A Village Quilter

Well - we did it. I must confess without DH nagging and helping (lots) the computer room would still be a real mess. We can now see all the surfaces, all the carpet and most things have somewhere to live. Even the bookcases have some spare room on them and all of the magazines are in seperrate piles and in order - yes I know it's a bit OCD but it's great being able to find things. It's a miracle. I'd show you a photo of before and after - but I'm so embarrassed. Next weekend (apparently) we're attacking the sewing room. LOL I did hope I'd be able to crack on with some sewing at the weekend - but the tidying and other little jobs took up all the time. Anyway it's quilting meeting at my house tonight - and I even baked some cookies. Hopefully this week might be a bit more crafty. Hope you all had a good weekend.

As you can see from the logo on the side bar 'I took the hand made pledge'. The idea is to make present for the forthcoming Christmas season rather than buy them. I'm certainly going to give it a go but I can't promise it'll all be handmade. Have look and perhaps sign up yourself.

I did confess to you all I'm rather messy. Luckily for me DH has taken pity on me and has bullied / helped in the tidying of the office. Half of it's done now and tomorrow (or at least some time this weekend) we're going to tackle the bookcases. I must admit it's so nice to sit here with a clear clean desk - I could get used to it. Besides tidying I have mother and father in law visiting on Sunday and I've got quilting here on Monday night so I need to get the place very clean. I will try to fit in some sewing of some sort. Have a good weekend.

I treated myself to some new threads from Jennifer Gail Threads . They're really nice and i think a great price. Do have a look at her site - she has the colour variations in different thread types and fabrics too. Here's my sketchbook plan of how I'm going to quilt the Market Bosworth Water Tower piece I'm making. And below is the sample in my sketchbook. It's gping to have both hand and machine quilting. I even did a little thread card - an idea I saw in one of the girl's City & Guild books she made. I'm rather pleased wit the sample. I need to make sure I take my time. I've a fair way to go still and still to be done are the screen printing, dyeing the backing fabric and screen printing that, plus all the quilting and then binding and the sleeve. And the little jobs you have to do on every project (like the binding) always seem to take much longer than you expect.

Well here we are again having a great day at The Bramble Patch. It was so nice to meet up with everyone and see what they've been up to. One piece of homework one lady undertook was to get very large pieces of paper and to make marks on it whilst listening to a piece of music. he results were very interesting - and we ended up having the music on for the rest of the lesson which was really nice for a change. We then all came up with lots of ideas about how the work could be progressed. Brenda also discussed the programme for next year - it sounds great. You can see from the boards above some of the work started. From the left is a piece that will form the background of her work and the mood board associated with it. Next is my piece that I've now completed but still needs lots of work. The final piece is a length of fabric that was dyed. I think they all look great and they show the variety of work we all make. It was a really relaxed day and was so nice to have a catch up.

Well I'm being brave (again) and here are my drawings from the last 2 weeks of classes. The one above was drawn using a stand and grid method. It was really hard work and not as much fun as the five minute sketches by a long way. I do think it's useful to do the exercises posed - just to see how you get on. This is from this week. The idea was to draw the space around the objects - it's much more difficult that it sounds. I wasn't too pleased with this one so.... ... this is the finished one. The space was drawn and then a spotlight was shon on the objects and we had to look for light and shade. Yes - that's a shadow of a tea cup and saucer. The comment I keeping from from the tutor is 'that's bold'. I'm taking that as a compliment. LOL. Next week is half term so no class - just a bit of home work. Tomorrow it's off to the Bramble Patch. It's bound to be a great day. Have a good weekend.

Well - I was thinking about what to post about tonight and Jane at Sew Create it has tagged me - so I don't have to think. 4 jobs I've had working in a shoe shop when I was at school Bingo Hall - no I didn't call the numbers, I was the Office manager and I can honestly say it was the worse job I ever had working in various libraries - I really enjoyed that Asda on the tills when you sat side on and had to re-pack the trolley, boy did you get back ache 4 films I could watch over and over Moonstruck Some like it Hot James Bond films (but not with Roger Moore or Timothy Dalton - sorry) Seven Brides for Seven Brothers - Howard Keel is fantastic in this. 4 TV shows I watch Heroes The Tudors Doc Martin - I know that's a bit sad but it's got nice scenery and is relaxing to watch Strictly Come Dancing - (And 'It takes two' when I can fit it in) 4 places I have lived Portsmouth - very nice near the seaside Knaresborough, North Yorkshire - a really beautiful place He...

Here we are in the village hall having a great day - sewing. We just take along what we fancy and have a great time. It's a real luxury to be able to spend the whole day sewing and chatting. A great way to catch up on what we've all been up to and to see what we're all making. Now I know I had a moan about all the Christmas stuff in the shops but if you're making things for Christmas you really need to crack on with it early - so there was a Christmas theme to some of our sewing. Two of our members were making items for the Christmas Bazaar and I spent some of the day putting a few things together for pressies - obviously I can't show these otherwise some of you will get a preview. So here are a couple of shots of us hard at work. We're very lucky that one of our members always makes a fantastic cake for us on our Saturdays - and the Apple Cake was fantastic. Here's the quilt top I started at our sewing retreat. Although it's all together there's ...

Hello. Yes I'm going to make a terrible confession. I'm prone to clutter. I know you're all very shocked - I can almost hear the gasps, but it's true. I'm sure there are lots of us out there trying not to acquire clutter - but it still appears anyway. And having a hobby like quilting doesn't help as you acquire fabric and tools that seem to take up soooo much space. Anyway, I know it's a problem (and if I forget DH is sure to remind me ;-)). I've a number of books (cluttering up my bookshelf) about how to de-clutter but the one thing they all say is - just do 15 minutes on a small area and you'll see the difference. And I know when I do - you really can tell the difference. I think my clutter shows up much more as DH is so very tidy and organised (I joke with him he's verging on OCD). I have found a blog that has some useful information on it - Unclutterer . and there's a good article with some simple guide lines. I know that when I do clea...

No this isn't a scam. I entered a competition in Patchwork and Quilting magazine and I've won a pair of tickets for the Autumn Quilt Festival at Malvern . It's a new show - so I've no idea what it'll be like. Are any of you thinking of going? I'd love to know. I haven't decided which day I'm going yet - so you could influence my decision - or perhaps the weather will. Drawing class tomorrow - lets see what occurs on the paper this week. I've also started to hand quilt my Buzz saw quilt. As I'm using a pale thread on pale fabrics I can only really quilt in very good light as otherwise I can't see where I've got to. Saturday is a days quilting in the village hall - not too sure how many of us will go, but it's bound to be a good day.

I'm really enjoying the drawing classes. I know I'm not the best but it's very satisfying to see that what you've drawn does resemble the items in front of you. The first drawing above was one of the 5 minute sketches we had to do. The idea is that you're less frightened of the white paper. We did about 3 of these using different media and the idea with the one above was that you didn't draw a line. This one is what the majority of the lesson was spent on. Again no lines, concentrating on light and shade and using charcoal. I was really pleased with it. And here's some quilting (at last). It's the Buzz Saw I started at our sewing camp (retreat). I'm so pleased with it. DH very kindly helped me put the sandwich together. I've not decided exactly how I'm going to hand quilt it - but I've got a few ideas. The weather here has been great over the last few days - so sunny. Hope you all OK and have a great weekend.

... has arrived from Karol Ann of Sew much fabric, so little time, sew true .It so lovely to receive items in the post - and even nicer when you know they've been hand made. A lovely needle case, a card and a beaded key ring. Thank you so much Karol Ann. For those of you who haven't joined in yet I still have 2 spaces for people who'd like to receive packages from me in the next year. So far I've only got one response from Sally at Feather on a wire , so if there are 2 more of you out there please do drop me a line. The only thing you have to agree to is that you'll mention this on your blog and that you'll PIF 3 things. Come on.... (please) Have any of you seen the Toplots part of E-bay? The idea is that you can bid for unique items - such as a day quilting with Janice Gunner. Have a look - there are some great lots. I aslo picked up a copy of Selvedge - it's sooooo nice. And I finished my Buzz Saw quilt top. I promise I'll share it with you very s...