Cushion

Just a quick project, I've had an uncovered cushion pad on my chair in the conservatory for rather longer than I care to admit, so today I finished off the cover. I've done a bit of free motion quilting using the Golden Threads quilting paper and experimenting with markers. I've discovered that using a felt tip pen is a great idea as it doesn't coat your hands like pencil lead does, but if you use a high contrast pen (say black) on a light background fabric, every tiny scrap of marked paper that's left behind shows up as a black dot. Not so good when you have rows of stitching close together. You learn something every time :o).

I just used a scrap of leftover Warm & Natural wadding, and I quilted with Robison-Anton Super Stitch 40wt in Pastel Variegated. Of course I quilted it on my trusty Bernina 630 with BSR attached - how did I manage before I had this wonderful machine??? LOL! The fabrics are from the Aviary collection by 3 Sisters (Moda) with some Osnaburg for the backing.

Icecream Sheep

This was one of those projects that just grabbed me and had to be made and I'm extremely pleased with how it has come out. As the fabrics we dyed at our workshop were mainly recycled scraps (the lady who took the workshop is very into converting charity shop finds into something new and exciting) and as such very odd shapes and sizes, I decided to cut them all into 5" squares, just keeping some of a larger pink piece for the inners border. The outer border and binding are fabrics that I dyed at home a long time ago in my only other foray into fabric dying. The quilting design is a continuous line pattern which I traced onto Golden Threads quilting paper and then quilted on my Bernina 630 with the BSR. I'm pleased to say that my control of free motion quilting has improved hugely and I'm very satisfied with the finished look, not too many wobbles at all. I did have to space the rows out a little too far apart, so I'm planning to fill in between them with some squiggles and stars when I next have the machine out. I did a smaller version of the pattern around the outer border.

The thread I used was a pink and purple variegated Valdani 50wt in Sparkling Stream for the top and Robison Anton Super Stitch in Sterling in the bobbin. The wadding is Quilters Dream Puff. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the backing fabric is a light lilac with a white overprint, Fabric Freedom "Something Simple" which I'm pretty sure I bought at The Sewing Centre in Scarborough when we were up in Yorkshire on holiday last December. I'm pleased to say that all the fabrics, thread and wadding came from my stash or leftovers from other projects.

Click on the photos to see a larger version.

More Socks

I've knitted a couple more socks, but the eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that they're not a pair! Variety is the spice of life they say, so I will now embark on making their twins :o). Tonight, however, I'm finishing the binding on the cot quilt I've made with my hand dyed fabrics (see previous post for the start of it), I'll upload some photos of the finished quilt tomorrow. I'm very chuffed with it, and I hope you'll agree that it's rather spiffing!

Pretty Pretty - IQD Well Spent

Well, I made it nearly to the end of March before I broke my resolution not to start any new projects this year, but I couldn't resist cutting up the fabrics I dyed last week, and before I knew it there was a neat stack of 5" squares crying out to be made into this cot sized quilt top (with plenty left over for another one!). Isn't it lovely? Well, it will be once it has some borders on and is quilted! One of my cousins is having a baby later this year and I've found a nice continuous line sheep pattern that I'm intending to quilt over it, I think it'll stand out nicely against a simple background. Not sure if it'll be suitable if she has a boy though!

(*IQD - International Quilting Day, which was yesterday, for those not familiar with it :o))

I Dyed on Saturday

... and lived to tell the tale :o). Oh dear, such weak jokes, they come around every time anyone mentions fabric dyeing, but they're impossible to resist LOL! We had a great day with Jacqui Calladine, we started by simply painting dye on wet fabric, then we graduated to dying small pieces of fabric in jam jars, gradually adding dye and fabric as we went along. I say small, it's surprising how much fabric you can jam into a jar (another very weak pun, sorry!), I managed to get 1/2m into one. My favourite piece from this exercise is the mottled linen.



After lunch we put various tied and stitched pieces into a dye bath, so they had a more uniform colour, but with lighter spots where the various resists were applied. My favourite technique was the jam jar dying, I really like the effects that gave, using different colours and letting them blend around the crumpled fabric. We left the dyed fabric in the jars for about an hour before pouring out excess dye and adding a soda solution to fix it, but if you were doing this at home you'd probably leave it overnight. When I got home I put all the fabrics in the washing machine, they came out quite a bit lighter, but hopefully that means they won't run at a future date.

my favourites

New Socks!

I've finished a second pair of socks, this time for me. I'm really pleased with them, they've very comfy and fit perfectly. They're made from Regia Bamboo yarn (colour Jamaica) which is 45% bamboo, 40% wool and 15% nylon. Like most things with bamboo in them, they're very soft. These pictures are a bit washed out, they're quite a bit brighter in real life!

Finished Socks

As well as a quilt, I've also finished the first pair of socks this week. OH is very chuffed with his new house socks :o). I'm now half way through the first sock of a pair I'm knitting for myself.