Once upon a time...

...there was a little house block, built for Leila as part of her Home Sweet Home month in 318 Patchwork Bee.  A house of sewing and Dutch decor, but it didn't look quite right. There was a tear in the side of the grass path- I blame the rotary cutter-and it just didn't make me smile as much as it should.

So I set to work with a seam ripper and some vintage feedsack, kindy sent by Charise and did a little DIY.  As usual this doesn't always go according to plan.  The plus side was the little lady waving goodbye from the door way, the minus was a little damage to a tiny bit of fabric patched up with a door plate number.   The grass was relaid...

And now I am smiling.  Marginally too small- only by 1/4 inch, sorry Leila, I am sure it'll stretch with a bit of steam!   The measuring fabric and the washing instructions are Kumiko Fujita, the roof is Alexander Henry Heath, the Sky is Lecien from Mrs March collection and the chimneys are Suzuko Koseki.  The other prints are vintage and the house is Kona stone.

Wishing an early happy thanksgiving to all of you stateside peeps. We all have much to be thankful for,  it is just hard to remember to take a little time out to think of it but when you do, it is worth it (that's my lecture finished for today)oh and special thanks to Aneela and scrappy loveliness of this yet to be released fabric line she sent me and many other UK bloggers- now there is a generous spirit!

The wheels on the bus

I had some funny responses to my last post, tales of you wondering around in public covered in pins and threads.  The sacrifices we make for our art!

The second boy block for Christine in Bee (A little bit) Japanese was to be a vehicle.  She had put lots of primary bright Kona solids into the fabrics and I just added the Charlie Brown and ruler measure scraps.  I used Kumiko Fujitas bus block in 318 Patchwork (sadly out of print but Etsy is worth a try)

I free pieced it so no freezer paper for this one.  I blew up the image on the scanner and measured the width of the different sections and cut and pieced and trimmed.

It took me a little while to work out the wheels and then when I did it was so easy.  See how it works below.  So easy that I got the direction of the lines wrong and forgot to put the blue road on the bottom half of the wheels and had to unpick and redo them twice.

It looks slightly like an ice cream van to me but the yellow is a reminder that it is a school bus.

Now I am off to school, though not in a bus.  Have a good week!

Z is for...

I have been using the double holiday weekends  we've been having in the UK to sew, sew sew.  Sometimes I think I've gone feral.  I am surrounded by scissors, cutters and rulers and the floor, my clothes and all available surfaces are covered in threads.  I eat at irregular times- although I always eat, I never skip a meal and my clothing choice is questionable.  I have been known to nip out to the post office only to find threads and fabric clippings hanging off my backside as I am walking along.  One of the things I have been working on is a couple of Bee blocks for Christine in Bee (A Little Bit) Japanese.  The theme is a transport/star quilt for a little boy called Zac.

This is a cheater star from The Sometimes Crafter, a nice quick way of building a star.  Christine said that she would welcome some Zs so I added an applique road style Z.  

I 'm working on the next block now, a yellow school bus, it is on its way....

Confidence

I had a little blogging wobble last week, hence the blog new look- thanks for the positive feedback by the way.  I read other blogs, the writers are so funny, witty, edgy- my writing is none of those things.  Unsurprisingly, I don't like writing.  My degree was English literature,  I loved the research and the reading but not the exposition of my ideas in words.   I'd much rather make stuff to get my thoughts out there. Socially, I am quite a quiet person.  In my teaching job I have a professional persona of hostess, bonhomie and chat and class leader, but in my private life I work better in small groups not party size crowds.   I don't like to offend so I rein in some of my language- I think I need to let it go a bit.   Online I was thinking this was making me a bit bland and insipid, not me at all.  I am a mix of reserved (typical English style) and radical and I need to express and reveal more than I have done.  Nothing is worse than being repressed.  That's all a bit solopsistic and if I was big sis talking to my younger brother I'd be telling him to grow some and move on.

I have been working for a block for Miriam in Bee Europa.  She asked for a block responding to this painting.  Nice stimulus and she sent a pile of linen, Hope valley and shot cotton scraps.  This was my inital sketch- back of an envelope, I am not always disciplined enough to go get my sketch book and this was to hand.

I found this pad in my local craft shop, hiding on the bottom of a shelf,  so much easier than the huge sheets of graph paper for block design.

Traced this out on to the reverse of freezer paper for piecing.

Finished result.  The little navy circle was a tricksy thing to piece but perseverance won out.

It's time for my close up Mr DeMille

Slice of Pie

Slice of pie anyone?  Hopefully this looks like lemon tart- tart au citron if you are feeling fancy- my November block for Anna in the Ringo Pie bee.  She asked for desserts.  

The inspiration for this came from  Nigella Lawson's Feast.

The photography in her books is always stunning- I return to her Christmas book each year to get myself  in the festive mood.  This block looks all clean and tidy and nicely together now but its construction had some challenges.

I like to paper piece with freezer paper and Damian often trims my pieces for me adding the 1/4" on the edges as too much rotary action makes my arms ache.  I only had a little yellow fabric ( from out of print Katie Jumps Rope, Denyse Schmidt) and had squeezed the pieces on.  For unknown reasons he trimmed all the pieces perfectly, except the three yellow triangles which either had one side 1/8 inch or in the worst case, both sides. (This makes me think of Both Sides Now- Joni Mitchell)

I had enough fabric to recut the smallest but the other pieces had to be rescued to make the edges resilient enough o be pieced with less than 1/4" seams.  Fray check to the rescue.

I ran this along the sides of all the affected pieces, left to dry and it saved the day.  I double stitched the seams for extra strength but the Fray check is what really helped.  I think I will use it again for tricky paper piecing, especially little shapes cut out of fraying fabrics, it really helped.  Don't plan for 1/8 edges again though- Damian said he was encouraging my powers of ingenuity.  Didn't feel like that at the time but as always to err is useful and I am so grateful that he understands 1/4" edges all the rest of the time

Elise from Elusive Reveries has picked me in her 15 blogs list for A Lovely Blog Award.  A big thank you to her, take a look at her blog, she finds the most lovely links and ideas to put on there.   I am always really touched when people take the time and effort to choose and list my blog in any way- following, blog rolls, award.  I know some don't always like to feature awards so I am treading lightly.  I always look at profiles of new followers or those of you who comment to see if you have a blog and I find some really interesting things so these are from the last 6 followers  where I found an active and recently posted blog link- you are an interesting and diverse bunch xxx

http://stashmanicure.blogspot.com/

http://stipje.blogspot.com/

http://jednoiglec.blogspot.com/

http://beeware-tuffinstales.blogspot.com/

http://sewquine.blogspot.com/

http://indigohoney.blogspot.com/

Ringo Pie - Collections for Kerry

I am in a new quilting bee with some amazing company- Ringo Pie.  I feel a little flustered been in there with such great creative people and I am calling the first month.  Officially October but many have made an early start and I am blown away by their creativity and response to my design idea.

My theme is Hoarding- I cannot seem to avoid this in my life, just buying two of the same thing kicks off a mini collection so I asked for them to do a block displaying a collection of their choosing- free size colour.   If possible I asked them to include a new bit of fabric, an old/vintage bit and some fabric borrowed or given to them. The end result will be a collectors cabinet quilt.  I love kitchenalia so Amy's canisters were a hit!

 by Amy of Badskirt

I did Eng lit at Uni years ago and it is impossible to go through life without reading Penguin Books and at least one of these titles- breathtaking block!  So simple but so effective.

Lynne of Lily's Quilts

And Marit of quilt it chose something we all can't get enough of, fabrics- showcasing 36 different squares and a subtle K for Kerry

I cannot quite comprehend that they will all come to me.  I love them all!  I am working on my own contribution, a box of spools/thread

  I have had a bad rsi flare up which was ok till I had a massage yesterday and now everything is on fire.  I am going slow, slow, slow so they recover.  Thank you to Damian for being a top blog assistant xxx