Always another quilt to finish ...

The last of the binding has been attached and I finally get to call this improv quilt finished. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but making it taught me a lot about making curves in patchwork, and about applique. Also, about being brave / reckless and being prepared to do something drastic if a quilt just isn't 'working'. In this case I literally chopped the thing up and rearranged it as I wasn't satisfied with how I'd put it together. Rearranging the pieces left me with a smaller quilt than I'd originally planned, but a better quilt, for all its faults.

The material I chose for the backing fabric was a wee bit too small, so had to be patched up to make it fit.

The extra section in a similar grey isn't so noticeable, but the bright green is! I like the randomness of adding that little square.

When I wasn't occupied with sewing I managed an hour on the allotment, collecting raspberries and deadheading the calendula, and a trip to the charity shop too.

The dress is a size 10, so I'm not sure if it'll fit. My clothes seem to range from a highly improbable 8 right through to a more realistic 12, so it's pot luck when I buy something as to whether I'll get into it. The numbers on clothes labels seem pretty meaningless, don't they? It all depends on the clothing brand. Some have a generous cut, others are less so. Anyway, this secondhand dress only cost two quid, and it's lovely fabric. So if it doesn't fit I'll happily chop it up to add to my fabric stash.

The book by Elizabeth Bowen is a collection of short stories. I've read various novels of hers in the past and enjoyed them, and hopefully these stories will be equally good.

Now that improv quilt's finished I can return to this partly-completed mini quilt. It needs binding added and - this might be over optimistic - but I'd originally had the notion that I'd embroider it. Lots of leaves and flowers and hares. Yup, hares. That's because my starting point for making this, and for the colour choices, was a drawing in a childrens book about the tortoise and the hare. The book's illustrated by Brian Wildsmith, and I wanted to embroider golden coloured hares among lush foliage. However, I've only got as far as a few leaves and stems as my embroidery skills are basic.

Time to watch some YouTube videos on how to embroider, and to browse Instagram, don't you think?

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Threads of Freedom and charity shop bargains

It's Saturday afternoon, and I haven't done half the things I'd meant to. Partly because I spent most of this morning messing about with paints, stencils and the gell plate. Never mind, everything on today's 'To Do' list will join tomorrow's 'To Do' list ... it's hardly life or death if I don't haul the hoover around the room or pull up weeds in the front garden. I thought I'd show you what I made on Wednesday. I'd gone to my monthly StitchArt group, and this time we did something a little different. There's a project called 'Threads of Freedom' which is working with various community groups across the city. It's about creating little stitched pieces, some of which will be included in a textile panel to go on display at Leeds art gallery. There was lots of fabric we could choose from to sew with, and I picked this vintage tray cloth with the roses embroidery. My own embroidery's not a patch on those flo...

Sari scraps, PVA, a couple of books and a necklace

I'm typing this as snow's falling, and has been steadily all day. It's not settling to any great extent, though I bet by tomorrow morning the paths will be slippery with ice. Which always makes me paranoid about falling over and at the very least looking undignified, but at worst breaking a bone or twisting an ankle. Oh well, it's ideal weather to stay inside and craft, isn't it? I finally got around to listing packs of sari scraps on Etsy this morning. I only made up six bundles as I've no clue whether they'll sell or if I've set a reasonable enough price point. Time will tell. This is a link to the listing, if you're interested. This vaguely pink fabric isn't from one of my Etsy packs. It's from a bit of experimenting I was doing yesterday. I'd seen a post on Instagram showing how a DIY version of batik could be done without using hot wax. The Instagrammer used PVA instead, and I wanted to try this out....

Another week's flown by ...

Saturday's rolled around again, and it's not been the most eventful of days. Cleaning and hoovering, a walk to the shops to buy groceries, an hour on the allotment, then home to do some odd tasks in the garden. The strawberry plants are sending out runners, so I've been dealing with those, plus deadheading the perennial sunflowers, and cutting back the gone-over flowers on the sage and marjoram. I'm sad to see those blooms gone as the bees loved them. This afternoon I spent a few hours finishing 'Dawnlands' by Philippa Gregory. It's a really good book, a page turner where you care about the characters and want to be reassured everything's going to work out well for them. Plus you become enraged about the corruption of the so-called justice system at the time of the Stuart kings and queens, about transportation of prisoners to the West Indies, and about the vile nature of the sugar trade in the 1600s and the vast profits made from it....

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