Finds

These are all recent carboot finds- I have had a good run of finds recently.  I know carboot sales might be a bit of a mystery outside of the UK- I'll try and remember to take my camera this Sunday and take some pics for you and explain how it works.

A vintage advertising tea towel for Babycham, iconic little Babycham deer-v. cute

As that is a bit of a collectable, I put that in my etsy shop- gotta fund the fabric purchases somehow!

These are two linens so lovely...

 

a little handworked sampler of stitches, such beautiful colours and work,

and a tea tray cloth with lovely machined motifs.

 

This one has a Christmas feel- with the exception of the strawberries, placemat size.

Lots of other magpies missed this one, someone was standing on it when I noticed the fantastic border.

It currently has the very important job of protecting my clear vintage box of fabrics from sunlight.

I loved this little tin- anything that nests inside anything else is appealing and these cutters are a great fit in the tin.

This Minitimer is Italian made and designed by Richard Sapper who turns out to be a very cool designer indeed (Alessi)!  It works beautifully.

And to finish, a G plan lamp table, £3 which is about $5 or 4 Euros.  IT is a bit tatty at the sides, but what a bargain.  It is undergoing restoration- that is a grand way of saying it has wood glue and a pile of books to get the edges of the veneer to stick down on the sides.  I have already waxed and polished the drawer front and it is glowing.

Half way through the working week, always a nice place to be

Mothers

Thank you for such an enthusiastic response to my process paper piecing post yesterday.  I will do a tutorial post based on paper piecing using free lines but with a simpler design or even your own design, I just need more time, so much to do- but be patient,  it'll come.

In the UK today is Mothering Sunday.  Lula,with a little help from D, bought me this and it is so beautiful I can hardly read it without tears

I have mentioned paper cutting artist Rob Ryan before- he is a family favourite.  Carol Ann Duffy is currently poet laureate and is a beautiful writer of poetry and lyrical children's books.

This is the story of everywoman, me, you, all of us and that is what makes it so magical.  Birth, family friends, creativity, love, death.  

A real treasure.

Happy mothers day.

On a side note, the current dumbing down debate which I think kicked off here and I also read a sad blog post at Malka's Stitch in Dye blog explaining the impact of online critics.  I love Malka's work, her strips and bricks quilts was one of the first 'modern' quilts that caught my eye and never went away.  I don't care about dumbing down, the Rob Ryan tile below sums up my thoughts.

Don't let anyone spoil your fun x

Sharing the Process

I am linking with Lynne on her new 1st of themonth feature, I am a day late but ready to play.  It is a sharing linky post, go and visit and for a little trip round some new blogs - I am sharing a bit of process on my latest quilt block for Ringo Pie.  It is Penny's month and her theme is all things kitcheny and I could barely contain myself.  She kicked it off with the most amazing Food Aid mixer block- she is queen of piecing.   I had too many ideas but I narrowed it down to baking.   My inital inspiration came from an old Cath Kidston catalogue and some pics I tore out of a 1980s Toshiba microwave cookbook.  Bad recipes but great pictures.

I made a sketch and put a few fabric notes.  I wanted to include vintage cherry fabric underneath so that had to fit in somewhere.  I do rely a lot on the image in my head more than anything else.  It helps to think what kind of representational system do you use?  (I am on a diversion here but hold in there, you may find it interesting).  Take a look at the sort of language you use- written or oral- if you are a Flickr user go and check out the comments you make on other peoples pics.  If you are a blogger read your blog!

Visual language- 'I see', 'take a look at..'- words include look, see, picture, view, clear, image, show,

Auditory language- 'I hear you loud and clear', 'describe that in detail', words include, feedback, resonate, hear, listen, sound, tone.

Kinaesthetic language-'I can handle that', 'get a load of this', 'Pain in the neck/butt', words include calm, touch, hard, soft, grasp, handle.

You may cross over these categories but one will dominate- interesting stuff!  

I am visual, I think in pictures so I don't always sketch out preparatory ideas or specific details, I see it in my head and just try and keep to the vision.  I only sketch it down if there is going to be a delay in making something. Hope that makes sense.  

This is my paper reference map for the piecing.  It is about 13 inches square and in pencil.  Graph paper is helpful here.  I sketch it first and then add straight lines with quilt rulers where I need them.  In this block I wanted a lot of free lines.

Now I chunk it up into pieces and sections.  I used to do stained glass and that helps to imagine how different sections will fit together.  Every piece needs a number.  This method is from Ruth B McDowells Piecing Workshop book and if you want to get into piecing in a big way I totally recommend it.

Here comes the freezer paper.  You place the freezer paper so the shiny side is on top (counter intuitive I know) and fix with masking tape.  I trace using a propelling pencil.  As the shiny side is the wax side it makes a nice groove with each line.

Flip the freezer paper over so the dull side is facing up, you can just about see the tracing lines underneath.  With coloured pencils (not watercolour pencils) I make tick lines between every join, often more than one and using different colours.  These are the reference points for joining all the fabric pieces.  I also add all the numbers and directional arrows to show the top of each piece.  It looks a bit crazy at this point.

Ready to start piecing, but don't cut all you freezer paper pieces out at once!  Start with a section, a chunk that can be completed.  The freezer paper pieces are ironed on to the reverse of the fabric so check your fussy cutting carefully- hey I didn't say it would be easy!   You can see how your paper reference sheet helps to make sense of it all as you go along.

First section completed. 

I used some different methods in  this block.  For some pieces I did the detailed piecing free hand and made it big enough to cut the desired shape out of- I did thins with part of the bowl and the wired on the whisk.

This was really hard, all those curves and odd shapes and I am always prepared to alter as I go along.  Fortunately Penny didn't want a specific size, this has worked out around 13 inches but sometimes the end sizes of blocks like these can change a lot by the end of the process.  I am also prepared for a bit of wonk and quirk in the end block which is a good thing because that is what I got!

The 'Jam' label was stamped and sewn on at the end.  

 Everthing ready to make cherry jam tarts.

I just love cherries!

Enjoy your weekend x

Thank you x

I never cease to be amazed of the kindness of bloggers and blog readers.  Thank you for so many kind and supportive words about Bob, I know he is only a cat but in our little family world he is a big part.  He is doing OK and is a happy cat.   All your lovely comments help me a lot!

More thankyous, to Julie, I have been meaning to blog this all week.  I was extremely lucky to have Julie secretly make me this doll quilt for the Doll Quilt Swap 10 and send all the vintage goodies on the right of this pic, they were wonderful too.

So many people wanted this quilt, me amongst them and although I hadn't dared to imagine it would

actually come to me.  It was a tears in the eyes moment opening this package.  Lula was with me as she was off school with a cold and we were both amazed.

The work Julie put into this is incredible, so many fiddly, detailed features, so many different skills.  It is like an activity quilt for adults, all be it adults obsessed by retro kitchens.  All the details to look at and touch, the little 3d bits- oven gloves, pot holder,

the tea towels with their frayed edges, made from vintage fabrics.

The apron can even be detached.  And just look at its tiny patch pocket.

I cannot thank Julie enough for this.  She well and truly got my taste in every way!  She doesn't have a blog but you can see her on Flickr.  A nice twist of swap luck is that she received my kitchen quilt in My Favourite little Quilt Swap so we each have a mini kitchen quilt from each other.

Blogging days are not always happy days.  We have all been full of colds, I think the whole of the UK must have this virus and in our family it is my turn.  It'll pass, but one of our cats has been diagnosed with diabetes and that is not passing at all.  This is Bob...

He is 14, we had him and his sister Daisy from kittens.  Daisy died almost 2 years ago and we all still miss her like crazy.  Bob has been middle aged all his life and has had numerous health problems- normally before a bank holiday when the vet is shut or we are about to go away.  He is a happy, creaky old cat with arthritic legs, urinary tract problems and now diabetes  We have to inject him twice a day at the same time each day,12 hours apart.  I couldn't bring myself to photograph injection needles so pin cushions instead (Clockwise from top left- from Ingrid, Tiffany, Ayumi and me).

We are due to visit relatives- I am hoping to see my sister in laws baby- I still haven't met her yet!  I think we have worked out someone to come and deliver injections, it is a very hard thing to ask of others.  

I don't know how it is going to progress, Bob has stopped drinking the huge amounts of water he was doing before we started the treatment but a few other things aren't right yet so we'll have to see.  Injecting him isn't the nicest thing to do for us, although he doesn't seem to mind.  The vets are pretty hopeful and give a lot of support- the sort that you pay for.  We can cope with the cost- we are not living extravagant lives and are lucky we bought our house years ago before prices were silly.  As long as he is happy we'll keep him going.

Despite his many difficulties he is a loving cat, loves to sit with his paws on my knees along with Lottie, out dog.  

The other cat, Mindy treats us all with contempt and will probably live forever.

Sorry it has been very pet based- not everyone's cup of tea but he is rather dominating my thoughts at the moment.  

Pillow Party

I am hoping I am just in time for March Pillow Party over at Stitched in Color!  I finished this over the weekend for my nephew's 6th birthday next weekend.  I started with the print in the middle, 'Tasty Retreat' by Michael Miller.  I wanted to show his love of the outdoors; camping, exploring, messing around.  A log cabin style seemed to fit in with this nicely!

Possession is important when you are 6 years old, hence the property stamp- Versacraft ink again.  The other prints relect his interests- Lush dots for paint, a bit of Kumiko Fujita for the essential foods in life- biscuits, milk and cereal, and the other prints are for the outdoor life- wood, water, frogspawn- was my train of thought.

For the straight line quilting I used this rod thing that came with my walking foot to see how it worked.  I have not tried it before.  Great results, very straight lines but you can only quilt one way, maybe I have missed something here, I like to stitch in alternate directions for straight line quilting. 

  I also used the stitch in the ditch foot for my label following a tip I saw on one at Melissa's post as part of March of the Tools participants- it sews right to the edge of the label with ease.I loved this technique!  So easy and so useful.  I will be using this for top stitching on clothes and for stitching pockets down.

More tools, I found a great new chalk pen, the Signet marker, with loads of different colour refils at a quilt show on Friday.  The vendor got it out of the packet and showed me how good it was, less than £10, I was impressed! I used this for the first quilting line and to put in a lapped zip.  I used the sewing machine maintenance brush to remove it, worked a treat.  You can buy it in the UK with the same seller, Pauline's Patchwork, they have an excellent pen and marker selection!

I have been looking for something like this for ages, a good purchase with all the colour options and refillable too so no waste.  Nice and pointy too, the chalk sharpens with a pencil sharpener for a precise line.

I am sure Ted doesn't read my blog so I haven't spoilt his surprise!  He does love cuddly stuff so it should be well received, and a portable box of watercolour paints too so he can paint on the go.

Have a great start to the week x