This is the quilt I sent to Lee, my August partner on the Doll Quilters' Monthly swap. The theme was "Dressed to the Nines" with the suggestion that the quilt should incorporate nine patches. Well, this isn't strictly a nine patch, but almost. Lee said she liked bright colours and modern designs, so I took the opportunity to play around with colours I don't usually use. My daughter says it looks very 1970s, which her generation thinks of as vintage. She doesn't know the meaning of the word, she is a mere babe. This quilt is modern. The 1970s are about as modern as I can manage.
I haven't done much piecing recently, so I enjoyed the change. I had a good dig in my bag of Oakshott fabrics and pulled out twenty different fabrics for the top and binding. I went to a sale at Oakshott's showroom near Gloucester last November, so I had quite a few gorgeous colours to choose from. I particularly liked this salmon pink and olive green stripe, so it went into the centre square...
... and this dark blue stripe and the yellow centre worked well.
All the squares had either a stripe or a squared weave for the outer section, and all but one of the centre squares were a shot cotton...
...except for this one which is a pale blue stripe.
It was a great pleasure piecing all these beautiful fabrics, but then I came slightly unstuck with the quilting. I used my 1949 Singer 15K for the piecing, straight line quilting and the binding, then I used the 1945 15K treadle for the free motion quilting in the border. Both machines behaved perfectly, and I thought that the alternating horizontal and vertical parallel lines were just the ticket.
Until I got it wrong, so I had to ad lib these shapes and pretend it was all part of the plan. It was interesting discovering that I would much rather not work with straight lines and regular patterns. They just aren't my forte. So all told, this quilt was a pleasure to make, and Lee likes it, so we are both happy. Thank you for being my partner, Lee! Linking up toLeah Day's blog for Free Motion Friday and to Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday and to Nina-Marie's blog Creations... Quilts, Art... Whatever for Off The Wall Friday so you can visit lots of other blogs.
Recognise this machine? It is one of the machines that were donated by Duncan for the charity Hope for Life Katanga, featured in a post earlier this year. The machines were flown to Uganda last month and are already being put to good use.
A group of ladies in Katanga have completed their first project, assisted by Beth, Ellie and Laura, who travelled over to Uganda to help set up the workshop. Visit the website for Hope for Life Katanga, where you can see how well these ladies did with the machines. It really gave me a thrill seeing how delighted everyone looks. Long bobbins, round bobbins, different models... they can do it! It is fantastic seeing the ladies in Katanga making the most of these machines. Well done to every one!
This was the sewing I was busy with last Friday, a Crusader's tabard for my friend Kate's son. I went to their house in South Wales with the intention of making two tabards, another one for an older brother too, but in the end only finished this one. Too much talking and not enough sewing, but I can make the second one at home. I used Kate's 1916 Singer 28K hand machine to knock this little item together, and by tea time we had one very happy young lad. He is ready to do serious battle with the home made wooden sword and shield. This isn't the complete outfit - he didn't have time to get on his chain mail. Talking of kitchens...
...if anyone is interested in trying out apple and sloe jam, the video is up on Youtube. Very tasty.
Inspiration for this experiment in free motion quilting came from a book about Art Nouveau. I was very taken by a picture of a vase decorated with a peacock feather design, and realised that it could turn into a fairly uncomplicated design for quilting.
I started with the eye of each feather, and worked outwards adding the concentric shapes.
Then I did a line of stitching down to the base of the feather and worked back up adding the fronds. At this stage I was a bit worried that the whole thing may end up looking like fish skeletons, but I think the fronds are wavy enough to prevent that. In the end I thought the quilted panel actually had an Art Nouveau look about it, which I was very pleased about. I quite liked the feeling of having quilted it using a treadle machine, technology that was contemporary with the style of art. Also, the feathers interlock well with each other, so this design would look quite effective over a large area. Best of all, it was quick and easy. Linking up again to Leah Day's blog for Free Motion Friday... ... and Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday... ... and Nina-Marie's blog Creations... Quilts, Art... Whateverfor Off The Wall Friday
I went out looking for blackberries yesterday, but it is still a bit early so I didn't find many, despite braving five foot high nettles to hurl myself into the brambles in the hedge. Then I found a bush that was absolutely laden with these little beauties - sloes! Tiny wild black plums, far too bitter to eat off the bush, but combined with...
... apples they make wonderful jam.
So I spent most of the day in the kitchen. It was a hot day, bright sunshine, a real Indian summer day, and I was working over a hot stove. The result? A dozen jars of jam, and at one stage, this marvellous colour combination to gaze at. I've already tasted the jam and am looking forward to a nice leisurely breakfast on Saturday. With a bit of luck there might be a new Youtube video up by then... Welcome to the latest follower, Leslie - thank you for joining!
...that I found in a box at an antiques market last week. The manufacturer is Josef Zimmermann
and they were extremely proud of their gold medal won at Barcelona in 1888 (when my grandparents were aged 14, 4, minus 1 and minus 8).
The little paper packet is still intact and opens out.
On the tab it shows that they were manufactured in Aachen.
Inside there is a fold of paper...
enclosing a dozen only very slightly rusty but still very sharp round shanked needles. Just the sort of thing that, had I been looking for them, I would never have found. But there they were, so I snapped them up.
