SUN PRINTING

Last week-end, the weather was nice and so I put it to use and did some sun-printing. I had seen the method in a magazine and as I had some paints, I had a go at it.
I used normal fabric paint which I diluted with water. I painted the damp fabrics with it and then pinned some leaves and some flowers on them. I added some coarse sea salt, then let the whole dry in the sun and this is the result:

The paint was fixed with ironing. I especially like the fern impressions!
I think I will use the fabrics to make artist mailing cards.

The 4SSQ Mum, Margaret told me that my swap quilt was on its way. I haven´t received it yet and I am going away till Wednesday so if the sender reads this, she doesn´t have to worry that I don´t post a mail straight away.

We are going to Paris to celebrate my aunt´s 60th Birthday. It will be a lot of fun as she is a very out-going person.

I wish you a nice time too.

ANOTHER FALL QUILT

The recipient of my 4SSQ, Sarah, received the quilt and told me that she is pleased with it. I am very glad and relieved. It was the first quilt swap I took part in and I was a bit anxious and impatient too. So impatient that I started a mini quilt straight after registering for the swap. I had an idea and I wanted to put it into fabric. Unfortunately after Magaret sent me the name of my partner and her requirements, I realized that the first quilt would not do at all. So here it is:

Scrappy as I like them with mute colours and a lot of tiny pieces. It is hand quilted. Now what am I going to do with it?! Is there another Fall quilt swap going on somewhere? Maybe I will HAVE TO keep it! LOL
Anyway it will teach me to be more patient. Mind you I haven´t even registered yet for the winter swap and I already have an idea. I don´t think I will be able to wait until January before starting it!

This week I didn´t manage to do that much as I had a bad cold and my head felt like being in a lot of cotton batting! I started a little stitchery and finished some socks for my DH (in some boring dark grey, hence no picture).

Some time ago, quilt bloggers were showing their treadle machine. I had promised I would show mine too so here it is. A friend gave it to me to clear her cellar. It belonged to her mum but she has no use for it. I managed to find on Ebay its booklet for directions for use and I have used it a few times already. It sews very well and silently and gives nice thighs!
Usually the top is not that clear, piles of fabric, magazines, paper cover it!

What I like most about it is that it works without electricity. One never knows when the next power cut is going to happen and for how long!

Thank you very much for your nice comments on my Siggy quilt. I hope I gave some ideas to the other participants to start sewing theirs too!

It seems we are going to have very nice weather this week-end (at last!) and so I will try to spend some time trying taming the green jungle out there which is supposed to be my garden.

I wish you a nice week-end.

SIGGY SWAP QUILT

Not much going on on the quilt front here. In one week it is half-term (two weeks of holidays). We will be spending some time in France to celebrate my aunt´s 60th birthday and then we will visit some friends in the german countryside where we are expected to drive cows back home for winter! That should be fun for some town dwellers like us!
After I had seen Anne Heidi´s Siggy Quilt, I decided that it was time to get mine finished too. This week I managed to sew the top together.


The most difficult part was to find a border. I wanted to use my stash (you know the stash reducing idea!) but I don´t have that many big pieces of fabric as I buy most often fat quarters. After many hesitations, tries, over-night stewing,... I decided to go for something neutral to bring out the siggy blocks colours.

I am thinking of quilting some pansies in the border too.

Maybe I will tie the quilt with buttons in the middle. Anyway I still have time to think about it as I have other projects on the go which need attending to.

I wish you a very successful week.

FINISHED

My blue quilt-as-you-go sampler is finished at last! I hadn´t thought it would last so long though. I am happy with the result and with the improvements of my machine-quilting skills. Most of the quilting was done without marking and after all those feathers, I have finally understood how they are done especially in curves.

My new course starst on Wednesday, so that was a close shot! For my students, they will have this session to finish their quilt-as-you-go quilts and we will do a christmas mystery table runner as well.

As I thought I would, I received this week these nice australian magazines. A lot to drool over!

I started a small stitchery to put in the middle of the siggy blocks. I will put small buttons in the middle of the flowers and I still have to stitch small flowers at the bottom of the flower pot.

I hope to finish this quilt quickly, all the blocks are already there, right (!)so that I can enjoy all the siggy blocks from allover the world.
I wish you a nice week with a better weather than we have here. Have I allready told you that the weather is miserable here, wet, windy, cold,... and that apart from a snail invasion, we haven´t seen anything from summer?!

SIDE-TRACKED!

At the beginning of the week, I was minding my own business, trying to finish my quilt-as-you-go blue sampler as I had planned to do last week when on Thusday, I received that:

Of course I knew I would become them, I had ordered them on Ebay, but they arrived so quickly, I was really surprised. Then I got side-tracked! All those nice strands of floss were begging me to make something out of them. So I thought, all right I will make something small, just to have a look and get a bit of stitching exercise for my fingers. But then this small thing looked so lost alone, I could not possibly leave it alone either and so this is the result of a side-track!

I don´t know at all what use I will make of it or if I will keep it at all but it was nice to see some colours other than blue and brown and it was really quick.

Guess what: I have ordered on Ebay some old issues of Australian Country Threads so I really have to finish that quilt before my postie brings me some more treats!

I managed to put the label on my 4 seasons quit too. It is ready to be sent to...!

I wish you a very nice sunday.