Storms, Boats,Teddy Bears and Hearts

16 Jan

It’s been a bit blustery the last few days. I forewent the walk yesterday and did the housework. Cleaned from top to bottom – and believe me this is a big house. At least it now means I can get down to what I want to do for a few days without feeling there is something I should be doing.

Just in case I should think I might actually do what I wanted, The Big Cheese decided that today was the day we would wash the boat. Sensibly one would think that the time to wash a boat was when it was first removed from the water. That would have been in October. What went wrong you might ask. It has all got to do with location and weather. If location is the most important reason for buying a house let’s hope it isn’t for renting a garage. The boat shares a garage with the car when not in the harbour. The garage is a long way along a winding single track back road from the main road. The main road is accessible up a very steep and winding hill. The weather has to be right – no point in washing the thing and its getting splashed with muddy road water on the way back. Also the car wash has been known to ice up at the first sign of frost. Last year there were some very dirty cars round our way. Thus I found myself sitting in the passenger seat of a car towing a boat. You have to know at this point that I don’t do towing boats nor do I do winding roads. Combine the two and I could be a gibbering wreck,  however I do what I am told. I coped quite well especially considering I discovered I wasn’t just a bystander. I was supposed to sponge the blessed thing off as it was washed. Apart from a contretempt with the bilge pump that resulted in wet trousers I think I performed reasonably competently. More than I can say for an old gentleman who managed to dismantle a section of the automatic car wash and the front wing of his car in front of us by forgetting what gear it was in. Even The Big Cheese had a moment of frolicking fun doing a cartoon skid across the wet decks and ending up in a most inelegant position in the aft section. He always did know how to enjoy himself. Mind you talking about enjoying oneself, we could have had a night out on the amount of pounds fed into the machine. We got back without any further adventures apart from meeting a couple of cars on the back road and manouevering the boat back into the garage in a way in which the car could still be accommodated. Not an easy task although truth to tell I did more directing than manouevering. I’m not sure I will be able to move my arms tomorrow but at least the ordeal is over for a year.

Here is the boat in case you are into that sort of thing.

I can't see no ships

However, back to the quilting.

Truth to tell I am waiting for wadding. I finished two quilts on my frame  last week. The quilting looked OK on the front but I am struggling to get the stitching on the back as good as on the front. The problem is, of course that I can’t see the back until the quilting is done and rolled on to the next section. It is all very frustrating. I guess the stitch regulator will only work at a very consistent speed. If I go faster in one section the control can’t keep up and the tension suffers. Maybe number three will reveal the trick. If I don’t get the hang of it soon I may get disillusioned which won’t be a first with this frame. Hopefully the wadding will arrive in the next few days so that I can test the theory. I have the next quilt on the frame ready just to add the wadding and pull the top over and pin it.

I am slowly working through my pile of OFOs. With most people this would be a manageable number. Would that ’twere so with me. I spent many years overseas, sewing prolifically but not being able to finish quilts as they would have taken up too much room in the suitcase. As a result I have many. That is why I have to conquer the frame.  My second attempt was a quilt from kidsquilts. The quilting does finish it off and if I discover the secret to the perfect back I will share it with you.

A close-up of the quilting.

Now if I can get the back to look like that I will be happy.

Here are some close-ups of each panel. Don’t look too closely at the satin stitch, it was a long time ago and we all have to start somewhere.

It is a very good way to use up all the small pieces you have been saving for you didn’t know what.

This one with the gate is my favourite.

In case you don’t feel up to doing anything as detailed but like the idea of applique, this hearts quilt is easy to do. I used a set of charm squares and an embroidery stitch from my machine. I then quilted using an all over meander as a way to get used to the machine on the frame. This was the first one I tackled.

I will be persevering with the frame and will let you know how I get on. Maybe I will come up with a few tips that I can pass on.

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I’ve Been Framed – Tip the Fifth.

9 Jan

I finally bit the bullet and used my quilting frame. If you have been following the blogs you may have gathered that I bought a Grace frame and Brother mid-arm some years ago but have used them very little.  A combination of disappointment at the results and a very low ceiling  and narrow room finished my enthusiasm. I struggled to move round the frame and as I could not raise it high for fear of hitting the beams, I couldn’t even see what I was stitching unless I sat down. Also hitting my head on the sloping ceiling was a given and speeding up and down the frame on a wheeled chair was not really to be recommended. Funnily enough, when I went on a course to learn the tricks and tips, I found I was the only one having that difficulty. Was it a coincidence or are all quilters petite? If so this could be why I failed – genetics.

To be perfectly honest the designs it is possible to produce on this frame are also a bit limited. If you are quilting a large quilt the throat space will gradually reduce as it rolls round the top rail until, if it is large enough it will be impossible to do anything. Luckily I don’t do anything too large, although even the single bed size I have on the frame at the moment may yet prove to be a challenge. The secret is to choose a pattern that does not require a large area at once or break up the pattern into thinner segments. I dare say that eventually I will come to know how big a pattern is possible on a particular size of quilt.

Anyway, as I said, I finally got back to quilting on the frame. The first thing to do was move it to a bigger area. The ceiling is slightly higher and flat which helps and so I can raise the legs to the highest setting.

There is no doubt about it you need a lot of room.

I struggle a bit with the start and finish and not getting a knot underneath and it does not seem to matter whether I let the machine start on its own or pull up the bobbin thread myself, I still get knots. Planning the stitching helps so that as many starts and stops as possible are hidden in the side seam when the quilt is finished. There are still places this cannot be done though so I shall just have to keep working on it. Methinks I need to develop some cunning

I think I may actually enjoy the quilting and the finished quilt so maybe I will work out some of the idiosyncracies and conquer all.

Here is a picture of a bit of the first practice quilt I did. I gave a whole load of unfinished tops to Project Linus but I kept a few back to practise on and will pass those on later.

As you can see, a lot of random meandering. Random meandering is about the safest thing to tackle but it looks pretty. I would usually stitch in the ditch for a quilt like this, mainly because I have no chance of hoiking a large quilt under the throat of my machine and quilting it successfully. The frame gets over this problem although stitch in the ditch could be a challenge.

The other problem I had originally was that the needle  was still controlled from a foot pedal. This was mounted on a platform on the top of the carriage carrying the machine. There was a levered contraption that pressed on the pedal when the lever was squeezed. Even before my right hand started protesting about overuse this was very difficult to control. Now I wouldn’t even be able to squeeze the handle.

The pedal would be on top at the back with a lever going along the handle line.

When I went on a course at The Cotton Patch I was introduced to the stitch regulator. This is a clever little gizmo that allows control of the meandering purely by movement. The needle is controlled from a switch box for choosing stitch length and turning on and off. Do not be fooled, unlike a sewing machine  the bigger the number the smaller the stitch. This is not stitch length so much as stitches per inch. It is not exactly that as it depends on your machine but that is the idea.

Switch

This is wired into a control box that does the clever stuff. There are two controllers, one on the top carriage and one on the bottom. These monitor the speed and movement and are supposed to regulate stitch length. They do to a certain extent but at the moment it is not foolproof. I suspect even travel at the same speed over the quilt is the secret. I am hoping that will come with time.

The Control Box

Don’t be put off by the amount of wiring. One day I will tidy it all up and make it neat.

The Big Cheese tells me it is a very clever piece of kit. That would be when I was bemoaning the price. However, I did save a bit by discovering I didn’t need to upgrade to a newer carriage as I had thought. The new one is probably lighter but then considering the main weight is the sewing machine, this is not too relevant.

I have progressed to all-over meandering on a larger quilt. How exciting is that.

Here is a picture of the quilt attached to the machine. This is another future Linus I think.

Meandering Big Time.

One of the suggestions on the course was to stitch down each side as you go, so holding the sandwich in place. I have decided not to do that as quilting moves layers and I can see it could become a problem and cause puckering.

If you want trouble free quilting you might do better to stick to the thinner waddings too. ‘Dream Blend’ was recommended on the course and it seems better in use than the thicker ‘Dream Puff’ I tried to use at first. Experiment. experiment as with all my tips I recommend you  try out ways of doing things, practise and see what suits you best.

All in all I think I may enjoy getting back to the quilting. To be honest I should get good at it as I can’t do much else until I have cleared the pile of tops so that I can move the frame. Where to I am not at the moment sure. If you have a frame in the cupboard get it out and try it. You may have to rent an industrial space to use it but  it’s not as scary as it looks.

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News of Cheese and a New Year Wheeze

2 Jan

In case you were wondering what happened to The Big Cheese and his big cheeses here is a peek at what remained on Christmas Day by the time I managed to get a photograph. They have all been maturing away for several months and certainly all have a kick. Must be the unpasteurised milk.

Gouda, Gruyere, Cheddar, Stilton and Gorgonzola.

Still on the subject of food,  Number One Daughter made star biscuit christmas trees for some of her work colleagues. Could be an inspiration if you are stuck for an idea for next year. The edible glitter doesn’t show up on the photographs but was very impressive.

Presented in cellophane.

She also made some cards.

Just in case you thought my trunk full of old projects was empty I took some photographs of a ‘Night Before Christmas’ quilt I made a couple of years ago. It took a very long time to do the embroideries but the rest was fairly straight forward. An heirloom I think.

Embroidery patterns available from Emblibrary.com

To round off the year we dressed up for New Year’s Eve. Daughter Number One embroidered masks as a token to fancy dress. She used quite a few metallics in tribute to the occasion.

Our village embraces fancy dress every New Year so if you go out dressed normally you feel out of place. The sad thing is that wearing ball gowns with the addition of a mask was enough to count as fancy dress. Sad times.

The patterns for these are also available at Emblibrary.com

My New Years Resolution is to finish my UFOs. I’ll keep you posted on the progress.

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Frozen Turkey and Pickled Rudolph

21 Dec

In case anybody thinks the above is a cranberry sauce substitute or a way of preserving venison I will explain. I have been having  another rummage ino the photo gallery of old projects. They are part of a group of apron designs by Daughter Number One.

They generally feature elves doing things that good little elves shouldn’t do. I guess that if you get to make and distribute all the presents there isn’t much of an incentive to be good all year or, in fact, any of the year. This is the aformentioned turkey with his feathers removed and feeling quite chilly. The elves appear to be adding herbs to an oil and lemon mix with which to anoint the bird. The humour is perhaps a little dark. I wonder if dark humour is hereditary.

The next one seems to show an elf doctoring Rudolph’s drinking water with something that is probably not a soft drink judging by the stars he is seeing, the bubbles coming from the dish and  the obvious attack  of wobbly leg syndrome.

Then we have the pyromaniacal elf who does not seem to be content with a light sprinkling of brandy and a quick ‘whoosh’.  He’s obviously looking forward to a visit from the fire brigade. He could, of course be a disciple of The big Cheese.  After all burnt toast seems to be the overriding smell in our house every morning.

Last but not least the attempted rescue of the elf in the pocket is about to be hampered by the appearance of the elf with the scissors.

There is one that is still unmade showing a sleeping santa having his boot laces tied together. Probably someelf  in the workforce objecting to the Boss not pulling his weght

The other thing I found was a table runner and matching mats.

This one is in three bits as it is so long it won’t photograph in one.

Santa is flying over the handlebars as the reins break and the reindeers stampede.

The mats are – We three pengkings.

All friends together.

This week I tried some Sue Box designs. I have never embroidered any of these before as generally they are not really my taste. However, I downloaded some of the free designs and the christmas ones are particularly good. They are well digitised and despite being mostly metallic threads, there were no breakages.  I have made a link to the web page. here are my versions.

I wish you all a lovely Christmas and a much improved New Year.

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Resolving the New Year

16 Dec

If you have been following my blogs you will know I have spent a long time overseas and that I developed patchwork, applique etc as a necessary hobby. I deliberately didn’t mention quilting because I have done more of the former than the latter. Filling suitcases with quilts every time I came home was bad enough when they were just tops. If they had been quilted they would have been a nightmare. As a result I have a huge pile of tops ready to quilt. Luckily I had ten years of dollmaking in the middle or I wouldn’t be able to get in the front door. Bear in mind that the tops I have are left after I gave a pile to Project Linus to finish for me.

Just to give you an idea of the nature of my New Year’s resolution, take a look at this lot.

Help!

There are actually two piles.

Luckily I have done one of the Grace Frame courses at The Cotton Patch. I can recommend them to anyone who is feeling frustrated trying to use their frame or thinking of buying a new one. I am waiting for some extra bits to arrive from America at the moment but I shall be full steam ahead after Christmas. With that lot I should become an expert.

Enough of my problems. We have the tree up and dressed as they say. No room for lazy trees in our house. I have also done the customary window display. For all you people with large gardens full of trees and flowers I shall explain about my house.

It is on a narrow street running through the village. It is so narrow you will not find it on Google Earth as the car can’t get down it. If it did, getting out would be a long process followed by a trip to the panel beater. My large front window looks out onto the street and passers- by are practically in the front room. Normally we get over this by living on the top floor. At Christmas, however, with the tree downstairs we tend to live down there. In Winter it is a tad dark, courtesy of the two foot thick walls and therefore deep window reveals, so we put on the lights. This immediately lights up the room like a guide to a ship in the fog. We either spend Christmas waving at passers-by or block out the view. We choose to do the latter. I usually do a display of dolls and a few Christmas lights – as shown in the photo. It’s Christmassy and serves the purpose.

Close up.

Closer up.

The other thing I have been doing this week is a bit of embroidery. I had my machine serviced and so am ready for the New Year on that too. I made another decoration in the shape of a fairy embroidery – courtesy of Emlibrary of course. There are lots of other fairies too. Excuse the reflection as I have framed it and there are a lot of lights where I photographed it.

If you look carefully in the first one you can just see me.

Of course I had to add a few sparkles. I couldn’t help myself. After all if you can’t sparkle at Christmas when can you.

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Please Put a Penny in The Old Man’s Hat

9 Dec

On Saturday I am going to take my wares to the local Christmas craft market. This involves a walk of about 50 yards so I don’t think it will be too arduous. Last year I travelled miles for absolutely no return. This year I will stay at home and support my local community. At least if I get cold I can send a runner for a large mug of something hot. I have bought myself a pair of those gloves with cut off fingers – after all I will need to be able to handle the oodles of boodle people will be handing over in return for my wonderful Christmas goodies whilst keeping my fingers warm. Well, I can hope.

I am trying a variety of things – some quilty and some not.  I am going to have a few of my dolls on view. These have been seen in the village before and I did sell quite a few through a local shop. Unfortunately when I went overseas and came back I never got back into selling them.

I shall have some of these.

This one and a couple of similar.

I thought I would also have some of my embroidered totes. Very eco-friendly in this ‘bring your own shopper’ age.

I am letting this quilt go too.

I will also be trying to sell my other Sunbonnet Sue quilts as featured in one of my early blogs. These feature —

and—-

and many more.

Maybe a couple of aprons.

Myself and a couple of willing helpers also do a rather smart line in appliquéd shoebags.

A few bags.

I will also be selling some of my patterns and kits for amongst others, ‘Jamie Plays ‘—

Cowboys.

Soldiers.

A touch of patchwork.

Bag kits.

Cot Quilt kits.

I have also been cutting fat quarters in every hue.  Just need some customers now. Keeping my fingers crossed.

If you are passing Polperro, which is very difficult, pop in. I can certainly promise you a cheerful, multicoloured stall and I might find you a mug of something hot .

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Just When You Think It’s Safe…..

4 Dec

I do believe it’s those darned dragons again. Just a quick post to show completion of a project.

If you have read my previous posts  and also you will remember I made two quilts with dragons – one embroidered and one appliqued.

The finished top

Having  made the quilts I decided to make a bag to match. Here are all the various bits ready to assemble. I quilted the front and back panels with the embroideries and chose two different coloured fabrics to match the embroideries too.

Front – or is it back.

Back or is it front.

I have found that this style of bag is ideal for all sorts of activities. Both Daughters use them for dance shoes and sundries. I use one when I venture out to the shops. As this one matches the quilt it will probably be a bag for baby acoutrements. I have been known to embroider a bale of towels to match a bag for Daughters to take on dance weekenders. This makes a very impressive present whilst not costing the earth.

Now to decide which quilt to put with this one.

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The Goose is Getting Fat.

1 Dec

How do I know Christmas is coming? I answered the door three times yesterday to delivery men. Whatever happened to the ‘trip to the shops’ with its christmas goodies and accompanying cheery songs. Gone all gone – replaced by a trip into cyberspace. It’s easier but is it as much fun?

My problem with shopping is the getting there. I live in a village where driving out of it involves a 10 minute walk up a very steep hill. This is followed by negotiating narrow streets and sundry persons, finally popping out at the top of the village and then having to meander along narrow twisting roads to get to the nearest town 30 miles away. Having reached said town parking is the next problem. I hate parking when the car park is likely to be full. I am convinced someone is going to leap into the only remaining space just as we are lining up to back into it. Yes ‘We’ – the sad bit is that I never drive. I get this neurotic just sitting in the passenger seat. I am a bit more interactive with the winding roads as they make me feel ill but that is neither here nor there.

Having reached my destination I am usually disappointed. There are no little shops selling something individual any more. They are all chains or small shops selling goods supplied by one central source. I find myself wandering through shop after shop and finding nothing. Well ‘Bah Humbug’ is what I say. Much easier to do everything online. The added bonus is that instead of spending the day in traffic and useless shops I have time to whip up a couple of christmas goodies.

This year’s tablecloth for instance.

Here are a few of the embroideries.

A little snowman runner to add a little Je ne c’est quois to Je ne c’est quois.

Sorry about the missed clippings.

I suppose it is what you would call redwork, except it’s white.

You know I really should get out more. How about some shopping therapy.

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Of ‘andles and Fings Wot ‘old the Candles

26 Nov

I  have been helping Daughter Number Two to move house. They say it is one of the most stressful things we do – moving house not helping other people to do same.  Mind you there can’t be much in it.

I started the week at The Cotton Patch in Birmingham trying to get to grips with my quilting frame.  I bought it years ago and have hardly used it. I have to say that the course was very useful. The Cotton patch has a dedicated studio for teaching and familiarising so that if you decide to buy a machine or a frame you can ‘try before you buy’ as they say. (In my case ‘have a go before you throw’).  It was a very small group, there were five of us but I think normally it would have been four.  This means that everybody can have a hands on experience. This is the only way to go if you really want to learn something practical. I managed to spend rather a lot extra because I saw the value of a stitch regulator. This is a device that regulates the length of stitch. Having already used the frame I found that this was one of the problems; keeping stitches the same length throughout. The normal method of working the sewing machine on the frame is by way of a handle connected to a lever that presses down on the presser foot. I always found this quite stiff and as too many years of sewing obsessively have affected the hand I use to operate the lever the idea of something to help was very attractive. When I receive it and use it I will report on what hopefully are its benefits. I can certainly recommend the course if you are in UK.

Back to the moving – We felt the first sense of forboding as the van came round the corner. It was going to be too small. This wouldn’t have been a problem, except monetarily, if they had said so at the beginning. However they swore they could get it all in and they were the experts so we believed them. At least we did until the axels were practically on the ground and then we questioned the wisdom of travelling 400 yards never mind 400 miles in that state. ( Daughter Number Two has a bit of a background in Health and Safety) The long and the short of it is that Daughter Number Two and I left The Big Cheese supervising (thank goodness for Sudoku) and set off to reach the unit that was going to absorb the overflow, before they closed. The need for the overflow had something to do with trying to get a quart into a pint pot. In this case the quart was a large three bedroomed house and the pint pot a small two bedroomed flat Thank goodness for cousins buying a new house and being able to look after the excess. They had to repack the van and use a second one. They blamed it on the solid construction of the furniture but I am not sure how that would have affected the quantity. Mind you I am not an expert so what would I know.

Having  paid extra to transport the  furniture and boxes we then had to make up quantities for the charity shop. Yes I know but when it all went into store it might have been going back into the same house eventually. The removal men talked fondly of the day when everyone will have a Kindle and two bookcases had to be purchased to take the books. Yes I know but the furniture being looked after by the cousin is bedroom furniture and if you saw the size of these ‘double’ bedrooms you would understand.

I stayed on a while to unpack boxes and take deliveries which is why I have been offline for a while. Being without the internet was not as bad as I thought but it did mean I came back to hundreds of emails, most of which I didn’t want.

On the plus side I found  a quilt in one of the boxes. It was part of the tradition we have of making something christmassy for whoever is hosting Christmas. This was from Christmas three years ago. It is another Millamac pattern.

What a lot of eyes.

The frog family photo. Notice big brother on the right making gesticulations over small Brother’s head.

Possums ( I always want to write  possa – must be the classical education) fixing the Christmas lights. See the ‘thumbs up’ from the foreman.

Peering into the manger.

Dressing the Tree. Where is the safety officer when you need him.

The Choir.

Kangaroos with Presents.

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Old Macdonald Had A Farm

14 Nov

You will be glad to know that my printer is printing and my hands are still clean. In fact I feel so uncomfortably clean that I decided I needed a wallow in the farmyard. I was looking through some old photographs and found some of a quilt I made for a raffle. It was when I still used polyfilament for quilting. I was never happy with it but it was almost invisible. It was also all I had and with no shops I used what I had. I do not use it now, I don’t like its shiny unnatural look. Being invisible it is also very easy to leave bits of it attched to the quilt. Not a good look.  I am aware I am not in the majority though so I will say no more.

The pattern is entitled ‘Little Maccas Farm’ and was a block of the month from Kookaburra Cottage some time ago. I just bought the patterns so the scrappy look is my interpretation using what I had.

It is great fun to make, the pieces are large for stitching and it can use up lots of odd fabrics.

As you can see the stitching is not wonderful. This was one of the first ones I did. I was teaching myself and it was a bit of a learning curve. It still went down ok though. They would have made lots of money except they ran out of raffle tickets. I have to confess I was a bit upset about that. I had spent hours and lots of money making it and nobody bothered to check they had enough raffle tickets. Still – water under the bridge.

I no longer use buttons for the eyes  as most of the quilts I make are meant to be used, not hang on the wall. However, in those days I followed patterns.

A bit of handstitching on the whiskers there. I don’t often do that any more either. I have perfected doing the stitching on the machine which makes it a bit sturdier. A least that is my excuse, if the truth were known it’s probably sheer laziness.

More handstitching.

I love the simple but effective shape of this chicken.

I finally used up that fruit fabric.

I think the dog is one of my favourites.

If you like the pattern I believe it is still available. Being an ex-BOM it is a little expensive but then it depends how much you want it.

Doing a bit of a house move this week so postings may be a bit intermittent. Don’t be put off by lack of new material  come back and hear how we went on. I am sure there will be a few amusing anecdotes. The most amusing may be how we fit the furniture from a large three bedroom house into a small two bedroom flat. The words ‘quart’ and ‘pint pot’ come to mind.

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