Paper Play

This is why I spent an evening colouring in paper. I have been wanting to make a quilt in purple and lime for some time now but who wants a quilt in those colours? Log Cabin is my favourite block so I'm going to combine the two and make a Liberated or Wonky log cabin hanging.

This has been a very useful exercise to do. It has given me a clear indication of how the colours work together and I've already decided I don't like the pale green inner border the brighter green is much better and the block has come out far too square. So it's back to paper play today.

This is the book that I'm following/using for guidance. It's a lovely book and Janice is a very nice lady who produces beautiful work.

On Wednesday Steph had her hospital appointment. She has been diagnosed with chronic migraine and prescribed some tablets that so far seem to be making things worse. It's odd really, she says her head hurts more and she looks very pale and is being sick. She has to take one tablet every evening for two weeks and then increase to two tablets every evening so she has got to stick with them for a while before any conclusion can be drawn.

We are going to Wales on Monday for a few days so she is coming to stay with Anthony-not sure who will be looking after who but at least they will have each other and I won't worry quite so much.

Enjoy your weekend.

Progress In All Things

What did you do yesterday evening? I spent some time colouring in paper (well there wasn't anything on telly) I do have a reason for this it wasn't just boredom! I'm going to make a purple and lime quilted hanging and as I hate drawing but like making I thought I could make a paper block first to make sure it's going to work. I'm sure I've said before that there's method in my madness or is it madness in my method? It all seems logical to me. More on this soon.

I have made good progress with the necklace and bracelet. I'm very pleased with these. 

Here's a sneak peek at the new shop. More work in progress and so much more to do, but exciting.

Big News

Art and Stitch is moving. Not very far (just 15 yards or so!) only to Unit  33 but to much much bigger premises. This mean a bigger work room (and in the near future a second workroom), a quilting frame that will be available to hire and more importantly much more fabric.

The new shop will open on Tuesday 12 th April and there will be goody bags for the first 50 customers!

Yesterday I went to the monthly meeting of the group that I belong to, the group name was Tension but nobody really liked the name so we have changed it to Spectrum, much nicer. We are going to be an exhibiting group and our first exhibtion has been arranged for February next year at Art Van Go. A big thank you goes to Gina  our mentor for arranging this for us.

I had intended to work on my necklace yesterday but instead I made a bracelet to match and so now I have to make some more flowers for the necklace. The bracelet isn't finished yet I need to add some beads but it is looking very nice.

This is the back of the bracelet and you can see the grid that the flowers are stitched onto. The grid was worked onto water soluble fabric using flat braids. 

For those of you that have been asking about Gina's class in May here are a couple of pictures of some of the things that Gina will be going through on the day.

A very pretty bag with a gorgeous flower. The flower has lots of possibilities, imagine it on a fancy cushion or as a brooch.

These Ivy leaves are just as beautiful and would make a great picture or wall hanging. Once you learn the technique all you need to do is follow your creative spirit and you will be creating textile treasures in no time.

Quilt Festival

I didn't get much time to sew last week. I had hoped to have the necklace finished by now but best laid plans and all that mean it isn't. I'm going to try and get all the flowers done today.

They do look very pretty on the blue background.

On Sunday I went to Chilford for the quilt festival. I went with Pam and Steph, we had a great day, a lovely lunch and spent lots of money. I came away with five books - not sure how that happened but it's Pams fault!. Steph bought quite a lot of fabric, she obviously thinks she hasn't got enough but I know different and so will Nick when he gets home. 

 I will leave you with some photos of some of the quilts. The quilts were lovely it was a great exhibiton.

The Last Project

This is my last project for my City and Guilds. It's going to be a necklace made from sheer fabric. It has taken a long time to get the right flower shape and in the end it all came down to a 50p piece.

Here you can see the relevance of the 50p. I ended up with a very nice shape and size I was a little worried how the flower would look as the flower shape had no detail on it. The detail was stitched in and it's worked very well I can already see other uses for these flowers.



Here's a close up of the stitched flowers.

Now all I need to do is decide on the shape of the necklace, how many flowers I will need and how to join it all together and of course make the flowers.

A Busy Time

We have had a very busy couple of weeks in the shop, culminating in a stand at the Textiles In Focus Show at Cottenham. The show is organised by Pauline Verrinder; it went off very smoothly and was a real credit to her. The textile exhibition was fantastic, unfortunately I didn't take any photos but all those that took part in it are very talented.

Ladies from the Fibrefusion group were selling these little Jute bags in a wide range of colours and I just couldn't resist them, buying five in total. The bags were plain and I have added the decoration. Nothing complicated, a few suffolk puffs, buttons, beads and twill tape. They make nice little gifts.

The pink one for myself.

The orange one for Barbara with bells so we can hear her coming because there's no harm in a little warning!

Blue for Sam, who had a birthday today.

Pam's was yellow.

And last but not least a purple one for Stephanie.



A group photo of five old bags!

Stephanie had another visit to the doctor today for the results of last weeks blood test which showed a slight improvement in what the doctor was looking for but not enough. She now has a hospital  appointment on 23rd March in London. She is still suffering with very bad headaches but seems to be coping fairly well. Another 6-8 weeks and Nick should be home, I'm sure that will go a long way to making her feel better.

Something Soft And New

I've started quilting the border on my quilt, so far it's looking good. I hope you can see the quilting on the pictures. This is the back.

And the front.

This is the something soft and new. It is hand dyed wool from Blue Faced Leicester sheep and it comes from Wales. It has taken a year to get this in the shop but it was definitely worth the wait. It is sooooo tactile we can't help but scrunch it up.



Steph is still not well she really is suffering with those headaches. She is back at the doctors on Thursday as they now want to do a specific blood test to check on a blood vessel that runs down the side of the skull and she has got to have an E.C.G.

And as is if that wasn't enough yesterday she went to the dentist for a check up and ended up having a wisdom tooth out. She was so brave I really don't know how she got through it. I'm keeping as close an eye on her as I can but I wish she would come and stay with us I don't like the idea of her being on her own. I'm so looking forward to Nick coming home.

It's Worrying

Chicken and Mushroom Risotto for last nights tea. Made by me without a recipe and it was lovely. Is this the start of the slippery slope?

The bottom of my shoe. I thought it was a very nice pattern and I'm sure I will be able to do some work in my sketchbook (when I find it) using this pattern. 

Iv'e decided to go curvy on the border. I think it will look vey nice once it's stitched and the blue pen has been washed away. Barbara made the templates for me , she is our template queen and will spend hours making the right one. Hopefully today I wiil finish marking it up and you never know I might get some stitching done.

Yum Yum

Spicy Pumpkin Muffins for afternoon tea.

This is the Quilt-a-Long quilt I made a little while ago. Last week I started quilting and I'm very pleased with it so far.

This is the back, I thought you might be able to see the quilting a bit better. All I've done is stitch a quarter of an inch either side of the seam. I would like to be a little bit more adventurous on the border but I'm not sure what to do. Any suggestions?

Hello

I can't believe how quickly time passes by. It has been such a long time since my last post and so much has happened. Christmas and New Year have been and gone, I hope you all had a great time. We have been very busy in the shop and are working on exciting new plans for the year ahead including lots of courses.

Sparky has been poorly again, he has had an eye infection which led to an ulcer on his eye but luckily that responded to topical treatment and didn't need surgery just numerous visits to the vets.

Nick has gone to the Falkland Islands and isn't due back until April. We thought he may have to come back last week as Steph has been quite poorly. So there has also been visits to Peterborough and Stamford hospitals and doctors.

The biggest news of all came from Anthony when he announced that we are going to be grandparents. Baby is due sometime in September.

And I had a birthday so another year older!

These are some of the pressies I received. Pam made me a Scissor, Rotary Cutter and Odds and Sods case. 

This is a Sewing Case also made by Pam.

And this is a Jewellery Roll made by Barbara. This little jewellery roll is very very special, Barbara really hates putting in zips and apparentley she wasted a lot of fabric with all the attempts in doing so. I am very grateful and it will be used.

This is a little snap shot of some christmas presents that I've made ready for this year. I know it's a bit early but I was in such a mess last year because I ran out of time that I made a New Years Resolution this year (something I have never done before) and it was not to be in a mess this christmas. Well thats the idea we shall just have to wait and see.

Please feel free to leave me a comment it's always nice to hear from you even if you haven't left a comment before and that includes you Monica!

An Unintended Break

You may have noticed I've had a blogging break, It was unintentional but nice. I had been having so many problems with blogger that I just gave up. But the break had to be broken. When I got home yesterday as usual the postman had left a delivery, but not the usual kind.



Amongst the expected bills, flyers and xmas cards there was a xmas card from Gina. But it was more than just a xmas card there was a little package and inside the little package was this.





Doesn't it look beautiful, infact so beautiful I didn't open it until this morning. Look what was inside. These are postcards of Gina's lace work, which I'm eager to see in real life.






After opening the parcel which I did very very carefully I managed to get it wrapped up again so it is going into an envelope to be kept nice and clean for posterity.

How are your xmas preparations going, am I the only one who is miles behind?