Hexie Quilt

Hello

Tad daaa, finally finished.

This quilt has been my longest WIP (work in progress) ever.  The top was pieced together really quickly when I bought the quarter inch foot for the Singer Featherweight.  Really enjoyed sewing the Y seams, got carried away and ended up with a large quilt top.  Came to a grinding halt, making up the quilts is not my favourite pass time.  At a friend's suggestion to save money, used a wool blanket for the quilt sandwich.  It was a good quality heavy wool blanket, it turns out that heavy is not such a good thing when quilting by hand. Stitching in the ditch on a hexie pattern involves lots of twisting round changing direction, this caused the fabric to bunch up.  I didn't have the floor frame then and couldn't get comfortable with a hand frame.

 I kept telling myself it didn't matter too much and it would be fine.

But on completion, was really unhappy with it (lumpy puckered patchwork is not a good look) so unpicked the lot, ditched the blanket. Sulked for a while and then used some lightweight modern wadding.  Machine quilted instead, again tricky with all the direction changes.  It rained on Bank Holiday Monday so spent the afternoon finishing the quilting, putting the binding on and finally hand stitching the yards and yards of binding.

The patchwork fabric is vintage Laura Ashley, the blue was a hexie pack that my sister gave me and I cut the red fabric to match.  I used a quilt cover for the sashing and backing.

Was going to call it the "Harry Potter Quilt" cos of all the hexes but one the girls at sewing said it might put a hex on me so decided to call it "This Took Forever Quilt!"  Going to use it in the motorhome.

If you are wondering, its been on the go for 3 years!  Ooops.

Cheers
Sharon

Dinky Shed Love

Hello

So that I can continue to use the Summerhouse as a place to sew and sit quietly, I needed a new shed to put boring things like tins of paint in.  So decided that my new shed would be cute and very pretty.

The bench had a makeover as well, as usual forgot a before photo but it was really tatty and was destined for the tip when we were clearing Dad's garden. 

Found a sweet slate hanging heart at The Works shop for 99p, used a chalk pen to write on it.

Made a pretty curtain out of some recycled fabric.

Cheers

Sharon

Quilt Museum - York

Hello

Had a weekend away in York and visited the Quilt Museum   http://www.quiltmuseum.org.uk/

It's a great place to visit

The roof beams were impressive in the main gallery space.

Tricky to take photos as no flash allowed

This quilt was made out of what looked like silk fabric and the black diamonds were velvet.  The pieces were tiny and the quilter had finished the edges with a long stitch of gold coloured thread.  It looked like a stained glass window.

There was  the Red House quilt with all its hand applique work, all sewn in tiny herringbone stitch so neat.

Don't know where this quilt was made but when I was wandering round York there was a Red House

The Quilt Museum is closing at the end of this year, apparently, they don't make enough money keep it open.  They will still retain their collection of 800 quilts and will continue to lend them out to Museums.  Its such a shame for it to close.

Cheers

Sharon

Happy Scrappy Quilt

Hello

My fabric scrap box was full to overflowing saw this great idea on Amy's blog on how to use up your scraps.  http://www.diaryofaquilter.com/2015/05/easy-scrap-fabric-quilt-block.html

I used 2 ins strips and 8.5ins paper template.

Here is the finished result decided to call it the Happy Scrappy Quilt.

Backed it with some of the Liberty Lawn fabric Anita kindly gave me and made my usual label for it.

Thank's Amy for the inspiration.

Cheers
Sharon

A Yorkshire Dale - Textile Picture

Hello

Well, the miserable rain has given me an unexpected day off so a quick trip to Richmond for some new wellies and a few errands.

Then time to play with the Singer Featherweight, practicing free motion embroidery on my Yorkshire Dale picture.

This is where I had got to after the Workshop at Drawn Threads Drawn Threads  (Sarah uses Facebook so more pictures by my fellow students are on a page).  I don't use Facebook, just got to grips with Blogger!!
Perhaps I should change my Blog name to 'Prehistoric' Button Box, I am so far behind in this technology age.

 Drum roleeeeeee

Confession time, I didn't think about a frame size when I stitched it, just jumping in with both feet.  Then had to put an extra wall along the bottom edge so it would fit in the insert of my recycled picture frame.  I really must plan ahead more, I design gardens like this, never measure anything.  My gardens evolve a bit like this picture.

Thank you Sarah for your encouragement.

Cheers

Sharon

Wonderful Workshop - Textile Illustration

Hello

Had a wonderful day out at Sarah's (from Drawn Threads) Textile Illustration Workshop.  Took my Singer Featherweight as hand baggage, Sarah does have machines to use but they are modern ones and scare the living daylights out of me!

Never been on a workshop before, Sarah really pushed the boat out.  Our day started out with a pressy all wrapped with brown paper and string (think she is a fan of the Sound of Music!), they held everything we needed to make our pictures.  She had even made lovely badges with our names on so introductions weren't needed.  Baskets of old lace, fabric, bobbins of thread, buttons and beads.  Lots of Sarah's wonderful pictures to inspire us.

Here's my badge, will treasure it.

For my first effort, did a little wall plaque.  Decided rather than putting it in a wooden picture frame, I would frame it with fabric which put me back in my comfort zone as it was the same as binding a quilt.

Got it all done, then Doh, I was the class idiot, so busy concentrating on how to do, didn't notice that I had spelt Happiness with an Y.  Everyone was too polite to tell me so had to unpick it when I got home.  Here's the amended version.

For my second took my inspiration from picture on a card of the Yorkshire Dales which isn't too far away from home.  This really tested my brain cells

I was a definitely out of my comfort zone as here was no pattern or straight lines.  Sarah was on hand to calm my nerves and guide me.

The time flew and then it was home time.  The Yorkshire scene is still work in progress but here it is, the next bit to do is stone walls, think that I will practice on a scrap bit first to try out how to do them.  Then the scary trees to do!

A big thank you to Sarah, and her lovely hubby who carried my Featherweight up the stairs (felt like the Queen having someone to carry for me), he also was the 'Tea Boy' had a badge to prove it!

A really fun day.  You can find more information on Drawn Threads here Drawn Threads

Can't wait for the next one.

Cheers
Sharon

Cushion Love

Hello

Just a quickie.  Had a little sewing time instead of gardening last week.  Yippeeee

A pretty cushion for the Lloyd Loom chair in the summerhouse.

Unfortunately I was at the back of the queue when long legs were handed out!  My Singer table is too high for little short me soooo either chop a bit off the legs (the table's not mine, hee hee) or make a cushion pad to raise me up (sure that's a song).

Opted for the cushion, so bought a piece of sponge which I cut to size then covered in matching fabric.

(Whoops, Summerhouse is untidy in the middle of sorting out a box of pictures)

Take care

Sharon