Twins!

I have been trying to keep quiet about this all week- but now Miss October has received her blocks I feel free to post away... This month Laura asked for "stars," pretty much any stars in the whole wide quilty world and believe me I checked every corner!

After changing my mind a few times at the beginning of the month I decided to stretch my wings and try out some beautiful paper pieced designs I had seen on the Freshly Pieced Summer Sampler Series

My very favourite, and most star like blocks, were the Arkansas Traveller and Rocky Road to Kansas (and how excited was I when I saw that Laura had commented on the Arkansas block- I thought I was on to a winner... a very secret winner) so I started cutting and playing with my own fabrics and graduated to Laura's lovelies!

Imagine my surprise when I log in to flickr to inform the ladies that my blocks are in the post, and to post some sneaky previews, when *shock horror* I see that the first 2 pictures in my photostream are from Judith at Needles and Lemons, who has chosen the EXACT TWO BLOCKS and to make matters worse; she is a damn sight better than I am!

So, long story short, sorry Miss Laura, at least you gave us all different colours! Next time I will be checking flickr more religiously!

J x

ps. check in for more lessons next month, when I will be screwing up HSTs for one month only... if I'm lucky!

Winter Stitching Update #1

1. finish my woolly christmas tree garland (13 down, 7 to go)
                no update to report

2. wrap some woolly wreaths, from ChristopherAndTia
                fail!

3. make a series of felt stockings for the garland, by Dutch Blue
                maybe next week?

4. trio of applique and embroidery christmas scenes (when Helen brings some hoops back from China for me to play with) by Pilli Pilli
                no embroidery yet, but my hoops are on their merry travels to England!

5. stay up to date with my Brit Bee (and finish October's this week)
                woohoo success!!! I finished October's block this morning and it is on it's way to Laura, I will             .              do a post on the blocks after she has received them.

6. enjoy the local quilting festival on Sunday 23rd, by Lutterworth Piecemakers
                check out the post that I did last weekend to see some of the great quilts I saw, it was a lovely             .               exhibition!

7. quilt and bind Numero Uno
                quilting - check, binding - nearly!

8. quilt and bind it's twin; Uno Gemelo (sticking with the spanish naming theme for these babies)
                no chance, must buy more batting

9. quilt and bind my Baby Mystery Mixtape
                ditto

10. start (and finish the big sister quilt)

                nope

11. cushion for Nan of all her grandchildren's handprints

                started, but very little progress.

12. decide what I want for my Bee month and order the fabric

                I think I have decided, been researching like mad this week, but I need to try it out myself              .               before I inflict it on the lovely Bee ladies!

13. finish the embroidery lettering tutorial, over at Needle N Thread I started months ago!

                I'm sure I will get around to this eventually...

14. write my winter stitching list

                another checked item!

so the updated list looks like this;

1. finish my woolly christmas tree garland (13 down, 7 to go)

2. wrap some woolly wreaths, from ChristopherAndTia

3. make a series of felt stockings for the garland, by Dutch Blue

4. trio of applique and embroidery christmas scenes (when Helen brings some hoops back from China for me to play with) by Pilli Pilli

5. stay up to date with my Brit Bee

7. bind Numero Uno

8. quilt and bind it's twin; Uno Gemelo (sticking with the spanish naming theme for these babies)

9. quilt and bind my Baby Mystery Mixtape 

10. start (and finish the big sister quilt)

11. cushion for Nan of all her grandchildren's handprints

12. decide what I want for my Bee month and order the fabric

13. finish the embroidery lettering tutorial, over at Needle N Thread I started months ago!

I thought I had made much more progress than this :( better luck next week!

Jennie x

Woolly Christmas Tree Tutorial

Welcome to my first tutorial, I normally post in progress photographs of my projects but after figuring out a nice neat way to do these, I thought I would share it with you- although it really isn't that complicated.

Step 1 - for skinny christmas tree cones, I drew around a side plate and split it into 4 even slices.

Step 2 - tape the first wool colour beneath a ribbon for hanging at the right angle, and cut the point down to the top of the tape and tape into a cone shape.

Step 3 - with a large puddle of pva glue at the tip, begin to wrap the wool around the cone, but not too tight so it slips off the top of the cone, in a couple of minutes the glue should hold it all in place. I used a vertical stripe of glue all the way down the cone to stop any slipping, because I only wanted a single layer of wool.

Keep wrapping until you want to change colours.

Step 4 - finish the colour with a dab of glue to hold it in place and then angle the tail down so that you can catch it with the next colour.

Step 5 - start the next colour in a pool of glue at an angle and then over the tail of the previous colour, making sure to catch both tails with each wrap around and continue down.

Step 6 - at the bottom of the cone glue all the way around to secure the last line of wool and when it is dry tuck the tail end under the cone and glue in place.

Step 7 - now its time to decorate!

Lutterworth Piecemaker's 2011 Exhibition

I had a very inspiring afternoon yesterday, wandering around Lutterworth Piecemaker's exhibition, they hold a meeting on the third wednesday of each month for local quilters and it is a group that I have been meaning to go along to for a while now- maybe it should be the first of my (many) new year's resolutions?! You can check out their blog here; they are a bunch of very friendly and talented ladies, but I guess what you really want to see is the quilts, here is just a small selection of the quilts on display...

This reminded me of one of my very favourite quilts, Composition II by Shoko Sakai which can be seen Here.

This quilt was designed for a minimalist daughter who enjoys the sports pictured here. I love the complex simplicity in this quilt and the colours are beautiful!

The following quilt's top was found in an attic by one of the ladies, who carefully repaired, backed and quilted it. The top still had its original papers tacked in and rather than lose the history these papers have been scanned and printed onto the rear of the quilt, along with census data to match the woman who is believed to have pieced it, so that it's history may always go with it.

Four of the five blocks shown here are the product of the scanned paper pieces.

An interpretation of the paper pieced artwork on display at the Charles Rennie Mackintosh House and Gallery in Northampton by Helen Spence.

EDIT: The inspiration for this tryptic is the beautiful window of 78 Derngate and not the Helen Spence piece, my apologies for the mistake, thank you to The Maker for pointing this out; I tried to reply to your email but you are a no reply blogger.

Sorry, I forget the story behind this lovely baby quilt.

This piece was the quilter's first foray into art quilting and she remarked how easily it came together, this left me feeling totally inspired, I would love to be able to achieve something like this one day!

Jx

Google Plus

I have been on Google Plus for a while, but today I am going to throw myself into it and actually post a profile... is anybody else out there because it seems a little lonely at the moment :(

Come join me;

Jennie @ Google Plus

you know you want to!!!

Jx

Winter Stitching List

Following FairyFace's excellent example, I have decided to compile my Winter Stitching list, I have no idea how long it is going to be, but let's start with some easy ones;

1. finish my woolly christmas tree garland (13 down, 7 to go)

2. wrap some woolly wreaths, from ChristopherAndTia

3. make a series of felt stockings for the garland, by Dutch Blue

4. trio of applique and embroidery christmas scenes (when Helen brings some hoops back from China for me to play with) by Pilli Pilli

5. stay up to date with my Brit Bee (and finish October's this week)

6. enjoy the local quilting festival on Sunday 23rd, by Lutterworth Piecemakers

7. quilt and bind Numero Uno

8. quilt and bind it's twin; Uno Gemelo (sticking with the spanish naming theme for these babies)

9. quilt and bind my Baby Mystery Mixtape 

10. start (and finish the big sister quilt)

11. cushion for Nan of all her grandchildren's handprints

12. decide what I want for my Bee month and order the fabric

13. finish the embroidery lettering tutorial, over at Needle N Thread I started months ago!

and in true list-making tradition, you have to put something on that you can check off immediately...

13. write my winter stitching list

now that doesn't look too bad, but there are a couple of painful ones on there!

J x

An achievement... or two

Having had an awful time at work the last few weeks, I have finally had the courage to stand up to my boss and tell him that I am not coming back in until he sorts himself out, which means I have had a week off to play and while the first few days were all about sorting out the house and looking after my family, friday was all about me and I certainly kept myself busy!

First, I dragged out the Baby Mixtape quilt which has been sitting quietly in my dining room waiting for me, and I have 100% finished the piecing for the top.

Now I just have to go out to buy the sheet for the backing (that might have to wait a few weeks until payday though as I allowed myself to buy these beauties online...)

             

I have been eyeing up Etchings for ages and I just couldn't wait any longer, who knows when it's going to arrive- but at least I can be happy that it is on it's way!!!

But in the meantime I need to practice my quilting on this guy...

who has been in the wings for far too long, but I am so pleased that I still like him! Originally this was going to be the front of a double sided quilt in matching fabrics, so I have been adding borders to the back panel to get the sizes right, but now I have changed my mind and I am pretty sure I need some extra quilting practice so I bought plenty of neutral backing to make two yummy lap quilts that might actually get used.

Part of the decision came when I realised that I think I prefer the back to the front and I don't think I could bear to use it if I liked both sides- I am not that confident that my seams will hold!

Notice the extra pieced borders, I should have measured the length before going to buy fabric; note that 44" isn't as long as you think and that a quarter probably isn't enough... lesson learnt! 

Hopefully, quilting this is on the cards for today, after a long walk over the fields with this guy,

He needs a bit of tlc, but the lucky guy does have his first costume all ready for Halloween. Now, normally I am dead against dogs in clothes (unless they are supposed to be useful, like a snuggly fleecy jacket for a short haired dog in the snow) but I saw this toddle pumpkin costume in Wilkinsons and decided to take my first stab at clothing alterations. It turned out to be dead simple; just a few ripped seams and some alterations to the sleeves and waistband, with an additional tie ribbon around his middle and he's all set to go...

Not sure what to do with the matching hat though...

What do you think?

Jx

PS. Don't worry Miss October, your blocks are works in progress, hopefully I will get them done tomorrow!

Now off to walk this doggy and try to shift my cold!