A Picture for Sunday - The Duchess of Sutherland

Steam engines have a perennial appeal.  Whenever one is due, you can guarantee at least one or two spectators will be ready with their cameras on the railway bridge near to where I live.  It was pure coincidence that I saw the photographers at the ready, and I was able to catch this train.  To add to the delight, the Duchess of Sutherland belonged to LMS (London Midland and Scottish Railway), the company for whom my grandad worked.

Knitted Coat for a Toddler

This is the latest creation from the Muv Knitting Design Studio, also known as the settee.

I found a pack of baby yarn in chunky weight, with the price reduced because it was the end of a dye lot, and set to work on this coat.  The idea is that it will fit a toddler as a coat, and as she grows, the ribbed yoke will stretch and the sleeves can be turned down, and it will be a chunky little jacket.  By my reckoning it should last for at least three winters.

The wool is seriously thick, so it would be ideal for a hard cold winter, of the Scottish or Canadian variety.

The ribbing gives the yoke a slightly conical look, but as the child grows it should mould itself to the shape of her shoulders.

The collar turned out to be my favourite feature because it stands up at the back.  It turned out this way because I continued the raglan shaping at the front right until casting off...

...whereas at the back I stopped working the shaping once I reached the actual collar.

It is giving me ideas for a winter cardigan in grown-up size.  I quite fancy a collar like this to keep the draughts out.

More Vegetation

So much green is needed that this picture risks ending up as a representation of a plate of vegetables dropped from a great height.  Together with the fact that some serious puckering was threatening to take hold in the middle, an hour at a time is probably the maximum length of time I can concentrate before impatience threatens to take over.

  

To highlight the top of the hedge I have laid some greenish yellow over the green mix that I stitched in last week.

I'll get there eventually.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 247 - Grass

Easy, but very boring stitching has been my job today.  I have been filling in the foundation layer for grass in the foreground.  Deciding on the shade of green was a dilemma.  I checked online, and I have all the different shades of green that are available.  None of them are the same shade as sunlit grass.  The shade that I have used has a slight bluish tinge, but it is the brightest I have.  It is the underneath layer, and other shades shall be stitched over it.  I am hoping that when I put other shades over it, they will all mix in.  It's surprising how much better colours look when blended and seen from the opposite side of the room.

All went well until I was about ten minutes from finishing.  First the bobbin ran out.  Then I managed to reload the bobbin incorrectly, so it jammed a minute later.  So I reloaded, and then the top thread broke.  Just as well it was sunny outside.  Definitely time to call it a day.

Here goes for week 247:-

Many thanks to Gretchen for linking up with her beautiful Bright Hopes quilts.  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 five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

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.

A Picture for Sunday - Butcher's Shop

Rawles Butchers in Bridport, Dorset.  The most striking commercial art I have seen for years.  I love the dreamy green landscape. 

Filling in Shadow

A little at a time...

The green shaded area on the left is the darkest shadow in the whole picture, so I used the darkest green I have to lay the foundation.

The slow approach is paying off.  The dilemma is that the actual process of stitching has to be fast, but I have to rein myself in to stop it being fast and furious.  It is all too easy to get carried away and stray into the wrong area of the picture, and wreck it before you have even properly started.  

To check I was on the right track with the composition, I got my husband to stand on the opposite side of the room, and then I held up the work in progress.  For the first time he could see the picture emerging.  The fact that he knows the path well, and the photo I am working from, undoubtedly helped, but it was great encouragement for me to see his reaction.

Free Motion Mavericks this week is at Andrée's blog Quilting and Learning and I'm linking up!

A Picture for Sunday - Harvest Time

Evening light on a field of stubble, taken just a few feet away from where I took another photo at the same time of day over three years ago.  

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 245 - Wooded Hills

Doing a little at a time certainly works best.  Plotting the position of the elements of the composition takes ages.  The view is of an overgrown track with high hedges on either side, fields and houses in the middle distance, and wooded ridges on the horizon.  The few lines on the left are the bare bones of a holly tree which will fill much of the top left corner.  

Finally the scene is taking shape!

The detail I am most pleased with is this part of the horizon.  There is one wooded ridge immediately behind another, with the trees in the distance showing up darker than the nearer trees.  There are still more layers of stitching to come, but I have laid the foundation for later. 

Here goes for week 245:-

Many thanks to Vasudha for linking up with her gorgeous purple mountain majesty quilt.  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 five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

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.