The rain and wind keeps on here in Cornwall so more sewing and I'm really enjoying having a go at machine embroidery.
This is my second attempt:
I have sewn rectangles of different fabrics to my base fabric before starting on the stitching. All the seed heads are slightly different to those on my first picture and after the machine sewing in dark grey I have done some hand embroidery - just straight stitch, back stitch and french knots.
I wasn't sure about the background so this is another I have sewn on plain calico.
This one is all machine embroidery apart from the dear little red flowers.
Finally a reminder of my first attempt which may still be my favourite - I love the daisies!
Happy sewing - Anita x
We had such fun at Flowerpatch Quilters last Thursday. The evening was titled "Questions and Cake" and there was plenty of both. Members had decided upon most of the questions at the previous meeting and anyone and everyone had an opinion on the answers so there was plenty of chat and laughter. To give you a taste these were some of the questions posed:
- Do you wash your fabric before you begin? - Most said "no" except for fabrics that will shrink a lot like calico.
- Do you follow a pattern or prefer to go your own way. - Most people seem to do a bit of each, even within the same quilt.
- What sewing gadgets would you recommend? - Lots of ideas here.
- Are pressing mats worth the expense? - The two people who have them think they're wonderful.
- What do you use to mark quilting lines? - There didn't seem to be a definitive answer to this and everyone seemed to have problems, especially with dark fabrics.
Etc, etc - I'm sure you get the drift and it was a thoroughly informative evening.
The cakes made by the committee were delicious and much appreciated. We all decided that it was an evening worth repeating in the future.
This weekend has been yet another extremely wet and windy one as we're in the middle of storm "Dennis". I've not bothered to step outside the door today and have had a lovey time sewing. I find it hard to practise free motion stitching (feed dogs down on the sewing machine) - it can be a bit boring, so I decided to do a picture with free motion instead. I have been wanting to stitch seed heads and umbelliferae etc for some time and, not being much good at drawing, I have copied shapes from pictures on Pinterest. These have been taken from "Snapdragon" .
I'm hoping that now I have copied I shall be able to design more of my own little pictures ........ I think it's raining tomorrow, too! 😀 I'm thinking that the next one will have machine and hand sewing - this one is all done by machine. They will probably be used as pages in my next book.
Happy stitching - Anita x
I loved every minute of making this little quilt.
It measures roughly 31" x 25".
I started by sewing the vases of flowers using needle turned applique with embroidered stems and adding a little embroidery to the vases. When almost completed I did some shading and colouring with Inktense pencils - that was a bit scary as I could so easily have ruined all that applique work! This is a before and after using the Inktense.
Here is a link to the drawings of the flowers in their vases if you'd like to use them anytime. They measure roughly 5" x 7". - Flowers in Vases
My applique was sewn on a cream fabric measuring 6" x 8" plus seam allowance. I sewed a strip of 8 flying geese 2" x 8" to the right hand side, 4 geese 8" x 1" to the top, a 2" x 9" strip of strings of scrappy fabrics to the left hand side and 5 square within square blocks measuring 2" x 2" to the bottom. This made an interesting block 10" x 11" ....... or thereabouts. (add seam allowance to all these measurements)
The string strips are so handy as they mean you can adjust the width of the block, if need be, before adding the squares at the bottom. I sewed all the flying geese by the "no waste flying geese" method in SuzyQuilts - Super Simple Flying Geese Tutorial
These are the other 4 blocks
You can see that I have used the Inktense pencils on the petals, vase and some of the leaves. I always imagine that the light is coming from the top left-hand corner. I was tempted to add a shadow of the vase on the cream fabric but was too frit!
I sewed two rectangular blocks as below to fit to the top and bottom of the middle flower/vase block. These measure 10" x 6½ "
I joined the 2 blocks on the left, and on the right, with another string strip so that I could match the length this made with the centre panel, by adjusting the width of this strip.
These are the 3 panels that make up the quilt
I quilted by machine along some of the seams and by hand around the applique and in the small yellow squares.
I sewed a narrow green border to the top and both sides of the quilt and then added binding in a blue and white fabric which I had used sparingly in the string strips.
And a final look:
Mixed in with the pleasure of a finish is the rather peculiar feeling of loss - this quilt doesn't need me anymore!! Best move on to the next ...... quickly!
Happy Days - Anita x
Afterthought ........ this photo edited pic gives an idea of what the blocks would look like made up into a larger quilt.
For various reasons I haven't written posts for our last few Flowerpatch Quilters meetings so this is a bit of a round up.
September
We started the new Flowerpatch year with a 4 corners evening. Sue showed some very intricate embroidery stitches and everyone had a go at sewing them, Iris explained how to make a snazzy zipper pouch for wonder clips (watch the video here), I encouraged members to have a try at using Inktense pencils on fabric and Dy showed how to sew multiples of half square triangles and flying geese.
October
This is our AGM meeting each year and also the evening when we hand over a cheque to our charity. We were delighted to welcome Paul Ford of the Cornwall Air Ambulance Heli Appeal to accept our cheque for £1700 , and to give us a very interesting and amusing talk about the work of the Air Ambulance. I believe that they have now almost reached their target for a new helicopter. After the business of the AGM committee members showed some of their UFOs most of which were many year's old.
November
I was really disappointed to miss this meeting as Abbieanne Searle gave a very entertaining talk about her sewing. By all accounts everyone had a great time - so much so that Abbieanne is making a return visit in late 2020 to do a mini workshop with us.
December
Our Christmas evening at Cowslip Workshops was, as usual, a very friendly and relaxing evening - Jo is the perfect hostess. We sewed stuffed hearts, appliqued with embroidered pictures. Thank you Jo, and also to Arnolda for some of the preparation work.
This is my finished hanging heart
For most of December we had a Christmas tree displayed in Launceston - firstly at St Mary's Church and then in the library. Dawn designed some very cute donkeys and sheep to hang on it.
January
This is the evening when the blocks come together for our new charity quilt. This year we are raising money for the Cornwall Wildlife Trust and very appropriately our quilt is called "Wildflower Meadow". Here are some of the blocks:
Yellow flowers
Red flowers
and Blue flowers
We spent a lovely evening sewing on extra flowers.
Next month,on the 13th February, we are having a question and answer evening when I think we'll all learn a lot by pooling our sewing knowledge. For instance one of the questions will be - "What is your favourite "can't do without" sewing gadget?" I'm really looking forward to hearing everyone's answers ..... and there's cake, too! - should be a fun evening.
There's also another challenge in the offing. We're sewing "Finchies" - all will be revealed.
Happy Sewing
Anita x
My "Red Letter Life" quilt is completed ...... or is it?
This quilt was inspired by two things that happened in the summer. Firstly, Sophie of lunalovequilts blogged about her "Love" quilt. I love everything about this quilt, but especially the abstract lettering in the centre. Secondly, the theme in the upstairs room of our Flowerpatch Quilters exhibition was LOVE so I did my own abstract lettering to make a mini quilt 7½" square. I foundation pieced the letter squares then sewed them together.
By the by I also did another mini quilt for the exhibition using inktense pencils to draw the letters and added quilting and embroidery.
The quilting of Red Letter Life took quite a while. Its vertical wavy lines were sewn by machine with my walking (even feed ) foot.
I avoided all the red letters and quilted these by hand with horizontal lines. I really like the effect of the two types and directions of the quilting.
From the beginning I planned to sew small circles on my quilt to represent the happy bubbly feeling I often get in my life ......... especially when I'm starting a new quilt! I scattered some buttons on the quilt and took a pic ......
......but they simply looked distracting, so I ended up just sewing on some red circles around the edge.
I think though that I may be tempted to add more little circles to my quilt - maybe very subtle ones - we shall see.
Red Letter Life measures 32½" square and I'm hoping that you've been able to read my abstracted words.
Happy Bubbles - Anita x
I'm in the throes of sewing all sorts of things with nothing getting finished! ...... I badly needed the satisfaction of a finish and what better way to achieve this than by making a twinchie for a friend.
This is a little 2" square picture for my friend who works far too hard at her stressful job.
She has a dear cat called "Blue" who is a delightful companion to come home to ......... and a lovely husband too by all accounts!
I made a bit of a hash of doing a photo method for the making, but here goes:
This is my original rough sketch.
I traced the parts for fabric applique onto Steam a Seam 2, in reverse. This is where it starts to go wrong because I forgot all about the steps in front of the door.
I cut the patterns out roughly, removed the backing paper and hand pressed them onto the correct colour fabric. Still haven't remembered the steps!
This is the ready made twinchie I used - front and back. You can find out how to make a batch of twinchies in this older post of mine.
After removing the other backing from the Steam a Seam 2, I've laid the porch, door ..... and (at last) the steps in position on the twinchie. These can be moved around until you're happy with the arrangement and then ironed for a permanent fix. I used a Micron pen to draw some lines on the door and porch front.
I sewed some of the embroidery before adding the flower tub and the cat.I used just simple embroidery stitches - whipped running stitch, blanket stitch, lazy daisy, straight stitch and french knots.
Here's another look at the finish.
I really don't know why I don't sew more twinchies - such fun.
Happy Stitching
Anita x
The small quilts and cushions, etc add so much interest to any patchwork exhibition.
Here are a few items from the last Flowerpatch Quilters exhibition in August.
This first is a very dramatic "Titanic by Night" made by Chrissie
"Bits and Pieces 1 & 2" made by Sallie
These are samplers of many different dyeing and printing techniques.
2 lovely folk art cushions made by Dawn
"Stars of Friendship" by Jenny
I particularly like this saying on Jenny's wall hanging - Friends are like stars, we do not have to see them to know they are there.
"Heart Warming" made by Nina after the reverse applique evening a year ago
and "Tulips" - one of the items made by Pippa for her thoroughly enjoyable City & Guilds course.
Finally, this is a link to the picture and newspaper report about our exhibition.
Launceston Flowerpatch Quilters Exhibition
You can tell by our smiling faces how much we enjoy putting it on! - Anita x
