Worn and Washed

So Mum and I decided to go to see Kim's show. We are huge fans after having done the day course Kim offers. It's just such a lovely concept, All these faded soft fabrics; favourite old sheets, soft shirts, brushed cottom pyjamas; all reused and put together in bundles which you can just make into simple strip quilts. We were quite excited about the show as Olney is a very beautiful place and I have finally worked out how to use the sat nav.

In the end mums 'crew' who all gang together and go on road trips to shows and shops decided to join us and off we went in Angela's bright red mini, whizzing down country lanes in the fens, sneezing at the oil seed rape fields which were in full bloom.



I was a bit sad we weren't doing the class again as it was a lovely venue and would have been a great day to just dedicate to a project. The show itself was lovely. There was a great array of quilts made my people using Kim's bundles, all of which looked really soft and handmade. If you're not familiar with Worn and Washed, here is a rundown.

Here is a classic bundle



Here is the classic strip quilt you can make really quickly



And that's all there is to it! But the exhibition showed what people had done to take the idea that one step further. It was really great to see what it could all lead on to.

Here are a few of the things I really liked



I think the quilt on the left by Ruth Eglinton is lovely. I love the mixture of blocks and applique. The colours are also very faded and lovely. I am thinking I might ask Kim to see if there is a pattern available or else I will try and work it out myself. I even like the slight puffiness of the quilting. I am not sure how you achieve that effect, perhaps merely by washing it lots.



I also really liked Liz Tew's quilt, which you can't quite see as it has quilts on top of it but I didn't want to touch the display as it was so perfect. It seemed pretty simple. Just long rows of three up strips with white white strips which had been quilted with hearts.



I loved all the washed out tones, the use of stripey sheets and the whiteness of it. It's also a great chance to do some more Durham quilting on the white areas. I think I might actually make it!



I bought the roll for this quilt of Kim's below but now I am torn and think I must make Liz's quilt above. Oh I shall probably end up making a mismatch of both and wish I had stuck to one of them. I am so fickle



Here are some other lovely things



This quilt was tiny squares, slightly wonky which just made it seem perfect.



This one was a bit more complicated than the norm but I liked the quilting around the star and mum was quite taken with the button in the middle.


This one reminds me of the Petra Prins quilt kit I have stashed away for a rainy day



I think overall, that I have decided that I like it when the strips are small. I'll probably change my mind though, but this tiny quilt was lovely.



One day, I will dive into the whole Liberty thing. It is so tempting.



I'll stop now. I know I am gushing, but what can I do? Worn and Washed is exactly my kind of thing, whereas a lot of other kinds of quilting isn't always on the mark for me. At heart I am small sprigs of flowery faded fabrics and Little House on The Prarie. I have fought it, but I can't help myself. I always seem to return to it. My mum gave me my grandads old stripy bed linen years ago as it held such lovely memories for me. I can see it in one of these quilts, I have just never had the guts to cut it up. Bank holiday might see the scissors coming out!

Progress

Rachel asked me what I was working on the other day so I thought I would post it up here. The answer is... I am hand quilting the 60° degree Material Obsessions quilt.



After thinking that I would never have to hand tack a quilt together ever again now I had discovered 505 spray glue, I have since come to the conclusion that its gluing properties are very weak and unless you are about to whizz it through a machine, it fails when constantly twisted on the lap over a week or two. I don't mind though. I have been feeling that my quilts were rather too flat; too perfect. I am seeking the puffy scrunchiness of an old-fashioned much loved quilt. A quilt you might find in Bagpuss' house. Although, this traincrash of colours would hardly feature there.



I have decided this is the kind of quilt I would have in my Barbican flat, my Erno Goldfinger flat or my Frank Lloyd Wright house. It is kind of 50s 60s quilt.

Anyway, I went to my local craft shop which is kind of one up from a pound shop. It's the cheaper side of craft equipment which is actually great as there are lots of great things in there. One of the best things is that they stock a full range of Gutterman thread. I just bought some of their cheap thick thread in orange, yellow, turquoise and blue and decided to use all of those randomly on the quilt. The finer, more subtle specific quilting threads I have are all in pale colours and just didn't see to fit. Plus a pool of King Tut is £6, whereas a spool of Guttermans is £1! Mum would probably tell me that there is a very good reason for that... but then she did tell me spray glue was not a good idea. One day I might actually start listening!



Yeah, so every evening I do a little bit more. I would say I am half way almost. It's a huge quilt, but I am doing very big stitches so they show up. All the spirals are just done by eye, well I sketch the next bit with a white pencil so then I can not think about it for a while. The last spirals I did were all traced and measured so this is an experiment. I will line then up side by side and see which is the most successful.

Finished!

So at last the speaker quilt is done. I am free of the task which has been sitting on my list if things to do for what seems like years.



I based it on this lovely Amy Butler quilt really. Although her one is a bit too wonky for my virgoan tendencies.



I did the same as before by sewing an odd patch of buttons on it and using the letter function on the Bernina to write some words associated with its owner. I did them all really badly but I quite like that.





And I also tried some of the other decorative stitches that I never use.

Now that is out of my system, and now that my 'Warm and Natural' wadding arrived from Quilt Direct, I am ready to baste together my big psychedelic quilt this weekend. I am a convert to the spray glue method. I washed my last quilt in the washing machine and it seemed fine so spray glue is cool with me. my mum thinks it takes away from the process, but basting is my least favourite part and is always the moment where I stop a project and out it away forever, so I think, well, you might as well choose not to spend time on the things you don't like.

60 Degrees

This weekend I decided to give in to the endless demand for the second speaker quilt. Rather than do the same thing as before, I decided to do something different using the same sort of fabric. I decided to practice 60° triangles with the newish 60 degree ruler. It's much easier than the template I was using before. I thought Id's experiment with bigger seams in an effort to improve my precision as they always seem off.



Fighting the stretchy nature of the bias is really frustrating. It didn't make it any easier really, just more bulky, but at least I know now. I just used a lot of spray starch and tried not to pull the material too much as it warps the shape. I also drew a line on the plate of the sewing machine to help with lining the material up when you sew it. That definitely helped when it came to the ends which have a tendency to move weirdly. I have a little wooden cuticle pusher which I used to hold the material in place up until the very last minute it is sewn which made life more precise but it still isn't perfect.



I couldn't work out the maths enough to make it a perfect fit so I evened it up with the leftovers from the last quilt. I'm pleased about this as there was just enough and I had no idea what I was going to do with it otherwise as it was so pindling.



It's all ready and waiting to just be quilted now. A job for next weekend methinks.

Hexagons

So I have been thinking about doing some hexagons (or English patchwork if you want to be technical). I have no idea why. It's all done by hand ye olde fashioned way and is a tonne of work unless you just make a pin cushion.) I have many other projects to do, but I quite like the idea of something I can do by hand, little by little. I am not quite sure if it is madness yet. I am still working it out. And I am not quite sure what would look nice. Should it be modern prints, totally random, with a bauhaus colour theme or small pretty sprigs. Plains and patterns forming larger shapes, white bits? Who knows, it is just a small idea lodging itself in the back of my head. Above are some different examples that have caught my eye.

1. The Pillow Talk { Swap } , 2. Eggs from just this morn, 3. Always work in progress, 4. Four, 5. Pillow Talk swap round 3, 6. YIP 365.299 :: Honeycomb Hexagon quilt from Fresh Quilting, 7. girly hexagon quilt, 8. checking out the hexagons...., 9. Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt, 10. butterfly hexes, 11. Hexillow, 12. Milk & Honey

I would also like to mention at this point that I left my crochet granny squares lying around in a pile for so long that they got infested by moths so I have had to wash them and put them in the freezer. I have a bad track record with these things, yet I yearn to start them.

SImple Quilt

I have so nearly finished this quilt. It's the first quilt I glued instead of basting. I did this as it was just getting so dirty on the floor and it was too big so the stairs kept getting in the way.



I think I might have to try basting my next quilt on a table. I am going to have to wash it, it is so dirty, but part of me is quite excited to see how this turns out. Although I washed all the fabric, I don't wash wadding and this quilt is made of lots of offcuts sewn together so it could well go all wrong, but I don't think I would mind that either. The backing is an old sheet and the whole thing is really soft. I kind of want it to go old and knackered and be something I can just bung in the wash without being too precious over it. With this in mind I machine quilted it quite heavily. The only problem with that is tying off all the ends. I Still haven't finished them so I still haven't washed it. I am going to try and make it my mission to do so.



I decided to make thick borders for this quilt so that they were soft and floppy, but I did them in continuous binding and I got the measurements wrong as the binding so so much thicker. So I had to make these funny corners. I actually quite like them, they seem to add to the softness, but they are a mistake. One I won't make again.

I started this quilt when I was in my last house as a moving in gift to myself for this house. That was over FIVE years ago. Shows how behind I have been. This is my simple boy friendly quilt based on one I saw by Conran in Libertys that was so expensive it was ridiculous. I wish I had taken a photo of it.

This weekend

I bought some new material as a get well soon present for myself, from here. I have really been trying not to as it's Chilford on 13th March and since I am finishing off projects I don't really need any. But at last I have finished the stripey quilt. I am just tying off all the ends then I shall show it to you. As for Chilford, I feel I have earnt the right to go as I have finished this huge unfinished project. Now I just have to apply myself to the multi coloured dream quilt and then I can finally start on the sawtooth star quilt.



In the meantime I am also knitting. I am practising cable stitches from my Cabling book I received for Christmas. I'm not quite sure what I will do with the squares when they are complete. Maybe make them into a multi coloured blanket for a baby as they are every soft. We'll see. I'm doing them in pockets of free time so they won't form into anything for a very long time.

Pendant Making

I did a silversmithing glass this weekend at Rachels Studio with Rebecca. It was great! I was very rubbish though. It's so hard to get things straight. In the end I just decided to do something that was supposed to look rough and wonky. I wanted to make sure I finished it in the time so I just set about making two big hoops and bashing them flat.





I should have filed and polished the finished thing more but well, it just takes so long and I am such a wimp I got sore arms and fingers by the end of the day. Hitting your finger a few times with a hammer is no joke I can tell you. I can't quite wear the finished thing as one of the jump rings came unsoldered, but once I fix that then I am well chuffed.



Rachel cut her big circle out of flat silver which looked lovely.



Here is her finished necklace minus the polish.



Here is mine after the polish! I sat sanding and polishing all the way home on the train! I wish I could sign up the evening course and make more things!

Sewing Case

I finally finished my sewing cases. I just need to iron the white marker pen out so you can't see where I drew the quilting pattern on. I made two so that I could try different things out on each and learn with one so that the second would be perfect. Of course I just made mistakes on both instead.



I cut the wadding too small. My 1/4 inch sewing didn't leave enough room for the trim. My binding was too thin. My cord too fat... etc etc.. but even with all that, I am very happy with them.



I was intending to give one away, but I love both of them so much, I don't think I can. They have all my favourite scraps of material in them. They are really too precious. And it's always useful to have two of something right? They're the kind of thing that you need when you're on a train doing applique on the move. I bought a new pair of mini scissors just for the other case so now I have two sets of scissors, unpickers, threads, needles and pins. I feel very organised. I still prefer my mums case, but that's always the way I find.



I am also the owner of my very own bodkin now which I found I really couldn't make cord without. I tried with a safety pin but it was arduous work. Then bizarrely enough I was in a cheap shop and there was one right in front of me for £2 and I thought, "why not splash out on a bodkin". I am so very decadent.

The Year Review

So it's the first day of 2011, a fine time to take stock of the year.

Things I made this year
An iPad case
The Country Quilt
A baby quilt for a forthcoming baby
A baby quilt for baby Mabel
A pin cushion
Another iPad case
A knitted blanket
A cushion

Unfinished projects from 2010
1. The crazy quilt which I have done NOTHING on.
2. A baby quilt for Mabel Done!
3. The kit to make which I have been saving for a rainy day.
4. The partner to the speaker quilt which I haven't even thought about
5. The Country Quilt, Finished! It was a huge task but I cracked it!
6. The Sawtooth Star Quilt I haven't really tackled it this year as my aim was to clear the decks, so it almost doesn't count.
7. The Stripey Quilt, which I need to do the borders and binding for.

Oh dear, 2 out of 7 is very poor indeed.


Resolutions for 2010
To do a course which I did do in crochet.
To get more done. Well that's always tricky but I think I did pretty well.

Resolutions for 2011
To finish things off instead of starting big new projects (small ones are okay)
To improve my knitting

Better get back to my sewing case...

Blanket done!

Well it's taken me nearly a year, but finally I finished my blanket. I am very chuffed with myself. I can't quite believe I knitted something so big! The only bad bit is how I joined the two pieces in the middle. I did it really badly so it's all lumpy. I am hoping it stretches out with use though. In a way I can't wait for more cold weather just so I can test out it's warmth. I reckon it's going to be amazing. I would like to thank my new wool winder which just made the whole process much easier!



I got a cabling book for Christmas so I am going to try out some new cabling stitches. I might just make some squares and see how they turn out. The new local knitting shop had some lovely knitted cushions. I wish I needed cushions. I seem to finally have all the cushions I need!

Sewing case

Today I decided to make a sewing case just like my mums. It's an old fashioned thing really but I really like it so here I am rummaging through the scrap bag, trying to dig out my favourite materials I have kept all the ickle bits of. It seems like a good holiday project. I thought I might make two at the same time. The pattern is from an old magazine that my mum bought me when I first started out.



I had forgotten how rubbish I am at flying geese though. I just keep trimming them, then I trim them again. I swear they are now an inch smaller than the pattern. I am not sure about using templates either. They seem less accurate than cutting them straight from the measurements.

Amazing gift #1 - A woolwinder!

I mean I really don't deserve one as I am hardly what you would call a hardcore knitter, but it seems that the posher the wool, the more often it is twisted in a skein which I have to hand wind. It was really starting to get on my nerves. So I was kindly given a woolwinder which I am inordinately excited about. I plan to try and up my knitting skills next year. They do make more attractive wooden ones but you need more space for them and to be honest I don't think I will have it out all the time as I don't knit THAT much. It will be great for crochet though as I often spend lots of time winding small balls of wool to take on the move with me. When I went on the crochet course I could see they wound their balls with a machine as they had this lovely pattern to them. Now mine do too!