NEW BITS AND PIECES

I have been doing the FMQ CHALLENGE on FaceBook and Leah Day suggested these threads to use, I ordered some from Barnyarns in a special deal they had,

and oh my I love them...

so I ordered another special pack...

 and a white one -

and this is snow white beautiful...

 Following are three fabrics Marian got for Annette and myself off her market,

they are 100% cotton and gorgeous for backings - thanks M...

 I treated myself to a new book on bags...

 I painted my nails and decorated them with these nail art things...

 dodgy trying to take pics yourself of your hands...

ah this is better, thanks hubby, the bits stayed on for about

5 minutes -

they drove me nuts to tell you the truth so I removed them,

I expect Rebecca will get them...

Postcard depicting RUSSIA in a swap I am in on the PP Forum

this one is from Katy, I thought it was Russian, look closely

you can see it is Janet backwards and upside down, clever...

 This is not a handmade postcard, but Katy sent it with the Russian one and I love it...

 Picture of the River Pageant for the Queen's Jubilee -

taken whilst the TV was on,

didn't the BBC make a right old hash of it, I put in a complaint...

Back to the FMQ CHALLENGE on Facebook -

this is the challenge for JUNE -

mark off a piece of fabric in sections then fill with FMQ - just my sort of thing I love doing this, can you see I did the alphabet on there...

 this is the back, and no it doesn't have a backing on it yet as it will be turned into a bag later, but can you see a face on this, it is a bit spooky...

TWENTY VALDANI Variegated threads =

one feather sample of FMQ...

the back...

 this is the next sample I am working on it and not sure if it is going to work out,

we shall see, can you guess what it is though????

This picture is of my Son-in-Law, Richard, on his new bike
at Donnington I think it was, Suzanne took the picture with her new camera,
great picture, how fast was he going?
On second thoughts, no don't tell me....

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Thank you all for looking

POSTCARD MAKING GOT ME THROUGH

When Rebecca had to go into Hospital for her op, albeit for the day, I was not allowed to go so spent the day worrying and whittling, texting Annette that many times I am sure she got fed up with me...anyway I just had to do something or I would have gone mad, so I prepped up 24 Postcards, getting all of them to different stages, I have since finished all 24 and here they are to show you my love of trees and leaves. Enjoy...

Ginkgo leaves - thread painted...

Trees - thread painted - 

my friend Di said for me to try a different edging to my Postcards, so I pulled out some fancy wools and tried - hmm I am afraid I shall stick to my satin stitch edging, I didn't like this, but then I don't really like the stupid tree on this one either...

these were done with my thread scraps I save them all in various boxes and then when the mood takes me I tip a pile of them onto a piece of fabric and top stitch them down-

these were mostly sparkly thread bits...

Star tree...

one on the left is embellished with a bracelet I broke up for the shell type bits -

one on the right is done with those little bunches of flowers you can buy, I just split them up to stretch them further...

I had some very pretty beads which matched the thread perfectly...

 

same thread as above card but no beads this time... 

got carried away with the 'blossom' on this tree... BUT

I liked the effect so much I did bushes with same thread as the base of these two,

used a different thread for the 'blossom' on the trees...

just love this thread...

sparkle thread which Caz sent me to try, thanks Caz...

some of my gorgeous batik fabric as background gave the effect

of a sunset on these two...

no beads but I love it never the less...

use your imagination -

the tree is off to the side, the branches have 'grown into' this postcard,

I like it...

remember those Bat beads I didn't know who sent me - [it was Rosemary]

here are some of them resting in my tree at night...

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We had a theme from Jytte for our PP Postcard swap for February, it was to use Valentine but with a twist, Climate Change and Leap Year , one or all of them on the postcard..I chose to use all, can you work it out?

Climate change is the heat of the sun getting hotter and hotter, drying the earth making the trees die, yet one survives...

Leap Year is carved on the tree in the hearts which brings in the Valentine part too,

thing is....did the carving or the sun kill the tree...which ever it turned to logs in the end.

living tree...

dead tree...

Now that postcard should have gone to Marian, but I had a senior moment and sent it to Tessa..Oops!!

so I had to make another one,

slight changes but all the themes are still there, same reasons, and luckily I remembered to send this one to Marian...

dead tree...

carvings and the logs...

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Lots of fluffy strings which I had making on my sewing machine last night, I have to admit I got carried away a bit, I now have loads of them, they are so pretty,

but what ?? are they for???

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New threads arrived, a box of blues...

and a box of greens...

as I am not a rich person I use these threads for my thread painting, they work fine for me, I know you are supposed to use posh silk threads, but hey, I like to do my own thing, as most of you know by now, these work, so....

Bring on the thread painting police I say........

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I hope you enjoyed looking at the result of my day of worry, my machine got hot hot hot that day.

QUILTING QUILTING QUILTING AND OTHER STUFF

How terrible, I have been neglecting my Blog. All in a good cause I can assure you. I have been quilting, quilting, quilting, and then quilting some more. I just love doing it. I'm sure I have been doing other stuff too, but as you can tell quilting always comes first...with me anyway. 

So exactly what have I been quilting you ask? Well, do you remember I did a special give away a while back. I offered to quilt a quilt for someone in the UK and make a bag for someone overseas. Katy won the quilt bit and Erin won the bag bit.

I received  the quilt from Katy, she didn't actually have one done, so she just made a small Welsh style Quilt...

complete with wadding and backing it arrived...

 here it is opened out, well done Katy, it is lovely, looking forward to quilting this for you...

Katy had told me I could do what I wanted on it quilting wise, but I decided to search out some Welsh style quilting designs as she had gone to the trouble of making one. My friend Di rang the Quilters Guild as she is a member and found out the Welsh use toned threads for the quilting, good job she found out I would have used good old black!!!! 

I have to tell you it is only small though, about 29" square actually. Oh well, maybe next time I will get a bigger one, if there is a next time!! Anyway, I have finished the Quilt and have returned it to Katy, who likes it, hahaha the message I got was really funny, I will have to ask permission to put it on here, it made both me and hubby laugh out loud. Katy you are so funny.

Just to remind you I do all quilting freehand, I never mark the fabric, I just go for it, so if the patterns are sometimes a tad 'wonky' that's me done that. No apologies, it's the way I quilt.

Here it is then, finished - sorry, lots of photos....

close up of centre, using Welsh style designs...

 close up of final border-the black one - which is my own design...

 the whole thing...

 close up of the back outer edges...

 partial centre...

 centre of quilt...

 complete thing finished - this is the back of course,

can you spot my signature? Wonder if Katy found it!

I was extremely pleased with the way this turned out as before this I had never done any Welsh Quilting, I do like their designs, even if I did kind of alter a few here and there. Oops!!! hahahaha

So that is one down, one to go. Yes I have done the bag for Erin, it is as I type winging it's way across the Pond to her. When she receives it I will put the pikkies up on here only fair she gets to see it first.

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So that is that part done, hmm what else have I been doing, oh yes I have been trialling patterns for Geta, made a quilt with one of the patterns I trialled for her, picture tomorrow as wahey it is all done, put the binding on it tonight.

Which reminds me....DID YOU REMEMBER TO PUT YOUR CLOCKS BACK FOLKS????

I have also made a few Postcards for some swaps I am in. Again no pictures until they are received other end. Sorry.

I can put the pictures here though of the ones I have received...

HAPPINESS Postcard swap from Margaret - lover it, thank you so much...

 More new threads, I cannot resist...

 the final block for the Underground Quilt with Tessa on PP Forum -

I can now start assembling the quilt yippee...

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Just look what my friend Liz sent me - isn't it great,

I am known as BattyJan you see, good one Liz, thank you so much, love it...

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 Again on the PP Forum, Ros has been asking us about various things we have in our sewing rooms,

we have done threads - I wont put them all on here again, oh dear, SO many hahahaha,

but this week she asked for our favourite Gadgets, I seem to have found a few...

Safety pins, Rulers, Special machine feet, curved scissors, KandiKane, Small iron, Soldering iron, Heat gun, Chenille cutter and a thread stand for those slippery threads, not forgetting the cutting mat they are all posing on...

 THIS, is my most important foot,

this is the foot I use when I am free machining or quilting on my machine,

doesn't look much does it, but oh boy I would not be without it, no way...

and last but not least - here are a few of the things I have for sale on my other Blog,
http://jansmags.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-10-29T01%3A04%3A00%2B01%3A00&max-results=1

lots more on there, so if you fancy taking a look and see something you like,

please get in touch with me...

Lots of books....

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