Whim

I don’t know if it’s just me or the season or the way the stars align, but I’m falling way behind. Like on everything. Hopefully it will all sort itself out and everything will fall into place before Christmas and all deadlines will be met and my shoulders will yet again be below my ears. I spend very little time on my computer these days, and as blogging from the phone has some limits as described here, I have been building up quite a backlog of pictures that needs some kind of text in between.

Anyway, on Friday afternoon I grabbed an old UFO cushion which resurfaced during a clean up and started playing. It needed something to spice up the lovely colour scheme, so, on a whim, I grabbed one of my all time favourite fabrics

paired it up with some cerises and a turquoise (colours do not photograph well at this time of the year!)

layered them and stitched a few free motion stylized roses using black thread

cut them out and sliced a layer or two on each petal using a seam ripper

attached three of them

 

 

then added a little stitching using cerise pearl cotton thread.

Oh yeah, one Christmas present in progress.

Whims – gotta love them!

Growing a new project

I am in dire need of some relaxing hand sewing while snuggling in the sofa in the evenings. As hand sewing bindings apparently won’t be necessary in the nearest future, I’ll start working on this Let It Go, Let It Grow piece which colours make my mouth water.
I prepared it for our guild's second annual QUIP (Quilting in Public day) in June. The circle is the cut-out from Urban Christmas and the background a piece of a hand woven linen table cloth. I love the different textures of the batiks and linen together.

The linen is quite loosely woven, so I fused a stabiliser to the back and stitched around the edges of the circle a few times. Better safe than sorry, right?

"Square One"

In my search for new challenges, experiments and growth as a quilter, I am back to where I started –“Square One”.
I was very attached to my maternal grandmother. She passed away when I was pregnant and daughter is named after her. Among the things I brought home from her house were some flannel sheets which were so typical her and that I loved. Some of them were a bit worn in the middle, so I cut them apart and pieced them back together leaving the worn parts on the sides. They were dyed in the washing machine and used on daughter’s bed for many years.

These sheets were some of the recycled material used in my first quilts. I found some of the squares (there is nothing square-like about them other than that they have four sides) the other day, and have been working with some of them. They are so incredible soft and have a lovely texture.

I added tulle from one of daughter’s favourite dresses, batting, a piece of an old duvet cover as backing, and stitched with pearl cotton leftovers from previous projects. I did not want to clean up the imperfect edges, so I added a bias binding which I attached a few mms outside the edges, folded and stitched to the back.
Being a somewhat restless soul, I have felt very grounded working on this piece. It has been a lovely trip down memory lane, and I’d like to stay there for a while.

Sunny Side Up

The last inch of my inherited piece of bright orange linen is used up and daughter has got a new pillow. If she get sick of it (she probably will as she does not really like orange, just this pillow), I want it back!

It too was a Let it go – let it grow project that I posted about here. It’s made the same way as Sunshiny Pillow, but the quilted lines form a rectangle. I’m putting some of the pearl cotton embroidery floss from this post to good use.

I have been looking for more gorgeous linen like this, but have not had any luck yet.
Happy Valentines Day, Shrovetide (AKA Bun Sunday), and Mother's Day to all!

Mending a Broken Heart

3 of my most shocking life experiences happened within a 3 months period of time last year, and while life goes on and we with it, I’m slowly mending my broken heart.
The third sample from my Make A Heart tutorial, "Mending a Broken Heart", has been my Let it go, let it grow project for 8 days. It has been stitched, and stitched and stitched some more. I have absolutely loved working on it! I still have more mending to do though, so there will be more stitching in my future.

I have taken pictures of the progress, but the white tulle always seemed to take front stage with the colours as a backdrop. I finally figured out why; it’s the way the light hits it when it lays in the window sill. When I hung it on the wall, the colours look perfect.
Now I’ll add this to Amylou’s Sew & Tell, pop over and get inspired.

The Orange Purse

I’m the proud owner of a brand new orange purse, ”The Orange Purse” (please notice the capital T), stitched with lots of love, my seam ripper glued to my right hand, lots of frustration, a broken needle and a happy dance.

The purse is made from the orange linen piece from this post. It has been hand quilted with pearl cotton embroidery floss.

It has a quilted lining, a binding on top, and even a zipper for closing. That zipper took forever to sew in, but it’s there, see?
Instead of buying handles, I have made the strap from a belt. A tutorial on how to do this is coming up.

I was probably the last quilter on earth making a purse, but now I have two on my bragging list (first one here). If I was wise enough to use a pattern or tutorial on how to do these things, it would probably have been a piece of cake. Unfortunately I’m the I’ll-figure-it-out type of person. As soon as a question mark enters my brain, it keeps on churning until I have a solution. With quilts this approach works just fine, but add another dimension and I’m practically buzzing. It sometimes keeps me awake at night. I have found that the 3rd dimension is great until you are sewing your lining into it, and I have. Several times.

The good thing is that I now know how to make the silk purse for MIL; I will not reinvent the wheel this time…

Now I’ll add this to Amylouwho’s Sew & Tell, pop over and get inspired!

Still growing

Making progress on the hand quilted linen pieces:

One (from this post) all grown up and ready to be made into a purse.I have bought batting and all, and hope to be finished by next Friday when husband and I will go out.

One barely started. This will be a pillow for daughter, so I’ll add pink between the lines.The bright red orange does still not photograph well no matter what kind of light I try.

Growing

Sunshiny Pillow

Look what my Let it go - let it grow project from this post has grown into – a finished pillow.
Hand quilting the rectangular piece of linen took about one week of evenings listening to the TV. I did not have the heart to cut any of it off, so the upper and bottom parts of the quilted rectangle is on the back of the pillow.
A detail; the colour did not photograph well, maybe it’s too bright
Brightening up our sofa
I loved hand quilting this fabric so much, that I have prepared two more pieces. Just letting go was not that hard after all, so one of them is already growing.

Now I’ll add this to Amyulouwho’s Sew & Tell Fridays and Rosebud’s Fabric Friday. Pop over and get inspired!

Let It Go, Let It Grow

Last night I finally got started on my Christmas hand sewing project. I prepared it for (all...) my down time during the holidays, but it was left alone in its sad little plastic bag.It’s a piece of bright orange-red linen which I got from a fellow member in my guild. It has been washed and ironed, and sewn to a piece of batting with unevenly spaced lines by machine. I picked lots of skeins of pearl cotton yarn from this post, and the plan is to hand quilt the piece.

Last night, when I was sitting in front of the TV with my feet up, I took it out, cut some pieces of yarn and started hand quilting. Some of the stitches were uneven, so I unpicked them. Doing so, I thought, what if I just leave all the little mistakes there, and let the piece grow any way it wants to? What if they are not mistakes, but a part of the design? I do most of my work more or less this way, but wouldn’t it be nice to just let go?

So my challenge to myself is to Let It Go and Let It Grow.
Here’s how far it grew last night

If you would like to join me, feel free to use the image.