New Work

We have both beel full of cold for the past couple of weeks but I have managed to get some work done in the studio.


I finished off the two parasol blocks by adding little flowers around the centre and outside embroidered stitches and also 3D flowers on the parasols and centre design.

I have also completed two of the Royal Bluebell block, Block 2 in the design. I had some problems with some of the embroidered stitches but I bought a new foot 34C and all was well.

I am really enjoying working with the Bernina 730. I made this stocking. The Poinsettia design is lovely to stitch.
This redwork santa was a joy to stitch. The lace cuff was stitched using water soluble.

The above two snowmen stockings were appliqued in the hoop.
Just for fun a little fabric cupcake. I will be busy with my third block from the Latte quilt and will post pictures when they (I am making two) are finished.

Thank you for dropping by.

Beavering Away

I have been busy working on some of my own work but also getting ready for the start of my classes at Currie High School. The taster sessions went well with the Monday session full to overflowing, what a buzz, and the Thursday class was quiet but I enjoyed it.

On the Monday one of my students mentioned she would like to make a Christmas table runner and so I made this one this week, I hope she likes it, it certainly went down well on Thursday and so I shall carry on and layer and quilt it.

I bought the Latte Quilt book more years ago than I care to admit. It was about the time I bought my Bernina 180 with Artista V1 software and I thought at the time it would be a good project to really get to know my machine and software. I read a lot of reports about there being errors in the book so being new to machine embroidery I thought I may be biting off more than I could chew and so left it for another day.

In the meantime I was busy with City & Guilds courses and the Judging course altogether 6 years of learning and of course all of my classes.

Earlier this year I bought a Bernina 730 and Artista V5 software. I was also looking for a new challenge. What better way to learn the new machine and software than to make the Latte Quilt. I already had the fabric and book and so this month I embarked on making the quilt.

This is the first block, the Parasol Block. I am working with a lovely lady called Serena who teaches the Latte Quilt online. The class will run for a year and I will post my progress.

I am going to make one more of these blocks this week as I await Lesson 2 at the beginning of October - I can't wait.

I have already learned so much about my new machine and the new software and am looking forward to learning so much more over the coming year.

EQ6 - A Twist on Tradition

For September's EQ6 project I have been playing around with traditional blocks. I removed some lines and added some curves. Some work well some are not quite so good but it has been a lot of fun and I am sure I could come up with even more interesting blocks if I had more time.

I am offering the project file showing the blocks in their various stages of change to let EQ users see what I have been doing. You can download the project file from HERE. I hope you enjoy it and try to create some of your own designs from traditional or non traditional blocks for that matter.

Today I must go and get my packs ready for the two taster sessions that are being run at Currie High School in a fortnight.

Enjoy your day and thank you for dropping by.

Congratulations Mike Perham

Huge congratulations to Mike Perham for becoming the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe single handedly - he's just 17 years old.

What an amazing 9 months it has been following young Mike on his personal challenge in Totallymoney.com. He is one very brave and talented young man. He stood up to every challenge he faced and he faced many.

Well done Mike.

Back from Birmingham

I am back home again. Norman and I spent a week in Birmingham. I was judging at the Festival of Quilts - and survived! If you were to believe everything you are told about judging such a show you would be forgiven for wondering if you would survive unscathed. Well, yes you can. Before going I wondered if I should perhaps train as though I were undertaking the London marathon. Since I walk 6 miles most days I was sure that would be enough "training".

It was great to meet some of my fellow students from the Judging course again and other fellow judges. It was a busy day with so many quilts to judge. I did start a little slowly but was gently prompted by my "angel" and I soon caught up. After lunch we had more quilts to judge. It was interesting, enjoyable and a lot of fun.

We went off to Oxford for a couple of days and spent a day wandering around Birmingham.

As someone who loves Morse we visited some of the places where the series was filmed which took us to places we had never visited before. We had a drink in the Turf Tavern, it was small and cosy. We also visited some of the colleges.

The Botanical gardens were lovely. Thankfully the weather was gorgeous and we had a lovely time.

Now it's time to get back into the studio. Will post pictures of work in progress later.

Inspiration

Yesterday we had a trip to Heatherslaw Mill. It is a lovely spot and it's so nice to see a working mill. We have been before but I wanted to buy some of their flour, it's lovely for bread making. This is the river whose energy powers the mill.

As you can see someone else has been inspired by the mill workings.

I thought this was a lovely plaque - I was surprised to see the thistle! Mind you I wasn't as surprised as I was later in the day when we visited Rosslyn Chapel (they filmed part of The Davinci Code there) to see carvings of corn. They started building the chapel in 1446. No photography was allowed and the outside is covered at the moment due to renovation but it was a lovely place.

The wheels of the water mill I could certainly see becoming a quilt.

Both visits provided much inspiration.

This is a block from a pattern called French Roses.

It's raw edge applique. I have made 4 blocks. I thought I might put purple sashing but it looks better without.
I am currently auditional for the borders and think I might stick with this. I need to layer and quilt it then give it a couple of washes to fray the edges of the flowers in order to get the full effect. I will post a picture once it has been washed and frayed.

I have another little project to try and will post pictures in the next day or two.