WiP Wednesday - 31-10-2007

Whooooo Hooooooooooooooooooooooo it's Halloween!

I've started putting it together. Can you see the tiny black house above the "h" of Screech? That is one of my bright ideas which, surprisingly, I do have occasionally. I was doing the "B" of Bang and thought I would give it a triangular bit. When I turned it round I found it was a little house! The roof line will be stem stitched, as will the door and a window.

The house at the bottom has had its roof cut off and either Thud or Thump is going at the bottom. This word is causing a bit of a problem. I'm trying to use fabrics that aren't already in the quilt and thought of the green on the black. Unfortunately the green has disappeared into the black so perhaps white and black? I'm running out of ideas!

The rest of the words will be quilted into the strips between each section.

I'm thinking a dark red border between the main section and the words which are going round the edge.

The top is definitely going to be Haunted Houses. Then I am debating between "Ghoulies and ghosties and things that go bump in the night!" or a suggestion from my friend Amy "Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here", but I don't think it will be long enough.

The Uncommon Quilter

In 1999 Jeanne Williamson decided to make one small quilt every week for a year, made exclusively from found objects. 7 years later she had 365 small art quilts, 52 of which are featured in The Uncommon Quilter .

I was a bit dubious about this book at first, but was soon hooked. They are so easy!

I found it amazing. The things you can make quilts out of - paper, bus and metro tickets, potato and onion bag netting, leaves, the bark from birch trees, sushi grass, plastic carrier bags - the list is endless. It has certainly expanded my quilting horizons.

She has divided the book into sections - plastic, paper, surface design and fibre - the description and how to make the quilts up are well written and easy to understand (which is more than I can say for some quilting books).



I love the way she has told the story behind the making of each quilt. Heartbeat (right) was so called after she noticed the red netting that covers clementine orange boxes. The discovery practically gave her heart palpitations!!!!

On her Amsterdam and Paris trip she sewed pieces of netting together to make 9 pockets, collected objects along the way and then stitched the pockets closed.

I can't see myself making an art quilt quite yet - got too much on my plate at the moment - but I'm eyeing up the potato and onion bags and seeing plastic carrier bags in a different light.

If you are into art and journal quilts then this book is a must have! At $25 I think it is a bargain!

You can read Jeanne's blog here, and see the other quilts here.

Meet Bellatrix Lestrange!

She was supposed to go in the Haunted Houses quilt, but when she was finished she was so big that she is going to have her own wall hanging. Hat not as big as it was supposed to be and the face is a bit elongated, but I am pleased about her nose, even if it is a bit small.

There is a gorgeous shop in Thiviers selling all sorts of goodies. This is one of their home made carrier bags.

Bit cold and chilly here this morning - just right for snuggling up to the sewing machine and trying to finish the Haunted Houses top.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month in the Dordogne

 

Nontron

 

 

Périgueux

WiP Wednesday - 24-10-2007

Just bear in mind that this is a rough draft. I know it's looking a bit of a mish mash, but I'll think we'll get there in the end.

I did another boo hoo though. Look at the words along the top. Can you see the different backgrounds. Doh! How can a person mistake dark blue for black! By the time I realised what I had done it was too late.

These are the other fabrics that Amy sent.

The book I've got to review arrived yesterday so I'm off to look through that and Ma Petite Fille That Was has got to be taxied to the hairdresser this afternoon so she can look smart for the cross country on Friday afternoon (snort!).

The Postman Cometh

Wooo hoooo! Look what my lovely friend Amy in Florida has sent me!

 

There is more, but I just had to share these. I adore the spider web one and the bats are brilliant! The skull and cross bones is netting.

You Ain't Going to Believe This

I read on Tonya's blog that she had been approached by someone from Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Random House, about reviewing a book for them.

Now this is odd because at about the same time I too received an email asking if I would review The Uncommon Quilter. I thought it was a spam mail so ignored it, then read that Tonya had been approached by the same person so quickly quickly emailed said person back et voila! The book is on its way!

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6 and 7 things and a Name

Having been tagged again, this time by Susan, I think it is time to get this lot out of the way before another lot arrives. I'm going to narrow the 6 and 7 down to 5 cos that's now many letters are in my name. Right, here we go.

C = cigarettes! Yes I do, but not in the house. DH gave up in 2000 cos of a heart condition and I cut right down to about 5-6 a day, mostly in the evening.

L = Light. Lots of it. Not a winter person, don't like the dark mornings and evenings, but do like the lovely bright, light, cold and frosty days we get here (sometimes).

A = Ancestors. See "E".

R = Rules and Regulations. Oh dear, this means the Quilt Police I think. They aren't allowed in this house. If they could see the reverse side of my tops they would have a fit and I'd be jailed for life!

E = Everest. Mount Everest was named after my great great great uncle, Sir George Everest, Surveyor General of India. His niece was Mary Everest who married George Boole, mathematician and philosopher, without whom none of us would be blogging. George and Mary had 5 daughters, the second eldest being Margaret, my great grandmother. She married Edward Ingram Taylor and they had 2 boys, Geoffrey and Julian. Julian is my paternal grandfather.

And thanks to Nicolette for the You Make Me Smile award.



If you read this, consider yourself tagged for all 3!

That's your lot - I outta here

WiP Wednesday - 17-10-2007 (Haunted Houses) and Memes/Tags

Weekly round up - what's on the wall this week?

The first photo was taken on the 14th and the second one yesterday. The only trouble is that the lovely dark green has come out turquoisey!

The words are going to continue as far round the quilt as they will go "Haunted houses. Enter at your peril." I am fiddling about deciding where to put the houses and tend to favour "scream" on the left which will continue using the words as the border. The O's in "Boo" got changed around and I like the big o last, like BoO! They are going to have wobbly eyes in them.

I mucking about with fabrics and have got material drapped over the kitchen chairs. DH is not impressed!

These are the words I'm going to use - Alex and I are having fun writing them down as we think of them and, as you can see, the flies have joined in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Some of them are going to be cut and some sewn. It really depends on how much space there is. Alex is looking forward to drawing cobwebs. Talking of which must get some silver embroidery floss.

There are tags and memes being thrown at me from all directions. Nicolette has tagged me to reveal 7 things about me, 6 facts and habits about me, and has given me a You Make Me Smile Award. Lovely Lily has tagged me for the What's in a Name meme.

I'm going to combine the 3 meme's tomorrow and I promise promise promise that I won't be tagging anyone else. The meme stops here :-)

Halloween Goodies

A pressie from Patti's draw (lucky me - thank you so much Patti) and some goodies from La Foire Fouille (cheapo shop that always comes up trumps at Halloween).

Crazy spider face masks which can be sewn on to the quilt. I'm sending one of these to a Halloween freak who doesn't live too far away. Wonder which colour she'd like?

I'm going to take the pumpkin man off his mask and sew him onto the quilt.

Watch out, watch out there are spiders about! Love the green perle too.

Dordogne Autumn

The Grues are flying south - winter is on its way.

Flying over Le B late yesterday afternoon.

 

Last week we went for a walk near Bourdeilles. We had been told about La Forge du Diable Rocher

(the Devil's Forge Rock) and thought we'd have a look for ourselves. This is what we found. Looking at those trees you'd think it was Spring.

 

And a misty picture of the River Dronne

Allez les bleus pour ce soir

 

 

 

WiP Wednesday - 10-10-2007

Busy busy busy. Loads of stuff happening here.

What's on the design wall?

Boo nearly there.

"Whoo hoo hoo said the Hook-Eared Owl". Anyone read The Midnight Folk by John Masefield? Real Halloween story involving nasty wizards, witches and a little boy's quest to find the treasure of Santa Barbara which his great grandfather lost. Brilliant book for adults and kids.

There is also Haunted House by Jan Pienkowski. I think that's what I'm going to call this quilt.

It's going to be rather big, but no problem. The wall where it will be hung for Halloween forever after is huge!

Really enjoying doing this quilt and can't wait to go to Foire Fouille to buy loads of plastic spiders, wobbly eyes and other Halloween goodies to sew on to it. The publicity for Halloween hasn't started coming through the letter box yet, but it can't be far off.

And this is Tamzin's quilt. Ready for hand quilting.

Thanks for all the lovely supportive comments over the last few days. I don't normally dump, but when I do I do!

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Getting back into the swing of things

Thanks to everyone for the supportive comments and lovely messages.

I've managed to get 2 relatively good night's by forcing myself to go back to sleep and not to walk about the house, quilt or read.

Feeling a bit better cos I managed to persuade DH to go into Périgueux yesterday to the QS AND THE FABRIC WAS STILL THERE!  Woo hoo - back to Tamzin's quilt.  the fabric is Ocean Paradise  by Fabri-Quilt Pattern 8093.  I've done a search for it and, surprisingly, from what I can see all the other Ocean Paradise patterns are available, but not this particular one.  The QS also had a gorgeous black/silver/grey one.

Now wonder if I can persuade DH to let me have a mini spend up on E Bay ...................................................

All Washed Out

Except in my case it's quilting and DH has moved into the guest room :-(

I haven't slept properly for 3 nights - been up at 5 am for the last 3 mornings and haven't dared go back to sleep in case I sleep through the 6.30 am alarms and Alex misses the school bus. It's me age; it's me age.

I'm completely washed out.

I can' t get any material in my stash to match Tamzin's Quilt and it is depressing me. I thought about sashing 2 rows of Tonya's Wonky Hearts, but can't seem to get the fabrics to blend with one another. Think I shall put it away for a few days and do some therapeutic hand quilting.

I managed to get 3 hours sleep this afternoon - I was doing my nodding duck routine over the kitchen sink - so really hope I manage to get some sleep tonight.

So if you don't hear from me for a few days, please don't worry, I'm trying to get my body clock back on track.

Ooops - just remembered. I think there is a postal strike in the UK so anyone who is expecting packages from me I don't intend to send them now until after the strike is over.

Update 05-10-07 - look what I found - missed the boat AGAIN!!

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WiP Wednesday - 03-10-2007

Bonjour or bon soir as the case may be.

You know I said I wasn't going to show you the ongoing progress of the latest quilt. Well, I decided to show it today as I've got a bit of a problem.

Just a small one you understand. Nothing drastic. I mean it is surmountable and I can deal with it (I hope).

I've run out of background material!

So here is current project.

We can't get into Périgueux until next week and I just hope to goodness that the QS has still got some left. If not it's down to searching for it online and for the life of me I can't remember what it is called. I only went and threw the selvedge away didn't I. Stupid stupid stupid!

More WiP. Up to date progress on My Quilting Adventure. I was up to midnight doing this last night. Best friend was texting me at 10.30 pm with SOS's. Text's going backwards and forwards between here and Germany until the small hours so had to have something to keep me occupied.

I meant to say thank you to everyone for their lovely comments and advice about design walls. I going to go for Joyce's suggestion which is practical in a house where you can't hammer or drill holes in walls! Polystyrene tiles stuck onto a wall and a sheet or batting pinned to that. Sounds like the best way forward don't you think?

@+