Glorious Pink.

After I had finished with the yellow peril, I had some red dye leftover so I squished a metre of white cotton into a large glass vase and added hot water and washing soda to the dye solution and poured it over the cloth .Wow it was fantastic! I am so pleased with the results it is glorious! So what have I learned? well, sometimes unpredictable is awfully disappointing and sometimes its gloriously exciting but I have always preferred the roller coaster to the carousels, and I love journeys to new places so I will have to see where I go with this,, keep watching...

Yellow Peril.

Well where do I start? A mixed week really. happy to be joining in the magic carpet giveaway and meeting lots of interesting people ,and reading lots of other peoples blogs, sad to be feeling to ill to do any sewing. but starting to feel better now so here goes....If any of you read my other blog expeditionquiltart you will have read about my disasterous dyeing adventures, I am asking for any sugestions for what I could do with my january challenge quilt, it is seriously dayglo yellow, and bright red, I thought I would get a gentle mixed colour, not stripes its very scary.

GIVEAWAY

This is a GIVEAWAY!. Join me on a magic carpet ride and meet lots of like minded peoplefrom all over the world and an opp urtunity to win a giveaway from every one of them as well. Just leave me a comment and your e mail address or blog title and on the fifteenth of february, using the random generator, I will pick a winner to win a surprise mystery gift from me--it will be a small quilt, handmade by me,featuring the curlybird,not that much of a mystery then,so go on,leave me a comment,. I would love to hear from you.

breakthrough challenge

Byebye birdy

Waah the guild have been in touch , where is my quilt please? I thought it didnt have to go till march so it didnt have a label or a sleeve and it has to go tomorow, panic panic and then one of the eyes fell off stitch stitch and I havnt actually got a decent picture of it aah well too late I have a noodle and I'm not afraid to use it plus a load of bubblewrap, if I can just stop the short people popping it I'l be fine byebye birdy or should I say --As the dawn breaks through the sunbirds awake...

NEW YORK BEAUTY

Friday is my day--sometimes. Today was definately my day,a quiete house a tidy sewing room [it took me all night] and a santana CD---yippee. A s all my friends are currently putting me to shame with wonderfull snowdyeing, I wont name names-you know who you are, Ithought I had better put down the curtains and do something a bit creative. SO, out comes the half done new york beauty and a big roll of greaseproof paper, a ruler and a sharpie. With santana blasting out very loud I have danced my way round the table and finally drawn the border. I am feeling fairly proud of this so far--I havnt lost a single point--so far--it took a lot of maltesers. I cant wait to quilt this- I can see the sequins now......

foundation piecing

I do believe in accuracy and precise measurements ,so I always use .my trusty measuring tools--a dinner plate, a picnic bowl and a chocolate orange you cant see it in the picture as I had to eat three quarters of it --I am saving the rest of it for the traumatic bussiness of foundation piecing an eight foot strip of greaseproof paper without a single malteser in the house oooh scary!

antique sewing machine

Well, a busy evening,youngest son, who is six ,was desperate to do some sewing tonight.He quickly did his homework and fetched his sewing bag.He has collected all the scraps left over from his quilt and is making a small strippy.He cant reach the floor and isnt ready for electrickery so I have bought an old jones machine from a friend , it doesnt have a bobbin it has a shuttle and you have to turn the handle very fast to get a fairly slow speed out of it. His arm gets tired and he is left handed but he is very keen and tries very hard and actually ,the machine sews beutifully and in the summer, we can sew in the garden.

curly quilting

I'm using my favourite thread Valdini n 12 variegated threads to stitch over the tail and a fine white cotten crochet thread for the quilting I will change colour as I move across the quilt.Its really exciting to think about how it will look when its overdyed,,I'm thinking about an acid yellow maybe shading to lime green across the quilt. As you can see its on a hand frame, a lot of people dont bother using a frame with bigstitch , but I always do as it gives a really nice tension and makes the stitching look much nicer.

curlybird

I have added a big curlwurly tail to my bird and steamaseamed it to the strippy quilt , now I 'm getting somewhere , took a whole afternoon of drawing round cups and plates to get nice curves and I'v kept it skinny as I dont want the bird to dominate.I want it to be pleasant and calm and for the stitchingto be notable, so here we go.

funky watch

Hows this for a great xmas present? I love funky stuff, isnt it great, and look at those curly wurly bits .I want to put my bird into all the quilts I make for a year and use it as a fixed point to give a connection between my quilts as they are often very differant to each other and this would make them more of a family so I'm thinking about the curly bits on the watch added to my bird.....

boring

Before I left I had given a lot of thought to the expeditionquiltart challenge, I collected a fair number of strips ,of calico,silk,noile,muslin ect...laid them together and joined them. I fancy making a strippy quilt with a lot of nice curly stitching in differant threads in various colours and seeing how they take the dye .I'm cheating a bit as I'm going to make two,one twelve by twentyfour as per rules and one twentyfour inches square yah boo! to the rules. So here it is how boring is that? it needs a focal point ,... an image or theme.....I'm thinking.....

HAPPY RETURNS

Well, I am back from a fantastic holiday in centreparks. I have slid down the slides,swam down the rapids..and floated on my back in a very warm outdoor pool in the darkness gazing up at the stars as tiny little flakes of snow touched my face......I have come back energised and chilled out and ready for tons of stitching---and ironing.