X-actly so

New quilt on the go...

Memories

I have been listening to old Lloyd Webber musicals lately, but that's not the Memories I have in mind. I was looking through some old photos the other day, and remembered an old photo strip my grandad kept on his pinboard for as long as I can remember. The two of us shared the same quirky sense of humour and we both thought it was hilarious. Sadly the rest of the family never saw it that way, and it has probably ended up in a landfill somewhere after he passed away. I still have an image of it in my mind though, and somehow the idea of recreating it in fabric and thread planted itself in my mind.
The actual photos were of me, at the tender age of four. I have a vague recollection of the day they were taken: My grandparents had just returned from a coach trip to Italy and we were all at the bus station to meet them. There was a lot of hugging, kissing, and high spirits, presents were exchanged and somehow in the midst of all this, someone thought it would be a good idea to let me have my photo taken in the photo booth. Nobody remembered to adjust the seat, and it didn't occur to any of them to explain to me what was going to happen once that little curtain had been closed and I was left alone in the booth. The photos told their own story, like a comic strip: In the first picture you saw just the top of my worried little face; in the next one, blinded by the flash, there I was, eyes wide open and somehow much higher up - I was probably suspended in thin air from the shock...; in the next one, you just saw the back of my head on my way out; leaving an empty booth as the fourth image.
Now I'm not all that good at drawing, but I have made an attempt to recreate the images, like a comic strip with thread sketching. I stitched strips of fabric onto wool felt with white thread to form my background and stitched my sketch with black thread on top. Not perfect, but I think it tells the story the way I intended. Now there is some space left, so I could cut it down to size, or maybe add some kind of caption? Now what would that be? "unprepared", "surprised", "flash" , "tales of the unexpected"... I'm getting sillier and sillier here - any suggestions?

Diversions

I seem to have been working on my zigzag quilt forever (the quilting is all done, just the binding to do before show and tell!) and yesterday I just needed a diversion. I had an idea I wanted to try out and got some craft felt out to do some stitching. When I had cut the piece I needed, I was left with some scraps that turned out to be just the right size for some bookmarks. I had a friend's birthday party to go to, and had bought her a book, so why not make her a bookmark to go with it? I sat down by the sewing machine and stitched some selvedges and other bits and pieces to one of the felt scraps - just parallel lines with white thread, and liked the effect so much that I continued with the other two scraps. A bit of hand-stitching and voila: three new bookmarks.

My friend liked hers a lot, and one of my co-workers who saw it before I put it in the card was envious, so there might just be a market for these. Not that I'm going to sell them, but as a little treat for a friend these will do nicely, I think. There might be some more later on. But first, some binding to stitch and then that diversion I was diverted from...

How could this have slipped my mind?

I could have sworn I had blogged about this earlier, but it seems I've only mentioned it in passing and shown pictures of the work in progress, never the finished quilt. I remember I was trying to get some good photos of it, and was waiting for the rain to stop so I could take it outdoors, but it never happened. Well, the rain stopped (and started again...), but the photo session never took place. I unfolded it quickly the other day to snap a few pics, but I see I should have smoothed the wrinkles out as well...
Never mind. The quilt went to it's new home last Monday, as a gift for my Mother's 70th birthday, and was received with a gasp of delight. The same lovely reaction I got when unfolding it at show-and-tell at my guild a week earlier. There's nothing like that spontaneous gasp through the room when presenting something you have made, is there? So you have to take my word for it - it is actually much better "in person" than the picture shows. There are a few close-ups here that show off the pretty café fabrics that made me start this in the first place.

Getting there...

Getting there...
Originally uploaded by crafty mathea

Still working on my zigzag quilt, but not too much left now... There is a lot of stopping and turning, which seemed tedious at first, but I'm getting into the groove and finding that I quite like the texture of these parallel lines.

Looking forward

I'm still quilting along on my zigzag quilt, and although there is a lot of stopping and turning, I finally feel that there is some progress, and I'm enjoying the work. Working on one project doesn't stop me from dreaming about the next, of course. After hearing a lot about it, I caved and bought an X-block ruler the other day. The idea of this is to make a nine-patch, put the ruler on top, aligning the lines with the seams in the block, before trimming the block. I grabbed some scraps and had a go, and voila - here's my first block. The blocks can be used to make a variety of intricate-looking quilts.
I have been thinking and dreaming about a red and aqua quilt for a while, and after playing in EQ for a while, I came up with this. The blocks are quite small, so the quilt will be 40 x 40" - just the right size to drape over the back of my sofa or use as a tablecloth - I haven't decided which!

I have been planning on giving two of the pictures above my sofa a rest for a while, and as I mentioned earlier, I have framed some cards to hang there in place of one of them. I haven't actually hung them yet, because I didn't know what to substitute for the other one. Then the thought struck me: why not a quilt? There are quilts on the walls everywhere, except in my living room. I kept working in EQ, and this small quilt (16 x 20") is what I came up with. If I make it in the same colours as the other one, I can make blocks for both quilts at the same time, getting two for one, so to speak, and I get the added bonus of a coordinated look.

So this is the plan, or dream, I have before me while quilting along. These may be my next projects, or the ones after that... Or maybe I'll end up making something entirely different...

It happened again last night

- I didn't win the lottery. So it seems I'll have to keep the day job and squeeze my quilting and crafting time in where I can. I'm at the point with my zigzag quilt that there is very little to show right now - it's just a lot of zigzagging lines. I'm beginning to regret choosing this mode of quilting, because I get bored with all the stopping and turning of this big quilt, so while I'm trudging along I find myself struggling to restrain myself from veering out from the pattern, maybe go in a straight line out from halfway down and fill the open areas with lines, or maybe let the zigzags become looser and looser until they become waves?
I managed to stay on the straight and narrow path I've carved out for myself yesterday, but couldn't help sketching out my idea when I sat down to relax later on. Am I being undisciplined, not wanting to stick to my plan, or just creative...?
Talking about creativity - I really began this post thinking about how little time I actually have for creating during the week. Being distracted by new hobbies doesn't help either. My subscription to Quilting Arts some years ago quickly led to a subscription to Cloth Paper Scissors and the new and exciting world of mixed media. I find myself with an urge to create, and have started dabbling a little, without much to show for myself so far. The main problem is having nowhere to set up a little crafting corner, so my supplies have to be put away after use, and the thought of all the mess I create stops me from getting them out again. I'm still at the point where I'm working on creating interesting backgrounds with collage, paint and stamps and I have redone this little canvas several times already. Coming up with a theme for something to put on top is still a challenge, and it gets easier when I actually have time to let my imagination fly. I keep coming back to houses as a theme, though, so that may be one thing to explore for a while. Hm, houses, a room of one's own to create in... there might be something there...
I made the mistake on this one of spraying it with a fixative that has given it a sheen that makes it hard to take a decent photo of it, but it's all a part of the learning process, I suppose. I'll probably glue or paint something new on top of it one day soon anyway, I guess. I'll keep you posted.

Staying indoors

Somehow my balcony doesn't seem too tempting today... It's been raining non stop since last night I think (at least all my dreams have been accompanied by the sound of rain) and even the big trees are swaying in the wind. You probably can't see it in my photo, but the sea that you glimpse beyond the trees has choppy white topped waves that would make me really reluctant to go out in a boat (not that there would be any reason to anyway...)

It's much better to stay indoors and do a bit of this. I spent most of the morning layering my zigzag quilt, which has been languishing in the To Do pile for ever it seems. I have been distracted by other projects and once you go down that slippery slope, it can be difficult to haul yourself back to finishing off those ongoing projects... Or maybe that's only me? No, didn't think so! ;-) There are just too many lovely distractions out there!

Oh well, I'm doing it now, though - once I'm finished pinning this I intend to settle by the sewing machine and do some quilting. I will do this one in parallel zigzagging lines, following the pieced zigzags. I was contemplating doing it by hand, but I think I'd rather have a finished quilt before I get distracted by something else...

Spotty panthers?

After getting my Material Obsessions Two book home earlier this summer, I went straight online an searched for this Echino fabric. It's surprisingly called Panther. A big cat with spots, I would have thouht the designer was aiming to depict a leopard myself, but who am I to judge? - I love it anyway. It is a bit coarser and more heavyweight than standard quilting fabric, but has a nice feel to it, so I am looking forward to working with it. If you have seen the book (highly recommended) you will know which quilt I'm planning to make. Maybe this will be my next one? Or maybe I'll open my Bali Pops. I also have a red and aqua x-block quilt in mind. I'd better get started on one of them, soon though. I haven't spent too much time with my sewing machine lately...
I really shouldn't have gone in search of the link for the Echino fabric - I just found another one with circles and ladybugs... No! Put that credit card away!
No shopping today!! I think...

Framed

I've had an Olfa mat cutter for a while, and finally managed to source some mat board in order to do my own framing. Being a procrastinator extraordinare (yes, I admit it!) I kept putting off a tryout. When I finally decided to start, the cards I wanted to frame had disappeared. I spent ages searching everywhere, but finally had to call it a day. As what so often happens in these cases, my brain solved the mystery while I was sleeping, and the next morning I got up and went straight to the folder where I'd put those cards - love it when that happens!
Then I had some stuff to stitch, so it took a while, but finally I decided to give it a try. And you know: it was much easier than I thought! I had some difficulties with the first mat, because it turns out that you have to cut a little bit past the corners because the board is cut at a slanting line, but once I had worked that out, I did a much better job.

That made the corners of my first mat slightly ragged, but this is my second attempt, and I must say I'm rather pleased with it!
The cards I've framed are by Michael Powell, from his Venetian Window range. Have a look at his site - love those quirky houses of his!

Strawberry bag

I've been fiddling around, not seeming to get much done the last couple of weeks. I have lots of plans, but a few stitches here and there, and I was fed up and drifted on to someting else. Pulling myself by the scruff of the neck back to the sewing machine I'd add a few more stitches, meet another obstacle and take a break. A long break. The reason for all this was this bag. I have been working on the two panels for the bag on and off for some time, and I could have added a lot more, but decided that enough was enough: it was time to finish this and move on. Not having planned anything before I started, gave quite a few challenges. The woven panel was smaller than the one with the tucks and pleats, so I added some side panels to that bit - a braid and some mure tucks and pleats, before I stitched the two pieces together. This made the bag a bit wider than I had envisaged, and I decided to make it taller by adding a piece around the top. I still felt that it was too wide, which led to adding lots of little stitced pleats going half way down the top band. Once I had finished the outside, I realized that the piece of fabric I had planned to use for the lining was too small. I went through several different options and a variety of colours, but eventually managed to narrow it down to one - red to go with the handles.

A search through my stash (which led to anouther great session of tyding, sorting and refolding, but that's a different story) and I came up with this old red and white favourite. I bought this years ago and I loved it so much that I couldn't bear to cut into it, so it has been languishing amongst it's red friends for ever. There was more than enough of it, and I'm really glad I chose this - I get a happy jolt every time I look into the bag - which is a good reminder. If you really love a fabric, use it for someting you see often! I added a hanging pocket with zipper and room for a cell phone inside, and an inset gusset with zipper at the top. I did that on my pink and green bag last summer, and I really like this solution. It was a bit fiddly to stitch to the bag though, because of all the pleats and tucks on the outside, which makes the sides ripple, so after several attempts and lots of ripped seams, I ended up doing it by hand, and it looks OK that way. The long zipper with its white ring pull was actually on my sister's cardigan when we were kids - I have a bag full of old zippers that have been ripped out of old garments to worn out for wear. How thrifty is that?

I used my strawberry handles (and a tiny strawberry pull for the pocket zip) for this as I had planned, but I'm not entirely convinced that this was a good idea. I'll try them out for a bit, but they might actually be a bit too small for this bag. No harm done - I could easily remove them and use them for another bag. Anyway, I have a new bag finished, and can stopp fiddling about. Time to start another project, I think. Now what will it be? The possibilities are endless - I think I have to sleep on it. More pictures on Flickr.

Swappy goodness

My dear cyber friend Calamity Kim posted about her new Johnny Depp bag a while ago. I left a "swoon" comment and before you knew it, Kim generously offered to get me one too. After a bit of mailing back and forth we decided to do a swap, and just in time for the weekend I got to pick up an exciting box from the post office... I couldn't wait to get home, and see what was inside. And what a lot there was! First of all there was the bag, of course. Isn't he gorgeous? Can't wait to take him to town ;-)

And as if the bag wasn't enough - look at all this! Books, magazines, cards, fabric, labels and a marvellous envelope full of all sorts of little treasures. Everything was so prettily wrapped too, that I'm definitely keeping the paper to use in future craft projects.

It's almost inspiration overload, and I've spent the weekend gazing at all my treasures and dreaming about all that I can make with this. Kim is so generous and the swap was a real delight! Thank you, my friend!

Slowly, slowly back to reality...

I'm back at work after three weeks off and life is slowly falling back into the normal pattern after weeks of lazing, gazing, reading and a little bit of stitching. There was none of that hectic Olympic Quilting effort from last summer, and all plans of spending the time efficiently flew out of the window as the temperature soared and the holiday mood took over. But it was lovely. I can hardly remember a time when I was this lazy since I was in my teens. Just something so heavenly as sitting down in the shade in the middle of the day and read a book! And I managed to ignore that persistent little voice in the back of my head telling me about all those useful things I should be doing, and after a while it seemed to give up... There was plenty of time to hang out with friends and family too.

I think this was just what I needed at this point in time, after a really hectic spring and pre-summer at work. I dabbled a bit on a few projects, but I haven't really got all that much to show for it. And all my well laid plans of things I would do when I was off from work was forgotten. And the funny thing is that I'm fine with it!
One of the things I have been working on, is this old thing, and it is slowly evolving into a handbag of sorts. I added some braided and folded sidepanels to make both pieces wide enough, and then decided it was too short and wide for a bag. So I added a top strip to make it deeper, but still thought it was too wide, so I added pleats, and the work continues... I might add some more stitching here and there, or I could just stop here and put it all together. It might need to marinate a bit before I decide. Maybe I'll just read another book.
I'm enjoying a bit of nostalgia today - just found the Cats-CD on special offer (I have the LP, but no record player), and find to my surprise that I still remember all the words of all the songs and that Rum Tum Tugger still wants to leap on your lap in the middle of your sewing, and the old Gumbie cat is forever tying the curtain cord into sailors' knots - such crafty cats ;-) So I sit here typing away and singing my head off. Later I might go and make a lining for my bag. Or maybe not. I could just impersonate that gumbie cat ("she sits and sits and sits and sits, and that's what makes a gubie cat"...)

Zagging along

This is what I'm working on at the moment. It has been left in the UFO pile for far too long, but you don't know how hard it was to find a black fabric for the borders with brown or tan in it - it seems that all black fabrics now have some grey in them, and that just wouldn't work with these colours, I thought. Well, that's the power of fabric trends, I suppose. I eventually found my black in the clearance bin!
I'm working on the backing now - trying to incorporate the cut-offs and leftovers. I think I will quilt it in zigzagging stripes following the pattern in the top, but I haven't quite decided if it should be hand- or machine-quilted yet. There is a zigzag quilt in one of Kaffe Fassett's books which is hand quilted in quite big stitches with floss or something, I think. Maybe that would be a good approach. I'll have to look it up.
Oh well, back to my piecing - I'm invited out for dinner and I really must make some blocks before I leave...

Lazy days

Another quiet holiday moment - but it is wonderful to be able to take time to smell the flowers, read, and sew. The weather the last couple of days was awful - rainstorms in July is not excactly what you expect... but at least it was perfect weather for sewing. I finished quilting my Café de Paris quilt - pictures when I've finished stitching the binding to the back. So that gives me something to work on while watching the box in the evening - I just don't seem able to just sit there and watch a film or whatever, I need to have something to do with my hands as well.
I got a bit stuck on that zigzag quilt, because it ended up narrower and longer than I'd thought. I pulled a few fabrics out of the mix and couldn't find any that blended in the way I wanted. I finally found a black with some brown in it to use as borders, though, so it will get borders along the two long sides. I also trimmed it a bit more, so it ends up at about 88" long. That's quite enough, I think. I'm using the offcuts to make some blocks for the backing. I have decided to be more creative with my quilt backings and not just go for one single fabric. With a bit of piecing I'll be able to use more of my stash. There are lots of fabrics that I'll probably never use in a quilt top, but will work just fine on the back. And then I'll get more room for new fabric...

And reading. What a luxury it is to be able to sit down in the middle of the day and read a book! I've worked my way through a whole pile of Jill Mansell's novels these last couple of weeks (a 3 for 2 offer at my local bookshop), the Barbara Erskine one too - although it was almost too exciting at times... and I still have Weldon and Trollope to go plus one by Mary Wesley along with her biography. We're having a sunny day today, but really, come rain or shine, I have plenty to fill my time!

Village quilt

Village quilt
Originally uploaded by crafty mathea

I seem to be in full holiday mode lately. My brain has turned to mush, and I can't seem to hold a thought in my head for more than a couple of minutes at a time. For instance, I finished this quilt last Sunday, and thought I'd wait and post it for Mini Quilt Monday. Monday came and went, and I forgot all about it. Every time I have spotted the quilt I have thought I must remember to take a picture and post about it, and the next minute that thought is just gone.
Well, here it is at last. The checkerboard or fields in front of the village is made with plaited strips of black and white fabric - a technique I saw described in Quilter's Newsletter Magazine a while ago. The village is a photo, enhanced in Photoshop and printed on fabric, and so is the castle on the hill (not actually a castle, but Whitby Abbey - the famous ruin overlooking Whitby Bay in Yorkshire). The rest of the landscape bits and pieces are applicued directly onto the batting. Size of quilt: 12x18".

Placemat swap

I took part in a placemat swap on Flickr in June and this is the lovely placemat I received from Solidia. I just love that colourful path curving it's way across the neutral background. Or maybe it's a staircase to a magical place, each step with a flavour of it's own - sorry, my imagination is running wild here, but I can't help gazing at this pretty thing. It came with a matching coaster as well, and some lovely fabric that I'm sure I will find good use for if I can bear to cut into it ;-)

This is the placemat I made and sent in return. I was reading a book set in Greece when I started pulling colours for this. I have never actually been there, but somehow blue and white houses, the colours of sea, sky, terracotta and olives seemed right for it. The wonky little houses are made from a technique in Keiko Goke's book "Patchwork".

Village: check ...

The road from idea to finished product may sometimes be a long one, but sometimes it is really all about throwing oneself into the process. "Just do it" as the slogan says...
I had a vague idea for this one, but once I started pulling fabric from my stash things started happening. Before I knew it I had all the right ones there, and could start cutting and assembling. It seems to come together the way I had imagined, Italian village, English abbey ruin and all.

Now I'll just have to find the nerve to take it to the sewing machine and prove to myself that my quilting won't ruin my vision of what this could be...

Just do it - right?

My first quilt

I'm throwing caution to the winds and leaving myself open for ridicule here. Yes, I have joined the Parade of Quilts and decided to show you the first quilt I ever made!
You might find it hard to believe, but I had never actually seen a quilt "in real life" when I decided to tackle this project, and had no idea how to go about it, but I had seen a quilt on a bed in a magazine and decided to make one. I was just a kid at the time, and the photo I had as my starting point was just 2" square and was of the whole bedroom, so the actual image of the quilt was tiny, but big enough for me to work out how the squares and triangles were supposed to match up.
I drafted it all on graph paper. So far so good. But then there was the question of fabric. This was way back in the early eighties, and quilting fabric was not exactly easy to find. My ever supportive Mum kindly donated a length of blue and white floral that she had meant to make into a summer dress, and after a lot of searching I found the black, white and red florals. So those were the colours I ended up with. Not because those were the colours I had decided on, but because those were the only ones I could find! I had of course never heard of fancy stuff like templates and rotary cutters (not sure they even existed back then... ) so I drew the squares on the back of my fabric with the help of a ruler and a ballpoint pen and cut them out with a pair of scissors. I'm amazed that I actually persevered - I seem to remember a big blister on my thumb... Anyway. I eventually got to the point where I could start stitching the pieces together, and borrowed my mum's old Singer and stitched happily away. Consistency when it came to seam allowances? Never occurred to me! That was a fact that became very clear once I started to stitch the blocks together. That didn't stop me, though. I just pulled and pleated, and managed to get them all together somehow.
Then came the task of quilting. I could see from the photo that there had to be something fluffy inside the quilt, and seams "in the ditch" (although I didn't know that was what it was called...), and I realized that there had to be some kind of backing fabric. But to actually stitch through all three layers? No! That wouldn't do, because the seams would show on the back... (!)
So I got hold of some polyester batting and pinned my quilt top down with short pins that kept falling out or burying their points in my fingers as I forced those seams through the two layers, pulling the material with all my might to avoid puckers and scattering dozens of pins to stick in our carpet only to be found by our toes during the next months...
Somewhere along the way I had also seen a picture of a Japanese futon with white tufts of yarn tied at intervals, so that was how I ended up attaching the backing, before I added strips of black, rolled the excess batting along the edges into it and machine stitched the edges down.
I'm actually amazed that I managed to finish this baby - and look at this precise piecing... ;-). But actually, the quilt has held up very well, considering all the use it has got over the years. And at a distance it doesn't look too bad...
I must admit, though, that it took several years before I attempted to make another one. And this time around I took a class and learnt all the nitty gritty of how to quilt, so it all turned out much better.
I have made loads of quilts since then, and my techniques have improved, although I still have lots to learn, as I found out while following Oh Fransson!'s Quilt-along earlier this year, making this quilt. But learning new things and constantly being challenged to try something new is what makes me keep quilting after all these years. That, and getting to play with lovely patterns and colours and finding ever new excuses to buy glorious fabric...

Mini quilt Monday

Look! A new mini quilt, and on a Monday too! Well at least I finished it today, although the top has been ready for a while. It is the result of a workshop a while ago, and started out as a purple and cream nine-patch with teal borders and after some clever cutting, twisting of blocks and restitching we ended up with these little windmills. I think I might have to try making another one to remember how I did it...
Anyway, I eventually got round to layering and quilting it, using my version of the escape-hatch method so I didn't have to bother with binding. My version differs from the one Melody uses in that I make the backing of two pieces of fabric which I stitch together, leaving an opening in the middle instead of cutting an opening. I find this works well for small table toppers, -runners and the like. This one is 13 x 13", by the way. I quilted the windmills in a spiralling pattern to create an illusion of movement. I used a purple and teal variegated thread. Here's a close-up of the quilting.
Added later: the pattern is actually called Square Dance, and here is a description of how you do it.