Author: Kay

I make stuff

My Name is Kay and I’m a Fabricoholic

by Kay, posted in Farmer's Wife 1930s QAL

This should be a post about making something not a post about buying something, but I have bought something – more fabric. My excuse; I didn’t have anything suitable for the Farmer’s Wife 1930s QAL. Now I have! So no more fabric buying posts after this one for awhile – promise.

Anyway who can resist a sale, this particular one was at http://www.keepsakequilting.co.uk/sale

First up is a selection from Yuko Hasegawa called Everything but the Kitchen Sink which has cute blender fabrics and even cuter prints, love those teddy bears!

The next lot are a mixed bunch and seeing them in ‘person’ it’s clear that, lovely though it is, Sugar Hill Scattered Roses are too bright white to go with the other fabrics. The others are Tula Pink – Pineapple Slices, Joel Dewberry – Botanique, Flea Market Fancy- Flower and Dot and lastly, Cameo Hopscotch

Assorted

The last lot are actually from my stash and not all of them may be included but some look promising

Stash solidsStash spots

I must confess that the Farmer’s Wife blocks look more fiddly then I thought they would be but QALs should stretch skills and this one certainly will! Best I get started…

Crucial Crochet Cover-up

by Kay, posted in Crochet

Sounds dramatic but my little stool will soon have a new cover for the seat and once I can get some spray paint, a new paint job. It is small and fiddly and folds up so spray will be better than brushing.

I dithered over whether to do two rounds of yellow when the yarn decided for me by producing a knot as I got to the end of square round.  Teal it is then.

A large granny square from yarn I already had, a stool from a boot sale and hopefully some spray paint in the garage is making this a cheap project – just as well as quilting is proving to be expensive at the moment with my Pfaff still in for repair and new fabric purchased for the Farmer’s Wife 1930s QAL. Good job the RSC15, which I am also doing, only calls for scraps that I already have!

 

Another Challenge!

by Kay, posted in Uncategorized

I am adding a third challenge to the other two – my own self-imposed “Quilting from Little Things”, and the “Farmer’s Wife 1930s” QAL at the Quilting Board here

The third challenge is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler (RSC15) by Angela over at Soscrappy complete with button to add to your blog. The block is based around a sawtooth star with a different inner block for each star. The colour for August is indigo – a colour  I love but actually have very little of. Some blues look indigo until you put them next to each other and some then appear to have a greenish hue.

I couldn’t use Soscrappy’s method of making flying geese as I don’t have the appropriate ruler so I used the second method from Connecting Threads here

They went together easilyand I set to work on the inner square which is the Road to California, which also went together well.  The problems arose when I went to join them all – the inner block was bigger than the geese! Measuring the seams of the inner block showed that they were smaller than a quarter inch, hence the block was bigger. A close inspection of my quarter inch piecing foot showed that it was slightly bent inwards! How annoying as I can’t do anything about it until Monday. The foot came with my new sewing machine from Franklins in Colchester so not too far to travel to get a replacement.

I will just have to make notes for the previous squares as the challenge started in January so I have a lot of catching up to do.  As I don’t have any completed blocks you can see what they should look like  courtesy of Kat Scribner who has a very useful list showing all the blocks completed so far on her blog Scrapbox Quilts

 

Slow Stitching Sunday

by Kay, posted in Uncategorized

 

The Slow Stitching Movement has been steadily gaining ground recently and is a reaction against the tendency to rush the creative process; to produce something, anything, rather than enjoy the process itself. Formally launched by Mark Lipinski and modelled after the Slow Food Movement they believe that;

” … speed can kill creativity and the enjoyment of our creative pursuits.  Maybe what we really need to do is slow down, enjoy the process, and create fiber art that we’re really proud of.”

They are not the only advocates slow stitching, there are many others with a quiet passion for this way of working.  At the moment Kathy is hosting a link up for Slow Sunday Stitching which you can find  here. Why not grab her button like I did and join in.

My contribution at the moment is a grandmother’s flower garden. Started before I heard of The Slow Stitching Movement or Kathy’s’ blog, it is good to know that there is a growing appreciation, once again, for hand-stitched work. That doesn’t mean that machined quilts, chain piecing and easy blocks don’t have a place any more -they do, and I enjoy these too but in a different way.

The sewing machine ties us to the workbench, the noise inhibits conversation and drowns out music from the radio. Slow stitching is more sociable. I can sit and stitch with my other half while he relaxes watching a film,  or I can join a group to stitch in park, pub or home.

Slowness is the important part here, not that it is by hand as Lucie Dutton writes in her piece as a guest blogger for slowstitching.com. I recommend this as a cautionary tale about losing sight of what the movement means and what happens when you don’t slow down

Boot Sale Bargains

by Kay, posted in WIPs

I love boot sales, charity shops, EBay and auctions but lately more has been coming in  the house than has been leaving it; time for a purge. However, I couldn’t resist this little tatty fold-up stool, It has clearly seen better days probably long ago.

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The paint is peeling, the top is warped and even Socks was unimpressed. I think a new coat of paint and a crocheted seat cover will make it into a lovely little seat for any small visitors we have as currently there are no tiny chairs for them and all children love furniture that is scaled down just for them

The best thing about the stool at the moment is the new bundle of fabric on top. I couldn’t go to the Festival of Quilts so I went to Franklins of Colchester instead and they just  happen to have a sale on with craft cottons at £3.50 m, it would be rude not to buy any!

I choose some fabric outside of my comfort zone as I am joining the Quilting Board QAL of the Farmer’s Wife 1930s quilt (not to be confused with the 1920s version)

http://www.quiltingboard.com/blocks-month-week-f9/farmers-wife-week-4-blocks-7-8-photos-t61215-2.html

There is no need to use 1930s style fabric but I like the look of them and wanted to try something different. I didn’t have much in the way of suitable fabric so I am already a bit behind, but there is no pressure. I ordered the book from Abe books where it was much cheaper than Amazon and came in two days! I think Dear Jane will have to be put on the back burner for now, as I am doing that on my own so the QAL will take priority

Not sure how soon the stool (or quilt) will be done as I still have a sideboard to finish. The main body of it has been sanded and re-stained – doors and drawers tomorrow if it is sunny. three coats are needed and they take 24 hours to dry, so it will be a long drawn out process but worth it in the end

Fanfare

by Kay, posted in Quilting from Little things

I love these little fans, I almost feel like leaving them as they are but they are for the next challenge from Sarah Fielke’s book ‘Quilting from Little Things’; the dolly quilt called ‘Fanfare’. It is rated three stars and so far it has not been too difficult, I think that will come in the next few stages; applique and piecing the little blocks.

I had fun scribbling alternative layouts before I had made all the fans and then more fun as I played around with the placement using actual fans. The template is very small so I was able to get most pieces from my tiny scrap bag (the scraps are tiny not the bag…) which I keep mostly for applique. As I rummaged through the scraps, all the colours turning over and jostling for attention I decided to use all of the colours and have a different fabric for each fan blade

Piecing doesn’t take long and it was easy to draw on the seam allowance as a cereal bowl happened to have the exact curvature I needed to draw it. The squares for the background are cut waiting for their fans now all I need to do is attach them

I will have to put them on hold for a short time though as I am taking part in The Global Quilting Project. I am more than half way through completing the blocks ready to post to the other members of my group – The Balkan Puzzle – but more on that later!

A Blanket is Just a Big Scarf

by Kay, posted in Crochet

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….is what I told myself when I started this blanket – you wrap them around you to keep warm right? A blanket can seem to be a large and rather daunting project when you haven’t been crocheting  very long. It is the craft I have learnt most recently, I have wanted to learn for ages and now there are so many great patterns out there that I couldn’t wait any more.

What is your craft history?

My mum taught my sister and I to embroider when we were 7 and 9 using cotton with a crinoline lady printed on it. I kept it up but my sister wasn’t interested. I also learnt to knit, sew and do English paper piecing before I was 10. My mum couldn’t crochet and it wasn’t until I was a student and working part-time in an art shop that I encountered crochet again. I went with my friend Nina on a ‘teaching adults art and craft course’. We all had to teach a 20 minute class in our chosen subject to our classmates and one of those we were taught was crochet. Alas both Nina and I were rubbish while Ray the radio ham took to it like a duck to water. I nearly gave up my dream of learning crochet asit seemed I would never master it.

Many years later, while I was back in the UK, another friend persuaded me to take her learn crochet at Violet’s, a wool shop that ran informal classes twice a week – this time I got it! I only went once as that class was in the UK but when I returned to Brisbane another friend showed me photos of her first crochet blanket and recommended the course at Knitch in Paddington. Three classes later I had made my first nine granny squares and backing for a cushion. A giant granny square cushion followed (purloined by the borrowed cat) and now for the blanket!

It is also the chance to practice new stitches using the excellent book by Sarah Hazell: 200 Crochet Stitches, a practical guide to swatches, charts and step-by-step instructions. the number of stitches on my hook mysteriously waxes and wanes but I am managing to keep it reasonably under control and also am learning why this is happening. A garment might be next!

Pegboard

by Kay, posted in Uncategorized, Vintage

Pegboard! How could I have forgotten this stuff exists! It is great for keeping tools you use all the time readily to hand. I have some craft tools hanging on hooks and nails (nails…very bad)  why did I not think of getting some pegboard and this article from Houzz has some great ideas

Some of the old ideas are the best!

 

A Little Silhouette

by Kay, posted in Quilting from Little things

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What a sweet little dolly is this little silhouette. Rated 2 stars I would agree. I had practice on the smaller shapes for Spring and which was good practice before tackling this one as the piece is larger and the shaping more difficult. I was tempted to do a cockatoo instead but thought the plumed feathers on the top of a cockatoo’s head might be too fiddly

I really enjoyed the quilting and used different blues, getting lighter the further away from the eagle. I love the look of the close quilting lines and how they almost look like a landscape when viewed close-up.

I also loved the simple small squares of the background and am keeping a bag of small squares ready for another project – not that I have decided what it is – I just love the look of them

There was no real problem with this dolly as I had already completed needle-turn applique for ‘Spring’ but I would recommend that they are completed in that order if you are new to this type of applique