Nearly finished.

As well as finishing my knitted throw last week, I also finished the patchwork top of my Jelly Roll quilt. It is a huge 60"x70".

Now I need to do the wadding, backing, quilting and binding. After lengthy discussions with my quilting pro,s Linda and Burnice, I think I am going for a magenta batik for the back and binding and am just going to quilt in the ditches around the squares to start with.

That isn't going to happen for a while though as I need a length of time when I can spread it all out without people walking through on it! Probably have to wait until the Easter Hols but that will give me time to track down the fabric and save up!

How much more extreme?

Look, I haven't been idle.....

I finished the trial throw in red, white and blue with black fluffy wool. It isn't the right colour for this room but it is going here for now!

It is very loose and holey but soooo warm and snuggly. I am not really sure what weight the wools were but I used 8 strands at a time and I am guessing they were mainly DK, although the red was a lumpy cotton and seemed finer.
Well then I found I had lots of purple wool so I went out to pick up a few colours to go with that......




........I got quite a bit actually...........




.......I brought it home in a bin bag! Shhhhh don't tell anyone!

Art Journal Week 9.

This was another fab theme! I don't know where Efemera gets her ideas from but I just love them all. Each week I am waiting to see what will come up next! This one was "Fashion, tell us about your disasters, include some fabric and something from a magazine." I knew I wanted to do a dress up paper doll so that was my starting point and I cut her clothes out of fabric to represent the fashions as I grew up. The one thing I have had for many years and are always bang on trend, are my DM's (sadly not these ACTUAL ones!) so I scoured some VOGUE magazines for a pic of some. I found these which are white ones, customized by the stylist. The BG is another page which was a close up of a lace dress that I gessoed over and then doodled on with felt pens. Just added a bit of journalling and outlines round the pics to clarify.
Wham, Week 9 done!

More Quilt...

I managed to get another hour on my quilt last night. Here are all the squares ready to go. I then assembled them into blocks of four and sewed three together, making a strip 6x2 squares. This is as much as I could get in the photo/on the table! I managed another strip too which I attacged to this one so now my piece is 6x4 squares big. It will end up 6x7 so I have only got a bit more to do before I have to tackle the binding and quilting........

Jelly Rolls!

So here it is, begun! The pattern I am doing is called something like post rail fence and you start by sewing the strips into sets of 5 with a lighter one in the middle. Then you have to iron them....I thought I might be able to miss this bit out, but you really can't!

Here are some of my sets of strips...

...and these are the ones waiting to be stitched together. It took me the whole day and evening to get this done and then cut the strips into squares. Didn't take a pic of the squares as it was too late when I finished.

Watch this space to see how it grows. Slowly, I expect as I am back at work now. Six weeks til more hoiday!

Mini Quilt Month 2.

Ever since I discoverd these mini quilts of the month over at Purlbee , I have been waiting desperately for the second pattern. And then it came up, this time focussing on circles and applique. I had to rummage through Gilly's stash as my previous block was mainly plains and this called for pattens but using mine and a few of hers I managed it! What a very different technique; adding interfacing to the back and then hand stitching them all on. I think they will look better once I have backed and quilted them to give them a bit more life. Still they have whet my appetite to do more patchwork. I have a Jelly Roll burning a hole in it's bag as I type....

Extreme Knitting....

Here's some of the gang! Several of us managed to go to the "Make It" show in Farnborough. (from l-r,half of me, Helly, Sharon and Gilly) In Brighton I had seen these HUGE wooden knitting needles and pondered about buying some. Gilly did get some and having seen what she could do with them and her stash of wool I decided I HAD to have some too! Karen was really helpful and put up with all our dithering! Her website is just in the process of being set up but still pop and have a look.

I couldn't wait to get going so as soon as I got home I went up in the loft to get out all the wool I have stashed there. I could have sworn it was all orange but I found I had a nice selection of colours.... Just a couple of hours later I had a funky new cushion cover! I used 8 strands at a time, 2 red, 1 each of brown and cream, 3 different oranges and a bumpy wool that was orange, plum and greeny colours.It was so easy to do and very satisfying as I was using up all my odds and ends and feels so snuggly! I am now in the process of knitting a snuggly blanket........