HAPPY STITCHING.

Today I went to a kantha workshop with helen porter.I learned some lovely embroidery stitchs and looked at some lovely indian textiles a very pleasant relaxing day in good company.

MAKING PROGRESS

I have been very busy this week,I have ;machine quilted;[see how that slips off the tongue]one of the short peoples quilt s that she stitched herself on the antique machine, not bad for a 7 year old.Quilted bound and finished, a very neat binding too , if I say so myself , I turned the binding all the way over to the back,it gives a lovely, flat, firm , straight front .also apologies to ferret, I sent her the most disgusting picture of men in cycling shorts ,i 'v probably given her nightmares for a week, it very nearly put me of my midget gems!

BABYQUILT

Then I got out my friends baby quilt, and finished it!I have two important lessons
Lesson one....If I had quilted continuously instead of stopping and starting,then I wouldn't have had 300 tails to sew in.
Lesson two....If I had made the 300 tails longer, they would have been easier to stitch in, lucky I had a large bar of galaxy to hand or it could have been disastrous.

FERRET DAY.

FERRET DAY

I am ecstatic!, and no, not because I have been given a years supply of chocolate oranges,but because I have learned how to machine quilt! Today we did a days workshop with Ferret, doing Fur,Feather and Scale which was absolutely brilliant. I had been dreading it because me and my machine don't really commune much, in fact the thought of machine quilting scares me to death. I managed to avoid it through both city and guilds and I've avoided it ever since...But Ferret looked in my instruction book !!!! found the programme, pointed out the funny little hoppy foot in the tool box and away we went! the rest is history WAHOO I can now machine quilt--and I'm not scared..
The world is my lobster,I can now machine quilt all those duty quilts for other people so I get more time on the art quilts,
THANK YOU FERRET!

STITCHING TO DYE

I also bought this marvellous book,Stitching to dye in quilt art.. it is full of exciting ideas and gorgeous photos and really interesting exercises to work through, cant wait!

LAYER CAKE

Well I did a really weird thing thing this week,I went to bramble patch, a really fantastic quilting store, it was wonderful ,I felt like I had died and gone to heaven! I found some really beautifully 100 per cent pure wool wadding ooh its lovely! its probably ruined me for other lesser wadding's! I bought some horsey fabric and some lorry and digger fabric on strict orders of short people, and then I came over all strange and took a shine to a quilt on the wall and bought a moda layer cake and free pattern . W hen I got home I got out the rotary cutter and followed the instructions...? yes me, following instructions its been many years since I made a block quilt and I am finding it strangely relaxing. I do like the concept of layer cakes and jelly rolls,, in the olden days you would buy a lot of fat quarters, make a quilt and then be haunted by all the leftover fabric for the next four quilts,this way you use it all up and on to the next one plus all the fabrics go together and you are guaranteed a harmonious quilt! I had intended to influence trudi to make art quilts but I suspect the influence is going in the other direction..

STILL CRINKLEING

HURRAH FOR HALF TERM

HALF TERM HEAVEN

Hurrah, its half term ,lots of time to do lots of stuff.On saturday, the short people helped me tidy the garden and make plans for the veg plot this spring, they very politely asked me if, this year, could we please grow some salami as they have tasted it at school and its lovely, so please, could we? Hmm...

On sunday I became crazed with power as I powerwashed the patio,wow! what a great toy, mr shedman usually keeps all the good stuff to himself but he was busy watching something snowy on the telly so I got to play with his toys..cool!

Today was even better,we popped over to grantham to see the textile lincs exhibition, which was really nice,loraine appletons textiles on felt was particularly striking, love her style and expertise.

Then we had a bit of retail therapy.Oh I love a good charity shop!Ifound the most beatifull M.n.S. pale grey wool throw with a very slight lavender thread running through it, its gorgeous and it was THREE SQUID! I can just imagine stitching into it [excuse me as I dribble] then I found a wool scarf in darker shades of grey and two bracelets with lovely beads for fifty pee, I was beginning to think I'd died and gone to heaven .

Been sewing a bit too, working hard on the crinkle quilt for the feb challenge ,I am determined not to be embarresed this month lots of nice stitching to be done hurrah also have had hints from mr shedman may visit bramblepatch tomorow hurrah!Ilove half term!

QUILTING WEEKEND

Sunday has been very nice,got a lay in,needed it, as I was up very late marking out my latest top, I often do this late at night when its peaceful and quiet..Then I have cooked sunday dinner for the hordes of rellies,thank god my auntie makes my yorkies for me![Bessie.]This evening I started the actual quilting,HURRAH! my favourite bit, it looks very plain as I am adding to it after it is quilted and I am happy to be far away from dye and back with my threads.....

quilting weekend

Another weekend nearly over,and a very nice one at that. . while I am having my mojo moment I have worked quite hard at the crinkle challenge ,one, I am really enjoying doing the crinkle stuff and two I have found a use for it,theres an exhibition at Rufford hall and the quilt theme is Summer i n the garden ,I quite fancy that,so I am having a bash. Anyway,I had a really wonderful day yesterday , we took some of the short people and went to a guild area day--it was brillioso![the kids taught me that] we met up with some friends had a meal together talked quilts looked at quilts and there were several SHOPURTUNITIES! I bought some lengths of lovely linens and some batting and a magnetic bowl thing for pins and a stunning book on curved piecing. But the highlight of the day was meeting and listening to Louise Presley of Hope and Elvis who showed us some marvellous stuff she had made from recycled clothing and talked to us about her life journey, she triggered a strong emotional response for many of us and gave us a lot of food for thought,it felt like a very special time....

CRINKLE QUILT

Well I have started the expeditionquiltart feb challenge, which is a crinkle quilt 24 by 12[inches]. S o obviously I have decided to ignore the rules[yah boo to rules] and mine is very long and skinny--like me!----I wish.. Only because I had a piece of space dyed cotton laying around that was just right, its bright pink at one end running through to yellow at the other end so I will give it a go and see what happens..

journal quilts

MY MOJO IS BACK ! definitely feeling better and raring to go, I have started on expeditionquiltarts feb challenge - a crinkle quilt- easy peasy lemon squeezy think I said that last month too and I am still smarting from the humiliation of last months horrible thing [see yellow peril] but how hard can it be?watch this space. Anyway on with the February journal challenge I haven't started yet but I want to base it on an ornamental winter cabbage I know that I want the left binding to be white so that it will relate to the January quilt that will sit to its left apart from that -who knows...

FLIPPING COLD!

Its a bit nippy isn't it, mr Shedman got all upset last night as he thought he had lost one of his chickens ,he was out there searching in the dark with a torch, when he found her, she'd managed to get back into the ark ,where she lived as a chick ,and was sitting on four frozen eggs, all alone in the open, in the dark. When he picked her up, one of the eggs was frozen to her body! She's back now, with her mates in the coop, non the worse for her adventures. Its not snowing here at the moment[thank goodness,]but when it did snow, I was out with my camera getting a few shots ,this was so that next summer, I can lounge in the baking sun[?] with a cool drink in my hand and gaze at these images on my laptop and feel very smug, anyway I took several piccies of the little red flamingo acer in the snow and then decided to use one of these as the inspiration for my January journal quilt ,for the guild challenge. I am going to base my 12 j.q'.s on my garden through the year, so that they have a cohesiveness , a sense of being a series. a relationship with each other , which my previous j.q'.s didn't have.enough waffle!.I have never done white before so another new experience, here it is.