Brooch Swap

I used space dyed silk tussah punched into angelina fibres with blue/green glass beads in the centre. The silk felted very well - the colourway is Seascape from Wingham Wool Work This is a practice run and an excuse to actually make something for myself - I have three swaps to make and have three colourways in the space dyed tussah, so will do one of each. (Not a good scan colourwise, so will wait for the sun and replace with a photo)

Crazy Pieced Bag (Work in Progress)

Another work in progress, started at a workshop at the quilt show. Sally Holman was the tutor and we completed piecing the back of the bag. The kit contained plenty of fabric and embellishments to continue working on it at home. The scan does not show the colours at their best - the selection in the kit is a lovely combination of creamy, yellowy fabrics. Sally showed us different embroidery stitches which could be used to embellish the seams, embroidery thread is included with the kit. She also showed us how to make a "Suffolk Puff" - a fabric flower which will adorn the front flap of the bag, along with lace and beads. I'm looking forward to working on this - piecing is quite my 'thing' at the moment.

Summer 2007 Journal Quilt

It was the intention to do a page a month, but time flies......... My Summer quilt covers June, July and August. I stripped pieced the fabric which was 'sun painted' and used this as a base for back and front - knew all those splodgy scraps would come in useful for something. On the quilt there is a scrap of foundation piecing, fancy stitchwork, hot fix crystals and the rest are photos of Mum and Dad's Golden Wedding, our holiday in the Forest of Dean and Billy the African Grey who stayed with us when his owners went on holiday. I printed and monogrammed some fabric for the back and put some notes on there too.

Foundation Piecing

Here's my attempt at foundation piecing. Not hard to do, but you need to be careful about which way round you place the fabric pieces, and which order you sew them in. I had a bit of unpicking to do along the way, but doing a bit more preparation, such as laying out the fabric in the order it should go, and working on the same piece on all blocks before moving onto the next one will remove my confusion. I hope!!

This block is 8" x 8" and uses Christmas fabric which has been kicking around in my stash for several years. Will complete the second block tomorrow and post a photo - it has the blocks sewn together in a different order. I like this technique - even the simplest blocks make interesting overall patterns when they are sewn together.

Day out at Lord Sewing

I went to Oswaldtwistle Mill yesterday - saw advert for free demos at Lords Sewing Centre within the Mill a while back.

The first demo was the Fabric Master Heat Tool, cutting out fabrics, embroidered motifs etc - and also using it to melt hot fix crystals onto fabric, leather, wood amongst other things. It looks like a useful piece of equipment so I've ordered it direct from the makers today using Flair Magazine's special offer of a free gem upgrade to go with it. Click here to see a video For the things I want to try with this I need organza, Crystal Organza, is recommended. According to one of the ladies at the demo. the Sewing Centre at Scarborough have it, and possibly Boyes at Scarborough and Bridlington. They recommended No Show Mesh stabiliser for working motifs onto organza, so I bought a roll of that.

The second demo was Foundation Piecing - I didn't really know what this was, but as it is something to do with quilting, it seemed a shame to travel all that way and not attend. Very pleased I did - it's a great way to use up oddments of fabric, looks impressive and isn't difficult. I bought some Stitch and Wash stabiliser for this. It will go through the printer to produce the 'blocks' and come away when washed. It also tears away easily. I think stich and tear would do the same job - have a bit stock of this so need to experiment before buying any more Stitch and Wash. Made a start on some Christmas fabric pieced blocks - don't know what they will eventually become, will wait and see how many I get out of the available fabric.