crafting this week - Quilter's Patch and more...

St Germain quilt has gone into storage, it will have to wait until after Christmas to be quilted.

Instead (after a long break) the Quilters Patch quilt (designed by Edyta Sitar) has come out of its box for another block,  this one is called "Petunia block", sixth so far. I need to be in the right frame of mind to work on this quilt, because most of the blocks have many pieces, this one (14in block) has over 80 pieces of various sizes.

(The quality of pictures is not great at this time of year, most of them taken in the evening light.)

Needless to say, there is some unpicking going on here, as some of the background pieces are so similar in size; 

if not paying attention, it is so easy to join together wrong bits.

But in the end it all comes together.

And I have just spotted a mistake! 

Oh well, I think I can live with that one (in the grand scheme of things 😒).

What else have I been up to this week?

My "Winter Quilt" has also come out of the storage and is hanging on the wall.

And as we are getting close to Christmas, the crochet project "Santa's Village" has also resurfaced for another block, also no 6. That means that I am nearly a half way there. 

May be in another couple of years.......

And here is the crochet project, "Mystical Lanterns" blanket.

Individual motifs are joined into strips, which will be joined together later.

I made another strip this week.

 Again, I am half way there.

Outside, despite some frosty nights, our garden is still refusing to admit a defeat.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2017 

St Germain quilt top and new web shop

All done at last!

Here it is blowing in the wind on the washing line. It is too long for the line, so you can't see the top border, but it does have one! This was a long exercise in needleturn applique!  

 I don't usually wash it at this point, but I had to draw a grid on the fabric for placements of the orange peel shapes, and although I managed to get rid of most of the lines, some just did not want to budge completely, hence a quick wash.

I think this quilt will look nice hand quilted, so it will take a long time yet before it will be finished.

The lovely people at Midsomer Quilting, just few miles from me, have now opened online shop,

and you can explore midsomerq.com here . What is unusual about this web shop is that they will cut you as little as 10cm, which will be very welcome by many applique quilters!

We had a lovely sunny day here today (after a frosty night).

I leave you with a couple of pictures from our local park.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2017

getting there with St Germain and woolly plans

Sigh of relief! 

The last piece of applique on St Germain quilt border no 4 is done!

I spent most of the evenings this week 

snipping away all the fabric behind the applique pieces to reduce the bulk.

It was a long job, but all done now, and I can stitch the borders on and think about the backing.

I have lots of fabrics left over from this project, so I think I might use it to make up a piece for the back.

With winter evenings coming I am thinking something "woolly".

Last year I made a wool embroidered cushion,

but this year I would like to have a go at wool applique.

I love some of the folk inspired designs and I like Sue Spargo's designs, but when I saw a pattern by Erica Kaprow, 

I instantly fell in love with it 

and this morning the postman delivered it.

It comes in a form of a leaflet, 

but cleverly has its own folder to keep the loose pattern sheets in.

I like that.

I am thinking of using wool felt instead of wool fabric. Wool fabric is more expensive, and unless you dye your own (not something I want to get into), the choice of colours is not so great.

I already have some hand dyed wool felt (bought at various shows) in my stash. You see, you just never know when something comes handy! 😉

For my cushion I used wool felt as the background and it worked well, but I am even contemplating using dark fabric, possibly batik, which I would stabilise.

I made this wool sampler at a workshop with Madeleine Millington.
She was using dyed blankets, which she brought to the class.
It was fun to make, and my first taste of wool applique (or any applique for that matter), but the whole thing is rather thick.



Something to think about.....

In the garden the delphinium and the clematis started flowering again, and the camellia thinks the spring is just around the corner.

I think they are in for a shock soon!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2017