Hardanger runner

Finally I have completed the hardanger runner,   it did not take long as much of it had been done well over 2 years ago.
The runner is 24" x 16" and not sure where it will be used.  It is on 25ct evenweave and I used perle 8 & 12,   green being my favourite colour I had to use some, it is a rather nice varigated green and I think it works well.   Can see me starting another project with this technique before too long as I so enjoy doing it.  Usually I just start in the middle and the design gradually emerges.

I bought a new hardanger book last month and highly recommend it for anyone wanting to learn this technique,  it is by Frederique Marfaing and called Hardanger embroidery,  to me this is one of the best instructions book I have amongst all my hardanger books and also has projects in it but there are hardanger cut out designs I have never come across before so will be trying some of those too

I gather bloglovin is up to its old tricks and has started putting verification back on the comments,  someone kindly let me know it has appeared here,  I think I have removed it correctly but if not please let me know if you leave a comment.
Here is the link to sort the problem out if you need it to
http://nanato4ts.blogspot.ca/2014/12/we-interrupt-this-program.html

crazy quilt, hardanger runner

Well the december block is done so now all I have to do is put the 12 together to make a wall hanging.   The dark pink stitching on the top right hand side is Anundsjo stitch that Queenie shared on her blog Queenie`s needlework,  I have done it a bit different to fill the spacce but so good to have used one of her Swedish stitches in my piece.

Here are all 12 blocks on the kitchen floor.

Helen has requested grey sashing between the blocks,  not sure where I went wrong but they are not all the same size varying from 7 to 7.5",  hoping I can square them up okay,  still need to add some extra colour to the first 3 blocks as there is no yellow or orange on those which we started using later in the year.   I will try and start working on this today if I can pluck up courage to.

This last week I also rescued a hardanger runner I started before I got the quilting bug and have done a little more on it,  plan to have this completed before Christmas. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed this technique,  not fully decided what I am going to do in the parts not cut back yet, but as this is my own design I am working on I just  "go with the flow" and do what I like,  not looking forward to cutting around the blanket stitch edge  have to be so careful not to cut into the stitches so that will be done in daylight

a close up of some of the areas, the top right will be cut out or have some fancy stittching in too as will the bottom left bit

tula quilt finish,

I am today uploading the final quilt form the Tula Pink challenge.   This one I did for Catherine my older daughter,  I used 49 of the 100 blocks to make it and she asked for red binding on it.   I machine quilted each block on my very  old new home machine  (35 years)  which I have recently had serviced and found it much easier than the bernina to quilt with.  A cold day but I braved it to put it on the line to photo it  This measures 56" square.

I am sharing photos of the first 2 as well for those who might not have seen them when I blogged them earlier. This is the first one I did using 24 of the blocks all of which had some batik fabric in.

This is the second one I did using 24 blocks again  these 2 smaller ones are on the back of my 2  two seater sofas.   I  have 3 not used   not sure where they have gone somewhere amongst the mountainous stash of  all sorts that I am sure we are all guilty of having
.

. I might make some of these blocks again as I do love them and as these were done soon after I started quilting think I can improve on them,   would like to have one big quilt but that is on the back burner for now.

I also have done the last of the hexie BOM   a wreath which is very appropriate for December.

 
Here are all 12 spread out on the kitchen floor.   Have now to decide what to do with them,  not sure if I will applique them straight onto one large piece of fabric or make 12 blocks and join them together and if I make the blocks whether to make them with assorted fabrics,   will ponder awhile before I decide although I would like to complete the quilt this year    any suggestions will be welcomed.

  I do not seem to have done much this month,  in my previous blog I wrote about the crazy challenge I did with Kathy Shaw,  well it is complete but cannot say I enjoyed doing it,   seem to have a mental block when it came to the silk ribbon work,  nearly backed out from the challenge as could not understand her instructions but utube saved the day and I was able to sort of do the ribbon work.  It is not for me and do not think I will ever do anymore but love the rest of the crazy work, have still to finish my last block for the BOM one and then get it made into a wall hanging for Helen hopefully before Christmas.  Here is the class piece.

crazy stitching and spiders quilt

I am going to attempt a blog from the new lap top,  A friend`s son very kindly came and got it going for me and transferred things from the old one onto an external hard drive however since then  what trouble it has been,  caught loads of viruses but the shop got me to download malwarebytes and that has sorted all but one problem.  I seem to have a problem with adobe,  down load files and put them on the desktop but when I transfer them to my documents they become thumbs.db whatever that may be and do not open so all my bom`s seem lost for now.  Any advice gratefully received!   I also installed the malware onto the old computer and did a scan and it found loads of errors which Mcafee never found. It is going to my daughter and granddaughter as a back up if needed.

Not much stitching done this week,  I did my block for Bee Blessed   will post it off to Ireland next week

I also rescued the spiders web and botched it together, not sure what happened because it did not fit once I had cut the curves and added the black pieces,   as you can see here.

I decided to keep going and added black between each triangle piece and joined them all together,  it would not lie flat but as there was a big central hole with the aid of the iron I sort of pressed it and hid all the excess under a black circle of fabric,  I then quilted it on the machine,  just a squiggly stitch on all the black fabrics and bound it with black,    lesson learnt take more care next time.

I will have another attempt at getting it right and Pat Broe that shared the instructions has now done one larger which looks very impressive

I have also done my crazy block for november   only one to go and then I will make it into a hanging for Helen

Oh yes I nearly forgot I signed up for a crazy lesson with Kathy Shaw,  you do a basic class and can then move on if you want.  I have not finished my piece as I need some 7mm silk ribbon and cannot buy it in Leeds but the Harrogate K & S show starts on 20th and Crafty Ribbons will be there so I will get my ribbon then.  We had to make the block using templates and stitch the seams as instructed so this is as far as I have go so far. I have not done silk ribbon work before so I will see how I get on with it

I have realised that my blocks I have been working on all year need more stitching   I think next year if I decided to do the challenge I will do it with creams and white and stick to all pastels

more quilting to add to my to do list

  I said no more projects as I already have a list longer than my arm and longer than I will ever get to complete when what happens along comes Women of the Bible  a free BOM from little quilts.com and I find I have signed up to do this too.  The first two blocks have been posted Eve and Rachel and what I love about this is they tell you about the women the block is named after so interesting to read.   I plan to download all the blocks as they come on line and make the quilt in 2015,  I find this easier than doing a block as they appear and I can place my fabrics better this way.  If anyone is interested I think it might close soon and you only have a short period of time to download the block before it is removed.   Her is a picture of what it is all about

I have also started the spiders web quilt with  Pat Broe from life in the scrapatch,  this is just  a quickie,   we did  part of it yesterday and the next bit is to do is the black curves,  I have got the right template for this so hoping all will go well.  It uses 80 2.5" squares and fortunately I had lots left over from my steps to the Altar quilt so no new cutting to do.   Was going to share a photo of what Pat`s looks like but don`t know how to do that. Oh yes I think there is a photo of the quilt on my blog on the right hand side with all the BOM`s etc, dare not look as I will probably lose this epistle.

I have also become a great aunt again,  the ages go from 18 down to a couple of weeks and Katie has said she would like a quilt made with lemon, cream and green pastels,    still trying to find the fabric but whilst in one shop they showed me a baby panel which was only £2 so bought it and have quilted it by hand and will give it to Katie but will also make what she requested when I track down suitable fabric.

Now for my big spend,   this computer is going so slow it is nearly going backwards and has crashed a few times recently so today I have bought a laptop,   well a baby one, the screen is only 11" but it should be okay and means I can use it all over the house,  that is when I pluck up the courage to open up the box,  maybe my youngest brother from Sheffield will come soon and he could help me.  I was served by the assistant manager of the store and he took me to the till then gave a code to the operator and went away,  the operator said it was my lucky day as he was giving me a free external hard drive for backup   how lucky am I,  I use memory sticks at the moment and have 4 and needed to buy another so now will not have to.    Wonder how long it will be before I can use the new one   next year probably!

two completed quilts

Here are two more quilts completed.

This is the one done with Jennie Rayment on the create and craft tv channel.  One of the blocks  the celtic knot has been omitted and replaced with a court house steps block as I could not do the fiddly bias for the knot.  The binding has been made form the left over fabrics in the blocks. Unfortunately it was a bit windy when I took this photo.   it is 43" square

This is the back,   as you can see I have quilted each block to suit the block pattern

My second quilt has had a name change,  when we were shown at the Yorkshire MQG how to make this quilt it was called a vomit quilt!   I think the name comes form Katy Jones of I`m a gingermonkey fame but have since found it n a book and it is called steps to the altar which is a much nicer name.   Not sure if I have quilted it enough, will maybe have to add some more but living with it as it is for now.  It is a little smaller than it should be as I pieced all the blocks on my elna little machine which is light enough to take to class  (weather permitting)  it does not have a quarter inch foot so the seams were a bit bigger but as I continued to make all the blocks with the same seam allowance it worked out okay.   It measures 41`" by 55"

the photo was taken indoors as it was raining outside.

Two other little things done this last week,    the hexie block for the BOM challenge this month was candy corn which was new to me and the bee blessed charity block or rather a double block for this month too.

these blocks were made as 2 strip blocks then cut in half diagonally and swapped around, the strips were assorted sizes,   think I might make a scrappy quilt like thus when I have a bag enough supply of scraps.  It had arrived safely in Ireland where a group of ladies meet and put all the blocks together and  make into quilts.

I wonder if anyone else is having problems leaving comments on some blogs.  The blogs I follow that have a comment box that opens in a separate window I have been unable to comment on as the window will not open,  the same goes if I try to pin form these blogs the pinterest window will not open,  this does not happen with the blogs that the comments open up below the blog     if you know what I mean.  if anyone can throw some light on this problem I would be very grateful and if you are wondering why I have not commented you now know.    This is not happening all the time   sometimes it will work for a couple of blogs        modern technology sometimes it is way above my head. 

Charity quilt find

Tuesday really was my lucky day,    I went out looking for some backing fabric for a quilt and came home with a wonderful hexagon flower garden unfinished quilt that I found in a charity shop for £10.
 I will have to unpick a row from the top or bottom to complete one of the sides which is 3 flowers short and then hopefully finish it.  The papers are still in it and although not newspapers there was one piece with the date on advertising a holiday, closing date 12/12/79  of course it might not have been made then but it is the only date to go on.

not much else to share,    this is my crazy block for october

I also entered 2 pieces into the local show which had textiles, art, photography, other crafts, flowers veg etc  and was held in out local park.  The show has been running for 6 years now and I entered the first 3 and won each time, I did not enter for 2 years then at the last moment  decided to take one of the Tula Pink throws and my crazy hanging down,  I came away with a 1st and 2nd in the textiles and a 1st for the overall winner covering all the crafts,  this was not a big deal as there were only a few entries.  I now have a great big trophy which I have to own up and say is on the windowsill in the down stairs loo!  The trophy gets returned in a years time.   Needless to say I am feeling pretty pleased with myself!

a completed quilt

I am delighted to blog that I have finished the wristwatch quilt which I did with Paula the Sassy Quilter and it is now on the back of Helen`s sofa.   It stayed as a flimsy for a while as I could not work out how to quilt it but then we decided to do butterflies and hand quilt it all.    My fingers suffered,  I had a thimble on my right hand but struggled to use one on the left hence the sore finger.  Helen   she is my younger daughter wanted a quilt in pinks and grey and she loves butterflies and cats so with having the patterned butterfly fabric we decided to repeat them in the grey rectangles.  These were traced and then stitched with perle cotton 16 and I also did some squiggles and smaller butterflies in grey perle on other spaces and just did diagional stitching in the patterned blocks.  I do not know how quilters do tiny stitches, I struggled with these but I am glad to say I am more than happy with the final result.   Unfortunately when it came to binding I could not find any of the fabrics I had used again so opted for pink with the white spots, I think it worked well.  Even made a label and used the trial butterfly for it. Machine skills not good enough to embroider the label so used a permanent pen.   The backing was a dark grey sheet, disappointed as it was thin and when I washed the quilt tiny bits of wadding came through so might have to add another layer one day  needless to say that will not be quilted. I used the eco friendly wadding and how nice it was to hand quilt   just as well as I have a 15 metre roll of it!  Sorry I have prattled   now for the photos.  The quilting on the main photo did not photo well so have done close ups but don`t look too closely!

The whole quilt  unfortunately the wind was blowing,  it usually does here!

The single butterfly was quilted on all the grey rectangles on the outside of the quilt 10 in total

These were used on alternate rows so 4 of these were stitched making 8 in all

these were sitched in the other alternate rows again 8 in total

This is the label that I hand stitched to the back.

 
I am now working  on the sampler quilt but this is being quilted with the bernina,   I must admit I prefer to hand quilt, it might take much longer but it is not a wrestling match I don`t think I could ever do a double bed quilt by machine.

eye candy from two quilt shows

I am just going to share one more quilt with you from the festival of quilts that was made by my dear friend Cheryl who not only is a quilter but also has a degree in theatre costume design and makes wonderful wedding dresses.  Cheryl has just completed her city & guilds in patchwork and is about to start the diploma course at Missenden , her tutor is Barbara Weeks.   Her inspiration came from the Virginia Creeper that grows in her garden.  All the fabric was dyed by Cheryl

  Now onto Harrogate quilt show,   this is the winner of the pieced section and also won the award as favourite of one of the judges and a merit from the judges.   I am privileged to also know the lady who made this.  Liz is a member of the Yorkshire Modern Quilters Guild that I also belong to and this quilt was made to celebrate the tour de France that started here in Yorkshire

   here are a few more of my favourites from the show

Hope you enjoyed these.   The next blog with a bit of luck will have my largest quilt to date on, have just finished hand quilting it and now have the binding to do then into the washer with it, fingers crossed all will be well!

completed quilts and other bits

I did not realise how long it is since I posted any of my quilting attempts so now have a few photos to load
   This is another small quilt completed using 24 of the  tula blocks which is now on the back of the second couch to hopefully compliment the one on the other couch.  I machine quilted each block individually they all vary as they are all different shapes an then quilted each side of the seams on the sashing.

and I have used some Ikea fabric on the back

The spring sampler I did as a BOM and was not happy with is also completed,  having shown a photo of it to Jennie Rayment she advised me to add turquoise in each sashing block,  not having enough I added the owl fabric and it seems to have pulled it together a bit better, I do still not like the white sashing but can live with it now,  it is on my bed not that it is big enough but  it looks quite nice.

                                           This is the sun the hexie block for august show

                                                 and now the september block a cute birdie

Still doing the CQJP challenge and here is september,   3 to go and then will have to decide how to put them together   sorry no, no doubt Helen will want to take control of that as it is for her

My monthly block I do for bee blessed   this month it is a sail boat and have heard that it sailed over the Irish sea and arrived safe and sound

   Not sure what happened on a previous blog but when I looked back to see what needed adding to this one I saw the wonky block was not there so here it is now. Can`t recall where I fond it but hope to find it again as I rather like the effect and would like to make some more, maybe a table runner in Xmas fabric would work

I am now busy hand quilting the wrist watch quilt for Helen,  have done 26 butterflies so far will post  photo on my next blog