calico & linen

Quite a while ago I did a market for my Dad's ironwork and I bought several metres of calico to cover the trestle table.  So without much in the fabric budget right now I have put the calico to use, a quilt top - just because I had to do something.  I've cut it into strips, squares, rectangles and sewed it all back together with a few linen & double gauze placements.  I wanted to keep it simple so there's not too much going on.  We'll see where the hand quilting takes it.

The calico is a little coarse - this one is going to be hard wearing...

You can't see how nice the double gauze below is in this photo, it's some nani iro by naomi ito - it's so lovely & soft with painted flowers & patterns on it.  The linen above is also some nani iro by naomi ito - 'yes' I like her fabrics very much.

Whilst I'm looking forward to hand quilting this one, I can't start until I finish the 'fill-in-the -blanks' quilt top for flip, I just can't - that wouldn't be right.  It's quite difficult to work on, well I'm finding it difficult, I did a few houses last night and it's quite taxing.  There are only about 3 rows of houses to go.  I'm looking forward to the hand quilting, I just can't seem to get the darn top finished.  You should see the mess in our dining room at the moment from last night - it's still there today.  I'm hoping to get a spurt and carry on with it, or maybe a good kick in the pants is what I need.  Hopefully something happens soon as the day is nearly over :) and we'll be at the beach tomorrow - hoorah for the warm weather!

blackwork

It's been a little while since my last post, things have been a little hectic with work, kids, Christmas and all the festivities.  I found a book called Made in France Blackwork a few months ago at Readings and I had to have it.  So many beautiful designs, here's one I've started...

It had to have a home, so here's a cotton/linen converted tea towel, that of course has never been used, I bought it because I thought it was so lovely - too good to use as a tea towel.

a few favourites from the book

linen pouch

We were at the beach the other day and I thought I needed a little pouch to put my phone, wallet & keys in rather than take my handbag on the beach.  So here it is - a pouch for the beach.

I didn't have any trouble with the zip, I've only attempted a few :)

colours

a little collection matched by bells, I can't believe she'll be in prep next year - where does the time go?

 

a home for a new pencil

I bought a new pencil today, the green one below and it's got some different coloured leads I can interchange - at the moment it's got red, that's the favourite.  The red clutch pencil was already floating around in my handbag, I couldn't have two floating around so I whipped up this little home for them.  Linen & calico with a shell button.

Sometimes it's the small & quick things that give us pleasure, just what I needed today.  I bought a diary for next year during the week, just a small one, week to an opening - I aim to use it.  Not just for birthday's and my few appointments but for ideas, thoughts & feelings, even it's just a sentence or two, or just a few words everyday. 

That's why I needed a new pencil ;)

baby quilt - quick fix

My sister has a friend who is putting together a website to sell baby related things, she asked if I'd be interested in making a cot quilt.  Why not, it's small, I could use fabric I already have in my possession - all I had to buy was a little white/neutral and the binding (which I still have to get).  It's my first attempt at machine quilting, I think it looks ok, the lines aren't meant to be perfectly straight.  It was fun - sort of.  I can't imagine doing anything larger tough - that scares me, perhaps experience would make the prospect less daunting - a lot more experience.

There is a little drifting in the quilt, lets just say that not all the rectangles look 'square', after the binding is on I'll give it wash and see if it will be sellable.  I don't know how much 'character' is ok.

fill in the blanks

Months ago I saw this fabric in the ikea catalogue, purchased a few metres and started filling in the blanks with a range of reds, blues, greens, yellows and a touch of linen.  This will be a new quilt for Flip and it's been taking a while to fill it up.  I've been doing it on the sewing machine but I have to work with the whole top all at once, turning, turning, turning & turning all of it!  It's just under half done, I'm hoping and Flip is hoping it's not going to be another couple of months.  Whenever I sew something and he sees me I get asked "when are you going to finish my quilt mumma????"  I just need to get going - set aside a day and go for it.

Soon...