5 photos, 5 facts

I'm playing 5 photos: 5 facts as blogged by Pip Lincolne from  Meet me at Mike's

Wonder

Explore

Rejoice

Experiment

Play

My 5 facts:
1. I adore electrical storms, especially with open windows, loud music and a glass of wine
2. I believe that everybody has a book and a song in them.
3. I think that every senior citizen deserves a scribe to capture their life story and every child deserves the opportunity to achieve their potential.
4. Sewing means more to me than exercise.
5. I want to make textiles within the reach of young children.

Covered journals/note books

These sweet notebook covers are quick and easy to make. I made them for the kids' teachers to go in a hamper put together by our class (nice idea!).

My boys wrote a thank you note to their teacher in the book too.

Amish squares

Working within strict guidelines

has never really been my cup of tea.

At least twice I have bought the backing fabric for a quilt and then figured out what the front will be. This is one of those occasions. 




I selected three pairs of coordinating fabrics and a simple Amish inspired cross design to complete the quilt top.  

TO MAKE THIS QUILT

Cut 2.5" strips from each of the black and "X" colours. Join the strips together. You need enough strips to make 39 colour + black 2 1/2" units for 3 blocks (or 13 units per block if you are varying the pattern). Some of these will need to be flipped.

You need 36 of each of the contrast squares (12 per block). Some of these units (about 8 units per block) can be strip pieced too, but you will need to have some single 2.5 x 2.5" squares in both black and the contrast colour. Make up the block into 7 x 7 2" (finished) blocks and sash with 14.5 x 2.5" black sashing strips into this colourful quilt. The quilt doubles as a draughts board!





Colour me happy

That's the name I've given to this easy-as-pie colourful little quilt I have made for the Knotty Ladies to sell at The Square.

To make this quilt, all you do is cut strips of fabric across the width of the bolt in widths every 1/4" from 1 1/2" to 3".  If you decide you want your squares to be 8" you will need 4 1/2" worth of strips (half the final block measurement plus two 1/4" seam allowances). Keep adding strips until you have your desired width then you make 45 degree cuts through the strips to create triangles and join 4 together to make a square. I have made every piece different but you could just as well join 4 identical triangles together for a less random quilt top. The finished quilt has a 3D effect. It's neat because matching seams is not essential.  I've machine quilted this with an uneven zig-zag on my domestic machine.
I hope it makes someone very happy.

Knotty Ladies

A little stitching group I belong to - the Knotty Ladies is taking a stall at The Square on Saturday 18th December.  With not really enough time to make a quilt for the occassion (although I have, i just don't know if I'll finish it in time) I dove into my glorious bookshelf and decided to make some sweet toy cats from the Meet Me at Mike's book. I've taken a bit of poetic license with them though - my cats have tails and all have different faces and backs. I was stitching their heads together in a cafe and a little 2yo approached me with his dummy in his mouth and declared ... "penguin". Maybe it's the bib-like tummy? Anyway, here are Pip, Pickles and Nutmeg. Almost ready to go to market to market with their other 4 friends.

Sew Much to share!

Where to begin, where to begin? I'm looking for the right words to best describe the need to create beautiful things with textiles. The feeling you get when you walk into a patchwork shop and you feel downright GREEDY. You want to touch the fabrics. You want to gather a pile of bolts in your arms and lay them out to see the delicious synergy that the combinations of patterns and colours make. If it were chocolate or cake you'd be stuffing your face. So you buy a bit of this one and a bit of that one. Put some of this one in a project box for "one day". Add a 1/4m of that one to your current project, promising yourself that you'll finish this project before commencing the next one (.....maybe). Your dining table is a distant memory and your floor looks as though a magpie has been trying to create a nest in the thread and fabric scraps. You dream in quilt block patterns and wake up in the middle of the night to write an idea down for a medallion border. You are obsessed, but what a wonderful thing to be addicted to.