Other Art Pieces/Techniques
Extreme Crochet Cushion

Posted on 28th December 2011 by Neil

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!

Quilting
Free Motion Machine Quilting – first attempts

Posted on 26th December 2011 by Neil

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.

About me
Wowweeee! Over 50,000 views!

Posted on 21st December 2011 by Neil

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.

Other Art Pieces/Techniques
College – Still Life – Weeks 6 & 7

Posted on 20th December 2011 by Neil

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!

Other Art Pieces/Techniques
College – Life Drawing – Weeks 1-7

Posted on 19th December 2011 by Neil

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.

Original Designs
End of term exhibition

Posted on 15th December 2011 by Neil

It’s a week to the end of term one, and tonight is the ‘friends and family’ exhibition. I’m going to be at a concert, so wont be there 🙁

Here’s my bit:

Original Designs
Reversible canvas bag

Posted on 11th December 2011 by Neil

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 🙂

Original Designs
Christmas Tangles

Posted on 10th December 2011 by Neil

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

Continue reading →

Sewing
Another designer handbag

Posted on 7th December 2011 by Neil

Here’s something else I ran up on my new sewing machine – a designer handbag using the Blossom Shoulder Bag pattern from Amy Butler’s Style Stitches book. The fabric is not one of hers though – I got hold of some mid-weight home decoration cotton prints locally. This one isn’t for sale, but I’m happy to take orders 😉

Available to purchase
Quilt No. 2

Posted on 7th December 2011 by Neil

So buoyed up by my first patchwork quilt, I embarked on my second – and bought a new sewing machine (Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.0) as well! This is a quilt-as-you-go jelly roll rail fence pattern, as described in Popular Patchwork magazine (p.31, September 2011). I chose a batik fabric jelly roll from The Fabric Guild. The binding strips are a Hoffmann print, and the backing a dark brown batik double-width cotton, also from The Fabric Guild. Wadding is 80/20 cotton/polyester.

Apologies for the quality of the image – I’m finding photographing large quilts quite tricky! It is 52×61 inches in size, and is for sale – here’s the listing on eBay!