Patch It Up

I decided to make a bigger square of denim patchwork than the previous piece. This time I decided to use the 'chain piecing' method of joining, it's a quicker way of stitching together blocks than having to stop and start your machine between seams. 

Here I've joined together paired strips.....

Then the strips were joined together....

  Here is the final piece about to have it's seams pressed open.

  I chose this patchwork cotton print to back and bind the edges of the quilt.

Finished!

Square Deal

This week I started rummaging through my piles of denim and scrap bags. I've been holding on to these pieces for an age knowing that one day their time would come. That time is now because I feel the urge to make the set of denim quilts that has been lurking in my imagination for a while. Now where are my stitch rippers???......

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Mr Ted is Back On The Scene

Poor Mr Ted had been lost for a while. I searched high and low finally finding him at the bottom of a box full of old things. He was looking a bit worse for wear...

so I darned his holes and added a patch here and there. I could'nt find an exact match for his missing button so found one that I thought might suit him.

Maria's birthday was very close, so I thought she'd like to be reunited with her missing bear. I machine knitted him this snug sleeping bag as a welcome back present and as a gift to Birthday Girl.

Riveting Stuff!

 In my studio I have piles of old denim jeans at various stages of being deconstructed. One particular pile has remained untouched for years due to the stubborn rivets that no sewing machine needle could go through! I thought if I could remove them I would be able to use every section of jeans without having to discard any part.

So I started by using a flat head screw driver together with pliers, but no amount of tapping, pulling or gripping would make them budge.  The Other Half suggested drilling through the rivets, so I called on the help of Graham who has a workshop not far from my studio. He has a pillar drill which he used to drill through the pesky rivets! You can see some of the remains above. 

So Graham drilled holes through the rivets, then I yanked them out using the nail puller tool (on the left of the picture above). After experimenting I realised that I could remove them without using the drill. I used the screw driver to prise a small space between the upper rivet and the denim, leaving enough of a gap to enable the nail puller to grip around the underside rivet. Then I either twisted or snapped off the rivet thus releasing the front part - hooray! Thank you Graham for your help. I now have a pile of pockets that I'm imagining as a door or wall hanging, watch this space for further denim developments.......

Blooming Ada!

I had a quick look online to find out the meaning of 'Blooming Ada', without much luck ( Those words have been rattling around my head for years!). What I wanted  was a word or phrase that would convey the glorious variety and colourful display of nature at The Chelsea Flower Show 2013. My little photos hardly do justice to the wonders on show, but hey! I'll have a go! Here are few specimens found in the Great Pavillion that caught my eye.....

Here are my favourite 'Artisan gardens'

And lastly, I had to include a photo of the dessert that I had as part of lunch thrown for the Artisans, Artists and top Gardening Folk ..... mmmmmmmmm!

Chelsea Flower Power

My Other Half was invited to participate in The Chelsea Flower Show within the 'Artisan Retreat'. Tucked away in Ranleagh Gardens he has recreated a little corner of his artistic world amongst the trees and wildflowers, if you wander further you of course will encounter the traditional flower show which is celebrating its 100th year.

Here I am helping out a little. I'm sewing on vinyl records onto a couple of my quilts, yes it sounds crazy. It's just to hold them in place and keep them safe. If it rains it won't take a second to scoop everything up out of the inclement weather.

Here we are in our workers jackets. 

(security is very strict there!)

Here is part of the interior......

and exterior...

Finally a glimpse within the studio with some papercuts in progress.

King of Colour

This week I went to the Fashion and Textile museum with my friend Jane, fellow knitter and sometime needlepointer to see an exhibition looking at Kaffe Fasset's Kaleidoscope of work.

He has done so much to raise awareness of textile craft and how not to be afraid to use colour.

On show were the tapestries, quilts and knits that we have seen over the years as well as the paintings, studies and collections of objects that form the staring points for these works. I was happy to see he had made use of patterned fabrics to produce unexpected designs. I particularly liked how he used striped shirts to great effect in the patchwork below.

Self portrait

Hood Winked

Once again I've been working on another machine knitting pattern, this time a hooded jumper for my long legged bears. I'm always surprised at how long it takes to get it right and then once I get the pattern right, how long it takes to knit and sew up! I may as well be making up an adult sized garment for all the time and effort that goes into one piece! But I can't stop once I've started, I have to keep going until the mission is accomplished!

At The Weekend....

A couple of years ago I had a book that I nicknamed my show book, in it I stuck photos and leaflets from shows and exhibitions that I visited with The Other Half. But life got busy and I wasn't always able to keep it up, in the end I just shoved the leaflets into the book with no comments and no photos, it became a dumping ground! So this weekend I thought maybe I should use my blog more to document what I see. So here I begin.....

On Saturday The Other Half took me to see flooring that he had designed a while back for the Chemotherapy Department at University College Hospital in London. Out of respect to the patients and families that were present, I did not take any photos. The floor looked great in red and white linoleum using one of his bell themed designs. I'm mighty proud of his work (as always) and hope that this work will offer a moment of thought to all who see it at what must be an incredibly harrowing time.

Also on Saturday we visited the Wellcome Collection to see the 'Souzou' exhibition of outsider art. The works in this show were created by people with behavioural/developmental/mental illnesses who attend specialist care centres in Japan. I'd only heard good things about this show so was looking forward to our trip. It was amazing and definitely well worth the visit. Heres a link that will tell you more.............

Knitting Woes!

Having spent days making plain jumpers and dresses for the bears, I thought making a multi coloured bear dress would be a nice change. 

Ha! How wrong I was!

From the start I was faced with tangles and pulls that would've challenged a saint! There was a moment when I was ready to pack away my knitting machine for good! And then as if the knitting wasn't enough, the making up nearly had me going loopy too! So much so that I abandoned sewing back the knot of yarns that you can see in the top picture. The back looks pretty bonkers 'n all! Ah well, you can't win them all!

Birthday Patchwork

Over 21 years ago I gave birth to our second daughter Barbara.

To celebrate I secretly made a patchwork quilt using scraps of old fabrics from her childhood, pieces from her sisters scrap box and from mine, together with new fabrics ......

 I used a mixture of alternate 'nine square' and 'plain' blocks.

 For the quilting I succumbed to my usual choice of a circle design.

I made a continuous strip of bias binding for the edging....

And as a final salute to Barbara's childhood, I collected together ribbon roses and bows similar to the ones that I used to decorate the bags and clothes of the dolls and teddies that she and her sister played with. I wasn't sure how to use them at first, I had thought of spacing them throughout the quilt, but that could've ended looking a bit twee. In the end I decided on placing them all in one area for a burst of nostalgia, also giving B the option of tucking them out of sight if she didn't want them on public display!

 Happy Birthday Barbara!