Sew Tired

No not a complaint but a new group for parents or carers in Norwich!

This week sees the first session of Sew Tired, a group that will meet fortnightly in Norwich with the aim of giving parents or carers (with or without their children) a chance to be creative in a friendly and welcoming atmosphere.

We've all been there....it's ANOTHER early morning with your baby (whatever age that baby might be!), the start of a new day.  Your creative juices are flowing...'Nap time' you say to yourself, 'I will make something/get started on that drawing/finish that scarf/cut out that pattern...but nap time doesn't always happen and in all honesty when it does there's often (horrifically often) housework to be done.  Then nap time is over.  

'Tonight'..you think to yourself, 'tonight, I will get a tray prepared so as soon as they've gone to bed I can get one with what I've been really hoping to achieve'.  But guess what?  You're exhausted and food needs to be prepared, eaten and quite frankly there's probably something awful on TV that is all you can face.

Before you know it, the hobbies that make you YOU are feeling like they're falling by the wayside.

Obviously there is joy in every precious day spent with your baby and it whizzes by before you know it, but whilst you're looking after them, making a small amount of time to keep yourself happy is equally important.  

People often discuss whether the transition from 2 to 3 children is the most stressful but quite obviously its 0 to 1 (or 2 or 3 - hats off to the Mum's of multiple pregnancies!).

If sewing or being creative in any way is your bag then maintaining that can be a very healthy choice.

This first session will include some English Paper Piecing, one of my favourite patchwork methods.  Hopefully I can convert some of the attendees!

If you're a Norwich parent and fancy getting involved search for group Sew tired 💤

or email me for more details - venue has car parking a plenty and baby change facilities  It's £5 per session and coffee and cake is provided to fuel us 😊

By the way if you're admiring my rather super logo - check out the very talented Sally Franks, she worked fantastically with the brief given!

Keeping up with the Kashubians

Firstly apologies to anyone of Kashub descent for that shocking title but it was too tempting to resist!

Without further ado let me just show you why we're talking about this ethnic group from North/Central Poland....

YES - a fabulous folk print, I'm getting obsessed with folk prints.  They're having a fashion moment and this is one you DON'T see everywhere.

This 100% cotton print and will shortly be available for sale on my website www.finecityquilting.co.uk and is inspired by the rich embroidery patterns of the Kashubian people.  Etsy is awash with beautiful Kashubian inspired embroidery and if you want to go back to the source to get some inspiration, I found this site really useful:  http://originalhandicraft.org/en/kashubian-embroidery-symbolism-and-history/

I'm thinking these patterns would look awesome quilted on a whole cloth quilt too...

The Beast from the East

Having ventured to Copenhagen in February half term I thought we were hardy to this cold....but no!  We didn't count on the Beast from the East and being in the East of England (Norwich) we really got hit by it!

A few weeks ago I felt that nothing I was sewing was coming from the heart.  I started reading about improvised quilts and felt like 'Yes!  This is what I should be doing!'....it wasn't easy.

Olly and I had been missing skiing and wishing we'd booked to go and gradually the blocks and different sized half square triangles were forming something like a mountain scene.

For once instead of feeling like it 'had' to develop into a quilt I decided to have a go at a wall hanging.  I feel I should let you know that at this point I felt that I was making the best of a bad job but I guess that's part of finding yourself as an artist is to let yourself make these mistakes and grow with them.

Starting to quilt this wall hanging was a relief, with my complete lack of FMQ skills I decided to just jump on in and give it a go...I wanted swirling wind/mist round the mountains....I got this!!

Do you know what though...I finished it and then took it out to play in the snow!

Quilt Update!

Well, it's taken me ages to cut out most of my blocks.  Caspar has been cutting his 2nd tooth and refusing to sleep at the same time as his brother at lunchtime so I've still not finished cutting out the white strips that frame them....BUT I couldn't resist any longer and had to join a few blocks up to motivate me onwards.

I've decided to machine piece this quilt as I want to see results quicker which has some irony as my sewing machine (we'll call her The Beast), is two floors up so escaping up there without waking sleeping babes is often time consuming in itself.

The Beast

The Beast used to belong to a lady who lived on the Isle of Wight in my Father-in-Law's Parish (he is a Church of England Vicar), and when she died her husband gave her sewing box and machine to my Mother-in-Law. Along with the Beast came a box filled with bobbins, a few different feet and threads.  I don't know the lady's name or anything about her but the smell that comes when you open the box is very much a person's smell (not in a bad way), and consequently I feel strangely linked to her whenever I use it.  The Beast is my first sewing machine - she is a Singer and I love her.  Except when I'm having bobbin dramas but more of that another day.

With much fanfare here are my first two blocks, of course as soon as I'd chain pieced a few more a wished I'd finished cutting them out first BUT I find being purely logical a struggle and it is nice to be reminded again of why you're doing something.  So onwards and upwards, I hope to report back within a week or so with more blocks pieced!

The best kind of post!

My two year old had his birthday recently so was eager to open the package I received yesterday, I think he thinks all parcels are for him and was most disgruntled to be told 'No' this was Mummy's parcel!

After hours and hours browsing www.eclecticmaker.co.uk I decided to treat myself to a fabric pack of fat quarters.  The aim is to make a lap quilt for cosy film watching on the sofa this autumn and winter.  I want it to have a modern feel and I want it to reflect the rest of the living room which is a mix of contemporary and classic with the main colours being a dirty lime (sofas) and cream and light grey (walls & other bits and bobs).

SO.....this is what I've chosen;

Emily Herrick's Rustique Fat Quarter Fabric Pack

...and now I have to do something with it!  I think this has to be one of the hardest bits of quilting when you actually have to make the leap into a project.  Maybe one day I will buy a ready to quilt pack but not being quite sure whether something will work or not has to be more exciting.  I spent last night going through quilting magazines and rounded it down to four designs.

The quilt design I'm going to go with is one that was featured in Fons & Porter's Easy Quilts in the Spring 2014 issue.  The quilt is designed and made by Corey Yoder (who blogs as www.littlemissshabby.com) and in the magazine is called 'Gray Square Scramble'. 

Now the challenge is on to see if I can find time everyday to get this quilt going - I'd love to be able to watch a film under it by the start of advent or at least be kept warm by sitting under the sandwiched layers hand quilting it by then!  ONLY TIME WILL TELL.......

The Hungry Caterpillar Quilt

This next quilt was put together hastily with the onset of Winter.  Elias was born in September 2012 and within weeks the weather was getting cooler.  We had decorated his Nursery in the theme of the children's book by Eric Carle 'The Hungry Caterpillar'.

 A crib made for my brother Jonathan by my Grandad  was used again and a huge green leaf from Ikea stood over it.  The walls were painted sky blue and I made small pictures of the caterpillar chomping his way through leaves and all the other bits and bobs he eats (NB I could tell you - I know the entire wretched book by heart).

The quilt top was several simple 'Pinwheel' blocks.  I used two 'Hungry Caterpillar' fabrics and these were interspersed with a tablecloth which had belonged to my Grandparents.  Neither my Nana or Grandad are with us any more and so using something of theirs to help keep my baby warm felt right.  I think this is the reason I find throwing fabric away so hard, surely every piece is right for something!

This quilt was the first time I had used my new but old Singer Sewing Machine and close inspection would show it!  I'm still so new to patchwork and quilting that I couldn't tell you my preferred technique but given the practical need for this quilt I appreciated how quickly it came together because of the machine.

Soon it was time for Eli to move into his big boy bedroom to make room for someone else.  In February 2014 Caspar was born, and here is No. 2 son modelling No. 2 Quilt.

My First Quilt

The first quilt I made was a present for my Mum's 60th birthday (in May 2012).  My Mum loves blues and greens so this was to influence my palette choice.  I also wanted the quilt to be used at my parent's holiday chalet in France where my Mum has all her table and glass ware in lovely shades of turquoise. The chalet is somewhere we all love holidaying, it's right by the river, and we all enjoy the birds and other wildlife we see from the verandah.

When choosing fabrics I found myself drawn to florals and leaves and birds and even found a fabric that had a small 'tricolour' flag and an anchor on it.  I decided (thankfully!) to make it a lap quilt, I think retrospectively anything else would have been madness with no experience!

Here are a few of the blocks before the quilt top was assembled;

This block is Barbara Frietchie's Star & was made (except the blue floral) from old shirts.

This block is a Pierced Star & used a lovely batik along with the turquoise dotty fabric.

This block is called 'Susannah' and here you can see the French/Nautical fabric I was pleased to find.

When all the blocks were complete (along with the blocks seen, I also used an 'Anvil', 'Stars & Stripes', 'Puss in the Corner', 'King's Crown', 'Evening Star', 'Flyfoot', 'Crosses & Losses', 'Star of Le Moyne' and 'Flock of Geese'), one of our cats Boogle gave his approval to the proposed layout and a good sniff, so I was then ready to start assembling the quilt.

It is worth recalling that in the last few months before my Mum's birthday I was newly pregnant with Elias our first child and also working full time.  There were a few fraught and tearful telephone conversations with Vanessa my Mother in Law who did her best to reassure me as I struggled with my first attempt at quilting!

I chose a lovely batik in muted greens and turquoise to be the backing fabric.  Instead of binding I then wrapped the backing fabric round to make a sort of frame.  My memory goes a bit hazy at this point (possibly the stress!), but I then really enjoyed choosing things to quilt on the borders like a Mother Duck being followed by two ducklings.

Below is the finished article;

It wasn't perfect but it is loved and used all the time (Mum and Sasha the dog take their daily nap on the verandah on or under it depending on the weather!) and that, I think is about all you can hope for with a quilt.