What am I making this week?

Well it’s nearly Sunday again and Sunday is gardening day here in the cottage. Today we had some much welcomed rain. In fact we had today half the total rainfall for the whole of September. Amazing!

The picture above shows the fifth dog blanket I am making for Battersea Dogs’ Home. This one is going to be in different shades of blue and is made in an ever popular blanket stitch. The home likes this because the dogs can’t get their paws caught up in it.

My new quilt is finished and now on my bed, ready for the cold nights ahead, which we have been promised!

Lucky me! Larry is making me a tabard on his weaving loom. Here is the pattern from the weaving book…

and here it is in the making…

I can’t wait to see how it comes out.

On my spinning wheel is some of the white Polworth fleece and I’m already making a jerkin with some of it, see below. Millie likes it because it is so warm so she is usually to be found curled up underneath while I’m knitting.

So another busy week and tomorrow we’ll be in the garden.

ps there is a little good news about my son. He has found someone to share a flat with, albeit on the sofa! and he is training for a job in customer service with a well known bank. I have hope !

Oma

What am I making this week?

I’ve just recently finished a patchwork quilt for my bed, see above. After working on Larry’s American themed quilt at the beginning of the year,

I was ready for something ‘girlie’ and this is the result. It’s pink, red and flowery!!! Of course since I’ve finished it, the weather has turned warmer so I haven’t actually used it yet but the time is coming.

It was hard to get a picture of the quilt because it is quite big, but in the end what worked best was Larry holding it up for me. You can see his feet at the bottom!

So now I’m (almost) ready for the colder weather.

What about you? have you started squirrelling things away for the winter yet?

Oma

The Kaffe Fassett Knitwear and Quilt Exhibition – Bath, England.

I’ve just been enjoying a trip to Bath. On one of the days we visited the Kaffe Fassett exhibition, which was, to me, spectacular. This post is heavy on pics but I simply could not choose what to leave out so please enjoy the feast…

This is the entrance hall, which was very pink like everything else in the exhibition – a riot of colour.

With pictures like these, who needs words? If these pictures have wetted your appetite for more, click here and you can read some more about this interesting designer.

Oma

 

My Patchwork Club

Every Monday afternoon for ‘so many’ sessions, I go to my Patchwork Club.  It is held in a church hall and some of the money collected each week goes towards the church funds. I think it’s a lovely idea, don’t you. It gives the chance for we ladies of a certain age and younger (also one or two men) to come along and chat, make new friends and sew in a nice environment.  It does get a bit noisy sometimes.

We make lots of nice things, which we can use afterwards or give away as presents. During this latest session, the theme has been on ‘scrap patchwork’, which basically means using up all the scraps of fabric that are lurking in your basket, or large cardboard box or whatever. Here is an example of scrap patchwork:

I liked this next one best. I liked the way the stripes gave opportunities for lots of different colour schemes. In this example, half of the square was plain cream coloured calico but for mine I chose the purples and pinks.

I tried to crop the pictures a bit in Picasa, but it wasn’t playing the game so please just look at the centre of the pictures to get the gist of the different arrangements. They are displayed on a large board at the club to give us all inspiration.

The next picture shows scrapping but using bird pictures in the centres of some of the squares. It’s so pretty and such a good use of those little bits and pieces:

The cushion cover in the last pictures is lovely, isn’t it?  The lady who made is is currently away suffering from shingles, poor thing. I hope she gets well soon.

I have made enough squares now for a table runner and this afternoon I am hoping to sew some of them together.

Oma

Busy Hands

While I was in America, I introduced Larry to rug making. I didn’t know if he would like it, but he certainly did. We started him off with the rug of the deer, see above. It’s now hanging on his bedroom wall, right above his bed and looks wonderful, don’t you think?

After making about five other rugs of varying sizes whilst he was waiting to come over here, he decided to design one for himself. This is it below and I think he’s done a great job of it too. He plotted out the chart in Excel and then ordered the back-cloth and the yarns to make it. It took a while because it is very thick and luxurious, but now he has something he can be truly proud of.

I’ll be showing you some more crafty items that Larry has made. He really is very talented.

Meanwhile I progress with my patchwork. Here are some squares I made recently. When joined together they will be a table runner.

I chose pinks and purples because I had quite a few bits and pieces of fabric left over from making the quilt for Larry’s bed.

Here is the quilt:

The picture turned out a bit dark, but you get the idea, and here are the squares I’m making:

So we keep ourselves busy. Busy hands don’t get into trouble, do they!

Have a lovely Sunday 🙂

Oma

Baby Sam’s First Christmas and a new project for me.

This is my second grandson, Sam. He is sitting on his mum’s lap, opening his Christmas presents. He is a little confused about it all because it is his very first Christmas and he’s not sure what it’s all about. The quilt over his knees was his main present from me. You can see more about it here… I think he likes it. It has a jungle theme so I bought him  a tiger to go with it and a storybook called ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’. Don’t you just wish you were that age again?

So now that I’ve finished that quilt, what am I working on next? Well, here it is, a quilt for Larry (my husband). When I was in America, I loved going to Joanne’s Fabric Emporium. They have every sort of craft going on in there and they are very big on quilting. I was inspired every time I stepped through the doors. Now that I’m back in England, I feel deprived because the nearest shop I have to that is quite a way away and my local shop is tiny. I buy a lot of materials online, but I did bring some American themed material back with me so the quilt for Larry has an American theme (in case he gets homesick) and I’m making it in a homespun sort of design. I fell in love with the homespun style while I was there and for those of you reading this who are English and unaware of the style, take a look here:

I love the spooky nature of the Primitive Style. It appeals to that side of me as I love all things natural and home-made.

Here’s a preview of Larry’s quilt, which I still have to sew up. The layers are in place like  a sandwich and I’m pinning them together so they don’t shift about when I sew.

and one more picture of Baby Sam’s first Christmas:

Oma 🙂

Patchwork table-mats for Christmas

I’ve just finished a patchwork project for Christmas – one table centre-piece and four tablemats. Now do I keep them or give them away as presents? After all the work I put in to make them, it’s tempting to keep them.

In April my Patchwork Club is having an exhibition of work we’ve been doing through the year. I’m wondering how many tablemats will have spillages on them after the Christmas holidays? Perhaps we should keep them till next Christmas?

Here are the individuals…

The colours don’t look quite right on here. In reality there is more contrast, but this was the best I could do in the available light.

Shall I keep or give away? Choices, choices….

A Patchwork Quilt for Baby Sam

I have just completed this patchwork quilt for baby Sam (my second grandson). It will be for his Christmas present.

It was difficult to find the time to work on it recently, what with all the business at the cottage since the end of July. However, I have finished it and I am quite pleased with it. There is no ‘Jo-annes’ near me so I have to rely on small shops and the internet to get the supplies that I need and I was held up with the finishing of it until my favourite sewing machine got here from America.

The quilt has a jungle theme, which I chose to match with Sam’s bedroom.

I do hope he likes it. He’s a bit young to appreciate it now of couse, but in time he may come to like the pictures and the bright colours.

…and of course, no jungle is complete without an elephant, so the elephant may go with it (if I can bear to part with it).

Meanwhile, the elephant is having a sleep while he waits for Christmas.

Now if I can just find a box big enough to pack them both?

Oma