HAS SOMEONE GOT A FAN?

It is just hot here, too hot to do anything apart from gaping at the garden getting dry!


Fortunately the house is more or less cool (depends on the floors) so that we can still sleep and move around.
My confetti quilt is growing. I am thinking of adding 3 more rows of squares, add small white sashing in between and then ponder for a border.

As you can imagine I am not wearing these at the moment although they are very comfy and soft. I am proud to show my first ownmade handspun socks and I must say they won´t be the last!
I received some rovings from England and I started dyeing them (they dry so fast in the heat, it has to be good for something!) so that next time I will present some more homespun.

Till then I wish you a cool breeze and a nice refreshing drink on the patio.

BACK FROM A LONG HOLIDAY

We have been back for a few days yet but it is only now that I find some time to post.
This is where we spent some of our time. My parents have a house there and even if the water was quite cold (so cold I did not get into it but my DH and DS did nearly everyday) and the weather on the wet side, it was a very nice holiday.


We did not do much apart from hanging around and sleeping but we still managed to visit a local fair where I had an interesting chat with these nice ladies. And before you ask, no, I have never worn such a costume myself!


I took a picture of my mum´s lattest work. It was a mystery quilt at her local quilt group.
Although my mum is not very fond of it, she was very brave and finished it!

No UFOs for her!

Since back I have been working on my confetti quilt and at some spinning.
Pictures of that will be next time.

Till then I wish you some nice time and hopefully warm weather.

SUMMER IN WOOL

I am sorry to post so little in the recent past. Especially sorry for my dear sis who can write any silly comment!
Anyway, I have been working a lot in the last weeks and with the summer holidays approaching fast (in fact they have already started!) there was still a lot to organise.
But of course there is a life beside working and that´s what I have done with mine in the last 2 weeks.

I dyed sock yarn:

I spun some roving I had dyed before. I still don´t know what will become of that skein as the wool is not very soft.


I spun some more:

And I knitted bowls out of the yarn. They are felted after being knitted.

Next week we are going on holiday in France to see the family and to rest.

I hope you have a nice summer too.

GWEN

P.S.: I have not been commenting on other blogs lately. I am sorry about that. I still read your blogs though and I appreciate each comment you leave here. I hope to have more time after the holidays to resume the commenting.

TUTORIAL FOR CONFETTI BLOCKS

As promised to some of you, here comes the tutorial for one confetti block.

You need stripes, all 6 1/2" x 1 1/2" and squares 1 1/2" x 1 1/2".
4 stripes for background fabric (in my case white), 4 stripes for biggest round, 3 stripes for next round, 2 stripes for again next round and yes 1 stripe for last round before center.
1 square for center and 4 squares for background.

Sew the stripes as shown below and iron the groups with the seam allowances for first group to the right, second group to the left and so on.
(if you do it the other way round it is not that important, just take care that they go on opposite direction, for group 1 and 3 in one and for group 2 and 4 in the other).


Cut each group into 4 stripes 1 1/2" wide. There will be some fabric over, just discard!

Then arrange as below with the center square in the middle.
Sew that center square to the stripe lying under it.


Then sew the stripes with one another ( the stripes from the above group with the stripes of the underneath group) without cutting the thread inbetween (kind of chain piecing). It is helpful to keep the stripes in the right order and it goes faster that way!


Then sew the stripes with one another. The seam allowances should lock everywhere but for half of the center stripe (the one with the center square). Add the last 2 background squares and iron.


Once all the blocks are done, you can square down the blocks (see first picture) to 7 1/2" x 7 1/2".

Well that´s done. I hope it is clear enough and you will have fun sewing the blocks.
Questions are welcome!

Only 3 weeks to go before the holidays and a good thing too!
As there are still thousands of things needing to be done before, I expect time will fly.

In between work and other chores, I spin, knit and sew a bit.
I hope to show some of it next time.

I wish you a peaceful sunday.

MORE ... OF EVERYTHING!

I am very glad this week is over. I am working more than usual at the moment and that involves getting up early ( between 5.00 and 6.00 PM) which makes me tired for the rest of the day.
But I am glad of the extra money of course!

Anyway, in between I sewed some more " confetti" blocks. I like very much sewing those. It is fun mixing scraps and seeing the effect. As usual I try adding some "difficult" fabrics to make it more interesting.
Yesterday I bought a new cutting mat, so the 40 blocks left to sew should go in a breeze!

Of course I spun some more yarn too. This skein is a 3-ply of Blue-faced Leicester mixed with some local breed and bits of colour wool. The BFL makes it very soft and fluffy. I have to fondle it every time I walk by!


And that is what I am spinning now. The roving was given to me by Selana (thanks a lot again!).
It is merino (I think) and I am trying to spin wool for socks out of it. It feels very soft and it easy to spin.

I can´t wait to finish it.
But at the week-end I plan to dye some yarn and cook some strawberry jam so I don´t know how far I will come.

I wish you a wonderful week-end too with nice weather (that we are having at the moment).

BACK TO SEWING

I am back to my sewing machine and I can say that it feels good. I started a new scrap quilt after seeing some similar ones on some blogs. I devised a way of cutting and sewing stripes (probably not new to everybody else but me!) and it means that I can cut and piece a block in 30 minutes.
The squares are 1" finished. I don´t know how many I will make. When the top is big enough I will stop!

Of course I did not give up totally on wool! I dyed one roving and I finished plying the first yarn I am satisfied with. I got 370 meters out of 80 grams. That should be enough for a lacy scarf or something like that. My DH even found the perfect fitting name "Rhubarb"!
If only I had a spinning wheel....
Well in the meantime I will go back to my scrappy blocks and to my knitting.

I wish you a nice time with a lot of new projects.

TWO WEEKS!

The time has been spinning around!
And spinning with a spindle takes its time too, I can tell you.
The two skeins are my first attempt at Navajo plying. Its is a three ply yarn, 60 gr of it for over 200 meters. It is much less itchy than my first yarn and fine enough to be included into some socks.


We are having an ideal weather for dyeing yarn so I enjoyed myself and mixed some more colours for yet some more sock yarn!



And because this blog is supposed to be about quilting too, I unearthed a UFO from at least 7 years ago which is waiting for some appliqué and machine quilting. As I looked at it again, I had the idea with the appliqué. I will add ragged edge flowers on the border. They will be out of the same fabric I used for the bricks: a brushed cotton maded in Germany. To make the patches I sewed samples from samples booklets I had bought at their factory outlet.


I don´t know yet when I will finish this UFO though as I have two knitting projects on the go and my DH made me a spindle which I have to try very soon!

I wish you a nice sunday and a healthy week.