Afternoon tea, cutting fabric and stitching on binding.

Yesterday was a crafting day but first I had to take Twiglet to the groomers. He was a very scruffy pup and now he's a handsome dashing Yorkshire Terrier again. Twiglet is a big Yorkie, not a teacup or a mini. If he was, I would probably have squashed him by now as he loves to jump into your chair just as you sit down. His grooming went well as he's always well behaved but the heat was getting to me and I felt dizzy so I was relieved when Richard came to meet us and we walked home together. Once home I had to have a rest before the next activity.

This week has been National Afternoon Tea week. I love a traditional afternoon tea and it is the perfect meet up with friends. However I didn't fancy a trip out so decided to do tea and scones for the family. I have a pretty bone china tea set that belonged to my mother. I think it may have been a present but not a wedding present. The design is from the 1950's and my parents got married in 1946. I set the table for the four of us. It was a simple afternoon tea with tea or coffee to drink and scones, jam and cream. In order to set the table I had to move all my sewing bits to the spare chair and top of my machine! I used one of the embroidered table cloths that had been my mothers. This is an antique, a bit like me, as I remember her embroidering it when I was still at primary school.

We all enjoyed the scones and we sat and chatted for quite a while afterwards. We decided we needed to use the tea set more, particularly for special occasions such as birthdays. The last time it was used was after the covid lockdowns. We celebrated Lucy's birthday with a birthday tea party in the back garden at older daughter's house. At this point you could only socialise outside.

After the scones and cream I cleared away and returned to cutting fabric. I started with cutting the fabric for the Christmas quilt. All the patterned fabrics are cut but I still have the background fabric and the sparks or star fabric to do. I worked out the fabric requirements for the additional three blocks.

I decided I wanted to use a yellow batik for the stars but I don't have enough of a single piece. Between the three batik yellows I can cut all the stars but I think I will order more of the bright yellow batik as it really does spark.

Alternatively I do have enough plain yellow fabric for the stars. Once I've cut the background fabric and the star fabric I can get the blocks sewn together.

The seed packets and back ground for the garden quilt are also cut out and ready for sewing. I think I did too much cutting yesterday as my right wrist is a little sore. At least sewing the blocks will rest my wrist.

Yesterday evening I finished a book called The sewing machine by Natalie Fergie

I really enjoyed this book. The story is multigenerational historical fiction. The story starts in 1911 with Jean who works at the Singer factory at the time the 1911 strike took place. It follows the lives of the family though to almost present day and the sewing machine is a main thread in the story. It is this story that meant I didn't get the binding attached to the dinosaur quilt this week. The story also made me look up information about the strike, how many women worked at the factory and what their lives were like. It was fascinating.

I realised I had forgotten to show you what I bought at the Festival of Quilts. I didn't need fabric although John bought me some to make a dress. I'll hopefully get round to that in the near future. I bought this pattern book. This is by the person who designed the bird embroideries. I've also shown the post card for Paint- box threads. These threads are hand dyed and are beautiful to the touch. I've ordered the threads I need to complete the bird stitcheries.

I also bought this kit to make a wall hanging. It comes with the panel of the birds required but the remaining fabric will be from stash. 

What I want to try with this is using the Inktense blocks to paint the background fabric. I bought a small set of the ink blocks a while ago but haven't had time to try them out. On one of the embroidery YouTube channels I follow 'Marion's World', Marion uses them a lot to get the background colours she wants for her embroidery. I'm all for trying something new. To use the inks you use a paint brush and water. They are good for using on fabric and adding more or less water affects the intensity of the colour. The can also easily be mixed. I'm going to be having a play with them over the bank holiday, next weekend.

I also have one of Kate Finlay's bird picture kits to make up before I start on this quilt kit.

Tomorrow I'm back at work. It's been great to be able to fit in some crafting, sewing or whatever I want to work on each day. On the upside, having been off sick and therefore unable to take my holiday, I have an additional 10 days holiday next year. Our holiday runs from September to August and I plan on taking some time off at the end of September.

Now I need to make good use of my time today as I have a lot I want to do.

Take care

Lyndsey

Stroking and choosing fabrics

Yesterday my car went into the garage for a service. Normally I would collect it later in the day but I had my follow up appointment with the plastic surgeon following my breast reconstruction in March. It has all healed really well and I am very happy with the result. The surgeon was happy and has put me on the waiting list for creation of the nipple. It's taken a while to get to this point since I had my mastectomy in 2017 but it has been worth the wait.

This morning was rather busy. I took the dogs out for their morning walk at 7:30. I had a podiatry appointment at 8:30 and then I had to go and collect my car. We decided to do a little shopping on the way home and also to get morning coffee and cake. Once home again I had the afternoon to do some sewing.

I need to make a start on my Chookshed challenge for August. My challenge was to start the Garden quilt as this was to be a gift but I had also decided I wanted to make a Christmas quilt. The Garden quilt was originally being made for an friend but they have decided there is another quilt they would like instead. However, if possible, they would like me to make a smaller sized quilt based on the pattern for their grandchild who loves to 'help' in the garden. This is the pattern I was going to make, and it finishes at 72 x 92inches, too big for a young child.

So last evening I had spent some time doing the maths to scale the quilt down for a child. I gave myself a headache with the maths but came up with a workable pattern. This afternoon I spent some time going through my fabric and enjoying stroking it. I pulled some fabrics to use as the seed packets. In my experience young children love the idea of planting seeds and watching them grow so this row had to be included. I also found some suitable fabric for the carrots, beetroot and cabbages. 

I also think I can use these these gardening themed fabrics.

The more I thought about making a child's garden quilt the more fun I thought it would be. I had to look in my stash for some background fabric and then I would be ready to start cutting the blocks. 

Before starting making the seed blocks, I decided I would go through the Christmas fabrics for the second quilt I wanted to start. A while back I made this Christmas quilt from a pattern by Phoebe Moon Designs. I really like this quilt.

The pattern finishes at 53 X 73 inches and is made from 6 blocks. When I made this quilt I added three additional blocks to make a square quilt finishing at 73 X 73 inches. I wish I'd made a note of the additional fabrics I needed as it would have made life a lot easier. These are the Christmas fabrics I found.

I'm not sure that this selection of fabrics will work so I may have to go shopping. I won't start cutting these blocks until I've made a final decision on the fabrics I'll use.

So I'm off to cut and make the seed packet blocks. They will be slightly smaller than on the pattern so I hope I've got my maths right. I'll show you the blocks in the next post.  

Take care

Lyndsey

 

Dolls house, binding and a play day.

Recently I haven't had time to work on my doll house. In fact it has been several months now so on Sunday I decided that I would finish the roof tiles. I'd been putting this off because I needed to cut the tiles to fit round the dormers. I had hoped that if I left it long enough that the fairies (in the shape of husband or son) would come along and finish it for me.  This is how far I'd got when I last worked on the roof.

I'd been sitting in a position that meant the house was in my line of sight and as I looked at it I gave myself a little talking to. The talk went along the lines of ' you've learnt how to knit, crochet, quilt and do a vast variety of things so why do you think you can't finish this roof? I made myself a cup of tea and considered why I had put off doing the job and the answer was 'I might break the tiles which would be a waste'.  Not a problem as the N gauge model railway being made by husband and son has a slate quarry and the roof tiles are made of slate. Any breakages could be used in their railway. I covered the dining table with a large cloth and set about finishing the main front roof. It did involve a lot of cutting of tiles and yes I did break several but finally it was finished and I'm very pleased with how it looks.  Later this week I'll put the tiles on the dormer roofs. The back half of the roof will be easier but it does have two chimneys I'll need to work round and I'll have to order some more tiles. Meanwhile I have ordered the ridge tiles to finish off the top of the front roof. The roof is hinged and the ridge tile will only be on the front half of the roof.

Having finished the quilting on the dinosaur quilt I prepared the binding. I'm using the same fabric as the back of the quilt. The binding has been attached and I've already sewn it down along one of the shorter edges and round two corners. That does mean there are three sides to stitch down. If I get a wriggle on I could have this finished this week.

When I was quilting the dinosaurs I decided to do a meander pattern but I also played. Here I was practicing my feather interpretation.

I gave the stegosaurus a bouffant look. He seemed happy about it.

The various plants were fun to quilt and I did a trail of leaves on the sashing.

On some of the dinosaurs I also quilted a heart.

On Monday John and I went over to our older daughter, Katy's house to help her and her husband Olly with some painting and DIY. They had ordered a new bed and had decided to paint their bedroom before setting it up. Probably a good idea as some paint had already been spilt!. I took my knitting bag and the quilt I'm hand quilting. My job was to play with my grandson Aubrey. Olly had set up the sand pit and water plus the play kitchen in the garden with big parasols to provide shade. We started off playing with the kitchen. My grandson had a great time 'cooking' and creating strange imaginary drinks. We enjoyed a pretend picnic and we played in the sand. Whilst Aubrey was cooking I got on with some quilting and we chatted all day. I put together a large cardboard play train that he had been given for his birthday and we went on several journeys. In the run up to his bedtime we cuddled together on the sofa and watched Thomas the tank engine on TV. It was a lovely way to spend a day. I can't wait until our next play day.

My hand quilting is coming along quite well and I hope to have this finished by the end of next week at the latest. This was the first block I did and my stitches aren't very even but they have got better as I've gone on. Katy has already adopted this quilt.

The temperature here in the UK is getting hotter again and we are supposed to be having yet another heat wave. I think this is number 4 for the year. What I'd really like is some rain, preferably overnight. When I think back to my childhood, every day was sunny through the summer holidays and it only rained overnight.

Today I have some ironing to do and then I can get on with some sewing. I love holiday time.

Take care

Lyndsey

Baking, hand quilting, and time for binding.

I started the day by making some buns and muffins. I had some raspberries and blueberries but not many of each. Instead of going to my favourite recipe for the raspberry and white chocolate, I used one recommended by a friend. I wish I'd stuck with my usual recipe as they didn't rise well and took longer to cook but they are still very tasty.  I also made some blueberry and cinnamon muffins. In our family you have to make more than one type of bun, muffin or fairy cake as we all like different things. My son certainly won't touch the blueberry and cinnamon as he doesn't like the taste.

Earlier in the week John collected together the quilts I made for donation. There were three,

I thought there should be 4. I had vague memory of the quilt I'd made as a mystery quilt. Back to the cupboard. Oh no! I remember that I decided to hand quilt this one just to be able to say I had quilted one quilt by hand.

I had done very little of the hand quilting so for the last couple of days I've been working on this quilt. There is still a lot of quilting to do but at least I'm aware I need to get it finished. I would like to finished the quilting this month but I do have other projects I want to work on, however I have found the hand quilting very peaceful to do in the evening whilst watching TV so it may get finished.

Yesterday I finished the machine quilting on the dinosaur quilt and I trimmed the quilt ready to sew on the binding. I need to get the binding made today and once sewn on I can hand stitch it down. I also need to think about a quilt label. I haven't taken an up to date photo of the quilt but I will once it's all complete.

On Thursday John and I went to the Royal Academy to see the summer exhibition. Last year we were disappointed by the art work but this year was fun. I'll show you the pictures in a separate post once I've taken the photos off the camera.

This coming week is week 2 of my annual leave. We currently don't have anything particular planned but I am hoping to do a fair amount of sewing and embroidery. I also want to have a day out somewhere. Next job, check the weather forecast for the week and then chose somewhere I would like to visit. I don't want to drift through the week and achieve very little.

Take care

Lyndsey

A few more quilt photo and a little sewing.

Following our visit to the Festival of Quilts I'd promised the family I would make a cake or some millionaires shortbread. On Sunday morning I made good on my promise and I made both a Lemon Drizzle cake and the shortbread. The chocolate still needed to be cut into squares. Both were delicious but I managed not to eat very much of either of them as I'm trying to lose a little more weight.

Unfortunately I now need to make some raspberry and white chocolate muffins but that is a job for tomorrow.

I promised a few more quilt photos from the quilt festival. This first quilt is the winner for the Young Quilter / embroiderer 10 to 13 years. The quilt 'Not my anti-hero', was made by Rosemary Williams age 11 using machine piecing, raw edge applique, machine quilting, hand quilting and embellishment. Rosemary said that 'Taylor Swift is my hero. She is an amazing musical artist who showed determination, self confidence and perseverance in the face of adversity at the hardest times of her life. She inspires me to work hard to achieve what I want to achieve in life.' There was minimal adult involvement in the making of the quilt

This next quilt was in the 14 to 18 years category. It is titled 'Retro Day' and made by Alice S Grout 16 from Sandwich UK. She states that this piece is inspired by her design hero Lucienne Day. I discovered her work during my GCSE Textile lessons and I love the way she uses colour, shape and eternal influences of the period. She heavily influenced my design work. I didn't get a photo of the winning quilt in this category,

The quilt below is the winning quilt for the 5 to 9 age group. The Polar Exploration. A tribute to Ann Bancroft was made by Ava Williams age 9. Ava says she loves polar bears and the Arctic. Her inspiration was the first female polar explorer Ann Bancroft, who is her hero.

The next quilt 'Wear Your Wings with Pride' won the quilt creation category. It was made by Matt Wilding using traditional piecing, applique, wadding, boning and metallic eyelets.

Entries for this category must qualify as clothing, wearable art or three dimensional pieces. I really liked the wings.

This quilt was in the modern category. 'Life is not always straightforward' designed and made by Hilary Florence from Yelverton UK. It was made using a variety of synthetic silver fabrics and hand dyed cotton.

This quilt came second in the Two Person category. 'Daisy' was designed by Helen Brookham  and quilted by Sandy Chandler who come from Launceston UK

This quilt was submitted to the novice category by Therese Williams from Hedgerley UK. 'Hand stitched Shibori' was designed and made by Therese. To be eligible to enter the novice category the person must have been quilting for less than 3 years. Pieces entered in this category should have been completed within the last two years and not previously exhibited. Entrants should not hold a formal qualification in textiles or related subject.

An art quilt, designed and made by Sarah Lykins Entsminger from Virginia, United States and is titled 'Morning Fog'. This quilt was the judges choice.

'Parterre' was the winner in the traditional category and also the Judges Choice.' It was designed by Shelly Kelly and made by Sonia Higgs from Wodonga, Australia. Formal French gardens inspired the colour schemes.

The final quilt was my favourite of the whole show. 'She Matters' was designed and made by Sue de Vanny from Victoria, Australia. Sue writes, My tribute portrait to the female mountain Gorillas of Rwanda. This lady is 40 years old and 7 months pregnant. It shows mature age pregnancy in the animal kingdom and the significance to increase the numbers of these amazing animals.

I hope you enjoyed the quilts, we certainly had a great day out and I enjoyed seeing all the quilts.

Today I got out my sewing machine and a shirt that was all cut out but I hadn't started sewing. The fabric is a red satin and I decided to make it to wear at Christmas. The pattern is a Vogue pattern and I've used it once before. I like the pattern but as I started work on the front of the shirt I remembered why I'd only made it once.

The button bands on the front are really annoying to get lined up and looking good. The button band was eventually added successfully. The stitching around the bands isn't really puckered, it just hasn't been pressed after a lot of handling. The outer edge is puckered as I quickly run an overlock stitch round to stop the fabric fraying. I had the same problem with the last shirt I made but it looks beautiful and I wear it quite often. The rest of the pattern will go together really quickly. 

Tomorrow is a busy day as i have errands to run but I'm hoping to get some sewing time in. I need to quilt a final dinosaur.

Take care

Lyndsey

A trip to the Festival of Quilts.

On the 1st August, John and I visited the festival of Quilt along with John's sister Hazel and her friend Sharon. The trip from our house is 120 miles but we dropped younger daughter at work and picked up Hazel and Sharon on the way. 

The London end of the journey was rather cluttered with work day traffic but once on the M40 the traffic thinned out and we had a good drive in sunny weather. The NEC is massive with a range of exhibition spaces and the Festival of Quilts occupies 3 extremely large areas since it is now the biggest quilt show in Europe. We started with coffee and worked out our plan for the day, that is, what time to meet up for lunch and time to go home. Having refuelled, John and I decided to start with the retail areas as there were some items I needed.  

After a very tasty lunch of fish and chips we started our tour of the quilts and displays. This year I didn't take as many photos as usual but I got most of the prizewinners.

This crazy quilt dressing gown was part of one of the displays and I really liked it. It was made some time between 1940 and 1950 but the makers name is unknown. It is made of a variety of fabrics including cotton, silk and rayon with embroidery over the seams. The lining is thought to be parachute silk. Parachutes were quite often made of nylon not silk. If the lining is made from a parachute then it could have been made after the war. There were a lot of restrictions about using a resource that was considered vital for the war effort. I like this dressing gown because it's so bright and cheerful even after all these years and the maker was so resourceful.

This quilt won Best in Show 2025. It was designed and made by Simone Steuxner from Sweden and was titled Twisted. Simone states her design inspiration came from nature and the twists and turns of daily life. The rainbow colours represent the versatility and uniqueness of people and life itself.

This collection of 12 inch quilts were made by course members as part of an assessment. I took the photo as all of them together made a really joyful display.

This quilt wasn't a winner but it was beautiful and it must have taken hours of work especially the quilting. This quilt was in the Sustainable Quilt group. To be eligible to enter this class 75% of the fabric used within the quilt must be re-purposed from materials including functional textiles e.g. curtains, clothing. The remaining 25% would ideally be organic fabrics or taken from the makers stash rather than bought.

'One off the bucket list' was designed and made by Victoria Miller from Rugeley UK using the cathedral windows pattern which had been on her bucket list for some time. She repurposed three bedsheets and two duvets for the biggest part of the quilt.

This quilt was designed and made by Andrea Lea McVey from North Lanarkshire, Scotland using foundation paper piecing construction, longarm quilting and a pantograph design.  The title is 'A wind from the North'. I love the way the clothing is moving in the wind. This quilt was shortlisted for the Pictorial prize 

This quilt was catching everyone's eye due to the bright colours. Another pictorial quilt titled Kubota's Dream designed and made by Luana Rubin from Boulder CO, USA using painted background, fused applique and machine freemotion stitching.

Another pictorial quilt called Rusty Rocky River designed and made by Elly Prins from Zoetermeer, Netherlands using the one block wonder technique. I couldn't get a photo of this one without someone standing in front of it! 

Also a pictorial quilt, this time designed and made by Janice Gunner from Shefford UK titled, 'After the rain - Osu no ayki'. Machine applique/quilting/embroidery using African wax print and batik cotton.

This quilt 'Springtime in Somerset' was the third prize winner in the Pictorial quilt category. Designed and made by Sarah Mcclean from Highbridge UK who was inspired by her garden in the spring. She wanted to show the vibrancy of the abundant spring flowers.

This quilt was entered in the contemporary category by the designer and maker Vendulka Battais from Suffolk UK and titled 'Open to Interpretation'. Vendulka said she is challenging herself with abstract design. This quilt won first prize in the category.

The next quilt won 1st prize in the modern category. The quilt is designed and made by Olesa Bitsch from Steckborn, Switzerland and is titled 'Orbit'.

This quilt, 'Rust Collective', was entered to the group category. To be a group there had to be more than two makers. The quilt was designed by Ruth Axson and made by a group called Beartown Patchworkers and Quilters from Staffordshire UK. The group had 35 members. It was inspired by some gifted silk factory overruns.

This was the winner of the group category. It is titled 'Under the sea' and was made by Belmont Grosvenor School, Harrogate UK (year 5/6) There were 15 children in the group and the design was a collaboration by the children. Each child has learned to use a sewing machine to make a fish which has been appliqued onto the backing. This school uses the Festival of Quilts as inspiration for the DT project of the summer term.

This is another pictorial quilt. Designed and made by Antonia Hering from NoordHolland, Netherlands it is titled 'The Gathering'.

I still have a few more quilts to share but I have some chores I have to do, including cooking dinner. I'll share the rest tomorrow.

Take care

Lyndsey