Late for work...

....... due to stencilling fabric!

I stencilled with markel paintsticks onto some of the hand dyed fabric

And then I forgot my lunch and had to return home for it, which made me even later!

After adding a second coat, the colour was more solid.  Why did I choose purple sage markel stick?  It is the only paintstick I possess.

I won this pennant at the Festival of Quilts a couple of years ago and it is so lovely that I wanted to share it with you.  I have no idea who made it, but it is very neatly done!

This is a close up of some of the machine embroidery stitches.

Inspired by the shape of the pennant I am now making bunting to hang from my beams in the living room (well I have two pieces now!!)  This is an Embroiderers Guild challenge which started in January (I started in June) and the first one is ice with lace and beads, so I will be adding the beads and embroidery later.

this is a close up

did anyone notice?????

.... that when you log into my blog it transfers you to my website!!

How clever is that?  Well I can't take any credit what so ever for that - I spend a couple of hours on skype on Sunday night with my son who talked me through every step of the way!  Thanks Tom xx

And here are a couple of things you have not seen before....

Here's my pincushion

It is made from squares and looks a bit like a flower and just fits nicely in the bobbin ring - very cute!

This is a mini quilt I made years ago.  It is sitting on my table waiting to be quilted and finished off.  I hope I have still got the same green fabric so I can use it for the binding.

Tiny bag

This is quite tiny - less that 6 inches long. 

And this is the inside.

I used a tutorial that I found on the internet - although I am not going to link it because I tried to download a pdf and there were three of each photo and the font was size 67.4 and it was on 54 pages (good job I didn't just press print!!) .  So I wrote the measurements down and took them with me, but some of them were not correct - the 9 inch one should have been 9-3/4 and stuff like that!  Anyway - I ended up with a cute bag - after throwing a few pieces of fabric into the scrap bag!

Needle turned applique

...... a new project!  This is for sewing at Calder Quilters sit and sew sessions.

This is the first block of the 'block of the month' that I didn't start in January - but hey it's June and I have done ONE!!

A close up of the bird - I bought this bird print fabric in America last year

And this is the start of the SECOND block.

Here is a photo of the completed mini shelf quilt

I finished quilting this and put the binding on at the weekend.

Close up of the quilting and machine embroidery on the strips.

Puss Puss approves!

Mini Quilt....

I finished the little quilt which I was inspired by the book of foundation pieced Cups and Saucers.

Whoops!!!  This doesn't appear to be the photo with the binding on....  I'll save that for another time!!

I made a  little pouch for my Daughter in Law with some fabric that I bought in London in March.

and added a cute little camera charm to the zip

more London fabric for the lining!

Our hand dyed fabrics cut into strange shapes to  make into Happy Villages quilts.  I did some dying with H and we took our fabrics to a workshop to make into wall hangings.......

We spent all day cutting out little shapes.....

and fitting the pieces onto the background.....

...until it was full...

...and added rooves and windows...

this is H's so far...

and this is mine - I've already got one of these that isn't finished yet, so decided to make this one with a space at the side for the sea or sky or something.... watch this space - but don't hold  your breath - I started the first one a few years ago!

H made a jubilee cushion

this is the back

and this is a picture she drew years ago.... just to prove she has always been talented!

And this is my Jubilee cushion - we just randomly slashed the blue fabric and inserted strips of red and white.

Mug rug for her

mug rug for him

His and hers mugs rugs for my Uncle's 80th birthday!

Cheeky Cat!

Cat borrowed my chair this afternoon, so I couldn't do any more of my little quilt!

In December we were given four pieces of fabric at Imperial Quilters and the challenge is to make a 'spring' quilt with them and only adding two other fabrics. (See Tuesday 27 December 2011 blog).

I bought a copy of this last winter - recommended by DIL and had a plan to make a wall hanging for the kitchen...

These are some foundation pieced table mats in the book.....

So as you can see the patterns are quite large - the cereal bowl and jar are both 4-1/2 square and the jug is 9 inches.

We need to do a hanging less than 15 inches square for the challenge ..... so I had a plan to do each square 2 inches. (well as near to two inches as is possible with metric squared paper!)  I couldn't reduce the patterns, so I started with squared paper and just drew them......

I did the tea cup first, then the jar and sewed them onto two x 2 inch plain squares.... this whole piece measures 4 inches square.

This morning I finished the milk jug.  It was my second attempt, because the first attempt was drawn wrong.  This is 2 inches x 4 inches.

And this afternoon - I will be doing some more.  I thought I had another week to finish this, but having turned over the page in my diary it will need to be finished and delivered somewhere on Wednesday evening - ready for hanging on Thursday.  So that leaves today!!!

London Quilt Exhibition Workshop

I went to a Quilt exhibition by the London Quilters at Swiss Cottage Library on a recent visit and they were running workshops for quilting techniques.  What fun!  Spent the day there - and I missed the rain too!

This is quilting - the designs were drawn out for us.

This is Cathedral Windows.

That reminded me of a Cathedral Window wall hanging I made ages ago..... using Japanese fabrics and a Sashiko style of stitching around the motifs.  It was hung up under the stairs - can't see it there - think I'll keep it in the kitchen for a while!

A few close ups - my darling son bought me the tassle for Christmas many years ago - it looks good on here.

My bag with Japanese folded patchwork squares is coming along nicely - it is partly sewn together.  I saved some for the Calder Quilters meeting, so I would have some hand sewing to do.