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.

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.