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Monday 31 March 2014

Three More Squares

31st March 2014

I was really pleased when I noticed my page views have reached 10150, so a big thank you to you all!!

I cut out the templates then backed the fabric with the wonderful Bondaweb!!!

Before stitching....



....after stitching in satin stitch.....


...I used my felted and boiled knitting for this elephant....


...it looks more like a hairy mammoth!!

Before stitching....



.....after stitching in various widths of satin stitch with feed dog up.



My final task today was cutting out 18 triangles in hessian ready for lettering. This is for our Fun Day Fundraiser  stalls in my local park.


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I am going to the Textile Show at the Excel, London on Thursday, can't wait!!





Sunday 30 March 2014

A Brilliant Weekend!

30th March 2014

I have had a lovely weekend.

My eldest son came for a visit, the weather has been sunny and I have managed to do some sewing!

I took photos of some red squares I quilted today but they didn't show the quilting so will have to try again tomorrow!!

My son has upgraded my lap top and my Mother's Day gift was a gadget that will store all my photos so I am a very happy and lucky 'bunny'.

The weather has been lovely this weekend and we have had great beach walks and today a visit to Fairhaven Lake in St Annes whack evoked many happy memories...





..this tree shows which way the wind blows....


....geese and their beautiful goslings....



....info about a Spitfire funded by the residents of St Annes in the 2nd WW...



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Playing with my squares to see how to arrange them....


...not sure whether to have 'blank' quilted squares in each row ?????


This quilted play-mat is taking much longer than I anticipated but I am really enjoying the process.......




Thursday 27 March 2014

Robin Square

27th March 2014

I worked hard in Pilates this morning and think I might be aware of my muscles tomorrow!!

Lovely home-made soup and crusty bread for lunch with friends then home to bake a Madeira Cake and a Banana and Cranberry Loaf then I managed to stitch my felted robin.......



..quite pleased with the result!

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Remember I tried to wet felt some knitted wool and it didn't work and Joanne offered to put them in a 60 degree wash...



...only slight shrinkage on these samples....




....before washing and wet felting....


....not much effect on the wool knitted on the fine needles but the large needle sample felted quite well..


....I am going to see if I can cut an elephant shape from this sample, hope it doesn't fray!


Watch this space!!






Wednesday 26 March 2014

The Apple Tree Square

26th March 2014

I have had a busy day!

Food shopping, carpet cleaning and sorting my sewing box and threads....


...this is really a tool box which my mum gave me for a birthday about 25 years ago and it took me an hour to sort and clean it! 

I'm pleased with the result.


This box is beside my machine and I don't have to rummage anymore!
Great! 


Not much time left for stitching but I managed to make my tree square....


....using my felt, a variety of threads and quilting around the shape.

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Pilates and lunch with friends tomorrow but I should manage to make the robin square.........


Tuesday 25 March 2014

Preparing My Own Felt for the Robin and Tree Square

25th March 2014

Have spent the morning 'fiddling'!!

I made simple paper templates .....


..pinned onto my hand made felt...


....cut out and needle felted some detail before I stitch....


....used the safety felting tool for the 'red breast'....


...and a single felting needle for the 'apples'.



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I have also started another baby blanket.
 The pattern has been well used and taped together after my dog grabbed it off my knee when I was knitting and decided to eat it!!!!



I am using Debbie Bliss Sublime baby cotton kapok dk which is so soft....


....I adapted the pattern to include a border which is so much easier than picking up stitches from the blanket edge. I have chosen moss stitch as this gives texture and a firm edge.






Monday 24 March 2014

Playing with Prairie Points

24th March 2014

This dropped through the letter box today, one of my Christmas presents and it has some great ideas in it....



....next I made PP with some of my ice dyed fabric...



...I piped and concealed with  strip of frayed fabric...


...I am going to use this for a removable A6 book cover.

More wet felting for the tree on the play-mat...


.....hopefully I will complete two more squares tomorrow!




Saturday 22 March 2014

Photo Disaster Sorted!

22nd March 2014

My youngest son has just found my photos, apparently they were hiding behind the dock!!

The Hungry Caterpillar side of the quilted play-mat is finished....


... unfortunately it is impossible to see the quilting on the photo!!

I have also been wet felting. I tried to felt the knitted pieces....





 ....but it didn't work so my friend is going to put them in with her hot wash cycle load to see if that works!

However I did manage to felt a piece of brown merino fleece for the robin and tree trunk applique....


.... oh dear, it looks more like a 'cow pat' in this photo!!!

Until next time.....




DISASTER !!!

22nd March 2014

I am unable to access any of my photos on my computer and new photos will not load!!!!

Will have to visit the computer repair shop and hope he can fix the problem.

Wednesday 19 March 2014

Two More Squares for the Play-mat

19th March 2014

Gardening in the park this morning then home to stitch.....


...stitched using narrow satin...




...completed nine squares, getting there slowly!

While I was away I knitted some shapes in yarn I had left from projects....

.... 100% Merino knitted on size 8 and 5 needles....


.... Alpaca left from a blanket I made for my daughter last year using size 9 and 5 needles...


...I intend to see if these samples will wet felt as I would like to use them for an elephant and rabbit motif, another experiment. Hope it works!!

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This quilted play-mat is taking a lot longer than I expected but I am enjoying the process.