Pretty itty bitty Liberty fabrics

There's nothing nicer than receiving something in the post - especially when that something is all wrapped up in brown paper and you just know that it contains a bundle of beautiful little scrappy bits of Liberty fabrics.

I ordered this teensy weensy bundle from Very Berry Fabrics. It's the "ditzies only" bundle, and is made up of really tiny bits of Liberty fabric featuring tiny floral patterns. They're really very soft and thin, like delicate silk scarves - only, miniature.

These are my favourites. I really like tone-on-tone patterns at the moment, and that grey bit is oh-so-appealing. This might seem like a strange way to spend £4.00 (on scraps! I hear you say), but you'd be surprised by what you can make up out of these little squares! Pop over to Very Berry Handmade's blog and see what Ali makes out of her fabulous mini bits. Purses! Bags" Roll-up-thingamajigs!

These pretty scraps are destined for a very particular project, and they make up Just The Right Amount of fabric so I don't have to fork out for Liberty meterage. Very pleased indeed.

Wednesday WIP: Olive Shawlette

You know that yarn you buy because it's oh so beautiful, and then you stash it away until a rainy day? The yarn you absolutely had to have because the colourway was just perfect and it would have made the most beautiful little shawl?

That yarn.

It came out of the box a few weeks ago. In this case, this particular yarn is Araucania Ranco Solid in an olive colourway. I'm a little bit in love with Araucania yarns - they're a hand-spun yarn mum and daughter team in Chile who make lots of beautiful natural fibre yarns. No two dye lots are the same, and I love the way the yarn changes colour (even in the solid variations!) as you move it. 

This is going to be a Holden Shawlette. I've knit the body which is the most tedious part. You definitely need lots of tea and motivation to get you through this bit of the pattern. By the by, do you love my lego stitch markers as much as I do? I love getting out my knitting because they're there, and they make the most wonderful sounds as they jangle in your knitting bag. I've made up hundreds of these stitch markers. They're currently being boxed, and will be in my Etsy store soon (with lots of photos and plenty more info). Such fun!

Spring Sampler Stitchery: Done!

It was a good weekend for stitching! Spring has definitely sprung; there are spring showers, spring flowers, and lots of sunshine! I started a few new projects, stitched along on a few old projects, and finished up my Spring Sampler Stitchery while it rained.

I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. I'm happy with the linen background, and the soft colours used in the design. I like the lazy daisies best. I had to stop myself from stitching them in all the open spaces.

I balanced out the lettering with some simple stitching here and there, and a few colonial knots for texture. This is definitely a feel it stitched piece. I mounted it in a hoop frame, stitched up the back with a running stitch around the edges, and covered it up with a green felt circle. Ready to hang!

I've had a few emails asking for the template for stitching, so you can now download the stitching template here. Add your own colours and free-hand flowers or bugs. Bugs are very spring-y. I look forward to seeing how yours turn out too!

Kaffe Fassett: A Life in Colour

Kaffe Fassett, says Wikipedia, rhymes with safe asset. That settles it. Kafe. I was wrong. It's not Kaff-ee.

Still. The activity sheet made up for my disappointment.

I met up with the lovely Miriam and went to see the Fashion and Textile Museum exhibition on Kaffe Fassett: A life in Colour.

It was ... interesting. You walk through four galleries of Kaffe-displays, from photographs and early still life paintings and drawings from his youth, to later quilts and knitting. Blocks. Stripes. Cave Paintings. Yarn. Mosaics. Ribbons. Diamonds. RED. Smelly pamphlet at the door. Phoo.

The galleries are small - much smaller than I thought they would be - but there is a good display of ideas. After walking through them all, you get to a TV which loops two documentaries on Kaffe's work and life. I wish they had put these first, as they gave quite a brilliant insight into his style and objectives. I had to revisit some of the works to understand them better and appreciate them in a new light.

We both really enjoyed this particular display; I like his love of vegetables. I enjoy the way that the ordinary is made into the extraordinary by immortalising them in stitches. An artichoke. A beetroot. A footstool that nobody would ever put their feet on. We were told not to touch.

I was limited to my phone camera, so everything is a bit blurry, but I found plenty of blocky inspiration in these captured moments. I really really like that footstool. The quilt is lovely in an unexpectedly low volume way. Cumulative cushions, like puffy clouds of colour. A great display. 

I like the repetitive patterning in his quilting; the way that the colours melt into each other, or are stacked up against each other in defiant but accepting geometry. The colours are warm. Some of his new colours are surprisingly bright, the patterns aren't quite distinct, and it's like a cacophony of tones. It reminds me of a joke my grandfather, a jazz musician, once told us over a family dinner; what is jazz? it's what happens when a blues band falls down the stairs.

The exhibition costs £8.00. It's on until the 29th of June, 2013.

Wednesday WIP: Gypsy Blue Quilt

I've been stitching up some more HSTs for my quilt, which has now been named the Gypsy Blue Quilt. It's blue. It's made from FQs of Valori Wells's Karavan which full of fun and a bit of magic. The name seems right.

Blues and greys and subtle greens. I've resisted adding in any other colours - although some of the designs have a touch of apple green and purple to balance things outs.

I really like the geometry of this collection - some of them are rigid and haphazard at the very same time, while the others are completely free-form. Cutting them up into neat triangles and putting them in a pattern is like trying to structure the unstructured. It's quite reflexive; I like it.

Each "block" is made up of nine smaller block units - seven of which are made up of HSTs. I have fourteen blocks like this. The plan is put these big blocks in four rows of four, with two in the middle saved for something completely different. Something with grids, elephants and log cabin squares. Just because. 

So far so good, but I am a bit nervous about matching up those points!

Screenprinting and Playing with Colour

My screenprinting course has been marvellous. Week two: we splished and splashed, painted and squeegeed. We rolled, textured, printed and blocked. We got covered in blue paint and our nails were detailed in an assortment of whites, blues and greens. (Ahem, the messy bit is more of a me than a we, but let's not get bogged down in the details, okay?)

My giraffe was a great success. It seems that I have a knack for making my screen-printed transfers textured which is rather nice for a giraffe (I'm still not convinced this texture business is a good thing, but our lovely instructor assures me it is, and I plod along happily).

This week's homework: a complex or intricate design to be used with light-sensitive photo emulsion. Oh My.

Appreciation

That's all. 

Screenprinting at the Ideas Store, and Geoffrey

I've been screenprinting at the Ideas Store. It's so much fun. I've attended the first of a ten-week course focusing on screenprinting techniques and tricks for fabric prints. Fabulous.

I had imagined that I would photograph the entire process, but wouldn'tyaknowit, I ended up covered in paint. My camera was stowed away safely in my bag. And so, all you have to go by is a few photographs of the studio, and some fabric paint. You'll have to trust me on the awesomeness.

Oh yes, we're screenprinting on fabric. We're washing and squeegie-ing, we're printing and pressing, we're cutting, folding and sketching. I mixed the greens on the left, and the very talented Julie from Kip & Fig mixed up the gold and blue. We borrowed the bronze, as you do. I had intended to stick to earthy and natural colours, but somehow the golds and bronzes and olive greens all got mixed up on the plate - and, well, that was the end of that.

In our first class, we learnt how to tape up a screen, how to apply paint, and how to paint free-form straight on to the mesh. We swirled and swished. I may have finger-painted just a little. This week, we're testing out a few image transfer techniques. 

This is Geoffrey. He's going to be a stencil for our next screenprinting project. He's homework. I've drawn him from the real Geoffrey who lives in our lounge, and watches over our books for us.

He came all the way from South Africa! It's rather far for a giraffe to travel these days. 

Weekend Sewing

There's nothing nicer than having a few hours all to yourself on a sunny weekend morning. You can do whatever you please. You can switch off your computer. You can play your favourite music as loudly as you like. 

You can bake a little date and apricot loaf to be enjoyed later with a cup of piping hot tea.

You can even start a new quilt.

I've had an idea for a HST (half square triangle) quilt for a while. I wanted to make something with this amazing Karavan FQ bundle. It's a mixture of blues, teals and turquoises offset with olive greens and pale apple green. 

I was tempted to mix it with a range of purples and greens, but I managed to hold myself back. Instead, I decided on a light grey - it's called Ash, by Kona. The Karavan range is a collection of swirls, dots, flowers --- and elephants. Oh the elephants! Ash grey is very appropriate.

After ironing and cutting the fabric into 5" squares, I started piecing them together. Chain piecing HST is really quite clever. You put two squares together, fronts facing each other. Draw a line down the middle diagonal, and stitch down 1/4" on either side of the line. Cut on the line, press open, and ta da! Two HSTs. Neat as a pin. Hopefully.

There's something wonderfully reckless about chain piecing. You never really know if it's going to work out quite how you imagined until you've chain pieced all of the pieces. I took a stack of squares and just went for it. I drew the line, pinned them together, and sew sew sewed. 

It is a wonderful feeling when you cut them, open them up, press them and voila! HST squares. All neat and lined up in a row. 

And then, my few hours were done. Just like that. I have about twenty completed squares made up of HSTs. I have another fifty or so waiting in the wings. Until next weekend.

Spring Sampler Stitches

My Spring Sampler is coming along slowly, but it is oh so cheery! Just a few more lazy daisies, a final smattering of colonial knots and cross-stitches, and it'll be done. I designed it to fit in an 8" embroidery hoop - but of course, all of the 8" hoops are now out of stock at my LYS, and I can't find the specific one I want online either. Hurrumph.

It turns out, The Great British Sewing Bee is an excellent inspiration for picking up your stitching for an hour a week while you watch it. I do like how it seems to have galvanised a nation through only four episodes. Jolly good.

Spring Days and Bake Sales

Spring has sprung, as it does. It just suddenly happens upon you.

Although, it helps to have a brass band help announce the moment.

As ever, the East End WI are ready to welcome in the excellent weather with cakes and treats. 

I made my first-ever meringues. I don't like meringues. Not one bit. But, I do like they way they look. They're amazing cloud mountains. They were taste-tested by the Mister, and won his seal of approval.

I also made chocolate chip cupcakes with buttercream and fudge topping. (They received my seal of yumness approval.)

Karen made an incredible coffee cake which sold out almost before it arrived.

Colleen made amazing cupcakes with flakes and jellybeans and springtime goodness.

And we even welcomed a new team member. All in all, a jolly sunny day. Hello, Spring.