Slowly But Surely!

I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas weekend!  

Mine was quiet, and although I'm struggling a bit with a yucky cold, it's been lovely chilling out with family, and living a slow pace through the day.

I haven't felt much like sewing, but my hands are too fidgety to remain motionless for long, so there's been a little bit of crochet.

More headbands

Lots of circles, which are meant to become squares for a cushion cover.

And I'll leave you with a sneak peak of a W.I.P. for my youngest!

Have a lovely day!

Judith xo

Doll Quilts & Ramblings!

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days.

It's not that I haven't been making stuff, just too busy to get photographing and writing!

This is my busiest season of the year.  I'm frantically churning out class samples for Christmas classes and also trying to get next terms programme of classes sorted and samples made for those too!

But this weekend was all about fun, friends and playtime!

Saturday I had a lovely afternoon out with my special friend, Sarah.  We don't often get to spend quality time on our own, and we can easily spend 5 hours talking solely about fabric & quilts!!  We visited a local (ish) store called The Craftswoman, which is an Aladin's cave of all things fabric related, then had lunch, then stopped off at another fabric shop before heading for home.  The perfect day!

Most of my purchases were for other people, but I did get some extra wide, medium weight calico at a bargain price! (sad what gets me excited!)

Yesterday I was intent on playing with an idea that was formulating in my dusty old brain!

I recently saw these on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22833158%40N05/3984143785/in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22833158%40N05/3952226512/in/photostream

... and thought I could make some doll quilts for my 2 small nieces along a similar idea.

So in my usual organic (aka 'make it up as I go along') style, I came up with these:

My youngest particular likes these wellies - she's a bit of a wellie addict!

With hindsight, there are a few things I would do differently next time i.e. use a heavier weight linen or calico rather than this stuff which was too thin.

But on the whole I'm pleased with them and enjoyed making them.

The matching pillows

So, apart from getting these ready to post to England, I can tick 2 Christmas pressies off my gigantic list!

Hope you all had a great weekend and a good start to the new week.

Judith xo

A Sketchy Welcome!

I've been working on my new programme of classes, starting in September, and thought I'd do a few posts about some of the projects I'm planning to teach.

I try to make/design things that I'd be happy to have in my own home.  Today I'll show you my Welcome Wallhanging!

I wanted a rustic yet modern banner for my hall, and so combined linen with New England colours, and applied an applique technique called 'Sketching'.

  

Sketching is a form of Free Motion Quilting (FMQ) and it is great fun because to achieve the desired look, you really want a few wiggly lines in there - perfect!!  Poppy Teffrey's book 'Free & Easy Stitch Style' was my inspiration.

I adapted a Microsoft Word Font to get the lettering just right, and have templates printed out for the class to use. The wire quilt hanger (16") was from The Cotton Patch, but I've also seen them on Ebay and other online suppliers.

In order to free motion quilt on your machine, you have to be able to either drop the feed dogs (the zagged edged feeders under the needle plate) or cover them over with a specially fitting cover.  Have a look at your instruction manual for how to do this on your machine, or take your machine to your local Sewing Machine suppliers & they will show you how.

You will also need a FMQ foot (or Darning foot) for this technique.

This is for a Janome, but most FMQ feet are similar in shape.

The finished size of the wallhanging is 8" x 20".  At the moment we are in the process of painting our hall/stairs/landing (in a 3 storey Victorian semi!!!).  I'm looking forward to getting the painting finished so I can hang up my 'Welcome'.

I have to let you into a secret!  This is the 2nd Welcome Banner I've had to make.  The first one ended up looking like this after the dog decided she wanted her own personal welcome.......

She has a fetish for buttons!  She ate all 5 of them!

She did me a favour really, because in making the 2nd one, I decided to iron in some vilene (which helps the banner hang better) and I shortened the hanging tabs.  Having said that, I'm not ready for her to become Quality Control on future designs!

I hope this 4 week project appeals to folks, who can easily adapt the colours and style to suit, use up some scraps, and also get a fun introduction to FMQ.

Creative Block!

As I mentioned yesterday, I've had a roller coaster ride with the mini quilt for my Brit Quilt Swap Partner.

I was pleased with the appliqued heart:

But then, I quilted a grid pattern on the background, not realising the fabric I'd chosen for the back was showing through to the front - booooo!  

Not so obvious in this pic, but trust me, it's there!

I had checked that it wasn't showing through when it was all lying flat on the table, but of course, when you hold it up against a wall, the shadows from the patterned fabric came through!  Aaaarggh!

So I had to carefully cut out my appliqued heart and start again with a new background.

I didn't like the quilted grid effect, so I parked that idea while I explored the other element of my design - fabric leaves.

I initially thought of handmade leaves in the colours of the rainbow, but as I started making them I realised they were way too textured and bulky, and fought alongside the heart, which is to remain the central theme.

So that idea was ditched too! 

After much contemplation and analysing of my partner's inspiration mosaic once more, I remained convinced that leaves were the right way to go, but a softer approach was needed.

So this is what I've come up with:

Not a great pic, sorry, but this baby is 24" square!

Soft greens & aquas, with free motion quilting detail.

I'm liking this much more now - there is balance with the heart, plus it is much more in keeping with my partner's likes (I hope!).

I'm thinking of a simple border and binding to finish - less is more!

So partner, what do you think?