INCHIES AND SOCKS

This week, I managed to sew some inchies. These are a Christmas present for a dear friend or maybe I will keep them as I like them quite a lot! But then it is only 7 weeks until Christmas and I can´t keep on making presents and then keep them!


Those inchies are quickly done and one can use the smallest bits and pieces one has lying around. It seems I have a lot of these, especially LYING AROUND and not in boxes or bags!

I could finish the socks for my aunt too (another Christmas present).
Here they are modelled by me. Can you imagine how many pictures I made of these socks (on my own) before one was OK?

It is not that easy to take a picture without seeing what you are doing!

For my DS, I have sewed one cushion and I will post a picture as soon as I have made some more. (another Christmas present).

Maybe I should have titled this post Christmas Presents after all !

I wish you all a happy Halloween.

NEW FABRICS

Look what I got in the mail last week-end! Nadine sent me the prize I had won at her blog-anniversary drawing. A very nice panel with a lot of different Christmas illustrations and a cute B. Hayes stitchery.



The stitchery hangs already in my sewing-room and is according to my DH a good portrait of me (especially the hair!). Many thanks Nadine, I hope I can take part in your next drawing again!



On Saturday I went to the fabric market where I looked very closely, so closely that some fabrics and some buttons found their way into my shopping bag!

The fabrics are repro (the colours are not true in the picture) and the buttons will come in very handy for some inchies.

Tonight I have to go to bed very early as I have to get up before 5 pm tomorrow to go to work. The railway is on strike and I have to make sure I can catch one of the few trains still working.

Good night!

ANOTHER CUT-UP BLOCK

Nothing much going on on the quilting front this week. I have been busy knitting socks, sewing hanging sleeves for an exhibition and thinking very hard at the cushions I will sew (soon!)(this is for my impatient DS!).

Last time I showed a cut-up block and this week is another one which I designed. (By that I mean that I have never seen such a block, or rather half-block somewhere else but if someone has, please let me know!).
I call this block "Japanese basket" because it reminds me of a basket and I sewed it with taupe fabrics.


The quilt is machine-sewed and machine-quilted with an invisible thread and has a bit of machine-stitchery on the lower left side. I used a lot of different fabrics for the baskets: uphostery fabric, silk, shirts, satin,...
The fabric for the borders is a garment fabric.

And here is the way to sew a half-block. 2 squares cut diagonally in opposite directions and sewed together.

As you can see my students are very busy: Monika N. finished her sampler with the quilt-as-you-go method. I think it turned out really nice.

Well done Monika!

On Saturday I hope I can go to a fabric market and have a look at nice fabrics, buttons and stuff. Of course I will only LOOK!

I will tell you more next week.

GOODIES AND AN OLD QUILT

At the beginning of the week, I found this in my letter box, it is from Samantha. I had won at her September drawing. She sent me some unknown-to-me magazines and a nice card. Thank you Samantha, this is inspiration for sure!

Anne-Ida showed in her last post a quilt she had made a while ago using a block-cutting method and that reminded me that I had made something similar. Anne-Ida´s blocks are made of many stripes, mine just out of three but the rest is the same. 2 squares cut on the two diagonals and then rearranged to form a cross are needed to make one block.

And this is the result:

I used for this quilt a pack of not-so-nice-flower fabrics I wanted to get rid of, added a border of small squares on point and a border of flying geese with tiny baskets in the corners. I then quilted it by hand.

This week, school started again after the autumn break and I didn´t have that much time to sew. I just managed to get some AMC ready from a Moda charm pack I had bought some time ago. it was the first time I purchased a charm pack and I am happy so far at what I could get out of it. I made some hexagon pouches, those cards and there is still quite a lot left. I love scraps!

Last week-end, we had a very nice time with our friends in the countryside. We didn´t drive cows at the end but we picked up mushrooms, went to a nice apple market and made a bonfire. All things we don´t have in a big city.

It is really getting cold here but still the sun is shining. I hope the weather stays like that for the week-end so that we can go outside and enjoy.

Have a nice week-end as well.

BETWEEN TWO JOURNEYS

First of all, I want to show the beauty I found in my letter box as I came back from Paris. It is from Linda. I love the hand-stitchery and the hand-appliqué which are both very fine. When I see that, I see that I still have a lot to learn! Although Linda was in the middle of moving house, she still found the time to do all this work. Thank you again a lot Linda. I will hang this cutie in my sewing room so that I can enjoy it everyday.

In Paris we had a great time. We were even very lucky and got a private guided tour of the Opéra Garnier (merci Catherine!) through the sewing rooms, the stage, the horse stables (!),... pictures to come in a next post.

My last post on sun-printing raised some questions so here are some more details on the process:
I use normal fabric paint, mine is from Marabu (a german mark) but it seems that it works with any fabric paint. CAUTION: it is not a fabric dye!
I put the damp fabric on a plastic sheet and put some stones in the corners so that it does not blow away. Then I mix some paint with some water in a jar so that it is a bit easier to apply. I don´t mix thoroughly
and I mix two colors to get some interesting textures. Then I apply the diluted paint on the damp fabric with a big brush to cover the whole fabric.
The leaves are then pinned on the fabric. It seems one can use cardbord cut-outs too. I sprinkled some coarse sea salt grains on top to get some more structure.
The whole is let in the sun to dry completely.
When the fabric is dry, I remove the leaves and the salt grains and I iron the fabric to set the paint.
It seems that one can do the process a few times on the same fabric to add different shades. This is what I will do on the brown fabric when the sun shines again.
It works best on a very sunny day as the fabric dries quickly.
Once the colour is set the fabric can be washed.

I hope those details answer some questions. I don´t really understand how it works but it did and it was fun!

Tomorrow we are going away for the week-end, driving cows, attending an apple market, and maybe doing some inchies with our friends.

I wish you a very nice week-end too.