Tag: patchwork

Sofa,snow,stitching blogs….perfect weekend ahead!

stitchesoftime4 Comments

Good morning everyone, I got up at stupid o clock this morning, (for a weekend), as I had a bed delivered and was contemplating going back to bed but have decided to have an indulgent morning with lots of cups of tea and snuggling in my PJs and dressing gown on the sofa catching up with favourite blogs.

We have had snow again this week, not as much as was forecast but our little world is all white again, it looks so pretty on the hills. I am still feeling a bit rough with the end of the chest infection so will not be going out and playing in it but enjoy the views and the pictures people post. Thought that those of you who don’t get much snow would like this one taken by a local photographer yesterday.

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One of the best things about snow is that we often get beautiful blue skies and sun after it so it is all sparkly and lovely.This is one of the hills behind my house.

I am so lucky to live here, all of the seasons are so beautiful.This panorama picture was taken a few months ago, my house is just left of the middle on the second row of terraces that were built for the mill on the right. You can see just how close I am to the beautiful hills where I go walking and the reservoir on the far right.

marsden-panorama

I have made a few things this week, mainly experimenting again with zips. Turns out that I do have a zipper foot, the one that I found that I thought I would use just for now is a different type of zipper foot as I discovered when I went to order one. For anyone else who may be interested this is a narrow zipper foot which works perfectly well.

zipper-foot

I made this pouch using the same tutorial from Emkie Designs, the additional fabric is from one of my charm packs, am getting to the end of my linen leftovers from medieval clothes making so will have to order some more soon.

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I am getting much better at inserting zips now, am very pleased with how neatly this turned out.

This one is made from the Homemakery tutorial again, I used a longer zip this time at 30 cm and some of my lovely French vintage inspired haberdashery fabric.This will be for the stall at Yarndale again, the basket I made in this fabric sold last year so thought I would make a few more things with it.

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This little cutie I made just before we went away with some Liberty fabric.

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It was a bit difficult to square off the corners as it was so small so they are a bit wonky, which is good as it can stay with me rather than being for sale 🙂

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I am using it to store my spare rotary cutter blades.

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Apart from that the free time this week has been mainly spent on the sofa watching the excellent Blindspot TV series on catch up and making hexagons for my first ever bed sized quilt.

This is a very long term project that I blogged about last year but one that is great for travelling or when I have no hand sewing or embroidery to do. I now have quite a good stack of them, I estimate that I will need about 60 for the quilt and they will be sashed with plain fabric.I love the pretty Moda Printemps fabric.

Plans for the weekend are a couple more pouches, have found some other tutorials that I am going to try to eliminate the bunching of zips at each end and to try and get my corners straighter so will report back on success or otherwise later on.

Thanks for visiting, hope that you have a good week ahead, stay warm if you are snow bound!

January thoughts

stitchesoftime2 Comments

Hello and hope you are all having a good start to your crafting year. I have been thinking a lot about goals for this year, not resolutions but things that I want to get done and so thought that putting together a list on the blog would give me a point of reference.

I like the idea of looking back at what you have done and looking forward to the future, January being named after the Roman god, Janus, the god of doors because this month is the door to the year. The Roman god Janus represents all beginnings and possesses the ability to see all things past and future which I think is a lovely idea and why he is represented with two faces.

So what did I achieve in 2016? This was very much a year of new things for me, coming really from a couple of courses that I went on at Simply Solids where I learnt to make baskets and had my first experience with zips with my pouch. I also used some of my ideas from Pinterest for pincushions and the little houses and made a sewing machine cover.

Looking at my photos for last year it doesn’t seem as if I did a lot but there also extra things that I did like the gold braid on Ellen’s dress, finishing the tabard for Jamie, a ring pillow and the Christmas ornaments that were also completed. The fact that I changed job roles in the summer has also meant a lot less time for crafting since June though hopefully that has calmed down now.

So plans for 2017. First of all to tackle some of the pesky WIPs. Like most people I am a bit of a flibbertigibbet when it comes to crafting, I see a new thing that I want to do and then go off and do it and don’t finish other things.I have also been guilty of abandoning difficult things which is not good practice!

These all need finishing.The first one needs a frame but is done otherwise, the quilt block is part of the challenge that Helen, Sharon and I did the year before last. I have 6 blocks but need a few more. The cute car hexagons were supposed to be a present for a baby who is now two! The vintage crochet hexis are going to be a bee quilt cushion and the last set of hexis are a long term project which is good for travelling, I have made some more of these in Spain.

Then the new stuff. I would like to go back and make some more of the Splendid Sampler blocks, particularly these stitched ones.

I would also like to make some of the items that I have saved pictures of on the blog.They range from things from books such as the circular tile quilt and the triple hexagon tea mug  to more pincushions, pouches, baskets, mug rugs and bags from blogs, some of Lori Holt Bloom Sew Along and a Dresden block using vintage linen from a magazine.

I would like to do more of Jenny of Elefantz’s lovely embroidery, the hexagon and roses one above is one I have been meaning to do for the craft room but think it would make a great zip pouch as well.

I also need to find a use for these gifted hexagons from my friend Helen, zippered pouches maybe? Probably more likely than a whole quilt given my productivity!

gift hexis 1

Finally there is more cross stitch, something I haven’t done for a long time but am feeling the urge for in preparation for next year’s Christmas ornaments.

A little snowy scene

Well that lot should keep me going for a while, meantime there is some crochet and lace zips calling me upstairs so I had better go and see what they want!

Take care and thanks for visiting.

Zipper di do dah!

stitchesoftime4 Comments

Hello again, one of the good things about the enforced being indoors has been more time for playing with fabric. I have had lots of marking to do but have managed to escape to the craft room for a couple of hours each evening and so have increased my productivity no end.

I have been experimenting with zips, still not got a zipper foot yet but have been doing ok with the one foot I have and have been using up some of things in my stash to make some more pouches.

I love Liberty fabrics and have lots of hexagons that I am in the process of putting together for a bag so I used one of them and some of my linen scraps for another zipped pouch using the same tutorial as before from Emkie Designs. 

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This one turned out ok but I put too much wadding in as it is a bit lumpy with the linen but it is fine for me.I am pleased with the neatness of the zig zagging for appliqueing on the patchwork though and do love the little ditsy fabrics!

I wanted to make a present for my aunt and decided that a little basket using linen and some of my vintage lace scraps would be good and am very pleased with the way this turned out. This is the second smallest version of the Friends of the One Hour Basket and uses up some of  very cute lace collar that I was given by a friend.

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I think I will make some more of these with matching pin cushions and needlebooks for Yarndale next year as I think they are very lovely and will sell well.

I then decided to get a bit more creative with the lovely lace zips and made this matching pouch using the tutorial from The Homemakery for a boxed pouch. I have found a new supplier for the lace zips as I had used all the little ones that I bought last year, Buddly Crafts have them at a great price and it was very speedy delivery.

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I made an 8 inch by 8 inch pouch, with hindsight I would have made it 6 by 8 as it is a bit square and maybe should have moved the lace in a bit from the edge but as they say you live and learn and I think that they look very cute together.

I also made another little basket for a last minute Christmas gift for one of my other younger relatives, I made a similar one for her sister in the summer.

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I have now finished work for the holidays, hurrah! Jake and I off to Ellie’s tomorrow so am really looking forward to that, then Ellie and I go to Spain for New Year, looking forward to my usual New Year’s Day beach picnic and paddle 🙂

Will pop in and say Merry Christmas to you all, meanwhile have fun with the last of your festive prep and thanks for visiting.

A tale of two villages

stitchesoftime2 Comments

Hello again

I am amusing myself after a very snowy day again earlier this week and torrential rain and flooding today thinking of happy sunny times in Spain so thought that I would add the rest of my photos from Tabarca.

At the other end of this little island from the wild rocky cost is a little village, just 4 streets at the side of the church, with some really pretty little houses, I took lots of pictures of the windows and doors.

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This was a house that has been turned into an art gallery, lots of inspiration for arty shots.

And there was some lovely crochet in the window of this door.A beautiful place and one I would love to go back to. They do have hostels and rental properties so would love to do that one day as a mini holiday within a holiday.

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The other little village is my growing collection of house pin cushions, have not made any for a while but have quite a few now. Not certain yet where they are ending up but for now they are just populating the craft room.

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Have really enjoyed choosing different fabric and buttons and flowers for these from my stash. Added the cute button headed pins to some as well.Apologies for shadows in the photos, the light was not good this weekend.

The fabric flowers come from some braid that I have cut into individual flowers. So cute! Have just had an order of very lovely flower buttons for the next lot of houses but those will have to wait until the ornaments have been done.

I have made the cathedral window ornament and several folded ones so will show you that next post. Ellie and I are of to the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show this weekend so looking forward to that and will try to be good and not buy fabric!

Take care and thanks for visiting.

Happiness is scrappiness!

stitchesoftime5 Comments

Hope that you all had a lovely weekend, I really enjoyed myself being creative. Much as I love re-enactment I am glad in some ways that the season is over and I have lots more time at home in my lovely craft room 🙂

I was just playing with my scrap drawer most of the time, I have been very inspired by all the lovely things on my Pinterest board and have lots of left over linen from all my years of making kit for the boys so made a couple of pincushions from linen and some of the left over charm packs. Very pleased that everything here came from my stash, mind you I do have quite a large stash!

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This one is also a scissor holder, again inspiration from Pinterest.

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This one was scraps from the various craft room accessory projects that I have made over the years like the sewing machine cover, needlebook and pincushion. Am quite tempted to keep this as it goes so well with the craft room though am supposed to be making these as gifts.

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I used some of my vintage linen for this one, the motifs come from a lace collar that a friend gave me and the button was also from the collar.

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I have wanted to make a little house pincushion for ages and found a great tutorial here at Retro Mama’s site  that explains how to make them. There are also some beautiful colour combinations here at Craft and Creativity’s website  to inspire you. Look at this loveliness in Tilda fabric and with some cute birds – picture from Helena’s site.

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I have made two so far , using an offcut from the red charm pack square in the previous pincushion for a little window box. The pink and aqua one is definitely staying with me in my craft room !

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I think these are just the cutest things ever and will be making a few more. Jake suggested putting a cat in the window and if I can work out how to cut a cat that small I will.

So many more lovely ideas on my board still left to do, must make a start on the Christmas ornaments soon though, it is nearly October and only have one made so far which is not like me!

Yarndale went very well, Sarah sold lots of books and I sold nearly all the baskets and some of the pincushions. She will be doing another book and stall next year and wants more things from me, especially needlebooks so that gives me plenty of opportunity to get making.

Take care and thanks for visiting.

Pinspiration and perspiration

stitchesoftime1 Comment

Hello, hope you are all looking forward to a nice weekend whatever you are doing. I am planning to make some pincushions, have got so many lovely ones saved on my Pinterest board that it is time for some doing rather than just looking.

I have got my friend Sharon’s dog Ted staying with me for the weekend while she and Sarah are at Yarndale  so Jake and I will be taking him for walks later on.

Jake is home with me for a few months until he hopefully goes to Japan next year. He is starting a Japanese course the week after next and in the meantime is working part-time doing bar work and dog walking so he is getting very good at canine control!

Have been working hard over the last couple of weeks getting the last of the baskets finished for Sarah to take to Yarndale so just thought I would show you the last few.

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I got this fab vintage sheep motif from Ebay, sadly only had the two, really love the pattern on the sheep.

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I also made another mini basket to put the needlebook and pincushion I made last year in, I also made a pink one of these a while ago.

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Along with the other baskets I made earlier and the Liberty and linen pincushions I had quite a lot of things for the stall so am very pleased.

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I do love the combination of Liberty fabric and linen and so will definitely make more things using that combination. These are the ones from last year that I made for Yarndale.

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I also still have lots of lovely themed stitching and vintage print material to make more as gifts for crafting friends. I also definitely need a couple more for me for craft room storage, you can never have too many cute fabric baskets 😉 and there is a gap on my shelf now these have gone to Yarndale.

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Sarah is selling copies of her latest pattern book at Yarndale, not only does it feature some gorgeous patterns again, this time inspired by the Beaubaton Castle from Harry Potter but also Ellie modelled again for Sarah and her picture is on the front cover!

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This would make a fab Christmas present for a knitting friend so do go and get some from her website here. It is great value and there are some beautiful designs as usual, the woman is a knitting genius.

I love the promo picture for Yarndale this year, look at the cuteness of this sheep!

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I now have an I Pad, courtesy of work which has the Pinterest app on it and I am loving the fact that I can add things from the suggestions really easily. I came across this wonderful site the other day, Gentlework.

Christine makes the most amazing things from vintage textiles and I have been so inspired by the beautiful things on her site. Do go and have a look at them, they are really delicate and inspired by nature and just lovely.

Right off to make pincushions – see you later and thanks as always for visiting.

 

 

A little buying and a little making….

stitchesoftime3 Comments

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 🙂 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 tutorial  on her blog which make use of these so might try that, look how cute the finished result is.

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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

stitchesoftime6 Comments

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, 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 also some gorgeous colourful  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

stitchesoftime1 Comment

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 🙂

We both bought books, they had a special offer on the Sarah Fielke Little Quilts book  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 some 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  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  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.

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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 either 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.

The hottest day of the year ….

stitchesoftime2 Comments

Or even the century. You may be aware that we had a mini heatwave this week, it reached about 33 degrees, even in Yorkshire and in typical British style we were all saying how it was too hot and we needed it to cool down – we are never happy with the weather   😉

Anyway it was a lovely day made even more special as my very lovely son Jake graduated from University with a 2:1 in Multimedia Journalism, which makes me a very proud Mum 🙂

Poor boy was roasting in his black gown but we managed to get some nice photos before he had to disrobe.

Here he is with a cute bear who was posing for photos with the graduates, he must have been really hot! Also his lovely sister Ellie and his best friend from University, Charlie , who he met at sixth form and they have studied together for the last 6 years.

We had a great time in Middlesbrough including a trip to the Bowes Museum, somewhere I have always wanted to visit, and a curry at a place with naan breads as that were at least two feet in length.

The day also ended very well as I had a visit booked to Simply Solids  to hear Sarah Fielke give a trunk show talk. I had not really come across her work before but loved it, she bases a lot of her designs on antique quilts and uses a lot of applique and hand quilting all which very much appeals to me.

I have just treated myself to a copy of her latest book of designs based on antique quilts so that will be arriving next week, more ideas for the retirement crafting!

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She was really lovely, especially so in the extreme heat, poor women had packed for her European tour a few weeks previously and had not packed for our heatwave so she did a wonderful job, we were hot enough just sitting there listening.

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I not only loved the quilts but found her very inspirational, she had a serious car accident when she was just starting her quilting career and her children were very young and still managed to continue with things, even after four months in hospital and time after that using a wheelchair.

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I hope that the quilting helped her recover as it does for so many people, I am a great believer in the power of crafting to help heal, I know it helps me when I am in pain and think it is a really good way of relieving stress as well.

Below is one of my favourite designs by her from her Quilting with Little Things book, love the little appliqued leaves.

Sarah Fielke Quilting-From-Little-Things

Well it still sunny here but not so hot so will be watching the weather carefully while I craft as have lots of washing on the line! Hope that you have a lovely weekend and thanks for visiting.