Skip to main content

My New Blog

So, the main purpose of this blog is to keep my mum updated with what I'm creating at the moment. But, if you're reading this and you're not my Mum, that's great too. Hopefully some of the things I post will inspire you, or even just make you smile.

I want to use this blog to keep a record of all the things I am making - cross stitch, quilting, patchwork, embroidery and sewing. For the record, I cannot knit or crochet, despite my mother-in-laws attempts to teach me.

I started stitching when I was very young, inspired by my Grandmother who was a fantastic needlewoman, and encouraged by my Mum, who, if I remember rightly, always seemed to indulge my hobby. My first cross stitch magazine was Cross Stitcher from summer/autumn 1995, when I was 10. I've done so many pictures and cards over the years, most of which I've given away, with no record of what I've done. I still give away most of what I stitch, but now I take photographs!

Last December I went to a fabulous work shop at one of our local patchwork shops up here in the North East, the Fat Quarters, with Debbie from Letters Tied with Blue. We did some stamping on fabric and most exciting for me was some hand embroidery. I did some hand embroidery back when I was a girl guide, but always had a problem keeping an even tension. This time, with the correct materials, something clicked and the results were excellent. I enjoyed the Christmas workshop so much, that me and Mother-in-Law signed up for another workshop on my birthday. This time it was to make a fabric memory book, using a sewing machine.

Now me and sewing machines don't tend to get on. I have my maternal Grandmother's 1950s (electric) Singer, and I have my paternal Grandmother's 1980s Pfaff. Well. Neither of them would work. Admittedly, it has been a number of years since either was plugged in.... The end result was a trip to John Lewis and a brand new shiny, simple, fully operational, complete with instructions Janome sewing machine. Which is very beautiful and works....

So, two days later, we went to the workshop and had great success. I'll post some photos of the memory book later.

Once the workshop was finished, then came the shopping. I tried a small piece of patchwork for the first time for years early in January, and I had decided to make a patchwork quilt, so I bought all the fabric for that. I also bought all the fabric and pattern for a quilt designed by Debbie from Letters Tied with Blue called Wilding Angels.

Both projects are currently in progress, as are many, many others. This is where I will record progress of these numerous projects...

I hope you enjoy reading my blog as much as I enjoy creating the pieces that Ill record here.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

365 Quilt Challenge 2016 [A finish]

I can't believe I've just typed that heading! When I made the block for January 1st 2016 I could not have imagined the journey this quilt would have taken me on. So make yourselves comfortable and grab a cup of tea, because this blog post may get lengthy! I'd seen the 365 Quilt Challenge on Facebook. I think every quilter on Facebook must have been aware of it. Loads of my friends had signed up and it kept popping up as a "Page you might like" thing. In the end, in November 2015, I joined the group, had a poke round. Decided it wasn't for me. One of the things that really put me off were the fabric requirements: you needed x amount of dark dark fabric, x amount of medium dark fabric, x amount of dark medium, medium, light medium, light, background.... I just couldn't get my head round those requirements. I'd looked at the mock ups on the wesbite and couldn't bring myself to pick a colour. I put it to the back of my mind. But I had obvious

Hidden Agenda [A Finish]

This is very possibly my favourite ever finish - I know I've said that in the past, but this one is going to be hard to beat. This time last year, I attended a day long lecture/workshop with Tula Pink and it was inspiring. Having not really loved her fabrics in the past (but loved her patterns), I suddenly saw them in a new light, linked with my 2018 new year's resolution to try more fussy cutting). Fast forward 8 months and I confess that my Tula stash has expanded quite a lot. I found some UK shops with older ranges of fabric, splurged on a few destashes and found the odd piece of her fabric already in my stash. The plan was always (and remains) to make a Smitten quilt, but I'm well aware that I have plenty of fabric to make other projects as well! So when I saw the Hidden Agenda quilt pattern by Angela Pingle, this fabric sprung instantly to mind.... and we all know I love a rainbow! And what could be better than rainbowfied Tula? I was ably assisted by my friend Ti

February Embroidery Along [A Finish]

I've really been enjoying my embroidery this year, after not doing very much last year. One of the challenges I set myself at the start of the year was to learn to colour tint my fabric before adding the embroidery - I love buying the pre-printed panels, but I'd like to do this myself as well. And the opportunity to learn this arose in February. Meg Hawkey of Crab Apple Hill Studio hosted a stitchalong to celebrate National Embroidery Month, and the first step was colour your fabric. I bought the pencils she advises,  the blending stumps, something called fabric extender and the pigma pen. And I gave it a go. My first attempt ended badly. Because the one thing I didn't buy was a new, clean paintbrush. So when I came to add the fabric extended, it went all bleary and muddy as, despite cleaning the paintbrush thoroughly, it obviously wasn't clean enough. It was unsalvageable so I started again, and I was so much happier with the results. The practice piece was, in

Labels

Show more

Archive

Show more