Another Simple Folk Block and a Sunday Selection

September 1st, meteorological summer is over and the old workday routine is about to kick in but right now the sun is shining, I've caught up with family over the weekend and life is good so I'd thought I'd share my latest completed Simple Folk block of the month (2018) and a Sunday Selection of stitchy links.

I've also be working on the eight garland/leaf blocks and preparing more animal blocks.  The rooster is dressed in the finest Liberty lawn plus some Robert Kaufman Carolina lawn and a Suzuko Koseki buttons print.  The lawn is my go to for tiny pieces and pointy/skinny strips- it just makes life a lot easier!

Community

There are a multitude of Sewing-themed September photohops on Instagram just kicking off  My heart lies of course with #GreatBritishQuilter although this year I'm no longer hosting with Sarah Ashford, the lovely Lucy Brennan is guest hosting with Sarah and I'm taking part along with all the other quilty participants.  You don't need to be British to take part- just a lover of British quilting- and the prompt sheet is available here.  If you want to double up or take part in a garment making photohop instead, Hannah and Rosie at The New Craft House are running #sewyourselfsustainable with a focus on sustainable sewing which you can post on daily or dip in and out of.  There's also #seweverydayseptember hosted by Sheona of sewisfaction.co.uk, a challenge designed to encourage, inspire and motivate you to sew everyday even if just for 10 minutes.

Digital Art

I've just got a new desktop- I don't like using a laptop and my old iMac was at breaking point so I bought a new one in a sale and I've been setting up new desktop images and sorting/clearing out all my old files from the last eight years.  It was a reminder of how much has changed in the online sewing world.  I went through all my old bookmarks and so many websites are no longer running, so many bloggers have finished blogging, websites no longer exist.  Such is life, constant change.  It did make me wonder what's coming next...meanwhile, I found a beautiful monthly Desktop calendar image by Rae Ritchie. 

Instagram 

I've made lots of dresses over the summer, all in the blogging queue and one of them involved lots of armscye sleeve/armhole fiddling around.  Gina of @ginareneedesigns shares the best mini videos and photo tips on Instagram including several recent posts about shoulder and armscye fitting, they are so helpful.  She also has a website with lots of very cute looking patterns too.

Sunday Selection

I'm back with two more Simple Folk BOM quilt blocks and a Sunday Selection of things to read, watch and listen to with a sewing theme.  Firstly the blocks.  I completed the bull at my monthly Modern Quilt Guild meeting yesterday.  That gives you an idea of how long it takes to complete a block!  I started sewing around 10.30am and sewed almost constantly (allowing for lunch and chatting) until 3.45pm!  

The block below shows a corrected error I made with a section of background in eight border blocks which I've had to partially unpick and make good. The grey dotty triangle is the correction- I'd pieced blue triangles and some had the applique completed over the top like the one below.  At least I realised!  I've sorted four out of eight so far.

So, the Simple Folk Quilt continues to progress.  

Blog Read

Pattern Bank is an industry-focused website for forecasting textile print and pattern design. The

Print and Pattern Highlights from Haute Couture Fall 2019 show a strong influence of textile craft from embroidery hoops as part of a dress, to quilt blocks as fabric design, well worth a look!

Watch

Lee Heinrich from Freshly Pieced has made a Youtube video to illustrate her favourite foundation paper piecing tip: Never Tear out Your Paper Piecing Stitches Again!  She shows a quick and easy technique to ensure your fabric will always cover the section you're working on, even with diagonal lines and tricky acute angles.  You can also read the same tip in a blog post she wrote for the Bernina blog.

Listen

My listening choice is not sewing related but is definitely a fun podcast to listen too whilst sewing. Walking the Dog by Emily Dean for The Times features Emily talking to various UK writers, comedians, actors, politicians and public figures whilst walking a dog- either their dog, her dog Raymond or a borrowed dog from rescue charity The Dog's Trust.  You do need to get past the opening of each programme where Emily has a tendency to be a little over effusive in her introduction to guests and of their accomplishments.  Once that's out of the way, there's a delightful mix of dog chat and lively conversation.  The guests often seem to open up in a much more natural and in-depth way than the standard TV chat show interview.  

Sunday Selection

Welcome to another Sunday Selection.  Before I start with some interesting sewing and quilting links that I've come across over the last couple of weeks, these two fine creatures are the latest additions to my Simple Folk quilt (Sarah Fielke's BOM 2018).  The fox was a pleasure to sew - apart from the fiendish paws - the little zigs and zags were tricky, to say the least, and thank goodness black fabric hides the millions of stitching holding the fraying in place!  The bird was a breeze compared to the black paws and I am searching out Liberty lawn scraps for as many small pieces as possible as the lawn is the easiest fabric to work with for small pieces.  On the bird, the comb, beak, eye and legs are all Liberty lawn.

Blog Read
Handmade by Carolyn, Kelly's Wedding Dress
Carolyn makes her own clothes, not just dresses, tops, trousers etc. but undies, clothes for other people, refashioning old garments and even making shoes.  Her account of sewing her daughter-in-law's wedding dress is both a touching read and an insight into the detail needed to create an incredible dress and someone else's vision.  Even if you are not a garment sewer, take a peek, the photos and writing are a treat!

Podcast 
Abby Glassenberg interviewing Denyse Schmidt on Whilst She Naps
For anyone who enjoys and admires Denyse Schmidt's work, this is a fascinating listen.  Her graphic design background comes over strongly- she talks about fabrics as a paint colour palette especially in her early quilts.

Instagram
Cloudcraft is a UK embroidery supplies shop and owner Nicole shares products, patterns and more on her Instagram @cloud.craft and is running a free Summer stitch-along with videos posted each weekend which I thought would appeal to anyone looking to learn or brush up their embroidery skills.

Picture from cloudcraft.co.uk

The free sampler pattern is available by signing up to Nicole's newsletters or by downloading from this page.  I followed Nicole's 'Stitchmas' videos on Instagram last December and really enjoyed picking up new ideas and techniques.  You can go your own way on colours and fabric or, order a summer stitching bundle in her shop with all the items Nicole used to create the original embroidery.   Read more here.

Tomorrow, I've got a bonus recommendation to share with you...I'm especially excited about this one!

Sunday Selection: A Catch-up & Some Stitchy Things to Discover

There's been too much stuff going on for my liking.  I like a quiet life, no drama and lately, we've had a family member's newly diagnosed health issues to deal with and my work commitments have been intense during the same period so a usually calm little house has been hectic.  It's settled down now, said family member is doing well.  In between events,  I've recently found some wonderful sewing links, reads and listens that I wanted to share and I thought this could be a regular thing every other Sunday?

Podcast

So starting with the links, Love to Sew is a sewing community podcast run by Helen Wilkinson of Helen's Closet clothing Patterns and Caroline Somos of Blackbird Fabrics which usually focuses on garment making, but a recent episode featured Alexa Abegg of Ruby Star Society and formerly Cotton+Steel fabrics and creative collaborations.  It is a fascinating listen, especially for quilters who are so familiar with Alexa's work.  She shares her journey as a fabric designer, how she became a part of Cotton+Steel at RJR fabrics and how she and the other designers moved into being Ruby Star Societ, her artistic work as a collaborator both long distance and closer to home, plus a lot more- Listen here.

Blog Read

I've been following Lizzie Bramlett (Fuzzylizzie) At Vintage Traveller blog for years.  She's a dedicated vintage clothing collector and former teacher who shares her finds and nuggets of fashion history information.  This post on the Dress and Home Workbook is a gem.

Instagram

Jeana Kimball is a quilt maker and teacher.  I first came across her work through her amazing needles when I was piecing the Jen Kingwell Bring Me Flowers quilt.  I use her Straw needles for hand piecing and applique sizes 10 and 11.  She has an Instagram account @jeanakimball where as well as her amazing work, she often shares wonderful hand piecing tips, well worth a follow, especially if you like to sew by hand.  I'm enjoying her current posts on back basting applique. 

The block pics are my latest Sarah Fielke 2018 BOM, Simple Folk.  I'm slowly working my way through the outer border blocks...