WIPW

We have another week until end of term so I am still restricted with my use of the computer, but, there will be a new timetable next term and perhaps I might have some more time to sew.

My donation quilt is nearly finished, just the binding to go.  I used up all the Peter Rabbit fabric I had for this one.

I found the printed panels were not printed quite straight which meant that I had to separate each row so that the quilt would end up square but still look alright.

I had the length but not the width so had to cut and piece every bit of fabric I had for the borders to make it wide enough.

I managed to combine 3 fabrics for the back. I just used a stipple pattern to quilt the top, the design was too busy for anything else.  Now only the binding remains to be done.

Whilst waiting for my yarn to be delivered to finish and start my projects I have embarked on my first knitted dog.  A Puggle who's name is "Nugget".  I will be interested to see how this knits up.

And, I have had one false start on my next portrait, I'm not sure how I will stitch this one, so I put it aside.

Then, I got out all the fabric pens and some paint.  I had no idea that I had so much.  I will need to do some experiments first with these.

I then sketched out a design from an old photograph that was taken with a box brownie back in the 1960's.  It isn't a good photograph, I think my sister took it and she would have been 9 or 10 years old at the time.  But it is the only one I have of my two grandmothers.  You can't see the detail very well but I remember every detail of their faces and their clothing.  It was taken in the front yard of our 1950's home and I remember the flowers in the garden, the venetians on the windows and the railing around the verandah.  That verandah was all sand stone flagstones and I had to scrub it with a sandstone and scrubbing brush.  My Mother wanted no marks on the stone and the lady that came in to help in the house wouldn't do them.  (My Mother had terminal cancer by this time and I would do anything to make her life a little easier.)

I hope this one turns out well, there are a lot of memories attached to this photo.

WIPW

To bad about the knitting.  I am just short on the amount of wool I need.  I have to wait for the rest to come from Scotland.

 

And I am underway with the next portrait.  I would have liked to use some paints on this one but it needs to be the same as the others in this section.  Lots of slow stitching.

WIPW

The only thing that I have worked on all the time has been my knitting, and, I have had my loyal little companion sitting with me for every stitch.

I have finished the lace border and am now into the boring bit of knitting the body of the shawl.  I just hope I have enough wool!  If not I will have to send to Scotland for more and that could take some time.  I finished the donation quilt and that has gone in to be quilted.  I am still not up to something as big as that to do.  There is a 4 to 6 week wait for that to be finished.  (There must be lots of ladies making quilts I think.)

I have started the drawings for the shell embroideries and was surprised at just how geometric the patterns on the shells are.  Lines, dots, dashes and triangles.

 

 

Now I have to start thinking about how I will stitch them.  My plan was to do very small 1.5" pieces but now I'm not so sure.

They actually make quite a nice repeat pattern.  I might have to play around with that for a bit.

WIPW

I am continuing with the two quilts that I talked about yesterday.  I have to learn how to do graffitti lettering to put messages on the brick walls that will make up the borders around the quilt.  First I will try on paper, then draw onto fabric and finally applique this into position.  I have found a site on-line that teaches

"graffitti art for beginners." I'm not going to rush it.

And I am just researching a new project which is based around where I live.  I want to do small embroideries, that will fit into those hoops, around local themes.  I am going to start with shells.  A walk along the beach has given me a collection of small shells to start with.

I think that I need to sketch and draw them and then maybe put them into vector drawings.  I can do those whilst I supervise lessons.  And I still have all that other stuff to finish!!!

 

WIPW

I am not quite as well as I thought but I am improving.  I hope to go to Toowoomba this weekend but I will not make a final decision until Friday.  I still have to prepare the work I will take with me, so that is what I am doing at the moment.

There are 2 quilts I want to finish the piecing and then quilt.  The first is made up of Peter Bunny prints.  I have made one quilt from this fabric but still had a lot left over.  These panels are not straight so they need to be unpicked and resewn, then the rest of the panels added to make a quilt.  This will be a donation quilt.

The second is another quilt that I have put away and not finished.  It needs one more graffitti block to be added, I have a dog coming out of a manhole that I want to put in.  Then I have to think about the borders.  But, I might be better without any borders?  I intend to get the opinion of the other ladies who will be there.

And as winter is fast approaching and I don't see well at night I am continuing with my knitting.

I always take too much away with me for these weekends so this time I am being prudent.

WIPW

I have been in the grip of this bug for 3 weeks now and recovery is sooo slow.  Just when I think I am recovering I find myself laid low again.  I have a class coming up on Saturday so that has been my first priority.

I have partially prepared kits all over the over the place.

At the last minute I have decided to change thing by including a second frame.  This one is smaller.  This will allow students the chance to repeat the project in another size.

I also was not happy with my knitting so, it has come been pulled undone and re-knitted on a smaller sized set of needles.

I am much happier with this.

 

WIPW

I have started work on the embroidered jewelry.  The designs are small, stitched with one thread and there is little room for error.  I don't like some of the stitches that are recommended, especially when worked in 1 strand of embroidery thread, so have decided to choose my own stitches.  Having said that the designs are sweet but the black fabric just attracts dust and lint.  I'm going to have to get rid of that.

I keep working on these box bags trying to get the perfect finish.  (Some of the ladies in my patchwork group only know one way to stitch, perfectly.) I didn't stitch enough small embroideries for this one.  It just isn't balanced so I'm going to have to use it at home.

I have now switched to some of the Tilda Woodlands range that I bought a while ago and I love it.  What I didn't get was some of the plain fabric.  Hope my patchwork shop has that in stock.

WIPW

I ordered a kit from Alicia Paulson from "Posie Gets Cosy" in the USA.  I have bought a few things from her and have always been pleased with the product and especially the beautiful presentation of her goods.  I don't NEED this embroidery but I thought it would be quicker to see how they were assembled in this kit than mucking around to work it out myself.

I also got a message on my phone this morning to say I was getting a parcel.

I'm sure it was a scam because when I followed the link, which looked genuine, when I payed that $3.30 I was signing up to pay a $64 recurring charge!!

PAYS TO READ ALL THE FINE PRINT.

When I got home there was the parcel and I didn't pay that bogus charge.

The kit contains 5 different mounts for the embroidery and that is the part that I am interested in.  I have lots of my own designs that I can use for this, although these designs are very sweet so would be a good exercise for me to stitch.

This is what I want to stitch for this years Xmas presents.  I'm giving myself plenty of time for this.

I am also still working on my last portrait which incorporated applique.  I still have to finish the hair and the background.

It has been a time consuming exercise and I have taken some artistic licence with the image by changing the perspective and making the sparklers bigger.   I think when I have finished I will need to put it  away and then come back to it and see how I feel about it.

WIPW

We went into lock-down again on Monday night.  There was a mad dash to get Monique back home after school finished so that she wouldn't be stranded over here.  They have closed all the schools a week early for the Easter Holidays so it just isn't the 3 days of lock-down only, and, now that they are finding extra cases it could be longer.

So, I find myself with a bit of extra time and am not sure what I will do with it.  I had been putting off starting the Sue Stone class on incorporating Applique.  After I watched it I realised there was nothing new for me, I have been doing all forms of applique for years, in fact I even teach classes in it.  I should have known when I came to that realisation that I was over-confident.  Sue's use of applique is deceptively simple at first glance.  I made the mistake of thinking "no problem" when in fact there were problems.

With normal applique you start at the bottom and build up.  I tried that and it didn't work.  With her method you stitch first and then add the appliqued pieces and then stitch on them again.  So I have had to rip everything out and am starting again.

I wanted to put in a background first but that just didn't sit well with the figure, which is my other grand-daughter Jasmine at her 2nd birthday.  Looking at it now I think I will have to stitch the background and applique the hair, her shorts and nappie along with the birthday cake for it to work.  The photo I had is a bit smaller then the space on the fabric and I haven't quite enlarged the eyes correctly but that can be fixed.

Back then her hair was so fine and she used to cry and say how terrible it was because Monique and Mummy had such lovely thick hair.  Now she is 8 years old her hair is thick and lovely.  I am stitching this one for a gift for Mother's Day for my daughter-in-law.  I have already finished one of her sister at the same age, although I might add more to this one.

WIPW

Most of the work this week has been on my foundation piecing.  I tried the Butterfly block that I want to put into the quilt.

There is a problem.  The block is smaller.  It had to be smaller to fit onto an A4 piece of paper for printing.  So I added a border, which I don't like.

Next step has been to re-chart the three blocks.  i have just made the background blocks bigger but kept the butterflies the same size.  I think I will like this better.

I could have done this in my drawing program but the finished block is bigger than the paper in my printer.

I have also been working on my current portrait.  I am still not confident with rendering hair but this is a bit of an improvement.  Still a lot to go on this piece.