A weekend in the country

Picking plums for jam making.

Something for me

I made this skirt and blouse for my birthday. The linen I bought locally and it is just right for hot weather.

The fabric for the skirt is Hope Valley  - I bought it on-line. I had seen it on many blogs and chose it for the sprigs of blue flowers. I was a little bit disappointed by the colours when the fabric arrived - I didn't expect it to have a yellow tinge and the colours to be muted. Plus I didn't know what to wear with it.

Once I paired the skirt with this creamy white linen the colours came alive. The fabric took on a more translucent look. Now I love it.







The skirt is drafted from a dress pattern from a Burda magazine. The blouse is from the  Japanes 'Tunic Tunic - 1 day sewing' book. I find it a little too 'blousy'. I would like to make the neckline higher and shorten the sleeves, to make it a little neater. Otherwise the fit is great.

Corn and beans

This is an example of how I work and what I mean by ‘piecemeal’.

I started out with this corn and beans block and some pink and purple fabrics.

Originally I was going to use a white muslin for the background, but I thought it looked too stark – perhaps because many of the fabrics have white in them?

I had some pieces of yellow fabric in the cupboard that my mother-in-law had cut out with some project in mind and never finished. I thought they looked nice together. I added more fabrics in green and blue; many of them are 1930’s reproductions, many of them are modern, and some are old clothes.

I didn’t intend on making a 1930’s style quilt, but that seems to be the way it is going. Martha from q is for quilter, has done an ocean waves quilt top in similar colours.

The block design comes from this book - I like the simple black and white illustrations

Do you do wonky?

This post was inspired by Deb Rowden's 'How do you work?'

This quilt came together one day when I was particularly frustrated about something. The girls were out of the house so I had no limits on space. I got out the sewing machine, dressmakers shears, and all my heavier scraps - upholstery fabric, denim, corduroy.

I must admit that it was therapeutic. I used a heavy fabric on the back and an old sheet sandwiched in the middle (it was ugly and I really wanted to get rid of it). I tried hand quilting this in baptist fans, but the fabric was thick and it was hard going. I started free machine quilting it until my machine gave up.

I will get around to finishing the quilting on this eventually. If I pin it carefully, I think I can quilt out some of the bumpiness.

I have some woven tape to bind it with (not sure how to attach it though - anyone know?).




I love reading about wonky quilts on other blogs and looking out for them on e-bay, but it's not something that comes naturally to me. Next time I think I will try something that combines wonkiness with precision like this string pieced lone star. I still get a kick out of my corners matching up.

This top (circa 1930) was hand pieced - that's more my style. It doesn't have a foundation fabric - would it have been hand pieced onto paper? I can't imagine so.

I don't know how to go about string piecing by hand. Any ideas anyone?

Currently quilting