frayed at the edge

Shaping up

So what did I do with the plastic shapes?  Well, first I will tell you what they are supposed to be used for.  There is a cutter which fits on the shape, then you use it to cut out card, but I haven't used it very much, as it is very hard to keep the shape in place as you run the cutter round it

 

but at the weekend, I was watching a class on Craftsy on using rulers for fmq, when I had a lightbulb moment ....... aha, I thought, maybe I could use those pink plastic shapes, instead of buying (very expensive) rulers.  So I set the machine up with the ruler foot, chose a circle and stitched round it

 

it was easier than I thought it would be - although I think it would be much harder doing it in the middle of a large quilt

 

perfect - my start and stop met up!

 

next I took this rounded square shape and positioned it (more or less) in the middle of the circle and stitched round it

 

a slight wobble at the end, but not too bad

 

a quick infill round the square - I can see lots of possibilities with the shapes

 

ok - I admit it, this one went somewhat awry!

 

when I was ironing the circus fabric prior to cutting out the cushion covers, I discovered that one edge had a flaw in the printing.  However I just trimmed it off before cutting the three strips, so these cushions are a little bit smaller than the farmyard ones

 

so who was going to be in the photos?  Choose us, shouted the Gnome Sisters!

 

no, no, choose us, yelled the Gnome Brothers

 

please choose us for the close-up, said JDtheTractor and Sock Monkey

 

after finding the strange moth yesterday, today Malcolm encountered a toad when he was doing some weeding (maybe I shouldn't let him out in the garden tomorrow!)

Squabbling!

Yesterday, I remembered to take photos of the satin-edged baby quilt.  Miss Jemima was delighted to pose with it ........

 

admiring the satin edging and hinting at a matching nightdress

 

but as you know, there is no show without Pooh, who demanded that he had his photo taken too, for after all the quilt is blue, and blue is for boys (no, he didn't want blue satin jammies, thank you very much!)

 

the two of theme squabbled so much, they had to be sent to the naughty step (which is difficult as we don't have stairs), and Miss Pink Piggy got to pose with the farmyard cushions

 

by the end of this afternoon, I had also finished the three silk cushions .........

 

...... and this one, which I am embarrassed to show you, as I got the measurements wrong and it turned out rectangular instead of square!  However, as soon as Malcolm saw it, he said he liked it, so I have given it to him

 

on Saturday, I bought this remnant of circus fabric.  It is the same make as the farmyard fabric, and should make another three cushions

 

while I was stitching away this afternoon, Malcolm stuck his head in the door and shouted to me to come out into the garden and bring the camera, as he had spotted this moth

 

it fluttered about a bit before disappearing - I just hope a hungry bird hasn't eaten it!

 

come back tomorrow and I will tell you what I did with these shapes!

Cushions galore!

I took a break from working on my pieces for the exhibition, to make some cushions for the bag and quilt raffle.  I had recently bought this remnant of farmyard fabric

 

and on measuring the piece, I found that I could cut three strips, eighteen and a half inches wide.  I stacked them on the cutting mat

 

and cross cut the strips, to give me three squares for the cushion fronts

 

then I cut the remaining fabric in half, to make the two pieces for the backs

 

I turned in and pressed hems on the two long edges of the back pieces, which I then top stitched

 

I forgot to take a photo of the next stage, which was to pin the fronts and backs right sides together, overlapping the back pieces.  I then stitched the four sides.  I prefer to stitch right across each side, rather than pivoting at the corners, as I think this is more accurate

 

I snip the corners off, so that the corners are easier to poke out

 

the cover pressed, ready for the next stage

 

having marked lines an inch and a half from the edge, I top stitched the cover, this time pivoting at the corners (don't worry, the red line disappears with a hot iron)

 

the first cushion finished - the pad in it isn't quite big enough, but I have the correct size ordered

 

the three covers, ready for their pads

 

after making the fun children's cushions, I thought I would do some for the grown-ups, and looked out this beautiful length of silk from my stash.  As you can see, it changes colour depending in how the light strikes it

 

a detail of the embroidery

 

I used a slightly different method for this one.  As the embroidery isn't directional, I didn't have to cut the back separately, so simply cut three long strips.  After hemming the edges, I folded the strip to give me a square, then only had to stitch the two sides

 

the cover turned through and pressed, ready for the top stitching

 

and the finished cover.  I ran out of time to stitch the other two, so I will get them done next week

 

One finished .......

...... and one almost done!  First, "The Two of Us", which is finished ......

 

....... complete with starry buttons for the Sandmen's eyes

 

having put "Autumn Breeze" up on the design wall after finishing the buttonhole stitching, I decided to add an outer border, and found this perfect piece of Moda fabric in my stash

 

I think it looks much better with the border

 

layered up ready to start the fmq

 

I thought I would use a meandering leaf

 

on the large background sections

 

then I got out my ruler and special foot

 

and had a quick practice

 

as I hadn't used it for a while

 

I stitched the two corner blocks with randomly angled lines

 

then stitched the triangles of the vase

 

back to fmq for the leaves

 

and a last bit of filling in the background

 

then finally, a lazy loop all round the border

 

the edges trimmed, ready for the binding

 

which I decided to make using two fabrics

 

the binding machine stitched to the front, ready to hand sew on the back

 

this corner detail shows the two different binding fabrics

 

I'm rushing to finish this, as its Abbey Quilters' AGM this evening, and as always I will be picking Maureen up, before heading over to Kelso.  But I have one more photo to share with ..... prepare to swoon, it's the gorgeous Patrick, snapped during last night's Sewing Bee

Going out in style!

I didn't take any photos at the party on Friday, but I can tell you that we had an excellent time, there was a lot of "do you remember", a lot of laughter ........ and of course there was food, food and even more food!  I gave into temptation, and bought one or two last little bits and bobs ........ on the left is just some basic calico, then in the middle there is a useful white, then a versatile red

 

you can just see that the white has a tiny print on it - it makes a very good background for applique. The red has tiny gold spots - it will be good for all sorts of Christmas projects.

 

some luscious variegated embroidery threads

 

the cutest of cute buttons

 

and even more cute buttons!

 

when I was taking the photos, I noticed this tiny spider on the wall - I put a pin beside it for scale

 

so what do you think this is a photo of?  It is a length of green garden cane, with two raindrops hanging from it

 

the first poppy has flowered - and in the background you can see the bird bath which the fussy birds refused to use - it now has plants in it

 

the inside of the poppy would make a good textured applique block

 

to finish - some sconnage!  When we were out and about yesterday morning, we went for a cuppa, and shared a very tasty (and still warm from the oven) scone

 

back tomorrow with lots of sewing!

 

Today we start ........

........ with a finish!  I have finished the pastel version of the baby quilt.  Here are the two of them, folded in half and pinned on the design wall

 

so the next project to be worked on is the wonderful applique that the lovely Margaret gave me for my birthday last year.  I had added two borders some time ago, so thought it was time I got on with the quilting.  I found a floral fabric in my stash for the backing, and an offcut of cotton wadding

 

I got out this set of continuous-line quilting patterns

 

and chose this one, the Sandman, for the outer border

 

using my lightpad .......

 

I traced the pattern on to the border

 

all pinned, ready to quilt

 

I started by quilting in-the-ditch on either side of the pink border

 

then quilted the background of the centre panel

 

with a lazy meander

 

the final stage of the quilting was to do the border

 

I think I might add beads for eyes to the Sandmen

 

I had a hunt through my stash for a pink fabric for the binding.  Neither of these was big enough

 

so I made the binding with alternating strips

 

I trimmed the wallhanging

 

and pinned the hanging sleeve in place

 

the binding ready to handstitch in place on the back

 

I won't be here tomorrow, as I will be at a little party.  But it will be a somewhat sad party, as it is to mark the final closing of Borderland Fabrics, after the shop was flooded earlier in the year.  As this means there won't be any Friday cake, we again made a great sacrifice for the blog, and went out for a cuppa this afternoon, and forced ourselves to eat these two delicious cakes - a strawberry tart

 

and a banoffee pie

 

so, a day early, I will wish you a good weekend, love Anne 

Rush, rush, rush

A very quick post, as I have to head off to pick up Maureen, as we have an Abbey Quilters' committee meeting this evening - it's all very serious stuff, as we are now counting down the weeks to our exhibition in July.  But I promised you sewing, so here it is!  I started with an easy task, after my holiday break from sewing.  I trimmed the bright baby quilt

 

made the binding

 

and in no time at all, it was ready for hand-stitching the binding on the back of the quilt

 

the finished quilt

 

with its colourful backing fabric 

 

the next task was the pastel version of the quilt.  I choose a pretty fabric for the backing, and the same cotton wadding as I used in the bright version

 

all pinned ready to quilt

 

the centre panel quilted

 

with a little loopy three-petal flower

 

and one of the side panels quilted with a meandering loopy pattern

 

I know you have been worried that I had to make do with cakes for three weeks on holiday, but my normal diet was restored today when I tucked into this delicious cheese scone!!

It's Friday again!

My goodness, it hardly seems five minutes since I was sitting here in the flat last Friday writing a post!  When we arrived after lunch there was a big ship in the dock, but it wasn't being loaded as it was raining, so there was also a queue of lorries

 

when the rain went off, this crew member appeared and started opening the hatches with this natty hoist

 

having lifted a section, he whizzed along and deposited it on top of the others - I wanted to have a go!  But before long it started to rain again, the hatches were closed and all the lorries left

 

on Wednesday afternoon I thought I ought to make a start to stitching my block for this year's challenge for Abbey Quilters.  We are doing sashiko blocks  - we were given a piece of fabric and thread, and a choice of patterns.  I chose this one, as it is much more interesting than the ones that are made up of straight lines or curves.  This is the pattern pinned to the fabric with a piece of chalk transfer paper in between

 

the chalk lines will rub off after the pattern is stitched

 

it is very soothing to sit and stitch along the lines with long stitches

 

this afternoon we braved the rain and walked over to town, where we popped into Fantoosh for a cuppa and cake  

 

Malcolm chose lemon and almond shortbread, which was very tasty

 

but when he tasted my chocolate mint brownie, he wished he had ordered one too!!

 

the forecast for the weekend is cold but dry, so hopefully we will be out and about.  Have a good weekend, love Anne

An entertaining evening!

Our speaker last night was Susie Finlayson, who was very much involved in the making of the Great Tapestry of Scotland.  You can read about when I went to see it, and see lots of photos here.  Susie told us that it was her Mum who signed up originally to work on the Tapestry (despite not being a stitcher!),  then one day she phoned Susie and suggested that she should go along and give a hand ....... of course Susie (despite being a grown up) did what her Mum said!  She started by tracing the designs and sorting out the wools needed, then posting off the packs to the stitchers.  But she gradually got drawn in and ended up stitching too.  Since then, she has developed a new career, teaching stitching workshops, and now, along with some other stitchers, has formed Yarns Ecosse - do click on the link to see the beautiful kits that they have produced.  Although they aren't yet selling them online, Susie said that if there is one you would like to email them, and hopefully they will be able help.  It was a very enjoyable evening, as Susie is a natural story teller, who had us in fits of laughter

 

so, now on to the sewing.  At the weekend, I quilted eight of the stitcheries, and made start to the ninth

 

I bought this magazine on Saturday

 

and was very interested in this little item on numbered pins ........ until I got to the end and saw the price!!

 

when I told Malcolm about the price, he said what I was thinking, that I could make my own.  So I got out this set of pins, which had been free with a magazine, and a little block of post-it arrows, which are only sticky on the point

 

I simply wrapped the post-its round the pins and wrote the numbers on (hi-tech stuff!!)

 

and here is one in action

 

next I looked out this tin, which had previously had lemon-flavoured salt in it

 

it looked a bit boring, so I added some washi tape

 

so here are my numbered pins, which probably cost me about 10p to make

 

having made the pins, I then got on with the rest of the blocks with the birdie fabric.  This was my first random layout which I wasn't happy with.  I fetched Malcolm from the garage, where he was playing with bits of wood, to have a look.  He stated the obvious, that there was too much purple at the top, but didn't have a suggestion for a better layout

 

so after a lot of rearranging (and perhaps a naughty word or two) I arrived at a layout I liked

 

and it didn't take long to stitch it all together

 

so all that is leftover is a little pile of scraps, and three strips from the jelly roll ....... I wonder what I can do with them

 

to finish - we are in the middle of the campaign for the elections for the Scottish Parliament.  Election day is the 5th of May, when we will choose a new set of numpties/idiots/useless chookies/MSPs.  I was going to strike through the first descriptions, but they apply to most of our politicians.  So when this election pamphlet arrived this morning, I had a chuckle ....... would you trust a politician called Cunning ......... I can just hear his opponents saying "cunning by name, cunning by nature"!

 

Painted and planted

Here is Malcolm's latest creation, basking in the sunshine this morning.  It looks grey here, but it is actually a very stylish black

 

the little conifer was from a pot in the front garden, which it had outgrown, and we bought the three little plants yesterday.  It still needs some more plants, but it is looking good

 

this afternoon I sat down in the studio, with the stove blazing to keep me warm and watched a film, while I hand stitched the binding on the big runner

 

next, the piece of fabric which Maureen gave me.  I managed to cut eight six-inch strips

 

which I then cross cut to give me a total of twenty four squares, with only the smallest of scraps left over

 

I looked out the remains of a jelly roll, which I had got some time age from Sandra, our lovely Linus lady

 

I sorted out the strips into pairs of a coloured one and a green one

 

I stitched a strip down one side of two squares

 

cut off the extra and stitched it to the other side

 

I cut the two squares apart and pressed the seams

 

then did the same on the other two sides with a green strip.  When I put them on the design wall, I had thought of arranging them like this

 

but this afternoon I had a rethink, and decided to do half the squares like that, and half the other way round, with short green strips and long coloured strips.  It will look better once I have done more squares and mixed the colours more

 

to finish - I found this photo earlier, when I was looking back through last month's photos, and thought that it might make a good quilting pattern (it's a tractor's tyre track in the sand).