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

sometimes it needs a blitz

Because I like to have several projects on a go at the same time, I am very good at organising them.

Each new projects gets its own project box, which includes most of the materials I plan to use (fabrics, threads, yarn, needles etc).  That's the exiting bit.

So whenever I feel like working on any of them, I pick up a particular box and just get on with it.

But what I am not very good at is "filing" it all back, when I finish a project.

And so my room sometimes ends up being a chaos, no space to create.

Action is needed....

That's better!

I like this storage system by Really Useful Storage Boxes .

And they come in so many different sizes.

The threads are stored in ArtBin boxes, 

for which DH made me a simple cabinet, so the boxes can be used as draws.

I love my Horn sewing machine cabinet, it has been with me many years.

I keep it permanently open, but when I need some desk space, 

I just push the machine down and put a wooden board across the top.

And at last I got around to allocating a box for small fabric scraps for applique.

For a tiny room I have a lot of storage here.

I just need to keep it tidy!

P.S. If you have tried to leave a comment on my blog in the last couple of days and did not managed to do it, or have not received an answer from me, I apologise. It was because I was "fiddling" with the system and managed to mess it up! 😕 All back to normal now (I hope).

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2017

with grandchildren at Stourhead in October,

so it must be a half term school holiday, nearly a family tradition now.

Unfortunately we did not pick a very bright day, but at least it was dry and still very mild.

The colours of trees are not as good as last year, and the recent storms brought lots of leaves down, but still a very nice place for a walk ( and running  and climbing trees...and I don't mean the grandparents 😀)

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2017

what happened to two mad hares?

Having finished the main part of the "mad hares" reverse applique,

(started at the workshop with Dawn Cameron-Dick ),

I decided to make a border and change it into a wall hanging.  

I appliqued trees (using the normal needle turn applique), and embroidered some grasses, to match the design of the main fabric.

And here it is - hand quilted with Aurifil threads.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2017