Paper Piecing for The Splendid Sampler

Posted on July 28, 2016 by craftycreeky

splendid_button_TMI’ve stitched three blocks for my Splendid Sampler quilt in the last couple of weeks with foundation paper piecing. Until I started this quilt-a-long I didn’t even know what FPP was, so I still get a little glow of achievement when I stitch another one!

The first one is called ‘Balls in the Air’, it’s designed by Aylin Ozturk. I’ve been putting it off since the end of June as it did look complicated! The overall effect is of a circle, but it is made from some teeny triangles, and I mean teeny!! I’ve taken a close-up photo so you can see just how teeny!!

My Splendid Sampler

I like FPP but I do find it a bit wasteful on the fabric front, having stitched a quarter of the ball I was seriously worried that I wouldn’t have enough background fabric to finish the block. I worked out a new way of avoiding quite so much waste, rather than cutting out a piece that I knew would be big enough I positioned the seam onto a straight edge of the fabric piece, stitched it, pressed it, and then cut the fabric off the main piece. It seemed to work pretty well…and I didn’t run out of fabric!

I’m really pleased with the final block, my four quarters match together fairly well.

My Splendid Sampler

The second block is called ‘Pencils’, it’s designed by Jane Davidson who is one of the organisers of The Splendid Sampler. I really enjoyed stitching this one, pieces were just nice size, matching wasn’t quite so critical so really there was just the fabric choice to worry about. I really like it and one day I will remember to trim the threads before I take the photographs!

My Splendid Sampler

The last FFP block was a quick one, it only has six pieces! Faith Jones designed it and called it ‘Whim’. I don’t feel I’ve got my colour balance right here, I chose two pinks, blues and greens but somehow it doesn’t seem to work as well. I did think about putting some embroidery on it, a bit like crazy patchwork, but I’ll have to work up a bit of enthusiasm for it first!

My Splendid Sampler

I’ve just cut out an outfit from one of my saris, as I want to wear it in eight days time I think I need to have a short break from Splendid Sampler to crack on with dress-making!

 

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Tea & Tents 2016

Posted on July 27, 2016 by craftycreeky

I’ve just had an amazing weekend at Tea & Tents, it’s a camping and crafting weekend originally organised on the unofficial WI facebook page. There were 570 WI ladies at Walesby Scout camp in Nottinghamshire from all over England and Wales. It’s a fantastic place to make new friends, meet old friends and learn new skills…and laugh and chat!

Everything from organising to workshops is done by volunteers. You could do candle-making, knit a poppy brooch, circus skills, recorders, papercraft, zumba, cheerleader, yoga…there were talks too on menopause, top ten happy hacks, WI in prisons…there was a book club, bake off competition, sewing bee competition, T&T got talents, quiz…

Tea & Tents

First workshop I went on was making a flower crown, all ages can get away with wearing a flower crown at T&T 🙂 I decided to tie mine round my sunhat, it did look pretty!

 

I made a cute bird brooch, we could use felt or tweed, I rather liked the tweed effect and I found a gorgeous length of tiny ivory flower trim which I used to titivate my bird. I originally used a white felt for the underwing, but I decided to change it for red to make it pop!

 

Bird Brooch

Saturday 5pm was market place. There were about 35 of us selling things. I made quite a few tote bags, I showed you the VW campervan ones earlier, I also made dog and cat ones. I made some pocket tissue pouches and some covered notebooks.

I raided my box of things I’d made and never used such as pincushions, lavender bags, more tote bags, childs dress…I also took a pile of fabric, fat quarters I’d been given over the years, furnishing weight remnants etc I had a pretty successful time, I confess to setting my prices fairly low, mainly because I just wanted to get something back on fabric I’d already bought years before.

It was interesting to see what went first and what didn’t sell…the VW stuff, as predicted, sold out first, four bags and two notebooks. All but one of the notebooks sold but I didn’t sell a single tissue pouch. I sold the satchel I made earlier in the year, it was the one item I put a decent price on, there was a lot of hardwear and fabric in it so I wanted to at least recoup my costs. The lady who bought it was so delighted with it and so excited I was happy to sell it to her.

Satchel

On Sunday morning I ran a 2 hour workshop on silk painting. It was with some trepidation that I volunteered for this as the last one I did didn’t go well at all. I needn’t have worried, it went really well. We had a big bell tent which kept us out of the sun and the breeze. I did a brief demo on gutta and using silk paints, adding salt etc, I knew we wouldn’t have time for them to gutta a design, dry it and paint it, so I bought lots of pre-gutta-ed card designs. All they had to do was paint them, they loved it, they made about three cards each. I’ve already been asked to do a similar workshop at a local WI.

Silk Painting workshop

Sunday afternoon I sat in the Yarn and Yammer tent, I did a few rows of crochet on my ripple blanket, chatting and watching the world go by…well actually we were watching five flamingos doing Zumba, but that’s another story!

A tradition now at T&T is the yarnbomb, this years theme was ‘How does my garden grow’ It was amazing, there were vegetables, flowers, bees, even a slug, all knitted by different ladies.

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All in all it was a fantastic weekend, as someone remarked, it’s like Girl Guide camp with alcohol 🙂

Yarnbomb

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Monday’s Meander Round the Garden

Posted on July 25, 2016 by craftycreeky

I took a long hard look at our garden last week, I know it looks great in the photos but I’m very selective!!! I’ve felt this summer that it isn’t as colourful as usual. Two years ago my new year resolution was to take a photo of the garden every day, the result being that I actually gardened a lot more and the garden looked fantastic, the best it’s ever been! I made the photos into a photobook, it’s a lovely record of a year in our garden. I was showing someone the book last week and it really brought it home how good it was.

‘Was’ being the operative word. I know I haven’t gardened as much this year, the weather hasn’t helped as I am a fair weather gardener. When I really looked at the beds I realised that the reason they look really green, but not a lot of flowers, is that there are so many weeds. What I thought was a spreading geranium, was actually a marauding buttercup!

Pond garden

I decided to tackle the pond area. I’ve given the gravel path a good weed (three bags later!) and started pulling out the buttercup. It already looks a lot better, Zac, my Patterdale cross, came over to inspect! As the hostas are doing so well here (the toads and frogs are clearly doing a good job!) I’m thinking of making this mainly a hosta bed, with more candelabra primulas and irises too for a bit of colour. It’s quite a shady spot so hopefully they will be happy! It will also help keep the path a bit clearer as they are not quite so spreading as some of the plants there now.

Hostas

The AA garden is going to be completely revamped as I’ve mentioned before. I’ve decided on a large gravel circle with deep raised beds. I’ll stick to the same amber and amethyst colour scheme as I’m pleased with that. This part of the garden gets the evening sun so I’m planning a nice seating area. This year I just need to spot which plants I want to keep and maybe pop them in planters whilst I get organised. One to save will be these coneflowers

Cone flowers

 

…and the veronica too.

Veronica

And now a few more the pretty photos to keep me going…

The two clematis by the patio are still looking great, the arch is smothered in flowers.

Clematis Arch

Day lilies have started to flower.

…and my favourite rose, Champagne Moments, is covered in roses. We bought these roses when we got married nine years ago.

Champagne Moments

I’m intending to get myself a bit more organised and productive on my free days with a couple of hours gardening, a couple of hours housework and then a few hours of guilt free sewing…watch this space 🙂

 

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Tuesday’s Meander Round the Garden

Posted on July 12, 2016 by craftycreeky

I didn’t think there were many changes this week in the back garden until I ventured out with my camera!

I spent all day Sunday working on on bed in the front, we’ve a major marestail problem in the front garden which I’ve been battling since 1999 when I moved into this house! This year I’m trying a new tack, I’m taking all the perennials out, leaving just shrubs, weeding and weed-killing what I can before covering it with a double layer of membrane and some mulch. I did a final dig on the bottom level on Sunday, removing another 1/2 bin of roots before covering it with membrane. I’ve planted a ground cover rose, a hydrangea and a camellia. Any weeds that come up will be zapped! The bed is probably about 3′ by 30′ and I still ache!!! Unfortunately there is still another two tiers and then the bigger main area…

…so it was quite nice to see what’s flowering in the back!

The hostas are starting to flower, the ones up by the pond are still looking pretty good, I spotted a butterfly on one leaf. I also spotted this little scarlet blighter on my lilies, a lily beetle, they are bad news for lilies so he is no more!

The pink geranium is making a takeover bid, luckily it’s fairly controllable and the soil it’s in is pretty unforgiving clay so I’m just pleased it’s so happy.

Geranium

Last week I showed you a photo of clematis just starting to flower, well it’s looking gorgeous now, the birds love it for hiding in on their way to the feeders.

Clematis

The roses have been pretty bashed by all the rain we’ve had. They keep promising us a six week heat wave but I’ll believe it when it comes, there’s no sign yet! The yellow one is called Buttercup, I love the simplicity and cup-shape of it. The cream one is called Champagne Moments, I bought it when we got married, in fact I gave them as thank you’s to special people at the wedding and I’ve given several as presents since. It flowers it’s head off and it’s a nice healthy, bushy rose.

Last year I planted a rambling rose to grow over my big obelisk in the AA garden, it’s in flower at the moment and it’s looking really pretty, it’s a lovely shade of apricot. I’ve just got to train it up the obelisk now!

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Landscapes and Gardens Textile Exhibition

Posted on July 11, 2016 by craftycreeky

I’ve just had a lovely day out with Skipton Embroiderers Guild. We visited Fountains Abbey where there is an exhibition of embroidery inspired by the landscapes of Capability Brown. It’s been organised in conjunction with the Embroiderers Guild and our guild were exhibiting there.

Harewood HouseCapability Brown was a landscape architect in the 18th century, he designed many of the estates surrounding grand houses in England such as Harewood House and Chatsworth House. He would change the shape of hills, make lakes, he has a classic style of undulating hills, dotted with trees with grand gardens surrounding the house. It’s his 300th birthday this year, hence the exhibition, there are embroidery exhibitions all around the country, mainly at properties he designed. Ironically he had nothing to do with the landscape of Fountains Abbey.

Fountains HallThe exhibition is in Fountains Hall which is a beautiful house built around 1600, mainly from the stone of the then ruined abbey.

There is some stunning embroidery there, made by members of the local guilds. I haven’t managed to get the names of all the artists, so apologies to those I missed. These are just a selection;

This one was my favourite, it’s of one of the temples at Fountains, I love the way she’s captured the movement in the water and the reflections of the temple.

Embroiders Guild

Jill Maloney who is our chairman embroidered ‘Impression’. It was inspired by autumn colour, just look at all those french knots, it was beautiful.

Jill Maloney

I loved this mixed media collage, I’d love to have a go at this sort of thing but I think I need to go on a workshop as I wouldn’t know where to start. The map is of the area, there’s buttons and washers stitched on as well as all the embroidery. It’s called Beaded Teasel by Stacey Tait.

Stacey Tait

This embroidery of a tower at Fountains is beautiful, it’s by someone at Harrogate Embroiderers Guild.

Fountains Abbey Embroidery

I ‘m not sure which local guild stitched this set of miniature embroideries, I could have sat for hours looking at these, they were exquisite.

Our exhibit was amazing. A photo was taken of one of the temples at Fountains Abbey, it was divided into 24 squares. Each member was given the picture of one square to stitch in what ever way they wanted. The individual embroideries were then stitched together to make a fantastic group embroidery. It amazed me how it all fits together so well.

Skipton Embroiderers Guild

After the exhibition we had a stroll found Fountains Abbey. It’s a beautiful, peaceful place. I think it was one of the biggest Cistercian Abbeys in England, it was certainly the richest. It was built in the 12th century and operated for over 400 years until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539. The ruins amaze me, especially how the stone of the windows can still be intact after all this time. I love all the arches and beautiful doorways.

If you’re visiting Fountains over the summer, do remember to call into Fountains Hall.

 

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Splendid Sampler Mainly

Posted on July 10, 2016 by craftycreeky

Along with other things I’ve been working on my quilt-along blocks this week. I’ve a friend who isn’t very well at the moment so I’m popping round once a week to help out, I usually take some sewing to do as it’s nice just to sit and chat in the conservatory with a bit of hand-sewing.

splendid_button_TMThis week I took two projects along, the first was from The Splendid Sampler, block 41 to be precise. It’s designed by Jennifer Mathis of Ellison Lane, it was hexagons again, but much bigger than last time, there were just eight to make, two for the centre and the rest around the edges.

I decided to use some flamingo fabric I bought a couple of months ago as I felt colour-wise it fitted in with SS. I’d not used it up to now as it does need the right block to fussy cut it. This was the perfect block! I cut two blocks from each flamingo poise and positioned then opposite each other.

Slendid Sampler 41 Sew South

I tacked the fabric round the templates, pressed them and then hand-stitched them onto the main fabric after removing the papers. I actually found it more difficult to get a neat (accurate) finish than I did with the tiny hexagons I sewed a couple of weeks back!

‘Dashing by Chocolate’ was block 37, it was designed by Laura Flynn, it was nice to have a straight forward piecing block to do, all I had to worry about was which fabric to use, always a quandary! I decided it was the perfect block to fussy-cut my rabbits again, careful cutting of the green triangles also worked well.

Splendid Sampler 37 Dashing by Chocolate

Last night there was a party going on somewhere in the neighbourhood, all I could here was the music, so I thought I may as well carry on sewing, particularly as I was Billy No Mates at home! I decided to start a block that I’ve been putting off for a while, well at least 2 weeks! It’s another paper piecing one but I think trepidation set in from the comments on facebook, this one clearly wasn’t going to be easy!!!! I stopped sewing just after midnight when the boom-boom stopped, I’d sewn a quarter of the block, please bear in mind this piece is only 3″ square!! Some of those cream triangles are minuscule!!!

Spendid Sampler 39 Balls in the air

The second piece of hand-sewing I started at my friends house was a block from Anderson’s Farm, it’s very sweet with three chickens on. I blanket stitched round all the pieces, with a few extra back-stitches on the wings, just got the rest of the embroidery to do now, maybe next week…I need to get get cracking though as I’ve just had an e-mail that the next block is on it’s way and I haven’t even opened last months yet!

Andersons FarmLinking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday and Super Mom No Cape for Vintage Embroidery Monday.

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Camper Vans Galore

Posted on July 9, 2016 by craftycreeky

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I’ve been pretty busy in my sewing room over the last couple of days, I’ve got the house to myself as Helen has gone Inter-railing round Europe and my OH is on Cadet camp…so peace reigns!

VW Camper Van FabricIt’s only two weeks until I go to the Tea and Tents WI camping festival, I rather rashly said I would have a stall at the market so I decided I really need to pull my finger out and start sewing things to sell.

A couple of years back I bought some lengths of furnishing fabrics with the idea of selling things on Craftsy, it never really took off so I’ve got some lengths left. One is the VW camper van fabric. I’m hoping there may be a few people at T&T who like VW’s!

Covered notebooksMy first make was a cover for an A5 notebook. I bought a few notebooks at the same time as the fabric, so I’m using up my stock. The notebooks are slightly padded so I didn’t use any fleece, and as it’s furnishing weight fabric I decided it didn’t need interfacing either. I lined it with cream quilting cotton and used a lovely cerise pink cotton for the flaps. I make book covers with flaps cut separately, I just pin it all together, sew round the edge and turn it. I think it gives a neater finish rather than stitching one extra long lined piece and then turning the flaps in. It also means I can easily add a button tab (using a hair bobble!) Hope you followed all that!

VW Camper Van Notebooks

 

My next make was a tote bag, I used my standard measurements of a 16″ square, I interlined it with fusible fleece to make it feel nice. It’s lined with the same cream lining. When I’m making these for myself I always add zipped pockets, open pockets, key fob, magnetic closures  etc, but I decided to keep these simple as I don’t want to have to charge alot for them and the more haberdashery and time I use, the more the bag would cost. It’s got a gusset at the bottom so it sits nicely.

VW Camper Van Bag

I had a narrow length of fabric left so my first choice was to make an A6 notebookcover as I could just position it so a VW was in the centre of the front. I’d top-stitched the first one in pink as a contrast, but I decided it was easier to make it look neat if the top-stitching matched so I stitched it in cream this time, much better!

The final piece was just big enough to make a mini tote bag. I don’t think I’ve even got a scrap of fabric left, so job well done…just got the difficult job of pricing them and then fingers crossed that they sell!

VW Camper Van Bag

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Thornton Hall Gardens

Posted on July 6, 2016 by craftycreeky

Originally posted on Askwith with Weston WI:
We have just had a wonderful day visiting Thornton Hall Gardens. There were thirty three of us on the coach and having had a good journey up we had plenty of time for…

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Monday’s Meander Round the Garden

Posted on July 4, 2016 by craftycreeky

Roses

Today started off beautifully, warm and sunny. By two o’clock when I set off for a WI fundraising tea party it was positively hot (for Yorkshire, that is!) I didn’t even need a jacket with my new sleeveless red dress!

Being British weather, within a couple of hours it was heading down hill rapidly, I just managed to take these photos of the garden as the light was fading fast and just before the heavens opened!

We did have some good gardening weather over the weekend and I managed to fit quite a few hours in weeding my AA garden. I nearly filled our wheelie bin with weeds. Some of it was what I call cosmetic weeding, mainly marestail, I pull it up to keep the garden tidy, knowing full well it will grow straight back up again. The beds are looking a bit hacked at but at least you can see the paths now, just need to get some pathclear on the gravel to try and keep on top of the weeds.

AA Garden

Round by the pond I noticed a couple of candelabra primulas have come into flower, somehow it always surprises me just how tall these grow. The hostas are still looking good, the toads and frogs must be earning their keep!

The roses are starting to really come into flower now, Teasing Georgia, which climbs over the arch is looking pretty good at the moment. I love seeing roses climbing over structures, but I wish I was better at training and pruning them!

Teasing Georgia

The clematis which has decided to climb up the bird table is just starting to come into flower, there’s lots of buds on it so hopefully next week there will be a photo of it in it’s full glory!

Clematis

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Little Sewing Bee

Posted on July 4, 2016 by craftycreeky

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Last week it was the semi-finals of the Great British Sewing Bee, so contestants were whittled down from four to the final three. I do think they’ve had some tough challenges this series.

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The first challenge this week was to make a Japanese inspired asymmetical skirt. The pattern is in the new book that goes with the series. The pattern pieces are very weird shapes so it took a while for them to get their heads round this one. It called for very accurate cutting, pinning and sewing! Just look at those pattern pieces!! I love the draping effect of the skirt, but I’m not sure I’ll be rushing off to make one any time soon! Continue reading →

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