Almost There

This is a snippet from a large piece of work that is just about ready for the upcoming Guild exhibition. I have lived with this piece for almost two years and I think I'm ready to give it an outing. It took three months in the making and is a very personal piece of work, conceived as my reaction to receiving a friend's workbox after she had died.

 

 

My applique quilt that I am currently working on is getting closer to that awful stage of being quilted on a domestic sewing machine - let battle commence! I don't really pine for a long arm machine, it would not get enough use but the occasional use of one would lighten the load somewhat for the odd quilt or two.



 

 

 

 

 

Work in Progress

I'm working on a child's  quilt. I hope it will be finished by the time she is ready to move into her first real bed.As she is only three weeks old at the moment I have a good chance of finishing it in time. The appliqued central panel is quite straight forward and just a long slog of blanket stitch but all the white area is going to be very intensely free motion quilted - that will slow me down quite a bit.

I'm starting to count down the days to my son going back to Shanghai for another year. I am consoling myself with the knowledge that the first year went by so quickly. The weekends are busy with relatives and friends coming to say goodbye. I know one part of him is sad to go  but I can see that he is missing Kate badly (who went back two weeks ago for the start of the new term). So I will put a brave face on when we say goodbye and think about the fun and happiness we have had over the last three months.

I'm starting to get that Ullapool craving again, only a few more weeks and John and I will be walking on empty beaches and recharging our batteries after the most hectic summer ever.    

Happy Birthday Beecrafty

Jackie and I bimbled down the A1 this morning to a social stitching day at Beecrafty. It was extra busy today as they are celebrating their first year of business. Amid huge amounts of laughter, classes, special offers and general hilarity, Sarah and Jules were presented with  a beautiful cake and a fantastic quilt made by two talented staff members. Lot's of interesting people to talk to and great fun being part of it all.

Amongst all this celebration I managed to finish the last one of my 'Timepiece' series. I'm quietly pleased to be moving on to something new - six months is a long time for me to work on a project.

My instinct was to cover it with stitch but in the interest of 'less is more'

I'm letting the background speak for itself.

Now what can I get up to next? - actually I've got a couple of new pieces on the tables. I will do a post when I know where they are going.

 A really lovely day spent with excellent company all round.



Last Timepiece

I've had this backing ready for the last of my  'time pieces' for several months now but looking at it almost daily on my design wall was not filling me with inspiration on how to complete it. Yesterday I decided to add some script to it - just the words we use to measure time. Still no inspiration. So I armed myself with lots of threads in pinks, reds and white and took myself off to a social stitching day at Beecrafty.

  It was full of customers, activity and distraction when I arrived. I got myself  tucked into a seat at the back of the shop so that I could see everything that was going on, threaded up my needle with a slatey, purple coloured perle cotton and started stitching. That first glance at all the fabrics lined up on the shelves had shifted my colour palette that I had in mind for this piece and helped me see where it needed to go.  A simple matter of hours and hours of stitching and the end will be in sight.

 I just need the motivation to keep at it - perhaps another session or two of  stitching with like minded people might provide it.

That will be the last of my work completed for The Guild exhibition coming up in October. Usually I am 'mistress of the last minute' when it comes to finishing my work, perhaps having everything finished with time to spare is a sign of maturity at last, (it's been a long wait).

A Little Stitching in the Garden

Yesterday was a perfect summer's day. I spent the afternoon sitting in the shade of our fig tree, gently stitching the hours away in the company of a good friend. She was hand quilting and I was finishing my 'going for gold'

piece for the Guild exhibition in October.We sipped iced tea and caught up with each others news whilst our respective husbands were at a local steam train yard doing men type things with engines and such like. We were joined in the evening by our family and friends for a meal together in the garden. Next year we will be able to use our new sunken garden as work on it progresses at a steady rate.

A day last week was given over to preparing 25 books for an altered book course  to be run during a Guild meeting in November. As the classes only last two hours we knew we would have to do the initial procion dying up front ready for everyone to embellish the open page.So Biddy, Bev, Fran and myself set to and had a great time sploshing the dyes about. They took a good twenty four hours to dry completely as we really did drench them in colour. They looked a bit garish the next day so I spent a few hours with some metallic rubs and pastels and softened the edges and toned back some of the colours and  stacked the books for storing. At this point I realised how lovely they looked in their unadorned state and decided to photograph them. I have stored them in their open position to let them settle a bit and know that when I get them out in November I will remember the fun we had in July dying them. 

Printing Yardage

My stash of my own hand printed fabrics has run low, probably because I usually dye and print outside during the summer months.  I can't stand wet fabrics and prints hanging around the house for days so I have been patiently (ha-ha) waiting for some sunny weather to turn up. I'm going to have to give in on that one and utilise the green-house if this present spell of monsoons keep up.

 To that end, I've started the process by using a little bunch of spoons I found in a bric-a-brac shop. I have made some positive and negative lino cuts from them and started to mess about on paper using them to see what I can come up with. It has all started very neatly and and in regular  patterns,hopefully by the time I have filled a pad up with designs it should get much looser and informal - ready for printing on to fabric. 



 

I have also been loving my sweet peas this year (there has got to be a plus side to all this rain). I found them very difficult to capture at first, probably because I  haven't drawn for a few weeks but in the words of my late drawing master ' after the first hundred sketches of an object everyones drawing of it starts to improve'.  These would look lovely painted onto some silk.

My Embroidered Bead course that I ran at Beecrafty last Saturday was so enjoyable and productive. Everyone produced a very accomplished sample each and also got to grips with some more complex stitches. I think the four hour class was much better than the two hour one that I have done before. The shorter course crammed everything in but felt too rushed. The shop was buzzing with activity - a quilt class was going on in an adjacent room and all helped produce a great atmosphere to teach in. Looking forward to teaching Embroidered Buttons in the Autumn.  

 

A Little Beadwork

It doesn't feel like much craftwork has been going on around here lately but somehow a few more beads have appeared on the scene. I guess it's because I'm not spending all day creating but rather snatching a couple of hours here and there to stitch.

 I'm bead minded at the moment as I am teaching these frivolities at Beeing Crafty on this coming Saturday. It's an inexpensive course for four hours of intensive but very rewarding stitching with the bonus of a lovely shop to browse round afterwards.

A few more buttons have appeared as a taster for a course at the same venue later in the year.

I did manage to make a floor mat for a baby shower for my yet to be born first great grandchild. Dreadful photo - but beautiful fabrics from Bee Crafty and lots of handstitching produced a gift that was very well received.