And Relax

I hope you have all had a great Christmas with friends and family.  I know we have here including far too much to eat.  My poor joints are really playing up and I'm looking forward to a detox and going back into the gym in the new year.  

I said there were a couple of bits to show after Christmas, so here they are.  

A pair of large cushions made with tartan and Harris tweed for Elsa and Mike as they had a fair bit of fun in Scotland this year!! 

A tweed clutch wallet with red deer, again in the Scottish theme.

The laid scraps from a few posts ago ended up looking like this as a sketchbook cover.

And open.  Good colour match above, bad below.

Also, I ended up with 6 inch squares under the scrim.  It lent itself to making a grid for me so I will have something to stitch too.

Here are a couple of boxes with some of the other fabrics I will be using on the surface.  Pieces of couture fabrics, mostly silks and chiffons on the left and re purposed and over dyed silk on the right.

I had a lovely gift arrive from Benta at Slikstitches.  It's very useful and quite well used already!! Thank you Benta.

And these three were so good on Christmas day, as was Tully too but she seems to have been rather elusive in the photographs.

Oh no, there she is being a hoover under the table.  She did a very good job too.  

Next stop, next year!!

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Merry Christmas

As we are going to be busy over the next few days John and I would like to wish you all a very 

Merry Christmas 

and a 

happy, healthy and creative 

New Year!! 

Stitch as a Therapy?

I have signed up to do the Traveller Blanket workshop with Dijanne Cevaal.  Yes I know I need another thing to do like a hole in the head but there was something about this one that just needed me to join. 

I started on a good footing when I sourced and ordered some bump and dommet to act as the wadding.  I wasn't sure which weight to go for so I ordered 2 metres of each. Two ROLLS arrived with almost 10 metres on each. I think they may have thought that the roll ends were just worth sending as there wouldn't be enough to line curtains.  I'm a happy bunny anyway as I was only charged for what I ordered.  

I have thought of a theme for the little stitched parts, butterfly wing patterns.  I was going to go all complicated and dye some more scrim but I found this old piece in exactly the right size at exactly the right time so I guess it was telling me it wanted to play.

Last night I had a look around for something to back it with. I found a pile of very badly dyed linen that was part of my first ever dying session. The linen is very loosely woven and so is easy to stitch through.  The whole point of this blanket is 'therapeutically easy'! I cut them up and tacked them onto the dommet. I'm sure you'll agree they are rather ugly but I'm hoping the amount of stitching and many colours will help change them. And anyway, it's the back!  Lol The green is not really lime, more like sludge, it's the spotlight shining on it.

On the front I laid the dyed scrim to see how bright it is against the white.

This is a pile of more dyed scrim and loose weaves I am going to lay under the main piece to give the colour depth.

Just a bit of playing needed now until I'm happy.

And as a little inspiration of how stitch has been used I had this book arrive this week.  It's not a 'to do' book but one for the coffee table and quite lovely to look through.

I hope the madness of the week before Christmas is not too mind blowing for you!! 

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The First West Country Quilt Show

The show was from 29th November to 1st December 2012.  Unbelievably it was only three months from the start up to the actual show!  Perhaps a little soon but I guess they all have to start somewhere.

I saw the advert in the last edition of Workbox magazine and thought why not.  So I entered the appliqué quilt 'Sunset' I made for my City & Guilds.

'Sunset' 20" x 33"

 As you can see it won first in the Small Wall Hanging section and then went on to win Overall Runner-up!  Really over the moon.

I wasn't called to say I had a first but I did see a small photo of it on Facebook where it had ribbons.  I couldn't make out what the ribbons were though so it was a lovely surprise when we arrived yesterday to pick it up.  Even lovelier was when the lady who was taking them down asked if I had picked up my goodie bag!!

How nice is this little lot!

I have a terrible throat and have lost my voice several times and I'm struggling to find things to take for it but what a lovely way to start December!!! So glad I made the effort now.

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