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~ sew, knit, cook, write – enjoy!

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Tag Archives: handwork

I haven’t posted in ages!

20 Monday Nov 2017

Posted by sewjournal in Sew journal

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

design, hand quilting, hand-piecing, handwork, patchwork, quilt, quilting, quilting blog, sewing blog, sewjournal blog

I know I have been missing in action this blog for some time. I have had mixed feelings about it. I love the conversations we get to have but I’m not so happy with the feeling that sometimes I have no audience at all and I’m talking to myself. I did start a quilt-along but I left it hanging because it appeared I was the only one doing it. 🙂

Anyway a comment came for approval today and so I logged back in and thought I’d do a post showing you some of things I’ve worked on in the interim. I hope you like them.

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The Modern Quilt Guild’s Riley Blake Challenge

10 Friday Jan 2014

Posted by sewjournal in Sew journal, Uncategorized

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

#mqgrileyblakechallenge, Andalusian tile templates, applique, hand-piecing, handwork, machine piecing, Modern Quilt Guild, patchwork, quilting blog, Riley Blake, sewing blog, sewjournal blog, textiles

RB fabricsThe Modern Quilt Guild is hosting a Riley Blake quilt challenge. All members who applied were given 6 fat eighths of Riley Blake fabric and they could make whatever they liked as long as it was quilted.

The rules were that you didn’t have to use all the fabrics you were given, that you could use any solids with them and any other Riley Blake prints.

I didn’t use the blue gingham and the turquoise chevron in my quilt. This actually surprised me as these are my favourite colours. However the whole process was organic.

P1050616I began with the centre and I used my Andalusian tile templates with the dark grey and the grey and white stripe fabrics and hand-pieced them to make this.

centre

I had then intended to pair them with the blue and turquoise fabrics. I looked for a suitable background to put the central medallion on but none of the greys I had did anything at all for it. I didn’t have a suitable blue or turquoise solid so I opted for this really bright yellow.

I hand appliquéd the medallion to the background and then had to ponder my next move. I cut a star out of the white spot on yellow fabric using my templates and appliquéd it to the centre of the medallion.

bordersI bought some grey Riley Blake small chevron and used it for the first border and then decided to use the white spotted yellow fabric as cornerstones and make a Riley Blake white solid border with four hexagons from my tile templates made from the orange design fabric and hand appliquéd them on. 

I then added another grey chevron border. I almost finished at this stage but I really have no use for small quilts so I decided to keep going.

I sewed two fabrics together in strips to make a wide border – a Riley Blake white solid and a Riley Blake grey solid. This looked unfinished somehow so I decided to make a zigzag of the white spot on orange Riley Blake fabric I had bought. Here’s how I did it.

I had bought a large grey chevron but it’s size just didn’t fit this quilt so I used it as a template to make the zigzag. I ironed some freezer paper onto the large chevron and traced the zigzag through it with a small ruler and pencil.

P1070087
Then I peeled off the freezer paper and cut the zigzag out. Once this was done I ironed the freezer paper to the orange fabric, wrong side up.

I cut around the zigzag with the freezer paper still attached to the fabric, leaving a 1/4″ seam allowance. I then pressed the allowance down before removing the freezer paper. I removed a little at a time fabric glueing as I went.

P1070089P1070091

P1070094

P1070095

I hand appliquéd the zigzag at the join of the white and grey borders with Aurifil 50wt thread. The borders were all only as long as the square of the quilt as I was planning on cornerstones as I didn’t have enough fabric – oops! This meant leaving loose ends of zigzag at each edge to appliqué together once the corner stones were in place.

P1070101

The outermost border is a lovely grey and white Riley Blake fabric called Shuffle. I didn’t have enough of this and had to fiddle around but luckily you can’t tell. I added cornerstones of the yellow spotted fabric and then bound the whole thing with Riley Blake solid orange. Want to see the whole quilt?

Here it is…

P1070115quilt

Hand quilting

I hand quilted the whole quilt and rather than describe it all I’ll show you some photos of the individual pieces, and the back. You might have to click on the photos to be able to see the details.

P1070116
P1070118
P1070117

photo 5 photo 4photo 3 photo 2 photo 1

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Less than perfect

09 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by sewjournal in Sew journal

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

handwork, knitting, knitting blog, quilting blog, scarf knitting, sewing, sewing blog, sewjournal blog

You remember the disastrous day I had a week or so ago? Well I salvaged what I could of the makings of the zippered pouch, altered the design and this is what I came up with. Of course I had to scorch in the corner to add to its imperfections.

Pouch 2 Pouch 1I also managed to finish a cashmere scarf for my husband and I’m pleased with that and so is he. I made a little carry pouch for his two ipad nanos and earbuds too.

EnsembleSo while I haven’t had unqualified success with my crafty efforts recently, things are improving… I think.

 

 

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Blocks 13 and 14

21 Monday Jan 2013

Posted by sewjournal in Sew journal

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Camelot, hand-piecing, handwork, patchwork, quilt, quilting blog, sewing blog, sewjournal blog

I’m still plugging away with this quilt. I’m on block 15 at the moment but I thought you might like to see 13 and 14.

P1050397 P1050400

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More progress on the Traveller’s Blanket

09 Thursday Aug 2012

Posted by sewjournal in Sew journal

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

hand quilting, hand-piecing, handwork, patchwork, quilting, quilting blog, sewing, sewing blog, sewjournal blog, traveller's blanket

I’ve added some embroidered country names to the borders and have added flaps to the two pockets and fastened them with a couple of really cute cat buttons. Where to from here? This work unfolds as I work on it. I have no real plan and that’s quite challenging because I don’t have an image in my head of the finished item. I have worked sort of organically before but only inasmuch as I tweaked or changed things along the way. Previously I always had a firm idea of how the finished article would look. Oh well, stay tuned, you never know what might appear on this blanket next.

Here are some photos. If you look closely at the large green flower you might be able to see that I have slit the fabric around the spiral so that it is textured. Click on the photos and you’ll see a larger version.

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Frustration and Farrah

07 Saturday Jul 2012

Posted by sewjournal in Sew journal

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

hand quilting, handwork, knitting blog, quilting blog, sewing blog, sewjournal blog

I tried so hard to bring you a post with lovely photos of Farrah the Travelling FQ stash. She has now visited three members of the list. The problems arose with this blog template. It really doesn’t play nicely with photos. It takes no notice of any instructions you give it with regards to alignment, size etc. In the end I got so frustrated that I gave up. Hopefully when the stash arrives here I’ll have better luck!

Losing my blogging mojo

I’ve sort of lost my blogging mojo recently. This template is difficult to use and I feel that a blog post without a photo is like coffee without sugar, but then maybe you like coffee without sugar. I’ve bought lots of interesting books recently but I just haven’y got around to photographing them. I also wrote a book review on Elizabeth Hartman’s new book but the publishers wouldn’t let me use photos of the pages that I had refereed to in the review so I’m not going to bother publishing it and I’m certainly not interested in writing a second review. It’s a bit rich I think as I actually ask permission. I know lots of other people don’t, they just photograph the pages they want to show which falls under the “acceptable use” guidelines for a review. However, it’s their loss.

Hand quilting

I have been hand quilting my In A Spin quilt but progress photos of that aren’t that interesting, so I don’t really have anything to show you but I didn’t want you to think I’d forgotten you all as you’ve supported me so wonderfully throughout the evolution of this blog.

Till next time… keep sewing. 🙂

 

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The Humanity Quilt Top is finished

02 Monday Jul 2012

Posted by sewjournal in Sew journal

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

hand-piecing, handwork, knitting blog, quilt, quilting blog, sewing blog, sewjournal blog

Hi everybody! I’m sorry I haven’t been around much lately but I’m not very well and I haven’t felt like doing much of anything except handsewing. That being said this state of affairs has enabled me to finish the Humanity quilt top. I almost changed the layout a few times but I ended up with this, which is almost, but not quite, the same as I had on the design wall.

 

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Elly Sienkiewicz’s Beloved Baltimore Album Quilts – Book Review

30 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by sewjournal in Sew journal

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

applique, Baltimore Album Quilts, handwork, knitting blog, quilting blog, sewing blog, sewjournal blog

Elly Sienkiewicz’s Beloved Baltimore Album Quilts

25 Blocks • 12 Quilts • Embellishment Techniques
By Elly Sienkiewicz  with Mary Tozer

If you’ve been quilting for any length of time you’ll have heard of Elly Sienkiewicz. She’s one of the “quilting royalty”. Her Baltimore Album quilts are famous and she has a reputation for being an amazing teacher. I’ve only been quilting for a couple of years and I’ve heard the ladies on the various lists I belong to speak of Elly with both awe and affection but until now I had never read one of her books.  This one is called Elly Sienkiewicz’s Beloved Baltimore Album Quilts and it’s an astounding collaboration of Elly and hundreds of quilters who gave their time and skills to make the stunning quilts that illustrate this book.

How the book works

This book is part history, part gallery, part classroom and part pattern.

First, Elly tells you about the history of Baltimore Album quilts and the women who made them.

Then she follows this with a gallery of quilts she calls Baltimore’s Daughters. The first quilt in the gallery is shown on the left. It’s called Happiness is in the Journey.

Click on the photo to bring up a larger image and you’ll be able to see more of the detail in each block.


The next section is the classroom section where Elly gives you lists of all the supplies you will need if you want to make the Happiness is in the Journey quilt and shows you all the techniques you need to know to make each block.

Techniques include: appliqué with freezer paper inside, needleturn appliqué, cutaway appliqué, layered appliqué and a whole host of embellishment techniques and embroidery stitches.

The last section contains all the patterns you need to make this lovely quilt with instructions on how to transfer the patterns from the book together with enlargement percentages for larger block sizes.

It’s a well-written comprehensive book that leads you by the hand and gives you everything you need, bar the fabrics and notions, to make your own Baltimore style quilt.

Where to buy this book

This book is widely available. You can get it from C&T Publishing as a soft cover book for US$29.95 plus postage. It’s also available from Amazon for $27.10 plus postage (If you live in the US this is eligible for Super Saver shipping). The best deal I’ve found is at the Book Depository (affiliate link – doesn’t cost you anything but gives me a little something towards the upkeep of the blog 🙂 ) where you can get it for US$25.30 including postage.

 

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Cutting and getting ready for sewing

17 Tuesday Apr 2012

Posted by sewjournal in Sew journal

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

hand-piecing, handwork, quilt, sewing, sewing blog, sewjournal blog

This is what I’ve been up to the last few days. Cutting, marking and sewing. I’m hand-piecing a new quilt.


Here’s a pic of the EQ pattern. I’m sticking to the layout but not the colours.

Inner Creative Prize Winner

Well there were only two entries and the one that made me laugh most was Fran’s. So Fran you’re the winner. I haven’t decided what to send you yet but I hope to finalise it in the next day or so.

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Shadow quilting

01 Thursday Dec 2011

Posted by sewjournal in Sew journal

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

applique, hand quilting, handwork, quilting blog, sewing blog, sewjournal blog, Shadow quilting

Sorry I’ve been away a while but my business got hectic and a family member is in ICU so it’s been quite a time.

Shadow quilting

I’ve been shadow quilting the Lily Wall Hanging. I’m using Superior Thread’s King Tut Quilting Thread. It’s a variegated thread as you can see in the photos. I’ve finished the ripples through the middle. The very bottom is blank at the moment and I’m shadow quilting the top portion. And… I’ve found the Macro Zoom on my camera by accident. 🙂 So now I can show you more detailed photos. Here they are:

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