We have confirmation that another member has pulled out of The Global Quilting Project and that another is definitely staying in so I am busy making a second block. I have nearly finished and just need to complete two more yellow applique ‘suns’ to mirror the applique blue/green ‘earths’. Other members of the Balkan Puzzle group have also made an extra block to boost numbers so I am doing my bit too
I may even get to post them tomorrow but I have an interview so they might have to wait for Tuesday – we’ll see!
I thought drawing the spiral on the fabric in pen could go horribly wrong – even if it does have 2 sides! An easier and less fraught way is to iron it into place and reposition as needed. After that I put it on the glass table top and tacked it on with very large stitches; simple.
The second difficulty I had was doing the needle turn applique partly because the fabric glue I bought was useless so I used a quilting pin to hold the leaves in place. This didn’t really work as it didn’t hold it flat enough to the fabric. The ends of the leaves, I found particularly fiddly and I did not want to use the freezer paper method. The precision of this method doesn’t go with the naïve style of this quilt.
In the end I tacked the edges under and once the end of the leaf was attached to the spiral there was no need to glue it in place, I just held it with my thumb which allowed for some manoeuvring if need be. In the end I made too many leaves but I squeezed them on anyway!
When it came to quilting, I had lots of embroidery thread but only a couple of spools of perle cotton. I am following Sarah on Facebook so I emailed her to ask if embroidery thread was ok. She kindly replied the same day and said that the stranded embroidery thread would split and to stick with perle. An order on EBay sorted that out.
I enjoyed the handwork for this project and remembered how much I used to like embroidery – I got grade A for ‘O’ level embroidery – don’t know anyone else who has it. Most people don’t know it exists!
This is a very enjoyable project for hand sewers just right for Slow Sunday Stitching, but not if you love your machine.
And the title? Originally this was on a page but I tidied up the page to change this to a link
Books, that is, except it isn’t working out that way. The lure of the bootsale proved too strong last Wednesday and the lure of books even stronger. I wasn’t going to buy any but I saw an interesting looking cover (I know, don’t judge a book etc., etc.) that had no writing on it but looked very old. The minute I opened it I had to have it. Beautiful engravings of birds and animals, foxed in places, but mostly in good condition leapt out at me. I love engraving and one day I want learn it myself.
It is a strangely bound copy of Cassel’s Natural History and there are pages missing and it seems to be various volumes bound together, not always in the right order, but I bought it for the illustrations so none of that matters – and it was only £1.00!
This was followed by three more books; two volumes on Wayside and Woodland Blossoms with lovely colour plates and the British Girls Annual; also only £1.00 each.
The British Girl’s Annual is dated 1918 and is full of stories and poems, plays ‘that can be entirely acted by girls’ and hobbies. It is not all girlish; Doron might be ‘frightfully queeny’, but there are dogfights in the air and cowboys too. The chapter called ‘The Girl’s Own Bookshelf’ has suggestions for the books about cookery, and nursing at home but also art, literature, poetry, science – even a primer of evolution.
British Girls Annual 1918
Dogfight 1918
I thought as I haven’t even unpacked all the books from storage I better get rid of some via EBay as I have bought more – four books bought and four listed. Now let’s hope they sell
I also bought a little sewing box destined to be painted and then to hold my EPP projects as I sit downstairs to do those when I am Slow Sunday Stitching
I’m sure that cat is sticking her tongue out at me!
I have been a part of The Global Quilting Project for the last eight months. It has been a long process as it was more than the usual block swap where everyone exchanges a known block. For this we had to design our own.
I won’t go through all the steps as the teaching programme belongs to Kim Andrews who organised the whole massive project, what I can say is; that it stretched the capabilities of all involved. Many dropped by the wayside when they realised that it wasn’t a basic block swap. Others dropped out due to family problems, lack of time or lack of confidence in their designs. The ladies in my group – The Balkan Puzzle Group – have been very supportive but we dropped from twelve to eight members. I wish they hadn’t chosen the most difficult (for me anyway) design to make ha ha. I shouldn’t have given them a choice of four
This is basically wedges but cut into a curved design and hand appliqued. I need to pick which colour Suffolk Puff looks best and attach them. Next remove the basting stitches and parcel them up for posting and waited with for the others to arrive from around the World!
End date to make a quilt from the blocks is December – so watch this space
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
thecraftyyak 