Moving On

We've already had one big hooray this week when I finished the "Time on the Prairie" quilt and now, here's another... HOORAY! I'm not sure what's more exciting really; finishing a quilt or starting one? So today was a starting day.

For some time now, in fact over a year, I have been stockpiling, hoarding fabric. This is not news, no? But I don't mean just any old fabric but fabric of the furry kind, to be precise, flannelette.

Now I'm aware flannelette might be a Marmite type thing. Personally, I adore it, have done since childhood and still do. You can't beat its cosy warmth and even more so when it has pretty flowery patterns. So, today, I amassed my flannelettes and wielded the rotary cutter with its fresh blade. Oh joy. If only Vorey hadn't made his latest bed on an abandoned cushion on my cutting table things would have been even easier.

My collection of flanelettes has come from various sources. I've bought some "pre-loved" sheets and pillowcases, I've bought some rather delectable vintage pieces from Ms Flower, I've picked tiny scraps up at rag markets (Ilminster springs to mind). I've received some new ones from my dear sister, I've bought the odd new FQ myself, many of which have looked startlingly vintage really, I've chopped up the bottoms of a Cath K children's pyjama set. I also had a chubby roll of pre-cut and pre-loved strips from Kim at Worn and Washed. I've mentioned Kim before as we always see her on her stand at the International Festival of Quilts, it's one of mine and my sister's favourites. I've had my bundle for a few years and now, it is finally having its moment with all its flannelly friends.

Kim collects second-hand fabrics and offers pre-cut bundles in a fabulous array of patterns and colours, tending towards shirtings/plaids, florals and flannels in soft colours. She produces quilts with them which are beautiful in their simplicity. It's a quilt like that I'm after.

And so the long process of ironing and cutting began late this morning. I enjoy really looking at each fabric, thinking how they will work together and discovering old markings on the selvedges. This fabric told me I wasn't about to set myself on fire if an errant spark flew out of the log fire, but golly did it smell really dire when it was ironed! Goodness knows what they treated it with but it will get a good washing once the quilt is finished.

Truly scrumptious, don't you agree?

Finally, the piles of fabric ready to sew began to emerge. I cut all the strips 5" wide, so they would be the same as Kim's, but then I cut randomly sized "bricks", anything from 3" to 9" long.

I attempted to lay my variety of strips out on a chair beside me to work but there were so many they spilled onto my table. Hmm, another area where cats and cushions seem to be eating into my workspace! This is patchworking of the most enjoyable kind; just randomly pick up a couple of bricks, sew them together, then sew the pairs together and so on, into long strings. In my case, I want them to be about 82" long. Ah, lovely stuff.

And it's been a productive day. There are no bricks left on the table and the chair looks like this...

Not bad as I didn't give a second thought to how many bricks to cut! The ironing board looks like this...

I've already bought a lovely vintage flannelette sheet to use as a backing from the Country Living Fair and I am tempted to hand quilt with big utility-style stitches in yummy sorbet shades of silky perle cotton.

But that will have to wait until next week!

School Houses

Yesterday afternoon, having finished the prairie-style double hourglass quilt, I found myself at a bit of a loose end. I idly looked at my bookcase and settled upon one of the "Little Quilts" books.

Little Quilts' books are full of lovely pictures of roomsets awash with adorable dinky quilts, mainly with a homespun feel.

My eyes were drawn to a quilt that looked a little like a flag but in particular, to the schoolhouse block in its corner. I love this block and hadn't yet tried it.

I didn't for whatever reason, fancy making the flag. But I did want to try the schoolhouse block and I must say, this is a nice easy version, no inset piecing in sight.

Four blocks and some sashing decisions later...

Oooh, cute don't you think? I made it virtually entirely from scraps too, just except for the sashing and corner stones.

I simply hand quilted the top last night in front of "Land Girls". I didn't want to make a small quilt though, so today, I added a button-closed backing et voila. I didn't expect we'd be looking at the pew again quite so soon but well, we are.

Maybe it's the freezing dull weather but this sort of homely design is floating my proverbial boat at the mo'.

Now what next?

Time on the Prairie Quilt

HOORAY!!!!!!!!! Today is one of my favourite type of days. It's a quilt finish day. We haven't had one of those in a while, have we? Well, not a proper big-sized quilt, I'm not sure the doll quilts count.

It's also a really beautiful day here; serendipity. Beautiful daffodils, furry compliant cats and delightful cosy quilts, what could be better?

Did you spot the new addition to our hallway when I posted a shot of my crafty baskets all ready for their holiday last week? I have been hankering after an old pew for a while but all the ones we saw were pretty shoddy examples, chopped down from longer pews and then with new bench ends squashed on, stained in a very dodgy fashion to "match". Must thank my Mr HenHouse for alerting me to this shoddy workmanship, he is great at spotting when something is "not quite right" about a piece and reigning in my over-enthusiasm to snap something up there and then.

We finally found a really gorgeous one, completely authentic yet perfectly petitely sized, at the last Shepton Mallet Flea Market, being sold by a genuine lady out of the back of her horse box, and for a super no-haggle price, too. Getting it back (eventually with the boot tied down) was another matter but that's all old history now, isn't it!

It makes a super place for displaying all manner of my quilty cushiony craftiness.

So I started this quilt before Christmas. I must tell you that I was mightily inspired by the style, workmanship and colours of Lucy's stunning blog. I then found the pattern for this "double hourglass" quilt block online, oh the wonders of the web. A very nice lady named Alison had kindly made available a free tutorial on her blog. Isn't that great? You don't need to leave the house or spend any money; just get on the good old www, find a free tutorial, make your own template with a bit of old card and off you go, justifying your sizable fabric stash. Ah yes, one of those is definitely a pre-requisite.

Out we go then into the chilly sunshine for a shot of the quilt in all its glory. It's not huge at about 42" x 54" but the perfect size for snuggling on the sofa. It is made of sixty-three blocks and that was quite enough, thank you!

I used wool batting for the first time. It was nice to work with and has made an undoubtedly snuggly warm quilt but it has more loft than I would have liked for this quilt, as it was meant to be vintage-looking and therefore somewhat flatter. No matter though, it's a lovely quilt and very usable, as Charlie-Boy and Vorey informed me as they slept soundly on it on the sofa last night!

I quilted it on the diagonal which generally made the quilting process fairly simple.

I have used a palette of red, blue and browns of varying shades, as you can see, mainly from my Civil War reproduction stash. In each block, each main colour is accompanied by a "shirting" fabric. My sister was kind enough to send reinforcements when I was running out of shirtings. Handy, eh?

I think it will live in our sitting room which is where we tend to be snuggling these days as we find it is the warmest room, with a roaring fire and the box-set of Foyle's War on DVD. We are now at the very last episode of the last series. Oh it is simply wonderful (if you like 1940's style and stories it's definitely for you) and I think we will just have to start again from the beginning once we're at the end!

Stay warm...

A Week of the Craftiest Kind

Hello once more readers, hope you are all keeping toasty despite the plummeting temperatures (if you're on the other side of the world and all sunny, I'm jealous!) I've made it back from the glorious Sussex countryside and in particular, West Dean College, housed in this amazing mansion house. No photos inside I'm afraid, which is such a shame as it is amazing so we'll just have to make do with the outside.

West Dean is famed for its gardens which are open to the public (and which I'm afraid I was too busy to visit), but even the walk to the car park was scenic with a carpet of pretty snowdrops and crocuses.

What were you doing all last week, Hen? Crafty stuff, of course. With materials like this...

...and this...

If I show you these, I think you'll be getting the idea...

(This is Kim's basket, another lady attending the course; she has long collected Julie's work and was kind enough to bring in some of her collection to show us.)

..and now definitely so!

Yes, I have indulged myself in the company of twelve like-minded crafty folk and the wonderful tutoring of Julie Arkell. You may recall, I attended a workshop of Julie's in the Summer, to make fabric jewellery, this time, it was papier mache creatures!

Julie brought some of her fabulous work to inspire us.

Not just creatures, but houses too. Made of fabric? Died and gone to heaven!

The first evening, we had a leisurely time getting to know one another, having a drink in the bar followed by dinner, then going to the studio for a talk by Julie.

The next day, we were eager to get on. Out came the newspaper and glue and off we went, papier mache-ing like mad. We all let our inner six-year old out to play. The radiators were soon hogged by damp newspaper-y creatures of the weird and wonderful kind! (Yes, some of these photos were dark as we were allowed to work in the studio until 10pm).

The papier mache was fun but quite hard work. We had to work fairly speedily so that we could get our creatures dry and ready for subsequent layers to be applied and dried. Finally, after an exceptionally long day, their dried forms began to emerge and for those who chose to do so, it was time to get out the paints. (No, of course I could not wait to get my fabric out and line it all up.)

At this point, I was in my element. The many bags and baskets came out, full with bits of vintage lace, trims, buttons and all sorts. The needle started flying and the creatures came to life.

Spot the difference!

It was quite a full-on schedule (and there were the boys thinking I was going to return home all radiant and rested!) but undoubtedly so enjoyable. We couldn't tear ourselves away from transforming our creations and some truly fabulous and original items began to emerge. The papier mache sculpting was only the starting of making our creatures. The intricacy of making clothes, knitting ears and embroidering words onto patches for tiny creatures took many patient hours.

Diane's donkeys with their crocheted accessories drew oohs and ahhs of admiration.

Elizabeth had travelled all the way from America (as had two more ladies) to attend the course and wowed us with her funky knitted hair (for her creature, that is!)

Everyone had different skills to bring to the melting pot; some were sewers and makers, some were painters, some designers and so on. It was interesting that everyone produced highly individual pieces.

And me? Well, you will probably not be surprised to see the style of my creations!

I couldn't wait to make a fabric house (I probably should have showed you the other sides which are all made with different fabrics and have embroidered words), and the "winged creature" (based on one in Julie's book,) is probably my favourite.

A few more creatures emerged too, with bunny-like ears and fancy frocks of fabulous fabrics. The one on the right is called "Marvellous Mary" and I think her inspiration, who was kind enough to gift me some of the beautiful vintage fabrics, will hopefully be reading and approve.

I made a few other bits which require finishing touches so will save those for another day. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Munchkin is showing quite an interest in having a go himself so this will likely not be the last you see of papier mache!

And now, back down to earth!

Packing Up

Just a quicky post today, folks.

Spurred on by some very lovely (and cheap!) fabric which I bought from the Ardingly Quilt Festival on Saturday, yesterday, I finally decided to tackle a dress making pattern I bought ages ago. I must confess, one of my weaknesses is getting over excited and buying patterns which I take ages (or never get round) to making.

I bought this Colette pattern from Liberty, it wasn't cheap as patterns go but I had heard good things about these patterns and the styles are lovely and vintage-inspired. They also cover a huge size range from skinnies to curvies. Hurrah! Although the pattern states it is beginner level, I think you need to be fairly confident before setting off on this. Personally, I have very good intentions when it comes to making clothes but I don't usually enjoy it that much. I've had so many items turn out too small or too large and then have no idea how to alter them.

I'm happy to report that I did rather enjoy making this blouse and am pleased with how it has turned out. It's also a pretty good fit!

Sorry to rush on... Other sewing I've whipped up recently is this little collection of bags, jolly useful they are too. I made them to house different collections of crafty bits 'n' bobs; vintage lace, ribbons, bits of embroidered cloths and so on.

You see I'm in a rush as I'm packing to head off to Sussex for a few days, crikey four days away from my beloved Den. No complaints though, I can't wait to spend four days and three nights in the company of other like minded crafty fellows, learning new skills and not doing a shred of housework! Not forgetting our tutor, whom I greatly admire and am massively inspired by. Eeek, very over-excited here!

So, I will love you and leave you, readers as I need to get off and still have many important clothing/accessories/pinny selection issues to wrangle with. But the important stuff is packed!

See you soon...