Mumbo Gumbo

Finally finished! The Mumbo Gumbo quilt has left the building! I have been working on this on and off, since January and as I said before, I've had misgivings about the thing and been close to chucking it out a few times. It wasn't until I decided that this would be a great quilt for my 79 year old uncle to snuggle under next winter that I really picked up some steam- once I had a goal and a deadline - his birthday last Friday - I got busy. This girl works best under pressure! As I mentioned I struggled a bit with getting it basted to the polar fleece - more than I ever have with a quilt before, partly because the fleece seemed to have a bit of give to it, and partly because of the size. It measures 63 x 84" - room for a lot of snuggling there! Once I had managed to get it basted, the quilting went like a breeze - I just stiched in the ditch between blocks and stitched wavy lines diagonally through the blocks and that was it. Because of the size, and because it has been raining like mad here lately I haven't been able to take it outside for a photo session, I can't show the entire quilt, but you get the general idea.
Keeping to the scrappy theme, I also added a scrappy binding. I alway cut my binding strips 2 1/4" and the leftovers from each quilt are put in a jar. I pulled out all the dark green pieces from the jar and joined them, adding a piece of hot pink and one of lime green to make the length I needed. We had a belated birthday celebration for my uncle today. He has been through a lot lately; struggling to recover from hip and knee surgery, plus daily visits and a lot of worry about my aunt who was in a nursing home. Sadly she died a forthnight ago, and there has been a lot to deal with. It was really good to be able to give him something to show I care and he was moved to tears. My aunt was a seamstress so he really knows how much work goes into a thing like that. I made him a quilt years ago and he appreciated it so much that it ended up on the wall, so he got strict instructions about this one - it is meant to be used!

Grandmother's garden revisited

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was trying to find a way to continue with my Grandmother's Garden quilt, and that I was not entirely happy with the grandma in the pattern.
I came up with the idea of using my own grandmother in some way or another, and started searching for photos. I wanted one of her standing proudly in her own garden, but that proved difficult. All the ones I had in mind had either legs hidden, she was squinting, or there was some bush or other item getting in the way. The best one I could come up with was this one: There were two problems with it though: it was very small, so her features would be blurred if I were to enlarge it, and she was wearing sunglasses. I found one much later version - apparently her 75th birthday, but it had the happy smile I remembered - this was the gran of my childhood.
Time for some photoshopping. This is the image I ended up with. I copied the colour from her forehead onto her arms and legs, and because my mother remembered her dress as being blue and white, I went with that and gave her blue shoes.
I printed the picture in the size I needed for the quilt and cut it out to use as a pattern.


Once I saw that this might work on the quilt, I printed the picture on fabric as well. I used a sheet of Cotton Lawn from Color Plus Fabrics that you just put in the printer and print the image on. The fabric is attached to paper that you peel off after printing, and works really well. The Cotton Lawn is very fine and soft and was great for this project.

I used the paper pattern to make a figure from batting as well. All the trees in the quilt are appliquéd around batting shapes to give a 3D effect, so I went with that. The fabric cutout was basted to the batting with the edges turned under and then basted to the background. I know I could have used some pins and turned the edges under as I stitched, but with the bulk of the batting underneath, it becomes a bit more akward to do so, and this way I avoided pricking my fingers on lots of little pins as I did the appliqué.

Once I had attached the figure to the background, it was time to add the dress. I used the paper cutout to make a pattern for the bodice and cut a batting shape from that. To create a fuller figure, I added "bosoms" as well - just a figure 8 shape on top of the previous one. It was probably not a good idea to take a picture of this with my black sofa as a background and in evening light, but you get the general idea...
I fashioned the bodice from two pieces of fabric, one overlapping the other and the top one folded in. I then used the batting shape as a pattern to cut the fabric and tucked the seam allowances to the back, adding little darts on the side and up from the waist like one would in a full size dress. I must admit that I was having serious doubts about the way I spend my spare time at this point... However, I persevered and managed to appliqué the thing on to the quilt, adding little sleeves and a skirt as I went along.

These were made by folding pieces of fabric in half, right sides together and stitching a seam along each side. I then turned the pieces inside out and stitched them to the background leaving hems unstitched. What with all the batting and double layers of fabric, the figure was looking rather bulky at this time.

I added buttons (french knots) to pull the bodice together and also pleated the sleeves with little buttons to make them less bulky. An embroidered collar and some french knots for her hair, and the image was beging to come together.

I decided that the shoes were not working, so I embroidered them as well, and there she is, a cheerful folksy grandma in her garden. All very surreal, but I quite like the effect. I might add some silver to her hair, to soften it a bit, although there isn't as much contrast between the face and hair in real life as one would think from these pictures.

Late WIP

I was just about to post my Friday WIP yesterday when a terrific thunderstorm started, and thought it best to switch off my computer. It was fascinating to watch how quickly the weather changed - one minute it was bright and sunny, then I noticed that the wind was picking up and my clothes drying rack outside was about to fall over. I rescued it just in time, caught a glimpse of the most beautiful rainbow before I went inside. A few seconds later the rain was pouring down from a black sky and then the first zig zag of lighting pierced the clouds. Thats when I switched the computer off. The thunder was deafening, and Nature threw on quite a display!
It is easy to understand how ancient cultures have thought up stories about angry gods with hammers and swords clashing across the sky at times like these. I'm torn between watching the sky in fascination and following a primitive urge to cower under something hoping for the best until it passes. I did some of the first, but ended up doing the latter, under a cosy quilt with a good book after a while - maintaning interest for well over an hour isn't easy for someone with my attention span!
My attention span, or lack of, also explains why I alwas have several projects going at any given moment and end up with lots of finishes at once. My WIP above is my stack'n'wack kaleidoscope - it just needs a border and some light quilting, and my summery tablecloth is done. I'm almost done with my Mumbo Gumbo as well, and having lots of fun with my Grandmother's Garden Quilt - more about that later..

The flavour of summer

When I was a child we used to spend summers at my gran's little house in the country. Her neighbour was a strawberry farmer and there were Strawberry Fields Forever (sorry, couldn't resist that ...), and we got to stuff ourselves on juicy red berries all summer. As soon as the sun got out, so did the pickers. There were full baskets of the stuff everywhere, and even the air we breathed seemed to taste of strawberries. Somehow sunshine and strawberries have become intermingled in my mind, so that when I breathe in the smell of these lovely berries I imagine it is the smell of sunshine itself.
Imagine my delight when a friend of mine phoned yesterday evening saying "I have five kilos of strawberries with your name on them!" She had passed through my childhood paradise and stopped to buy some for herself, and decided to get some for me as well.

Not only did she bring berries, but she also brought sugar and pectin and the berries were without husks so I could start making jam right away. What a great friend!
In less than an hour all the berries had been through the food processor, mixed with sugar and pectin, poured in containers and put in the freezer. How great is that! I just love this kind of jam, because you don't have to use so much sugar, and you get the lovely summery taste of fresh berries all winter.
Mmmmm - lovely!

Well I did, didn't I?

You didn't think I could go to the quilt shop and just buy what I had planned on buying now, did you? I got some batting for the tablecloth. That yellow striped fabric was the kind of yellow that goes with anything - a nice stash addition. I saw a New York Beauty quilt somewhere recently that had used that green fabric in the quarter circle in the corner pieces of the blocks to great effect, and since I have a NYB on my to do list, I decided that I needed this.

And then there was a very sweet fabric with little sayings. Great for labels and postcards. I found it virtually impossible to get a close up, so no picture, but the one that won me over is a broom with the caption: "Housework when done correctly can kill you" - my kind of motto! I also found some nice mother-of-pearl buttons for a couple of jackets I'm going to sew - found some great knitted fabric the other day. And, believe it or not: I got some yarn! I'm not that much of a knitter these days, but I have been stash building for a while now, and have knitted some scarfs and this little hat, among other things, so maybe it's time to start something bigger. The Frost Flower Leaves shawl is what I have in mind. Am I crazy? Maybe so, but I have decided to enjoy the fact :-D

And the backing fabric that was the reason for the shopping spree? Didn't get any! I decided I had just the thing at home, a nice floral which will do nicely...

Living in the present

After a trip down memory lane the other day, it's time to show what's going on in the present. We're enjoying lovely summer days, shared with cruiseloads of tourists - here's the view from my balcony of the QE2 leaving after it's latest visit, to the soundtrack of "We'll meet again" on full blast from loud speakers at City Hall. She's a beauty, isn't she? A lot of the more modern ships look like floating hotels, but this one looks the way a ship should look, I think.
Back to the homefront, where I have finished all my kaleido blocks. I obviously can't count, so I ended up with 31, so there is one more than I need for my tablecloth. I started stitching them together by machine, but found that I haven't got the patience for all that stopping and starting to adjust the fabric every time the angle changes - it must be the heat, because that sort of thing usually doesn't bother me. Anyway, I decided to stitch the blocks together by hand, so that's what I'm doing now, and it doesn't take too long, because I keep having to do 'just a little more' to see how it turns out... - told you I was having fun with this one, didn't I! I have found a bright green fabric, similair to the flower stems in the original fabric, to use for extra pieces in the corners to make it square, and for an outer border.

This is the fabric I have used for all the blocks, by the way (I should have learned by now to run and iron over the fabric before I point my camera at it...), amazing isn't it, the variety of blocks you can get from just the one fabric? The fabric is "Estrella" by Valorie Wells for Free Spirit Fabrics.
I'm off to town now - having the quilt top almost finished is the perfect excuse for visiting the quilt shop. I haven't been there in a while because of long days at work, but I'm just going to get some backing fabric, and that's all! I think... -And they have probably not got any new fabric in since my last visit...

Stitching through the generations

Talking about my grandmother yesterday reminded me that I had been meaning to show some of the tablecloths she embroidered. No time like the present, so I pulled a bunch of them out of the cupboard and got my camera out. Now I should have got my iron out too, but it was way too warm for that, so they are a bit crumpled, I'm afraid.

My grandmother worked as a maid and housekeeper until she married. Later, after running a café for some time, she spent the rest of her working life at a small flower shop, making flower arrangements and wreaths until her fingers were too stiff and crooked for her to do that kind of work any more. She was always working extra hours around holidays so she didn't spend a lot of time cooking. Luckily she was married to a cook, so she didn't have to!

When at home, she was always cleaning though. And I remember having to wait for her on the steps while she cleaned her way out the door when we were going to har little house in the country, because she couldn't face coming back to a dirty house. And then when we came back, the first thing she would do was to grab a bucket and a floorcloth and repeat the process. Sadly, that sort of thing never rubbed off on me, but her way with a needle might have...

All the tablecloths I rescued after her death were well worn, and unfortunately most of them have stains that I have been unable to remove. I have been thinking of ways to display them or use them in other projects, but I'm not sure what to do with them yet.

I can't actually remember gran stitching anything this fine, her fingers were probably too stiff by the time I was growing up, but she would crochet delicate bedspreads and the like and later it was wool tapestries. When we were in the country house she would also weave rugs. When she wasn't gardening, working or cleaning, she was always working on some kind of craft. Like me, she "listened to TV", just glancing up from time to time to catch what was going on.

She always cheered me on in my craft efforts too and gave me tasks I was sure I couldn't do, telling me "you will find a way". When I was about twelve, she had me making new lampshades for their bedroom. I had to study the old ones to find out how to do it, and stitch the slippery, silky material on to them the best I could. The were not perfect, by any stretch of the imagination, but she showed them to everybody and kept them on the lamps in that bedroom until the day she died. Thanks to her I'm not afraid of trying new things - I hear her saying "you will find a way" and off I go.

Funny this. I was just going to show a few pictures of some old tablecloths, and it sent me down memory lane. I had forgotten all about those lampshades until I started writing.

I also found some tablecloths that her mother, my great grandmother made, but that's material for another post.

Grandmother's garden

I have been working on this old crinkly thing on and off for years. I found the pattern in Australian Patchwork and Quilting and was drawn to it because it had lots of interesting techniques and effects. The applique is done with batting underneath, and it is all appliqued to the background and a thin layer of batting. When all the appliqué and embroidery is done, there will be another layer of batting and a background fabric, and I'll quilt through all layers. Parts of the quilt will then have three layers of batting! Add to that mini yo-yos for pine cones and apples, buttons, french knots and beads, and it should eventually become quite an interesting quilt.
I have yet to add the vine with leaves and yo-yo flowers in the border, and you will notice that I have kept one square empty. I started this to have a long term project to bring to my quilting group, and it has been met with a lot of interest from the others - what will be added next? I have adapted the pattern and added ideas of my own along the way, for instance the 3D palm leaves that are only stitched to the middle, to add further interest. Sticking to the pattern? Where's the fun in that? Now it has been left hidden in a drawer for quite a while, and that empty square is the reason for that. The quilt is called "Grandmother's garden" and that square is where the grandmother is supposed to be...

This is the grandmother in the pattern. She's not my kind of grandmother, though. I thought at first that it was made so that the jacket could be opened, but that was not so. Well, I could do that anyway, I decided, Then it was her hair. Nah, didn't fancy those buttons. Maybe I could use some doll's hair or something? And those poor feet in those huge shoes - no, that's not what I wanted. Not that there's anything wrong with the design, for a country craft look it is fine, but with my starting point of a Tuscany fabric line, I have been thinking more along the lines of making a colourful mediterranean woman. But I have been stuck when it comes to what she should look like, and how I would make her.
Then I started thinking about my own grandmother and how she loved gardening. Her garden used to be a riot of colours and she'd use any empty vessel she could come across as an excuse to plant something new. She would have loved the idea of a container garden.
I have been playing around with different ideas on my computer lately. One problem is that the square is a bit brighter than the rest, so I was thinking that I might use a layer of organza to tone it down. Then the idea of adding images occured to me. Maybe a garden, or a Tuscany landscape printed on fabric and my grandmother placed on top. Maybe even a photo of her? Like this one, where I have placed a Tuscany landscape in the background?


The photo is too stiff and formal for what I have in mind, though, so I'll see if I can find a good snapshot of her, looking like her jolly old self, the way I remember her from my childhood. And maybe I'll appliqué a dress on top of that picture... hm, this is getting interesting... I'm off to play!

Pretty ugly quilt

I’m not really sure I like this quilt… Maybe it’s because I have been struggling so much with it lately. I started it to try out the Mumbo Gumbo pattern from Pie in the Sky. The idea was to really get at my stash and use some of those old pieces of fabric that have been there for ever and that I never seem to be able to find a place for in other quilts.

I started it in January when a group of us went on a weekend retreat to sew and have fun. I brought lots and lots of strips of blue fabric (and a few accent colours) – which is by far the largest group in my stash. Somehow I always end up buying new fabric when I need blue, because I can’t find anything to go with whatever I’m making, so my stash keeps growing. The idea was to shrink the stash and leave room for new fabric, but you know the way it goes, right? The fabric you cut for a scrap quilt seems to multiply and you end up with more than what you started with …
Anyway, I finished the top last week and decided to back it with polar fleece to make it into a soft and comfy quilt. The problem was that the fleece was alive! No matter what I did when trying to baste it, it wouldn’t keep still. I kept trying to pin it into submission, but it was a struggle – remind me to never do this alone ever again!!! I persevered, and eventually I managed to get it basted, and ready to be quilted. It’s a riot of blue fabric, and I’m not really sure I like it yet – it looks good at a distance, but I may have been too close to it lately to really appreciate it … I think I will quilt it with dark blue thread to unite all the shades of blue, and hopefully the end result won’t be too bad…

In between my sessions of struggling with this thing, I have been making more stack-and-slash blocks, and they are really addictive! Here’s another glimpse. I’ll try to get in another photo session tomorrow when the light is better. They are all so different; it’s hard to believe they are from the same fabric. Oh what fun!

Updated

I have updated my blog a bit. I have been hesitant about changing to the new layout option in Blogger because of all the fiddling you have to do with colours, fonts and settings, but today I took the plunge. I managed to copy all the contents of the sidebar and I have also added a label cloud, thanks to a very helpful link provided by Diane at Going to Pieces. I see that I still have some tweaking to do - I think the margins are too wide, so either I have to make them or the banner narrower. But not right now.

Diane has provided further inspiration. Her post about her quilters' retreat where they made stack'n'wack-like blocks has been at the back of my mind for a while, and yesterday I just had to give it a go. I got out a great floral fabric and started cutting and sewing. So far I have made eight blocks. I can't wait to make more! They will eventually become a summery tablecloth I think. Maybe one for my balcony. My sister and I went to the nursery to stock up on flowers today and I have brought home lots og goodies. I'm too tired to do anything about it today, but tomorrow I intend to get it all sorted.

Knitting revisited

I used to do a lot of knitting when I was younger. When I was at college I made lots of different garments that made me stand out from the crowd - knitted patchwork, braids, special necklines, you name it...I think I lost heart completely, though, when all my favourites were stolen from the student launderette one day. I had washed them carefully and put them in the dryer and had to go out to answer the phone. When I got back the drier was empty and all but one dripping wet sweater were gone. My fellow students would have recognized them as mine if somebody else had turned up wearing one of them. That never happened, so where they ended up I'll never know. A few months later I started working, discovered patchwork and my knitting endeavours were history. Or so I thought.

It all started again when I discovered Knitty. It was the Clapotis that got me started, and once I had finished I had discovered all sorts of other interesting projects. Starting a new craft is a perfect excuse for stash building, and I have come to realize that I have more yarn and ideas for projects than I'll be able to stitch in a very long time - so what else is new? ;-)
I fell in love with this little hat at Knitty quite early on, and although I had no one to knit it for, I just had to have a go. I used a soft baby wool, but found it a bit too floppy for my liking, so if I make another one, I'll try a smooth cotton, I think. The daughter of one of my other's friends has just given birth to a baby girl, so now this little hat will soon find a head to sit on - my teddy's head is way too small, but was the best model I could find - I had to take a picture before it left the building, right?

My stash now consist of several skeins of beautiful sock yarn and I will try my hand at some toe-ups this summer. There are also some balls of Kureyon waiting to be made into a scarf, but it is way too warm to be thinking about that at the moment. Or maybe the heat has gone to my head, because this book made its way into my home the other day! I fell in love with the Frost Flower Leaves shawl after spotting it in someones blog a while ago (I forget whose, sorry!) and when there was a special offer on Amazon a while ago, the book suddenly found its way into my shopping cart... I spent last night dreaming of knitting this beautiful thing. Even all the different tales of the amount of work involved discovered on my blog search yesterday hasn't deterred me, so no one should be surprised to find me in the yarn store tomorrow...
Amid all the dreaming of future projects I still find time to quilt though, and have added some leaves to my window - there's a lot of fussy cutting to be done, but that's something to keep me occupied in front of the TV tonight - I hope there's a good film on!

All systems go

Funny that once I started talking about inspiration and making a journal I realized that I have a journal of sorts - an old binder full of ideas I have jotted down, magazine clippings and what have you. I had a look at it and this idea popped up. I had even bought fabric and knitting wool for it, and once I started thinking about it I just couldn't wait to get going.

Isn't it great when you get that urge to create? You get all tingly and excited and just have to start cutting into fabric and get all those beautiful threads out. Well, I'm saying you, but I really mean I, me, myself ;-) That's how I feel. Once I start thinking about a new project, all those colours and shapes invade my brain and whirl around in there even when I'm sleeping, and the time I have to spend at work can't pass quickly enough - I want to go home and sew! Luckily it isn't like this all the time - I'd be impossibe to be around, but when it happens and I'm able to spend some quality time with my sewing machine it is soooo much fun!

So I started up yesterday and made a quilt sandwich: one layer of fabric, one layer of cotton batting and another layer of fabric. The top one is a brown with tiny dark brown dots. The shade of brown has been all wrong for every project it has ever auditioned for, it's kind of "flat" and dull, and parts of it has faded, but with lots of different shades of brown thread on top I think I might make it work, and the little dots will be like wormholes in a weather-worn window frame. That's the look I'm going for anyway.

I started with stitching the outline of the frame and window panes, and quilted them with straight lines. Then I switched to free motion stitching and sort of "painted" the frame with dense stitching in lots of shades of brown. This took ages, and my shoulders were aching by the time I was done. I forgot all about my own rule of singing while you sew, to make sure you breathe properly and avoid getting your shoulders attatched to your ears! I used miles of thread and had to stop halfway there to clean my sewing machine, but eventually I was happy with the look and it was time to cut out the unquilted bits. That's as far as I got yesterday.

After a night of colourful dreams and a day at work ("I wanna go home") I could get back to it. Today I have basted a piece of water soluble fabric to the back of the frame with water soluble thread (that's those big white stitches you see in the top picture) and added branches of stitched down knitting wool. That seams to be all I have time for today, but I'm going to stitch some more on those branches, adding little twigs and such, and then I'll add autumn leaves. I know - summer has just arrived, and I'm making an autumn picture! Well I have been known to make Christmas things in March as well ... Anyway, the idea is to add leaves and machine embroidery to make it into a window almost hidden by foilage, but when I wash away the water soluble I should end up with a kind of lacy effect with lots of holes, but enough stitching to hold it together. I think. I haven't tried this before, but that's the picture I see in my head. I'll keep you posted :-)

New month, new projects

My Emily Dickinson sampler is finally ready for framing. I came across this pattern in Stitcher's World in 2000 and have been meaning to stitch it ever since. It took me a while to get started... It's not my usual style - whatever that is, but I liked the colours, and the excuse to hang an Emily Dickinson poem on my wall was another reason to choose this. I've been working on it on and off for quite a while - more off, than on, to tell you the truth, because the actual stitching didn't take that long now I come to think about it.

Finishing one project is the perfect excuse to start a new one, but which one, I wonder... There are so many ideas floating around in my head that I really need to tame them a bit. I have been playing with the idea of starting a journal to collect my ideas and maybe become a bit more structured about my crafting. This blog is a help of course, but there is something to be said for a book I can hold in my hand and scribble, draw and colour in. I have been collecting pictures for inspiration for ever, and sometimes make simple collages with them. The first thing I see every morning is this one - a framed collection of postcards from the V&A - one of my favourite places in London. Here are samples of wallpaper, tiles, fabric, tapestries and quilts and some embroidered waistcoats designed by Kaffe Fasset who also gets a lot of inspiration from the V&A.

Maybe I can get some inspiration here for Project Spectrum. The colours for June/July are red, black and metallics.
Talking about colour and inspiration - have you seen this Flickr Toy, the Palette Generator? It will give you a palette of colours based on any photo you upload. Great starting point when you want to sort out your colours for a new project, I think! Must go to play some more...