Bank Holiday Monday

It was a lovely morning with the sun shining and the birds singing. So lovely in fact that I took my granola and yogurt outside to eat on the patio. I was then inspired to finish tidying up the garden and plant an azalea that had been sitting in a pot for a few weeks waiting for the right moment to arrive! Well it arrived this morning. I am a summer gardener. Only between April/May and October do I garden. Sometimes the urge comes on me in April and sometimes not until May. But then once I've started I get all enthusiastic and plant flowers etc as if there is no tomorrow. In fact Sue and I are going garden centre hopping tomorrow. Bad for the purse but it will be a good day out and the coffee and cake will be a bonus.

The tulips have been quite lovely even though they weren't planted until January. The colours have been superb especially the 'black' ones. But they didn't last as long as more ordinary colours. I had to make a piece of shadow appliqué so I chose to do tulips as the subject matter. I still have to frame the piece or do something with it but that can wait for a while as I have other things to do.


Having done a stint in the garden I then decided to do some dyeing and because I can't dye large lengths in the kitchen any longer because of our new floor (Martin would kill me if I dyed it!) I set up some acrylic sheets outside. I don't have many so I was limited in what I could do but a lot was achieved in a small space. I then went on to layer more acrylic over the ones seen below. It was fun but my back ached after a while so I'm glad this isn't my normal mode for dyeing.



And finally this is a picture of the small bag I made for the wedding. It is big enough to take my camera and other paraphernalia. It is mostly made from strips of silk with the odd bit of hand-dyed cotton and I found an antique mother of pearl button for it. Very simple and quick to make and very effective. I could make one for every outfit.....but I won't!



Now to finish my version of a Convergence quilt a la Ricky Tims for my class on Friday. I'm finding this great fun and using up lots of scraps. Well not really scraps as they are all at least a foot square. But you know what I mean.

Sophie's wedding

My niece Sophie got married yesterday in Mawnan Church. This is a very old church on the cliffs overlooking Falmouth Bay. The weather smiled on us and the rain stayed away. There was even sun in the afternoon! The wedding was at 3pm so plenty of room for the improvement on a dull start.

This is my niece and her new husband Jon. It is going to be very confusing as she also has a brother called Jon. He will now have to be referred to as Jonathan to save confusion!

The lace over dress that Sophie is wearing is one I made for her mother, my sister, to wear at her wedding over thirty years ago. There were a few alterations such as lowering the neck and shortening the sleeves but it still looks good. Sophie was a beautiful bride and glowed with happiness. In short it was a lovely wedding. Very simple but lovely.


In contrast I felt every one of my years and could not be called glowing! I had to arrive early to get my elderly mother to the church so Martin took this photo of me. I didn't have to put it up but I liked the hat. It's not everyday that one gets to wear a hat!
My lovely Mum who will be 89 this coming November.
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All in all it was a happy occasion and a great time was had by all. Unfortunately Martin had to work in the evening as it is a Bank Holiday weekend so I had no one to dance with! Boo hoo! Though my nephew took pity on me but only I think to stop my taking pictures of him! I have been busy with other things such as sewing but more of that later. I will try and be more regular in my posting now that I have more time. There has been so much going on at the same time that I was quite rushed for a while. But I have a few days holiday and will clear the decks ready for a fresh start.

April TIF

I've been thinking about this month's TIF challenge subject. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about this is a monthly challenge that Sharon of In a Minute Ago fame sets us. For more details hit on the link above. This month's challenge is about change; how do you view it; is it good or bad; etc etc. The first idea that came to me is that change is growth. One takes an idea or thing and by changing it makes it grow into something different or bigger. Not necessarily always a good thing! The expression that popped into my mind was 'Big Oaks from Little Acorns grow'! And then pondering this I also saw that one could change something and yet it would still have the same effect and do the same thing as previously; hence the saying Plus ça change, c'est le même chose! Hope I've got the accents right! But how do I portray these two views of 'change'? Do I amalgamate them or choose one or the other? Should it be abstract or visual? What do I do? I think a lot more thinking is necessary! If I get pushed for time I'll go with the growth in nature a la the Oak tree theme but at the moment I'm thinking round the fact that everything changes but actually stays the same! Not the easiest of subjects!

Finished February's TIF in March!

This is the original drawing that I did. I decided to go with my early memories of the barbed wire on the beaches after WWII but I wanted to keep it simple.

I decided to dye a piece of fabric in the colours I wanted rather than sew strips of fabric together. I was quite pleased with the way this came out. Of course blue and yellow make green so there is a greenish element at the edge of the sea but that is, of course, seaweed!

I had kept the dyeing to a basic minimum so I added all the other elements of the design by painting them onto the fabric. I played up the 'seaweed' aspects and made shadows on the sand. I put the sun in and decided it would be early evening when shadows are lengthening. Also this would cast a sparkle on the water. I decided to leave waves alone as I felt that adding white would be a bad move and too distracting. I wanted the post to be the focal point with the wire reaching off on either side.

This is the piece bagged out and edge stitched before doing the final stitchery.

A close up of the stitching for the post and the shadow. I thought a bit of maram grass round the base of the post would be good. Just that added touch of green to go with the clump of green in the lower right hand corner where the dyes pooled a bit.

And this is the finished article. I have enjoyed doing this. It is very simple but I think effective. I could have done more stitching but I didn't want to burden it with over kill so I kept most of the machining to the lower half apart from the sun and it's sparkle on the sea. I'm glad I persevered and got it done. There is a great sense of achievement in not having let it lapse into a UFO!
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I'm not going to do March's TIF as neither the subject matter nor the colours inspire me and also next week is April! Hopefully I can finish April's TIF in April!

Time goes by too quickly!

Time just disappears. I think I'm keeping up with the blog and lo and behold days have gone by. So what have I been doing? When I stop and think about it, not a lot! Sad isn't it!
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I read Gabrielle's blog and had to do this test!

The Recipe For Valeri

3 parts Naughtiness 2 parts Poise 1 part Sweetness Splash of Mischief Chug!

What's the Recipe for Your Personality?

Not the most difficult test in the world! In fact each time I entered my name I got a different result but the above is the first one. I could have gone for a much more erudite rendition of my name but I was honest! Really!
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I have finished the single bed log cabin quilt I was making and it is on the bed! This is the table centre I made with the two left over blocks. I used up scraps of fabric so the colours although consistent weren't from the same pieces of material. It is very bright!

And I was also able to do the quilting using my new Fab-U-Motion tool which I bought at the Exeter show. I am so pleased with this! I had seen them advertised and also read about them on-line but wasn't going to buy one sight unseen. Too much money to take a chance on whether it was going to be good or not. But at the show I saw one demonstrated and had a go and I was hooked. It is the most amazing piece of equipment. It makes free machining a breeze. No more tired, tight, achy shoulders. No dragging of the fabric. Brilliantly smooth underneaths. What more could one want. The plate is set on a set of movable rods for want of a better description and the fabric is put over the plate and then moved side to side or up and down. The hole is quite large and ample for stitching. When one runs out of space just pull the plate over and continue. So easy! The movement is really smooth with no jerks. I found it simple to use, especially with smaller pieces of work. My first practise piece was only about 18" square and I had no problems at all. However I did have to master a learning curve when doing the larger single bed quilt as one has to get one's head round the bunched up fabric at the right of the needle on the machine bed when moving the plate. However practice makes perfect and I accomplished what I'd intended without too much aggro on my part! I'm certainly pleased with it. It works better on my Husqvarna than my Bernina having more room but the picture above is of it on my Bernina. And in fact the quilt was done on the Bernina as at that time I hadn't tried it on the Husqvarna. I am in love!

Day out at a Quilt Show!

I had a really lovely day out today. Myself and three friends went to the quilt exhibition at Westpoint in Exeter. It was a miserable day weather wise with rain and mist for most of the hundred mile journey there and the return wasn't any better. In fact it was worse! But we had a lovely day. Spent far too much money on lovely things, saw some beautiful quilts and met up with other friends who had also made the trip. A few of my favourites are shown above. I especially loved the hanging by the Hope Quilters, shown in the bottom row. It made us laugh as this is so true of quilting groups all over! The picture of the small house quilt (second up on the left) is made of tiny tiny log cabin blocks! It must have taken a while to work it all out. We had the most delicious Danish pastries and latte coffee and didn't feel at all remorseful about our diets!
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However the day was slightly marred when I broke one of my back molars. The hole feels like a chasm and I can't do anything about it until Monday! I feel as if I've been socked in the jaw! The sewing machine vendor where my friend Sue bought a new sewing machine had a bowl of free sweeties on offer and so I thought I'd take one while waiting for Sue to finish the transaction. My mistake as that sweet blighted my life!
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A lot of fabric was on offer and I of course succumbed! I also found some animal strips which are just right for making an eye spy quilt or an attic windows quilt for the grandchildren. Fred is mad about horses and Fenella is well into dogs. Of course I need this fabric like a hole in the head but I just couldn't resist it. I also bought some single embellishing needles for using with my felting technique. And only three books! This is very good for me. One of them is about machine trapunto, a technique that I want to do more of so I am going to be busy! At least I will be busy when the tooth isn't giving me gyp!

Nominated and nominations!

I was very touched that Victoria nominated my blog.
Let me explain the rules for the next nominated blogs:
" Choose up to 10 of your favorite blogs which bring you inspiration and make you appreciate the blogosphere ! "
Next you must inform the bloggers of their nomination by a post on their blog so as to keep the chain going !
So, here are the blogs I have chosen to nominate:

Gabrielle Swain at Handmaiden
Sue at CraftchatsewIknit2
Helen Suzanne at Hebart Journal
Shirley Goodwin at Dyeing2Design
Tommy at Tommy the Material Girl
Moi at Suckers Anonymous
Helen Cowans at Textile Goddess
Sharon at In a Minute Ago
Sarah Ann Smith at Art and Quilting in Camden
Robin at Quilt Antics

These are my ten nominations. They are always interesting; I often learn something new and frequently I'm amused. They are all worth a look if you haven't been there before!