A quilt is born!

After working on the snowball/octagon quilt for half of the year now, it is finally finished and I shall be handing it over to my friend Mary in 3 days time. Phew. I'm hoping that it will be her favourite Christmas present. In fact I'm hoping it will be her favourite Christmas present ever. It will be such a shock when she opens the box to find I've made this for her and I can't wait to hear what she thinks.
I've previously posted photographs and progress updates so it's lovely to post a photograph of the finished work - albeit in a casual, draped-over-chair way, but you get the impression.

Here goes...

I love how the navy blue back/border pulls it all together. I didn't trust myself to sew the borders in place on the machine - I didn't fancy my chances of keeping a straight line as well as feeding/supporting the bulk, so I hand-stitched the borders and corners and I'm pleased with how it looks.

 It's always an odd feeling to spend so much time making something and then letting it go....but Mary is the first friend I made when I moved to Leeds 19 years ago and she's very precious to me. It was a pleasure to make this for her and think of her as I made it, and love went into every stitch. Happy Christmas Mary x.

Goodbye to Gus.

At the end of November I had to say goodbye to my sweetheart, Gus. He became poorly quite suddenly and an x-ray revealed a tumour on his heart. There was no option but to go through with the last act of kindness.
He was approximately 17 years old, but had only been with us for 3 and a half of those - not long enough. One of the hardest things about losing him is that because he was diabetic we had such a strong daily routine together - insulin injections morning and night and meals at set times.
I'll miss how he managed to get so much cat food in his drinking water, his ridiculous curled tail which made him look like a curling stone, his rumble-purr, how he nuzzled my feet and I'll miss his beautiful green eyes. The house is empty without him. He brought out the best in me - tenderness and patience especially.
I think about him constantly and hope that he's still with me. Words are a clumsy way of expression at present. All I know is that when he went, I feel like he took my heart.

Covered notebook.

 I am a bit of a notebook girl - and I don't mean the electronic type. I get quite a thrill from leafing through notepads and handling pencils - there's probably a name for this condition. It can be quite a struggle though to find a nice, reasonably-priced notebook with plain pages rather than cheap-looking lines. Ta da! - I found such an item. The drawback is the fake leather outer shell - easily remedied. I've been meaning to do a notebook cover for ages but haven't had time - but I'm ahead of schedule with my handmade Christmas presents ( to be posted after the big day! ) and thought I'd have a play.

Wool cover and cotton inner selected...

Selected felt pieces for cover design. I wanted a fairly limited palette...

Threads. Yum.

I made my cover design and then carefully folded the cotton lining inside the wool fabric. Neatly pinned and waiting to be stitched together...

Edges were folded and sewn in and then the notebook was slipped inside.....

The finished work. Lovely colours, great notepad to work with and I can feel some follow-ups coming on....

My obsession with hexagons knows no limits...

With Christmas hurtling towards us and quite a few handmade gifts on the go, the last thing I should be thinking about is farting about with beginning a new project. And yet here I am, doing just that. For most of the year I've had a real yen to knit a blanket and I've gathered a few lovely patterns from library books and Google searches.
I've previously written about my love of hexagons and how they seem such a perfect shape....and I started to wonder if I could produce acceptable versions in yarn.
A bit of online research threw up results of varying desirability. And then I found this beauty, for which photographic and knitting pattern credit goes to Knit, Shear Bliss! blogspot. I won't be knitting the child, just the blanket : )

A raid in my yarn collection ( ye gods, how did I acquire so much of the stuff? ) has got me off to a great start. I'm a bit funny, well, very funny actually about lots of different colours together, so my version is more muted. Here is what I've made so far - I may well add another colour or two, I'll see how it looks when I've made more hexagons.
Clearly, these are not sewn together yet, the photographs simply show the shapes in their 'just finished' state.

They will be joined together in a simple over-stitch I think - colour of yarn for this yet to be decided upon - a long way off in the future. Now, I really must get all these Christmas presents finished.....

It's a wrap!

It's a given that come September, I have to get my knitting needles out. I don't know if it's a primeval calling or simply a response to darker nights, colder weather and the downright need to feel cosy. Whatever prompts it, I give in to it.

Two years ago I started knitting what was to be an Aran poncho. It was no small undertaking - both sides were to be approximately a meter square in size. There were over 200 stitches on a needle and each row took about 5 minutes to knit. Unsurprisingly I lost heart. I managed about two-thirds of one side and then it got confined to the deepest depths of my knitting box.

This week it was time to face my demons, cut my losses and other such cliches - and deal with it. I decided to cast off and turn it into a lovely warm wrap. It's actually a great width and length, allowing for an array of folds and tucks. And a perfect excuse for wearing a beautiful brooch or shawl pin. Result!

It's a simple basket-weave pattern with garter stitch borders. And it's very warm.

Snowball quilt nears completion.

This week I finally finished the bulk of the snowball quilt for M. It's a great relief to have reached this point as it was quite awkward to stitch. After having a few doubts about certain fabrics and if they went together as an entirety, I see the piece now and absolutely love it. When I was putting colours together I didn't realise just how 'marine' it was, but this is my over-riding impression now - perhaps hardly surprising from a water-lover.

I am now intending to have a small break from the work, after which I intend to square off the edges and that will be the patchwork finished. I have basted my triangles to sew along the sides, and this is the cotton I have chosen to use...

 
I am thrilled to be able to make something for such a special friend - I know that she will be gobsmacked when she opens this on Christmas Day.

Small diversions.

It has to be said that at the present time I go to bed and see patchwork projects when I close my eyes - hexagons, squares, octagons, paper templates, colour combinations, threads, wadding, backing sheets. And I keep hatching more ideas....but I shouldn't complain because it's a wonderful thing to feel inspired and to be able to make lovely things.
From time to time though I do need a little break from large-scale works and during one such sabbatical I knocked up these phone pouches. Quick, easy and way too tempting to keep making in all kinds of cotton prints......

I have a slight obsession with the USA cycling team strip - the ' Captain America ' suit as some cycling pundits keep calling it. So, when I saw this print, it reminded me of the suit and I had to have it....

Then I made this cute one for my other half - he is a grown up, sophisticated person, honestly. But he fell for this print whilst I was looking at fabrics online in Thailand so I ordered it as a surprise.

And this one is for my friend Kath - a huge Leeds Rhinos rugby fan. I found this small piece of cotton at the Skep in Farsley, one of my favourite shops. If I see anything blue and yellow I am programmed ( sadly! ) to think of Kath and rugby - and I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

The Big Knit 2012

This year I've contributed again to the Big Knit, whereby money raised through the initiative goes to help make winter warmer for older people. During winter months, bobble-hat wearing Innocent smoothies appear in selected stores. For each one of these sold, Innocent donates 25p to Age UK.

They're good fun to make and don't take long. So, this is what I've been up to for the past few weeks.....Very special thanks to my friend Kath for contributing lots of lovely yarn.

Blue and white quilt blocks

The blue and white quilt blocks which I began working on last month are really beginning to grow in number now. I have enough for 3 rows of the lap quilt. I am lucky in that all of the fabric I've had to hand in my stash, which makes for quick work. And I've just acquired some lovely, high-quality cast-off shirts from my sweetheart, and they will make the quilt even more special.

Each row will be approx. 49 inches ( 117cm ) across, minus borders.

The blocks are all hand-stitched. Progress so far...the blocks are in no particular order.

I've been fabric-shopping....

Last week I visited one of my favourite fabric shops, the Shipley Shuttle. It was love at first sight for this gorgeous cotton - I adore pink and yellow or orange together.

I spent a portion of my weekend making this large tote bag.

I cut out a couple of flowers from the fabric and backed them with interfacing and felt and then stitched around them.

I sewed them to yellow spotted ribbon ( a perfect match for the elephant ears featured on the fabric ) and then I tied the decoration around one of the bag handles.

I had enough fabric left over to make this purse. Not bad for a long and lazy Bank Holiday weekend...

A new quilt takes shape....

Despite having two fairly large-scale patchwork projects already on the go, I decided last month that I would start another quilt. I am a recent convert to the combination of blue and white - I love the crispness and cleanliness of the two colours together. I thought that a little pink in places would be a nice way to warm up the work. The blocks are 7 inches square, and a relief to work with alongside the 1 inch square patchwork which is still ongoing. I am, as usual, stitching this by hand and using the English paper-piecing method. The quilt will probably end up as a lap-quilt to use in my sewing room in the winter months.

The fabrics will be a mix of floral, stripes, plain and some checks.

Here are my first six blocks. They are randomly placed together - I will not decide how they all fit together until all blocks are completed.

Experiments with seedheads.

Since I began to garden a number of years ago, I have been captivated by seedheads. I photograph them outdoors and some I then collect to keep them in vases and jars. I decided to have a go at recreating some seedheads in thread and fabric and here is my first attempt. I'm sure there will be more experiments as I particularly enjoyed this way of working.

Try as I might, I cannot photographically capture the true colours of this piece! I tried outdoors but even that didn't look right, so this will have to suffice.

Close-ups give better results and a more accurate depiction of the subtle colour scheme.

I like the piece in its round embroidery hoop, so I'm going to leave it as it is and hang it upon the wall like this - so, looks like I'll be needing new hoops....

My new love - and it's nothing to do with sewing.

For the past year or so I've been desperate for a bike...and I've finally committed. So, this post is for the friends I have who have been interested enough or kind enough to ask about what type, what colour, what I'll be doing with him etc.
Our journey together has begun - and I love him. All I know is that he's fast and when I ride him I feel like Boadicea - all-powerful, all-conquering. And I'm sure that I have a big daft grin on my face the whole time. It's that good. Oh, and he's called Spartacus. Or Fabian if I'm being gentle with him.

We'll be doing many miles together - and this will take me away from home and my darling cats and my beloved sewing. Gulp. But I'll be out in the fresh air, seeing wonderful things ( I saw a stoat this morning! ), and that is a wonderful way of topping up the happiness quota......

Pin cushions for charity

Over the last couple of nights I have made these pincushions. I cannot take any credit for the original idea - I think they were part of a DMC kit I saw at a show a couple of years ago and the design stuck in my mind. The colour scheme is unusual and a fairly accurate rendition of what I remember the kit to look like. I drew the little cats onto paper first and used as a template.

I am going to make a batch of these - perhaps in various colours - and donate them to Leeds Feline Friends so that they can be sold at their Christmas Fair, an event I always attend.

The chicken and the egg

I finally got around to making a door-stop, a much-needed addition to my sewing room. It was very quick to hand stitch, the only difficulty being what colours to chose. I adore gingham and plumped for the orange version from my stash.
I made use of yet more pieces of left-over wadding to form the chicken shape.

The fabric was then tacked around the wadding and felt details stitched into place along with a beady eye.

Both pieces were stitched together and stuffed with buckwheat - I'm so glad I finally found a use for that!

And totally unrelated, I quickly made these egg-cosies as a small gift. Again, wadding was used to provide structure and insulation.

My kaleidoscope

The June project for the other blog in my life had as its theme Kaleidoscope. Having been enjoying my patchwork projects recently, I decided that I'd set myself the challenge of using this method to come up with something. Hexagons seemed an ideal shape - but I also wanted to divide them in some way to use as much colour as possible.
Dividing each shape into 12 seemed attractive but was quite challenging. The only criteria I set was that each hexagon should be made up of a dark and lighter shade and have a plain centre. I used 7 shapes of approx. 8.5in./21cm across. The overall floral shape was quite a becoming alternative to a traditional circular kaleidoscope view.

Hexagons tacked and ready to have centres stitched in...

...and centres waiting to be matched up with hexagons...

The overall piece is finished. A loose running stitch has been used around the outer edges to neaten them up for the photoshoot!

I particularly wanted the photographic shot of the work to be part of the project - ie. I wanted to try and catch the light so that the folded fabric at the rear of the work would create an effect as well as the colours. So, here goes...

And a close-up taken without the flash achieves this quite well. I love the stained glass effect.

I particularly enjoyed this project - enough to think about adding to it and creating something larger. I had toyed with the idea of enlarging it and creating a quilt....but having seen the effect of light coming through the fabric, I'm now speculating about a window hanging of some kind....

New ways with wadding...

During a recent hot spell I took quite a lot of photographs - mainly of flowers and insects. I've never given much thought to the camera's case until I had a conversation with someone last week about photography, which then led into printing of photos, buying cameras and then onto camera cases. This was inspiration enough!
I started to wonder how a case would look and perform in a padded cotton construction - and decided to find out.

I have heaps of wadding pieces left over from past quilt-makings and am now so pleased I kept these offcuts.

Despite having an abundance of cotton floral prints, I bought a piece of fabric specifically for the project. Here, wadding is cut to 3 layers for each side of the case, and then the fabric is sewn to size.

 I sewed the longer seams on the machine but hand-stitched the case into shape. I decided against a velcro fastening because it seemed quite industrial. The organza ribbon suits the prettiness of the fabric and makes the case more feminine, I think. As a prototype I'm pleased with the result - enough to think about making more cases in various fabrics .....

My heart sings....

Not a post about anything to do with sewing, but really wanted to share these photographs, all taken in my garden. I adore flowers and I love to watch the insects and listen to the birds - I feel so lucky and blessed that I can grow things and attract amazing and beautiful creatures. Over the last few years I have found horticulture to be so spiritually healing that now, well, I know that I couldn't bear to live without growing things....

Perennial poppy - the clump spreads every year and I can't yet bring myself to lessen its halt.

Shield bug laying gorgeous pink eggs on Stachys lanata, or lamb's ear.

I'm generally not a fan of any yellow flowers....but who can resist the sheen of a buttercup on a sunny day?...