Free Motion Machine Quilting – another two squares

I’m trying to do one free motion quilt square per day – it keeps me in practice, doesn’t put too much strain on my dicky wrists, and doesn’t take up too much time. I’ve also started sewing up the squares to see what it’ll look like completed.

As usual, my photography lets me down… but you get the gist. And here’s what the four of them look like bound together:

Extreme Crochet Cushion

I had chance on Christmas Day to complete one of my presents – an extreme crochet cushion. For those unfamiliar with the concept, it’s not crochet in life-endangering situations. Instead, you use an outsize crochet hook (in this case a 1.5cm diameter) and several strands of yarn (6 for this project) of different styles. Mixed fibres seem to be more popular. I used trebles to make a suitable sized crocheted sheet (doubles might have given a denser fabric), double crocheted round the edges, added the tassels and here’s the result:

It’s 12 inches square, and more details on extreme crochet/knitting from www.racheljohn.co.uk from whence the kit came from. Tricky at first, but it doesn’t half knit up quick!

Free Motion Machine Quilting – first attempts

Happy Christmas to you all 🙂

I’ve been at the sewing machine using one of the many books I got for Christmas – Hari Walner’s Continuous Line Quilting Designs. Featuring 80 designs, it relies on free motion machine stitching, unless you’re doing it by hand of course… I’ve decided to make a sampler quilt since my practice squares have turned out ok. It’ll be just calico and 80/20 wadding – may be a prototype for a silk dupion one? Here’s the first two squares, 10×10″ in size.

Wowweeee! Over 50,000 views!

Hi all – between you, you’ve clocked up 50,000 views of my blog in 9 months of it being live. Thank you so much for your support, comments and interest.

In commemoration of this fabulous achievement, I’m working on a great giveaway – but it’s happened a smidge quicker than I expected, so it’s not quite ready. Keep your eyes peeled early in the New Year.

Happy Christmas, and best wishes for the New Year.

College – Still Life – Weeks 6 & 7

It’s the end of term and hand-in time  – and here’s what I’m handing in for my still life module. Hopefully you can appreciate that it’s a close up of a hydrangea head, and see that we’ve been concentrating on learning about tone and form this term. I’m really pleased with it, and once again the charcoal ground works wonders!

College – Life Drawing – Weeks 1-7

Well I’ve just finished the first life drawing module of the course, and we were assessed today. Indications are I’m doing very well… Perhaps you would like to judge for yourself? These are phone photos of my drawings – I’ll get better pics when I get the drawings home and use a proper camera. By kind permission of our life model.

Life Drawing - Week 1 (2x 20m)

Life Drawing - Week 3 (2x 45m)

Life Drawing - Week 4 (2x 45m)

Life Drawing - Weeks 6 & 7

The last one is our final piece – three sittings (45m, 45m and 60m) in (more or less) the same pose. It was great to hear one of my classmates comment ‘it looks so 3D’ 🙂  I like working on the charcoal ground – it seems to help me capture the form of the figure much better.

Reversible canvas bag

I’ve got the sewing bug sooo bad! But that’s ok as it justifies getting the new sewing machine 😉

This afternoon I decided to make myself a stained glass window bag to carry all my quilting paraphernalia to and from future workshops. I didn’t have a pattern to follow, and worked it out as I went – there was only one minor glitch along the way fixing the handles, but got that sorted without too much unpicking. I’ve somehow made it reversible, but who’d want to hide the colour side? After three hours ironing, sewing and cogitating, here’s the results:

And I thought I’d made it big enough – but no, it’s an inch too small (16 inches square) after all the folds and seams were a smidge imprecise. The next one should be quicker 🙂

Christmas Tangles

I don’t know what’s come over me – it seems my bah humbugness has cracked a little and a bit of festive creativity has crept out. Technically these are not tangle patterns nor zentangles as they resemble real objects (one of the zentangle rule no-nos), but they’re close enough for me 🙂

The Holly and The Ivy

Snowflakes

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