Thursday 18 October 2018

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 205 - Three French Hens


This is the 12 x 12 quilt that I have made for this year's exhibition at Midsomer Quilting.  The theme was "Think of a Number", so I hit on the idea of Three French Hens.

The bold stitched outlines are chain stitched using my Willcox and Gibbs Automatic machine.  It took a while to set up the machine for use because the belt had slackened.  After cutting sections from the leg of an old pair of tights I finally cut one of the right circumference to adequately grip the wheel and give good traction. 



Each of the hens is based on photographs of French breeds of poultry.  I tried to make each hen match what it is saying, so the "oui" hen is this nice agreeable looking Ardennais cock.



By contrast, the big brute of a hen saying "non" is this rather intimidating de Pavilly cock.



And cowering down in the corner is the rather nervous looking yet conciliatory Gascony hen, which is by far my favourite.  It must be the slightly coquettish way she is showing her half-profile.
  


The "i" should have been dotted with a French knot, but I couldn't remember how to do them and was feeling far too idle to get a book down from the shelf, so it is just a little cluster of stitches, slightly lost amongst all the scattered quilting stitches in the background.

The hand quilting wasn't part of the original plan, but the light caught the surface, which was far from even, so I had to aim for some sort of texture.  I should have free-motion quilted it, but my sewing room became a temporary dumping ground while we were redecorating the front room, and I haven't got round to tidying it up yet, so my machine is surrounded with clutter.  I thought the hand stitching would be quick and simple, but I was wrong on both counts.  There, I've confessed.



"Non" is the only word I could sew in an uninterrupted line of stitching.



"Yes No Perhaps" would have been fairly straightforward to stitch, but French, being French, throws a hyphen and a circumflex accent at me just to make life difficult.  

I made sure I left this writing until last, by which time I was getting the hang of it.  The chain is the back of the stitch, so I had to work from the back.  I wrote the words backwards on the back of the fabric and stitched along the line, which was a little tricky because the foot on the Willcox and Gibbs hasn't got a groove in it, so I would lose sight of the line when it disappeared under the metal on its way to the needle.  Anyway, despite the difficulties I am immensely chuffed that I managed to stitch handwritten French backwards with a machine made in 1888.  The only bit I unpicked was the crossbar on one of the "t"s because it wasn't quite at the right angle, and that only took a moment because with chain stitch all you need to do is pull the end of the thread to undo it.



The rest of the sewing, that is the outline quilting around the hens and attaching the binding, was done with my 1916 Singer 99K.

I shall be delivering the quilt to Midsomer quilting next week and shall be kissing it goodbye because it is going into the charity auction.  Perhaps I will make another one one day.


Here goes for week 205:-


If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.


If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.
  
3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for four days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland and Brazil have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week

Linking up with Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday
and Nina Marie's blog Creations... Quilts, Art.... Whatever for Off The Wall Friday.

Thursday 11 October 2018

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 204 - And Another Hen


Almost finished... the hens quilt is quilted and bound, but still needs a little work on it.  There is a little fullness in the background, which shows up shadows when the quilt is seen from across a room.  Rather than leave it and be irked by it, I have decided to do hand stitching to hold the layers together.  So for the moment, here is a preview.  I quite like this particular hen.  She is calm and composed, whereas one of the other hens is an absolute brute.

All shall be revealed next week.

Here goes for week 204:-

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.
  
3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for four days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland and Brazil have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Sunday 7 October 2018

A Picture for Sunday - Sika Stag


Had this stag used the twisted branches behind him as camouflage, echoing the shape of his antlers, or was it just coincidence?  He wasn't at all timid, browsing just a matter of yards away from a very busy path at Glendalough.  Just like the grey wagtail I photographed about half an hour later, he seemed used to an endless stream of curious people with cameras.

I was really pleased to be able to identify him as a sika deer, because this is a different type to the roe deer we see at home.  The roe deer are prettier (I'm biased), but seeing this solid sika deer has made me realise how scrawny the little roebuck is.  Our local deer must have been suffering in the drought this summer.

Friday 5 October 2018

Knitting a New Stitch


This is my first foray into brioche rib.  It is a reversible, two colour stitch, which is thick enough for a tea cosy and ideal for woolly jumpers for winter.  I used to stare at the single colour version of this stitch when I was a kid and rack my brains trying to work out how it was done.  I never did fathom it out.  Then when I saw the two colour version a few months ago I knew I had to find out how to do it.  Hooray for Youtube.  After watching a few videos and finding that there are different ways of doing it, I settled on the method that I liked best.

Rather than making a high contrast between front and back, I opted for blues.  This is the front...


… and this is the back.

I am making a little baby cardigan, using the soft snuggly random blue for the inside and the plain blue for the outside.  

I am killing several birds with one stone - using up the wool I have stashed, adding to the reserve supply of presents ready to give to new babies, and working out various problems that might arise on a small project rather than getting myself into a twist on an adult sized project.  Just looking at the picture of the tea cosy this morning I have realised that I have to work out a better method for the beginning and end of each row than the one I have been using.  The joys of knitting! 

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 203 - It's A Hen!


Done over the past three days... at last I have made a start!  

This is the beginning of my 12 x 12 quilt for this year's exhibition at Midsomer Quilting.  After taking months to come up with a subject for the theme, which is "think of a number", I have ended up with poultry.  Because I have left it so late, I needed to decide on a quick method and bold design, so the emphasis is on outline.  I have been using my oldest machine, the Willcox and Gibbs Automatic, which gives a bold line of chain stitch.  The quilt should be finished in a matter of days, and it should be a bit of a laugh.


Here goes for week 203:-


Many thanks to Janice for linking up last week with the beautiful quilt she made for her daughter.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more:-



If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.
  
3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for four days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland and Brazil have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Linking up with Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday.


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