oops, don't know where the time is going

I have not posted for so long, sorry.  It's been busy here especially last week with all the comings and goings.  The insulation in our walls was damp and not working so we had to have it all removed and it took 3 days last week.  The two men came all the way from Wales and were so efficient and tidy I could not believe how well they did the job which I had been dreading for months.  Anyway, the house is now free from all the gunk they injected and hopefully the black mould and plaster falling off on the inside will now be mending and we can re decorate. 

I have done some more quilting though and without this quilt on the go I might have been driven to distraction with all the drilling and sucking noises, but no I kept on quilting it's so calming.  Or it was until I went wrong and had to unpick half a feather yesterday....

And there is more to do yet.

Feathers?

A spine made with twisted chain

This is my first attempt at a quilt with machine feathers, I had to practice first. Anyway, I have another fifteen of these to do and its only for my bed so I hope by the last one that I shall either a) be smug, b) be relieved its all over, c) vow never to do it again.  Sound familiar?

On another note, I am now Quilters' Guild Regional Co-ordinator for Cumbria; lets hope it is an easier job than machine quilting feathers.....   

No room at the quilters

I did not think there would be enough room at the Cumbria Patchworkers workshop last week for 17 of us to make these convergence quilts, so I went it alone with some ideas I picked up from looking at photos on the internet and this is the result.  I seem to recall a similar way of adjusting pictures years ago in a basic design book by Maurice De Sausmarez. http://fineart.ac.uk/artists.php?idartlist=162

The idea was to cut the photo into strips and rearrange it in many different forms to give a different view. The same happens with this quilt, so it's not a new idea.

I made most of the fabric myself because I wanted a particular look. Basically, I had the black fabric with the sharply defined lines and I made the green, orange and yellow fabric by painting on white Egyptian cotton with silk paints, then heat setting it with an iron.

I am still working on the colourful quilt but have not had time to photograph it, but the corners worked out ok and so has the rest of it. I dug out another quilt too which had been around too long waiting to be quilted, its under my Bernina as I type.

Slowing down for the corners

I know my last post said it was going fast, but I had not properly worked out the corners for my quilt as I decided I would make them up as I went along. So it is progressing but taking a little longer than I anticipated.

Meanwhile, I discovered that at Cumbria Patchworkers next week we are making a convergence quilt, so I did some research and found this
http://jessicasews-imsewhappy.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/happy-convergence.html

I assume we will be making something similar. 

I also sewed a small bandana for Bella earlier this week.  She is a 'tweeting' border terrier so she has a number of pals who keep in touch and they are now in a special group called the #BTposse

 

PROUD MEMBER #BTposse

 

 

 I nearly forgot to mention that my 'Wainwright Quilt' will be exhibited again this year, this time its off to the Loch Lomond Quilt Show 15th - 18th May, check out their website www.lochlomondquiltshow.com

Colour me brightly

Untidy desktop

Yes it is very untidy, rather like the garden with all this cold weather, but I have high hopes it will make a good quilt which will keep us warm for a few years to come.

I have had this flowery white background fabric for some years now and it was once used for a year as bathroom curtains, then we moved house.  They have been lurking in the bedroom chest of drawers waiting their chance, and here it is.  A friend who came back last week from the States was the donor when he left for Colorado 14 years ago. He is now firmly back on English soil.  His return prompted me to look at the material I had been given again and then I found the curtains, well it does not take much for me to dash down to my small stash and start playing.......

I will post later when the quilt top is finished which is going together quite fast....

Neck tie craft

Well at the last meeting of the EG they said we did not have long to turn our old neckties into snakes...  I have this striped one, blue and maroon, mainly because I was last to the bag and all the best ties had gone....


But I had an idea...

Snake stuffed with toy stuffing, ready to go

Stuffing the tie from both ends was the first move in the jigsaw, then I had to coax the inner fabric of the tie into the classic v shapes for the tail and the mouth.  Next I had a rummage through my bits and pieces and found some suitable items.

I wanted red leather for the tongue as I wanted it to match the red in the stripes. I also found an old tassle I had made many moons ago.

Finding the right 'eyes' was not difficult as I had some old buttons in my collection too, these came from a Marks and Sparks jumper I seem to recall, not mine, my mother in laws.

Lastly, I found a small piece of chequered ribbon which had been attached to a present I think.  I also needed a name but one kept nagging me and I stuck with it......

So may I introduce you to Melissa the Hissa ...... drum roll......

A snake with attitude!