchesoftime1 Comment

Hello everyone, hope that you are all well and enjoying the prospect of your weekend.I have had a pretty productive few days even with still being on light duties.

Have cut back on my planned sewing and knitting for the time being to give my wrist a rest and have been enjoying the delights of the Liberty stash packs that Kerry and Ellie bought me for Christmas from Very Berry fabrics.

I have nearly run out of some of the prints so will be looking to restock when we go to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham next week. We have a girly trip planned with some of the knitting group, I have give them strict instructions to them to restrain my fabric buying though 😉

I was very late to the love of Liberty party, it was only really when I went to the brooch making workshop last year that I realised how useful the little prints could be and since then have been inspired by blogs like Nana Company.

So here is the fruit of my labours, have still to put together the needlebooks as I am busy making more pretty hexagons for these which it is a little bit addictive.

That and a boxed set on Sky and I am very happily entertained! Am currently avidly watching Falling Skies, a series set after an alien invasion which is very edge of your seat stuff.

I have given each pincushion some little coordinated pins, these were recently obtained from EBay, don’t know which I like best, flowers, hearts, drops or leaves as they are all so pretty.

I have also been finishing off the little knitted pincushions, have added charms and altered the one I made earlier using ribbons to do the divisions rather than thread which I think makes it look very cute.

Well I shall love you and leave you now and get back to the hard slog of television and stitching!
Thanks, as always, for visiting.

Living history

June 4, 2015June 4, 2015 stitchesoftime3 Comments

I do love history – you may have guessed if you have been reading this blog for any length of time so I have had a wonderful weekend and little holiday being part of a re-enactment event and then spending three days visiting National Trust properties.

The event was in Templecombe in Somerset, a long trip down for us so we took advantage of being in a part of the country we haven’t spent much time in.

We always have living history encampments at shows and these pictures are of the lovely tents that were on display there this weekend.

There was also a new addition to the site, this beer barn has been built by the site owners and volunteers and the money for it has been raised by the re-enactors who use it, through auctions last year and on the Saturday night of the event this year and by an online donation appeal.

I pledged a custom – made shirt for the auction so am going to be making that this weekend for the re-enactor that won it.

It is a beautiful building and has been made with such attention to detail. The piece over the bar was carved by the owner of the site.

Driving around after the event we saw so many cute little villages as well as the amazing Trust properties. Lots of pictures of those to follow once I sort them out!

There was great excitement at one of the properties, Barrington Court, while we were on our way to visit the second-hand bookshop that we always love at these places, (yes I bought more books!), we discovered a patchwork shop in the artisan workshops. They have a website as well at Barrington Patchworks.

It had an amazing array of fabric but I was very restrained, Ellie persuaded me to buy this very cute print featuring a cross stitch alphabet motif which I thought would be good for the pincushions I will be making for craft fairs later in the year.

Now back to work for two days until the weekend, got lots of kit to make before the next event in 8 days time!

Thanks as always for visiting.

Never look a gift hexi in the mouth

May 15, 2015 stitchesoftime1 Comment

Hello everyone and I hope that you are looking forward to a lovely weekend.

I have lots of me time planned and some finishing of kit which I shall be able to show you next week. Things have been going very well with the surcoat that I am making which is a relief as it is quite a complex make and it is always a bit nerve-wracking when you are making things for someone else.

I have also managed to whip up a new linen shift for me in an afternoon, that just needs the hand stitching on the hems finishing which will be done tonight.

My lovely friend Helen from knitting group has just gifted me these hexis, she was having a de-stash and decided that she was never going to finish the rainbow quilt she had been planning to make with them so they are now mine! They are fabulous and such pretty fabric.

I can’t decide which one I like best but this might just be my favourite.

Although these ones are pretty lovely as well.

I think they would look very nice as part of a small lap/cuddle quilt for one of my younger relatives and again hexis are a great travel project for the many trips I have planned over the next few months!

In other exciting news it is the end of teaching for me, yippee 🙂 and my students very kindly bought me these gorgeous flowers. Aren’t they so beautiful?

I love having flowers in the house and I am particularly fond of gerberas as they just look so perfect, almost too good to be real, and it is rare to be able to buy them on their own.

So the summer stretches ahead, lots of marking to do along with working on my doctorate and planning for next year but I am feeling very relaxed and happy.

Ofsted, (the government education inspectors for those of you outside the UK), have not arrived so far this term and probably won’t come now which lessens the pressure on everyone.

I will have much more time for crafting as now do not have to work until stupid o clock on teaching days and with the lighter evenings I feel I am able to get so much more done.

Life is very lovely at the moment and I hope that you are all having a good time too.

Thanks for visiting.

Needles and pins

March 22, 2015 stitchesoftime2 Comments

I really enjoy making stitching gifts and have just finished a set for a special little girl, the eldest daughter of my very talented friend Kat, the women who makes the gorgeous medieval and Tudor clothes and is a fabulous embroider as well.

If you have not seen her creations please look at her website Kats Hats and her Facebook page which also has loads of research such as manuscripts, effigies etc. She has also started running courses as well, details on the page.

It is Kat’s daughter’s birthday in a couple of weeks and she is following in her mother’s footsteps and started sewing a while ago so I have made her this pincushion and needle case set out of some fabric from my Simply Solids scrap stash.

I made a similar set for Rachel, my most prolific blog commenter and these were again from the Simply Solids scrap stash.

English Paper Piecing is great for this kind of small scale fabric stash and I am currently working on a similar item from my New Hexagon book that I posted about previously using my lovely Christmas present Liberty Lawn from Very Berry Fabrics.

I do particularly love making (and owning) pincushions and stitching pillows with space for needles in the back as well and these are the, mainly, stitched ones that I have made on the past, lots of these were for exchanges.

Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom has a lovely idea of making pincushions regularly out of her scrap pile and keeping them in a basket for when stitching friends come round to give as gifts, isn’t that a great thing to do.

There are just a few more (595 pins!) ideas on this lovely Pinterest Board – do you think we might actually make more stuff if someone hadn’t invented Pinterest, not that I am complaining, I love it!

Right back to my hexis and a Game of Thrones marathon, am trying to catch up with the rest of Season 4 before Season 5 starts mid April or I will spend the entire re-enactment season having to try to avoid spoilers from all my friends who are avid fans!

Have a lovely rest of the weekend and thanks for visiting.

March Block of the Month Challenge

March 19, 2015 stitchesoftime3 Comments

Well hello there, back in lovely Marsden now having had a very nice time and got lots of work done! Just thought I would share with you the fruits of my labour last weekend.

This month’s block did look like a bit of a challenge when Helen originally posted it – a Nine Patch Frame so she had the first go and very kindly supplied the measurements.

It turned out to be not too bad, as you can see I have not really got my frame far enough out as it was a tricky devil to sew with those corners so my outer white triangles are not as good as they could be and have lost some of the points on the inner square but I like the fabric combinations.

Here is the Jan block Dutchman’s Puzzle which uses most of the same fabric. I am trying to vary each one a little due to running out of large pieces of stash and hoping that April is going to be a scrappy block 🙂

Here is the Feb block Union Squares – the right sized one!

Will probably try and get the next 3 in these fabrics and make this into a small quilt, each block is 12 inches so will be cot sized with borders and can go to local hospice or Project Linus. Then do the next 6 in different fabrics.

Sharon jokingly suggested this might be our next block challenge. This is work by Danny Amazonas using fabrics from the Kaffe Fassett Collective – wow, just wow!

Can’t believe it is nearly the weekend already – how exciting! It is very lovely and sunny here today so hope that continues and I can get some walking done as well as stitching.

Hope you have a nice time planned and thanks for visiting.

Hexalicious!

March 10, 2015 stitchesoftime1 Comment

I am having a lovely week so far mainly working from home which was fortuitous as a long-awaited Amazon order arrived today and I was in to sign for it 🙂

I ordered this title, The New Hexagon by Katja Marek, as I saw a review of it in one of my quilting magazines and am very excited. I love the fabric choices which make the front cover blocks look like one of those kaleidoscope toys I had as a kid.

Regular readers will know that I have a bit of a hexagon addiction going on at the moment and have done lots of things with ordinary hexagons.

I am now experimenting with diamonds making some little pin cushions and needlebook gifts and was looking for more things to do now that I am more confident with this English Paper Piecing lark!

I bought this other book below, Quilting on the Go by Jessica Alexandrakis, for my Mum as a Mother’s Day present and it is a very good basic introduction to the craft with lots of useful templates and ideas for small and large projects.

However I wanted something a bit more challenging for me, well just look at all this deliciousness 😉

This is actually called the Hexalicious Wall Quilt hence the post title and I love the bright colours and the border fabric!

The patterns work equally well with more subtle fabric though as in this example.

So happy! Am taking this to knitting group tonight to share with my friends, I am sure Helen the premier quilter amongst us will be very impressed.

Right back to work now, coffee break over 😉

Thanks for visiting and see you soon.

Quilty Pleasures

February 8, 2015 stitchesoftime4 Comments

Well sadly my friends couldn’t make it this weekend – probably a good thing as I have still got the tail end of the nasty cough and cold bug I have had for a month so I have been snuggling up under a fleece on my stitching sofa watching TV and hand piecing.

Much better for me than wandering round my beautiful but below freezing Yorkshire!

I have recently discovered the joys of quilting videos on You Tube, as we have been doing the Block of the Month challenges and I find it difficult to follow written instructions so I thought a would share with you a few of my favourite channels in case you have not discovered this marvellous resource, it is like having a Quilt Guild in your very own home.

Firstly the McCalls Quilting Channel. I have really enjoyed watching this Quilt Along learning loads of new techniques.

Next is the Fons and Porter Channel, I have seen Mary Fons in lots of magazines and this channel has useful basic tips videos as well as interviews with quilters like this one.

I found this Missouri Star Quilt Company Channel today and they have some brilliant videos on all types of blocks and whole quilts. Wouldn’t this one make a great quilt for a gift!

I have always loved watching videos about quilting and have been a fan of The Quilt Show but didn’t realise that there was so much free stuff out there as well.

Another thing I am a bit late to the party with is Craftsy, I have signed up from some fab free online classes for Block of the Months.

There has been great excitement here on TV this week as it is the start of series 3 of The Great British Sewing Bee! If you missed it here is a link to it on BBC iPlayer.

I would not like to participate (my sewing is far too slow for that) but would love to have day in the workshop with all my sewing friends.What a fab venue for a day out surrounded by all that lovely fabric – and the little café with all-important cake nearby!

Here is a picture of one of the contestants Deborah Simms with the beautiful fabric she chose for her final garment of this episode.

Little Black Duck Blog is following the series with useful tips and tutorials for each episode – this is the post about this week and making trousers.

This blog by Angela Kane also has some great tips of techniques from Series 2

Hope you find these useful, back to the sewing now- must spend equal time doing as watching or nothing will get finished 😉 ! See you in a couple of weeks and thanks for visiting.

A tale of two blocks – Feb Block of the Month Challenge

February 2, 2015 stitchesoftime1 Comment

So I made the one with 3 1/2 inch squares on Saturday and that turned out at 8 inches finished size. So on Sunday I tried making one with 4 1/2 inch squares and that turned out to measure 10 inches finished size.

They do both look very pretty though and I am pleased with the finish.

The block pattern is called Union Square and again it is from the Quilter’s Cache website. I found this useful video (which turns out to be a variation of the block which is known as Union Squares ) but the girls have kindly let me off for this deviation 😉

It came together quite quickly – especially the second time around and the method I was using gave me lots of practise at making half and quarter square triangles. And my joins are not too bad though getting every single one to be perfect is beyond me, they definitely look better certain ways up!

I have now made a third one – not exactly the same but almost, I ran out of the swirly pink fabric so have done the half square triangles in a co-ordinating solid. This one hit the magic 12 inches and was made with 5 1/2 inch squares.

The first two will be put to good use, I am going to frame the littlest one for my quilt room and use the other to make a pillow for my sewing chair. I have some hexagons in the same fabric that I was already putting together for a pillow so will make it reversible.

Am really enjoying this challenge, there are 5 of us from the knitting group doing it now and we are all supporting each other through Facebook and have planned a couple of get togethers as well for help with certain aspects.I love how crafting is so social, both virtual and face to face!

Will not have much time for crafting this week as work is very busy and have friends over at the weekend so things are going to be slow on the posting front for a couple of weeks. Then am off to Spain for half term (those lovely embroidery museums are calling!) so will see you all when I get back.

Take care and enjoy yourselves. Thanks for visiting.

Making quilt blocks – on a small scale

February 1, 2015August 22, 2015 stitchesoftime1 Comment

Last weekend as well as the hand stitching on the hexagon car quilt I decided to go and have a play with some other quilt blocks, inspired by how much I enjoyed making the Dutchman’s puzzle block for our block of the month challenge.

I don’t know why but whatever craft I do I always choose very small-scale projects, my cross stitch is on small count fabric (so small I usually need a magnifier now!), I knit little arms and legs for bunnies and nothing bigger than a baby cardigan. It seems I am going the same way with quilting as most of what I have done so far is baby quilts and hexagons.

Partly it is lack of time, as I have limited time to finish things because they are usually gifts small means achievable so less WIPs hidden away.

But I do like small-scale so I thought for my practising last week I would use one of the Moda mini charm packs that I bought a while ago from Simply Solids. I have used up the other two already in the wash bag I made for an Xmas present and the hexagons I pieced from the Printemps pack (see kids I do USE the fabric in that room, it is just sometimes more sneaks in somehow!)

I have two of these ‘Playtime’ 1930s inspired prints and I thought if I keep making a few blocks every so often I will eventually have a small quilt at least!

I wasn’t following a specific block just wanted to practise my half square triangles and stitching accuracy for those 1/4 inch seams but I have ended up with something that looks a bit like a Pinwheel block – albeit a bit random in terms of the fabric placement.

I also decided a 9 patch would be good (God alone knows why) which involved cutting an already small 2 1/2 ” square into four pieces so excuse the slightly wonky finished article!

The miniaturising effect must be rubbing off as yesterday afternoon I rushed up to the sewing room to start on the Feb block of the month challenge, this is my only free weekend in Feb so I wanted to get a good start.

It must have been my haste that led me to create a pretty well pieced (only one triangle lost its point) but rather small block, the target was 12 inches and mine ended up as 8 inches. Turns out when you divide 12 by 3 the answer is 4 NOT 3 – who knew? Well supposedly me as I do actually teach Maths – oops.

However it will look lovely with an extra border to cover up the missing points and I am going to try it again this afternoon WITH 4 INCH BLOCKS!

My lovely Ellie sent me a fabric care package this week with a beautiful card, she is so kind. I had not been feeling well when she spoke to me a couple of weeks ago and work had been a bit stressful so she sent me this to cheer me up.

Look at this beautiful print, in three colourways! With matching solids! Thank you so much, you are a wonderful daughter as well as a great friend 🙂

While browsing Justine’s blog (she of the marvellous Simply Solids shop) I saw this 2015 bucket list that she had found on this blog Whip Stitch by Deborah.

I like lists and it is nice to have a focus and extend your skills so I am going to add that to my challenges for this year, some of them can already be fulfilled by things I have planned (Number 2 by all the medieval kit I have planned for friends) but others on the list I have though about doing but not done (Number 12 I want to make a bag for me).

So it is going to be a busy and fun year, 26 books, 17 plus sewing projects and 12 plus quilt blocks. And we are just sorting out our re-enactment events for 2015 and so far I have 10 events! 2015 is going to be a very good year 🙂

Right better get off the laptop and on with the actual stitching now then if I am for achieve all this. Take care, have a nice week and thanks for visiting.

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Stitches of Time

I have created this blog to share my interest in all forms of stitching, quilting, sewing, knitting, medieval re-enactment and costume making – particularly my love of historical embroidery. I also love travelling,especially when it also involves any of my other interests.

Tag: patchwork