my first new york beauty block

here it is in all its wobbly glory - but finished which is the main thing.

black homespun and kaffe fassett charm squares.

off to make more..........

hurrah!

i am SO proud of myself! after many attempts and much agony of mind, i have finally been able to do foundation piecing!!

i am not good at spatial relations and the back to front, upside downness of foundation piecing has been too much for the seahorsean brain to comprehend.

but i recently bought the fabulous radiant new york beauties by valori wells and she explains foundation piecing in a way that i can understand. and this is the result:
here is the other "working' side - you sew along the solid lines with the fabric underneath, then flip it over, finger press and add the next piece. once you nut it out the process is easy and makes perfect points.



the next stage (attaching the upper and lower arcs) will be done tomorrow.

ch.ch.ch.ch.ch.ch.ch.ch.chilli pants!

here's what i made sur le weekend......





chilli pants for M - aren't they groovy? I used McCalls pattern 2586 - very straightforward, although i did leave off the extra cargo pockets and we went for elastic in the waist rather than face the trauma of a drawstring.

after rediscovering hand sewing with the bitty booties i have resurrected the hexagon strippy quilt and have been sewing hexagon flowers on the tram in a very jane austenish fashion. the strippy quilt is fairly simple so i might even finish the top this year. my quilts seem to have to go through an 18 month maturing process - the hexagon one started in may last year i think. they definitely go in fits and starts and rarely get started and completed in one burst of effort. the New Quilt i made in April is the only exception i can think of - i made it in 2 days!

bitty booties for sam

here are the bitty booties (although i do think the associations with little britain are unfortunate)made for sam who was born on tuesday. they are made from felted wool blanketing, fabulous bee ribbon from Laura Foster Nicholson , silk thread and beautiful embroidery wool from renaissance dyeing.

i can really recommend this pattern - very straight forward and well written - i actually did most of the sewing on the tram much to my fellow passngers amusement and curiosity. i'll definitely make some more of these

train cake

w turned 2 on Friday and I made him a train cake - loosely based on the one in the famous Women's Weekly Birthday Cake Book. It took nearly half a bottle of blue food colouring to get it this blue and we all looked like Goths after eating it. W was delighted with it ("MY cake")

more post

lucky me - look what i got in the post :)




a fellow qduer was looking for a copy of homespun and i had read mine so sent it to her. and lok what she sent me in return! a beautifully made embroidered needle keeper/huswif which i think is made by the quilt as you go technique. thanks karen!

and here (at last) is the fabulous janome.


i did some quilting on michael's convergence quilt last night and it worked perfectly. i love the inbuilt walking foot and the hands free function. it was the most relaxed machine quilting i have done. with any luck he may have something to hang in his office next week.

what tarot card am i?????

You Are The Moon

You represent the unconscious side of life, what happens in dreams. You are capable of great genius - but also of great madness. Emotions tend to be primal for you, both your fears and your fantasies. Your intuition is always right, listening to it is the difficult part. Your fortune: You are about to embark on a very important journey - and a very difficult one. Some of your deepest dreams will be realized, as well as some of your deepest nightmares. Follow your creativity and visions; stay away from your weaknesses. You are taking a voyage to the center of yourself, and you may be pleasantly surprised by what you discover.

What Tarot Card Are You?

post and pics

well my renaissance dyeing embroidery wools arrived today exactly a week after being despatched from France which I think is pretty impressive :) and they are beautifully soft and waiting glowingly for me to use them. first project will be a small small thing for my friend susan's baby, due on 16 October.

and here for my new friend susan (a different one) is a close up of the catty border on w's quilt


although things have been quiet i have been quite productive. the september reckoning will follow in a separate post.