Tuesday 27 January 2009

OOPS.....MISSED IT

A GREAT BIG THANK YOU
to everyone who has been to the site and bought a ticket to win that Quilt, the Children's Society will have a good amount because of you.
Thank you again. Jan :-)

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I am getting on well with my version of Babs, Singing Garden Quilt. Today I managed to get the last two borders on, just the flowers in the corner to do, then I can start to quilt it. I'm very pleased with how its looking.

Here is a close up of one corner...



Just one group of flowers to do in top corner, then I can quilt it...



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OOPS


What did I miss?

My 500th Posting.

Best think of a Give Away PDQ

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LOVELY GIFT

Hi Maggie, your wonderful gift has arrived today for me, well I should say gifts as there are two.

Maggie has made me some wrist warmers, they are just so pretty AND they work too. My wrists have been wonderfully warm all day so that means my hands are too. I shall be sorry to take them off.
A BIG THANK YOU Maggie. I love them. Cant wait to see or hear peoples re-action to them. Lots of Ooohs and Ahhhs are expected methinks.

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Please don't forget to visit site for charity quilt raffle
link on sidebar...thank you.
Only available for one month
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Sunday 25 January 2009

TA DA

GREAT BIG SMILE ON MY FACE.
IT IS FINISHED.
YES I am shouting it from the rooftops.

This is the backing fabric for you to see...



tiny Butterflies stitched on to anchor the three layers...



tiny daisies from Helen, sewn on for same reason...



more butterflies...



aha, the Suffolk Puffs have arrived...
hubby says it looks like a train!
Is that why they are called puffs!!!!


puffs all along the bottom edge, they are flowers,
NOT a train!



The FINISHED - HOORAY - QUILT



and for those of you who wish to see it real close, click on this picture below and scrutinise away.




So there it is, one quilt for the Children's Society.

I hope you will buy tickets to be able to win this Quilt, Katy, from Popular Patchwork Forum is organising the sale of tickets, as soon as I have the information I will post it onto my side bar for anyone who is interested in buying. All money from ticket sales go to the Children's Society. Do feel free to buy as many as you wish.
:-)

On the whole I had great fun assembling this Quilt, I couldn't have done it without the girls, Kerstin, Ros and Helen, also Katy for her important input. I can though, now, get back to my sewing which has suffered a bit of late.....ho hum.

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Saturday 24 January 2009

NEW BLOGGER ON THE BLOCK

http://rosa-munda.blogspot.com/

This is my friend Ros, do pop over and visit her Blog, she has only just started, so you will have to come back again in the near future for more from her. But it is a really good start. Hi Ros.

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CHARITY QUILT NEWS

Sorry if I'm boring you with this, wont be long now!! This evening I managed to get the binding on, plus a sleeve as I think it will be better 'hung' on a wall, rather than used as a quilt!!

The fabric I was going to use for the binding was all the bits left over. BUT, after laying it round the edges I decided it was a bad idea in this case because there is so much going on in the centre. SO, luckily, Helen had sent me a fairly big strip of fabric from a dress, I was able to cut two long strips from this, and add a piece of white to make it wide enough for the binding. Cheat you see, when you don't have enough, make it stretch, no-one can see the white fabric, just the pretty floral/fruit fabric. I very often do this neat trick, makes the fabric go further.

Anyway, as I was saying the binding is done, Yippee! Tomorrow I shall get the yoyos on and then, folks, it will be FINISHED. Well apart from the label, but I can do that anytime.

All I shall have to do is send a picture to the Children's Society so they can see it and hopefully approve it!!

Katy, bless her, has sorted out the selling of the tickets for this quilt so if you are wanting to buy one.......or two or three!!!!!

WATCH THIS SPACE.

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Friday 23 January 2009

CONTINUING CHARITY QUILT

Today, I have stitched and pressed and stitched some more, then pressed some more, cut out, searched [!] and finally, yes, finally, I have got it together. Here are some pictures I have taken, some are before it was pressed and tacked up, hopefully I have them in the right order. If not, I hope you will forgive me. I have sent the girls who sent me stuff for this Quilt, a picture of the almost finished thing, apart from Helen G, I don't seem to have your email Helen. The Suffolk puffs [shudder] have to go on yet, I know where they are going, I have to quilt it first though, also I am going to put the binding on before they are stitched on. I've decided to put a hanging sleeve on the back, as I think this is more a hanging than a quilt, due to the 'free' ribbons. Anyway, this is what I have achieved today, I am very pleased with the way it is looking. {BIGHEAD!!}

Bouncing a ball...



Close up of Dancers round the Maypole...



another close up...



view of Maypole...


more dancers...


kite flier...



see, there is her kite...



some of Kerstin's border...



another close up...



the kite has our initials on; R H K J
Ros Helen Kerstin Janet
for posterity girls...



the complete thing tacked up ready to quilt..



This evening, I got a lot of the quilting done on this, I am not going to do a lot anyway, I think the picture is enough, but it will have to be caught down somewhere, so I went round each of the dancers, the pole, the flowers, the kite, the ball, the kite string, in fact everything that is on there and had to be appliqued on, I quilted round. I have a plan for the Suffolk puffs as I said, the binding will go on tomorrow so it is nearly done. I am aiming for it to be finished either Sunday night or Monday at the latest. HOORAY you say. Me too!

Thursday 22 January 2009

CONTINUING - CONTINUING

How bad am I? I took the day off from working on the Charity Quilt!! Was good to have a break from it.

This evening I was back onto it though and do you know..... from 7 - 10pm.....3 hours folks, I stitched and fiddled with it and re-arranged and all I have to show for those 3 hours is.... a Maypole!

Blow me! It took 3 hours to get it right.

I am going to have to get a bit faster than that, I want this finished tomorrow evening and ready for quilting over the weekend. It's not that I was slow, I just couldn't get the blooming thing to lay just right, grrrrrr. Its done now though, thank goodness, crumbs it was easier doing the postcard I made in a similar vein. Here it is for you to see. The Postcard that is.



This is what gave me the idea for the Charity Quilt. The Quilt is obviously bigger with a lot more on it. A LOT more!!!!! Hmm I am looking at this Maypole and I think I should have just done one like this, NOT faffed around with it as I have this evening....for 3 blooming hours.

Wednesday 21 January 2009

CONTINUING STORY OF CHARITY QUILT

I am getting on really well with the Children's Society Quilt now that I have all the elements here. It took the Mail 10 DAYS to deliver Kerstin's package to me. OK it came from Germany, that is NOT the end of the world!! Not to worry it arrived and I cracked on.

This is Ros' border, it is hand embroidered -whew- neat job Ros. She has put the word, PEACE in lots of different languages and has kindly left me the list of which countries they are.
Cheers Ros...



I requested ten Suffolk Puffs [yoyo's] from everyone, made in their border fabric;

these are Ros' puffs, I got extras too...



Would you just look at this fab border. This is Kerstin's, I am so glad it arrived, even though it was late, isn't it wonderful, she has put so much work into it...



Kerstin's puffs...



Helen sent me her border as she is struggling to get lots of things done, I shall do hers along with mine, no problem, this is the message Helen wants on her border...



Helen's puffs, more extras...



This is to be my border, this is my message...



I have done my puffs, just not got a photo yet,
and I only made ten,
anyone who knows me will know I absolutely HATE the blooming things!!!!


Today, there was a funeral in the Close, so I had to close the curtains, I always do as a mark of respect, old fashioned I guess, but that's me folks. Anyway, it was dark to sew, so didn't get much done until the cortege had gone. Then I fairly flew on the machine and got the borders on, they fitted a treat, well done girls, thanks for that.
All the bonnets are now on, I have a few other applique bits to do then I will be able to sandwich it up and start Quilting it. Hooray, I can see the end in sight. I have been working non stop on this Quilt for a few days now and it is making a difference, I am doing nothing else until it is done. I have to get it finished so lots of tickets can be sold, we hope to raise a lot for the Children's Society.
Katy is sorting that end out thank goodness, cos I wouldn't know where to start.
I will get a picture on here tomorrow of how far I am so far. If you get what I mean!!!

to be continued....

DID YOU WATCH

HISTORY WAS MADE,
TUESDAY 20th JANUARY 2009

I'm not politically minded, but I just HAD to watch the inauguration of Barack H Obama as 44th President of America. I'm glad I did.
I hadn't been too keen on him for some reason, but after that speech he made, and what a speech, and what a memory he has, I was quite impressed.
Let's give the chap a chance, see what happens.



Isn't that a lovely picture.

I felt so sorry for his two little girls though, that was a l-o-n-g day for them.

Good luck Mr. President

ONE VERY LUCKY, HAPPY LITTLE GIRL

It belongs to Rebecca, my Grand daughter.
What a lucky girl she is.
A HUGE thank you to my friend Pat, who gave the machine to her.
She is thrilled with it.



Couldn't wait to have a go...



With my threads of course...



Such concentration!!!



Steady as you go...



Totally relaxed...



Smile, it really is yours...



Perfect hand positions...



Result of first time on her OWN machine.



I am looking forward to showing Rebecca, along with her mum of course, what she can do on her machine. She too, is looking forward to using it at my future classes. Catch 'em young. She has no fear of the machine at all, her foot was all the way down on the pedal, go girl.

HI ROS

Glad you made it to the wonderful world of Blogging. Great start. :-)

Tuesday 20 January 2009

WHOSE IS IT?

This machine arrived at my house.

WHO is it for?

WHO does it belong to?




Hmmmm!

Monday 19 January 2009

SATURDAY WORKSHOP

THREAD PAINTING my way WORKSHOP

These are my samples for the class today.









So let's begin...

These lovely ladies put their faith in me and came and had a go, and did they surprise themselves.
Pauline, Irene, Jean, Gail, Mary, Dee, Rita, Maureen, Sylvia, Michelle and Betty.
I have to apologise to two ladies, not all of the photos came out for some reason so two of you are missing. BUT, I will get you next time.

I always make the ladies bring along their manual for their machines, there was a LOT of manual reading going on.....



A lot of intense sewing too...



So engrossed they didn't know I was taking their picture...



Now, what did Janet say, turn this knob.... Aha yes that was it......



More reading....



...and now, the work they all turned out.

These ladies had never done any of this type of work before, so I am very pleased with the work they turned out in the six hours we had together. I pushed them to their limit, and sent them home with some homework, which I expect to see in February...Yes, I am a hard task master, I like to think they get their monies worth...

This was thread painting on a printed flower which I supplied everyone with...
pretty impressive work for first attempt don't you think....
This was very basic thread painting, from centre to outside, with slightly curved lines, the pollen was done with tiny circles...











Next we moved onto a Dragonfly. Now you all know I love doing these and it was a pleasure for me to see them enjoy painting them too...

Remember, this is all new to them... a blank canvas, they had to 'draw' the dragonfly then 'paint' it, again, impressive work here...
This was making the wings seem transparent; after doing the whole dragonfly, I got them to work upside down, using sparkly thread in the bobbin, which I supplied, so they could get the idea of bobbin work and using slippery threads at the same time...
the work was upside down not the ladies by the way!!!!
The bodies were done doing tiny circles all along the body and head, some opted to put the thingies on the top of the head too!!!
That impressed me I can tell you, I very rarely do them myself...













Moving rapidly along, I then got them to draw a Tree, because of course I like trees too...
You will see all sorts of trees here, from saplings to large Oaks...
grass and branches were added to some as they became more confident in just going for it.
For this they used two threads on their machines, at the same time, one darker than the other, so giving good contrast, also a zigzag stitch was used to give good texture. You will see what I mean as you look through the pictures, some opted to go side to side, so giving their tree a distinctly, Palm tree look!!
Why not? They are their trees after all.
After doing the tree and the main branches., they then had to do the little twiggy bits on the tree, plus the roots at the base and some grass if they wished to.
Some of the ladies chose to 'glitz' their tree as well.
























After doing the trees, I quickly showed them how to draw a free form flower and colour it in as we were rapidly running out of time. I am hoping they all had a go at this when they got home. I am really looking forward to seeing what they have done with today's lesson in February.

At this class they learnt they could draw, they could thread paint, in straight and curved lines and also, they could draw the tiniest circles which gave lovely texture for lots of things. They could 'paint' grass and leaves, the bark on trees, adorn flower petals at will, 'paint' the pollen into the centre of flowers. Highlight the flowers where needed, make wings look transparent, use glitter thread in the bobbin, do upside down work, IE; bobbin painting. All that, with their sewing machines. So there they were, heads down, sewing away, having fun, I hope. I know I had fun showing them how to Thread Paint, my way.