My Stitching Diary

Busy, busy, busy - here is block 3!

2011-07-10T13:49:00.000-07:00

Since I have finished City and Guilds, I can now stitch for pleasure, so therefore I am grabbing the opportunity with both hands [well it would be rude not to, wouldn't it??????]

Anyway, this is block 3 [sorry about the quality of the photo], again there is an border to go around the bear and the heart blocks but I am going to do those when the blocks are stitched together.

Happy Stitching!

Block 2

2011-07-10T11:31:00.000-07:00

This is the second block from 'The Button Club', which is a mystery quilt by Lynette Anderson. Their is a little border to go around the snowman and the heart blocks, but I thought I would wait until I have sewn the blocks together and then I get it in the right place!

I have got the buttons from Fobbles, a lovely patchwork shop in the lakes, click here to go their website. I also bought the fabric from there and I love the choice of colours and fabric.

I have just received pack 4 in the post, so my mission this week is to get up to date with them.

Random Quilt

2011-07-09T11:30:00.000-07:00

I have been working on this random quilt for what feels like forever, but finally today, I have finished sewing it together, attached the border and got it layered up [with thanks to the very special ladies at Lesley's Quilt Group in Oswaldtwistle - couldn't have done it without you!].

All I have left to do now is quilt it and add the binding, so I am hoping that this wont take too long!

Sorting Out Time

2011-06-26T13:29:00.000-07:00

Although no pictures [because I would be too embarrassed to show them], I have started to sort out all the stuff I have collected from eight years of doing City and Guilds - I can't believe some of the things I have kept just in case they would come in handy! Well, alfter loads of trips to the wheelie bin [thank you Andrew], I don't feel I have made any impact at all! Oh well, it will still be there tomorrow - so may get a little bit nearer and then I may be able to do some sewing!!!!!

The End of An Era!!!!!

2011-06-25T11:58:00.000-07:00

Well, today has been a good good day!

After eight years [yes, you read that right, eight years], I have finished all my college work, it is signed off, mission complete, finito!!!!!

My next mission - if I choose to accept it, is to sort out the conservatory and get some semblance in order in there!

Craven College End of Year Show 2011

2011-06-18T12:11:00.000-07:00

Today, was the end of year show for the City and Guilds Patchwork and Embroidery students.

I have finished both my pieces, this is my sunflower wholecloth quilt

This is my wall hanging based on the Cosmati Pavement in Westminster Abbey [yay - it is finally finished!!!]

This is Anne-Marie's wholecloth quilt

And this is Hazel's quilt

This year, we have only had to make two items, so there wasn't as much in the show as normal, but here are some of the other items on display.

Getting There ;)

2011-05-28T12:23:00.000-07:00

Not the best picture in the world - I know, but I have finished putting the little bits of fabric into my fake secret garden border - how I wish I had done it the right way from the beginning [I only wish I would read instructions before I start!!!!]

Hopefully, I will get it quilted tomorrow and get the border attached this week ready for the show at college.

36 down, 0 to go!!!!

2011-05-28T04:16:00.000-07:00

Apologies for using the same photo - but just felt the need to tell someone that I have finally finished the hand stitching on the border. The border was meant to be Cathedral Window - but due to a slight technical hitch it is now going to be a border of Secret Garden!

Next step - lets start quilting!

Is the end in sight, well I certainly feel a little bit nearer than what I did at the start of the week.

25 down 11 to go

2011-05-26T12:03:00.000-07:00

Why, oh why, oh why, my college friends asked if I was really sure I wanted to do it, but I said YES! If you are wondering what I am moaning about - the cathedral border on my final college piece is what! It seems to be taking forever and ever and ever.

But now, I am well over half way through and if possible would really like to get it complete by the weekend. Best get stitching then!

Getting There

2011-05-15T11:26:00.000-07:00

Since being at college last weekend, I haven't done very much on the wall hanging - my final college piece! I decided I would make a border of cathedral windows, I am sure it will look nice but...

Anyhow, I have made the border but haven't added the wondows yet, but this is what it looks like so far:

So, I am getting there - as the saying goes, slowly but surely!

Wall Hanging

2011-04-29T07:44:00.000-07:00

I have been busy working on the wall hanging based on the Cosmati pavement in Westminster Abbey. For anyone watching the Royal Wedding today, there were some fab images of it. Just because I like this, here is a photo of it:

I put together the applique hexagons a few weeks ago, and went from this :

To this:

And this is where I am now:

Not sure what I will do next, any ideas would be much appreciated.

Cosmati Pavement

2011-04-28T12:07:00.000-07:00

As you will see from one of my earlier blogs - I tried to rename the Cosmati Pavement in Westminster Abbey, where Cosato Pavement came from, I have no idea. This is an image of the pavement.

I have now started work on my final college piece [yippee]. I have appliqued the spiral/circular design onto the base fabric, I did this using bondaweb. I have stitched around the edges using some of the embroidery stitches on my machine. I really struggled with the yellow thread, I am not sure if it was the thread [it was Guttermann Rayon thread], so I changed the needle, re-wound the spool, cleaned underneath the bobbin case, threw it across the room [the sewing not the machine - although I was tempted], and yes, I know, 'a bad workman blames their tools' but ...

This is it so far, will do some more on it tomorrow.

Mystery Quilt

2011-04-27T07:33:00.000-07:00

I have wanted to do a mystery quilt for quite a long time, and whilst browsing Lynette Anderson's blog I noticed she was doing one. There are only a limited number of outlets that are participating in this, but one of them is Fobbles a lovely quilting/sewing/patchwork/cross-stitch [ok they sell loads of things] in the Lake District. The pattern is free for the mystery quilt which is called 'Christmas Fun' and you get this by buying the handmade buttons every month.

This is the very cute Gingerbread Man for the first month, I wont sew him on until the end, as I think he may get in the way when I am quilting it.

And this is the first block.

I also bought the pack of fabric to go with it which is made up of lovely reds and greens. I am really looking forward to next month.

Sunny Flowers

2011-04-24T11:10:00.000-07:00

This is my second to last college piece, based on my favourite flowers. I tea dyed the fabric and after college has finished [in June] I may have a dabble with other natural dyes.
The quilt will be a wall hanging - but not sure if it will ever be put on display as I dont know if I have anywhere to put it. But for once, I have made something that I really like.

Wall Hanging

2011-04-09T14:33:00.000-07:00

For my last college piece, I am doing a wall hanging based on the Cosato pavement in Westminster Abbey.
This is one quater of the circular design, but when I do the actual one, I am going to put the red on the outside of the circle/spiral. The centre is made up of small hexagons which I have pieced together using the English paper patchwork method [bet everyone can remember doing that in the Brownies!!!!!].
I am at college again tomorrow - so will see how far I get then!

Random Quilt

2011-04-02T14:13:00.000-07:00

Anthea and I have been making a random quilt for what seems like forever, well tonight I thought I would lay it out on the floor and see what it looked like. Unfortunately, Andrew [my hubby] doesn't lile the end result although he likes each block individually.
I will add some strips of fabric to fill in the gaps - but I think I am pleased with it. Any comments would be gratefully received.

Julia's Giveaway :)

2010-10-16T10:59:00.000-07:00

Julia is holding a giveaway to mark her 111th blog! If you would like a chance to with this very cute ragdoll - please visit Julia's blog here.

Good luck everyone :)

Giveaway :)

2010-09-18T12:08:00.000-07:00

Sue at Quilt Times is holding a Giveaway, Sue is very generously giving away 'Tis The Season' - a book full of a variety of quilts and other items - it looks fab! If you click on the link above Sue has put photographs on her blog the different things that you can make from the book. So click right over there ... Good luck everyone :)

I won!

2010-09-09T13:41:00.000-07:00

Like everyone else, I never win anything, so you can imagine my surprise when I have won a kit from Hazel, I promise to post a picture of it when I have done it. Unfortunately I am unable to post a picture of the kit :( But if you look at Hazel's blog you can see a picture of it.

College Work

2010-09-01T11:55:00.003-07:00

Success, yippee! All college samples made, evaluations written, just a design board to do - that will be my mission tomorrow. Going to celebrate with a glass of wine :)

Giveaway!

2010-08-31T12:56:00.000-07:00

Hazel over at Cotton Cocktails is having a giveaway. Hazel is giving away the kit to make the Feather Wreath below.

For details of her giveaway and how to enter visit her blog here

Good luck everyone :)

Patchwork Chicks Exhibition

2010-08-28T10:21:00.001-07:00

Today, Anthea and I have been to an exhibition held by Patchwork Chicks from Barrowford. They have a fab range of fabrics and stock lots of pattens and kits. You can access their website here
I am no David Bailey and I had lots of camera issues so unfortunately the pictures do not do justice to the quilts that were there.

Personalize a slideshow design

Accuquilt GO! Fabric Cutting Machine Giveaway

2010-08-22T14:34:00.000-07:00

Over at Sweet P Quilting and Creations, Paulette is having a fab giveaway - an Accuquilt Fabric Cutting Machine, you can find Paulette's blog here Please have a look at her blog as she has also included a really good and informative tutorial.

Flock To Skipton

2010-08-18T14:08:00.000-07:00

As mentioned on my previous blog - there has been an invasion of 25 giant sheep in Skipton [formerly known as Sheep Town]. The slide show below shows the 25 sheep - I hope you like them as much as most of the residents of Sheep Town do!

Make your own slideshow design

Art In The Pen

2010-08-15T13:59:00.000-07:00

An Art in the Pen exhibition was held in Skipton this weekend. Skipton was originally called Sheep Town and to coincide with the Art in the Pen there is now 25 full size sheep dotted around the town. These are three of them.

There was a large number of local artists showing their work including artists, jewellers, wood carvers, potters and felters.

There was also some felted pieces that had been produced from the local schools with Angela Barrow.

Giveaway

2010-07-24T13:58:00.000-07:00

After looking at Hazel's Cotton Cocktails Blog - she mentioned that her friend Quilt Sue is having a giveaway.
To look at Quilt Sue's blog please click here http://quilttimes.blogspot.com/
Good luck everyone!

Cuba 2010

2010-07-18T09:29:00.000-07:00

Note to self - I am going to start blogging regularly [not every 9 months!]

We have just got back from 2 wonderful weeks in Cuba, we stayed at the Sol Cayo Santa Maria. Santa Maria is a small island and reached via a 30 mile causeway [which the Cubans are very proud of]. This is the second time we have stayed in this hotel.
This image shows the private beach for the hotel and yes the sea is really that colour.

The hotel has 3 pools, and this one is our favourite one, fortunately most of the other people preferred the other pool or going onto the beach so it was like having our own private pool.

This is the other pool with a bar in the centre.

City and Guilds Pieces

2009-11-17T12:00:00.000-08:00

I have been away this weekend to Paris, this was our first holiday on our own since our honeymoon [19 years ago]! We had a brill time, we went up the tower, took a boat trip on the Seine and explored the Paris of Versaille. We looked inside the door of the Ritz which was very luxurious - but we darent go any further, Sunday lunch was 220 euros [each], hence to say we didnt have lunch there!

I have set myself a bit of a tall order, but I am aiming to complete all my college samples for this weekend. Today, I have completed the samples from weekend 1.

The centre of this sample has shaved wax crayon, pieces of sequin waste, angelina fibres, sweet papers and snippets of sheer fabric layered onto a painted background and ironed inbetween clingfilm [as you do], this is then machine stitched in random places and without snipping the thead. I used this as a centre for a log cabin block and quilted that using the same machine stitch.

This is my 'Crazy Patchwork' sample, I used a variety of fabrics and machine stitched around the edges using a number of machine embroidery threads.

The centre of this sample is random shaped pieces of sheer in various shades of golds and browns layered onto a piece of painted calico, with a piece of sheer layered over the top. I used one machine embroidery stitch and changed the width and length of the stitch, I used different colours of green, gold and brown and used this as a centre for a 'Courthouse Steps' sample.

And finally, this piece of machine embroidery is meant to look like moss growing on a wall!!!! I have used a few threads and tried to layer it up - the sample if horrible and doesnt look any better in real life, but hey ho I just hope it meets the criteria!

A Huge Task - set by Hazel Williams

2009-10-27T10:25:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone

Hazel - one of the ladies from the City and Guilds course is having a 'give away'; on her blog and to enter this their are a number of things to do - so here goes!!!!

Firstly, I need to add a post on my blog with a link to her blog - so if you click here: http://cottoncocktails.blogspot.com/ hopefully you will be able to get to Hazel's blog and her Giveaway.

Well here goes - will let you know if I can get to Hazel's blog from here!!!!

Fabric Birthday Cards

2009-10-21T13:06:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone - as you will know it was a significant birthday last week [21 again]. Anne-Marie, Anthea and I are in a Fabric Birthday Postcard exchange. There are 20 people in the group and so hopefully I will receive 19 cards - I have got 13 so far, it has been great fun this week receiving the cards through the post.

This felted card is really lovely - Marja from The Netherlands has sent this to me, I think it has been done on an embellisher.

This card is from Rachel Pantos.

This is from my great friend Anne-Marie - unfortunately I couldn't have a lazy day cos I had to go to work [how inconsiderate].

This is from my other special friend Anthea - she knows me too well cos sunflowers are my favourite flower.

This card is from Chris - she organises the postcard exchanges, so it's all thanks to her.

This card is from Patricia Fuentes in Switzerland.

This is from Judith from the Darlington area, the photo doesnt do it justice [I'm afraid]

A cup cake from Shawn from Ohio.

This one is from Aida in Canada - she has made this using the confetti method of crazy patchwork.

More buns from Ildika in Kentucky [I think].

A cake from Pam in NV - not sure where this is possibly Nevada?

A sunflower from Els in South Africa.

A lovely layered card from Lynn - again the photo doesnt do it justice.

Sorry about the blog silence - I will try to do better this month!!!!!

Take care everyone!

2009-09-25T13:30:00.000-07:00

Personal Theme

2009-09-25T03:27:00.000-07:00

For this years City and Guilds course - we have to do a project, and for my project I have decided to do Skipton Castle. So I thought I would share this image of the gateway to Skipton Castle.

Last Years City and Guild Finished Pieces

2009-09-20T11:02:00.000-07:00

I thought I had best put some pictures on here - so I thought I would share my finsihed pieces from my City and Guilds course.

This is a small wall hanging, it was my quick and easy project - but of all the things I have made, it is probably one of my favourites, and probably one of the only things that will not be put in the bottom of the wardrobe!!!!

We had to make a box or container - so I used my bargain buy fabric from the well know auction site! I used Angelina in the secret garden design on the top.

For my item of interior decor - I decided to make a cushion with Westies on for my mum and dad as they have a Westie called Maisie, note the odd one out!

This is my quilt - I designed the blocks using an image of a windmill, even though I am quite pleased with the end result - I dont think it will see the light of day again - it will probably live - you've guessed it int he bootom of the wardrobe!!!!!

Fabric Postcards

2009-09-20T10:55:00.000-07:00

I recieved these two fabric postcards last week [I kno, it has taken me ages to put them on - but fingers crossed this will work!!!!!

The floral card came from Diana, I think it is really pretty.

This mermaid card came from my great mate Anthea - this card sums up her sense of humour to a 't' - dont you agree?

Me, myself and I

2009-08-17T05:07:00.000-07:00

Virgin Blog!

Well here goes, never done this before - but seeing as my mate Anthea is now a blogger - I can't possibly miss out!!!!!

I am currently having a lazy summer stitching wise - in fact i havent done anything since college finished in June [how bad is that].